The elevator descent to Floor 11 felt different. There was no hum of machinery, no soft music. Just the sensation of falling into a deep, endless well. The air grew cold—not the icy cold of the Glacier, but a stagnant, heavy cold that smelled of ancient ash and forgotten crypts.
DING.
The doors slid open.
There was nothing.
No sky. No ground. No horizon. Just a wall of absolute, suffocating Vantablack darkness.
[SYSTEM ALERT: FLOOR 11 ENTERED]
[ZONE: THE ABYSS OF THE UNKINDLED]
[ENVIRONMENTAL DEBUFF: "ABSOLUTE DARKNESS"]
Vision skills are nullified.
Light is a finite resource.
If your Light Meter hits 0%, you are instantly consumed by the Grue.
[CURRENT LIGHT LEVEL: 100%]
[DRAIN RATE: 1% PER SECOND.]
"One percent per second?!" Sarah shrieked, clutching her handbag which was glowing faintly with a [Protection Charm]. "That gives us 100 seconds to live! That's barely enough time to panic!"
"Light!" Aryan shouted. "Stove! Ignite!"
"I am trying!" the Talking Stove rattled, its cast-iron grate shivering. "But the atmosphere! It is too oppressive! It feels like... like someone watching you while you bake a cake! I have performance anxiety!"
SPUTTER.
A small orange flame coughed to life inside the Stove, pushing the darkness back by five feet.
[LIGHT LEVEL: STABILIZED (For now).]
"Okay," Aryan breathed, stepping out of the elevator. The ground crunched beneath his boots—bones. The floor was made of calcified bones. "Stay in the Stove's radius. If you step into the dark, the Grue gets you."
"What is a Grue?" Barnaby asked from his jar, which was strapped to the First Son's chest.
"You don't want to know," Aryan said grimly. "It's a monster from the old text adventures. It doesn't have HP. It just eats you if it's dark."
They moved forward, a tiny island of orange light in an ocean of black. The darkness pressed against the light like a physical weight. They could hear slithering sounds just beyond the edge of the glow. Scrape... Drag... Hiss.
The Failure of the Flame
They had walked for maybe five minutes when the first problem arose.
The Stove sneezed.
It wasn't a normal sneeze. It was a cast-iron, coal-dust sneeze.
ACHOO!
A puff of soot exploded from the grate.
The fire went out.
[LIGHT LEVEL: 0%]
Instant, crushing blackness.
Immediately, the slithering sounds turned into a roar.
"MEAT," a billion voices whispered from the dark. "FRESH TEXTURE."
"Stove!" Aryan screamed, swinging Excaliburn (which was sheathed) blindly in the dark. He hit something soft and wet.
"I can't relight!" the Stove wailed in the dark. "My pilot light is clogged with soot! I need a maintenance cycle!"
"We don't have time for maintenance!" Mira shouted. She slashed her Twin Daggers, creating sparks. The sparks illuminated a terrifying face for a split second—a pale, mouthless thing inches from her nose.
[SYSTEM ALERT: GRUE ATTACK IMMINENT.]
[TIME TO DEATH: 3 SECONDS.]
"Light!" Aryan roared. "Anything! Barnaby! You're a deep-sea fish! Don't you have bioluminescence?"
"I am a Goldfish!" Barnaby screamed back. "We are freshwater ornamental pets! We do not glow!"
"Wait!" Rhea's voice cut through the panic. "The System Class! Barnaby, you're a [Leviathan] now! Leviathans have sub-skills! Check your skill tree!"
Barnaby checked his interface in the pitch black.
[SKILL: BIOLUMINESCENCE (LOCKED)]
Unlock Condition: Must be experiencing a "Funky Rhythm".
"Funky rhythm?!" Barnaby cried. "I am about to be eaten by a shadow monster, and the System wants me to boogie?!"
"Rhea! Play!" Aryan commanded. "Play something funky!"
Rhea didn't argue. She grabbed her lute. She didn't play a ballad. She channeled the spirit of the 1970s. She slapped the bass strings.
Bum-ba-dum-bum-bum.
It was the intro to "Stayin' Alive".
The Disco Leviathan
The moment the bassline hit, Barnaby's scales reacted.
The [Eldritch Potential] inside the fish activated.
FLASH.
Barnaby didn't just glow. He became a Strobe Light.
His scales flashed neon pink, electric blue, and lime green in perfect sync with the beat.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, Stayin' Alive, Stayin' Alive!
The darkness shrieked. The Grue, which were creatures of pure shadow, recoiled from the aggressive, flashing disco lights.
"It works!" Sarah yelled, shielding her eyes. "He's a Disco Ball!"
"I FEEL THE RHYTHM!" Barnaby shouted. He jumped out of his jar. He didn't flop on the ground. He floated on waves of sound, swimming through the air.
With every fin wiggle, a beam of laser-light shot out, burning the shadows.
[SKILL ACTIVATED: SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER]
[EFFECT: HOLY DAMAGE TO UNDEAD AND SHADOW TYPES.]
"Move!" Aryan ordered. "Follow the fish!"
The party sprinted through the darkness, led by a floating, multi-colored goldfish while Rhea shredded a funk solo on her lute. The Grue lunged at them, but Barnaby would spin, flash a blinding green light, and the monsters would dissolve into smoke.
"I am magnificent!" Barnaby bellowed. "I am the Lord of the Dance floor!"
The Knight of Soot
They ran for a mile until they reached a massive fog gate.
Barnaby floated near the gate, panting (gills flapping). The music stopped. His glow faded to a dull hum.
"We made it," Mira gasped.
"Not yet," Aryan said. He pointed at the fog gate. "This is a Soulslike floor. You don't just walk to the exit. You have to beat the Gatekeeper."
Aryan stepped through the fog. The others followed.
They entered a circular arena lit by a single, dying bonfire in the center.
Standing by the bonfire was a knight.
He was seven feet tall, clad in armor made of blackened, charred steel. He held a Greatsword that was still glowing red-hot, as if pulled from a forge.
[BOSS: THE KNIGHT OF SOOT (LVL 35)]
[DIFFICULTY: PREPARE TO DIE.]
The Knight didn't roar. He simply turned his head. His visor was empty darkness.
He raised his Greatsword.
"First Son! Tank!" Aryan commanded.
The First Son charged, raising his [World-Shield].
The Knight swung.
CLANG.
The impact was heavy. Simple. Brutal.
The First Son skidded back ten feet, his ironwood groaning.
"He's heavy," the First Son rumbled. "Brother, his attacks have high poise damage."
"It's a pattern," Aryan said, his eyes narrowing. He watched the Knight. "Swing. Swing. Overhead smash. Roll catch."
The Knight lunged at Aryan.
Aryan dodged left. The sword smashed the ground where he had been a second ago.
Then, the Knight spun. A backhand swing.
Aryan ducked.
"He's reading my inputs!" Aryan realized. "Every time I heal, he attacks! Every time I roll, he delays his strike!"
"He has [Input Reading]!" Sarah screamed from the back. "It's a cheap AI tactic!"
The Knight raised his sword for a massive AOE (Area of Effect) attack. He stabbed the ground.
BOOM.
A wave of fire erupted from the floor.
Aryan jumped, but the fire clipped his coat.
[HP: 70%]
"We can't trade hits with him," Aryan shouted. "He has too much health! We need to break his posture!"
He reached for Excaliburn.
"Sword! Now!"
The sword on his back was silent.
"Is... is it dark?" Excaliburn whispered.
"Yes!" Aryan said. "It's very dark!"
"Oh," the sword perked up. "If it's dark... then nobody can see me, right?"
"Exactly!" Aryan lied (using [Fragment #1: Perspective] to make the lie sound convincing). "Nobody is watching! No performance pressure! It's just you and me!"
"Okay..." Excaliburn whispered. "I can do this if nobody is watching."
SHING.
The Mythic Blade slid out of the sheath.
But because of the darkness, it didn't glow with its usual blinding gold light. It glowed with a Void Purple light—a stealth mode Aryan didn't know it had.
[WEAPON MODE: INTROVERTED FURY]
[DAMAGE BONUS IN DARKNESS: +200%]
"Let's dance," Aryan grinned.
The Git Gud Strategy
Aryan charged.
The Knight of Soot swung his Greatsword.
Aryan didn't block. He rolled through the attack.
[I-FRAMES ACTIVATED.]
He came up behind the Knight.
"Backstab!" Aryan shouted.
He plunged Excaliburn into the chink of the Knight's armor.
CRUNCH.
[CRITICAL HIT!]
The Knight staggered. But he didn't fall. He roared silently and spun around, unleashing a flurry of attacks.
Slash. Slash. Thrust.
Aryan parried.
Cling. Cling. Clang.
His arm vibrated with the impact, but Excaliburn was singing now. The sword was enjoying the anonymity of the dark.
"Take that! And that! You big bully!" Excaliburn squeaked with every hit.
"Stove!" Aryan yelled. "Grease the floor!"
The Stove, which had been hiding behind a rock, launched a canister of [Expired Lard].
SPLAT.
The oil coated the floor beneath the Knight's feet.
The Knight stepped forward to crush Aryan.
His metal boot hit the lard.
He slipped.
His heavy armor worked against him. He crashed onto his back with a sound like a car crash.
[STATUS: PRONE.]
"Now!" Aryan screamed. "Dogpile him!"
It was the most undignified boss fight in history.
The First Son sat on the Knight's legs.
Mira pinned his sword arm.
Barnaby (still glowing) floated above his face and flashed strobe lights into his visor to blind him.
Rhea played a discordant screech on her lute to disorient him.
And Aryan stood over him.
He raised his mahogany hand.
[SKILL: THE RED PEN]
He looked at the Knight's [Stamina Bar].
It was refilling.
Aryan tapped the bar.
[EDIT: REGEN RATE > -100%]
The Knight tried to stand up. But his stamina didn't regenerate; it drained. He grew heavier. Slower. weaker.
The fire in his sword died out.
"Game over," Aryan whispered.
He drove Excaliburn into the Knight's chest plate.
The Knight dissolved into a cloud of ash.
[BOSS DEFEATED.]
[FLOOR 11 CLEARED.]
[LOOT: SOUL OF THE SOOT KNIGHT (CONSUMABLE), BONFIRE KEY.]
The Bonfire
In the center of the arena, the dying bonfire flared to life.
It was a warm, safe light. The darkness of the Abyss recoiled to the edges of the room.
The party collapsed around the fire.
Sarah was hyperventilating. "I hate this floor. I hate the dark. I hate inputs."
"We survived," Mira said, leaning against Aryan. She wiped a smudge of soot from his cheek. "Thanks to the Disco Fish."
Barnaby was floating in his jar (which Sarah had repaired with tape). He looked smug.
"I have always said I possess a natural funk," Barnaby said. "I expect a disco ball to be installed in my tank immediately."
Aryan stared at the bonfire. He held the [Soul of the Soot Knight] in his hand. It was a swirling grey orb.
He checked the item description.
[ITEM: SOUL OF THE SOOT KNIGHT]
Use: Can be consumed to gain +5 Strength.
OR
Can be given to the First Son to unlock a Fire-Attribute evolution.
Aryan didn't hesitate. He tossed the soul to the First Son.
"Eat up, brother," Aryan said. "We need more firepower."
The Giant caught the soul. He placed it into his wooden chest.
Veins of magma-like light spread through his ironwood body.
[SYSTEM: FIRST SON UPGRADE - EMBER GUARDIAN.]
"I feel... warm," the First Son rumbled. "I can hold the Stove now without burning."
"Perfect," the Stove said. "I needed a heated mount."
Aryan stood up. He used the Bonfire Key on the door at the back of the arena.
The door opened, revealing the elevator to Floor 12.
"What's next?" Rhea asked, tuning her lute.
Aryan looked at the Mirror-Book. His expression darkened.
"Floor 12 is... quiet," Aryan said. "Too quiet."
[SYSTEM: FLOOR 12 - THE LIBRARY OF SILENCED SCREAMS.]
[NOTE: THIS IS WHERE THE 'CRITICS' LIVE.]
"Critics?" Barnaby gulped. "The ones who eat genres?"
"Yes," Aryan said, stepping into the elevator. "Get ready to be judged."