The second floor was completely different from the first. Instead of open caverns, Kael found himself in a maze of narrow tunnels that twisted and branched in seemingly random directions. The ceiling was lower here, barely six feet high in places, forcing him to duck occasionally. The walls were closer together, creating spaces where two people couldn't walk side by side.
Claustrophobic. Designed to prevent large-scale combat and force one-on-one encounters.
And the monsters were different too.
Kael's Void Sense detected them moving through the tunnels all around him. Quick, light footsteps. Multiple creatures, spread throughout the maze, hunting in packs.
The first one skittered around a corner ahead.
It was a spider. A giant spider the size of a large dog, but instead of chitin and flesh, its entire body was made of segmented stone. Eight legs that clicked against the stone floor. Multiple green eyes glowing in the darkness. Mandibles that looked sharp enough to pierce steel.
[Stone Spider - Hunter Variant][Level: 13][HP: 180/180][Fast, Venomous (paralysis effect), Pack Tactics][Weakness: Heavy impact to central body]
The spider charged the moment it saw him, moving with horrifying speed. Kael barely got his Void blade up in time to deflect the first strike. The spider was fast—far faster than the golems had been.
It scuttled up the wall, across the ceiling, trying to get above him. Kael tracked it with his Void Sense and struck the moment it dropped, his blade catching it mid-fall and bisecting it.
[+60 EXP]
But he'd made noise. In the maze, noise traveled far.
Kael heard clicking echoing from multiple directions. More spiders, responding to their packmate's death cry. Coming to investigate. Coming to kill.
Three spiders emerged from different tunnels, surrounding him. They coordinated their attack perfectly—one from the front, one from behind, one dropping from the ceiling above.
Kael activated Void Pulse. The shockwave caught all three, stunning them momentarily. He used that opening to strike, his Void blade moving in precise arcs that he'd learned from absorbed combat skills.
[+180 EXP]
The fight continued through the maze. Spiders attacked in waves, two or three at a time, using the narrow tunnels to their advantage. They struck from unexpected angles, used webs made of hardened stone to slow him down, coordinated their movements with frightening intelligence.
Kael adapted. He learned to use Void Sense to track them through walls. Started predicting their attack patterns. Used Void Step to escape ambushes before they could fully spring. The narrow tunnels that should have been a disadvantage became an advantage—the spiders could only attack from limited angles, making their movements more predictable.
By the time he'd killed fifteen spiders, he'd figured out the maze's layout. It was circular, with the tunnels spiraling inward toward a central chamber where the floor boss undoubtedly waited.
[+900 EXP total from Floor 2 spiders]
Kael paused at a junction to catch his breath. His Void Energy was depleting steadily from constant combat and ability usage.
[Void Energy: 120/295]
He'd need to be smart about the boss fight. No wasted energy on flashy techniques. Every point of Void Energy would need to count.
He pressed forward, fighting through wave after wave of stone spiders. They were learning from his tactics, adapting their strategies. Later groups tried to separate him from his Void torch, attacking from complete darkness. Others attempted to collapse tunnel sections on him, using their stone bodies as living battering rams.
But Kael was learning faster than they could adapt. Each fight taught him something new. Each encounter refined his techniques. This was what dungeons were for—not just gaining levels, but genuine skill development under extreme pressure.
Finally, after what felt like hours but was probably only thirty minutes, Kael reached the central chamber. It was dome-shaped, maybe forty feet across, with the ceiling covered in thick stone webbing that formed complex patterns like a nightmare cathedral. And suspended in the center of that webbing, watching him with multiple glowing green eyes, was the boss.
A spider the size of a horse. Its stone body was sleek and streamlined, built for speed and agility rather than raw power. Each of its eight legs ended in razor-sharp points that could probably pierce armor like paper. Its mandibles clicked rhythmically, creating an ominous sound that echoed through the chamber like a death knell.
[Stone Spider Queen - Floor Boss][Level: 16][HP: 1200/1200][Extremely fast, highly intelligent, venomous, can summon lesser spiders][Special Ability: Stone Web - Creates immobilizing traps][Warning: Do not allow yourself to be restrained]
This would be much harder than the golem elite. The queen had intelligence, speed, and tactical thinking that the golem boss had lacked.
The queen dropped from her web with terrifying speed, all eight legs aimed at Kael like spears. He rolled sideways, barely avoiding being impaled. Where the queen landed, the stone floor cracked and cratered from the sheer force of impact.
She was faster than anything Kael had fought before. Her legs moved in a blur, striking from multiple angles simultaneously in a pattern that was almost impossible to track. Kael activated Void Armor and blocked with his blade, but even with his enhanced reflexes he was being driven backward, forced onto the defensive.
The queen shot webbing from her spinneret—thick cables of hardened stone that moved like whips. One caught Kael's left arm, pinning it to the chamber wall. Another wrapped around his leg, immobilizing him.
Trapped. Exactly what the warning had told him to avoid.
The queen closed in for the kill, mandibles opening wide to reveal fangs that dripped with paralytic venom. Kael could see his death approaching in slow motion.
He made a split-second decision and used his trump card.
Void Singularity.
A point of collapsed space-time appeared directly in front of the queen's face, reality itself folding in on a single point. Everything within five meters was pulled toward it with irresistible gravitational force—air, stone, even light itself seemed to bend and distort. The queen shrieked, a sound like grinding stone, as the singularity caught her massive body and began crushing it with impossible pressure.
[Void Energy: Critical - 20/295]
The singularity lasted only three seconds before Kael's depleted energy forced it to collapse. But when the distortion vanished and reality snapped back to normal, the Spider Queen was dead. Her stone body had been shattered into hundreds of pieces, crushed by forces that transcended normal physics.
[Stone Spider Queen defeated][+400 EXP][Floor 2 Complete!][Loot: Spider Queen's Fang (Rare weapon material), 200 Gold, Agility Enhancement Stone]
[LEVEL UP! You are now Level 16][All attributes increased by 3][Health fully restored: 510/510][Void Energy restored: 315/315]
Kael sagged against the wall, exhausted despite the level-up restoration. Using Void Singularity had pushed him to his absolute limit. His body ached, his mind felt foggy from the intense concentration required, and he desperately needed rest.
A doorway appeared in the chamber wall, glowing with soft blue light. Not the red doorway that led deeper into the dungeon, but blue—indicating a safe room.
Thank the gods.
Kael stumbled through the doorway into a small chamber about fifteen feet square. The air here felt different—cleaner, lighter, without the oppressive weight of the dungeon's hostile magic. A simple bench sat against one wall. A small fountain in the corner provided fresh water. And most importantly, monsters couldn't enter safe rooms. It was a respite, a breathing space between floors.
He activated the communication crystal, sending another pulse to Lyra. Two floors down, still alive, making progress.
Then he collapsed onto the bench, pulled out his rations, and ate while his Void Body's regeneration worked on repairing the accumulated damage. His health was full thanks to the level-up, but he had dozens of minor bruises and strains that needed time to heal properly.
Two floors completed. Three more to go. And if the difficulty kept scaling up at this rate, the final boss would be a genuine nightmare.
But he was Level 16 now, significantly stronger than when he'd entered. His attributes had increased dramatically, his combat skills had been refined through constant battle, and he'd learned to use his abilities more efficiently.
The Breaker—Marcus Stone—was Level 22-25. Still a massive gap, but smaller than it had been this morning. If Kael could clear all five floors, gain a few more levels, maybe acquire some powerful equipment from the dungeon core...
He might actually have a chance.
After resting for an hour, letting his body fully recover, Kael stood and approached the red doorway that led to Floor 3. He took a deep breath, checked his equipment one final time, and stepped through.
The real challenges were still ahead.