Evening settled over Solstice Academy like a held breath. The courtyards emptied, voices faded into torchlight, and the stone halls turned hollow and long.
I was halfway to the dorms when three upper-years stopped me by the staircase—uniforms crisp, grins polished like cheap silver.
"Renfield," the tall one said. "The Headmaster's looking for you."
"Doubt it," I replied. "He already offered me a broom."
They laughed, too pleased with themselves. "We're serious. There's something under the academy—old, sealed, maybe valuable. They say it reacts to failed awakenings."
They expected hesitation. I gave them curiosity. "Show me."
That made them grin wider. Curiosity, after all, is just consent with better timing.
The eastern wing smelled of dust and lamp oil. They led me to a service corridor behind the archives where the walls sweated condensation. Hidden behind stacked crates was a door of rusted iron, its warding runes long faded to scratches.
The hinges screamed as one of them forced it open. Cold air poured out, heavy with the scent of old stone.
"Right down there," said the tall one, lantern raised.
I stepped through. The stairs spiraled sharply into dark. Their footsteps followed for a few beats—then stopped.
"Good luck, Dust Collector."
The door slammed. Bolts locked.
I sighed. "Predictable."
The corridor stretched like a throat. The walls were slick and veined with blue light, faint as veins under skin. The further I went, the heavier the air became, pressing against my chest like water.
[Warning: Restricted Area. System access limited.]
The message flickered, then died. Even the System sounded uneasy here.
The tunnel sloped downward, the hum beneath my feet syncing with my heartbeat until they were indistinguishable.
Then it opened into a cavern.
A sphere floated at the center, cracked through the middle and leaking pale light that refused to fade. Dust drifted upward in its glow, orbiting it in lazy spirals.
[Attempting classification… Failure. Designation: Anomaly Node. Integrity 14%.]
Static tore through the text before it vanished.
I stepped closer. The temperature dropped, but the light grew brighter, climbing the walls like slow fire.
"Not friendly," I muttered.
[Unknown energy detected. Synchronization in progress.]
"I didn't agree to—"
The glow surged, cutting the words away. The halves of the Node spun faster, air bending inward.
[Synchronization 0.3 → 0.8 → 1.0 …]
Pain flared behind my eyes. The world folded. For one impossible second I was falling through light that burned without heat.
Then stone slammed into my knees. Air rushed back into my lungs.
[Synchronization complete. Welcome, Ash Renfield.]
[Location Update: Abyssal Dungeon — Floor 0.]
"Fuck me," I gasped. "Where am I?"
[Query acknowledged. You are currently inside an Abyssal-class Dungeon. Designation: 'The Shattered Depths.']
"You're kidding."
[Humor module not detected.]
Figures.
The cavern around me was enormous, lit by the faint blue shimmer of veins running through the rock. A river of black water wound through the center, flowing uphill into shadow. The air was heavy and dry, humming faintly with pressure that didn't belong to wind.
Floating shards of crystal drifted above the river, glowing softly before fading back to darkness.
Every sound echoed too long.
[Dungeon stability: Low. Collapse probability increasing per hour.]
"Of course," I muttered. "Naturally."
No exit in sight. Just that slow pulse through the floor—like the world's heart was beating somewhere beneath me.
The current of the river drew my gaze to a narrow bridge of cracked stone. Beyond it waited an archway etched with glowing runes that flickered weakly, as if tired of existing.
I crossed. The bridge hummed faintly underfoot, vibrating with each heartbeat. The air grew colder as the arch swallowed me, the light behind dying in a sigh.
The tunnel beyond descended steeply. The walls glistened with frost, veins of mana threading through them like fading lightning. Each breath left white fog.
Then the tunnel opened.
The chamber beyond was vast—a perfect circle of mirrored black glass. Suspended above the center hung a massive crystal shard, spinning slowly, shedding light that curled back into itself.
The pulse in my chest matched its rhythm exactly.
[Synchronization maintained. Monitoring Origin signature.]
"Origin," I said quietly. "You still won't tell me what that means, huh?"
The shard brightened. Light rippled across the glass floor, cracking it in jagged spiderwebs.
Something moved beneath the surface.
[Hostile signature emerging.]
The ground split open. From the fissure rose a figure wrapped in darkness and steel—armor blackened, edges glowing faintly blue, a long sword dragging sparks against the floor. Its visor burned with a thin slit of pale fire.
The temperature plummeted. The light from the crystal bent toward it.
The air itself bowed.
[Boss Encounter — Level ??? — Abyssal Knight.]
I exhaled slowly, lifting my blade. The sound of metal on stone answered from across the chamber as the Knight's sword came free, humming low like thunder caught in a throat.
"Well," I muttered. "This was inevitable."
The Knight tilted its head as if understanding.
Then it moved.