The corridor didn't exist on any map.
Kaelen knew that immediately, not because of some glowing warning or dramatic system alert, but because the shadows lied.
They stretched forward as if there was open space ahead, yet the stone wall at the end of the passage looked solid. Old. Untouched. The kind of wall no one questioned because questioning things in the Ruined Spire usually got you killed.
Kaelen stopped walking.
Behind him, the surviving climbers nearly ran into his back.
"What is it?" someone whispered.
Kaelen didn't answer right away. His gaze remained fixed on the wall. The shadows pooled at his feet, restless, curling upward as if trying to climb the stone.
"…You feel that?" he murmured, mostly to himself.
The tower's silence deepened.
This wasn't a danger.
This was an absence.
"Uh," an NPC porter muttered nervously, "this floor isn't on the guide scrolls. I think… I think we should turn back."
Kaelen finally smiled.
"That's usually how you know you're going the right way."
The rumor network stirred instantly.
"He stopped."
"He's staring at a wall."
"Is it a trap?"
"No wait, look at the shadows…"
Someone whispered the words like a curse.
"They say this floor is haunted."
A ghost floor.
The Forgotten Floor.
Kaelen exhaled slowly, then stepped closer to the wall. Up close, the stone was wrong, too smooth in places, too empty. His shadow didn't sit flat against it. Instead, it stretched… through.
"Well," he said casually, pressing a palm against the surface, "that explains why no one remembers you."
The stone rippled.
Gasps erupted behind him.
The wall didn't break. It didn't crumble. It yielded, like water pretending to be stone. Kaelen's shadow slid into it first, sinking deeper until his hand followed without resistance.
The hidden passage opened silently.
No grinding gears.
No dramatic collapse.
Just a doorway that had been pretending not to exist.
"…Huh," Kaelen said. "Subtle."
A novice screamed anyway.
Another fainted on the spot.
An NPC tried to step forward, slipped on the edge of the revealed passage, and fell face-first into Kaelen's back.
The ghost floor welcomed him by echoing his yelp far longer than necessary.
Kaelen didn't even turn. "Careful," he said mildly. "If there is a ghost, you've just insulted it."
The passage beyond was darker than the rest of the Spire, not shadow-dark, but memory-dark. The kind of darkness that swallowed sound and left thoughts feeling heavier than they should.
Kaelen stepped through.
The shadows followed.
The Forgotten Floor breathed.
The air changed immediately. Cold, stale, untouched. The stone beneath his boots was smoother, carved with patterns that had been worn down not by feet but by time. Long, narrow corridors stretched outward, forming a maze that felt more like a tomb than a tower floor.
No monsters attacked.
That was worse.
A whisper brushed past his ear.
Not words.
A presence.
Someone behind him whimpered. "Did… did you hear that?"
Kaelen shrugged. "Probably just the ghosts complaining about noise pollution."
Another whisper.
Closer.
The rumor network exploded behind him.
"They say climbers disappear here."
"No bodies. No blood."
"Just… gone."
"The floor forgets them."
Kaelen stopped again.
His shadow did not.
It stretched forward, flattening against the stone, then peeled itself away from his feet and moved independently, sliding along the floor like spilled ink, mapping the corridor ahead.
Kaelen's eyes narrowed slightly.
"…Interesting."
The shadow halted at a blank wall.
Then seeped through it.
"There we go," Kaelen said softly.
A few climbers shook their heads violently. "Nope. Absolutely not. Ghosts, fake walls, whispering floors. I'm done."
One NPC nodded enthusiastically. "I have a family! And knees that hurt when it rains!"
They turned and ran.
The shadows did not follow them.
Kaelen stared at the wall the shadow had slipped through.
"You know," he said conversationally, "if there is a ghost here, I hope it understands squatters' rights."If there's a ghost here, it can at least waive the rent."
The wall pulsed.
Light flickered beneath the stone.
Kaelen's smile faded not into fear, but into focus.
A sigil ignited.
Ancient.
Massive.
Carved so deeply into the stone that the glow felt like it came from beneath the world itself. Symbols twisted and overlapped, written in a language that predated the system, the Spire, and probably the gods who pretended to rule it.
The shadows recoiled.
Not in fear.
In recognition.
Kaelen took a step closer.
The sigil responded.
Light surged outward, washing over the corridor. The Forgotten Floor remembered itself, walls reshaping, passages aligning, space bending subtly to center around the glowing mark.
A System notification flickered.
And vanished.
No message.
No explanation.
Just silence.
"…You don't belong to the system," Kaelen murmured.
The whisper came again.
Clearer now.
A voice layered over itself, like many speaking as one.
"Unrecorded."
Kaelen inhaled sharply.
"So that's what I am to you," he said quietly. "Fair."
The sigil pulsed brighter.
Memories flooded the space, not his, but the floor's. Climbers lost. Names erased. Power buried so deeply that even the tower forgot it existed.
This wasn't a challenging floor.
It was a grave.
Behind him, the last remaining NPC collapsed to his knees, sobbing. "I can't remember why I came here…"
Kaelen turned instantly.
"Hey."
The man blinked up at him, eyes unfocused.
Kaelen snapped his fingers.
The shadows wrapped gently, not threateningly, around the NPC's shoulders, grounding him.
"Focus," Kaelen said calmly. "Name something stupid. Your favorite food. An embarrassing memory. Anything."
"…Pickled radish," the man croaked.
Kaelen nodded. "Perfect. Hold onto that."
The shadows loosened.
The man gasped, memory snapping back into place.
Kaelen straightened slowly.
"So that's your trick," he said to the floor. "You don't kill. You erase."
The sigil flickered.
Approval?
Or amusement?
Kaelen placed his palm against the glowing stone.
The shadows surged not violently, but reverently, intertwining with the sigil's light. For a heartbeat, the Forgotten Floor listened.
Then the glow stabilized.
The whispers faded.
The oppressive weight lifted just enough to breathe.
A new rumor began forming before anyone even spoke.
"He stabilized the ghost floor."
"The shadows obeyed the sigil."
"The floor didn't erase him."
Kaelen stepped back.
"…Not bad," he admitted. "Still creepy. But not bad."
The sigil dimmed but did not vanish.
It waited.
Kaelen turned toward the newly revealed stairway at the far end of the chamber, one that hadn't existed moments ago.
"Alright," he said, shadows curling lazily back to his feet. "You've had your fun."
The Forgotten Floor did not stop him.
It opened the way.
Behind him, the rumor network ignited fully.
A ghost floor.
A hidden passage.
A sigil that answered him.
And Kaelen?
He walked onward, amused, unafraid, shadows whispering secrets only he could hear.
The Forgotten Floor had awakened.
The ancient sigil glowed faintly behind him.
And somewhere deep within the Ruined Spire, something old realized
Kaelen wasn't climbing the tower.
He was unlocking it.