The silence that followed Lilith's first successful test of her crimson magic was short-lived. The seventh floor, a realm designed to break the will of adventurers, responded to her display of power not with fear, but with a renewed, aggressive intent. The deeper she ventured from the arrival clearing, the more the forest seemed to breathe with a malevolent life, the very shadows coalescing into new, monstrous forms.
Lilith did not hurry. She had a new purpose now, one that superseded mere progression. The trail of Noah's mana was a constant, faint pull in her awareness, but it was now a secondary guide. Her primary focus was the volatile, hungry energy swirling within her.
Her first few encounters were methodical, almost clinical. She needed data.
