The dungeon shook.
At first it was a low hum under the stone. Dust trembled from stalactites above. Then the sound deepened, rumbling louder and heavier. Cracks split along the walls as fragments of rock fell. Pools rippled hard, and torches flickered in their holders.
Adventurers across the upper floors froze.
On Floor 7, a spear-user staggered mid-swing, his weapon clattering as the ground lurched. His party scrambled, grabbing walls as shields rattled and boots slid on loose stone. "Earthquake?" he shouted, his voice high with panic. "No." Their priestess murmured, her face pale as she clutched her staff tight. "That came from a deeper floor."
The quake groaned again, shaking from something moving far below.
Monsters felt it too. A pack of dungeon hounds bolted mid-fight, yelping as they fled into side tunnels. Slimes collapsed into puddles, and even the dungeon walls seemed to breathe as dirt and gravel rained down.
Panic spread fast. Some cursed, others muttered prayers, but most said nothing and just ran for the stairs.
On Floor 9, a group of five staggered breathlessly upward, their armor clinking as sweat covered their faces. Fear sharpened their eyes. This was the Silver-rank GrayWolf party that had hired three porters, the same party that had left them to die.
Their leader Marcus slammed a gauntleted hand against the wall as the quake roared again. "Keep moving! Don't look back!"
Aldric, the mage, stumbled beside him, his face pale with sweat dripping down his chin. "That pressure, you felt it too. That was pure mana."
"Shut your mouth," Kael spat, his bow trembling in his grip. "It's the monsters from Floor 10. That beast forced them up!"
"Don't say it!" Lyra snapped, her belt of vials rattling as her hands shook.
Vex, the scarred scout, lumbered at the rear. He had not spoken once since the quake began, but his jaw was tight and his eyes kept scanning the shadows.
"It's following us," Aldric whispered. "That heat, that pressure, it's chasing."
"Enough!" Marcus barked, his fist slamming the wall. "I don't care what you think you felt. It doesn't matter. We're leaving. They're dead, and that's the end of it."
No one answered. Only the quake and their ragged breathing filled the air, but guilt lingered, heavy and unspoken.
Lyra bit her lip until it bled, seeing again the skinny porter screaming before the beast's tail broke him. The bald one shoving Eron forward. The boy's body flung aside as the floor split and swallowed him whole.
She had gathered healing light at her fingertips but had not cast it. She had obeyed Marcus and let the boy fall.
Her stomach twisted. She told herself it had been necessary, but her hands still shook.
Aldric muttered something too soft to hear. Vex caught it but said nothing.
Marcus never looked back, but even he remembered the cavern rumbling as if in rage the moment they abandoned the boy.
---
Far below, on Floor 32, the tremor struck with full force.
The chamber was vast, domed high like a cathedral. Its walls glittered with crystals that pulsed faintly blue. Pools scattered across the floor rippled into violent waves as dust fell like rain.
At the center sat a woman in polished steel trimmed with gold, her long blond hair tied in a high ponytail. She rested on the corpse of a horned lizard sprawled beneath her.
Her name was Seren, Gold-rank adventurer. Her blade was known across the kingdom.
Her greatsword rested against the monster's hide while her companions stood tense around her.
"This isn't normal!" the mage hissed, his staff shaking. "Floors don't shake like this unless the whole dungeon is collapsing!"
"Then we push deeper," the rogue shot back, eyes bright with greed. "If the dungeon is shifting, treasures are shifting too."
"You fool!" the healer snapped. "Do you want to get buried alive? Even the upper floors felt this."
"Enough."
One word. Calm and quiet. Seren had not raised her voice, but they all froze.
She tilted her head, listening through the stone as the quake faded. Her golden eyes opened, sharp and steady.
"That wasn't a collapse," she said.
The mage swallowed. "Then what was it?"
"Magic," she answered, her hand pressing to the lizard's hide. "Raw. Violent. Not from this floor."
The rogue went pale. "From below us?"
Seren didn't answer right away. She looked toward the far wall, her lips pressed into a thin line.
"It felt like fire released after being caged too long," she murmured.
Her words stole the breath from her companions. Silence fell except for the falling dust.
They were seasoned fighters with scars from monsters most people would never see. They had descended deeper than almost anyone alive.
And yet even here, thirty-two floors down, they felt it, the weight of that power.
And the terrible truth that it had not come from above, but from far below.
---
Meanwhile, on Floor 15, a Bronze-rank party huddled against a wall.
"What kind of monster could cause this?" their leader whispered.
"Nothing from the records," one replied, his voice shaking.
"Maybe we should retreat," their mage said quickly. "Report this to the Guild."
They weren't the only ones. Across many floors, parties made the same choice, whatever had caused this quake was beyond them.
On Floor 20, an experienced Silver-rank party had also stopped.
"I've been diving dungeons for fifteen years," their leader muttered. "Never felt anything like that."
"The mana density spiked for a moment," their mage added, wiping sweat from his brow. "Like something massive had just been unleashed."
"That's impossible," their healer said weakly. But they all knew something unprecedented had happened below.
---
Far below them all, smoke curled through a shattered cavern where fire had carved ruin into stone.
And in that devastation, a young man stood over the remains of a serpent no record had ever named.
He held a power that defied every rule the world thought it knew.