The air inside the dungeon was no longer silent.
It breathed.
Every step Kael took was followed by a faint whisper — like ancient words carried on the wind. The faint glow of the runes across the walls pulsed with his heartbeat, as if the dungeon itself was alive and watching.
The torch in his hand flickered violently as a gust of cold wind passed by, even though there was no direction from which it could have come.
[System Notice: Deeper Floor Detected — Floor 3 Unlocked.]
[Warning: Unknown Entities Active.]
Kael's grip tightened around his sword. He had learned that the system never warned him without reason. The first two floors had taught him pain, exhaustion, and the weight of being human in a world built to break him — but the third felt different. It wasn't hostile. It was... curious.
He descended the ancient staircase, and the stone beneath his feet turned into black glass. Below, he saw shapes — reflections of other warriors, other explorers, trapped within the mirror-like ground. Their mouths moved as though trying to speak.
"Who are you?" Kael whispered, crouching. The faces faded instantly.
[Dungeon Message: "They were the ones who sought to rewrite fate. They failed."]
Kael's eyes widened.
"Rewrite fate?" he murmured. "Is that what this place is for?"
The dungeon didn't reply. Instead, the path ahead glowed dimly. He walked forward, deeper into the black corridor until he reached a hall filled with floating symbols — glowing orbs that hung midair, rotating slowly. Each one hummed softly like a heartbeat.
When Kael reached toward one, the system reacted violently.
[Forbidden Archive Detected.]
[System Override in progress...]
Pain tore through his head. His body collapsed as countless voices screamed inside his mind. Memories not his own flashed — battles between gods and mortals, a city of golden towers burning in the sky, a chained man shouting:
"Humans were never meant to serve!"
Kael gasped, clutching his chest as the vision faded.
---
He opened his eyes to find a new window glowing faintly before him:
[Hidden Skill Unlocked: Ancestral Memory]
[Discription: Allows the user to access fragments of humanity's lost history sealed within the Dungeon.]
He fell silent. The words "lost history" made his heart pound. All his life, humans were called the weakest — the disposable ones. Yet, the dungeon had just shown him an image of humans fighting gods themselves.
Could it be… the truth had been buried?
He took a deep breath and steadied his shaking hands.
"Then I'll find the rest of that truth," he muttered. "Even if it kills me."
---
A Trial of Shadows
The third floor unfolded into an ancient cathedral made entirely of bones — each pillar carved from enormous skulls. The air shimmered with dark mana. Kael felt his skin crawl.
A voice echoed through the space — deep, rumbling, old.
"So... another child dares enter the Third Gate."
Kael raised his sword. "Show yourself!"
From the black mist emerged a towering figure, draped in a tattered priest's robe. Its face was hidden behind a porcelain mask, cracked and smiling.
"I am the Keeper of Silence," it said. "To pass this floor, you must silence your own fear."
Kael gritted his teeth. "I've already lived with fear my whole life."
The Keeper raised its hand. Shadows burst from the ground, forming twisted versions of Kael — reflections of his own face, his own voice, each whispering doubts.
"You'll never be more than a slave."
"No one remembers you."
"You're fighting a war you can't win."
Kael's heart pounded as the copies closed in.
He swung his blade — but every strike passed through air.
Their words grew louder, feeding off his anger and despair.
He fell to his knees, clutching his head. "Stop it… Stop—!"
Then, deep within the chaos, he heard another voice — not from outside, but from within.
"Fear cannot be killed, Kael. It must be understood."
His eyes widened. The voice was calm, firm, familiar — like his own but older, wiser.
It was the voice from the vision — the chained man.
He stood up, trembling. "If fear can't be killed, then I'll make it kneel."
He slashed downward with all his strength, and this time the sword glowed with blinding light — a pure, white flame born not of rage, but of resolve.
The shadows screamed as the light devoured them.
When the silence returned, the Keeper of Silence knelt before him.
"You have faced your inner self. Take this blessing, Child of the Forgotten."
Kael's sword absorbed the white flame, transforming.
[System Notice: Soul Weapon Awakened – "White Ember Blade."]
[Attributes: Light + Resolve. Feeds on user's determination instead of mana.]
---
The World Above
Far above the dungeon, in the Demon Capital of Nareth, nobles gathered in the royal hall.
A tall demon with black horns and crimson eyes slammed his clawed hand against the table.
"Another patrol vanished near the southern ruins," he growled. "That's the fourth this week."
A female elf, her emerald eyes sharp, replied coolly, "Rumor says a human rebel is hiding there. Impossible, of course — but... the dungeon readings have changed."
"Changed?" the demon snarled.
The elf nodded. "A surge of mana from deep beneath the surface. Old magic... older than any of our archives."
The hall fell silent. Everyone knew what that meant. The only place such magic existed was—
"The Infinite Dungeon," whispered the demon lord.
---
Deeper Secrets
Back in the dungeon, Kael rested near a shattered altar, bandaging his wounds. His body ached, but his mind burned with questions.
He stared at the glowing runes on the wall, tracing one with his finger. It responded by shifting shape into words he could now read:
"When gods grew afraid, they buried the truth beneath the world."
Kael's eyes widened.
"So the gods themselves locked this place away."
He stood slowly, his sword glowing faintly at his side. "Then maybe… the answers to everything — to why humans are weak — are buried down here too."
He looked up into the dark corridor ahead, where the next stairway waited.
[System Notice: Floor 4 Unlocked.]
[Warning: You are entering the Domain of the Forgotten.]
Kael smiled faintly despite the pain. "Then let's wake the forgotten."
He stepped forward into the darkness.
And somewhere far above, in the Demon Capital, the ground trembled again — faint but noticeable. The nobles exchanged worried glances.
None of them knew that deep below, a single human had just passed the Third Gate…
And that the world's buried truth had begun to stir.
---
To be continue...