My breath steadied just enough to focus on the two items lying before us. This wasn't just rare. It was game-changing. At our level, the elixir could push someone forward by dozens of points, maybe more for Shay or Rachel, whose stats already thrived on raw power.
I held the vial up so they could see, crimson liquid catching the dim light. "We need to decide who gets this." My voice was steady, but inside I knew the truth: I wouldn't even be standing here if not for Rachel's healing. But I couldn't give it to her just because she'd saved me. This had to be about survival, our survival.
They stepped closer, eyes fixed on the glowing system text that floated above the vial. Silence hung heavy. Each of us was doing the same math, weighing risk against necessity.
Shay's gaze finally met mine. His voice was calm, but beneath it I heard trust. "Who do you want to give it to?" He wouldn't argue. Whatever I chose, he'd agree.
I glanced at Rachel. Her eyes were kind, but tired. Her healing had pulled me back from death's edge more than once. She deserved it. But Shay… he had stood shoulder to shoulder with me, pushing himself to keep us standing, if one of us had to be stronger now, it had to be him.
"Can we give it to Shay," I said at last. "If we find another elixir of this level, Rachel's next. But right now, he's the one it could benefit most."
Rachel didn't flinch. No bitterness. Just a small nod, like she'd already made the same choice in her heart.
Shay took the elixir. No hesitation. He uncorked the vial and drank it in a single pull. The liquid shimmered as it slid down his throat, and the air around him seemed to tighten, charged, like the labyrinth itself had taken notice.
The change was immediate.
Crimson-gold light burst from Shay's body, mana spilling from his skin like fire given breath. It coiled around him in violent spirals before snapping back into his core, sinking deep. He gasped, clutching his chest as if something inside had shifted, then exhaled with a sharp, almost feral grin.
The system chimed.
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION:"Kin of my Kin" – You are now bathed in vampire blood. You can see better in darkness, and you now have the chance to gain power from vampire blood.
SYSTEM WARNING:Be aware. Vampires are a noble race. You could rise as a king… or fall as a servant.
The words echoed in the silence. Shay's grin faltered, fading into something tighter, uncertain. His eyes caught the cavern's dim glow and for a fleeting second, they shimmered red, faint and unnatural.
He flexed his hand, sparks crackling faintly across his knuckles. But behind the surface was something else, a shadow flickering across his face.
"Feels… different," he muttered, his voice rougher, heavier than before. "Like something's evaluating me."
I studied him, silent. The labyrinth had been shaping me too, piece by piece, but this… this was more than power. This was a path. One that could crown him or chain him.
"Whatever comes," I said quietly, steady, "you're not facing it alone."
Shay's grin returned. Smaller this time, but still genuine. It was enough a flicker of relief strong enough to keep us moving.
As we walked, Shay told us what the system had said. The words were strange, ominous, the kind of effect none of us could fully understand yet. But there wasn't time to dwell on it. Not here. Not now.
We were together. That was enough.
We pressed forward, stepping into the eighth floor.
The landscape hit us like a furnace. The glow of the nearby volcano painted everything in an eerie, fiery light, turning shadows into jagged silhouettes. The air shimmered with heat, almost unbearable, thick with the acrid stench of sulphur. A mile away, the volcano split down the centre, molten rivers pouring from its fissure and bleeding into the cavern below. Lava roared like a living thing, the sound reverberating through the stone beneath our feet.
We paused only long enough to take it in, each of us knowing instinctively, whatever waited for us, it was in there.
The path ahead was a wasteland. Blackened rock stretched in jagged ridges, broken by bubbling pits of molten stone. And it wasn't empty.
The first creature we encountered slithered across the scorched earth, its body four meters long from snout to tail, scales mottled red and brown like charred earth. A fire salamander. Its eyes glowed ember bright as it hissed, throat swelling before it spat a fireball large enough to incinerate us whole.
Shay was already moving. His hands flared, fire bursting forward to meet the attack. The two flames collided mid-air in a thunderous explosion, spraying sparks across the cavern like burning rain.
"Keep pushing!" Shay shouted, sweat gleaming on his brow.
We advanced as he held the beast's attention, volley after volley of fire crackling from his palms. The salamander roared, rearing back for another strike, but I was already moving, slipping low across the jagged rock, circling wide with each step silent, deliberate.
Its head swung toward Shay. Perfect.
Forward momentum engaged me, blade solid in my grip. One clean motion, blade wreathed in fire and lightning cleaving through scaled flesh. The blade bit deep, carving through bone and sinew, the sheer force driving it down into the stone beneath.
The salamander's head toppled free, its massive body collapsing with a hiss, molten blood spilling across the scorched ground.
I ripped my sword free, the edge glowing faintly from the heat as a notification flickered into view.
LEVEL 57 - GIANT FIRE SALAMANDER
We pushed deeper into the volcanic wasteland, cutting down two more salamanders, both level fifty-seven and stacking another wave of EXP. By the time their charred corpses faded into ash, we'd banked nearly one-point-two million since our last level-up.
But it wasn't enough. Rachel and Shay were both catching up to me fast, while I still needed close to a million more to break through.
The heat shimmered ahead, and that's when the snakes appeared. Fire serpents, thick as tree trunks, their scales a deep, bruised purple and ridged with jagged armour. Their throats swelled, and in the next breath they spat acid and fire in a single stream. The hiss of it melting stone made my skin crawl.
Shay reacted instantly. Lightning ripped from his hands, locking the serpents in place with crackling arcs. They writhed, their bodies stiffening under the current. That was all I needed.
I sprinted forward, my trusted blade blazing. The first strike drove through a serpent's skull, the impact shuddering up my arms. I shoved fire into the blade, detonating its insides in a violent burst of molten gore. The snake's body convulsed, then collapsed into steaming ash.
[+204,000 EXP.]
The wasteland didn't give us a moment's peace. A fire elemental emerged next, this one stranger, unstable. At first, a coiled serpent of flame, then reshaping itself into a massive horse, its burning mane lashing wildly as it reared over us.
Shay was already moving, water and ice snapping into existence at his command. He pulled moisture from the air itself, forcing it into a torrential surge that crashed against the elemental's body, hissing into clouds of steam.
"Now!" he shouted.
Together we struck. His lightning tore through the wet haze, amplifying in the water, detonating across the elemental's form. It staggered, flaming limbs splintering under the assault. I didn't hesitate. With Dragonfang wreathed in lightning, I brought the flat of the blade crashing down on its head. The impact exploded through its unstable body, scattering fire into the cavern like sparks on the wind.
[+191,000 EXP.]
The volcanic path stretched on, littered with pools of lava and the blackened bones of things long dead. I kept my Detect skill active, each pulse threading into the darkness, painting the movements of creatures we hadn't yet seen. With every use, the skill sharpened, until an hour later I felt the familiar chime, another level up, earned just by hunting with precision.
Six more monsters fell in quick succession, their roars drowned by the hiss of lava and the clash of steel. Another one-point-three million EXP gained. Rachel broke through to level forty-five, her magic humming brighter with every cast.
Shay only needed a single kill to climb again. I, though… I was still trailing behind, each step heavier with the weight of what it would take to reach the next tier.
Then, it hit me. A tremor in the earth. A subtle vibration through my boots. Something massive was moving nearby.
I froze. My instincts screamed. "Something's coming," I said sharply, and both Shay and Rachel snapped to attention. My Detect skill flickered with warning. Whatever it was, it wasn't small, and it wasn't friendly.
We moved slowly, tense, breaths tight in our chests. Then from the haze of heat and soot, it emerged.
A massive, reptilian creature lumbered into view, its body sheathed in molten red scales, lava dripping from its spine like a bleeding wound. It wasn't just large, it was primeval. The kind of monster that didn't belong in our time. A Fire Belcher.
The sight alone sent a chill down my back despite the heat. My hands tightened around my weapon. Shay struck first, collapsing the ground beneath the beast with a rumble of earth magic. It dropped, snarling.
I seized the moment. Lightning surged from my fingertips and slammed into its chest, but it didn't even flinch. No paralysis. No slowdown.
My pulse spiked. This thing was tougher than anything we'd faced.
With a roar, I launched forward. My sword found its mark in its side, steel biting through the hide, barely. The roar it let out vibrated through my bones.
Shay followed up with water and ice, steam hissing into the air. But it wasn't enough. It resisted everything, and I was growing desperate.
We needed more power. More pain. I clenched my jaw and snarled, "Rachel, keep me buffed. Shay, distract it." My thoughts raged within me, "this is the dumbest idea I've had, but what else can I do."
I dropped my weapons, tore off my shirt, and sprinted forward. I wasn't thinking about the cost. I just knew I had to stop this thing.
I used my heightened strength stat to leap, closing the distance in one violent burst. I climbed the beast like a demon possessed, my body moving on instinct. My knee crashed into its jagged teeth, breaking them out its gums. Blood and heat sprayed my face, my foot now wedged between teeth and gum keeping my balance.
I tore another fang free and rammed it into the creature's eye again and again.
Then came the sound.
That deep, guttural rumble in its throat.
Fire.
I was in such a position that to escape and leap off, I would be a sitting duck in mid-air, with my foot lodged, I wasn't positive I could.
"Shay!" I shouted, raw panic ripping from my throat.
Without hesitation, he summoned an earth pillar that slammed the beast's jaws shut just in time, forcing my leg in the gap of its missing teeth.
The fire exploded inside its mouth, and I felt it.
Searing pain swallowed my leg whole. My world shrank to agony. Skin bubbled and peeled. Muscle burned. The stench of my own flesh cooking filled my lungs.
I ripped another fang free, sweat and blood stinging my eyes, and rammed it into the monster's other eye.
The pop. The flood of hot fluid. The deafening roar.
The beast collapsed, dragging me down with it. The ground shook. The corpse missed crushing me by inches, but its heat baked the stone around me.
I couldn't move. Couldn't feel anything below my hip, my mind tried to process it, but the shock kept the horror at bay.
[Level 59 Fire-Belcher Defeated. 268,000 EXP Received.]
I didn't care.
All I could do was lie there and breathe shallowly. Shay ran to me, wide-eyed. "Leon, stay with me man, just keep talking." But I couldn't even respond.
Rachel was there in an instant, hands glowing, magic flooding into me.
"I just need a minute," I whispered, eyes squinting shut in pain. "Just… one minute."
Potions were attempted next. Shay fed them to me as Rachel poured every ounce of magic into the wreck that had been my leg.
I felt warmth. Then tingling. Then agony, low scale potions didn't work at my level, so higher and higher grades were poured in my mouth, anything to try and help.
Five minutes passed before I dared open my eyes fully. The pain had dulled. Rachel hadn't stopped. She was pale with exertion, sweat beading at her brow, her hands as close to the wound without pressing it. Guilt twisted in my chest. Why do I keep putting us through this? I don't feel like much of a friend for it.
But to my surprise… my leg, it was whole. I sat up and stared, heart pounding. Fully healed.
"Rachel… how?"
She didn't speak. Just smiled faintly and sat back, exhausted. Her eyes were red, as if she'd been crying, or maybe it was the heat. The smile stayed, but it couldn't hide the way she felt, she cared for me and Shay, although I feel I was more like a sibling. It was written in every trembling breath, every tear she'd forced back to keep going.
Shay explained softly, "She's been healing you nonstop. It's not just her magic, it's her control, her focus. She guided every part of your regeneration."
I wanted to say something, to thank her, to tell her I'd seen the cost of what she'd done. But the words stuck in my throat. All I could do was meet her eyes and let the silence speak for me.
I looked down again. Skin. Muscle. Bone. Perfect, not a scar remained, and now just a haunting memory that would give me shivers in days to come.
"I need to rest," I said finally. "We're out of supplies, clothes, everything." They nodded. The best action to take now was start again and restock.
Two days. That's what we'd take before returning.
We all went our own ways. Shay buried himself in training, grinding his magic against the lower monsters scattered within the gates. Earth, ice, and water came first, steady, methodical, shaping walls, floods, and frozen spears until his control sharpened. Fire was trickier. He spent hours trying to shape flame into light without excessive heat, a delicate balance that left him drenched in sweat and frustration before it finally clicked. Ice and water fused into shifting constructs, fluid turning solid, expanding and shrinking at his command. Lightning though, refused to yield. Without strong enemies to push against, it barely budged, sitting just under the edge of level ten with over eight hundred proficiency. By the end of the second day, every one of his magics had reached level five. Fire stood at level eight. Lightning was ready to break through.
As for me, I gave myself half a day to rest. After nearly losing my leg, I needed it. But quiet never lasts. I couldn't stay still, I sought out the largest light-blue gate I could find. Inside, the monsters were level sixty-four.
I learned that firsthand.
The ogres inside stood five to eight meters tall, their skin thick as armour and their hands broad enough that each finger was the size of my leg. Fighting them was slow and punishing. My sword barely carved through their forearms thick hide; my dagger had to do the work at the nape and neck. Stun them with lightning, burn them with fire until they collapsed. Every battle was ten minutes of survival. Every mistake could've ended me.
One ogre, then another, then a third.
Each kill brought 1.9 million EXP. By the time I staggered out of the gate, I'd reached level forty-seven, a third of the way to forty-eight.
Later, I met with Shay and told him about the ogres. "Their strength's got to be around three hundred. One clean hit and it's over. But if we're together, we can take them. I need your lightning. I want to see what happens when it finally breaks past level nine." He agreed.
We entered the gate, and the world shifted into a vast green forest. Trees towered fifty meters high, their canopies blotting out the sky. The land sloped upward into a plateau where massive shadows moved across the open fields, ogres, wandering in lazy swirls, each step vibrating the earth.
We crept to the edge of the clearing.
Shay moved first. Lightning erupted from his hands, his strongest yet, spearing across the open air and striking an ogre square in the chest. The beast twitched violently, muscles seizing as the current locked its body in place.
That was my cue.
I sprinted, sword already burning with mana. The static backlash from Shay's spell licked at my skin as I drove Dragonfang into the side of the ogre's neck, but not enough for a killing blow. Sparks bit into me, pain sharp and hot, but I gritted through it. One more slash took its ankle, dropping the monster to one knee with a thunderous crash.
The lightning faltered. The ogre began to turn, eyes flaring with rage. I spun full circle, every ounce of strength behind the strike, and carved through its throat. Flesh ripped open, ichor spraying across the grass as the giant collapsed with a final shudder.
With the two of us working in tandem, the kill felt almost effortless.
[EXP Gained: 950,000]
My bar surged to 4.3 million out of 4.66.
We repeated the process with three more ogres. Four titanic creatures down. Each kill pushed us closer to the edge, a few claws and fists coming too close for comfort, but nothing we couldn't manage. Another 2.7 million EXP each.
[EXP: 2,440,000 / 5,829,000]
Shay sat just shy of levelling, about 3.9 million into his bar.
When the last ogre collapsed, the plateau fell quiet.
The gate was slow to regenerate. Too short-lived to push further. And though we'd made it through without serious injury, the close calls were enough to remind me how reckless fighting level sixty-four monsters really was. A single mistake is all it takes.
"I'm not risking it again," I said flatly. Shay didn't argue.
We spent the rest of the day searching for something more manageable. Eventually, we found four gates—each one crawling with monsters around level forty, their bosses topping out in the high forties. Easy work compared to the ogres. We cleared them all. Four bosses down. Dozens of monsters slain. The reward? Barely three hundred thousand EXP.
By the time the last gate closed, we were back at square one. With nothing else left to chase, we headed back to our accommodation, ready to rest and prepare for the Labyrinth tomorrow.
That night, I slept deeper than I had in weeks, nine solid hours without stirring. When I woke, it was with a strange clarity, my body lighter, my thoughts sharper, as though the exhaustion had finally slipped away.
The morning passed in quiet ritual. Fresh gear. Clean clothes. Extra sets stuffed into the pack because something always tore or scorched sooner or later. I'd learned that lesson enough times already.
This time, we all carried bags, usually Rachel carried one, but this time we prepared for the long haul. With my Detection skill sitting at Level 5, I could sense any living thing within fifty meters. It gave us confidence, we could leave supplies behind during a fight, knowing nothing would creep up on us unseen. The skill wasn't just practical; it was becoming indispensable.
When we finally regrouped at the Labyrinth gate, the weight of readiness settled over us. From there, we pushed forward quickly.
The lower floors barely slowed us. Every enemy from one through five went down in a single strike or a charged blast of fire and lightning. The only real resistance came from the fifth-floor boss. Even then, it lasted only a moment longer than its peers, long enough for me to split it with a lightning-charged swing, and for Shay to drive home an earth-and-ice combo that finished it.
He absorbed the boss's core as usual, pushing his Lightning Proficiency to 885 out of 900. Almost at level ten.
But the rewards were thinning. Monsters up to level thirty-eight gave us only two EXP each. Even the boss netted nothing of note.
The ice elves we faced next matched my level on paper, but with our synergy and gear, they barely registered as a challenge. The system was clear; it wanted us climbing higher. Humans weren't meant to stagnate here; we were meant to outgrow monsters entirely, in strength and in adaptability.
When we reached the ice giant again, the fight was short. We shattered its armour, broke its limbs, and severed its head clean in a single coordinated effort. A level fifty boss should've been intimidating, but the reward was paltry: eighty thousand EXP each.
That was fine.
We sold every item we found on the climb, letting Rachel claim the chests. She needed the gold more than we did, her mana was our lifeline, and she burned through potions fast, with only the higher tier working it became an expensive venture.
Floor seven was what we'd been waiting for. One hundred and fifty bats, all level fifty-one and fifty-two. The perfect hunting ground. The chain lightning strategy carried us, one room at a time, and by the time we cleared the first forty, we'd gained 1.23 million EXP.
Shay hit Level Forty-Eight. Then, finally, his Lightning Proficiency peaked. Or at least… that's what I thought.