CHAPTER 267: ANXIETY

Sasha was the first to show signs of breaking.

She erupted into a manic laugh that was high-pitched and entirely unhinged as if someone had just told her the funniest joke in the world while also dangling her over a pit of spikes.

"Oh. My. God! We’re trapped. We’re actually trapped! Hahaha! Fucking classic!" she wheezed, doubling over and gripping her bow. "This damn place has a heartbeat now?! It restructures the environment so we can’t leave?! What the hell kind of joke dungeon is this?!"

Unlike his red-haired teammate, Jack didn’t laugh.

He stood rigid as his gauntleted fingers flexed open and closed around the handle of his hammer and shield. A thin tremor ran through his arms. He didn’t say anything at first. Instead, he just turned his head slowly toward Leon.

The man looked like he was about to fall apart.

He stood with hunched shoulders, one hand clutching at the skin where the parasite had slipped inside him. His other hand was balled into a shaking fist.

Jack’s gaze moved next to Vaelira. The woman who always had a plan. The stuck-up, commanding, irritating genius of a leader whose mouth never seemed to close once it opened to spout one self-entitled, arrogant word after another.

But she wasn’t barking orders now. She wasn’t even commenting to her viewers despite the big change occurring, warranting an exposition of her thoughts for the viewers.

Instead of all that, she was frozen in place with her pupils dilated as she stared at the changing dungeon around them. No witty remark. No confident stride. Not even a half-assed strategy that boiled down to ’let me shine bright, extras.’

Just silence.

And Jack realized, to his dismay, that for the first time... he missed that damn smirk of hers. That cocky, condescending, unbearable smirk that always meant she had some kind of edge.

It wasn’t there.

She was not in control.

He felt the crack in his composure widen.

But before panic could finish creeping in, he turned to the other group, expecting the same blank stares, the same rising terror.

And was completely thrown off.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" Luna hissed, kicking a loose stone hard enough to dent the wall. "Goddamn haunted-ass gothic bullshit clown maze! I swear, if this place turns upside down or whispers another ancient Latin curse in my ear, I’m burning it all to the goddamn ground!"

Her gamer girl cursing spree was raw, volcanic. But unlike Sasha’s crude words, Luna’s were not rooted in fear. No, she was just royally pissed off. Furious that the dungeon dared pull this nonsense after everything it’d already thrown their way. She wasn’t breaking. In fact, she was revving up.

Meanwhile, Kaiden, Nyx, Bastet, and Aria had huddled around the journal with the cryptic vampire message in it.

Nyx had flipped through its pages using her powers, searching for more information. However, only that page was filled with text.

Then, at Kaiden’s request, dropped it into his hand. He hoped physical contact could give them some more clues. He flipped it over in his hand and found no extra clues.

This was when Bastet recoiled with her nose scrunching as she hissed through her fangs. "That book stinks horribly! I’m about to throw up. You’re forbidden from touching me until you wash your hands, Master."

The sheer audacity of a subjugated monster telling her owner that was enough to show just how visceral her hatred for the undead truly was.

Aria leaned closer as her silver eyes scanned the script. "It’s strange... The writer used noble dialect, but there are some emotional shifts. It gives me the feeling that he was unraveling, but also desperately trying to encode something at the same time."

Nyx nodded thoughtfully. "He wrote of ’seven sins carved in stone’ and ’truths buried beneath virtue.’ There might be a clue here somewhere..."

"Are you people insane?!" Jack finally snapped.

His voice cut across the quiet chamber like a loud gunshot.

Everyone turned. All eyes were on the armored man as he gestured wildly at Kaiden’s group.

"Why the hell are you standing there reading ancient undead poetry like this is some tea party?! Do you not realize we’re trapped?! The exit is gone! We’re in a cursed vampire meat grinder, already afflicted by a curse that’s only getting worse! What the hell is wrong with you?!"

Kaiden and the others stayed silent, ignoring the man as they calmly turned a page.

But Luna?

Oh, Luna wasn’t having it. For the first time in a long while, she was letting her mouth go fully wild.

The Storm Valkyrie spun around, cracked her neck once, and let loose a sneer so sharp it could’ve been counted as a weapon.

"Oh, I’m sorry!" she drawled, voice positively oozing sarcasm while fury sparked in her eyes. Her sarcasm turned into pure anger. "Would you prefer we curl up in the fetal position and cry while you ’tards piss yourselves in a corner? Go ahead, you lame, fat bitch. Set the tone. I see you want to."

Jack blinked, caught entirely off-guard. He’d even forgotten temporarily about his rising panic. The delicate-looking woman had cursed at him multiple times before, but never like this.

Luna stepped forward, entering the tanker’s personal space. Despite the enormous height difference, Jack didn’t sense a single iota of inferiority coming from the Storm Valkyrie, who continued, "This dungeon’s already chewed through our nerves, our energy, and now even our damn exits. So if you want to keep barking nonsense, then just spare us the headache and point your weapon at me. It’s about time I beat you useless nobodies up."

The silence that followed was thick with shock.

Even Vaelira raised an eyebrow.

Luna turned away like nothing had happened, muttering under her breath, "Fucking NPCs just keep staring..."

Kaiden, Nyx, and Aria collectively chuckled under their breaths, amused by the first real gamer girl rage moment they were privy to. Luna hasn’t had the time to get back into competitive gaming since meeting Kaiden and the others, so none of them were ever introduced to her rants screamed at her monitor before. They just got a live demonstration.

This was the moment Jack realized that Kaiden’s group wasn’t broken. They were functioning under all this pressure and fear. Under the gaze of a living dungeon.

They weren’t panicking.

They were trying to overcome the hurdle by solving the challenge.

...

The next chamber welcomed them with eerie silence.

Not a growl, not a rustle, not even the low echo of shifting stone greeted them. It was dead quiet, and that made it worse.

For hours now, monsters had been practically rushing toward them, fleeing from something deeper within the Hollow. The nonstop assault had made every pause precious. Every breath was a gamble.

But now?

Nothing.

No enemies. No motion. No ambient growls or howls in the distance.

Just a pristine, unsettling stillness.

The air was clean, unnaturally so. No dust. No blood. No lingering scent of undead.

Kaiden and his party stepped forward with their senses on high alert.

The chamber was tall and symmetrical. Stone tiles were laid out in perfect formation, and two pathways branched deeper on the far side.

But the center of the chamber was the true focus.