CHAPTER 105: CHAPTER 105

He reached the threshold of the doorway, standing at the very edge where light met absolute darkness. For just a heartbeat, he paused.

I am Satou. I was reborn into this world to survive. I have built something worth protecting. I have people depending on me. I will not fail them.

Then he stepped through the darkness.

Reality shattered.

The world fractured into a thousand pieces, each one reflecting a different moment, a different possibility, a different fate. He saw himself dying in countless ways—torn apart by monsters, crushed by falling stone, drowning in darkness, bleeding out alone in the depths. He saw his settlement burning while he was trapped inside, unable to help. He saw Lyra’s grave. Kelvin’s corpse. Jessica crying over his body.

But he also saw other things. He saw himself emerging victorious, stronger than ever. He saw his settlement thriving. He saw himself standing over Richard Clay’s defeated form. He saw a future where his civilization actually worked, where monsters and humans coexisted, where he’d made a real difference.

Time and space lost all meaning. He was falling and flying, dying and living, succeeding and failing—all simultaneously. His body was being torn apart atom by atom and rebuilt in configurations that shouldn’t be possible. Colors became sounds. Sounds became tastes. His sense of self began to dissolve into the infinite possibilities swirling around him.

The chaos began to settle. The infinite possibilities narrowed. The fragments of reality coalesced back into a single path forward.

Then everything snapped into place.

Satou stumbled, catching himself against a rough stone wall. His heart was hammering, his breath coming in ragged gasps. He felt like he’d just lived a thousand lifetimes in the span of a single heartbeat.

He was in a corridor now. Stone walls, rough and cold. Low ceiling—perfect for his hobgoblin height. Blue flames burned in sconces along the walls, casting flickering shadows that made everything seem alive.

Behind him, there was only solid stone. The entrance was gone. No way back.

Ahead, the corridor stretched into darkness, with a faint glow visible far in the distance.

Then a voice spoke—not from any particular direction, but from everywhere at once. It reverberated through the stone, through the air, through Satou’s very bones.

"WELCOME, CHALLENGER, TO THE DUNGEON OF ETERNAL NIGHTMARES."

The voice was neither male nor female, neither young nor old. It simply existed, ancient and vast and utterly inhuman.

"ONE HUNDRED FLOORS LIE BEFORE YOU. ONE HUNDRED TRIALS TO TEST YOUR WORTH."

"SURVIVE THEM ALL, AND YOU SHALL EMERGE TRANSFORMED. FAIL, AND YOUR BONES SHALL JOIN THE COUNTLESS OTHERS WHO DARED AND FELL SHORT."

The blue flames flared brighter, and Satou could see now that the walls were covered in marks—thousands upon thousands of scratches, tally marks, desperate messages carved into stone. The accumulated record of everyone who’d come before and failed to return.

"THE RULES ARE SIMPLE: ADVANCE OR DIE. ADAPT OR PERISH. GROW STRONGER OR BE CONSUMED."

"THERE IS NO MERCY HERE. NO SECOND CHANCES. NO ESCAPE EXCEPT THROUGH VICTORY OR DEATH."

"NOW BEGIN, CHALLENGER. SHOW ME YOUR WORTH."

The voice faded, leaving only the crackling of flames and Satou’s own rapid breathing.

For a long moment, he just stood there, processing. The dungeon was intelligent—or at least aware. It had spoken to him directly. And those marks on the walls, those desperate scratches... how many people had died here? Hundreds? Thousands?

Satou drew his new mithril-steel sword. The blade sang as it left the scabbard, the sound echoing down the corridor. The weapon felt good in his hand—perfectly balanced, the right weight, the grip comfortable.

He checked his supplies one final time. Everything secure. Everything ready.

"Alright," Satou said aloud, his voice sounding small in the vast emptiness. "One hundred floors. Seventy days. I can do this. I have to do this."

He started walking forward, toward the distant glow, toward whatever waited on Floor One.

Behind him, unseen in the darkness, the entrance sealed itself completely. The dungeon had accepted its challenger.

—----

[ The First Floor ]

The corridor opened into a circular chamber about fifty feet across. The blue flames continued along the walls, providing steady light. The floor was dark stone, worn smooth by countless footsteps over the centuries. The ceiling rose to about fifteen feet.

And standing in the center of the chamber were five creatures.

They looked vaguely like goblins, but wrong in every possible way. Their skin was a sickly gray, almost translucent, showing dark veins beneath. Their eyes were milky white, completely blind, yet they clearly knew he was there. Their mouths hung open, revealing teeth that were too sharp, too numerous, growing in irregular rows.

They wore no clothing, no armor. Their bodies were emaciated, ribs showing through skin, but their muscles were defined and clearly powerful. Each one held a crude weapon—bone clubs, rusted blades, jagged rocks.

The worst part was their movement. They didn’t stand still like normal creatures waiting to attack. Instead, they swayed constantly, their heads tilting at unnatural angles, listening. Their limbs twitched with barely restrained violence.

[Blind Stalker - Level 10] x5

The notification appeared in Satou’s vision. Level 10. He was Level 17. They were weaker than him individually.

But there were five of them, and this was a dungeon that killed demon lords on the higher floors.

Satou took a careful step forward, trying to assess the situation. The moment his foot touched the chamber floor, all five creatures’ heads snapped toward him in perfect unison.

Then they screamed.

The sound was horrific—high-pitched, discordant, like metal scraping on glass mixed with an animal’s death shriek. It made Satou’s teeth ache and his ears ring.

Then they charged.

Their movement was fast and erratic, zigzagging across the floor in unpredictable patterns. Despite being blind, they navigated the chamber perfectly, never colliding with each other, moving with the coordination of a pack.

They hunt by sound, Satou realized. They’re blind but their hearing is incredible.

The lead Stalker swung its bone club in a vicious arc. Satou sidestepped, bringing his sword around in a counter. The blade bit deep into the creature’s shoulder, black blood spraying from the wound.

Author Note:

Hello its author here, for the dungeon arc , i am going to speedrun the whole dungeon arc to prevent the Chapter for being too long , you can leave a comment to tell me what you think.