CHAPTER 72: CH 72

Day 18 (A day after Max found Tom)

(Alex’s POV)

It has been five long days—five whole fu*king days—since we first stepped foot onto the fifth floor of this nightmare dungeon.

And I swear, every single one of those days felt like a month.

From the moment we arrived, everything felt different. The air here is heavier, almost suffocating, like invisible chains pressing down on your chest. It smells faintly of metal, like blood drying on old steel, mixed with something wilder—animalistic. The sky isn’t even a proper sky; it’s a shifting haze of purple and black, glowing faintly with streaks of light that twist unnaturally like veins.

This isn’t just a dungeon floor. It’s a predator’s den. And we’re the prey.

The first four floors? They were just warm-ups—trials meant to test endurance, strength, and coordination. But this? This is survival at its cruelest.

Our time here has been spent hunting down the wolf packs—four to a group, each one a mini-boss stronger than the actual floor bosses from below. One of these things alone is enough to tear a small team apart. Together? They’re near unstoppable.

But we’ve found a way.

Bait one, isolate it, kill it fast. Repeat. Never let them surround you. Never let them howl together.

It worked—barely. The loot we’ve collected so far is insane. Rare cores glowing with energy, pelts that shimmer like metal, and fangs sharp enough to cut through enchanted steel. In just four days of hunting, we’ve made more progress than in all the previous floors combined.

But there’s a cost. Always.

The dungeon plays cruel games with its challengers. Every day, the boss room changes location. If no one enters within twenty-four hours, it disappears and respawns elsewhere—sometimes on the other side of the floor.

Yesterday, it shifted again. For once, luck didn’t spit in our faces. The new location was only one hundred and fifty kilometers away. Still far, but manageable—if we moved carefully.

Ember was key to that. She’s the only one among us who can channel Qi, though her reserves are small. With her stealth-type treasures, she scouted ahead, avoiding wolf packs and dangerous zones. Aria and I followed, using cover, moving in short bursts, taking breaks to let Ember recover her energy.

It took fourteen hours to reach the boss room. Fourteen exhausting hours, every step a gamble, every pause filled with tension.

And now, here we are.

The boss room door looms ahead, taller than a building, carved with intricate patterns—wolves of all shapes and sizes locked in eternal poses of hunt and kill. Their eyes glow faintly, watching us. Waiting.

Four massive wolf statues stand guard—two on each side—made of black stone that gleams like obsidian. They look like they could leap down and rip us apart at any moment.

"Damn, that was one hell of a journey," Aria said, dropping onto a rock and wiping sweat from her brow. "Let’s rest for a few hours before we take this bastard on. We’ve got time. No point rushing into death."

I smirked at her words but didn’t argue. She was right. Fighting in this condition would be suicide.

We set up a small camp not far from the door, hidden beneath a cluster of massive roots sprouting from a petrified tree. The roots formed a natural shelter, shielding us from view.

We ate in silence at first, chewing on preserved meat and hard biscuits. Ember occasionally sipped from a small vial of Qi-restoring liquid, her eyes distant, as if already rehearsing the coming battle in her mind.

Aria was the first to break the silence. "You think we’re ready for whatever’s behind that door?"

Ember exhaled slowly. "Ready? No. Prepared enough to not die immediately? Maybe."

I chuckled. "That’s... comforting."

Aria gave a small laugh, but it didn’t reach her eyes. We were all tense, hiding it behind weak humor.

When enough time had passed and we felt rested, Aria stood, stretching her arms. "Alright. Let’s get this over with before I start imagining the boss growing stronger by the hour."

But just as we were about to leave, something inside me screamed.

Not a sound. Not a thought. A primal pull. Like invisible chains holding me back.

"Wait," I said suddenly.

Both Ember and Aria turned to me. Confused.

"What?" Aria frowned. "You good?"

I hesitated. My instincts told me to stall. But how could I explain that without sounding insane?

"We... wait one more hour," I said finally.

"Why?" Ember asked.

Instead of answering, I leaned in and kissed her. Then Aria. Both of them blinked in surprise, their questions dying on their lips.

Sometimes, words don’t work. Sometimes, you just have to trust that your man knows what he’s doing.

But inside... I wasn’t calm. Not at all.

And then, it happened.

[Host, are you going to challenge the floor boss?]

I froze. The system. Directly speaking to me. It hadn’t done that in a long time—not unless it was absolutely necessary.

’...Yeah,’ I replied silently, unsure if I was talking to myself or something else.

[Warning. The probability of irreversible consequences is high. Recommend delay.]

My stomach dropped.

’I...rreversible consequences? What does that mean?’

No response. Just silence.

For a long time, I sat there, staring at the door. I’d always seen the system as a tool. Useful, sure, but not infallible. I trusted it enough to follow its guidance when it came to skills or maps—but my life? That was different.

And yet...

This was the first time it had warned me like this. Not about difficulty. Not about danger. But about something that couldn’t be undone.

Something was waiting behind that door—something more than a fight. Something that would change everything.

And I wasn’t sure if I was ready.

So we waited. One more hour. Maybe it wouldn’t make a difference. Maybe it would.

But as I sat there, watching the faint glow of the wolf statues’ eyes, feeling the weight of the air around us, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the next step would decide more than just whether we lived or died.

It would decide who we became.

And maybe... whether we’d ever be able to go back.