In the shadows of the S Ranked Main character
Chapter 60: boss(1)

Chapter 60: boss(1)

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Kai stopped under the archway, eyes narrowing. The silence pressed against his ears again — not just quiet, but absence. The kind of emptiness that felt placed.

He exhaled slowly and glanced up at the faint reflection of the crown in the polished stone wall beside him. Still there. Still hovering. Still useless.

But then it pulsed.

Not brighter. Not faster. But different?

Kai blinked. He felt a slight tug. Not physical. Not magical in the explosive sense. More like... pressure. Directional pressure. Like the crown wasn’t just sitting there anymore — it was indicating something.

His head turned to the left.

The pull followed.

Right.

The pull faded.

He stopped again.

"...Okay," he muttered, turning back to the left. "So that’s new."

There was no system message. No fairy whisper. No floating prompt like in the game-like systems in other novels Just that faint, persistent tug — the kind you only noticed when you were already attuned to mana channels, to pressure shifts, to flow.

Kai took a few steps forward, and the pull strengthened.

It wasn’t leading him up, or deeper into the fairy-blessed bloom-covered hall. No, it was guiding him sideways. Toward one of the partially collapsed auxiliary tunnels, where the vines and flowers weren’t quite as dense.

The path forked.

Left.

Right.

He turned left. The crown pulsed faintly.

That confirmed it.

"This thing’s a compass now?" he muttered. "Not very royal behavior. Shouldn’t you be commanding armies or something?"

The crown didn’t respond. Naturally.

Kai shifted his grip on the wall and followed the passage. Every few meters, he paused. The pressure guided him again. Subtle. Gentle. Like sonar he could only feel when he wasn’t thinking too hard.

He walked for maybe ten more minutes or hobbled, more accurately. His leg ached. His arm felt useless. Sweat gathered under his shirt. The Crown didn’t care.

Eventually, the floral trail vanished.

No more soft petals. No more gold-threaded vines. The walls were darker here less restored by fairy magic, more primal. Ancient Prism energy radiated faintly from the stone, but nothing comforting Made for people who were looking for too many answers

Then he reached it

The hallway opened into a chamber Wide Circular. A near-perfect dome of black stone. The ceiling arched high above, but no flora covered it. No fairy light. Just stillness.

And there, on the far wall — a gate.

Massive. Carved from dark crystal. Set into place with interlocking runes and heavy mana seals, etched in the language of the Guardians. The seals pulsed faintly — just enough to be visible to someone trained. Which Kai now was.

He knew what this was.

The first of the three gates.

Beyond it: one of the three Guardian Beasts.

Level 40.

Not a trial.

Not a growth opportunity

A deterrent.

The reason no one had ever made it past the third Prism stage outside of scripted conditions in the novel. The beasts weren’t meant to be beaten. Not by normal students. They were left there as the final line of control the real lock behind the fake keys.

Kai stepped forward.

The crown pulsed again.

Once.

Twice.

Then a third time.

The seal flickered faintly.

He didn’t touch it. Didn’t move too close. But just standing there, he felt it. The pressure behind the door. The dense mana radiating off the beast on the other side.

It was awake.

It knew he was there.

But it didn’t charge.

Didn’t scream.

Didn’t slam against the gate like some mindless boss.

It was waiting.

Like it was expecting him.

Kai’s eyes narrowed.

"...You’re not going to open until I find the others."

The crown pulsed once Confirming.

He stared for another few seconds, then slowly turned away, dragging his exhausted body back toward the main corridor.

He didn’t need a narrator.

Didn’t need a fancy magic system.

Didn’t need prophecy.

He knew the story already.

Three Guardian Beasts.

Three locked gates.

All level 40.

And somewhere beyond them...

The opportunity to save Kathlyn

Whatever ritual she was undergoing, whatever change she was facing — it wasn’t meant to be interrupted.

But she wouldn’t last forever.

Kai exhaled shakily and dragged himself back through the dark.

And left to gain support

-

The path back through the Prism’s innermost tunnels was slower now. Not because of uncertainty, but because Kai’s body was spent. His left arm burned from overuse. His numb right arm hung at his side, stiff and swollen, the makeshift splint beginning to loosen.

But none of that was the real problem.

The real problem was the confirmation.

The beast behind the first gate wasn’t going anywhere. Not until the others were faced in sequence. And Kai remembered the order from the novel it wasn’t just arbitrary. The Prism’s deeper layers were structured like a lockbox with cascading security.

And Gate One didn’t open unless Gate Two — the Class A Guardian was defeated first.

A sigh pushed out through Kai’s nose.

"Of course there’s a chain of command. Even the magical death monsters have seniority."

He didn’t bother talking to the crown anymore. It only answered when it wanted to — a trait it clearly shared with every fairy in this place.

As he reached the central corridor again where the last of the golden flowers still hung in the air the crown pulsed again.

Then the petals moved.

Not blowing like in the wind, not scattered — moved.

Deliberately.

The glowing blooms tilted one by one, forming a trail across the floor like stepping stones. Not hovering inviting.

Kai stood there and squinted at them.

"Okay. Fast travel it is."

He stepped forward.

The moment his boot hit the first glowing flower, the air shifted. Not like teleportation, but something stranger. His body didn’t move the world did.

The corridor didn’t stretch. It flipped.

The flowers bloomed faster now, gold and blue threads rising like flame up the walls, spiraling around his feet, then his waist, then his chest.

He was rising.

No being carried.

The scent of mana thickened, rich and strangely metallic. The air cooled. Then warmed. Then cooled again.

And just when Kai’s brain started to catch up with the sensation

FLASH.

Blinding.

White light exploded behind his eyes like a bomb.

His body was weightless for a second completely severed from sensation then came the impact

Just contact.

His knee hit stone. His hand caught himself.

Then—

"Gkh—!"

He recoiled, hand flying up to his face. The light was still blinding, stabbing through his eyes like knives. Even when they were clamped shut.

Too bright.

Too wrong.

The Class A Sector.

He remembered now in the novel, stepping into the Class A domain after Prism activation meant confronting the radiant mana field.One designed to repel unauthorized advancement Normally, it wouldn’t trigger.

But Kai wasn’t normal anymore

The crown made him visible.

It marked him as a future participant in the deeper trials which also meant every layer of the Prism was now reacting to his presence.

And Class A had Beasts that didn’t welcome visitors.

He staggered up, half-blind,

Everything was light. Not fire Not holy Just overwhelming exposure.

The way the crown seemed to pulse with it made his stomach twist.

This wasn’t a welcome.

This was a warning.

The Guardian Beast here wasn’t going to wait behind some neat crystal door.

It was going to test him the second he arrived.

Kai forced his eyes open.

Nothing.

Just bleached white light, like staring at the surface of the sun through a magnifying lens.

Then the sound hit.

A low, heavy whump

Like an earthquake had been muffled by three layers of stone.

Then again.

WHUMP.

WHUMP.

Then it got closer.

Not a tremor Not a roar

Footsteps.

Heavy.

The sound of something massive walking not charging just arriving

Kai pulled his curved blade free with his left hand, gritting his teeth. He could barely stand, couldn’t see, couldn’t run and he wasn’t even through the entrance hall.

"Yeah," he muttered. "Really starting to miss the corpse archer now."

The light didn’t fade.

The crown pulsed once

Then again.

And then the footsteps stopped

Kai stood still in the glare, sword raised loosely, his body shaking slightly from exertion.

Somewhere in this burning white room, a Level 40 Guardian waited.

And he hadn’t even seen it yet.

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