Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game
Chapter 148: Ch146. [World Quest] (6) - [Mouth of the Abyss]

Chapter 148: Ch146. [World Quest] (6) - [Mouth of the Abyss]

The silence in the war room felt like a second death for the fallen. No one said a word after Sarissa read Shinji’s message aloud. Kalem’s broken sobs echoed down the ruined train station’s stone halls, and the leaders of the allied guilds stood frozen, shocked, uncertain, and quietly terrified.

"We sent twenty of our best..." Vyle said at last, his voice low. "Nineteen are gone."

"We underestimated the Dungeon. Or we underestimated him." Wei-Ling nodded, her brow furrowed.

"No." Sarissa said, her voice like iron. "We underestimated what he found in there."

She looked down at the scroll once more, as if the neat, elegant writing might bleed secrets if she stared long enough, but there was no hidden message.

Shinji had not taunted them, he had not gloated.

It was just a flat, merciless response, a declaration of war.

"I’m going in." She said suddenly.

Heads turned.

"I’m not sending anyone else to die in that place without understanding what we’re dealing with. If we want to survive this war, we need answers. And we won’t get them unless someone survives a damn floor."

"You’re serious..." Mara muttered.

"I am."

"Then I’m coming with you." The woman stepped forward. "I don’t trust anyone else to drag your ass out if things go bad."

"Same." Diego added, his fingers twitching. "Black Market’s already lost one enforcer. I’m not losing intel and face. I’m coming."

Sarissa nodded, not surprised.

"Three of us won’t clear a hundred floors, though."

"We don’t need to." Diego said. "Just clear one floor, survive it, and come back with something real."

"Agreed." Sarissa retorted. "We step in, test the floor, find out what’s waiting for us. We survive it, or we die knowing we didn’t leave this to blind chance."

"You make it sound noble, but alright. Let’s see what hell looks like." Mara snorted.

***

The day after, Sarissa, Mara, and Diego prepared for the raid and went to the ruined cathedral, where the dungeon awaited them.

As they stepped down the flesh-like stone of the stairwell, the System message chimed again:

[You are entering: Mouth of The Abyss – Floor 1]

[You are entering a - World Quest - Area.]

[This Dungeon adapts to the strength of its intruders.]

"Paint me in blue," Mara broke the silence, performing nonchalance. Her voice, however, cracked at the end of the sentence. "Because I’m shocked..."

[Difficulty Adjusted]

[Recommended Level: ???]

"That’s not ominous at all." Mara let out a low whistle.

"No turning back, now." Sarissa said, her voice steady, sword already in hand.

They reached the bottom of the stairs after what felt like hours, the mist thickened into fog, then thinned again, and when it finally dissipated, the true first floor unfolded before them.

Huge black pillars loomed out of the gloom, carved with alien symbols that hurt to look at.

The architecture was fluid, like it had been poured rather than built, and the ground was made of overlapping circles, like massive eyes pressed into the stone. The air hummed with a sound just beyond hearing, like an unceasing, droning whisper.

"Lights." Diego said, activating a [Star Stone].

It cast a faint, cold glow. Shadows crawled along the walls where there were none, and shapes moved at the edge of their vision.

Something was wrong here. The rules of space did not seem to apply, the pillars twisted when they were not looking at them, the doorways moved, and sometimes, the fog revealed statues that had not been there seconds before.

Figures in poses of agony or prayer, their features indistinct, as though molded from wax.

"They never even made it past this." Diego muttered.

"No." Sarissa crouched near a faint smear of black across the floor. It was dried blood. "And Kalem said Shinji’s name."

"So, either he was waiting for them..." Mara said.

"Or the Dungeon was." Diego finished, his voice barely above a whisper.

They moved carefully through the first floor, every step echoing. There were no mobs, no system notifications of approaching enemies, nothing.

Just that ever-present, sickly hum.

"I hate this!" Mara whispered. "Give me a horde of monsters over whatever the hell this is."

"You feel that too, right? Like something’s watching." Diego nodded.

"We are being observed." Sarissa agreed. "By anything that’s hidden in here."

The moment she said it, the air snapped.

Not like thunder, not like magic.

It was like reality itself had been torn and stitched in an instant.

A figure stood at the far end of the corridor they had entered, a tall, thin shape draped in ragged robes of shadows. No face. No visible limbs. Just the sense of an entity that was aware of them.

[???: Abyssal Witness – Level: ???]

[You have been marked.]

"Move!" Sarissa shouted.

The corridor behind them slammed shut, and the eye-like patterns on the floor began to glow, but the thing didn’t move.

It was reality that did.

The walls bent, it felt like time staggered.

Mara summoned her rifle [Shatterround], and fired a shot enhanced with a bleeding enchantment. But the bullet went through the creature like water.

[Immunity Detected – Physical]

[Immunity Detected – Piercing]

It raised a single shadowed hand, the floor eyes blinked, and then they saw.

The hallway around them became wrong. Flesh grew from stone, twitching and pulsing. Voices whispered from inside the walls, pleading, laughing, begging. Something massive crawled just beneath the surface, bulging shadows in a sickening motion.

[Affliction: Mind Fracture – Duration: 30s]

[Vision, Hearing, Perception: -50%]

[Chance of Hallucination: 90%]

The status effect hit all three at once.

"Sarissa!" Diego shouted, slashing at the air.

He was at something behind her, a twisting shape that was not there before.

"M-my thoughts, it’s crawling in my brain-" Mara clutched her head, growling.

Sarissa forced herself to focus. She activated one of her newly acquired skills, [Paladin’s Barrier], shielding them in a golden sphere of light.

The effect did not purge the affliction, but it dulled it enough for them to think slightly straight again.

"I can’t hit that thing!" Mara said, breathing hard. "It’s not playing by the rules!"

"Then don’t aim for it. Aim for the floor!"

Diego immediately threw a spellstone.

The [Voltaic Pulse] detonated on contact, the surge causing the floor to spasm.

The eyes screamed, almost howling, and the [Witness] flinched.

That was all they needed.

Sarissa surged forward, her blade glowing with [Wonderland’s Inferno]. She did not aim for the creature, though, aiming for the runes along the walls, the glyphs that seemed to pulse whenever the Witness reacted, and then she struck.

The glyphs shattered, and the Witness recoiled, unraveling in a spiral of shadow and ash.

[Abyssal Witness has retreated.]

[You have survived the encounter.]

[Floor 1 – Map 6% Discovered]

[Data Fragment Recovered: 1/3]

All three of them collapsed to their knees, gasping.

"What the hell was that?" Mara coughed.

"Not a boss, clearly." Diego said hoarsely. "But maybe a guardian."

"That was one enemy, and we haven’t even cleared the floor." Sarissa wiped her mouth. Her hand was shaking.

She opened her system window and accessed the dungeon map that had appeared as soon as they entered. As soon as the map opened, she drew the route and closed it.

"We have to go back." Mara urged.

"We can’t leave it like this." Sarissa argued, her hands on her waist.

"We don’t survive if we stay!" Mara rebuked. "We’re not here to win. We’re here to learn. And now we know."

"No wonder Kalem came back like a ghost." Diego groaned as he stood. "But we still need to know how Shinji is related to that.

"I don’t think we do..." Mara hushed, pointing to a certain statue that was not there before.

When Sarissa and Diego turned to look, there was a masked figure already vanishing in the shadows.

It’s slick white porcelain mask was unmistakable from what Sarissa remembered during the attack at the guild meeting.