Mad Hatter's Guide to Clearing The Game
Chapter 149: Ch147. [World Quest] (7) - Floor Boss

Chapter 149: Ch147. [World Quest] (7) - Floor Boss

They tried following the masked figure, which Sarissa was sure to be Shinji, but all they found were shadows and monsters – indescribable horrors and [Undead Ghouls], which only confirmed her suspicion – and after some serious skirmishes that left them bloodied and battered, Sarissa was still firm on her purpose.

"This isn’t enough..." Sarissa said, her voice sharp and breathless as she scanned the shifting corridor ahead. "We didn’t come here just to dip our toes and run."

Mara leaned against the wall, wiping ichor off her rifle.

"No, we came to survive, remember that part? Pretty sure nearly getting skinned alive by a wall counts as a valid reason to turn back and leave."

"We’ve mapped over half of the floor," Diego said, clutching a cracked [Star Stone] that flickered like a dying ember in his hands. His cloak was shredded. His left arm was still slightly limp from the shoulder wound he had just healed. "And I would like to point out we’ve been attacked four times by things I still can’t name."

"But we haven’t reached the end!" Sarissa insisted. "We need to know what’s waiting there. Otherwise, the next raid dies blind."

She turned, staring into the darkness ahead, where the hallway twisted like a spiral staircase laid on its side. Black vines pulsed across the walls like veins. The air had long stopped smelling like air.

It was thick, acrid, like breathing through a dying lung.

"You’re too damn noble for your own good." Mara swore under her breath.

"Then stay here!" Sarissa snapped. "I’ll go alone if I have to."

The silence that followed was taut, heavy. Then, Diego pushed off the wall.

"You’ll get yourself killed alone."

"And I’m not letting you die before you pay me back for dragging us in here." Mara added, stepping beside her.

"Then let’s finish what we started." Sarissa gave them both a nod.

***

The corridor narrowed into a claustrophobic throat, every step forward matched by the distant sound of breathing. The walls pulsed now, flesh-like, moist, and warm. In the faint light of their last [Star Stone], the floor rippled, subtle, as though reacting to their movement.

No mobs, no system warnings, just that constant hum of tension.

"I don’t like this..." Diego muttered.

"You weren’t supposed to." Mara replied. "You like clean targets. This place is just... Raw nightmare fuel."

They turned a corner, and the wall screamed.

It was like a thousand mouths opening at once, soundless but vibrating straight into their bones.

From the darkness ahead slithered something tall and thin, boneless, composed of what looked like skin stitched over smoke. Dozens of hands stretched from its torso. None of them had fingers.

[Unseen Aberrant – ???]

[Sound Affliction: Echo of Pain]

[Immune to Detection]

The creature moved in pulses, appearing in one space, then another.

"Don’t let it touch you!" Sarissa yelled.

She lunged first, blade glowing with her skill’s blood-red flame, striking at the nearest limb. It sliced through, but the severed hand crawled on its own, leaping toward her.

Mara fired two rounds from [Shatterround], and both bullets vanished mid-air.

[Trajectory Distortion Detected]

"Oh, God... I hate this!" Diego clenched his jaw.

The [Unseen Aberrant] phased beside Mara, its chest opening like a cloak, revealing a face made entirely of teeth, and it shrieked.

[Affliction: Disorientation – 40s]

[Movement impaired by 60%]

Mara fell, spasming uncontrollably.

Sarissa darted forward, striking again, this time aiming at its center, but her sword passed right through, as if the enemy was made of smoke.

"DIEGO!" she shouted.

"On it!"

He thrust his hand forward, summoning a pulse of [Holy Light]. A radiant flare erupted, but the monster simply absorbed it, glowing briefly before vanishing into the wall.

"Don’t suppose that was a victory..." Mara groaned.

"No." Sarissa said grimly. "It looked more like a warning."

***

They kept going deeper.

The next room opened into a cathedral-like space, with columns made of bone, or something too close to it. A staircase stretched upward toward a door that floated in midair. A light shone behind it, pulsing faintly.

"That has to be the floor’s exit..." Diego said.

"We’re close." Sarissa replied, stepping forward, and the floor split.

No warning, just a vertical slash from nowhere, opening like a mouth. Dozens of worm-like tendrils surged from the gap, each one hissing with a whisper that said things in no language they knew.

Mara fired on reflex, and the tendrils jerked back, but not before one latched onto her leg.

She screamed as the tendril bit through armor, sending pulses of... Thought into her mind.

Words.

Visions.

Fire, birth, devour.

Sarissa grabbed Mara’s arm and yanked her, slashing the tendril away with a clean strike. The floor shrieked again, but the mouth closed.

The system echoed in Sarissa’s mind before she could do anything else.

[A seed is blooming from your – Classpect]

[You have acquired an Attribute]

[Attribute: Wonderland’s Paladin]

Sarissa paid no attention to it, though, running towards Mara, curled on the ground, trembling.

"Are you okay?" Diego asked, kneeling beside her and laying his hands on her. The golden glow of his [Holy Light] casting eerie shadows on the walls.

"No." She said flatly, her breathing getting slightly less ragged. "It spoke to me. In... In colors. In screams... I don’t understand what it said, but I felt it."

"We keep moving." Sarissa said. "We’re almost there."

***

Another corridor, another turn...

Another abomination.

This time, it dropped from the ceiling, an orb of eyes and hands, rotating constantly, emitting a steady keening sound.

[Horror Construct – ???]

[Sanity Drain: Active]

[Affliction: Mental Degradation – Phase 1]

[Perception: -30%]

[Memory Fragmentation]

Diego fell to his knees, his nose bleeding.

"You know... What..." He chuckled. "I’m tired of all this..."

His body began glowing more intensely than before as the system resounded in his ears.

[You have activated skill: Sacrifice]

[The effect of skill – Holy Light – has increased – 4x]

And the floor pulsed.

The entire floor throbbed, like a living organ.

"This isn’t just a room..." Sarissa froze, covering her eyes.

"It’s alive!" Diego said slowly. "It’s all alive."

The second he said it, the eyes on the floor opened wide, staring at them, shrieking.

[World Boss Detected: ???]

[Designation: The Sleeping Hunger]

[Progress: 98% Dormant]

"Wait..." Mara whispered. "The whole floor is the boss?!"

As if to answer, the walls began to breathe. Glyphs rippled outward, the temperature dropped.

Diego took a step forward, staring at the countless eyes with pure disgust glowing in his own.

[Skill – Holy Light – has been increased – 10x]

[Your life is burning bright with the light of the Elusive One]

"Diego, no-" Sarissa started.

And then the floor screamed. The stone beneath them writhed, the eyes darting all over, confused and blind, and the entire chamber began to collapse, with tendrils of living stone burst from the floor.

"No, no, no!" Mara shouted. "We woke it up!"

"RUN!" Sarissa commanded.

They sprinted back down the corridor, the very world behind them unraveling. The floor chased them, tendrils reshaping into limbs, mouths, faces screaming soundlessly from the walls.

Chunks of the corridor vanished behind them, the space folded, the doors moved.

"We’re not fighting it!" Mara snarled. "Nope!"

They barreled through collapsing rooms, retracing the route they had marked on their maps. Mara fired blindly behind them, trying to slow the nightmare down, and then, finally, the stairs.

The stone stairwell they’d entered from emerged from the fog, pulsing like veins, and they did not hesitate.

They went up, as fast as they could.

At the top, the fog dissipated, and the cathedral welcomed them again with its cold, ruined walls.

They burst out into the daylight, or what passed for it above the dungeon, and collapsed, gasping on the cracked tiles.

No enemies followed, no tendrils of flesh-like stone, just silence. Until the system echoed in their minds again.

[You have exited: Mouth of The Abyss – Floor 1]

[Survivors: 3/3]

[Data Fragment Acquired: 3/3]

"That was not worth it." Diego rolled over, clutching his ribs.

"It was." Sarissa said, her breath hitching. "Now we know."

"We almost died!" Mara snapped.

"And the next ones won’t, because of us." Sarissa sat up, bloodied and shaking.

"Then Shinji..." Diego trailed off. "He must’ve... survived it. Or made a deal."

Mara stared at the cathedral doors.

"If the dungeon boss is a [Lesser Demon], and Shinji made a pact with an actual [Demon], then I don’t think he had to do much to survive there..."

"He’s probably just waiting for us to die there..." Diego stammered.

"No..." Sarissa sat up. "I think he’s waiting for us to conquer the other floors, so he can follow us, and steal the [Hidden Piece] after we kill whatever that [Lesser Demon] is.

They knew it was probably the case, and after Sarissa said it out loud, they just sat in silence.

Beneath them, the world trembled like a heartbeat.