Descending the path was not a difficult task, only a tiring one.

  How long did it take?

  Minutes? No, it was longer than that.

  Hours? Maybe, but he wasn’t sure.

  Days? Unlikely, but possible.

  What mattered was simple: one step after the other.

  Eventually—Faust hoped—there would be an end to it.

  During the descent, Faust had time to think things over. His initial rage subsided, but it didn’t vanish.

  Chris, oh Chris. That man had found a special place in his heart, one full of thorns and shredding vines. How could a man be so… like that.

  Just when I was beginning to trust him…

  “Heh, I guess that’s on me,” Faust said. “I should’ve known better.”

  Can’t trust anyone inside this place. Anyone.

  Just as he kept lost in thought, Faust began to slow down and eventually stopped. He had reached the end of the path, one step before a huge drop.

  He stood on a small rocky cliff. Before him stretched a vast stone dome, the largest thing he had ever seen in sheer scale.

  And at its center—

  A gargantuan structure of pure darkstone. An upside-down pyramid, suspended in the air. Hundreds, if not thousands, of pillars held it up, stabilizing its impossible form.

  It loomed like an immovable monolith, resting atop a patch of earth that drifted slowly on a dark, endless sea.

  With a gaping mouth, there was not much to say, besides the single word that escaped his lips:

  "…Amazing..."

  Light pierced this underground world through a single hole above, framing the shape of the blue moon. Yet here it burned brighter than ever, perhaps because of how violently it contrasted against the surrounding shadow and stone.

  Faust didn't take long to recompose, and once he finally did, he stepped forward, standing at the cliff’s edge. His stomach lurched as he peered downward—at least a hundred meters below.

  To his sides, he saw other ledges, broken pieces of stairs that spiraled along the dome’s walls, leading all the way to the inverted pyramid.

  I wonder what happened here. This place seems so... full of history.

  Seeing the environment, Faust realized he was truly alone. Chris had vanished, and no one else was near.

  His gaze fixed on the inverted pyramid, then on the platforms he would need to leap across to reach it. They were dangerous, falling could mean death, since he had no idea what lurked in the water below or if he would even survive the fall.

  Still, he was certain Chris had gone into the pyramid. That alone made Faust curious. Chris knew too much, risked too much just to get here. What could be so important that it was worth his life?

  Sighing, Faust knew there was no choice but to progress. Had there ever been a choice? Maybe, but it didn’t seem to matter much anymore. Would he start regretting his choices now? No. There had been too much time to do that already. Faust had already accepted his situation.

  I will find you… somehow.

  Without hesitating further, he advanced.

  Faust went from ledge to ledge, sometimes nearly falling, but with patience and enough physical prowess to jump and balance himself, he managed to keep progressing.

  Of course, he made sure not to rush. Falling to his death here would be rather pathetic.

  After a few hours, he finally crossed all the ledges and stood on the last one. The next jump was straight down, toward the ceiling or rather, the base of the inverted pyramid, which was broad and imposing.

  Trusting his instincts and knowing his own limits, Faust understood the jump would hurt. Eight meters wasn’t fatal, but it wouldn’t be pleasant.

  Possible enough.

  So, he jumped. As his body neared the dark stone, he rolled forward to soften the impact.

  Even so, he heard the snap of bone in his leg as sharp pain surged through him.

  Shit!

  “At least I’m here now…” he muttered between ragged breaths, exhaustion weighing heavy after hours of nonstop climbing and jumping.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Holding his leg, he realized the bone wasn’t completely broken, only fractured, still holding together.

  “I’ll have to wait.”

  Resting would be the smartest choice, both to recover from exhaustion and let his leg heal.

  And so he waited.

  After about two hours, Faust began to move again. He kicked with his leg to see if it was healed enough—the answer was positive.

  Searching for an entrance didn’t take long; he had already seen it when he first leapt onto the ceiling. And even without that, it would have been hard to miss—a gaping hole in the ceiling, which now served as his floor.

  Approaching it, he saw a circular staircase spiraling downward a few meters until it reached solid ground. Below, the interior of the inverted pyramid was brightly lit.

  A warm, golden light washed over the dark bricks that formed the lower floor.

  “Not dark for once. That’s surprising.”

  Faust went down the hole, entering the inverted pyramid.

  The space he entered resembled a waiting room. Surrounding him were dozens of door-like rectangles, all without knobs or handles, built from a strange, shiny white material that contrasted sharply with the dark floor and walls.

  On the ground, pearl-like orbs pulsed with warm yellow light, illuminating the chamber.

  Silent, Faust tilted his head back. He could still see the blue moon above through the hole he had entered and the opening to the outside world.

  Yes, it was still there.

  Looking back at the strange chamber and thinking of the way it was built, Faust guessed the goal was to open these doors and descend further. The pyramid narrowing the deeper it went made such a challenge almost obvious.

  Since none of the doors bore marks or symbols, he chose one at random and walked toward it.

  He paused before touching it, observing closely for hidden mechanisms. He found none.

  Pressing his hand on the door, nothing happened at first. Then the metal-like surface felt freezing to the touch, the chill piercing through skin and numbing his hand. Startled, he pulled his hand back.

  “What is this?” He looked at his hand. It remained uninjured, the metal didn’t burn or frostbite, only chilled to the bone. “I’ve never seen this material.”

  He touched the white rectangle again, this time enduring the cold. Slowly, faintly, he felt the material pulling at his mana, then spreading it through the entirety of the surface, forming sharp, veiny structures that glowed blue. In a way, it was beautiful.

  Once enough mana touched the metal, a heavy swoop echoed before him, making his pitch-black hair fly upward as the door sank into the ground in an instant.

  Analyzing again, Faust saw no plates or hidden mechanisms that could have caused the movement. It was obviously linked to mana in one way or another. Curious.

  Ahead of him, inside the now-open room, was complete darkness. An unnatural darkness that made it impossible to see its contents.

  For now, Faust didn’t enter. Instead, he moved to the other entrances and opened their doors as well. Doing so, he noticed two things he assumed were important.

  First, when one door opened, another closed. It seemed impossible to have two entrances open at once.

  Second, every interior was the same: completely dark and unreadable from outside. Even with his mana-improved vision, there was no way to see.

  Apparently, he would have to choose at random and hope his hand was dealt well.

  And so, he went back to the first room he had opened and made his choice. Opening the entrance, he stepped inside.

  Swoop!

  Faster than he could react, the white door closed upward as soon as he stepped inside.

  What?

  The darkness was broken by a golden pearl emanating strong light from the ceiling at the center of the room. The light was so intense it momentarily blinded him.

  This room was made of dark bricks, perfectly aligned and built. It wasn’t ostensibly large like other structures, but still provided enough space to move freely. Three other doors lined the walls, not counting the one he had come from.

  The place felt like a square-shaped game board, giving him freedom to advance in multiple directions, likely all of them, once he went far enough.

  Thinking in stillness, Faust instantly tensed and fell into a defensive stance with Iron-Beak.

  In the center of the place, a shadowy bubble bobbed up and down in the air.

  It burbled and warped, as if trapping malicious creatures within. Faust could see the shape of a dog—an extremely damaged dog—struggling to free itself from the shadow.

  Inadvertently, a bead of sweat dropped from Faust’s forehead to the floor. In that exact instant, the shadowy circle burst!

  From it, a dog with jet-black fur bathed in a strange ooze fell to the ground.

  Its abyssal eyes instantly locked onto Faust, recognizing him as an enemy!

  It charged at him, leaping meters across, aiming a fatal bite at his neck!

  It’s slow…

  Faust sidestepped, dodging easily and cleanly slicing across the dog’s neck. The head flew, blood spraying across the nearby wall like a fountain as the body dropped into stillness.

  Not dropping his guard, Faust awaited more enemies to show up. That was a valuable lesson he had learned in the swamp. Yet none more appeared.

  Just one? How easy. Too easy.

  Anyway, it’s curious.

  Faust approached the corpse, carefully touching it.

  It came from a black bubble and now has a solid body, blood and fur. Very interesting.

  Does it work?

  When Faust used the sacrifice rune on the carcass, it worked as expected: the body crumbled to ash before being absorbed into the sigil, the blood forming a sphere and following after.

  He waited a little longer, but nothing else happened. Apparently, that was all this room could offer.

  Before progressing, Faust gave an attempt to return to the main room. But as he expected, the door to return did not react. The only path was forward.

  Sigh…

  Glancing at another door, Faust promptly caused the entrance to open and stepped inside the dark room.

  Again, the door instantly closed behind him as a golden pearl shone brightly from the center of the ceiling.

  In the center of the room, another shadowy bubble appeared. This time, Faust didn’t react with as much intensity. Instead, he observed it carefully.

  It twisted, strange howling sounds coming from it. When it finally burst, two dogs fell to the floor.

  Faust had imagined something like that. He could grasp the rules of this place already. Each room, more enemies. Kill them and progress? Was that it?

  I wonder if I need to kill them to progress. Faust dodged the mutts, rushing toward another door and attempting to open it, but there was no reaction.

  No… there’s a need to kill.

  Time limit, maybe?

  As the dogs leapt at him again, he once more dodged, but slashed off their front paws, blocking any movement. The dogs fell to the floor, bleeding and whimpering, but Faust simply waited.

  These were monsters, no need for compassion.

  It took a while, but eventually they died from blood loss. From what he could tell, there was no time limit either.

  Having a rough draft of how this place worked, he promptly absorbed the dog bodies and set his goal on advancing forward. There was no need or way to turn back.