A World Locked in Darkness
You have entered Floor 11.
After arriving at a safe location, declare your return.
If you successfully take no damage for 10 minutes, you may return.
Do-yun swept the floating notifications away with a wave of his hand and surveyed his surroundings.
A rickety wooden cabin that looked ready to collapse at any moment. The reek of rotting timber that stabbed at his nostrils was a far cry from anything resembling comfort.
Zzt.
A tiny light fixture hanging from the ceiling flickered and swayed uneasily. The flame that seemed on the verge of dying out hinted that the time allotted to this space was already running short.
"Do-yun-nim! You need to hurry!"
"It's been less than ten seconds since we entered."
Even as he grumbled at Ciel's urging, he quickly scanned the cabin's interior.
Floor 11 was unique in that, unlike the other floors, the challenger themselves could choose when to end the trial. In theory, Do-yun could declare his return right here and now.
But there's a reason no one ever does that.
The condition that you had to take no damage for ten minutes after shouting for return wasn't there for nothing. Without proper preparations, you were guaranteed to take damage inside those ten minutes.
Thud.
Rising from the dilapidated bed, Do-yun approached the cabin's only window. Yet nothing was visible beyond the glass. A dense darkness that seemed to have swallowed the entire world completely blanketed the outside.
And that darkness was the enemy one had to be most wary of on Floor 11.
— On Floor 11, the first thing you must do is secure a light source.
— The moment the darkness touches your body, every kind of negative debuff latches onto you.
From the second stratum onward, the difficulty of the trials themselves rose sharply. Unlike the first stratum, the environments that formed the backdrop of each trial were actively hostile toward the challengers.
"She said there should be a temporary light source near where you first open your eyes."
Do-yun turned away from the window, turning over Jeong Se-ah's advice as it rose in his mind like an auditory hallucination.
The air was so damp and clammy that even breathing felt distasteful. Amid the mingled stench of mold and rotten wood, Do-yun rapidly scanned his surroundings.
The worn bed where he had first opened his eyes, a small chair barely maintaining its balance on splayed legs, and a single wooden table in the center of the room covered in rough scratch marks. The space was so sparse it bordered on ruin, yet even so Do-yun had little trouble locating the one item he needed.
"This must be it."
A single object resting on the table, thickly coated in dust. In the tiny cabin, it was the only thing that stood out.
Tap, tap.
When he gently brushed the dust away with his fingertips, an old iron lantern revealed itself underneath. Judging by eye the amount of oil remaining inside, it looked to be about half full. Not exactly generous, but enough for immediate use.
"Looks like we light it with this!"
Ciel had found a matchbox buried among the dust on the table. Yet as she lifted it, the excessively light weight left her flustered.
"Huh? Just this one?"
Flipping open the lid, Ciel peered inside and made a dismayed face. A single match, thoroughly dried out and faded, lay forlornly within.
"Ugh, this thing's in really bad shape."
"No kidding."
It looked so fragile from age that it might crumble at a touch. In that condition, even if they managed to get it out, there was no telling whether it would actually light.
"Want me to try pulling it out?"
Ciel rolled up her sleeves in a show of determination. Given her small size, she would have an advantage over Do-yun when it came to extracting the match.
But Do-yun stopped her with a shake of his head.
"No need."
An ordinary challenger would have had to pour their heart and soul into simply removing that worn-out match. Do-yun had no reason to bother with such a tedious process.
Scorching Sword (C)
Mana drawn from within his body gathered at the tip of his blade and bloomed into flame. The moment he brought the burning sword to the wick, the fire leaped across in an instant.
"Uh… doesn't that mean we don't even need the lantern at all?"
Ciel stared blankly at the sword, which shone so brightly it nearly drowned out the lantern's light. Do-yun canceled the skill at once, sheathed the blade whose flames had died, and answered.
"Not quite. Keeping the skill active keeps draining mana."
Using a skill on the level of Scorching Sword simply to light the surroundings was a waste. In a true emergency there would be no choice, but whenever possible it was more efficient to rely on another light source.
Swish.
As he lifted the now-lit lantern, Do-yun suddenly wore a look of realization. He hadn't considered it until now, but the hand holding the lantern was effectively sealed. For Do-yun, who needed both hands free on his sword to bring out his full strength, it was a rather burdensome restriction.
"Shall I carry it for you?"
"I'd be grateful if you could."
Do-yun brightened at Ciel's offer, only for his expression to turn complicated once he looked her way. The lantern itself was roughly the size of Ciel's torso.
"But can you even hold it?"
The weight was no burden to Do-yun, yet the situation was different for Ciel with her tiny frame. Especially since she wasn't standing on the ground but hovering in midair by beating her wings. Flying around while carrying an iron lantern ran the risk of losing her balance and crashing.
"These wings move on magical power, so it's fine!"
Ciel declared confidently—and sure enough, the moment she took the lantern she staggered. Grunting with effort, she finally chose the nearest support from her perspective and settled onto Do-yun's head.
"I-it's heavier than I thought. I'll hold on tight so I don't fall from here."
Do-yun made a dubious face at the weight pressing down on the crown of his head. It was a far cry from what he'd envisioned, but at least the goal of freeing both hands had been achieved.
Crack.
No sooner had Ciel settled than the tiny bulb that had been faintly illuminating the cabin's interior burst. Its lifespan, which had looked precarious from the first glance, must have finally given out.
"We'll need to go find oil soon."
He muttered as he watched the darkness that had already slipped past the window and reached his feet. In a real pinch he could hold out with Scorching Sword, but the constant mana drain made it far from ideal. And every other challenger would be in the same boat.
"She said oil can be obtained from the villages scattered along the way."
Do-yun broke into a grin and started walking. The current Floor 11 was shaping up very differently from the usual trial floors. An amount of oil that was plenty for one person would fall short when divided among hundreds. Having used an early entry ticket, Do-yun intended to claim the oil for himself before the other challengers arrived.
"All right, let's head out."
Mindful of Ciel on his head, Do-yun carefully stepped forward. When he pulled open the tattered door, the outside world spread before him.
Thud, thud.
The world beyond the cabin was profoundly quiet. Aside from the sounds of Do-yun's own footsteps, nothing reached his ears.
"This is creepy."
Without Ciel occasionally speaking to him, he might well have lost all sense of time. Amid the darkness that filled his vision, Do-yun recalled what he knew of Floor 11.
Floor 11. A world locked in darkness.
Unfortunately, information on Floor 11 was far scarcer than on the other floors. Unlike Floor 8, where there had simply been too much to do and no free time, on Floor 11 a considerable amount of time had to be invested purely in surviving.
"It's also structured so that the more you explore, the more you lose."
The clear rank on Floor 11 was determined by how many additional minutes one endured after declaring return. Lasting ten minutes was merely the minimum requirement for returning at all. To earn a higher grade, one needed to hold out as long as possible.
And for that, you have to secure as many light sources as you can.
Even now, the darkness writhed like a living thing the instant the lantern's light touched it. For the moment it seemed to flee from the light, but if one lingered too long in one place the story changed. Ever denser darkness would gather to snuff out the bothersome glow.
Here, "darkness" referred not only to the environment itself but also to the monsters lurking within it.
"Speak of the devil."
Absolute Sight picked up a heterogeneous shape racing toward them. It approached soundlessly, like a ghost, yet it could not hide the distinctive mana of a monster coiled inside its body.
"Kyaaaaaah!"
With a grotesque cry, a monster burst from the darkness and lunged for the lantern. Its outstretched hand was about to tip the lantern and spill the oil when Do-yun's sword, swung a half-beat faster, bisected the creature's body.
"So obvious."
Had it leaped out while he knew nothing, he might have been quite startled. But knowing exactly what it was after and where it would appear rendered the ambush meaningless.
Thud.
The monster's corpse, split cleanly in two, flopped limply onto the ground. Do-yun prodded the pieces that had already begun to burn away the moment they touched the light and thought,
Just what process even produces something like this?
No one had ever uncovered the origin of these monsters. Suicide squads that burst from the darkness and threw their lives away in an effort to destroy light sources. The source of that inexplicable tenacity had never been revealed by any returnee.
Just as Do-yun was about to leave the completely vanished corpse behind and move on, a strange memory suddenly flashed through his mind.
— Shades. Beings born from corpses left abandoned in the dark.
Startled, Do-yun soon realized the source of the memory and his expression hardened.
— Moths that rush at light like fanatics the moment they spot it.
— Their bodies aren't particularly sturdy, so dig a trap and drive a dagger into the back of the head and they die.
A dagger as a weapon. A cynical, world-weary tone.
"…Grham?"
This was unmistakably the voice of Nightwalker Grham, the man Do-yun himself had defeated on Floor 7.