They didn't cheer when they reached Floor 6.
There was no checkpoint, no System banner, no fanfare.
Just silence.
And something deeper than silence—weight.
The kind of pressure that didn't press on the body, but on the mind.
The stairwell opened into a wide hall—arched, black stone cracked with silver veins of faded mana. Every few meters, old torch sconces lined the walls. Most were empty. A few burned low with ghost-blue flame.
Joey stepped out first, slow and wary. "Okay… this one feels different."
Luc nodded. "Heavier."
"It's quieter," Katie added. "Even the air doesn't want to echo."
Neive didn't speak. She was staring at the wall to their right—at something scratched into the stone with what looked like the edge of a blade.
"STAY TOGETHER. TRUST NO WALL."
Just five words. Faded, but clear.
Someone had left it for whoever came next.
They moved carefully.
It wasn't long before they saw more signs.
An abandoned cloak.
A rusted blade.
A shattered scroll casing.
Mira crouched beside it and turned over the fragments. "No name tags. No system ID. Whoever dropped this didn't die recently."
Briggs looked ahead. "But they did die."
Chadwick didn't speak. He simply walked, his steps silent, eyes flicking along the ceiling. His aura had changed since rejoining them. Less casual. More… measured. Like something was stalking him, not the other way around.
After twenty minutes of silence, Conner paused.
His Scope Eye flickered.
Not alarm.
Curiosity.
There were faint lines—etched only in the mana spectrum—leading off toward the wall. They disappeared just before the stone, then resumed again thirty meters down, behind it.
A hidden path.
He tapped the stone.
It didn't shift. But it didn't push back either.
"Katie," he said. "Try freezing this wall, then melt it clean. Don't blast it."
She raised an eyebrow, but did as asked.
Ice wrapped around the wall. She traced it slowly, then retracted the frost in a smooth sweep.
And as the moisture pulled away…
The wall vanished.
No sound. No crack. Just gone.
Behind it: a small chamber.
Square.
Clean.
At the back, a shrine.
A pedestal with a stone tablet, worn with age, faint glyphs still readable.
Luc stepped closer. "What is this?"
Conner read it aloud, the translation fed to him through the System.
"Legacy awaits those who carry it.""But beware the choice between power and burden."
The glyphs pulsed faintly as the words echoed in the chamber. Then, one final line scrolled across Conner's Scope Eye—System-text, not from the stone.
[Warning: Legacy Seeker path is not available to all. Compatibility required.]
Joey let out a quiet breath. "So… more ancient stuff. Is this another trap?"
"No," Chadwick said softly. "It's a door. But not for everyone."
Conner didn't touch the pedestal.
He just watched it.
Because his trait hummed in his chest again—quiet, subtle, like a heart beating beneath his awareness.
And in that hum, something deeper stirred.
A pulse, this time internal.
The same kind of resonance he'd felt when the mana node unlocked its secrets.
"I think this is connected," he said.
"To what?" Neive asked.
"To the people who built this place," Conner replied. "Or… the ones who came before it."
He turned toward Chadwick. "Did you see anything like this?"
Chadwick nodded once. "Similar. Not the same. My path didn't ask for a choice. It forced one."
Mira looked around the clean, smooth walls. "There's no threat here. No blood. This wasn't meant to test you."
"It was meant to see if you belong," Conner murmured.
He reached out—hand hovering just above the surface of the pedestal.
The System pulsed:
[Legacy Fragment Compatibility: Partial – Dormant Memory Detected][Path Access: Sealed | Trait Tier Too Low]
"Not yet," he muttered, pulling his hand back. "It's not ready for me."
"Or you're not ready for it," Katie said quietly.
Conner didn't argue.
The group left the chamber in silence, resealing the wall behind them as if it had never been opened.
But Conner felt it the whole walk forward.
The presence in the pedestal wasn't dead.
It was watching him too.
Just like the dungeon.
Just like whatever was waiting above them.
As they stepped through the last hallway before the next staircase, Conner's Scope Eye flickered again—just for a moment.
And in that moment, the walls themselves breathed.
The dungeon had registered their progress.
And begun to prepare its response.
The floor sloped downward.
Not sharply—but enough that they felt it in their calves after the first few minutes. The corridor narrowed, and the light from the walls began to dim—not into darkness, but into shadow. Like the dungeon wanted them to doubt what they were seeing.
"It's too quiet," Joey muttered, spinning the ring of metal around his wrist like a nervous tic. "We've gone too long without a fight."
Luc nodded from the front. "It's not giving us random fights anymore."
"It's watching how we move," Conner added. "Floor 5 tested reaction. Floor 6 is looking for structure."
Chadwick's voice came from the back. "You mean like formation?"
"No," Conner replied. "I mean like purpose."
They crossed a narrow threshold—no door, no glyphs.
And the temperature shifted.
Cooler. Not cold. Just emptied.
The room they entered was rectangular, lined with tall mirrored slabs along both sides. Not reflective—distorted. Like each surface showed an almost-version of them. Not twisted. Just off. Different gear. Slightly changed postures. A wound here. A cracked lens there.
Mira froze first. "What is this…?"
Briggs moved beside her, narrowing his eyes. "Those aren't echoes. They're options."
Joey tensed. "This place is trying to show us how we could be."
Luc muttered, "Or how we could break."
Then came the whisper of breath behind them.
No footsteps.
No growls.
Just a hiss of movement—and then it was on them.
A creature slid from the far wall—its form jagged, almost digitized. A humanoid silhouette flickering in and out like it was built from errors.
[Entity Identified: Shadowform Diver – Type: Adaptive Copy | Level 12][Behavior: Attacks the weakest formation point first.]
It didn't charge Conner.
Didn't strike at Katie or Joey.
It lunged straight for Mira—who'd stayed too long in front of her reflection.
And it moved fast.
Too fast.
Conner's eye flared, but Luc was already moving.
Not out of speed.
Out of instinct.
He threw himself between them, both arms up, knees bent—and the Shadowform collided with his torso like a hammer.
The sound echoed off every mirrored wall.
Luc hit the ground on his back, air punched from his lungs.
But he got up.
Armor cracked. Lip bleeding.
Still up.
[New Trait Activity Detected – Tank Threshold Crossed][Skill Acquired: Intercepting Guard – C Rank]When a nearby ally is targeted and in danger of being struck, automatically increase your movement speed and damage resistance by 25% to intercept. Cooldown: 15s.
Luc grinned through the pain. "Okay. Guess I'm the shield now."
Neive shouted, "Move back, I'll send a summon—"
But Luc held position. "No time."
The creature lunged again—this time for Briggs, who'd turned to help Mira.
Luc moved—faster than before—his footwork sharper, his arms surer. He met the attack with his full frame and deflected it with a short hook into the beast's chest.
Joey followed with molten reinforcement—smashing it back with a downward hammer of metal.
They fought clean.
Together.
The group didn't panic.
They formed a circle around Luc—and this time, he stood at the center, not the edge.
And when the monster finally died—dispersing in a flicker of fragments—
Everyone looked at Luc.
Not because he won.
But because he held.
Later, as they camped in a narrow corridor lit by low torchlight, Luc sat by himself, sharpening the dents out of his new chestplate.
Conner approached quietly.
"You feel different," he said.
Luc chuckled. "You mean the bruises?"
"No," Conner said. "You felt like you belonged in front of us."
Luc didn't look up. "Yeah. For the first time, I think I did."
Conner sat across from him, unslinging his bow, checking the tension.
"You stepped in without thinking," he said. "That skill you got—intercepting something?"
"Intercepting Guard," Luc nodded. "I think the dungeon saw me do it first."
"That's how all the best skills start," Conner said. "Something instinctive."
Luc paused. "You ever worry that instinct gets you killed?"
Conner looked up, eye glowing softly.
"Only when it's someone else's."