Clarity
The darkness swallowed me again.
But this time… it felt different.
There was no crushing silence, no echoing void. Just a low hum—like distant thunder trembling through the walls. My breath fogged the air in shallow puffs. The stone under my feet was smoother now, colder.
I blinked.
Something had changed.
My vision sharpened—violently.
I staggered forward, clutching my temple. My eyes ached, like something had been ripped open inside my skull. I dropped to one knee, gritting my teeth as the pain lanced through my head. My vision blurred, split, then snapped into focus again—crystal clear.
I saw everything.
The moss on the walls. The tiny cracks in the stone. The barely perceptible shimmer in the air ahead.
What is this?
I blinked again, but the clarity didn't fade. Instead, it deepened. Every shape was sharper. Every movement brighter. I could see deeper into shadows than before. My eyes weren't just working better—they were… stronger.
Somehow.
It didn't make sense.
None of it did.
But the third floor didn't wait for explanations.
The space opened around me into a vast underground basin. Massive spires of jagged rock jutted from the ground like fangs, twisting upward toward a distant ceiling I couldn't see. The whole area pulsed with an unnatural green glow. Pools of thick, glowing liquid bubbled in random patches across the floor.
And then I saw them.
Monsters.
Tall. Twisted. Vaguely humanoid but wrong in every way. Their limbs were too long, joints bending at impossible angles. Their skin was slick and green, like rotten moss stretched over bone. They had no eyes. Just slits where a mouth should be, drooling a faint mist that hissed as it touched the ground.
They moved in slow circles, silent, deliberate—guarding something, or simply waiting.
I pressed myself behind a slab of fallen rock and clutched the sword tight.
What now?
There were three of them. All standing between me and the stairs leading further up.
I didn't stand a chance.
Not unless…
I peeked out again, barely letting my eyes clear the edge of the stone.
And something happened.
My vision flickered—not physically, but like my brain activated something without my consent. A soft shimmer traced across the bodies of the monsters. Glowing lines formed over their limbs, pulsing red, and then—like a pulse—a weak spot lit up across each of them.
One behind the neck.
Another at the side of the knee.
The last just beneath the ribcage, glowing brighter than the others.
What the hell is this?
I blinked rapidly, trying to dismiss the overlays, but they remained—guiding me.
It wasn't just clarity.
It was information.
My eyes had evolved into something else entirely—some kind of instinctual targeting system. No HUD. No system screen. Just raw perception. Primal. Real.
And for the first time, I had an advantage.