Chapter 14: The Subfloor – Garden of Screams
The moment Riven stepped onto the 17th Floor, a strange sensation pulsed beneath his feet.
The air grew thick, not with heat or humidity—but with sound. Whispers. Screeches. Murmurs. All around him, the cavern trembled with a low, keening wail, like a choir of damned souls forever caught between life and death.
He narrowed his eyes. This wasn't a normal floor.
The stone beneath him cracked. A circle of ancient runes glowed to life beneath his boots, pulsing with a sickly green hue.
── SYSTEM NOTIFICATION ──
You have discovered a Subfloor: Garden of Screams
Warning: Subfloors are irregular and far more dangerous than normal dungeon floors.
Recommended Level: 15+
His jaw tightened. He was Level 7.
"Perfect," he muttered dryly, fingers curling tighter around the hilt of his dagger. "Of course I'd trip into a death trap."
The runes flashed—and the floor gave way.
◆◆◆
He landed hard.
The air was even thicker here—dense with spores, like wet rot. Mushrooms the size of wagons glowed with bioluminescent pulses, their caps leaking strings of green mist. Vines twisted along the stone walls like veins through a body, pulsing gently with eerie light.
But it wasn't the plants that made this place deadly.
It was the screams.
Human, goblin, beast—they echoed constantly from the walls, carried by the wind. The cries were so loud they reverberated in his skull.
Worse, they weren't distant echoes.
They were alive.
A shadow slithered past his vision—too fast to identify. Then another. Then laughter. Childlike, hollow, twisted.
Riven crouched low, gesturing to his shadow army.
Thirty-three soldiers surrounded him, including the towering Hobgoblin Captain, two archers, his shaman, and several lesser goblins and rats. Each one was completely still, but he could feel the unease radiating even from the undead.
Something was watching.
"Shaman," Riven whispered, "barrier spell. Now."
A shimmer passed over him a second later, just in time for the first enemy to lunge.
It came from the ceiling—long, spindly, and almost human. Almost.
Its face was a melting mockery of a man's—lips pulled wide in a bleeding smile, skin stretched too thin over jagged bone. It let out a laugh that sounded like shattered glass scraping together as it dove at him, claws outstretched.
Riven moved in a blur, dodging sideways and driving his dagger into its neck.
It let out a scream—not of pain, but joy—as it dissolved into black mist.
── Enemy Defeated: Wailing Echo (D-Rank)
EXP Gained: 35
One down. Dozens more to go.
The trees around him began to move—not with wind, but with life. Creatures peeled themselves from the bark, humanoid but twisted, each more grotesque than the last. Some crawled with backward limbs. Others were headless, with faces on their chests, their mouths endlessly screaming.
And then the garden came alive.
◆◆◆
"Formation Delta!" Riven barked.
His soldiers moved like water.
The Hobgoblin Captain charged forward, drawing the attention of the largest aberrations—Rootfiends, massive tree-like monsters with spiked limbs. The archers loosed arrows into the air, pinning down the Wailing Echoes from above.
The shaman raised its staff, casting Firebolt into the heart of the horde.
The fire gave Riven breathing room.
He darted between attackers, blade flashing. Every slash, every kill added to his numbers.
"Arise!" he growled with each corpse that hit the ground.
New shadows joined him: faceless horrors, now bound to his will.
He was evolving.
◆◆◆
Then came the boss.
The cavern rumbled.
From the far side of the Garden, a massive creature lumbered forward. Twelve feet tall, its body was stitched together from the corpses of every species Riven had seen in the dungeon. Its face was a cluster of rotating mouths. From its back sprouted fungal antlers, dripping acidic spores that hissed as they hit stone.
── Boss Identified: Blightfather (C-Rank Elite)
Warning: Boss immune to Fear and Mental Interference.
Riven swallowed.
"Archers, aim high. Shaman, maintain distance. Warriors, focus on crowd control. I'll deal with him."
He darted forward, cloak whipping behind him.
The Blightfather swung with an arm the size of a battering ram. Riven dodged, rolled, and countered with a slice to the underarm. It bled—but not red. A stream of purple ichor sprayed from the wound, sizzling where it touched the ground.
Poison.
He couldn't afford to get hit.
CLANG! A massive limb slammed into one of his shadows, destroying it instantly. Another was crushed a second later.
He was losing troops fast.
But the shaman wasn't idle. Its staff flashed with red light—Firebolt, point-blank.
The Blightfather screeched, momentarily stunned.
Riven didn't hesitate.
He leapt.
One foot planted on a vine. The next on a mushroom cap. He vaulted into the air, dagger raised high.
Straight down, into the Blightfather's cluster of mouths.
THUNK.
The dagger drove deep. The creature let out a cacophony of screams—all its mouths crying at once.
Then it exploded into mist.
── Boss Defeated: Blightfather
EXP Gained: 240
Level Up!
Shadow Extraction Available
Riven hit the ground hard, panting.
He didn't wait.
He raised his hand.
Arise.
The mist swirled. The stitched-together monstrosity reformed, silent now. A twisted, massive shadow with six arms and no mouths.
── Shadow Added: Blightfather (C-Rank Elite)
Total Shadows: 40
◆◆◆
As the garden began to decay, its screaming flora withering into dust, a staircase appeared in the distance—leading back up to the 17th Floor.
Riven stared at it, then checked his updated status.
◆ STATUS ◆
Name: Riven
Class: Shadow Monarch
Level: 8
HP: 960 / 960
MP: 750 / 750
Strength: 18
Agility: 21
Intelligence: 20
Endurance: 16
Free Stat Points: 10
Shadows Controlled: 40
Unique Shadows: Hobgoblin Captain, Shaman, Blightfather (C-Rank Elite)
He cracked his neck. "One hell of a detour."
But he was stronger now. Smarter. Deadlier.
And the dungeon was far from finished with him.
To be continued…