Chapter 2 – The Thing That Answered
The silence in the dungeon wasn't really silent. Not when you were bleeding out on the floor.
Kael could hear his own heartbeat. Slower now. Weaker. The warmth in his chest was fading fast. His hand twitched near his hip, fingers brushing broken stone and dried blood.
He laughed—dry and ugly. "So this is it, huh?"
He thought of his squad. No... not his squad. The ones who left him.
They took the loot. Took the win. Left him to die like trash.
Because he was trash to them.
Something cold touched his spine. Not real, maybe. Could've been the blood loss. But it felt real. The air shifted, like the dungeon was breathing.
And then—
"Do you want to live?"
Kael flinched. The voice was inside his skull. No echo. No sound. Just... there.
"What...?" he whispered. His mouth was dry. Tongue like sandpaper.
"Say it."
His body burned with pain. Ribs cracked, arm broken. But he forced the words out.
"I want to live..."
And that was when everything exploded.
Not light. Not fire. Shadows. Like ink spilled across his skin. It crawled, wrapped around his chest, coiled through his bones. It didn't hurt. Not exactly. But it changed him.
"Then rise, Kael Verin."
He screamed.
Not from pain.
From rage.
From the sheer wrongness of it all.
The shadows sank into his skin, and something clicked in his mind. Like a door that had always been locked... swinging wide open.
And Kael stood.
Alone.
Alive.
Different.
His wounds were gone. The scars remained. But inside... something else was there now. Watching with him. Breathing with him.
A notification pinged in the corner of his vision.
[NEW CLASS UNLOCKED: Shadow Ranker]
You are no longer bound by human limits.
He didn't smile.
He didn't cry.
He just turned, stepped forward... and vanished into the dark.
The real climb was about to begin.