Free Web NovelChapter 5: Chapter 5: Climbing Up
"Is that all you’re going to wear?" Kaelen asked, leaning against an obsidian pillar.
Seraphina finished tying up her torn silken underwear. She retrieved her blood-stained Paladin robes from the dusty floor, draping the thick white cloth over her shoulders as a makeshift cloak to cover her bare skin.
"My armor is completely destroyed," she replied as she tightened the golden clasp around her neck. "The crawler’s acid ruined the enchanted steel. Unless you have spare chainmail hidden in your rags, this is all you can wear."
"Fair enough," Kaelen said.
He turned to the white marble altar. The pale leather grimoire sat exactly where he had left it, pulsing with a quiet, dangerous energy.
"Are you going to take it?" Seraphina asked, her voice tight with apprehension.
"This book gave my life back," Kaelen said, lifting the heavy tome. "I’m not leaving it in a hole."
"The Inquisitors carry an artifacts designed to track Abyssal magic," she warned, taking a hesitant step forward. "If you carry that into the capital, every holy knight will know you’re a heretic."
"Let them come," Kaelen smirked, securing the book under his tattered shirt. "If they try to execute me, I’ll devour their stats too."
Seraphina shook her head. "You don’t understand the Church’s military scale. You jumped thirty-four levels in ten minutes, which is a miracle. But the Grand Inquisitor is Level 95."
"And you’re Level 85," Kaelen pointed out. "We make a good team."
"I lack a weapon," she reminded him softly. "I dropped my blessed greatsword two weeks ago. Right now, I’m just a tough woman in a torn cape."
Kaelen drew his chipped hunting knife and flipping it effortlessly. "Then I’ll fight. Let’s go."
They left the skeletal corpse behind in the dark.
The grand staircase leading out of the ruined temple was steep and slick with moss. In his previous life, climbing this would have taken Kaelen hours. His lungs would have burned, and his legs would have cramped.
Now, he practically floated up the steps.
"You move differently," Seraphina observed from behind.
"I feel completely different," Kaelen admitted. He leaped easily over a large, jagged gap in the stone stairs, landing silently. "My body feels so light. There’s no fatigue."
"You’ve absorbed my passive trait, Saintess Vitality," she explained. "This trait grants incredible health regeneration and completely eliminates physical exhaustion."
"A useful skill," Kaelen noted.
"It took me twelve years of fasting and brutal combat training to unlock that," she muttered in disbelief. "You stole it in ten minutes."
"I didn’t steal it," Kaelen corrected, glancing over his shoulder. "You still have it, right?"
"I do," she admitted. "But it feels unfair."
"The Church stealing my experience for three years was unfair," Kaelen snapped. "The system’s finally balancing the scales."
They climbed in silence. The oppressive atmosphere of the Abyssal Chasm slowly replaced the temple’s ancient magic. The ambient temperature dropped drastically, and the scent of rotting meat and ozone filled the air.
"Tell me about Roderick," Seraphina requested suddenly.
"Why?"
"If we are hunting a Silver-rank knight, I need to know his combat style."
"He’s a coward," Kaelen stated flatly. "He relies entirely on his heavy shield and support magic. His footwork is sloppy."
"Level?"
"Thirty-two, I think."
"He threw you to a Level 45 mutated crawler," she reasoned, her golden eyes narrowing. "If he ran, he likely didn’t stop until reaching the second-floor safe zone barricades."
"Then that’s exactly where we’re going," Kaelen said.
A sharp clicking sound echoed from the darkness directly above them. Kaelen stopped instantly, signaling Seraphina to freeze.
"Abyssal Crawlers," Seraphina whispered, stepping closer to his back. "More than one. The noise is coming from the cavern ceiling just past this staircase."
"The monsters that ruined your armor?"
"Yes. Without a weapon, I can’t pierce their obsidian plating. My holy magic is gone. We need to sneak past them."
"I’m done sneaking," Kaelen said, his grip tightening on his hunting knife.
"Be reasonable," she argued, grabbing his shoulder. "You have high stats now, but you are holding a three-inch blade. You cannot parry a scythe."
"Watch me."
Kaelen stepped directly into the open cavern.
Two giant Abyssal Crawlers clung to the jagged rock above. Their necrotic flesh dripped with toxic acid, hissing against the stone floor. A dozen glowing purple eyes locked onto him.
They screamed and fell from the ceiling simultaneously.
"Master, look out!" Seraphina screamed, dropping her previous formality.
Kaelen didn’t flinch. He felt an absolute and overwhelming sense of clarity.
[Activating Skill: Vanguard Swordsmanship (Master Rank).]
[Activating Skill: Abyssal Aura.]
A dense, dark purple energy erupted around Kaelen. The aura flowed down his arm, engulfing the tiny knife and instantly forming a glowing, three-foot blade of pure Abyssal energy.
The first crawler lunged, swinging a massive scythe directly at Kaelen’s neck.
Stepping inside the creature’s guard, Kaelen moved with the flawless muscle memory of a veteran Paladin. He swung his aura-infused blade upward.
The dark magic sheared cleanly through the crawler’s heavy obsidian plating.
The monster shrieked as its front leg was severed. Toxic blood sprayed across the cavern, but Kaelen was already pivoting to dodge a corrosive venom burst from the second beast.
"Incredible," Seraphina whispered from the stairs. "That’s exactly my sword stance."
Kaelen leaped into the air, utilizing his acquired agility. He brought his dark blade down in a brutal, sweeping arc, cleanly decapitating the first crawler.
The second monster hesitated. Recognizing the primordial dark aura radiating from Kaelen, it took a nervous step back.
"You can’t run," Kaelen growled.
He lunged forward faster than the eye could follow, driving his blade straight into the cluster of purple eyes. He sank the weapon deep into its brain. The beast convulsed once and collapsed into a heap of rotting flesh.
[System Alert. High-Threat Entities Eliminated.]
[Host Level Increased: 35 -> 38.]
Kaelen dismissed the aura. The dark blade vanished, leaving only his standard hunting knife. He breathed heavily, unbothered by the fight.
Seraphina approached the large corpses. "You killed them in seconds."
"Master Rank Swordsmanship," Kaelen smiled, turning to face her. "You were an excellent teacher."
"I didn’t teach you anything. You took it from my mind."
"Does it bother you?"
"It’s terrifying," she admitted honestly. "The Vanguard trains decades for that precision. But seeing you use it against my captors... it’s intensely satisfying."
"Get used to it," Kaelen said. "I plan on taking more skills."
They continued walking as the cavern sloped upward, transitioning into the familiar stone walls of the dungeon’s upper floors.
"We’ve reached the third floor," Kaelen announced. "This is where they threw me."
As they turned a sharp corner, they found the floor had completely collapsed, leaving a gaping crater in the corridor.
"This is the exact spot," Kaelen said.
"Look over there," Seraphina pointed to the far wall.
Lying on the ground was a charred and melted wooden staff beside a torn piece of holy cloth.
"Gael’s staff," Kaelen said, picking it up. "The elemental mage."
"Where is his body?" she asked.
"Probably melted," Kaelen replied without sympathy. "Or dragged off by a beasts. Roderick abandoned him too."
"He left his own mage behind?" Seraphina asked, her disgust evident. "The Church mandates us to rescue wounded members."
"The rules only apply when convenient, Saintess," Kaelen said, dropping the staff into the pit. "When the monsters are falling, every cowards has to save himself."
"I will not defend them anymore," she said firmly.
"Good."
"What’s the plan?" she asked. "We enter the safe zone on the second-floor and execute Roderick?"
"No. That would triggers a massive response from the guild. I can’t fight an army of Silver-rank adventurers yet."
"Then how do we reach him?"
"We’ll play the victim," Kaelen smiled sarcastically. "He thinks I’m already dead. I’ll walk right into that camp, covered in mud, and expose exactly what he did."
Seraphina frowned. "What if he denies it?"
"He couldn’t explain how the trash class can survived after falling into the abyss."
"And what about me?" she asked, pulling the cape tighter. "If the guild finds out the Abyssal Saintess still alive, word will reach the capital tomorrow. The Inquisitor will send assassins." freewebnoveℓ.com
Kaelen looked at her. Her face was too famous.
"You stay hidden," Kaelen decided. "You follow me from the shadows. When Roderick is isolated, I’ll bring him to you."
"And then?"
"And then..." Kaelen whispered lethally, "We show him what the true abyss looks like."
