Chapter 43: The Shadow Panther (Part 2)

If someone opened the chest and found reinforced boots, they would still feel rewarded. If someone walked out wearing that cloak, every adventurer in town would probably hear about it.

Zion confirmed the table.

Then he went back through the normal chests scattered across Floor 3 and adjusted those as well.

Their rewards stayed much cheaper.

Basic potions, small coin drops, common equipment, crafting materials, and a few slightly better pieces hidden behind the more difficult traps.

Enough to make exploration worthwhile. Not enough to bankrupt him.

Once he was satisfied, Zion finally returned to the part of the floor he had been saving for last. The Shadow Panther.

He opened the boss contract.

[Shadow Panther]

[Boss Unit]

[Beast / Shadow]

[Roaming Boss]

Several placement options appeared below it. Zion expected a single spawn point. Instead, the floor map filled with selectable locations.

He leaned closer.

[Roaming Spawn Network]

[Select one or more valid starting locations.]

[Boss spawn location will vary between instances.]

Zion immediately understood the value. Floor 1 had already taught him what happened when adventurers saw the same thing enough times.

They memorized the sheep placements. They learned where the Horned Ram appeared. They started entering with strategies prepared before the fight even began.

A static dungeon became easier every time someone survived it. Floor 3 did not need to make that mistake.

Zion selected one spawn point near the lower corridors. Another near the ladder chamber. Then another behind a row of pillars halfway through the floor.

He kept going until every compatible spawn location was active.

That meant one party might encounter the Shadow Panther almost immediately after the boulder sequence. Another might make it halfway through the tomb before seeing it. A third might not realize there was a boss at all until something attacked from behind.

Zion liked that considerably more. He confirmed the spawn network.

For several seconds, nothing happened.

Then one of the shadows beneath a carved wall moved.

He focused on it. The darkness stretched upward. A long black shape separated from the wall so smoothly that he almost missed the moment it became solid.

The Shadow Panther stepped into the torchlight.

The store preview had not done it justice. The creature looked less like a normal animal covered in dark fur and more like a piece of shadow that had decided to take the shape of one.

Its body remained almost completely black even beneath the torchlight, while faint wisps of darkness drifted from its shoulders and back legs whenever it moved.

Its claws were different. Long silver talons extended from each paw, catching the light with every step. When the panther opened its mouth, sharp pale teeth stood out against the darkness of its face.

It lowered its body, then moved.

Zion barely followed it.

The panther crossed the hallway in a dark blur before disappearing behind one of the pillars. A moment later, it emerged from another patch of shadow several yards away.

"That’s so much better than the preview."

He opened its status panel.

[Shadow Panther]

Threat: High

Mobility: Very High

Damage: High

Evasiveness: High

The numbers already pleased him. Then he reached the ability list.

[Shadow Step]

Allows rapid movement between nearby areas of deep shadow.

[Pounce]

A high-speed leaping attack dealing increased damage against unaware or off-balance targets.

[Predator’s Instinct]

Improved tracking of wounded, exhausted, or isolated targets.

[Low-Light Adaptation]

Significantly improved perception in darkness.

Zion paused on that one. The entire floor was dim. He had accidentally made the lighting perfect for it before he even knew what all of its abilities were.

He continued downward.

Then another ability caught his attention.

[Phasewalk]

Allows the Shadow Panther to pass through walls and other compatible solid surfaces while moving through darkness. May emerge from connected shadows within its roaming territory.

He stared at the description then he looked toward the nearest wall. The panther walked toward it. Its body darkened as it approached the stone until the edges became almost impossible to distinguish from the shadows around it.

Then it stepped through.

He moved his attention to the other side. A dark ripple passed through the wall. The panther emerged soundlessly into the next corridor.

Zion felt excitement rise through him.

"Oh, that’s perfect. No one’s going to expect that."

The tomb was full of walls. More importantly, it was full of shadows.

The long stretches between torches created dark sections throughout the floor, and the narrow passages meant adventurers would rarely be able to watch every direction at once.

They could be studying a pressure plate while the panther moved through the wall behind them.

They could stop to disable a trap, only for it to emerge from the darkness beside them.

Even the secret rooms were accessible.

Zion immediately thought of the Glittering Treasure Chest. The chamber was hidden from the main route, but the panther would not need to use the hallway to reach it.

If it had already caught the scent of a party before they entered, it could simply follow them through the walls.

Zion imagined an adventurer crouched in front of the golden chest, completely focused on the traps surrounding it while a black shape slowly emerged from the stone behind them.

He liked the image far too much. The roaming restriction no longer felt like a disadvantage.

Who needed ordinary monsters when you had an apex predator stalking the shadows?

The entire floor was already full of traps, and now the one living thing inside it could ignore half the terrain restrictions that protected the adventurers from everything else.

Zion watched the Shadow Panther disappear into another wall. A few seconds later, two silver eyes appeared briefly in the darkness farther down the corridor before vanishing again.

He had wanted a boss that could make the traps more dangerous. Instead, he had found something the entire floor seemed to have been built for.

Zion looked over Floor 3 one more time.

The darkness.

The narrow halls.

The hidden chambers.

The traps. And the panther moving somewhere inside the walls.

Everything fit.

Now he only needed adventurers to enter.