Chapter 100: Prisoner of the Abyss and Golden Lag

The gates to the one hundredth floor did not open with a roar or a dramatic screech of rusty hinges. They simply shattered silently. The monumental basalt slabs, coated in ancient runic insulation, buckled under the thickening pressure of the environment, crumbling into fine black dust that settled on the floor like sand.

Dave’s step was quiet but firm. His hands rested deep in his coat pockets, and his sapphire irises – devoid of any camouflage in this second – scanned the space in immediate tactical priority. Right beside him, with a readied rapier and raised guard, walked Shnee. On her left shoulder, Kaede raised her antennae, transmitting digital frequency noise directly into the elf’s neural nodes. Karys walked on the left side, knees bent, her black fenrir armor fitted and her tentacle-tail whistling just above the floor in a deadly, uninterrupted balance.

And then the world lost its color.

Within a fifty-meter radius from the center of the giant ancient amphitheater, the air literally ceased to let photons through. The red accents on Karys’s armor, the platinum sheen of Shnee’s hair, and the dark fabric of Dave’s suit wilted in a single millisecond into dull, monochromatic shades of gray, white, and deep black.

"Dave…" Shnee whispered, her voice sounding muffled as if under a thick layer of ice. "My mana… the resonance is dropping. Something is snuffing out the light."

"It’s not a silencing spell," Dave replied coldly, without slowing his pace. "It’s absorption. The environment has nothing to reflect waves off of. Maintain your structure."

Right at the center of the cracked basalt arena hovered a figure. Four meters of pure physical pressure. The body possessed no solid skin – it was cloaked in liquid, viscous void-mercury that ran down broad shoulders and disappeared into the cracks of the floor, devouring the very texture of the stone. His face was covered by a smooth, cracked mask of black obsidian, from which a slow, cadaverous, cold violet seeped out.

This was Czarny Anchor - an ancient dimensional anchor and bound anomaly.

Thick, heavy, gold-copper collar-suppressors were bound around his neck, wrists, and ankles, anchored directly into the fabric of the dimension.

Czarny Anchor lowered his head slightly, his deep, dense bass resonating in the bones of the whole team:

"– So many thousands of years... finally someone reached the very bottom."

Dave stood before him with a cheerful smile and hands tucked into his coat pockets.

"I have no interest in finishing off someone standing in chains," Dave said with a warm, easygoing attitude.

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He stepped forward and attempted to apply a concentrated kinetic vector impulse directly into the collar mechanism to shatter the lock.

CLANG!

The recoil was instantaneous. The ancient engineering answered with a hard resonance, bouncing Dave's pulse off like a pebble off a tank.

"Oho, wrong screwdriver for now," Dave laughed, rubbing his wrist casually. "Don't worry mordo, I'll come back with a proper drill someday and unlock you."

Czarny Anchor extended his hand, from which a pair of dark, unawakened daggers (Daggers of the Abyss) emerged.

"– You reached Floor 99 and stood before the 100th threshold. Take what belongs to the victor."

Dave took the black daggers, inspected them with engineering approval, and without a second's hesitation turned around and handed them to Karys.

"Here Karys, these are for you. They fit your claws and armor like a charm," he said with a bright, genuine smile.

Karys froze. She stared at the black daggers, then at Dave. This wasn't ordinary loot. This was the unique top-tier weapon from the deepest floor! And Dave was handing it to her with childlike lightness and a radiant smile.

"Dave..." she whispered in disbelief, her tentacle-tail vibrating wildly against the floor. "You're giving them to me just like that?!"

"Of course, mordo! Glad you like 'em!" he replied cheerfully.

Something snapped inside Karys-a wave of unbridled joy washed over her. With a joyful squeal, she lunged at Dave, grabbed his coat collar, and planted a loud, affectionate kiss right on his cheek!

"You're the best, Dave! Word of honor, the best in the world!" she shouted in hype.

Dave froze in place, a sudden, vivid blush blooming on his fair face. He scratched his flushed cheek with a flustered, disarmingly sweet smile, momentarily not knowing what to do with his hands while Shnee smiled indulgently in the background and Kaede giggled softly.

Karys took the hilts of the daggers. As her fingers closed around the metal, the void essence in her body resonated, sparking purple discharges along the edges.

"They're... perfect!" Karys shouted, executing two lightning-fast slashes. "I'll slice right through armor with these!"

Besides the daggers, the chamber held hundreds of elite cores. Dave had the girls pack all the cores and gold.

As for the dungeon itself? Dave couldn't care less that the dungeon was not conquered or claimed as property (the dungeon system remained active and Floor 100 wasn't erased). Dave didn't come here for real estate or property titles-he came for cores for the manor, training for the girls, and daggers for Karys. He got everything he wanted, so he held everything else in zero regard.

Half an hour later. The Adventurers' Guild in Crossgard.

When the clerk inserted the verification core into the crystal reader, golden runes lit up on the giant leaderboard:

BZZZT...

A loud system magic gong tore through the hall.

[CROSSGARD WILD DUNGEON: RECORD RAID – 99/100 FLOORS]

[FLOOR RECORD: 99/100 – DAVE'S TEAM]

A fucking massive, dead silence fell over the Guild hall.

Veterans who had been stuck on Floor 42 for three years suffered such a golden lag that the clerk dropped his leather register onto the floor. In a few days, an unassuming guy in a black coat and two girls had reached Floor 99, swept the primary treasures, and left for dinner!

Shnee collected the verification slip, offered a cool smile, and walked out with Karys, leaving behind the jaw-dropping shock of the entire city.

Evening at Dave's basalt manor.

The dining table groaned under platters of roast meat and Mina's ramen. Elena and Luthia calculated the projected profits from Silas's sales-the manor's budget was secured for years to come.

Dave sat in an armchair with a warm smile and hands in his pockets, watching his happy, safe family. The dungeon gave them everything they needed. And the real challenges of Crossgard were just beginning.