CHAPTER 159: CHAPTER 159: RUNES

Chapter 159 – Runes

"Do you have any ideas about these lines?" Kaden asked, as he and Asael studied the strange markings carved into the cave walls, searching for anything— literally anything—that might help them conquer this dungeon.

Asael didn’t respond right away. He examined the markings with a serious gaze, running his fingertips along the lines slowly, deliberately, as if feeling them would give him a better grasp of their meaning.

After several seconds—almost a full minute—he pulled his hand back and frowned slightly.

"It’s weird. Very weird. This looks like something made by a human—or at least, a humanoid being—but... I’ve never seen another being here that wasn’t corrupted like me." Asael said, tilted his head slightly.

"And I’ve been here for a very, very long time," he added, his expression unsettled.

That meant someone like him... or like Kaden... had been here before. That alone wasn’t shocking after all this was a dungeon, people entered all the time.

But to survive here for this long...?

Asael’s gaze swept the walls again. Every surface was covered in these lines, each mark proof of just how long that person had been trapped here.

"Maybe he was here before you?" Kaden said. It was plausible as these lines seemed old.

Asael nodded, accepting Kaden’s hypothesis.

"It’s possible. And if this person took the time to carve all these lines to mark his days, then surely there’s something else he left behind. And whatever it is, it could be a lead for us." He said, his expression pensive.

He still couldn’t believe it that after all these years in this hellhole, he had never come across this cave. And yet, on the day Kaden arrived... here it was.

Thinking about it, he turned his head and looked at Kaden with a faint smile on his lips.

"You are a very lucky man, Kaden, my friend."

Kaden shot him a look of pure scorn. "Ah, right. Because being stuck in this damned dungeon with a Grandmaster-rank enemy while I’m only Intermediate... that’s your idea of luck?"

Asael burst into laughter.

"Hahahah! When you put it that way, maybe not so lucky after all," he said between chuckles.

Kaden gave him a disdainful glance before ignoring him completely, finding unworthy of him to entertain Asael.

He then turned around and pushed his perception to its limits, scanning the area for anything their potentially mysterious predecessor might have left.

Asael did the same, his shadow spreading out to cover nearly the entire cave as he searched for clues.

The air grew heavy with silence as the two worked.

They began with the walls covered in lines, running their hands over every inch, searching for hidden mechanisms. Nothing. Then they searched for runes or engravings—still nothing.

Moving on to the other walls, they repeated the process again and again. Then they turned their attention upward, on the ceiling.

Kaden crafted a small platform of black blood, and Asael lifted it with his shadow manipulation until Kaden could search the ceiling.

And again...nothing.

By now, both were frowning, uncertainty creeping in.

"No... maybe it needs a trigger. Blood, mana, something like that. Let’s try it," Kaden suggested, refusing to give up.

They tried their own blood, even the blood of undead, and poured mana into the lines or even all the walls of the cave....

Nothing happened.

Thud.

Kaden and Asael sank down to sit in the ankle-deep black water, brows furrowed.

"Could we have been wrong? Maybe there was no one here at all. Maybe we’ve been chasing the wrong idea entirely," Kaden muttered, trying to find where their reasoning might have failed.

But Asael stayed calm. His shadowy eyes swept the entire cave with measured precision, until something clicked.

Slowly, he lowered his gaze to the black water at their feet.

"Kaden, my friend..." he began, making Kaden glance over.

"...is there any spot in this whole cave we haven’t searched yet?"

Kaden almost said no but then stopped. His eyes followed Asael’s, and instinctively, he looked down.

"The black water?"

"Yes. More precisely... the floor under it. And maybe it’s just me, but the moment my shadows touch this water, their senses weaken a lot making me unable to sense almost nothing."

Kaden nodded grimly.

"Me too. And I didn’t even notice it until now," he said with a dark frown.

He had just dumped fifty stat points into Perception and he still hadn’t realized when his senses were being dulled.

That wasn’t normal.

They rose to their feet in unison, eyes fixed on the black water.

"If our senses can’t pierce it, then we need to get rid of it," Asael said.

"And I have just the skill for that."

A flicker of bloody flame laced with tiny blue stars bloomed in Kaden’s palm.

Asael smiled faintly. "You really do have some terrifying abilities, Kaden. First, the one that lets you fuse with objects. Then, the blood control. And now this flame... even I feel like it could completely erase me if I touched it...well if you were strong enough I mean."

"Now I’m curious about your Origin and its rank," he added.

Kaden shrugged. "Nothing incredible, really. Just a simple Legendary-rank weapon-type Origin. I would love to introduce you to my cute bloody sword, but first..."

He looked down.

"Let’s burn this thing."

The flicker of fire descended, touching the black water and like oil meeting fire in a lover’s embrace, the water erupted into a carpet of bloody flame, celestial blue stars winking in and out across its surface.

It was mesmerizing, almost beautiful. Both men could have stood there staring... but in moments, the flames devoured every drop of water.

When the last ember faded, the ground was revealed.

It was striking white floor that seemed almost unnatural filled with runes.

Not one, but dozens — no hundreds— covering the floor in a web of deep black, glowing faintly with a red hue. Just looking at them made the skin on their spines crawl with dread.

Asael and Kaden turned to each other and both smiled crookedly.

"Well..."

"Now what?"

—End of Chapter 159—