CHAPTER 113: CHAPTER 113

They adapted immediately, forming defensive formations, shields in front. They’d learned from watching their companions die.

Satou landed among them, activating Berserker Rage and Blood Frenzy simultaneously. His draconic claws extended, now harder than steel after all his transformations. He tore into the nearest Armament, ripping it apart piece by piece.

A shield-arm smashed into his ribs. He felt bones crack but kept fighting, his Regeneration healing the fractures even as more damage accumulated.

[HP: 3205/5100]

[HP: 2847/5100]

[HP: 2456/5100]

He was taking damage faster than he could heal. His Regeneration was working at maximum capacity, burning through stamina at an alarming rate.

[Stamina: 67%... 58%... 49%...]

Satou activated Shadow Mastery, his shadow exploding outward and wrapping around three Armaments simultaneously. He used Devouring on all three at once, consuming their magical essence and the enchanted metal itself.

The drain was massive. His Devouring ability struggled to break down the powerful enchantments, but eventually the three Armaments dissolved into his shadow.

[Living Armament Devoured x3]

[Metal Manipulation (Moderate) Acquired]

[Weapon Enhancement (Weak) Acquired]

[Stamina: 34%]

Six Armaments left, and Satou’s stamina was critically low. He pulled out one of the mana potions and drank it mid-combat.

The effect was immediate and overwhelming. Power flooded through him like lightning through copper wire. His stamina shot back to 100% and his magical reserves doubled temporarily.

[High-Grade Mana Potion Consumed]

[Stamina Restored: 100%]

[Magical Power Enhanced: 200% for 10 minutes]

With renewed energy, Satou unleashed everything. Dragonfire infused with Magma Manipulation created flames hot enough to soften even enchanted metal. His new Metal Manipulation let him control the Armaments’ own bodies against them, twisting their limbs into useless configurations.

He tore through the remaining six with savage efficiency, devouring each one as it fell.

[Floor Ninety-One Complete]

[+80,000 EXP]

Satou stood in the center of the forge, breathing hard despite his restored stamina. One floor down. Nine to go. And he’d already used one mana potion.

The next floor was a maze of towering bookshelves that stretched impossibly high. But these weren’t normal books. The pages glowed with magical script that moved and shifted. And floating throughout the library were creatures made of pure knowledge.

[Lore Keeper - Level 54] x8

They looked vaguely humanoid but were composed entirely of glowing text and symbols. And when they attacked, it wasn’t with physical weapons but with concepts made manifest.

The first Lore Keeper pointed at Satou and spoke a single word: "WEIGHT."

Gravity increased a hundredfold. Satou crashed to his knees, the floor cracking beneath him. His bones groaned under pressure that should have crushed him flat. Only his enhanced draconic physique kept him from being pulped immediately.

[HP: 3847/5000]

[Crushing Pressure Applied]

Another Lore Keeper spoke: "COLD."

The temperature plummeted to absolute zero. Frost formed on Satou’s scales. His Fire Immunity provided no protection against this—it wasn’t heat, it was the concept of cold given reality.

[HP: 3456/5000]

[Hypothermia: Extreme]

A third Keeper: "SILENCE."

All sound ceased. But worse, Satou felt his own thoughts becoming muted, his internal voice quieting. They were silencing not just sound but thought itself.

[Mental Coherence: 78%... 65%... 52%...]

I’m going to die if I don’t act now!

Satou activated Dragon’s Roar even in the silence. No sound emerged, but the force of it was reality itself. The conceptual silence shattered like glass.

He then used Ancient Dragon’s Wisdom to understand the Lore Keepers’ weakness. They were beings of pure concept—which meant they were vulnerable to paradox.

Satou spoke, channeling Sound Manipulation to ensure his words carried power: "I am simultaneously here and not here. I exist and do not exist. I am the contradiction you cannot resolve!"

The Lore Keepers’ forms flickered, their glowing text scrambling into nonsense. Paradox was poison to beings of pure logic.

While they were disrupted, Satou struck. His Shadow Mastery allowed his shadow to consume abstract concepts. He devoured not the Keepers themselves but the words they were made of, eating the knowledge that formed their existence.

[Lore Keeper Devoured x8]

[Conceptual Manipulation (Weak) Acquired]

[Ancient Knowledge (Massive) Acquired]

[Mental Capacity Expanded]

Information flooded Satou’s mind—the accumulated knowledge of millions of books, compressed into moments. His head felt like it was splitting open. His Mental Fortitude was the only thing keeping him conscious as his brain was forcibly expanded to contain knowledge it shouldn’t be able to hold.

[Floor Ninety-Two Complete]

The next floor was organic. Living. The walls pulsed like heartbeats. The floor was soft, warm, wet. Satou was standing inside something alive, something vast.

And then the walls grew faces. Hundreds of them. Thousands. Each one screaming silently.

[The Consumed - Level 55] x???

They emerged from the walls—partial bodies, mostly torso and arms, reaching for him with desperate hunger. Each one had been a person once, adventurers who’d died in the dungeon, now part of the floor itself.

Satou tried to fight them off, but there were too many. Hands grabbed his arms, his legs, his wings. They pulled him toward the walls, trying to absorb him into the flesh cathedral.

[HP: 3678/5000]

[Absorption Attempt: 12%]

[HP: 3401/5000]

[Absorption Attempt: 24%]

He could feel the floor trying to digest him, acid burning his scales. His Regeneration was fighting to repair the damage while the absorption continued.

In desperation, Satou activated Devouring

but reversed the process. Instead of consuming them, he rejected them—his shadow becoming a barrier that pushed back against the absorption.

But that wasn’t enough. The Consumed kept coming, endless waves of desperate hungry dead.

I need to kill the floor itself!

Satou channeled all his remaining stamina into Dragonfire Manipulation, but instead of external flames, he made his entire body burn from the inside. He became a living sun, heat radiating outward at temperatures that would vaporize steel.

The Consumed shrieked as they burned. The flesh walls blackened and cracked. The entire floor tried to expel him, recognizing him as poison rather than food.

Satou drank another mana potion mid-combat, restoring his stamina as he continued to burn. He walked through the cathedral like a plague, incinerating everything he touched.

When he reached the center, he found it—a massive heart, easily twenty feet across, beating irregularly.

[Cathedral Heart - Level 56]

[Floor Core]

Satou plunged both clawed hands into the heart and activated Devouring at maximum power. The heart fought back, trying to absorb him faster than he could consume it. The two abilities clashed—consumption versus consumption, devouring versus digesting.

Satou’s Regeneration went into critical overdrive again as the heart’s acid ate through his arms while he tore into it from within. Flesh dissolved and regrew in seconds. Bones showed through, then were covered by new muscle.

[HP: 2847/5000]

[HP: 2456/5000]

[HP: 2103/5000]

[Regeneration: CRITICAL OVERDRIVE]

Finally, the heart stopped beating. The Cathedral shuddered and began to collapse, the organic walls decaying rapidly.

Satou devoured the heart completely and ran for the exit as everything dissolved around him.

[Cathedral Heart Devoured]

[Life Drain (Advanced) Acquired]

[Biological Manipulation (Weak) Acquired]

[Regeneration (Legendary) → Regeneration (Mythical)]

His Regeneration had evolved again. Now it was so powerful that he could regrow entire organs in seconds, could survive being reduced to just his core and regenerate from that alone.

[Floor Ninety-Three Complete]

Floor Ninety-Four was a storm eternal—hurricane winds, lightning that struck from every direction, and Storm Elementals that could turn into weather itself.

Satou fought while being constantly blown around, using True Flight to maintain position. Lightning struck him seventeen times, each bolt containing enough energy to kill a normal creature. His scales blackened and cracked, his Regeneration working frantically to repair electrical damage.

He drank another mana potion just to keep functioning, then devoured the Storm Elementals to gain Lightning Manipulation (Moderate) and Weather Resistance (Strong).

Floor Ninety-Five had Time Revenants that could exist in multiple moments simultaneously. Satou would strike one down, only for a version of it from five minutes in the future to appear and attack from behind.

The battle lasted subjectively hours as Satou fought enemies that could predict his every move because they’d already lived through the fight multiple times.

He won by using Void Step to teleport outside of normal time-space, appearing in moments where the Revenants couldn’t predict him because he technically didn’t exist in that timeline yet.

He consumed four more mana potions on this floor, burning through magical power faster than ever.

Floor Ninety-Six was psychological warfare taken to its extreme. The floor created perfect simulations of everyone he’d failed to save, everyone he’d left behind, everyone depending on him. They begged him not to fight. Told him to give up, come home, stop risking his life.

Lyra’s simulation cried and pleaded. Kelvin’s simulation called him selfish for abandoning them. Jessica’s simulation accused him of running away from her feelings.

Satou nearly broke. His Mental Fortitude was pushed to its absolute limit. He had to keep reminding himself: None of this is real. The real them are waiting for me to come back stronger.

The "enemy" on this floor wasn’t a creature—it was his own doubt made manifest. He won by accepting that yes, he was being selfish. Yes, he was risking everything. Yes, he might die. But that was the choice he’d made, and he wouldn’t dishonor that choice by giving up now.

Floor Ninety-Seven had Reality Warpers that could change the fundamental laws of physics in their vicinity. Gravity would reverse. Time would flow backward. His own body would start phasing between solid, liquid, and gas states.

Satou fought in constantly shifting conditions, his Reality Resistance barely keeping him anchored to existence. He used his last three mana potions on this floor, drinking them in rapid succession just to maintain enough magical power to exist in the face of reality itself trying to erase him.

When he devoured the Reality Warpers, he gained Reality Anchor (Moderate)—the ability to resist changes to fundamental laws around him.

Floor Ninety-Eight was a gladiatorial arena, and his opponents were perfect copies of the three people who’d successfully completed the dungeon before him.

[First Hero - Level 59]

[First Demon Lord - Level 60]

[First Generation Guild Master - Level 58]

Three legendary warriors who’d completed this exact dungeon decades ago. Not simulations. Not illusions. The dungeon had perfectly recreated them at their peak, with all their skills, all their experience, all their power but their were weaker than the original.

Satou fought all three simultaneously.

The Hero was a master swordsman with holy magic that burned even Satou’s draconic flesh. The Demon Lord had dark magic that corrupted everything it touched. The Guild Master was a tactical genius who predicted Satou’s strategies before he could execute them.

The fight was impossible. Satou died four times—actually died, his Survivor’s Will bringing him back from death’s door each time, his Mythical Regeneration rebuilding his body from critical damage.

He won only by using every single ability he’d gained in perfect combination. Shadow Mastery to confuse. Dragonfire to attack. Metal Manipulation to control weapons. Lightning Manipulation for speed. Void Step to escape impossible situations. Reality Anchor to resist the Demon Lord’s corruption. Ancient Dragon’s Wisdom to match the Guild Master’s tactics.

When the last of the three fell, Satou collapsed, every part of him damaged. His Regeneration was working at absolute maximum, burning through the energy from his last mana potion to keep him alive.

[Floor Ninety-Eight Complete]

[Level Up! Level 40 → Level 45]

He’d used all ten mana potions. Everything he had left was his own natural abilities.

One floor remained.

Floor Ninety-Nine was different from all the others.

It was empty. Just a small circular chamber with pristine white walls and a single doorway at the far end.

[Floor Ninety-Nine: The Choice]

A notification appeared:

[You have reached the final checkpoint.]

[Beyond this door lies Floor One Hundred and the Dungeon’s Final Guardian.]

[You may rest here for as long as needed. Time does not pass on this floor.]

[When you are ready, proceed through the door. There is no return.]

[Warning: Your current state is critical. HP: 2456/5500. Stamina: 23%. Mental Coherence: 67%. All consumable supplies exhausted.]

[Recommendation: Rest until fully recovered before proceeding.]