"Absolutely not, no way."
" Nuh-uh, No way," Jay Antonio muttered, his face drained of color as he crept to the ledge and looked down into the vast, yawning abyss below.
The cavern dropped so far into darkness that the bottom vanished from sight. Its walls blazed with jagged, glowing crystals, beautiful, but deadly.
A constant, low hum, like a thousand ghosts whispering secrets, echoed from the crystalline structures.
"Come on, it'll be an adventure!" Jason Henry said cheerfully, patting Jay on the back.
The best loot is always in places that scream you will die here.
It's a rule.
"My adventure meter is full for the day, thank you very much," Jay retorted, taking a hasty step back from the edge.
I'm a caster, not a mountain goat.
If I fall, the best-case scenario is that I become a modern art installation called Splattered Mage on Crystal.
What's so important down there, anyway?"
Jason gazed into the abyss, a flicker of memory in his eyes.
In his past life, a lucky explorer had stumbled upon this chasm and found a Secret-Silver Treasure Chest on a hidden ledge near the top.
The contents had given that player's small workshop the capital to become a respectable guild.
Jason wasn't about to let that opportunity slip by.
"The rarest ores are always found under the most pressure," Jason said, giving Jay a plausible-sounding lie.
I'm just going to do a little prospecting. You wait here.
Yell if you see any Goblins with an oversized sense of ambition.
Before Jay could protest further, Jason took a running start.
He leaped off the ledge into the vast emptiness of the chasm.
Jay let out a strangled cry, thinking his friend had finally lost his mind.
But Jason didn't fall.
A second after he jumped, a soft, silvery aura enveloped him.
He activated the skill from his ring: [Gravity Liberation].
His descent slowed dramatically, turning into a graceful, controlled float.
He touched down with barely a sound on a crystal ledge jutting from the chasm wall, a hundred feet below.
"Show-off," Jay muttered under his breath, a mix of awe and envy in his voice.
The climb or rather, the controlled fall and ascent, was treacherous.
The crystal walls were slick and offered few handholds.
Jason fired off his skill in quick bursts, vaulting from one narrow ledge to the next, a daring dance of precision and risk.
He paused for a moment on a wider platform to let the skill's cooldown refresh, catching his breath.
The whispers in the chasm suddenly grew louder.
The platform beneath him began to vibrate.
RRRUMBLE… CRACK!
The solid crystal wall beside him fractured.
Dust and rock chips sprayed outwards as a massive, hulking figure tore itself free.
It was a golem, ten feet tall, its body a misshapen fusion of rock and jagged, glowing geodes.
Its eyes were two malevolent, pulsing red crystals.
[Corrupted Geode Golem - Level 7 Elite]
HP: 2,500/2,500
"Didn't even knock. Rude," Jason quipped to himself, already reaching into his bag.
He had anticipated encounters with tough, high-defense monsters.
He pulled out a small, cylindrical object.
A Concussion Charge.
The Golem stomped forward with thunderous steps, each one sending tremors through the ground, an unstoppable wall of stone closing in, raising a fist the size of a boulder.
Its movement was slow, but each step made the platform tremble violently.
It was a creature of pure, brute force.
Jason didn't wait for it to attack.
He tossed the charge with perfect accuracy, landing it right at the Golem's feet.
THUMP-BOOM!
A muffled explosion, more of a concussive blast than a fiery one, erupted.
It kicked up a shockwave of air that rattled Jason's teeth.
The Golem staggered, a web of cracks appearing on its rocky legs.
A status icon appeared above its head: [Stunned], [Movement Speed -50%].
Jason saw his opening.
The ground cracked under his feet as he propelled himself forward, his sword a silver glint in the dim light.
He unleashed his basic [Chop] skill.
CLANG!
The sound of his sword striking the Golem's crystalline torso was like hitting solid steel.
A pathetic damage number floated up.
-4
Level suppression was a brutal mistress.
Even with the Golem stunned, its natural defense was immense.
His normal attacks were even worse.
-2
-2
-3
The Golem's stun wore off.
It let out a deep, grinding roar and swung its massive arm in a wide, crushing arc, like a wrecking ball of stone and fury.
The wind shrieked as the stone fist cut through the air, aimed to turn Jason into a paste.
But Jason was an apostle of Agility.
He was already moving.
He ducked under the slow-moving attack, the wind from the blow rustling his hair.
He was now right beside the Golem's leg, a perfect spot to attack its flank.
While his damage was pitiful, he noticed something else: his skill proficiency for [Chop] was skyrocketing with every hit against a higher-level elite.
He unleashed his most powerful skill. "[Thunderclap Slash]!"
Three bolts of arcing lightning slammed into the Golem's side.
-21
-24
-29
Better, but still painfully slow.
This was going to be a battle of exhaustion.
For the next minute, the platform became a stage for a deadly dance.
The Golem would unleash slow, earth-shattering blows that Jason would evade with his superior speed, and in return, Jason would chip away at its health, his sword a constant blur of motion.
Every thirty seconds, his [Thunderclap Slash] would come off cooldown, carving another chunk from the Golem's massive health pool.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the Golem's health dropped to zero.
With a final, groaning roar, the red light in its eyes faded.
It crumbled into a pile of rock and dust, leaving behind a few copper coins and a chunk of [Corrupted Geode Shard].
Jason was breathing heavily, but a grin spread across his face.
He checked his experience bar.
A whopping 250 EXP, nearly a quarter of a level, from a single monster.
"Now we're talking," he said, a renewed sense of purpose filling him.
He continued his ascent, using the same strategy.
He encountered two more Geode Golems, dispatching them with the same patient, calculated method.
After the third kill, a golden light enveloped him.
[System: Congratulations! You have reached Level 4. You have gained 4 Free Attribute Points.]
Without hesitation, he dumped all four points into Agility.
He was an Agility addict, and he wasn't seeking treatment.
His goal was 25 points in the stat, which he knew would unlock a game-changing hidden passive skill.
He was just a few points away.
Finally, he saw it.
Near the apex of the chasm, hidden behind a waterfall of shimmering energy, was a small, dark cave opening.
It was exactly where his memory told him it would be.
He took a deep breath, activated [Gravity Liberation] one last time, and leaped across the final gap, landing silently at the mouth of the cave.
The air inside was cold, and the whispering hum was much stronger here.
He could see the faint outline of a chest at the back of the cave.
But it wasn't alone.
A low growl emanated from the darkness. Two points of silvery light ignited, fixing on him with predatory intelligence.
Standing between him and the chest was a creature that made the Geode Golems look like pebbles.
It was smaller, sleeker, and its entire body was forged from a silver, metallic crystal that seemed to absorb the light.
It looked faster, stronger, and infinitely more dangerous.
Jason's heart pounded in his chest, not with fear, but with exhilaration.
This was it.
The real guardian.
The real challenge.
And the real reward.