The flickering torchlight cast long shadows on the dungeon's walls. The air was thick, soured by old blood and the metallic tang of fresh fear. Kintu stood still, one hand resting on the polished shaft of his staff, its surface cool beneath his touch. His gaze was cold, steady like a predator sizing up its prey.
Ahead, three goblin knights blocked the narrow passage. Clad in dented leather armor that reeked of stale sweat and unwashed hide, their cracked iron shields hissed with fresh poison dripping from their rusted swords. Each stood nearly four feet tall, their yellowed eyes gleaming with a mindless, predatory bloodlust. Their snouts twitched, catching the scent of Kintu's living presence, and a guttural growl rumbled in their throats.
A normal F rank adventuring party would have turned back, their courage dissolving like smoke.
Most would not have lived long enough to try.
Kintu took a single step forward, the sound of his boot echoing unnaturally loud in the confined space.
The first goblin, a hulking brute with a particularly grimy shield, let out a piercing shriek that clawed at the air. It lunged, its rusted sword a blur of motion, aiming for Kintu's throat.
There was no noise as the scythe sliced through the air. It moved like a whisper, like moonlight drawn across still water impossible to track, too swift to react to. The obsidian blade, a hungry shadow, met the goblin's charge head on.
One clean slash.
The goblin's shriek cut off abruptly as its torso slid away from its legs, hitting the ground with a sickening, wet thud. Blood steaming in the cool dungeon air, the two halves of the creature twitching independently for a horrifying moment before settling into stillness.
The remaining two goblins froze. One's hand trembled so violently its poisoned sword rattled against its shield. The other, the smallest of the trio, whimpered, shifting its weight to flee, its yellow eyes wide with dawning terror.
They were already dead. They just had not noticed yet.
Kintu vanished from sight. The air around him shimmered for a bare instant, and then he reappeared behind the second goblin, a phantom of motion. The scythe plunged into its spine with surgical precision, piercing armor, and flesh as if they were butter. The goblin convulsed once, a strangled gurgle escaping its throat, and as it died, the blade pulsed faintly, absorbing something unseen. A silent, invisible hunger drank deep.
The third goblin, now alone, turned in blind panic, its eyes darting wildly, searching for its vanished executioner. It stumbled back, tripping over its dead comrade's legs, its sword clattering uselessly against the stone.
Kintu raised his hand, not a single drop of blood staining his clothes.
"Flame Charge."
A burst of raw, primal fire ignited beneath him, roaring to life with concussive force. It launched his body forward like a comet, a blur of incandescent energy. He struck the cowering goblin with the force of a meteor, a sickening crunch echoing through the passage as its dented armor flattened beneath him, crushing it instantly into a smoking, charred mess.
Ash scattered like snow, settled on the dungeon floor, leaving behind only the acrid scent of burnt flesh.
Behind his eyes, the voice of his goddess chimed in, impossibly bright and excited, a stark contrast to the brutal efficiency of his actions.
And that was only floor two.
Seven floors later. Seven floor bosses later. Kintu did not break a sweat, did not even breathe hard. Each encounter was a testament to his overwhelming power, a silent, deadly ballet of destruction. He carved through hordes of twisted beasts spitting spiders the size of ponies, grotesque fungi that exhaled corrosive spores, and agile wolves whose teeth could shear through steel with effortless grace.
A cyclops nearly twelve feet tall had been the final guardian of the seventh floor. A monstrous rank C beast, known for slaughtering entire adventuring parties, its massive body rippled with corded muscle. Its roar alone made the very dungeon walls tremble, a sound designed to shatter the wills of lesser beings. It charged with the force of a battering ram, its colossal axe cleaving the air.
Kintu silenced it in a single exchange. The cyclops charge was met with the blurring arc of his scythe, a strike that carved a glowing, lethal path through its defenses and its flesh, severing its monstrous head with a decisive whoosh. The immense body crashed to the ground, shaking the entire cavern.
He stood over its twitching body now, the scythe humming with stolen life, its obsidian blade pulsing with a faint, crimson light that quickly faded.
He raised one brow, a hint of genuine disappointment in his voice. "That was supposed to be dangerous?"
Lefu giggled in his mind, a mischievous, delighted sound. "Yeah."
By the time he stepped into the floors return teleportation circle, the sun was just starting to dip beyond the rose covered walls of Heaven's Rose. The town's signature flowers glowed in shades of crimson, gold, and deep indigo, their petals unfurling in the gentle evening breeze. The air carried the sweet scent of petals and the burnt edge of his magic, a strange but fitting blend.
The oversized, ornate doors to the Heaven's Rose Adventurer Guild creaked open, admitting him to the warm, lamp lit interior. Alexis, the cat eared receptionist, perked up from her paperwork, her fluffy tail twitching with curiosity.
"You're back already, Kintu?" she asked.
"Yes." He answered, "and I have monster parts to sale."
"Wonderful, place the items in that cart." She said while pointing at a cart near the counter.
He lifted a hand.
"Shadow Storage."
The skill opened a swirling vortex beneath him, a rift in reality that pulsed with dim, ethereal light. One by one, monster corpses appeared on the ground in a neatly stacked, gruesome pile. Wolves with iron fangs and eyes like embers. A massive snake with leathery wings, its scales still gleaming faintly. The mangled remains of the three headed lizard that had nearly taken his foot, its various heads now limp and lifeless.
Alexis blinked, her large, amber eyes widening as she stood and caught sight of his cart, still piled high with carcasses. "Wait… you collected all of this on your first day and without a party?!"
"This... this is at least two platinum coins' worth. Maybe more if the guild master wants samples from that winged snake! What floor did you reach?"
"Seven," Kintu replied, already feeling bored.
Her ears twitched again, a nervous tic. Her jaw dropped. "Impossible!"
He shrugged, unaffected by her shock. "Guess I got lucky."
Later that night, Kintu sat on the roof of the inn, the cool night air on his skin. The stars above looked close enough to touch, each one twinkling like a tiny promise in the vast, inky blackness. The world below was quiet. No machines. No electricity. Just the gentle sigh of the wind through the rose bushes, the sweet scent of petals, and the faint, almost imperceptible hum of something older than time Lefu's presence.
Lefu had been humming the same simple, cheerful, and slightly off-key tune for nearly twenty minutes, a strangely comforting sound in the silence.
"You're hiding something," he said at last, breaking the tranquility.
She stopped humming instantly. The sudden silence was louder than her song.
"The monsters," he continued, his voice low, steady. "They're too weak for dungeon floors?"
Silence stretched between them, heavy and uncertain.
"They were supposed to be hard," she whispered at last, her voice small, fragile.
Kintu stared at the distant stars, their cold light reflecting in his eyes. "Hard for who, Lefu?"
There was a long pause, filled only by the sounds of the night.
"My followers," she said quietly, her voice tinged with an ancient sorrow. "All of them. Before you. They died. Hunted. Used for sport. Everyone who I ever chose … they were broken. Killed in front of laughing crowds. I could not protect them."
His jaw clenched, a muscle working in his cheek. He understood.
"So, I made you strong," Lefu said, her voice regaining a fraction of its former certainty. "From the start. I set the training ground to the highest difficulty. I gave you the soul eating scythe. I gave you power. Because if I did not… you would be next. I could not lose another one."
Kintu exhaled, slow and steady, his breath pluming faintly in the cool night. "Lefu."
"Yeah?" she whispered, a hint of apprehension in her tone.
"You don't have to protect me from the truth; I can handle it."
There was a faint sniffle, a sound that, impossibly, spoke of tears. Then a quiet, watery laugh, full of relief.
"You're my only friend, you know that?"
Kintu closed his eyes, a profound sense of connection settling over him.
"Then let's make sure you never lose another one."
And beneath the indifferent gaze of a million stars, he sat in silence, the weight of his god's pain heavy in his chest, interwoven with a fierce, quiet resolve. Tomorrow will come with blood and choices, with the relentless march of fate. But tonight, he made a quiet vow.
He would change this world.