As I descended the stairs leaving the frozen graveyard of the twelfth floor behind, I pulled up my status window. The translucent blue light flickered in the dark stairwell.
[STATUS: AKIRA]
[LEVEL: 41]
[CLASS: THE LIBRARIAN]
[GORE SKILLS: ICE MIRAGE, ICE SPEAR, ICELAND, ICE BARRIER, ICE MAGIC]
I had rested, but I hadn't tested the new ice magic. I was saving it for whatever lay below. The air was getting thinner, and the scent of permafrost was replaced by a heavy, metallic dampness. I stepped off the final stair and into the Thirteenth Floor.
The Sightless Ambush
It was pitch black. Not the darkness of a room with the lights off, but a heavy, swallowing void. I used my enhanced eyesight, straining to find a silhouette, a monster, or even a wall. Nothing.
"Assistant, activate Search."
A pulse of mana left my body, and for a second, my mind screamed. The feedback was overwhelming. Thousands of heat signatures were hanging directly above me. I looked up, and in an instant, a thousand pairs of crimson eyes snapped open.
Echo-Bats.
Before I could even manifest a barrier, the first wave of sound hit me. It wasn't a roar; it was a high-frequency Sonic Scream. The sound bypassed my physical armor and went straight for my brain. I felt my eardrums rupture instantly. Hot, thick blood began to pour from my ears, blinding my vision with pain.
I fell to my knees, clutching my head, screaming into the void, but I couldn't even hear my own voice. The bats didn't stop. They swarmed down, their razor-sharp claws tearing at every inch of my body.
"Split Mind!" I forced the command through the agony. "Healing Magic—Activate!"
The green light of the plant magic flickered around me, but the damage was coming faster than the healing could keep up. My ears were being "boxed" by the sound waves, the pressure so intense it felt like my skull was being crushed in a vice. I swung my scythe blindly in the dark, but there were too many. For every ten I killed, a hundred more took their place.
The Symphony of the Reaper
I was crumbling. I couldn't think. I couldn't focus. Blood was now leaking from my eyes, and my balance was gone. But as I touched the floor, my hand brushed against a fallen bat.
"LEARN!" I roared internally.
[SKILL ACQUIRED: SOUND WAVE MANIPULATION]
[DESCRIPTION: ABSORB SONIC VIBRATIONS AND AMPLIFY THEM BACK AT THE SOURCE.]
"Hold on..." I gritted my teeth, forcing myself to stay conscious. "Keep it coming! Scream at me!"
I stopped trying to heal my ears. Instead, I opened my mouth and let the Sound Wave skill take over. My body became a hollow vessel. Every scream, every screeching vibration from the thousands of bats was no longer hurting me—it was being stored. I felt my chest vibrating, my very bones humming with the stored energy of ten thousand screams.
"My turn," I whispered, though I couldn't hear the words. "SOUND WAVE: MAXIMUM DISCHARGE!"
I opened my mouth and released a massive, visible ripple of sonic destruction. It wasn't just a scream; it was a physical hammer. The entire floor shook. The bats didn't just die; the pressure waves caused their internal organs to explode and their brains to liquify instantly.
A rain of black fur and broken wings fell around me.
The Sound of Nothing
I stood in the center of the carnage, the silence now absolute. I waved my hand, using my inventory to sweep up the thousands of bat carcasses. I didn't want to leave a single node behind.
But something was wrong. I tried to speak. "Is it over?"
Nothing. I couldn't hear myself. I shouted at the top of my lungs. Silence. The constant healing had repaired the physical tissue of my ears, but the trauma was so severe that I was trapped in a world of total quiet.
I stayed on the Thirteenth Floor for a full day, sitting in the dark. I practiced my new skill—Sound Manipulation. I learned how to make a tiny sound, like a finger snap, and have my body absorb the vibration to create a blast twice as loud.
By the end of the day, my hearing finally snapped back. But it was different. Everything was too loud—the sound of my own heartbeat felt like a drum, and the wind in the stairwell sounded like a hurricane. The constant healing had made my senses raw and hypersensitive.
"Sound vision..." I muttered, testing the new ability. By making a small noise, I could "see" the entire room through the echoes. I didn't need light anymore.
I turned toward the stairs leading to the Fourteenth Floor. I was Level 41, battered, and partially deafened, but I was deadlier than ever.
"Next floor," I said, my own voice booming in my sensitive ears. "Let's see if they can handle the noise."
I stepped into the dark, ready to walk into the fourteenth floor.