The stench of burnt gunpowder and rotten blood still hung thick in the air.
Kanos crouched in front of a pile of rubble. He wiped the black powder on the floor with his index finger, then rubbed the dust between his fingers.
Rough. It still had a bit of warmth left.
This definitely wasn't dust from a stone monster. This was residue from Garrick's homemade gunpowder bombs.
The giant black shadow next to him lowered its head. The Shadow Wolf sniffed Kanos's fingers.
Thick dark purple smoke kept billowing from the monster's fur. The effect caused the temperature in this sixth floor corridor to drop drastically. Frost even started creeping up the red crystal walls near the wolf's paws.
But Kanos no longer cared about the bone piercing cold. He held his hand closer to the shadow monster's nose.
"Can you smell this bastard's leftover energy?" Kanos asked quietly.
His voice was raspy. Swallowing toxic air at the bottom of the abyss for days had really wrecked his vocal cords.
The wolf's neon purple eyes glowed brighter. The creature let out a low growl that was barely audible, vibrating the pebbles beneath its claws.
Without waiting for a command, the monster started walking toward the left corridor. Its footsteps were completely silent. Zero decibels.
Kanos stood up, took a deep breath, and followed behind it. His left hand hung relaxed by his side, but his fingertips were ready to draw a deadly line in the air at any second.
This corridor was still a massive mess. The aftermath of the boss Goliath's rampage yesterday was visible everywhere. Shattered crystal walls. Cracked stone pillars. The cave ceiling looked like it would collapse if nudged even slightly.
But Kanos focused on something else. He paid attention to how his pet moved.
His shadow wolf didn't navigate using eyes or ears. Every time it reached a dark intersection, the monster stopped for a moment. Its jaw opened, as if eating the air around it.
This beast wasn't tracking physical footprints. It was reading the residual mana and emotional residue left behind by its prey.
They kept walking past two long bends. Suddenly, the Shadow Wolf stopped dead in its tracks.
Its body lowered. Its belly pressed against the stone floor. The purple smoke on its back stood straight up like spikes.
Kanos immediately froze in place. He didn't panic. He just peeked over his supersized monster's shoulder.
Kanos narrowed his eyes, looking down the narrow corridor ahead of them. No monsters. No sound of footsteps. The corridor looked completely empty.
But Kanos's instincts, honed in hell, gave a different signal. He blinked slowly, activating Structural Analysis.
Instantly, the darkness in front of him turned into a sea of neon blue lines. Grid boxes formed the structure of the floor, walls, and ceiling.
Among those blue lines, Kanos saw a thin red line. It stretched from the left wall to the right wall, just at ankle height.
That red line connected to a massive cluster of crystals on the ceiling where the support structure had been intentionally sabotaged.
"Tripwire," Kanos muttered coldly. "If my foot catches that wire, two tons of crystal up there will drop right on my head."
Kanos glanced at the wire. The setup was neat, hidden behind the shadow of a stalagmite. Way too smart for a monster.
This was clearly the work of a human in a rush, but still wanting to make sure no one was following from behind. Garrick was incredibly paranoid.
Kanos didn't waste energy looking for a detour. He gave a signal with a tilt of his chin toward the wire.
"Freeze it."
The Shadow Wolf stepped forward slowly. The monster didn't touch the wire at all.
It just opened its jaws and exhaled a thick black breath toward the trigger mechanism on the wall. Within seconds, the wire and the small pulley at the end were covered in pitch black ice. Completely frozen.
Kanos walked past the wire calmly. He even took a moment to kick the wire until it snapped. The rocks above didn't move at all because the trigger was dead.
They kept walking, passing through a narrow gap between two large stone pillars. The moment they stepped out of the gap, the metallic stench of fresh blood immediately stung Kanos's nose.
The smell of human blood, not monster.
About ten meters ahead, there was a pile of rubble blocking half the path. Kanos moved forward slowly. His eyes swept the surroundings, making sure there were no archers or mages hiding in his blind spots.
Once he was sure the area was clear, Kanos crouched behind the rubble.
Three adventurer corpses lay piled up right there.
The status panels above their heads had faded. A sign they hadn't been dead for long, maybe only an hour or two ago.
Kanos looked at the bodies through his artist lens. He was reading the composition of this murder.
The first body, a large man carrying a shattered wooden shield. He died with severe explosive wounds on his legs. He fell face down, his hand trying to reach for something in front of him.
The other two bodies, a woman in leather armor and a skinny guy holding a magic staff, fell back to back. They didn't even have time to attack.
The wounds on their necks were way too clean. Slashed by a sharp weapon from behind.
"The first guy got hit by a trap bomb on the leg. Making his two friends panic and focus on helping him," Kanos said to himself, reconstructing the scene in his head.
"Then the killer stepped out from the shadows behind them. Sliced the healer's neck first so he couldn't cast anything, then finished off the girl."
Kanos took a short breath. Extremely efficient. Extremely dirty. Exactly like the playstyle of a fake guide who had frequently sold his clients' lives.
He crouched closer to the woman's corpse. The coin pouch on her waist was gone. All their weapons were stripped. Their supply backpacks had also vanished into thin air.
But Kanos found an animal skin water flask crushed beneath the big guy's body. The killer must have missed this while rushing to loot.
Without a shred of hesitation, Kanos pulled the blood soaked corpse. He grabbed the water flask and wiped the tip using his sleeve.
Kanos popped the cork and immediately gulped down the water until it was half empty. Refreshing. He didn't care if this was a dead man's water.
Down in this hellhole, morality wasn't going to fill your stomach or heal your wounds.
Kanos tucked the flask into his belt, then inspected the slash on the mage's neck. The blade width and the angle of the cut were incredibly familiar to Kanos's eyes.
The depth of the wound. The way the flesh tore at the edges. That was the work of a serrated short sword.
The exact same blade that pierced his right palm a few hours ago.
"So this is your real job, Garrick," Kanos muttered. His voice was bone dry, almost sounding like stones scraping together.
That brown haired bastard didn't just leave him and Belida to be eaten by the boss monster. Garrick intentionally set up traps all along the exit route of floor six.
He wiped out a mid level adventuring party that happened to be heading home. Slaughtered them without mercy, and snatched all their loot to run away with.
That friendly guide profession was truly just a front to pick out which prey was easiest to slaughter when they let their guard down.
Kanos stood up slowly. He looked at his own right palm.
The stab wound had completely closed up due to the recovery effect when he leveled up massively on the lower floor. But the scar tissue formed an ugly blade pattern. Every time he clenched his fist, a lingering ache shot all the way to his elbow.
Strangely, there was no explosive anger. No frustrated screams or the urge to punch a wall.
Kanos's emotions had completely burned out when he free fell to the bottom of the abyss that night. What remained in his head now was just a sharp coldness. Incredibly rational. Incredibly focused.
His enemy now wasn't a stupid monster moving purely on starving instincts. This enemy was cunning, calculating, greedy, and completely lacked morals.
Kanos glanced toward the dark corridor leading upward.
'Garrick rigged this tripwire and left these bodies not too long ago,' Kanos thought. 'He has to be carrying a heavy load. Iron ores from the treasure room, crystal cores, plus the loot from these guys. He is moving slow.'
His shadow wolf approached, rubbing its cold head against Kanos's thigh. Waiting for the next command. The monster's purple eyes locked straight onto the ascending corridor. Its prey's trail was getting stronger.
Kanos adjusted the water flask on his belt. He stared straight into the darkness of the corridor leading to the fifth floor exit.
He was going to hunt Garrick to the ends of the world if he had to. And he was going to make sure that friendly bastard felt a suffering far more epic than just getting stabbed by a rusty knife.
"Let's go," Kanos said simply.
The Shadow Wolf instantly bolted forward, piercing through the darkness like the grim reaper let off its leash.