Some checks failed
Build and Push Docker Image / build-and-push (push) Has been cancelled
378 lines
7.7 KiB
Markdown
378 lines
7.7 KiB
Markdown
---
|
|
title: "Chapter 310: Darkness"
|
|
slug: "ch-310"
|
|
novel: "Dimensional Keeper: All My Skills Are at Level 100"
|
|
number: 310
|
|
views: 0
|
|
likes: 0
|
|
wordCount: 1259
|
|
createdAt: "2026-04-13"
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
Max clenched his fists.
|
|
|
|
Not out of anger.
|
|
|
|
Not even fear.
|
|
|
|
But focus.
|
|
|
|
If something like that was possible here… then anything was.
|
|
|
|
The Mourning Depths had just reminded them all—
|
|
|
|
They weren't hunters.
|
|
|
|
They were prey.
|
|
|
|
Amara's voice echoed gently in Old Man Grey's mind.
|
|
|
|
Not with panic. Not with fear.
|
|
|
|
But with the calm sharpness of someone trying to understand death before it claimed another.
|
|
|
|
"Sir Grey… what was that?"
|
|
|
|
For a moment—he didn't answer.
|
|
|
|
His eyes were still locked on the ashes.
|
|
|
|
His grip on the crescent sickle trembled—just a little.
|
|
|
|
Then, with a vital essence transmission of his own, he finally spoke.
|
|
|
|
And the weight of his words hit like a stone tossed into still water.
|
|
|
|
"I'm… ashamed to say it," he began, slowly.
|
|
|
|
"But this is the first time I've seen something like this."
|
|
|
|
He glanced into the fog. His brows deeply furrowed.
|
|
|
|
"That gray shadow from before… based on my experience, it was likely just a demonic ash fly. A minor creature. Something born from condensed infernal energy. Weak. Just a few hundred years old."
|
|
|
|
Max, Amara, and the others listened in through the shared essence transmission—
|
|
|
|
silent.
|
|
|
|
The air itself had gone still.
|
|
|
|
"But that death—"
|
|
|
|
He hesitated.
|
|
|
|
Then his voice lowered further, a whisper wrapped in fear.
|
|
|
|
"That was not caused by the fly. I believe the mana storm just now—the one unleashed by that reckless fool—must've stirred something far more ancient."
|
|
|
|
"An infernal being that was in deep slumber."
|
|
|
|
The moment that phrase reached their minds—
|
|
|
|
"a sleeping infernal being"—
|
|
|
|
Everyone felt it.
|
|
|
|
That cold grip at the back of their necks.
|
|
|
|
A sense that something had looked directly at them, then chosen to look away…
|
|
|
|
For now.
|
|
|
|
Could it be a being flung outward during the eruption?
|
|
|
|
One of the hidden ones that dwelled nearer the core, but now had drifted too far forward…
|
|
|
|
Something that had no form, no sound, no soul?
|
|
|
|
Something that saw disturbance as provocation?
|
|
|
|
If that was true—
|
|
|
|
if the mana surge had roused it—
|
|
|
|
Then the red-haired genius hadn't just died.
|
|
|
|
He'd opened a gate.
|
|
|
|
And something had stepped to its edge.
|
|
|
|
They were all geniuses.
|
|
|
|
Prodigies from the major regions.
|
|
|
|
Users of Techniques.
|
|
|
|
Comprehenders of Aura.
|
|
|
|
Killers, heroes, monsters in their own right.
|
|
|
|
But none of them—none—were arrogant enough to believe they could fight an invisible, ancient, silent being that could erase someone without even appearing.
|
|
|
|
Not even Max.
|
|
|
|
Not Amara.
|
|
|
|
Max's mind was racing.
|
|
|
|
The image of the red-haired genius melting into rot and blood replayed in his mind—again and again. He'd seen people die. He'd killed people himself.
|
|
|
|
But that wasn't death.
|
|
|
|
That was erasure.
|
|
|
|
Something wrong had awakened. Something ancient, something not meant to wake.
|
|
|
|
And so, he called out the only being that might have a sliver of insight.
|
|
|
|
"Blob… what the hell is going on here?"
|
|
|
|
Blob was quiet for a moment.
|
|
|
|
A rare thing.
|
|
|
|
Then, slowly, its voice echoed in Max's mind, low and distant—
|
|
|
|
As if dredging up memories buried in time.
|
|
|
|
"I can't say for certain…" Blob admitted.
|
|
|
|
"But I can make a guess."
|
|
|
|
Max stayed silent, listening.
|
|
|
|
"I think," Blob continued,
|
|
|
|
"there's something buried deep under this place. Something ancient. Possibly… someone who practiced blood demon techniques, or perhaps a monstrous beast of vicious nature—sealed, long ago. Something the world itself tried to forget."
|
|
|
|
Max's breath caught.
|
|
|
|
He remembered what Klaus had said—
|
|
|
|
About the Bone Frames.
|
|
|
|
Dead experts. Condensed by infernal energy.
|
|
|
|
Their corpses twisted into strange artifacts.
|
|
|
|
He'd accepted that.
|
|
|
|
But now Blob was saying something worse—
|
|
|
|
that even Bone Frames had levels.
|
|
|
|
And the one that might be buried here…
|
|
|
|
Was far beyond anything the Lower Domain had ever seen.
|
|
|
|
Blob's voice lowered, becoming grim.
|
|
|
|
"If we divide Bone Frames into low, middle, and high grade…"
|
|
|
|
"The one you're using now, Max, is barely a low grade."
|
|
|
|
That stunned Max.
|
|
|
|
His current Bone Frame was already incredible by any standard.
|
|
|
|
Dense infernal energy.
|
|
|
|
Absorption abilities.
|
|
|
|
Increased comprehension.
|
|
|
|
And it was only low grade?
|
|
|
|
"Even Klaus probably hasn't seen a middle grade one," Blob continued.
|
|
|
|
"And as for the high grade…"
|
|
|
|
A pause.
|
|
|
|
"I doubt even the Young Monarch has touched one."
|
|
|
|
Then, the real truth came.
|
|
|
|
"The highest grade Bone Frames… may have intelligence."
|
|
|
|
Max blinked.
|
|
|
|
"You mean they're alive?"
|
|
|
|
"Not alive… but aware. Conscious in a way.
|
|
|
|
Enough to choose who can touch them. Enough to… retaliate."
|
|
|
|
That was why the red-haired youth died.
|
|
|
|
Not because he was targeted.
|
|
|
|
Not because he was weak.
|
|
|
|
Because he made too much noise near something that wasn't meant to be disturbed.
|
|
|
|
Something that—even in death—was watching.
|
|
|
|
Blob's voice turned serious.
|
|
|
|
"I don't know what exactly is under us… but I do know one thing."
|
|
|
|
"It doesn't want to be found."
|
|
|
|
"And unless you have an ancient destiny carved into your soul, something the heavens themselves can't ignore—you will not leave with whatever lies buried here."
|
|
|
|
Blob's final warning echoed like a death sentence.
|
|
|
|
"Forget it, Max. This is not something we can handle."
|
|
|
|
"The deeper we go, the more we're walking into a tomb… not just theirs."
|
|
|
|
"But ours."
|
|
|
|
Max didn't need more words from Blob.
|
|
|
|
The warning was clear—etched into instinct.
|
|
|
|
You don't poke at things that dream in silence.
|
|
|
|
You don't try to dig up the bones of a thing that made even death itself step back.
|
|
|
|
Supreme expert?
|
|
|
|
Vicious beast?
|
|
|
|
He didn't care.
|
|
|
|
All that mattered now… was leaving this cursed patch of ground alive.
|
|
|
|
As for infernal demon tattoo?
|
|
|
|
Of course he wanted it.
|
|
|
|
More power.
|
|
|
|
More control.
|
|
|
|
More authority.
|
|
|
|
But not like this.
|
|
|
|
Not by gambling against something he couldn't see, couldn't understand, couldn't fight.
|
|
|
|
There would be more opportunities.
|
|
|
|
But there would never be another Max.
|
|
|
|
---
|
|
|
|
No one moved.
|
|
|
|
For sixty long minutes, they stood like statues—each one drenched in cold sweat, muscles aching, bladders screaming, but not one dared to shift their stance.
|
|
|
|
The fog grew thicker, wrapping around ankles, climbing up calves, coiling like a living thing.
|
|
|
|
Light dimmed until the sky above was nothing more than a smeared charcoal haze.
|
|
|
|
Yet still…
|
|
|
|
Nothing happened.
|
|
|
|
No shrieks.
|
|
|
|
No movement.
|
|
|
|
No pressure.
|
|
|
|
Just silence.
|
|
|
|
And somehow,
|
|
|
|
that was worse.
|
|
|
|
A few began to hope.
|
|
|
|
Not out loud—never out loud.
|
|
|
|
But it was there, that fragile belief:
|
|
|
|
'Maybe it's gone.'
|
|
|
|
'Maybe it just wanted one life.'
|
|
|
|
'Maybe we're safe.'
|
|
|
|
Max didn't share it.
|
|
|
|
Survivor's instinct told him otherwise.
|
|
|
|
This wasn't over.
|
|
|
|
Not by a long shot.
|
|
|
|
Old Man Grey's voice finally came.
|
|
|
|
Low. Sharp.
|
|
|
|
Almost a whisper.
|
|
|
|
"Let's retreat first…"
|
|
|
|
"Everyone, do not make any noise."
|
|
|
|
Max didn't need to be told twice.
|
|
|
|
Neither did anyone else.
|
|
|
|
No arguments.
|
|
|
|
No sarcasm.
|
|
|
|
No bravado.
|
|
|
|
They moved.
|
|
|
|
Each step measured.
|
|
|
|
Controlled.
|
|
|
|
Carefully placed on the dark stone.
|
|
|
|
Weapons remained drawn, but no one dared let their mana flare.
|
|
|
|
No one breathed too deeply.
|
|
|
|
Even the sound of cloth rustling as they moved felt dangerous.
|
|
|
|
"I feel that… it's becoming more and more dark…"
|
|
|
|
The voice came through the vital essence transmission—quiet, strained, as if the speaker was afraid even his thoughts might be heard by something out there.
|
|
|
|
The moment the words echoed into their minds—everyone noticed it.
|
|
|
|
The fog.
|
|
|
|
It had thickened.
|
|
|
|
No—
|
|
|
|
it had changed.
|
|
|
|
It wasn't just fog anymore.
|
|
|
|
It had weight. Density.
|
|
|
|
Like something trying to press down on them from every direction.
|
|
|
|
They could barely see five feet ahead.
|
|
|
|
And the light—
|
|
|
|
The only source of it in the Mourning Depths, those distant glowing stars above—
|
|
|
|
Were gone.
|
|
|
|
Not faded.
|
|
|
|
Gone.
|
|
|
|
Swallowed. |