Monarch Chapter 53

Chapter 53

The door creaked open with a slow, uneven groan.

Rayne kept his sword raised as he looked into the doorway, shoulders tense, bracing himself for seeing a big, ugly bug monster with claws that could rip his head off easily.

But there was nothing.

He blinked. The room beyond him was… empty.

There wasn't even a hint of a shadow or a monster hiding.

The glowstones lining the ceiling cast a pale, steady light over smooth stone walls and a floor untouched by blood, footprints, or debris. No cocoons. No webs. No corpses. Not even scratch marks.

Rayne craned his neck left, then right, scanning every corner.

Still, he saw nothing.

“Don't tell me there are invisible bug monsters too?” He frowned, but even if that was the case, there would at least be signs of a monster living here.

But that wasn't the case.

A part of him told him that it was some sort of trap. There was no way there would be an empty dungeon room on the lowest level. But there was no way to confirm that without entering the room.

In the end, the risk didn't seem worth it, and he stepped back.

There would be other rooms around, and he would rather face a visible enemy than an invisible one. Hence, Rayne moved, holding his sword at his side and making his way through the tunnel.

Ten minutes later, he chanced upon another room, but when he opened it, the same empty room faced him.

“What's going on here?” he muttered.

Just like the last one, this one was completely devoid of any monster or signs that one was here before. He stuck to his spot, his thoughts swirling into confusion.

All the rooms they had visited had different types of monsters. So what was the chance that two rooms would have monsters that could go completely invisible?

He wasn't sure, but standing in one place wasn't going to do him any good.

Rayne started walking again, the armour feeling heavier and heavier as he went. Fortunately, there were no monsters around this part of the tunnel. And he managed to find another door soon.

But as he opened it again, the same empty room stared back at him. He let out a grunt of frustration, craning his neck to check the interior, but it was really empty.

At this point, Rayne was completely sure that even if he moved to look for another room, it would be empty too. There was something going on, and he couldn't figure it out without getting inside the room.

“Okay, it can be a trap and I lose my head, or I keep wandering and coming across empty rooms.”

Both of the choices sounded awful to Rayne.

In the end, he took a breath and realized that he just couldn't walk any longer with the armour weighing down on him. And he might even get injured if he came across more undead.

He needed rest, and a dungeon room was the only place he could relax.

Rayne deliberated and hesitated for a minute before deciding to step inside. None of the dungeon room monsters had been above level 30 till now, and even on this floor, they doubted they would be over level 40.

He was confident he could deal with it.

He stepped inside slowly, each footfall echoing like he was trespassing somewhere he shouldn’t. His fingers tightened around the sword hilt as he edged along the wall, half-expecting a monster to appear out of nowhere or burst out of the floor.

But the room was silent.

He circled the whole chamber—checking behind the low stone ledges, running his hand across the wall for hidden seams, even glancing up several times to make sure nothing hung above him.

Still nothing.

That unsettled him more than a monster would have. Dungeon rooms were never empty until they were cleared, and he had seen no signs of anyone else on this level.

Yet here in the room, there was only air and stone.

“What the hell is this floor?” Rayne muttered under his breath.

His heartbeat remained high as he moved toward the center of the room. He half expected the door to slam shut behind him, for spikes to rise from the ground, for some abomination to crawl out from a shadow.

But the silence stayed.

After several long minutes of creeping around like a paranoid cat, nothing happened. No ambush. No shifting noises. No waiting predator.

Eventually, Rayne let out a long, ragged breath.

He backed up against the far wall, letting his body slide down until he sat on the cold floor. His muscles felt molten, every limb heavy from running, fighting, drowning, and walking gods knew how long through tunnels.

He kept his sword in one hand, resting across his lap in case something sprang up. But if anything had to, it would have already attacked him.

Still, Rayne kept his armour on as he rested. He didn't dare sleep, but just laying down his body and resting his limbs did a lot of good. [Lesser Regeneration] was still working on healing his wounds and bruises, and hopefully the rest would help with that.

He let out a deep breath, hoping that this dungeon wouldn't be his graveyard.

***

Rayne woke with a sharp inhale, eyes snapping open, hand already tightening around his sword hilt before he even remembered where he was.

He blinked as the ceiling of the dungeon room came into view.

His back ached from sleeping against stone, and his neck protested as he pushed himself upright. For a moment, he sat there, blinking away the last haze of sleep, looking around for any signs of monsters.

Nothing. The room was the same as before.

There was only the faint hum of glowstones overhead. He hadn't even realized when he felt asleep. He recalled laying down in vigilance for an hour or two, but sleep had caught up with him in the end.

Rayne stretched, joints popping one after another. His shoulders cracked loudly, and he winced as cold air rushed under the battered plates of his armour.

He raised his head to take another look at the room, finally accepting that the room was really empty. A monster would have actually killed him in sleep.

The idea felt strange, and he wondered if large dungeons simply had empty rooms. But after getting chased by the chimera through the tunnels and drowning in a river, he wasn’t going to complain about a little luck.

Rayne pushed himself fully to his feet and exhaled. His armour squelched unpleasantly, a reminder that most of it was still soaked through. The weight made every step feel like he was carrying another person on his shoulders.

“Alright… this isn’t going to work.”

He unbuckled the heavier plates—pauldrons, chestplate, the remaining vambrace—and laid them out on the driest patch of floor he could find. Water dripped steadily from each piece, pooling into an ugly puddle. He spread them out, hoping the glowstones’ dim warmth would dry them faster.

What he kept on was minimal: padded under-armor, the lighter leather pieces, and his swordbelt. It wasn’t much protection, but moving without all the extra weight felt like breathing again.

He rolled his shoulders, stretched his legs, and bounced lightly on his heels. His wound had healed, but his body still hurt in a few places. Though, it was bearable with his [Pain Tolerance] skill.

He glanced back at the scattered armour, and deliberated on his next step.

Rayne had no food or water on him, and although he could drink from the water, he still needed to find edible monsters in case he was stuck here for days—even weeks.

That meant exploring and mapping out the place.

With the room being completely safe, he could always run here if he saw the chimera or any other strong monster he couldn't handle. That sounded like a decent plan.

Rayne stayed in the room for ten more minutes, stretching his body and practicing some sword forms before he stepped toward the door, opened it up and entered the tunnel.

There were no monsters in sight, but he knew there would be some ahead.

“Need to make sure I find something to eat,” he said to himself and started walking through the tunnel.

With no armour to bog him down, Rayne took quick steps, keeping an eye on the wall and floor for any claw marks or footsteps, but for a while, there was nothing.

He saw another dungeon room after ten minutes, and once again, it was empty. This time, Rayne didn't hesitate and entered it.

He circled inside and inspected everything, but it was identical to the last three. No monsters, no signs. Just an empty room.

It gave weight to his theory that someone had cleared out the dungeon. And if that was true, it was at least a month back. It was common knowledge that unlike the common monsters, room bosses normally took around a month for a dungeon to respawn.

If someone had cleared it, they would have started from the first level, and that level had bosses. So, they had already respawned, and the dungeon core was probably allocating its energy to do the same for the other levels.

By how clean the rooms looked, it certainly made sense since the dungeon core would move to repair the damage from the presumed battles first.

But who could it be?

It couldn't be anyone from the army. Maybe only Commander Evans would be strong enough to take on a whole dungeon, but he obviously hadn't come here. The captains would never enter without a proper squad and he had heard nothing of that.

And if it was anyone from the army, Axel's squad would have never been asked to map and clear out the first level.

Rayne didn't know if he was thinking in the right direction, but if he was, it was someone who was not connected to the army. All of it was a mystery that he wanted answers to, but had zero clue on how to even progress.

So, once he checked the room, he decided to move on ahead.

Maybe he would find out about it as he explored the rest of the level.

The next hour went by quietly. Rayne kept to the walls, covering a lot of distance and coming across another empty dungeon room. Unfortunately, he didn't find any monster marks, but with the stone floor, it was hard to track them either way.

The deeper he went, the bigger the dungeon felt. He saw a few forks in the tunnel too, but didn't venture there. A straight path was far better in case he needed to run back.

Then he heard a scraping noise, like metal dragging across stone.

Rayne lifted his sword and paused immediately, his eyes catching figures moving toward him.

Three undead.

Unlike the pair he had fought, all of them were armed.

The first held a short sword that looked chipped, but still sharp enough to pierce human flesh. Its eyes glowed faintly, and its mouth hung open, stringy bits of something still dangling between its teeth.

The second carried a broken spear shaft, jagged at one end, its skull cracked in two places but somehow still managing to glare at him.

And the third—

The third was different.

It stood a shoulder above the both of them and its flesh was far less decayed than the other two. If not for the light, Rayne could have easily mistaken it for a human. And it carried an axe.

A heavy, iron axe with half the handle snapped off, but still enough to cleave bone.

All three snapped their heads toward him the moment they saw him.

Rayne didn’t wait.

He sprinted.

His blade flashed, cutting down the sword-wielder first. One clean slash across its neck and the head spun off. It hit the stone with a crack and he stomped over it to make sure it stayed dead.

Before the other two could counterattack, Rayne pivoted, driving his knee into the spear-wielder’s chest. It slammed back into the wall, wheezing out a wet groan. Rayne didn’t give it another chance—he stabbed it through the skull, pinning it into the stone for a half-second before yanking his blade free.

Notifications immediately rang out in his mind, and he grinned.

Two down.

The axe-wielding undead made a move the next second. It rushed, heavy footsteps pounding on stone, and raised its weapon in an overhead strike.

Rayne barely ducked as the weapon smashed into the ground, spraying stone shards and a burst of dust into the air. The shockwave rattled Rayne’s bones.

“Shit!”

He parried the next swing. The impact numbed his arm instantly. The undead pushed forward with inhuman force, the axe grinding inches from Rayne’s cheek.

Rayne twisted, letting the momentum slide past him, and slashed at its ribs. The blade cut deep, but the undead didn’t even react—just swung the axe sideways.

Rayne leaped back, boots skidding.

The monster charged again.

Rayne braced his sword with both hands. The axe came down like a boulder. Steel clashed, sparks flying as the weight nearly drove Rayne to his knees.

His muscles screamed.

But he held on, recalling his sessions with Jason.

Then he shoved forward with everything he had, slipping under the undead’s guard and ramming his blade upward through the jaw. The steel punched through rotten bone, out the top of the skull.

The undead spasmed once, hands twitching around the axe handle—

Then went still before dropping on the ground.

Rayne ripped his sword free, panting. He looked down at the undead with a frown. If he had been a little slow, the axe would have surely injured him. But as he was about to crouch to inspect the undeads, a notification appeared at the back of his mind.

He would have normally dismissed it to check later, but this time, it was different.

+1 point in Arcane.

Rayne blinked, unable to believe the words hovering in front of him. “Arcane…?”

He’d never gained that stat from a monster kill before. But it was undoubtedly there. He looked down at the undead which was finally losing its grip on the axe, realisation ringing inside his mind.

The undeads gave out the most rare stat of all.