The first sign of trouble wasn’t something I could see.
It was a sound.
A deep, warbling vibration rolled through the cavern like distant thunder—low, resonant, and strange enough to rattle straight through my chest. It wasn’t a growl. Not exactly. It wasn’t even really a sound. More like a pressure. A presence.
An ambient hum that sank into my bones and coiled behind my eyes like the start of a migraine I really didn’t have time for.
I froze mid-step.
My hand tightened around my dagger. My breath caught. Every instinct screamed at me to move, but I didn’t. I couldn’t.
Then I saw them.
Echo Hounds.
They slipped out of the shadows like ghosts, their four-legged forms made of shifting black mist, limbs flickering as if caught between frames. They looked almost canine—if canines were born from nightmares and sound waves. Hollow pits where eyes should’ve been. Ribcages that pulsed like speakers. Their bodies trembled with waves of noise I could feel more than hear, vibrating just beneath my skin.
The moment I stepped forward, they reacted.
Not with a glance.
They didn’t have eyes.
They listened.
And then, all at once, they swarmed.
They darted across the stone like smoke caught in a storm, circling wide, weaving through columns of rock and broken crystal. I turned with them, daggers raised, but the sound was disorienting. I heard one to my left.
No—behind me.
Wait—above?
Shit.
I braced myself as one of them lunged from the gloom, its body coalescing midair, jaws snapping wide in total silence. I rolled just in time, barely avoiding a bite that would’ve taken my head clean off.
But then came the pulse.
A sonic blast erupted from the hound’s core, slamming into me like a war drum to the chest. My ears rang instantly, vision blurring, the whole cavern pitching sideways.
I staggered, fighting to stay on my feet as another ripple passed through me.
Think. They weren’t tracking movement. Not visually.
They were bouncing sound.
Which meant…
I stopped moving.
Completely.
Breath low. Steps frozen.
The Echo Hounds flickered, pacing, confused. They didn’t charge. They didn’t strike.
They waited.
One tilted its head, warbling a low-frequency tone into the air. The echo washed past me and continued deeper into the tunnel.
It thought I was somewhere else.
That was my opening.
I struck.
Twist the Blade activated as I plunged my dagger into the nearest hound’s side, the weapon sliding into its semi-formed mass with shocking ease. I twisted, carving deep, and the creature convulsed violently, mist spiraling outward as its body collapsed inward and vanished into the air.
That was one.
The others reacted immediately, screeching—not with voices, but with pressure. A second pulse hit me dead on, this one sharper, more focused.
I stumbled, ears ringing again, pain flaring through my chest. It felt like being punched from the inside out.
I couldn’t win like this. I needed to see them. Really see them. No flickers, no guesswork.
And then I remembered.
The glow-dust.
I yanked the vial from my belt and hurled it into the air.
Golden powder exploded in a cloud, catching on invisible eddies and current shifts. The dust didn’t follow echoes. It ignored the distortions.
It clung to them.
Suddenly, the Echo Hounds were outlined in soft, shimmering gold—no more flickering shadows, no more guessing where the real ones were.
They were visible now.
Clear as day.
And about to get wrecked.
One lunged, jaws wide again. I sidestepped fast, dropping low, then drove my dagger straight into its side. It dispersed into mist like the first—silent, weightless, gone before it hit the ground.
Two left.
One growled, skittering sideways, trying to reposition.
I didn’t wait.
I moved, rolling under its sonic pulse, popping up behind it and slashing clean across its throat. Another burst of shimmered mist.
Gone.
The last one hesitated.
It didn’t attack.
It ran.
Oh, no you don’t.
I flicked a dagger, fast and clean, muscle memory taking over.
The blade cut through the dusty air and struck home. For a split second, the creature held its form—like it might shrug it off.
Then it disintegrated.
Silence fell.
Not the creepy silence from before—this was real. Still. Final.
I stood there for a moment, chest rising and falling, ears still ringing, every muscle buzzing with residual adrenaline.
Something fell from the final hounds form.
[Sound-Dampening Charm]
A minor trinket that reduces the sound made by your footsteps.
I reached down and picked it up.
A small silver charm, maybe half the size of a coin, engraved with fine glyphs that pulsed faintly in the gloom.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Combined with my Boots of the Whispering Wind, this charm made me—what? Ninety percent ghost? Ninety-five?
I clipped it to my belt, grinning to myself as I stretched out my shoulder.
“Alright,” I muttered, surveying the empty cavern. “That was officially the worst game of hide and seek I’ve ever played.”
I took a long, steadying breath.
The deeper I went, the worse this place got.
But the fights weren’t just making me sore—they were making me stronger.
And right now?
That was the only goal I had in mind.
I rechecked my gear, adjusted my cloak, and slipped deeper into the tunnels—quieter than ever.
Because the real danger?
Was still ahead.
 
I rubbed my ears, wincing at the lingering ring still bouncing around inside my skull. Echo Hounds were officially on the list of things I never wanted to see again—not that I had a favorite kind of monster, but if I did? It sure as hell wouldn’t be sentient fog that turned my brain into a busted xylophone.
Still, I was alive.
Barely.
Shaking off the worst of the sonic hangover, I kept moving, following the only path deeper into the dungeon. The narrow tunnel slowly widened, the low-hanging ceiling giving way to something much, much larger.
And the second I stepped into the open, I knew.
Boss room.
The space was massive—easily the biggest chamber I’d seen so far. The walls stretched high into the shadows, studded with jagged crystalline formations that jutted out like frozen lightning. They pulsed with a soft, inner light, casting strange glows across the cavern in shifting hues of blue and violet.
A low, harmonic hum vibrated through the air—subtle, but unmistakable.
The dungeon was singing.
Because sure. That’s exactly what you want before a boss fight. A creepy little concert.
I slowed my pace, keeping my daggers loose in my hands, heart starting to race again. Every instinct I had screamed that something was off.
Too quiet.
Too… staged.
And then the ground started shaking.
I stumbled, barely catching my balance as the floor cracked apart. A massive chitinous shape exploded upward, flinging shards of crystal in every direction. The shockwave threw dust into the air, blinding me for a second.
I staggered back, raising my weapons.
And then I saw it.
A centipede-like monster, easily the size of a carriage, reared up on a dozen blade-like legs. Its body was segmented and plated in jagged, iridescent crystal. Its limbs clicked against the stone, each one ending in a curved, scythe-like claw. The many eyes across its head locked onto me, glowing faintly from within.
 
A system notification flashed in front of me, glowing with ominous certainty.
 
[The Crystalline Devourer]
 
Fantastic.
The creature loomed in front of me, towering and twitching like something out of a fever dream. Its segmented body gleamed with jagged, translucent armor, each plate shifting with faint pulses of violet energy. Its legs—dozens of them—snapped into place with a sickening, rhythmic click, like a blade being sheathed over and over again. And its face? If you could call it that—was a mass of layered mandibles, serrated and twitching. It had a glowing stone deep within the center of its head, pulsing in time with the low hum that filled the chamber.
Then it opened its jaws.
A shriek ripped through the cavern—a warbling, glass-shattering scream that felt like it was coming from inside my skull. The crystals embedded in the walls vibrated in response, echoing the frequency until I thought my eardrums were about to burst.
I stumbled back, clutching one side of my head. “Awesome,” I hissed. “Invisible stalkers, sonic hell-hounds, and now a dungeon boss that sounds like a waking nightmare. Great day.”
But whining wasn’t going to help. I rolled my shoulders, grounding my stance. My daggers hummed faintly in my hands in response to the beasts squeals.
No running.
No hiding.
This thing was between me and the exit. If I wanted to leave stronger—and not in pieces, I had to win.
 
Its body shimmered, and then—just like that—it vanished. One second it was there. The next? Gone. Like it had melted into the crystals around the chamber.
I spun, heart hammering in my chest, scanning the walls for any sign of movement. Light twisted strangely across the surfaces. Shadows danced where they shouldn’t.
It was inside the crystal.
Phasing.
The humming intensified.
A flicker to my right.
I dropped low—instinct, not strategy—as the Devourer exploded out of the wall like a cannonball, razor limbs slicing downward. I rolled aside just in time, its talons slamming into the stone where my torso had been a second earlier, sending chips of rock flying.
It turned with inhuman speed. No delay. No cooldown. Just relentless fury.
A scythe-like limb arced toward my chest.
I twisted, pivoting off my back foot and—
Daggerstorm.
One dagger flew. Then a second, shadow-bound twin followed like a mirrored echo. Both slammed into its carapace, one embedding shallowly, the other deflecting off with a sharp ping.
The Devourer shrieked, more vibration than sound, and vanished again—right back into the crystal.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I breathed, already repositioning.
Then came the shards.
Dozens of razor-edged fragments burst from the walls, launched in all directions like enchanted shrapnel. I dove into a roll, narrowly avoiding the first wave. The second came from the side—too fast. One shard slashed across my upper arm, tearing through cloth and skin.
Pain flared white-hot.
I watched as my HP plummeted.
I staggered.
Then—pulse.
A surge of power rushed through me as Second Wind activated, sealing the wound almost instantly. Stamina flooded back into my limbs. The pain receded like a wave pulling back from shore.
“Oh,” I whispered, flexing my arm. “I forgot about that.”
But I didn’t have time to celebrate.
The humming grew louder again.
It was coming back.
I stood still, watching—waiting for that tell. That flicker. That moment where reality hesitated.
There.
Top-left cluster. Slight lag before the pulse.
I Shadow Stepped—vanishing from the ground and reappearing in mid-air above it, my momentum twisting into a downward dive.
The Devourer launched from the wall at the same time, but it was too late. I was already there.
Both daggers came down, angled and driving hard. The blades pierced straight into its back, right at the joint where its upper plating met the central body. The armor cracked. One blade slid deeper, scraping against something soft beneath.
The Devourer shrieked.
It thrashed, flinging me away like a ragdoll. I hit the ground hard, skidding across jagged stone, pain flaring along my side—but I scrambled up, bleeding and grinning.
I’d hurt it.
The pulse in its core flickered erratically and its movements slowed.
It was panicking.
And that meant it was vulnerable.
I closed the distance before it could vanish again, lunging forward just as it tried to phase into the wall.
Twist the Blade activated the second my dagger found flesh.
I drove it into the crack I’d made earlier, twisting hard. The Devourer convulsed, its whole body shaking violently. Its limbs slammed against the floor and ceiling, trying to throw me off.
I didn’t let go.
I pulled my second dagger and stabbed deep into the core, right below the pulsating light in its skull. This time, the blade sank all the way in.
The stone shattered.
The Devourer shrieked one final time—an unearthly, keening wail that cracked several of the crystals along the cavern walls. Its body spasmed… then froze.
And began to fall apart.
The segments broke down into shimmering dust, collapsing inward and scattering across the stone floor like sand in a storm.
The humming stopped.
Silence returned.
And just like before, I was all alone once more.
Standing in the middle of the cratered, crystal-ridden battlefield, breathing like I’d just sprinted up a mountain.
I straightened slowly, panting. My entire body was trembling from the battle. Scratches burned across my arms. My knuckles were bleeding. My clothes were torn.
But I was still here.
Still standing.
And when the dust cleared…
A soft glow flickered ahead.
A treasure chest.
Nice.
I wiped the sweat from my brow, chuckled, and staggered toward it.
“If this thing doesn’t have something amazing inside,” I muttered hoarsely, “I swear to the gods, I’m flipping it over and wearing it as a helmet.”
Time to see what I’d earned.
 
I stepped toward the chest, letting myself relax for the first time in a while. My breath was finally beginning to slow after what had to be the most stressful fight of my life. My arms ached. My back hurt. My heartbeat was still playing a drum solo against my ribs.
But the Crystalline Devourer was gone.
I kneeled beside the chest, letting my fingers curl around the cool metal lid. For a second, I hesitated—because let’s be honest, with my luck? This thing had at least a 50% chance of exploding, triggering a trap, or being full of angry, venomous snakes.
I pulled anyway.
The hinges creaked open with a low groan that definitely sounded like it belonged in a horror story… but no trap sprang, no poison dart fired, and most importantly?
No snakes.
Just loot.
The glow of gold spilled upward, casting a soft light across the chamber. At the top of the pile sat a stack of gleaming coins—two hundred, according to the system prompt. A small fortune by my standards. Enough to actually call it savings instead of “please-don’t-let-me-starve” money.
I let out a low whistle. “Okay, that’s a win.”
But the real prize was tucked beneath the gold.
A pendant.
Rough crystal, jagged around the edges, glowing faintly from within—just like the walls of the cavern. It pulsed with quiet energy, cool against my palm. A silver chain wrapped around it like ivy clinging to stone.
[Crystalline Amulet of Reinforcement]
Reduces all slashing damage taken by 50%.
I stared at it for a beat.
Then laughed.
“That would have been really useful a few moments ago.”
 
I slipped the chain around my neck, letting the amulet settle against my chest. A faint pulse rolled through me—subtle, like my skin had just hardened by half a millimeter. I didn’t feel invincible, but I definitely felt… tougher.
Which, all things considered, was an excellent start.
At the bottom of the chest, right where I expected them, sat three healing potions. Bright red, full, and looking absolutely delicious. I scooped them up without thinking, tucking two of them into my void bag and downed the other.
Because let’s be real—I was absolutely going to need those later.
With the chest finally emptied, I rose to my feet, stretching out the stiffness in my back. The weight of exhaustion pulled at me, but beneath it?
Satisfaction.
I’d survived.
I’d gotten stronger.
And between the ring and the amulet?
Not a bad haul.
Not a bad day.
Now all I had to do was make it out of here alive.
Easy, right?