"Oh~"
Looking out at the vast ocean, Bell couldn’t help but smile.
"A barrier spread across the whole floor, reshaping the space inside it... anchoring a separate world within this barrier, huh?"
"Compared to the 89th floor, the scale’s even larger."
Bell tilted his head back to study the sky. Admiration mixed with sothing odd in his expression.
"The fake sky has beco a real one. Sure enough, they constructed it using the thod of building space ’outside the world’."
"But..."
Bell casually brushed his hand through the air. Ripples shimred across the space around them.
"So it really is like this."
At first it had only been a guess, but now Bell was certain.
The spatial structure of this floor was extrely unstable.
Ordinary adventurers might not be able to manipulate space, but for soone with spatial affinity, this entire place could beco a giant spatial bomb with just the slightest disturbance.
The whole floor would likely be swallowed up in an instant.
Unlike ordinary explosives, a spatial bomb shatters the space itself. Its true power lies in the devouring pull of broken space and the storms raging within the rifts.
It wouldn’t even make much noise, but the entire floor would be wiped clean.
Is this thing trying to go down with ? Bell couldn’t help having that strange thought.
But he shook his head right away.
’A spatial bomb wouldn’t affect much anyway.’
As long as you created a space with matching frequency, you wouldn’t be hard.
Only space can restrain space.
Of course, that was only part of the reason.
’Dungeon isn’t that smart.’
The Dungeon was nothing more than a program following preset rules. It had no self-awareness, so it couldn’t possibly co up with a plan to drag an Adventurer down with it.
’If it were that clever, it wouldn’t try to deal with using sothing this dumb.’
Hurting the enemy almost not at all, but destroying itself completely... even a gambler with red eyes wouldn’t choose that.
"So it just... failed to construct this place properly?"
Bell’s expression grew stranger.
Was the Dungeon’s craftsmanship really this low?
This was the first ti Bell had directly sensed the overwhelming gap between himself and the Dungeon.
It was like a player who’d never touched ranked suddenly getting matched against five King-tier players—then effortlessly scoring a pentakill on all five. Anyone would start questioning whether those Kings were legitimate.
He forcibly smoothed out the doubts in his heart. The feeling of suddenly being placed several ranks too high was... uncomfortable.
"Since this space is a barrier-generated pocket realm, then using its spatial feedback to find those two shouldn’t be hard."
He easily located the node of the space. Bell inscribed his Runes into the void and temporarily took control of the area.
"...So that’s how it is."
Images flashed across Bell’s eyes—this was the full scenery of the 90th floor, a world truly wrapped in ocean.
The sight left Bell a little stunned.
He had underestimated it—thinking this floor was just a poorly constructed barrier space with terrible stability.
Only after gaining temporary control and seeing the whole layout did Bell abandon that naïve, arrogant assumption.
"Heh~ Narrow understanding really does breed arrogance."
"If humanity ever dies out, it’ll be because of its own narrow-minded pride."
"I can’t afford to make that mistake."
Bell mocked himself harshly for that mont of blind arrogance, turning the lesson into fuel for growth.
He might be Pride, yet he possessed no room for Pride.
Carelessness would leave him wide open.
Carelessness would send him falling straight into the abyss.
Bell stripped away the excess emotions he’d felt monts ago. Only caution would allow him to keep advancing.
Even now, he had no foundation for so-called "Pride."
"Teacher..."
Ais’s voice carried a worried tremor, but Bell only smiled and shook his head, stepping forward once again.
"Don’t worry, Ais."
"Seeing a wider world and recognizing my own narrowness—I’ve already moved beyond where I was a mont ago."
With his mindset stepping forward again, Bell felt his vision expand—seeing farther, broader than before. And it wasn’t an illusion.
In his red eyes, an image of the ocean flashed past... and then settled on a small, hidden island.
Two figures stood upon it, unmoving.
"Found them."
The space before him shattered like glass, revealing the scene Bell had just perceived.
"Only this once... I can feel how effortless it would be to step across that line."
He could already glimpse the scenery beyond that step.
Bell knew this sensation ca from how long he had been brushing against that boundary.
That strange certainty—that he could step over at any mont—only grew stronger.
’Not yet.’
Bell forcibly suppressed that overwhelming impulse.
He didn’t know why the feeling surged so strongly now, but the ti wasn’t right.
With his restraint, the restless surge in his chest slowly settled.
Now, it was ti to et the two gatekeepers standing before Level 9.
Guiding Ais through the fractured space, Bell stepped onto the island. Two figures waited ahead—standing there as if expecting them all along.
The broken space behind them sealed itself.
The island was lush and vibrant, the greenery thick and refreshing. The air was rich, almost intoxicatingly clean.
"...Haa."
Ais’s gaze burned into the two figures standing before her. Were it not for her teacher’s lessons holding her steady, she might have already lost control of her breathing.
The crisp air soothed her racing heart.
"I’m several years late. Sorry."
"But at last... I finally have the right to stand before you."
"Mom. Dad."
The two figures, wooden and puppet-like, showed a montary flicker of awareness. But that spark was quickly swallowed by blankness again.
Their only response was the stances they had prepared.
Ais understood.
She reached into her waist pouch and drew the Blade of Desperate, fully ready.
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