SeTa stood at the edge of the fourth floor's threshold, staring down at what looked like a bottomless abyss. There were no walls. No path. Just a hovering platform of polished obsidian under his feet and a message from the System, glowing in ominous blue:
> [Floor 4 Challenge Initiated – Welcome to the Domain of the Forgotten Gravity] [Boss Entity: Gravael, the World's Burden] [Hazard Condition: Gravity Fluctuation. Strength Alone is a Death Wish.]
The air itself seemed dense, every breath pressing in on his chest. Below him, floating in the abyss like a drifting god, was a colossal humanoid figure made of fractured marble and iron. Chains of ancient stone floated around it in irregular patterns. Gravael—the physical manifestation of gravitational law gone rogue.
Floor 4 wasn't a dungeon. It was a physics-defying trial.
The System spoke once more:
> [No Safe Zone Detected. Field Stabilization Impossible. Proceed at Your Own Risk.]
SeTa narrowed his eyes and activated Inception EX. Its passive resonance now hummed with complexity after the Echo Clone upgrade. He layered a conceptual bubble of reduced density around his core, loosening the grip gravity had on his limbs.
It worked—partially. His feet hovered, weight easing. But his balance wavered.
> [Gravity Pulse Incoming – Directional Shift: Downward × 8]
The entire field slammed downward.
SeTa's body plummeted before he twisted midair and triggered Concept Layering: Weight Reduction + Vector Anchor. His fall slowed, twisting him sideways, then upward as he grabbed a passing stone chain.
He wasn't falling—he was riding the shift.
Gravael's hollow eyes flickered open, glowing with planetary runes.
A massive fist surged forward, ignoring inertia, snapping across the void with an impact that created a shockwave visible as ripples in space itself.
SeTa activated Echo Clone, releasing his earlier position as bait. The ghost copy took the brunt of the blow—disintegrated in a microsecond—but SeTa had already rebounded, flipping off the chain and landing on a slab that rotated in orbit around the boss.
His attacks couldn't be traditional here.
This floor required precision. Timing. Spatial logic.
He accessed his Rune Core, tracing a new seal into the air using condensed breath:
> Rune of Inverse Pull – a sigil that rewrote directional gravity within a five-meter field.
He attached it to a crystal dagger and hurled it directly beneath Gravael.
The rune activated. Suddenly, gravity inverted beneath the boss.
Gravael buckled. Its massive limbs floated upward awkwardly, struggling to adapt.
SeTa acted.
Using Blur Step, he zipped through the spatial rift, chain-hopping and redirecting his momentum until he arrived on the boss's floating back.
He carved into its shoulder joint with a blend of Null Motion and Bleed Sigils, then embedded another Inverse Pull Rune.
> [Weak Point Identified: Joint Stabilizers Severed. AP Efficiency Doubled for Coordinated Strikes.]
He grinned, planting one foot on the boss's collarbone and triggering a double-layered Inception Field:
> Concept Layering: Mass Implosion + Kinetic Echo
The combo compressed the air, condensing energy into a delay field that exploded two seconds later—right as Gravael tried to re-stabilize. The result?
Its entire upper torso jerked downward with twice the force.
Chains snapped. The field warped.
SeTa was flung away—again—but this time he'd anticipated it.
He reached midair, drew a sigil in a smooth arc, and whispered:
"Bind."
A tether of blue light surged from his palm and latched onto a stone shard in orbit. It held long enough for him to swing beneath it and regain control, launching himself back into the fray.
The battle raged for twenty more minutes.
Each gravity shift became a weapon. Each rune, each conceptual inversion, every mistimed move could've spelled death.
But SeTa adapted.
He learned Gravael's patterns.
He used Echo Clone as a decoy mid-fall. He synced Vector Anchor with orbiting platforms. He twisted Inception EX to create pockets of stillness in a warping world.
In the end, the final blow came not with brute force, but finesse.
A perfectly placed rune. A fake clone. A timed reversal of pull.
Gravael collapsed in silence, its body fragmenting into weightless dust.
> [Boss Defeated – 3,000 AP Awarded] [Artifact Obtained: Graviton Veil (Passive Relic – Converts Kinetic Damage into Bonus INT)] [Inception EX has Grown – Subskill Gained: Gravity Anchor (Temporary Mass Lock in Field)]
SeTa exhaled and knelt on the remaining stone platform.
He didn't feel victorious.
He felt changed.
This floor hadn't just tested his power. It tested how he thought, how he adapted.
He'd gone from illusion tricks and shadow veils to warping fundamental laws.
And now… Floor 5 awaited.
Rumors spoke of a Champion that wasn't born, but designed. An entity forged by the Tower itself.
Before heading up, he opened his log and made a note:
> Floor 4 Insight: No amount of strength matters when reality itself turns. Learn to bend.
Then, he set a course for Floor 5.
No fanfare. No audience.
Just the silent resolve of a Soloist.