Chapter 145: Phantom Simulation
The hotel room had been turned into a war room.
Maeve had cleared the coffee table and spread her tablet across it, then connected three additional screens she’d borrowed from the hotel’s business center. The displays were filled with topographical maps, energy readings, thermal scans, and scrolling lines of code that meant absolutely nothing to anyone except her.
"Alright, listen up," she said, pushing her glasses up with one finger. Her voice had shifted into that crisp, focused tone she used whenever she was running an operation.
"I hacked into the Capital’s geological monitoring network about twenty minutes ago. The Crown has been tracking Abyssal formations for decades, so the S-Class Spire’s internal structure is already in their database."
She tapped the tablet, and the central screen changed to a cross-section of the Spire. It was massive, stretching through layers of rock and earth, with each floor marked in a different color.
"The Spire is roughly forty stories tall. Each floor is basically its own maze, complete with monsters, environmental hazards, and an exit point. You have to clear a floor before the stairwell to the next one opens."
Renna leaned over the back of the couch and squinted at the screen.
"Forty stories?"
Maeve nodded.
"That’s forty whole floors of monsters?"
"Yes."
Renna stared at the screen for another second.
"That’s excessive. Who designed this thing? An angry architect?"
"The Abyss did," Maeve said flatly.
"Right. Of course it did."
Maeve changed the display again.
"The monster density is the real problem. According to the thermal scans, there are roughly three to four hundred hostiles across the first ten floors alone. It gets worse the higher you go. By floor thirty, we’re looking at coordinated groups of Rank 2 and Rank 3 beasts."
Emric adjusted his glasses and studied the diagram with grim focus.
"A standard S-Class Spire clearance requires a full squad of Rank 3 specialists working in twelve-hour rotations, with supply drops between floors. We have four Rank 1 cultivators and one Rank 2, no supply line, no backup, and no rotation."
"Five Rank 1 cultivators," Holden corrected mildly.
Emric looked at him.
"Publicly."
"That somehow makes it worse."
"It does," Emric admitted.
Lyra stood by the window with her arms crossed, staring toward the eastern skyline. A faint dark shape could be seen against the morning clouds.
The Spire.
Even from miles away, it looked wrong. A pillar of black stone rising from the earth like a broken tooth, too dark and too tall to belong there.
"What about the top?" she asked.
Maeve pulled up another screen.
"The top floor is the Spire Core. That’s what’s generating the Abyssal energy keeping the entire structure alive. Destroy the core and the Spire collapses."
She paused.
"But the core is always guarded by the strongest creature in the dungeon. For an S-Class, that means at least a Rank 3 boss."
"At least?" Renna repeated.
Maeve nodded.
"Possibly higher."
The room went quiet.
Holden clapped his hands together.
"Okay. Good briefing. Very thorough. Very terrifying."
Renna looked at him.
"We’re going to die."
"Probably not."
"The statistics say—"
"Emric," Holden cut in, "I love you, but your statistics have been wrong before."
Emric frowned.
"They have?"
"You told us the Duke’s ballroom party would probably be boring."
Emric opened his mouth.
Then closed it.
Renna pointed at Holden.
"He’s got you there."
Emric sighed.
"That was a reasonable prediction based on the available information."
"It involved a blood duel and a robbery," Renna said.
"Yes. Which was not in the available information."
Holden smiled.
"Exactly."
He looked around the room.
"Here’s what we’re going to do. You three eat lunch, rest, and get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a long day, and I need everyone sharp."
Lyra turned away from the window.
"What are you going to do?"
"Solo meditation."
He said it casually, as if he hadn’t just announced that he was going to meditate before walking into one of the deadliest dungeons in the Kingdom.
Maeve gave him a look.
It was the kind of look that said she knew he wasn’t telling her the whole story.
"Fine," she said. "But if you’re not out of your room in three hours, I’m breaking the door down."
Holden nodded.
"Noted."
Renna raised a hand.
"Can I help?"
Maeve looked at her.
"With what?"
"The door-breaking."
"You’re not helping."
"That hurts."
Holden shook his head, walked into his bedroom, and closed the door behind him.
He locked it.
Then he stood in the center of the small room, took a slow breath, and opened his System.
[Instanced Dungeon]
[Status: Available]
[Environment: Adaptive]
[Detecting upcoming combat scenario: S-Class Abyssal Spire]
[Adjusting dungeon parameters to match anticipated conditions]
[Spawn Type: Phantom Assassins]
[Traits: High Agility, Heavy Armor]
[Environment: Confined Tower Corridors]
[Open Portal?]
Yes.
A portal shimmered into existence beside his bed.
This time, the light spilling through wasn’t the bright blue he’d seen during the train simulation. The opening was darker and narrower, barely three feet wide, with a cramped corridor visible on the other side.
Holden stepped through.
The dungeon had transformed into a tower interior.
Walls pressed in from both sides, barely six feet apart. The ceiling was low and covered with jagged stalactites that gave off a faint red glow. The floor was uneven and cracked, with puddles of something dark and sticky scattered across it.
The corridor twisted ahead into darkness.
The real Spire would probably be nothing like the exact layout of this simulation, but the conditions were what mattered. Tight spaces. Limited movement. No room for wide swings. No easy way to dodge.
Every fight would feel like fighting inside a phone booth.
The first Phantom Assassin appeared ten feet ahead.
It looked different from the ones Holden had fought on the train.
These were bulkier, covered in thick dark wrappings that looked almost like plate armor. Their movements weren’t as quick, but they were heavier and clearly built to take punishment.
Their weapons were longer too.
Spears.
Halberds.
Perfect weapons for keeping someone trapped in a narrow corridor.
The Phantom lowered its weapon.
Then lunged.
Holden drew the Solar-Forged Sword.
He sidestepped in the cramped corridor and swung.
"Hellfire Cleave."
A crimson wave of fire exploded from the blade and tore down the corridor like a cannon blast.
It struck the Phantom and vaporized it instantly.
Then kept going.
The fire slammed into the walls.
BOOM.
Heat washed back across Holden’s face.
He stepped back. The corridor was blackened where the attack had struck.
Holden stared at the damage.
"Too much."
The problem wasn’t the Phantom.
It was the environment.
If he used the same level of force he’d used against the Warlord or the Blood-Steel Golem, he wouldn’t just kill the monsters.
He’d roast himself and anyone standing near him.
He needed control.
Another Phantom appeared.
Then two more behind it.
Holden tightened his grip.
This time, he didn’t flood the sword with energy.
He fed it a small amount.
The crimson blade glowed a dull red.
Holden swung.
A narrow line of fire slipped from the edge. It cut across the lead Phantom’s chest and vanished before reaching the wall behind it.
The Phantom dissolved.
Holden nodded.
"Better."
The second Phantom thrust its halberd.
Holden ducked under the blade, twisted in the narrow space, and swung again.
A slightly stronger Cleave flashed across the Phantom’s weapon arm.
The arm separated cleanly.
The fire disappeared almost immediately afterward.
Holden smiled.
"Much better."
The next wave came.
Then another.
And another.
Over the next two hours, Holden fought through wave after wave of Phantom Assassins in the cramped corridors.
He kept adjusting the strength of Hellfire Cleave, increasing it little by little and watching the result each time. Too weak, and the blade of fire wouldn’t penetrate the armor. Too strong, and the attack would spread beyond the target and damage the environment.
He found the balance.
He practiced around corners, dead ends and where there was barely enough room to swing the sword.
He even forced himself to fight with Phantoms attacking from both directions, turning his body at the last second and releasing two Cleaves in quick succession.
The walls grew hotter as the training continued, but Holden’s movements became cleaner.
The fire stopped behaving like a wild explosion.
It became an extension of the sword.
Then an extension of his arm.
Eventually, it felt like an extension of his thoughts.
Holden kept going until he could release the attack without thinking about the amount of energy he was using.
The blade moved.
The fire followed.
Then the System appeared.
[Ding!]
[Hellfire Cleave has reached: Perfect Tier!]
Holden stopped in the middle of his swing.
A Phantom dissolved in front of him.
The notification hovered in his vision.
He looked down at the Solar-Forged Sword.
Something had changed.
The crimson glow was gone.
In its place was a pure white light running along the blade’s edge.
It wasn’t spreading outward anymore.
It wasn’t filling the room with heat.
It was concentrated.
Holden raised the sword slightly. The heat coming from it was intense, but the energy stayed exactly where he wanted it.
He swung.
A thread of white fire slipped from the blade.
It was so thin that Holden almost couldn’t see it.
It crossed the corridor.
A Phantom that had just begun to materialize several feet away was sliced cleanly in half before it could even finish appearing.
The white line vanished.
He looked at the sword for a long moment.
Then smiled.
"Yeah."
He nodded once.
"I’ll take that."
[Ding!]
[Training Session Complete!]
[Phantom Assassins Defeated: 147]
[+25,000 KP]
[2x KP Booster Applied!]
[+50,000 KP!]
[Balance: 209,890 KP]
The dungeon portal flickered.
The corridor disappeared.
Holden was back in his hotel room, standing exactly where he’d been before entering the simulation.
He dismissed the Solar-Forged Sword and unlocked the door.
When he stepped outside, Maeve immediately looked up from her screens.
"Three hours exactly."
Holden dropped onto the couch beside Renna.
"Good timing."
Maeve narrowed her eyes.
"I was about thirty seconds away from getting a hammer."
Holden looked at her.
"You keep a hammer for emergencies?"
"You’re my emergency."
Renna, who had apparently been half-asleep, opened one eye.
"I’d like to see the hammer."
"Go back to sleep."
"Fine."
She closed her eye again.
Holden leaned back against the couch.
"Funny thing about meditation," he said. "Time flies."
Maeve stared at him for another moment.
"You’re sweating."
"It was an intense spiritual meditation."
"Your arm is shaking."
"Extremely spiritual."
Maeve sighed.
"I don’t even want to know."
Holden smiled.
Tomorrow, he would walk into an S-Class death trap. And this time, he wouldn’t be relying on brute force alone.
He had learned how to make every bit of his power count.
Holden leaned back and closed his eyes.
Tomorrow couldn’t come soon enough.