Kwa-gwa-gwa-gwa-gwa-kwaang!!

Once the door started breaking, it couldn’t withstand the massive water pressure. It shattered like it had gone mad, and began sucking in seawater.

“Neighhh!”

The force of the water being dragged into the door was no joke.

Cheolma almost got caught up in it too, so Su-ho immediately unsummoned it, and he activated a skill so he wouldn’t get dragged in as well.

[ Saint Dome is activated. ]

As Saint Dome activated, a holy barrier formed, isolating him from the outside.

But not long after—

Kaang!

Unable to withstand the violent current, the Saint Dome was destroyed, and this time he used Blood Armor to form a Blood Suit and wrapped it around his body.

Naturally, he also created a hook beneath his feet and drove it into the wall.

Kwach!

Fortunately, the hook bit into the wall.

Then he curled up as much as possible and waited for all this water to drain out quickly.

The pressure was insane.

Even though he was wearing the Blood Suit, it felt like resisting a storm with his bare body.

But in the end, he managed to hold out, and the crushing pressure that had been slamming into his entire body vanished.

Only after all the water drained away was he finally able to breathe—the breathing he’d wanted so badly.

The moment Su-ho took off the suit, he drew in a huge breath first.

“Hoo-ah...!”

Refreshing.

If it had taken even a little longer, he would’ve started hitting his limit.

After enjoying the pleasure of clean air for a while, Su-ho tried using the Subspace House.

[ You cannot enter the Subspace House. ]

A notice saying he couldn’t enter.

Still not?

Seeing that, Su-ho’s brow furrowed.

‘Did it put a Subspace House ban over the entire gate?’

Ridiculous.

If it was going to impose a restriction like this, it should’ve given some kind of hint in advance.

Blocking skill use first without anything like that—how could he not be pissed?

This was the kind of phenomenon you’d only see in late-stage gates after the Great Cataclysm, which made it feel even more unfair.

He had only just entered the mid-stage of the Great Cataclysm.

‘Looks like it’s really adjusting the difficulty by focusing on me.’

Shaking his head, Su-ho headed to where the door had broken.

A huge hole.

That place, about the size of a pond, now lay calm, its surface reflecting like it really was a pond.

He couldn’t see anything inside.

No hint, nothing.

It was extremely unfriendly, but since it was a Big Gate, he accepted it for what it was.

‘Exploration is needed.’

[ Mana Detection is activated. ]

First, he activated Mana Detection and observed beneath the surface.

But even this time, he didn’t observe anything that seemed particularly unusual.

So he really had no choice but to go down himself?

But who knew what kind of place it was down there?

There were no life reactions like monsters, but still—it didn’t hurt to be careful.

After hesitating for a moment, Su-ho called that guy.

“Hey, mutt.”

“Yes, Master.”

A being that popped out the instant Su-ho ordered it.

It was the mutt Roynan from High Blood.

As Roynan appeared with proper etiquette, one knee down, Su-ho asked indifferently.

“You know how to swim, right?”

“Swim... is that what you mean?”

“Yeah.”

“Well... to be honest, I’ve never done it.”

“Then this is your chance to try.”

“Pardon?”

“Cheolma.”

“Neighhh!”

Cheolma was summoned.

Pointing at Cheolma, Su-ho said,

“Ride that down and check what’s below.”

“...Understood.”

Roynan answered with difficulty.

He couldn’t show that he couldn’t do it, or that he was scared.

If he did, Su-ho would roast him with sunlight.

He didn’t want that.

No—he hated it enough to die.

He’d always hated sunlight, but now that he wasn’t High Blood anymore, the pain hit him several times harder than usual.

And that was despite the fact that he had never once swum in his life.

‘All I’ve ever done is play in a bathtub full of blood—swimming, my ass....’

Still, what could he do? If he was told to do it, he had to do it.

The moment Roynan, resigned, tried to climb onto Cheolma—

“Neighhh!”

Puhk!!

Cheolma suddenly bucked and kicked Roynan hard with its hind leg, sending him flying back.

“Guuuh...!”

Hit in the solar plexus by the rear hoof, Roynan doubled over, clutching his stomach, and collapsed.

Seeing that, Su-ho asked Cheolma,

“What’s wrong?”

“Neighhh!”

At Su-ho’s question, Cheolma whipped its head away.

Su-ho laughed.

“You don’t want to carry him?”

“Neighhh.”

“That can’t be helped. I wouldn’t want to either. Still, for my sake, let him at least grab your leg.”

“Neighhh.”

“Thanks.”

“What the....”

Watching Cheolma’s reaction, Roynan was so dumbfounded he couldn’t continue.

No matter what, to treat me like this?

But when he saw Cheolma’s icy-sharp gaze and Su-ho stroking it, his anger and fighting spirit vanished.

‘Ahh, fuck my life.’

Soon, Cheolma entered the water first, and Roynan followed in after it.

Su-ho asked Roynan, now in the water.

“You good at diving?”

“I’ve never done it, but if it’s holding my breath, I can hold it for days.”

“Yeah? I didn’t know vampires had a function like that. Is it just you?”

“...I’m not sure.”

“All right. Anyway, go through the inside thoroughly and come back. If you come back empty-handed, you die.”

“...Pardon?”

“Why?”

“N-no, it’s nothing. I’ll find something.”

Soon, Cheolma and Roynan began diving.

After waiting for the two for a long time—

How much time had passed?

Bogu-ruruk—

Bubbles rose, and Cheolma and Roynan surfaced from the water.

“Neighhh!”

Cheolma made a dashing entrance.

In contrast, Roynan didn’t look so good, like he’d been through something down there.

“Hoo....”

Coming onto land, he brushed his wet hair back and let out a breath.

Seeing him, Su-ho said,

“Quit fooling around and report, quick.”

“Ah, y-yes. There wasn’t anything special under the water. For example, there weren’t any monsters at all. But....”

“But?”

“The density of the water, I guess... it was extremely heavy.”

A tightly packed density.

That was true of the seawater that had filled this place too, wasn’t it?

“Anything else?”

“Yes. To confirm other unusual points, I went all the way down to the very bottom, but until I reached it, there still weren’t any monsters or anything. It was the same even after I got to the bottom. However, not far from the center of the bottom, I was able to find something like a door where the mana flow was gathering.”

“A door?”

“Yes. For now, it looked like a door, so I decided to call it a door.”

“A door... Anything else?”

“There were no other unusual points beyond that.”

“Got it. You can go now.”

“Yes, thank you.”

At the words telling him to go, Roynan saluted properly, then was unsummoned and vanished.

Su-ho looked back at the pond again.

“So in terms of structure, it’s the same as this floor....”

Su-ho decided to call the place he was standing on the first floor, and the area below it the second floor.

Su-ho’s eyes narrowed.

The first floor’s defining feature was a tiered layer completely filled with water, without a single place to breathe—and the water wasn’t just seawater, but seawater far denser than normal.

On top of that, Subspace House unusable.

Then the second floor would have been more severe than the first, not less.

‘And since there aren’t any notifications, I guess it’s telling me to get through it on my own again.’

What an unfriendly system.

Shaking his head, Su-ho immediately began preparing to dive.

At the very least, they’d confirmed there were no monsters on the second floor, so he only had to endure the inconvenience of diving.

“Count on you, Cheolma.”

“Neighhh!”

Splash!

He began diving together with Cheolma.

And the moment he entered the second floor, Su-ho could tell that the seawater on the second floor was even denser than on the first.

‘If I exaggerate a little, it feels less like water and more like I’m sunk in mud.’

Of course, if it were real mud, it would be impossible to move at all.

It was just a figure of speech.

Su-ho slowly descended with Cheolma, and at last he was able to reach the bottom of the second floor.

‘There really is nothing.’

This place, where not a speck of light reached, was the deep sea filled with darkness.

There was nothing special about why he compared the second floor to the deep sea.

Because the water on the second floor tasted salty too.

Soon, in Su-ho’s view, he found the mana-sucking door Roynan had mentioned.

‘It’s the same door as the first floor’s.’

Meaning he had to get past this to move on to the next stage.

Su-ho used his skills in order.

[ You cannot enter the Subspace House. ]

[ Night Captain’s Eyes is activated. ]

As expected, the Subspace House didn’t activate.

Instead, Night Captain’s Eyes activated, and a red grid pattern surfaced over the door.

‘This is definitely it.’

Now that even cross-validation was done, all that remained was to destroy the door.

He’d have to solve this the same way as the previous floor.

He might fail.

But first, confirming it once.

He had enough mana.

[ Summoning Hercules’s Club. ]

[ Blood Armor is activated. ]

[ Blessing is activated. ]

[ Paladin is activated. ]

[ Divine Aura is activated. ]

[ Enhance is activated. ]

[ Sword Aura is activated. ]

A blood sword landed in his grip, and all kinds of skill effects whipped around.

Su-ho then used the finishing blow.

[ Wavebreaker is activated. ]

Kku-mulreok—

The second-floor seawater reacted to Su-ho’s mana.

Then it began to tremble with a bugeureuk— sound, preparing to split like the Red Sea.

‘Just like last time....’

At that moment—

Puh-eong!!

With a small boom, the trembling seawater began tangling back together again.

Wavebreaker had ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) failed to activate.

‘Failed?’

He used it one more time.

But this time too, the entire second floor seemed to vibrate, and then with a small boom, Wavebreaker ended in failure again.

‘What’s the problem?’

The problem was the water’s density.

The second-floor water was too heavy to raise Wavebreaker with mana alone.

But not knowing that, after trying several times, Su-ho had no choice but to give up.

Then he used another skill.

‘If Wavebreaker won’t work, what about this?’

Su-ho raised the blood sword again.

[ Earthquake tsunami is activated. ]

Earthquake tsunami.

A technique copied from Poseidon.

Naturally, it was a superior version of Wavebreaker.

But—

Bururuk— Puh-eong!!

Contrary to expectations, this too failed to activate.

Because of the water’s weight.

‘What? What the hell is the problem?’

Su-ho’s brow furrowed.

The skill activated, but the waterway didn’t open.

Was it because the water was too heavy?

That was the right answer.

No matter how he thought about it, there was no other answer.

Because Mana Detection was still running in real time, but it hadn’t caught any mana waves that interfered with skill activation.

‘What do I do?’

He couldn’t just swing his sword like an idiot.

This was an environment where swinging a sword was even harder than on the first floor.

After thinking for a while, Su-ho came up with a few more methods.

‘The point is to clear the water and make space where I can swing my sword.’

There were many methods.

But he decided to try the most realistic one among them.

Su-ho raised his sword and used a skill.

[ Eclipse is activated. ]

[ You receive sunlight and moonlight. ]

[ The runes of the sun and moon react. ]

[ The power of the sun and moon is activated. ]

[ You receive the blessing of the sun and moon. ]

[ All stats increase by 2%. ]

[ All recovery increases by 2%. ]

The skill he used was Eclipse.

And what Su-ho chose from there was—

[ Ice attribute is activated. ]

It was the Ice attribute.

And the moment the Ice attribute activated—

Chajajajajajak!

Starting from where Su-ho was, the second-floor seawater began to freeze outward.