The hall stretched endlessly before Wade.

The floor gleamed beneath him, laid out like a chessboard, each enormous tile shimmering faintly as if alive.

Directly ahead were four colored tiles aligned in a perfect row.

Red, green, blue, and yellow, each large enough to host a party for more than a hundred participants.

And beyond was a yawning abyss.

However, reaching up from the darkness below were four colossal columns.

Their surfaces were flat, each one painted with a random color from the four available.

They stretched into the misty distance, alternating colors without pattern or reason.

Each column stood apart like its own battlefield, wider than a basketball court, stretching farther than his eyes could see.

It meant if he wanted to transverse the abyss, he would have to jump from column to column to get to the other end.

On either side of this endless hall were tiered seats.

The seats were packed with thousands of illusory skeletons, each draped in faded robes and rattling with excitement.

They cheered, their hollow skulls clattering as their bony hands clapped together.

Wade's breath caught.

The sheer noise of them felt alive. It was an echoing roar that shook the air.

High above, near the entrance of the hall, was an ornate royal box.

It jutted from the wall like a shrine, draped in golden banners and skull motifs.

A throne carved from black bone sat at its center, and in it rested a skeleton crowned with a circlet of golden flame.

The Skeleton King.

When the monarch rose, the entire crowd went quiet.

Even the rattling of bones ceased. The silence that followed was heavy, sacred.

The King raised his bony hand, and his voice, impossibly deep and echoing, filled the vast chamber.

"On this hallowed day," he said, his words reverberating through the air, "we honor the Cycle of Death."

"The great turning of the wheel, where life is tested and reborn through the fires of struggle."

He lifted his skeletal sword high, the golden flame of his crown flaring brighter.

"Today, we celebrate the Day of the Dead!"

The crowd erupted into a frenzy of rattles and cheers.

Skeletons stomped, clapped, and roared, the noise rising like a living storm.

Then, the King pointed his blade toward Wade, the air around him vibrating with power.

"Gladiator! Let the trial… begin."

The cheers stopped abruptly, and silence fell once more.

A glowing notification appeared before him, its golden letters scrolling across a dark screen.

[Dungeon Trial: The Hall of Kings]

[Objective: Reach the end of the hall.]

[Rules:]

[You may only move forward.]

[Each step upon a colored tile will trigger its trial.]

[Red Tile: ???]

[Green Tile: ???]

[Blue Tile: ???]

[Yellow Tile: ???]

[Defeat your foe to advance.]

[Among the four, one color allows safe passage. The others offer dragons, golems, and manticore.]

Beneath it, smaller text appeared, shifting like smoke.

[Hint: "Courage and caution weigh the same in the eyes of the dead. Choose wisely."]

Then the message flickered and vanished, leaving Wade alone with the echoing sound of his own breath.

He stared down at the four glowing tiles before him, their colors seeming to pulse faintly.

Red throbbing like a heartbeat, green swirling gently, blue rippling like water, and yellow shining bright like sunlight trapped in crystal.

He clenched his fists.

So, one of these meant safety. The others meant always facing death.

And according to the message, each wrong step would summon a creature to fight.

The kind of monsters that even veteran adventurers would fear.

He exhaled slowly, his heart thudding.

There was no pattern, or any clue.

That meant the King's trial wasn't about hints. It was about courage.

He'd never heard of a dungeon like this.

One that was just a long, continuous battle with monsters.

But at least, after defeating monsters, he could rest on that column, before moving to the next one.

That way, he could recover mana or hit points.

It was a good thing he'd brought some food in his inventory.

Since he was alone, he could end up spending more than a day here.

Wade rolled his shoulders, trying to calm his breathing.

His armor felt heavier than it had when he'd put them on.

He looked once more toward the Skeleton King's royal box.

The monarch had resumed his seat, watching silently, his golden eyes flickering like twin torches.

All around, the skeletal audience leaned forward in anticipation.

Wade dismissed the last of the floating text and drew in a deep breath.

"Alright," he murmured to himself. "Let's see what kind of game this is."

He stared at the tiles again, thinking.

The choice seemed simple on the surface, with four colors, and one safe path. But Wade knew better.

Nothing about this dungeon was simple.

"Red sounds like fire," he muttered to himself. "So probably the manticore… Green could be earth, and that'd be the golem. Blue... blue feels like air or ice."

He exhaled, tapping his boot lightly on the checkered floor. "Which leaves yellow as the free pass… maybe."

He chuckled to himself, shaking his head. "Or maybe that's what they want me to think."

"But if we go by aura, that's a different story. Yellow gives off an aura of the sun, so it could mean Dragon."

"Red gives an aura of lava, so it could be manticore. Green is similar to grass, which is similar to earth, so that's golem."

"Blue is formless like water, so it could be the safe passage."

Which meant he had two options. Blue or yellow?

He took a deep breath, muttering, "Alright. Blue it is. I'll take my chances."

The moment his boot touched the blue tile, the world trembled.

The floor around him cracked apart like glass, the other tiles falling away into an endless black void below.

Only the blue-topped column beneath him remained, rising higher as the others fell.

Then came the sound, a low, bone-rattling growl that made the air vibrate.

He looked up just as a massive shadow passed over him.

A bone dragon landed heavily on the column, its skeletal claws digging deep into the blue-tiled surface.

The impact made the whole platform quake.

Its wings, made of bleached bones and faint, translucent membrane, stretched wide, easily spanning the length of a house.

Faint blue fire flickered in the sockets of its skull.

Wade's face hardened. "Well… that answers that."

So, blue meant dragons.

The monster let out another deafening roar, the gust of its breath sending cracks spidering through the platform beneath Wade's boots.

He gripped the hilt of his sword, his heart growing calm, even as adrenaline surged through him.

"Alright, big guy," he said under his breath. "Let's see what kind of profit I can make out of you."

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