SSS-Ranked Trash Hero: I Was Scammed Into Being Summoned-Chapter 22: Floor 5 — The Dead Lord

Floor 5 was different from every floor before it, the entire level was submerged in water.

Hiroshi dove in and swam downward, following the stone steps into complete darkness. His lungs already burned from the depth. The water pressed against his ears, making everything silent except for his own heartbeat.

The cathedral opened before them. Massive chamber with vaulted ceilings and pillars that stretched up toward distant light. Everything was submerged. No air pockets or the safe ground. Just water and stone and the thing waiting at the center.

[Revenant Lord - Level 18]

The boss was twice the size of a normal undead. Its skeletal frame was wrapped in decayed flesh that pulsed with unnatural regeneration. One arm ended in bone claws, the other in spectral energy that flickered between solid and incorporeal. Its eye sockets glowed with cold intelligence.

It watched them approach.

Kenji signaled the attack. He swam forward, sword raised, and struck at the boss’s ribs. The blade connected, cutting through bone. The Revenant’s head snapped toward him instantly.

Its clawed hand lashed out faster than anything that size should move. Kenji barely blocked, the impact sending him tumbling backward through the water.

Marcus swung his mace at the boss’s skull. The weapon connected with a crack that echoed dully underwater. The Revenant’s head snapped to the side, bone fragments floating away.

Then the fragments pulled back together. The damage healed in seconds.

Aria launched ice spears from distance. They struck the Revenant’s chest, freezing patches of flesh. The boss ripped the frozen sections off its own body and discarded them. New flesh grew to replace what was lost.

The Revenant’s spectral hand shot forward and grabbed Kenji’s arm. Black energy pulsed from the contact point. Kenji’s face went pale, his movements sluggish.

Life Drain.

Hiroshi grabbed the Revenant’s arm and activated Cold Grip at full strength. Ice spread across the spectral limb, forcing it to release Kenji. The boss pulled back, examining Hiroshi with those glowing eyes.

Then it phased. Its entire body became translucent, incorporeal. Physical attacks passed through it harmlessly.

"Marcus!" Kenji shouted, his voice muffled by water.

Golden light gathered around Marcus’s mace. He swung and the weapon connected with the phased Revenant. Holy Smite forced it solid again, the light searing into undead flesh.

The Revenant’s eyes fixed on Marcus. It had identified the threat.

Hiroshi’s lungs screamed for air. He kicked toward the nearest pillar, breaking the surface in a small pocket of air that had formed against the stone. He gasped, filling his lungs.

The others surfaced around different pillars, breathing hard. Below, the Revenant Lord waited in the center of the cathedral, completely still. It wasn’t pursuing just exploiting their need to breathe.

"It’s smart," Kenji said between breaths. "Really smart."

"And Marcus is out of mana," Aria added. "That was his last Holy Smite."

Marcus nodded, his face gray with exhaustion. "If it phases again, I can’t force it back."

"Then we make sure it doesn’t phase," Hiroshi said. "Or we kill it while it’s solid."

They dove again.

Hiroshi swam straight at the Revenant and unleashed Cold Grip directly into its chest. The boss recoiled from the extreme cold, its regeneration slowing where ice formed. Then it phased, becoming incorporeal to escape the attack.

Exactly as planned.

Marcus was already moving. His mace glowed with the last dregs of holy energy, not a full Holy Smite, just residual power. He struck the phased Revenant and forced it solid one more time.

Then his mana hit zero. He went limp in the water, completely drained.

The Revenant’s clawed hand shot out and grabbed Marcus by the throat. It pulled him close, Life Drain activating. Black energy poured from Marcus into the boss.

Kenji severed the arm at the elbow. The limb fell away, still clutching Marcus’s throat. Aria’s ice spear punched through the Revenant’s chest, pinning it to the cathedral floor.

The boss ripped the spear out and regenerated both wounds. Its severed arm crawled back and reattached itself.

Hiroshi swam in close and grappled the Revenant directly. His hands locked onto its neck and shoulders, Cold Grip at maximum output. The boss grabbed him in return, Life Drain flooding through the contact.

They stayed locked together, exchanging damage. Hiroshi’s HP dropped rapidly—70, 60, 50—while cold spread through the Revenant’s body, slowing its regeneration. His vision started to blur. His lungs burned for air he couldn’t get.

Then Adaptive Evolution activated.

Information flooded his mind. The Revenant’s structure, its techniques, its core abilities. Two skills crystallized in his understanding.

[Skill Acquired: Undead Resilience]

[Skill Acquired: Life Drain]

Hiroshi’s grip weakened. His HP hit 30. He couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. His body was shutting down from oxygen deprivation and energy loss.

[Level 9 Achieved]

The level-up hit like electricity. His HP jumped from 30 to 65 instantly. His lungs stopped screaming. His vision cleared.

Kenji grabbed him from behind and pulled him away from the Revenant. They kicked toward the surface together, breaking into air near a pillar.

"What happened?" Kenji demanded.

"I learned its skills," Hiroshi gasped. "Life Drain and Undead Resilience. I can use them now."

"Can you fight?"

"Yes."

They dove again. This time Hiroshi led.

He swam straight at the Revenant and grabbed its arm. But instead of using Cold Grip, he activated Life Drain. The boss’s own technique, turned against it.

Black energy poured from the Revenant into Hiroshi. The boss recoiled, trying to pull away, but Hiroshi held tight. His HP climbed—70, 80, 90—while the Revenant’s regeneration stuttered and failed.

The boss tried to phase. Nothing happened. The ability was on cooldown.

Kenji’s sword pierced through the Revenant’s spine from behind. Aria’s ice spears struck its joints, freezing them solid. Marcus, recovered enough to move, crushed the boss’s knee with his mace.

The Revenant thrashed, trying to break free. Hiroshi drained more energy, feeling its strength diminish with each second. The boss’s movements became slower, more desperate.

Its regeneration stopped completely.

"Now!" Kenji shouted.

They attacked together. Kenji’s sword shattered the frozen joints. Marcus’s mace pulverized bone. Aria’s ice magic locked the Revenant in place. Hiroshi continued draining, pulling the last reserves of energy from the boss’s core.

The Revenant Lord’s eye sockets dimmed. Its body stopped moving.

Aria raised her staff, ice gathering at the tip. She drove it down into the boss’s chest, piercing the core directly. The ice spread through the Revenant’s entire body, freezing it from the inside out.

The boss shattered. Fragments of bone and frozen flesh drifted through the water like snow.

[Revenant Lord Defeated]

[Dungeon Cleared]

The water began draining immediately. It poured out through hidden channels in the floor, rushing away with surprising speed. Within minutes, the cathedral was empty, revealing wet stone and the exit portal at the far end.

Hiroshi stood on solid ground for the first time in three floors. His legs shook from exhaustion, but he was alive. They all were.

Kenji looked at each of them in turn. "All four of us survived. Every single one."

Hiroshi pulled up his status screen. He reviewed his new skills:

[Undead Resilience] - Reduced damage from physical attacks, increased resistance to status effects.

[Life Drain]- Drain life energy from targets on contact, converting it to HP.

Combined with Cold Grip, Undead Stride, and Adaptive Evolution, he now had a complete set of undead-derived abilities. Skills that shouldn’t exist on a living person.

"The exit is open," Marcus said, pointing at the portal. "We can leave."

They walked toward it together, water still dripping from their clothes and equipment. The dungeon had tried to kill them at every turn.

Hiroshi looked back at the shattered remains of the Revenant Lord. The boss that was supposed to kill them. Instead, it had made him stronger.

They stepped through the portal and emerged into daylight.

The dungeon was cleared.