The Keeper appears.

Your musings are interrupted by the bone-chilling sound of stones clacking. Bone-chilling not because of the sound itself, but because of the knowledge that it's the sound of stone bricks shifting around as The Keeper moves through them.

You let out a girly shriek and flail your arms around as the imposing warrior steps out of the wall, standing right in front of you and looking down at you, making you feel even smaller than you already are. Have you been figured out? Is he here to punish you for your dirty strategy? Or is the boss still mad at you and finally figured out which one of his identical minions is you? Or did you step out of bounds without noticing? All you know is that you really, really don't want to die now. As far as you know, that would send you back to level 4. You don't know if you can handle such a crushing setback.

The Keeper moves his large hand towards you as you stand frozen in fear, and nonchalantly lifts you up by your legs, walking away while holding you up and down. As you swing back and forth from his movements, your fear rises. Is he bringing you to the boss for a personal punishment? Is he going to **** you? Somehow kill you forever? This would be a good time to know the name of at least one god so you'd have someone to pray to...

After a long walk, at least long in your mind since every moment felt like an eternity of unbearable waiting, The Keeper comes to a halt. He then unceremoniously drops you on the floor, to then step into a nearby wall and disappear into the bricks.

You sit up, shaking your head to clear your mind, and look around. You find yourself sitting in a dungeon corridor with two doors visible from where you are, all looking the same as what you're used to. However you're familiar enough with your area to know that this is all new. You also notice that there's a goblin and a fellow dark caster looking at you with confused expressions. Or well, the dark caster's expression is hard to discern since his eyes are his only visible facial features, and even those aren't too expressive because of the glow blurring out subtle details. You think it's confusion though.

"Sooo what was that about?" the goblin asks, breaking the tense silence. "Did you try to leave the area?"

"Um, no..." you say, still not sure what happened. "I've never been here before... Uh, what level are you guys?"

"I'm level 6," the goblin says, looking smug about that fact.

"And I'm level 5," the dark caster responds casually. "Why?"

"Umm... I, uh, I think I just got... upgraded."

"Oh, I see... So you used to work in the first-tier section?" the dark caster asks, maybe with a raised eyebrow, maybe not.

You nod.

"That makes sense. If a monster outranks its section, it's promoted. Gobu here is aiming for level 7, at which point he'll be transferred to the third-tier section."

"And I've survived past 6 without dying once!" the goblin named Gobu proudly remarks.

That's interesting... Leveling up allows you to move through the previously forbidden parts of the dungeon. Apparently your wish to explore can come true after all.

"What's in the third-tier section?" you ask.

The dark caster shrugs. "Don't know. Nobody here knows. You don't need to know until you're transferred there. My guess? Slightly stronger monsters and the same general layout."

"And is there a fourth-tier section?"

The dark caster shrugs again. "We don't need to know that stuff either. We just need to do what we're supposed to in our section."

"I hear if you do REALLY well you'll get to guard the treasure room...!" Gobu says excitedly.

"That's stupid. One of the few things we DO know about other sections is that the treasure room is guarded by The Keeper and him alone."

"Oh yeah, and how do you think The Keeper got the job?"

"I think he was created for it."

The two break out into pointless bickering, and you decide to leave them to it and explore your new surroundings. You find that it does indeed look almost identical to what you're used to. The potions on display for stealing seem slightly stronger, the monsters you encounter somewhat stronger and more well-equipped (except for the dark casters which have the same robes as you've always had), and there seem to be a few more traps. Not very interesting, but still an important step for you. You've managed to be promoted, and you can't help but smile at that idea. Now you just need to do it one or two more times...