CHAPTER 261: RAPID PROGRESSION

As soon as the last drop of cursed blood from the constructs hit the stone floor, the party moved forward. Just one step.

*Grrrrrgle.*

All ten of them froze.

Then, again.

*GRRRRRRGGGL.*

Kaiden, Aria, Luna, Nyx, Bastet, Leon, Jack, Sasha, Diaz, and Vaelira all looked at each other because a strange chorus of synchronized, inhumanly perfect stomach growls echoed through the corridor.

"Okay... That’s not natural..." Nyx muttered.

"Yeah... The chances of all of our stomachs growling at the same time are basically zero, especially considering we ate recently..." Kaiden agreed.

As if to confirm their assumptions, that was the exact moment when a ding rang through their heads. All at once, a system notification materialized in front of their mind’s eyes.

You have been afflicted with [Curse of Devouring Dominion].

—The Heart is hungry. All who tread its halls are to feed it.

—Hunger will grow as you move further toward the Heart, or use mana.

"That’s just fucking fantastic... We really needed a hunger debuff right now," Luna let go of a gamer girl curse with a roll of her eyes.

"Damn it! I knew I should’ve eaten two breakfasts!" Jack groaned.

Leon rubbed his forehead. "We’ll need more than the rations we’re carrying right now. If it’s draining our vitality to feed itself, we’ll burn out fast unless we eat often enough."

"Agreed. I’m not fighting through a cursed hellhole while my stomach’s trying to eat itself," Jack grunted.

Kaiden nodded. For once, they were all in agreement. "Talia’s supply cache should still be right by the entrance."

They did just that, swiftly moving back.

"I’m the one with the most Endurance stat here, so I’ll make a noble sacrifice and haul the heavy packs," Jack decreed.

"I’ll help," Leon added while reaching for another bag.

Kaiden stepped forward, too.

But before the trio could take more than a step...

"You boys don’t need to bother." Vaelira’s voice rang out with smug magnanimity.

The Arcane Puppeteer stood with her hands clasped behind her back and her lips curved into an imperious smirk.

"I don’t like wasting my mana on logistics as that’s far below my station, but I can’t have my frontline getting winded before we reach anything worth fighting. This is the last time I enter a dungeon with a limit on the number of entrants... I need my dungeon slaves- I mean aides."

She extended a single hand forward.

"[Summon Legion]."

The shadows responded.

A familiar sight unfolded before them as twelve figures emerged. They moved in perfect unison. They gave off the image of practiced soldiers answering the call of their general.

Bastet’s eyes instantly hardened at the sight. "Those are the same ones..."

The legion. The same conjured warriors that once attacked her in the Desert Dungeon. Back when she was still a monster.

Back when Vaelira had come to kill her together with the man she now called Master.

Kaiden noticed the shift in her aura and laid a hand on her shoulder. "They’re on the same side as you are now."

"..." The Ra-Blessed Felinid eyed the soldiers for a while before turning her gaze toward their summoner. Her voice was cold and full of suspicion when it came. "Are they? I can’t help but wonder, Master..."

Vaelira turned her head and smiled gently, trying her best to be sincere. "It seems I’ll have to earn your trust. I understand your reservations, Bastet, but I hope you also understand the situation I was in back then."

Her words did not have their desired effect as the felinid only looked more suspicious once the words left her lips. At the same time, Luna couldn’t help but grumble under her breath, "Here we go with the two-faced bitch act..."

She wasn’t heard. The summoned soldiers moved and grabbed the supplies, hauling the heavy storage packs that Talia’s people had left at the dungeon’s edge.

With the party resupplied with enough food and drink to last for weeks, they set off again.

They only had 3 days to finish the dungeon. After that, the Awakened Association would send in another group of their own making, and then, 2 days after the dungeon break would occur. If they couldn’t clear the dungeon in that time, it didn’t matter if they had no supplies left at all or a year’s worth of them.

The monsters would become empowered beyond what they can handle, and any awakened inside the dungeon would become hopeless prey.

...

As soon as Vaelira’s summoned legion overtook the burdensome saddle duty from the awakened combatants of the group, the change was instantly noticeable in the first battle.

The group’s steps grew lighter. Their movement became more coordinated. No longer forced to lug heavy packs, the entire party began flowing together, a bit more resembling a proper strike unit.

But what mattered was that with every passing hallway, corridor, or grotesque chamber they traversed, they felt more of a well-oiled machine than a ragtag bunch of combatants stitched together for a single job.

The rest of the day flew by in a pattern of skirmish, regroup, and skirmish again. Though they were entering deeper sections of the Hollow of Endless Hunger, where the architecture grew more twisted and unnatural by the minute, their rhythm held.

A squad of Crimson Shrieker Bats was dealt with before they even got the chance to scream. Aria silenced the chamber with a [Lunar Volley], while Sasha’s enchanted arrows pinned them to the ceiling. From there, Nyx dealt the finishing blows.

A pair of Wailing Bone Juggernauts charged them with horrifying cries. Leon, Kaiden, and Jack formed the front while Bastet’s solar aura scorched the creatures’ edges and Vaelira’s minions rushed in to overwhelm the monsters with numbers.

The worst ambush came in a shattered ballroom when dozens of Hollow Dancers emerged.

These were strange monsters who had their limbs snapping at inhuman angles and jaws clicking like castanets. They tried to charm and disorient, but Vaelira deployed her legion in phalanx formation, together with Jack taunting them while Kaiden, Luna, and Diaz flanked the monsters to backstab them. At the same time, the ranged combatants dealt continuous projectile damage.

Even during these fierce encounters, they only had to dip into their healing potions a few times. The group setup was just that well-functioning.

Despite the dungeon’s growth, the team was prevailing.

The dungeon was evolving, yes. But humans had their own edge.

Adaptability.

Ingenuity.

Ten diverse classes working in tandem.

All enemies they faced were higher-level than any one of them... but not all ten of them combined. And that was the beauty of it: they didn’t need to be the strongest individually. They just needed to be the more competent group.

And there was another upside: the XP gain.

While shared between the group, the level gap between them and their foes meant that the experience gain was noticeably boosted. Even with sometimes all ten people taking a piece, they were steadily leveling up. Everyone could feel it; each step forward in this cursed place made them stronger.

Even the dungeon’s new hunger curse, as daunting as it sounded, wasn’t turning out to be the disaster they feared. True, they were eating about 30% more than normal, but thanks to Talia’s preparation and Vaelira’s logistics solution, they had enough food and drink for weeks, perhaps even months, not days.

More importantly...