CHAPTER 42: MUTATED DUNGEON

Theo, Ron, and Meg struggle to stay on their feet as the ground shakes violently beneath them. The earth where they stand is cracking and splitting apart.

At first, the fissures look like small sinkholes, but as time passes, they grow longer and wider.

They can barely see what is happening around them. There isn’t enough light. Theo summons more light orbs, making them larger and brighter, but they still cannot illuminate farther than about 250 meters.

It is as if the dungeon itself is absorbing the light.

As if it isn’t enough, suddenly, out of the fissures, emerge vines as thick as an adult man’s thigh. They are long, strong, and alive. They whip and slam against the ground, and each strike makes the earth tremble, opening even more cracks.

"We’re gonna die! We’re gonna die! We’re gonna die!" Meg cries, muttering like someone who has lost her mind.

Ron focuses on dodging the vines and avoiding the widening fissures, but suddenly, one of the vines wraps tightly around his waist and pulls.

"Argh! Nooooooo!" His scream echoes in the darkness before fading away.

"Ron!" Theo shouts. He fights as fast as he can, cutting the vines with his blue flame sword. He moves quickly, dodging and slicing, trying to reach Meg, but he can no longer see her.

"Meg!" he yells.

The ground beneath him suddenly gives way, and Theo falls into a dark fissure.

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Liam knows he’s screwed. He’s ducking behind a large boulder, trying his best to catch his breath.

He leans his head against the rock, closes his eyes, and pants quietly. He doesn’t fully understand how it happened.

One minute, he was still fighting a water serpent with a few of his team members. The next, the ground shook, and the underground water cave they were in began to collapse. Then, suddenly, its ceiling split open, revealing a night sky.

Which is impossible. He knows for sure it was daylight before. He could see the sky clearly when he was fighting the serpent. This was supposed to be a daylight dungeon, how could it change into a night dungeon?

Liam has a lot on his mind. The first is the day-and-night shift. Dungeons don’t have day or night cycles like the outside world. It’s either one or the other; they never change. Night dungeons are relatively far more dangerous than day dungeons.

The second thing that worries Liam is the serpent itself. The water serpent he’d been fighting vanished when the quake started, replaced by something entirely new. It dove into the lake when the cave began to shake.

When everything stopped, a much larger water serpent haelion emerged. But Liam had never seen this kind before. Its scales were slick like a snake’s, and it had two heads — one breathing fire, the other spitting icicles.

In less than five minutes after it appeared, it had killed the remaining members of Liam’s team, leaving him alone.

And now, the two-headed haelion is hunting for him.

He’s screwed.

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Theo is still falling. He casts Verellis, a second-level wind spell, to slow his descent. It works. He’s still falling, but much slower now.

He uses the moment to summon several light orbs, circling him like a halo.

Calling out for Ron and Meg, he wields a blue flame sword in each hand, slashing through the vines as they whip toward him.

It occurs to him why he doesn’t feel very fatigue. He has been jumping, running, fighting, and casting non-stop, yet his energy hasn’t dropped. He realizes it’s because the dungeon is overflowing with mana, and Thea’s body is replenishing itself faster than he can spend it.

Ever since the fissures appeared, the mana has become even more abundant, soaking the air around him, filling every vein in Thea’s body.

That is why Theo isn’t afraid. He feels more powerful than any of the haelions falling beside him. The vines tear through them too, shredding beasts midair as they fall.

The air grows damp and heavy. A musty, humid scent of mold and decay fills his nose. He knows he is close to the bottom.

He prepares hundreds of blue flame swords to hover around him, all pointed downward, ready to strike.

The vines grow thicker as he descends. Theo knows he is nearing their source.

Then, beneath the roar of wind and crackling flame, he hears a faint rustling.

He flips himself midair, falling headfirst. His body aligns perfectly, and with a sharp exhale, he channels Verellis

again. The air bends around him.

Now Theo is no longer falling. He is flying, descending with intent, no longer at the mercy of gravity.

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Liam grips the handle of his weapon tightly. It’s a hybrid between a lightsaber, a whip, and a spear. He can shift its form as he wishes, adjusting its length until it becomes a sword, a whip, or a spear.

He had paid a lot of money to have it made. No – his father had.

Liam had seen something similar in a movie once, a weapon that resembled a sword made of light. The image stuck with him, and he came up with a few ideas of his own.

When he told his father about it, Linus had stared at him for a long moment, expression unreadable. Then, without a word, he took out his phone and called the Monfort Industries R&D Department.

A few months later, Liam received the finished weapon as his twenty-fourth birthday present, much to his mother’s dismay. Linus had assured him, that no one else has a weapon like that.

Unlike the ones in the movies, Liam’s weapon – which he had lovingly named Aetherion – doesn’t glow with color. Instead, it looks like a blade of translucent crystal, though in reality, it is pure, focused Heartstone energy.

He hears the rustling of scales sliding across the ground, coming closer to his hiding spot.

He knows the serpent’s two heads will try to corner him from both sides, so he carefully climbs the boulder.

He’s right. From the top, he can see the two heads circling from opposite directions.

His grip on Aetherion tightens. The blade hums faintly, its edge extending and sharpening. Liam raises it, ready to strike at one of the heads.

Then, out of nowhere, a vine as thick as half his body shoots out, wraps around his ankle, and lifts him into the air.

Liam is startled, but to his credit, he doesn’t yell. He grips his weapon tightly, pulls himself upward, and slices through the vine in one clean motion.

Success.

He drops, but before he can flip to brace his fall, another vine catches him. He cuts it. Falls again. Gets caught once more. This cycle repeats a few more times.