[Status Updated – Passive Recovery: Mana +3 per interval]
Even with my new form, I didn't rush.
I felt stronger. No, denser. Like each of my vines carried weight now—not just physically, but magically. Pressure radiated from my core in a way I hadn't sensed before. Monsters scurried to avoid me. Even the ambient spores seemed to drift away.
Good.
Let the dungeon learn to fear me.
I coiled into a lower tunnel to test my body. My new appendages slithered across stone like snakes dragging chains. I didn't just move—I slid.
Every movement now had purpose.
My vision, if you could call it that, had shifted too. Through Eldritch Verdancy, I didn't see shapes—I saw threads. Streams of mana running through everything. Weak points in walls. Breathing patterns of hidden prey.
I was becoming a predator on more than just the physical level.
[Passive: Eldritch Verdancy – You see prey. You see paths. You see through lies.]
I found a slime nest. Dozens of them. Weak, low-mana creatures—useless to most.
To me?
Food.
I struck fast. One vine shot like a harpoon, skewering three slimes at once. Another wrapped around the rest and squeezed until they popped like grapes.
[Slime devoured: +2 STR | +2 VIT] [Skill Fragment: [Viscous Rebound] Acquired – 27%] [Mana Gained: +5]
Still not enough.
Then I heard it.
A noise not from prey. But from the dungeon itself.
A low, rhythmic thrum—almost like breathing.
Or...
Heartbeat.
[System Notice: Instability Node Reacted – Echo Pulse Detected Nearby.]
The walls vibrated. Not violently. Not enough to cave in. But enough to feel like the stone itself was aware.
And curious.
Roots extended. Carefully. I sent out one of my longest vines toward the sound, slithering through a collapsed section of tunnel. There—past some fungal rot and behind a loose boulder—I felt it.
A rune.
Faint. Old.
And leaking mana like a cracked battery.
[Object Identified: Rune Core Shard – Origin Unknown.] [Warning: Absorbing unstable fragments may cause permanent changes. Proceed? Y/N]
What kind of question is that?
[Absorbing...]
[Rune Core Fragment Assimilated – Evolution Catalyst Stored] [Mana Pool Permanently Increased: +30] [New Trait Forming: ??? – Progress: 6%]
[You feel eyes on you.]
Oh?
So something noticed that.
I retracted, slowly. My core pulsed—not in fear, but in instinct.
Something in this dungeon remembered me now.
Something big.
Back in my core chamber—where I'd made my nest of bones, spores, and digested roots—I re-centered myself. Slowly absorbing mana from the ambient air, from the scattered corpses, from the very soil.
The mana was heavier now.
More concentrated.
Even the dungeon's background mana was beginning to thicken, responding to me in subtle ways.
[System Alert: Local Mana Density has increased by 4%. Current Stability: 96%]
'That's new.'
It wasn't a dungeon break warning—yet—but I was definitely tipping the balance.
I would need more space. More control.
Maybe even...
Followers.
For now, I kept feeding.
I didn't need a throne or minions yet.
But I would.
And when I did... this dungeon wouldn't be my prison.
It would be my cradle.
The place I was born.
And one day, the first piece of land my roots will claim when I devour the world.
[Evolution Catalyst Stored – Path to Evolution II Preparing...] [Stored Abilities: 2/3 – Hunger Spiral ready for activation]