The stench of rot hung in the air.
Jin Kayn stood at the edge of a jagged stone precipice, staring into the pulsating abyss of the First Descent. The dungeon breathed—literally breathed—with a sickly rhythm, its walls expanding and contracting like infected lungs. Moist air wheezed through fleshy vents carved into the sinew-strung stone. The entrance behind him had already sealed shut, a mass of writhing tendrils fusing into an impenetrable wall. There was no turning back.
[Entering Zone: Level 1 – Veins of the Forgotten]
His HUD flickered erratically.
[Mutation Level: Stable]
[Bio-Mass: 7 Units]
He exhaled shakily. Every breath carried the taste of iron and soil, thick on his tongue. The dungeon wasn't just alive—it wanted him. He could feel it watching, waiting for him to slip.
A distant screech echoed through the corridor, followed by an organic clicking that sped up—erratic, staccato, getting closer. Something alive. Something hungry.
Jin crouched instinctively, muscles tensing. His forearm twisted with a wet crack as a jagged spike of bone erupted from beneath his skin.
[Skill Activated: Bone Spike Lv. 1]
A Skitterling darted into view, its many limbs twitching unnaturally, chittering jaws clacking. Its form resembled a bloated tick fused with human molars and shards of cartilage. The creature hissed, blood-flecked foam spilling from its mandibles.
Jin lunged.
The bone spike pierced the creature's central eye. It shrieked, limbs flailing, before collapsing in a pool of congealing sludge.
+6 Bio-Mass
He staggered back, breathing hard. The spike retracted with a nauseating squelch. Sweat mixed with grime streaked down his face.
Pain flared in his skull.
[WARNING: Neural Desync Approaching Critical]
Each use chipped away at him—body, mind, soul. How many spikes before he lost himself?
He wiped sweat from his brow, smearing crimson across his cheek. "Not now," he muttered. "Not yet."
The dungeon shifted.
Walls throbbed and rearranged, corridors distorting into flesh-wrapped mazes. Faces appeared in the walls—some familiar, others forgotten—whispering in voices that echoed from memories he couldn't place.
He pressed forward, step by step, past bone piles and ruptured pods. The air grew warmer, heavier.
"Join us."
"It's better inside."
He gritted his teeth, tuning them out. But then he heard something different. Something fragile.
Crying.
It echoed faintly from a side corridor—desperate, human. He froze.
"A trap," Jin whispered, but his legs betrayed him. Step by step, he moved toward the sound, heart pounding.
The passage narrowed, walls growing more grotesque, layered with thin muscle fibers that quivered at his touch. Then they peeled open with a wet sigh, revealing a chamber.
A cocoon of stretched skin and muscle pulsed gently at the center. As he approached, it unfurled like a grotesque flower.
Inside was a girl—young, maybe fifteen. Dirt-smudged. Pale. Trembling. A gash leaked blood down her temple. Her eyes locked on his.
"Please... don't let it take me."
Something shifted above.
Jin's instincts screamed.
A Devourer Broodkin – Level 7 dropped from the ceiling with a gurgling roar. Saliva hissed as it struck the fleshy floor. Its limbs were twisted into claws of bone and sinew, its belly bloated with roiling parasites.
[Hostile Detected – Threat Level: High]
Jin didn't hesitate.
He stepped in front of the girl, planting his foot firmly.
[Adrenal Surge Engaged]
He roared as new spines tore from his back. The pain was excruciating, but it sharpened him.
The Broodkin lunged. Jin ducked, barely, feeling the claws whisper past his throat. Its foul breath stung his eyes.
He retaliated with a sweeping slash. His mutated arm sliced deep into the beast's torso. Black ichor sprayed the walls.
The girl screamed.
[Critical Hit – Target Bleeding]
Jin pressed in. No time to breathe. No time to think. He dodged another strike, parried with a bone shard, and delivered a savage headbutt that sent the beast stumbling.
[Bio-Mass Consumed: +2 Mutation Surge]
His shoulder bones shattered outward, forming elongated spears. He lunged, driving them into the Broodkin's throat.
The creature convulsed. Once. Twice. Then collapsed in a boneless heap.
Silence.
Jin collapsed beside it, panting. Blood soaked his sleeves. Muscles twitched with overuse.
The girl crawled toward him. "You… saved me."
He looked at her, eyes shadowed with something beyond exhaustion. "Don't thank me yet."
Behind them, the walls began to close again.
The dungeon was watching.
[New Objective: Escort Unclassified Survivor to Safe Zone]
[Mutation Instability: 42%]
[Unknown Neural Sync Detected – WARNING]
Jin's breath caught. What did that mean?
The girl looked up, tears mixing with blood. "It's not over. I heard it whispering to me. It said... you belong to it too."
He felt the chill run down his spine. The hunger inside him stirred.
Then the Broodkin's corpse twitched.
Jin whipped around. The creature's bloated gut squelched—and split. A mass of pale, eyeless larvae spilled out, wriggling toward the warm scent of blood.
The girl screamed again. Jin rose, groaning, legs shaky, and summoned the last dregs of Bio-Mass.
[Skill Chain: Bone Shard Scatter + Flame Gland – Lv. 1]
A cluster of barbed projectiles burst from his palm, igniting midair in a gout of mutated flame. The larvae shrieked and curled inward, cooking alive in their mother's fluids.
The smell was indescribable.
Jin leaned against the wall, vision blurring. The HUD was glitching. Red text. Symbols that didn't make sense.
[NEURAL ENTROPY: THRESHOLD 1 BREACHED]
[Cognitive Drift: 9%]
The girl touched his arm. "You're shaking."
"I know," he said through clenched teeth. "We're not safe yet."
"You're bleeding from your eyes."
He hadn't noticed. "That's... new."
She took his hand.
[Sync Detected – Pattern Match: 62% Genetic Overlap]
"What the hell does that mean?" he muttered, staring at the alert.
"Maybe," she said quietly, "you're not the only one the dungeon made."
They stood together in the pulsing dark.
And somewhere deep below, something laughed.