[HP: 64%][Mutation Stability: 41%][Genetic Overlap Detected – Proximity Warning]
The HUD flashed erratically as I staggered out of the chamber, leaving behind the corpse of the red-mawed crawler. My hands were shaking—part exhaustion, part adrenaline, part something else entirely.
My mutation... it wasn't stabilizing anymore. It was accelerating.
Skin peeled in faint flakes down my wrist. Darker veins pushed upward under my skin, pulsing like something alive was trying to crawl free. The pain was constant now—a throbbing reminder that every power I devoured came at a cost.
And then... the girl.
She was still there, sitting cross-legged at the corridor's edge, watching me like a cat studying a wounded bird.
"You're... not normal," I rasped.
She smiled faintly. "Neither are you."
My eyes narrowed. Her tone wasn't accusatory. It was familiar. A kinship, almost. Like she knew what it felt like to be carved up and sewn back together by something this dungeon had no right to control.
"You're infected too?" I asked, stumbling closer.
Her smile didn't falter, but something flickered behind her eyes—regret, maybe. Or recognition.
"Not infected. Born."
That hit harder than I expected.
Born?
"You've been here... since before the Descent opened?"
She didn't answer. Instead, she stood, her motions weightless, like her feet barely touched the stone. She took a step toward me, and suddenly the HUD pulsed again.
[Genetic Signature: 87% Match][Origin Thread – LINKED]
"What the hell..." I whispered.
87%. That wasn't coincidence. That was family-level similarity. Siblings? Clones? I didn't know. But I felt it—like a shard of memory that didn't belong to me pressed against the back of my skull.
"You were made for this place," she said softly. "Like me. The difference is... you're still trying to fight it."
She gestured to the writhing skin on my arm, the shifting bone beneath.
"You're adapting too quickly. You'll lose yourself if you keep devouring without anchoring your identity."
I wanted to scream at her. How do you know any of this? Why was she calm, unmutated, untouched by the rot this dungeon poured into me like acid?
"Why aren't you changing like me?"
She reached forward and touched my forehead with two fingers. Cold. Not temperature—emotionless.
"I already did."
Images slammed into me like a sledgehammer. Flashes of sterile labs. Metal beds. Needles. Screams muffled behind glass. A room full of children with eyes like mine. Some of them screaming. Others silent, already gone inside.
Then her—alone, in the dark. And something breathing beside her that had no face.
I collapsed to my knees, retching. The vision faded, but the weight stayed.
"What did they do to us?"
"They prepared us," she replied.
"For what?"
[New System Directive Unlocked][Subquest: Feed the Core][Objective: Locate the Heart of the First Descent][Status: Dormant]
My mouth went dry. The HUD wasn't giving me a choice anymore.
"The dungeon has a will," she said. "It's not just a place—it's a growing, learning thing. And it remembers."
I looked up at her. "You said I'm fighting it. And you're not?"
She stepped back, letting her fingers trail against the dungeon wall. The stone rippled slightly, like it welcomed her touch.
"I'm a part of it now. I accepted that a long time ago."
I stood slowly, muscles screaming in protest. "Then why are you helping me?"
"Because you're different. You still resist. Maybe you can do what I couldn't."
"And what's that?"
"Break it."
I stared. This girl—whoever or whatever she really was—wanted me to destroy the thing that had made her. Or maybe she was lying. Maybe this was just another trap wrapped in sympathy and vague words.
But my instincts weren't screaming. That was new.
"So where do I go next?" I asked. "What's the Heart?"
"You'll know it when you feel it," she said, turning to walk away. "But be careful, Jin. The deeper you go, the more the dungeon will know you."
"Wait—how do you know my name?"
She didn't answer. She was gone.
I stared after her until even her footsteps faded. Then I turned, pushing forward into the next corridor.
The air grew colder.
[Environmental Hazard Detected – Spore Clouds Active][Oxygen Purity Dropping – 78%]
Gas. Spores.
Great.
I tore fabric from my sleeve and tied it over my mouth. Not much use, but better than breathing raw fungus into my lungs. The hallway tightened, closing in like a throat, and the stone began to sweat—beads of black ichor dripping down the walls.
It smelled like rust and meat.
Then I heard it.
Skittering.
Not one. Dozens. Maybe more.
Shapes crawled across the ceiling—long, chitinous limbs dragging eyeless bodies toward me.
[New Enemy Detected: Subterranean Latchers][Behavior: Pack Swarm / Acidic Attachment / Cranium Burrow]
Of course.
One of them dropped first, shrieking like metal grinding bone. I drove my blade through its throat—but another landed on my shoulder, snapping at my face with mandibles like surgical saws.
I spun and smashed it into the wall, then kicked it down the corridor. Another pounced. Too fast. It latched onto my back, limbs wrapping like a bear trap—
[Mutation Unstable – Overload Warning][Devour Mode: ON]
I didn't even think.
I bit it.
My jaw unhinged. My throat widened. My hunger screamed.
I devoured its head whole, eyes rolling back as the creature's body twitched and dissolved into my skin.
Power surged through me like molten fire. Strength. Speed. A sixth sense—something like sonar, mapping out movement before it happened.
I stood surrounded by bodies. I wasn't sure when the fight ended. My breath came in ragged gasps.
[Latchling Trait Absorbed: Clingstep][Allows temporary wall-running on vertical surfaces.]
[Mutation Stability: 33%]
I touched my face. My jaw was still shifting back into place. Bones cracked. Teeth realigned.
I was still human.
Barely.
But every bite, every kill... it was making that less true.
I moved on.
And for the first time—I wasn't sure I wanted to stop.