Heavy breathing.
Minjun sat against the wall.
Back flat against the stone.
Breathing.
Just breathing.
---
Around him the soldiers moved.
Quiet.
Organized.
The dead gathered carefully.
Laid in a specific spot.
Not rushed.
Not careless.
Each body placed with intention.
A tracker activated beside them.
Small light pulsing once.
Then holding.
---
The drones above swept the area.
Their cameras building something on the other side of the wall.
On the screens in the dark room far away a digital map assembled itself.
Corridor by corridor.
Turn by turn.
The maze taking shape from above.
---
The voice came through.
Flat.
Efficient.
"Confirm area of the bodies."
---
One of the soldiers responded.
Coordinates given.
Brief.
Precise.
---
Someone pressed a potion into Minjun's hand.
He looked at it.
Purple.
He drank it slowly.
Felt it move down his throat.
Into his chest.
The energy of the dungeon around him responding to it.
Like something recognizing something.
---
He closed his eyes.
---
He found the place inside himself where the mana core sat.
Reached for it the way people like him were taught to reach.
Not with hands.
Not with thought exactly.
Something underneath thought.
---
The energy in the dungeon moved toward him.
Slow at first.
Finding the edges of him.
Testing.
Then entering.
---
He gathered it.
Drew it inward.
Condensed it.
The core pulling it tight the way a fist pulls tight.
The darkness around the energy first.
Then the light finding its way through the darkness.
A point of it.
Then more.
---
The core erupted.
Not outward.
Inward.
A volcano contained entirely within him.
His teeth ground together.
His jaw locked.
The heat of it moving through channels that had learned its shape.
---
Then cooling.
The fire becoming something else.
Translucent.
Liquid.
Moving through him like water finding its level.
Settling.
Forming in his stomach into something round.
Perfect.
Still.
A ball of water sitting where the fire had been.
Contained.
His.
---
He opened his eyes.
---
"Everything's confirmed."
One of the soldiers.
Standing nearby.
Looking at him.
"We're ready to move."
---
Minjun put his hand on the wall.
Pushed himself up.
Looked at what remained of them.
Then forward.
Into the corridor.
---
They formed up.
---
The drones moved ahead.
The voice came through again.
"Almost at the centre."
A pause.
"The final boss of the dungeon will be there."
---
They walked.
Thirteen now.
The boots finding their rhythm again.
Steady.
One sound.
The dark ahead giving nothing away.