The forest deepened as they descended.
Towering trees rose around them like pillars, trunks thick as ramparts, bark veined with teal moss. Their crowns knit together overhead, forming a canopy that curved into a ceiling of greenery.
Adam slowed, looking up.
"Where is this light even coming from?" he asked. "How is there a sky down here? We're underground."
Melina answered without hesitation.
"Because whoever created this dungeon wanted it to exist like this." She turned to him, her expression unusually solemn, her gaze carrying the weight of someone far older than her years. "They wove magic into every part of it."
She gestured upward.
"That light. That sky. The trees. Even the monsters, They're all sustained by mana," her voice softened, almost reverent. "Without it, none of this would hold. It would all collapse."
Victoria wiped her blade against her skirt, the fabric already darkened by blood. She had a payed a decent amount for her gear, she didn't mind paying some more to clean it.
She glanced at the forest, then back at Melina.
"So if someone destroys the core," she asked, "everything here dies?"
Melina paused.
She brought two fingers to her chin, eyes unfocusing slightly as she sifted through theory and half-remembered books.
"Maybe," she said at last. "I honestly don't know."
She looked almost embarrassed by the admission.
"Mana doesn't behave like other elements. Fire burns. Water flows. Mana…" She searched for the word. "It decides. It follows rules, but not always the ones we understand."
Her gaze lifted again, watching light spill through the leaves, casting shifting patterns across her face.
"If someone destroys the core, there might be emergency spells. Or maybe not." She swallowed. "It's thought that dungeons aren't all built for the same purpose."
She lowered her eyes to the forest path ahead.
"Until that purpose is fulfilled," she said quietly, "this place might not end at all."
They started walking faster. Alaric remembered his time in the cavern, specifically when he left the cave.
'Sassafras's cave was also a dungeon and it has a...system in place. I wonder, if this has one as well.'
The forest grew busier as they walked.
Small things skittered between roots, chitin clicking softly. Pale, fox-sized creatures with too many eyes watched from the underbrush, scattering the moment Alaric's spear crackled or Victoria's sword flashed. A pack of mana-fed lizards tried their luck and learned quickly why they shouldn't. Nothing here was truly threatening on its own, but nothing was harmless either.
It felt like the dungeon was testing them with gnats before the storm.
Tani was the first to notice it.
Tani froze mid-step, ears twitching. Then, without warning, he darted forward, slipping between two trees.
"Tani—!" Adam hissed.
Too late.
By the time they walked past the trees, they saw it: a opening where the forest floor dipped sharply, roots giving way to worked stone. A tunnel, half-swallowed by moss and vines, sloped downward into darkness.
"Well," Victoria muttered, peering in. "That looks inviting."
Melina frowned. "I wonder where it leads to...."
Alaric tilted his head, listening, then sighed. "And yet."
From the tunnel came a familiar chirping sound, impatient and insistent.
Adam was already stepping in. "He found something."
They followed.
The tunnel widened the deeper they went, roots fading entirely, stone walls carved with old, eroded sigils. The air changed again, cooler and damper, the forest sounds muted until they were nothing but echoes behind them.
Then voices.
Human voices.
Alaric raised a hand, halting them just as the tunnel opened into a larger chamber lit by torchlight and glowing crystals.
"Easy," a woman's voice said. "Weapons down."
Ophelia stepped into view, flanked by several adventurers bearing the marks of recent battle. Her armor was scuffed, blade nicked, but her posture was relaxed in a way that suggested confidence rather than exhaustion.
"Took you long enough," she said dryly.
Adam blinked. "Ophelia?"
Tani chirped triumphantly and leapt from Adam's shoulder, scampering toward her group before circling back as if he wanted to say see?
Alaric lowered his spear. "What happened to you?"
Ophelia shrugged. "Ravine."
"That's not an answer," Victoria said.
"It is when it's a dungeon," Ophelia replied. "We fell into a ravine full of giant armoured bugs. They weren't happy to meet us. We killed them, climbed out, and ended up here."
She glanced around. "Looks like you had your own fun."
"Something like that," Alaric said.
As they exited the tunnel, Melina exhaled slowly, scanning the terrain.
"This would've been much easier if we had a map for this level," she muttered. "We were supposed to harvest mid-layers, not—" she gestured vaguely downward "—whatever this is."
"Oh," Ophelia said casually, "we do."
Melina froze. "You....what?"
Ophelia pulled a folded bundle from her satchel and spread it across a flat stone. A detailed map unfurled, etched with routes, chambers, danger markers, and notes in multiple hands.
"This is everything found so far," Ophelia explained. "Traded, copied, stolen, earned. Not complete," she added, tapping the lower section. "This part's still rough. Seems we're close to the bottom."
Melina stared at it, eyes sparkling.
"This is—this is useful."
They studied the map together, murmurs passing between them. Paths branched. Zones overlapped. Some areas were crossed out entirely, marked: [DO NOT ENGAGE!!!]
After a moment, Alaric straightened.
"We split," he said. "Four per group. Cover more ground."
Adam, Alaric, Melina, and Victoria took one marked route, one occupied with 'Nagas'. Ophelia said they were dangerous, but they should be able to handle them.
Ophelia led another group herself, confident stride already aimed at a section thick with danger markers.
The remaining group gathered around Ophelia's right hand.
Victor stepped forward.
He was young, handsome in a composed way, ginger hair falling just below his eyes. His armor was black, lightweight but clearly reinforced, trimmed with white embellishments that caught the light. A saber rested at his hip, hand never far from it.
"I'll take the eastern route," he said calmly. His voice carried none of Ophelia's bite, but matched her confidence. "We'll report back if we find anything."
Ophelia clapped him once on the shoulder. "Try not to die."
"No promises," Victor replied with a faint smile.
They parted ways soon after, the dungeon swallowing each group in turn.
As Adam glanced back one last time, the map was already being folded away.
_________________________________________
A few hours later–
Victoria pulled back her sword from Naga, purple blood spurting out as she did. Something crept behind her, just as she turned around to meet it, its head was blown away by Melina.
"Thanks," she said.
"You're welcome!" Melina gave a thumbs-up before running towards Adam.
Victoria smirked. She watched Melina approaced Adam, who was slapping Tani away from Naga flesh.
She shifted her gaze to the open field of corpses, filled with blood.
Large snakes, with shimmering scales were laid out, some fo their four legs were cut, revealing the tender flesh and strong muscles inside.
Victoria kicked one snake away.
"Aren't they supposed to be venomous?" She called out to Melina.
Melina answered from a few meters away.
"Yes. But, creating toxins requires energy. So..."
Victoria's eyes slightly widened.
"....Something is taking away their food"
Adam heard them speaking, and looked around. "Where is he?"
As if by premonition, a monstrous scream tore out from beneath the trees.
And a black spear landed just a few feet away from Adam, and then, with a flash of a white cape and the black shadow of his armour, Alaric appeared. He grabbed the spear and readied.
A collosal Naga erupted.
Its scales were a deep, burnished crimson, each one larger than a shield and etched with glowing veins of mana that pulsed like a heartbeat.
Four powerful arms ended in clawed hands that dug into the earth as it hauled itself higher, its serpentine lower body coiling thick and endless beneath it. A crown of backward-curving horns framed its face, and its eyes burned an unnatural blue.
The scream that followed rattled the canopy.
"SSSSAAHHHH—!"
It moved faster than something that size should have. One massive arm swept sideways, claws carving through the air.
Lightning detonated as spear and claw collided, the impact throwing up a shockwave. Alaric slid back several meters, boots digging trenches into the soil, but he held.
"Adam!" he called. "Left flank!"
Adam reacted instantly.
He sprinted, blade flashing as he cut down the smaller Naga spawn slithering out from the treeline, Tani leaping from his shoulder to harry exposed eyes and throats.
Victoria charged straight through the center. She slashed through smaller Nagas, but more kept coming, attracted to the larger creature.
"Melina!" she shouted. "Anything helpful?"
Melina was already chanting.
"Thirien thalen, thava na-a thir,
Va hira na silen va mana-tha velir.
Sha nora enin tha lora en na-a thalenir!"
Mana surged violently, heat snapping outward in ripples that bent the grass and scorched the bark of nearby trees. Symbols burned briefly into existence beneath Melina's feet, flaring gold and crimson before sinking into the soil.
A flurry fire was sent forth towards the beast.
The concentrated mana streaked through the air like falling stars, slamming into the Great Naga's chest. The crimson scales, usually impervious to steel, blackened and cracked under the intense heat. The beast recoiled, its blue eyes widening as the smell of scorched flesh filled the clearing.
"SSSSSSAAHHHHH!!!"
The creature's head was half-burned, crumbling, one of its arms were destroyed and its tail and legs were no more.
Victoria spoke up first.
"Is it dead?"
It wasn't. Its blue eyes, closed until then, widened with fury.
It's arm regenerated first. The stump pulsed, a tender, white knob of flesh pushing out from the jagged edge, surrounded by a faint, tingling warmth as the new limb began its slow, painful bloom.
Then the legs, and then the face.
Alaric sighed, spear already spinning in a circle trailed with blue lightning.
He jumped once, twice, and then leapt a few dozen meters into the air.
"Collision."
Twin streams of mana made their way to the tips of spear, merging in an electrical union, and creating a violent force. The blade's edge pulled with unstable energy, he landed on the snake's head and planted the spear down. His helm materialized.
"RUN!" He ordered.
BOOM!!
An explosion of unstable mana and flesh erupted, blowing away carcasses and flattening trees and grass.
The explosion blew away all of them. Adam hit a tree hard, Tani was sent hight into air and got stuck on a branch, Victoria was sent flying into the bushes and Melina was right beside her.
As for Alaric, he was there, holding his spear steady and strong.
Emptiness ringed.
The Naga Elder was dead. But, unbeknownst to them, it was not the end of their troubles in this dungeon.
Something else was currently fighting Victor's group.
His arm was no longer there, only a red stump was left. His breath was being obstructed by the broken ribs hitting his lungs. Everything was a blur. But, he could still see the monster that did this to him amongst that storm of pain.
The thing loomed over them, half-emerged from the shattered earth. Its body was tall and lean, plated in dark, stone-like armor split by glowing crimson veins. Its claws dripped blood into the forest floor.
Its head tilted as it moved, crowned with blood-red bull horns. The horns pulled like burning coals. The empty eyes of it's skull-lile head stared deep into Victor, its glare was chilling to the core.
The monster raised it's blood soaked limb and swung it at Victor.
He caught another glimpse of the monster. "I'm sorry...Ophelia."