Aria slid helplessly down the narrow tunnel, the rough stone brushing against her arms and body as gravity dragged her completely.
"No no no… slow down, slow down!" Her voice echoed uselessly.
The slope steepened. Her stomach lurched. Panic clawed up her throat.
She tried to brace herself but her fingers kept slipping on the damp, smooth stone.
The darkness swallowed her as she shot downward.
Her heart hammered. Every twist of the tunnel sent her bouncing painfully against the walls.
A sharp jolt cracked against her shoulder, then her hip, then finally the tunnel suddenly angled upward, slowing her momentum, and the stone beneath her shifted from slick to coarse.
Her speed dropped sharply.
She slid out of the tunnel and tumbled onto solid ground in a clumsy roll.
"Ouch!"
She lay there, blinking up at the ceiling, her breath quivering. Her head throbbed from the earlier impact but when she lifted her hands to check herself, she felt no blood or broken bone.
"Thank the gods, I'm not badly hurt," she whispered, relief washing over her stiffly. "That could've been so much worse…"
She pushed herself up slowly, brushing dust from her clothes as she finally took in the chamber around her.
Her eyes widened.
The room was packed with mana ore. It was not scattered like before, but wedged together so tightly the walls looked like a mosaic of glowing crystal.
Blues, greens, reds, and faint purples layered over each other, merging into dense clusters.
Some veins were so thick they fused into massive columns rising from floor to ceiling like natural crystal pillars.
Everything here looked sturdy, reinforced by the sheer concentration of ore. The cavern felt more like the inside of a gemstone than a dungeon chamber.
Aria exhaled shakily.
"At least it's safe and sturdy down here. Better than the collapsing tunnels above."
Still, she couldn't help but pout slightly as she rubbed the tender spot on her head.
"Why did it have to shove me so hard…"
A wet sound echoed above her.
Plop!
Aria looked up just in time to see the green slime drop out of the tunnel. It bounced once off the ground, then settled with a faint wobble as its core glowed in relief.
"You… you're okay," Aria said, letting out a relieved breath.
The slime pulsed brighter as if answering her.
Aria allowed herself a small smile.
She could clearly see that this chamber was far sturdier than the previous ones. Its walls reinforced by thick pillars of mana ore fused into the very stone.
There was no way it would collapse as easily as the tunnels above.
The ores glowed softly in every direction, bathing the chamber in a calm, multicolored light.
Aria could hear echo drifting through the stone, like something roaring far below.
She swallowed. Maybe the chamber was safe… but the Dungeon certainly wasn't. But for now she couldn't ask for much.
"Thank you," she murmured gently toward the slime.
"Thank you," the slime echoed back, its mimicry smoother now, almost natural.
Before she could say anything else, the slime turned and headed straight toward the mana ores.
Its membrane shifted with anticipation as it began to Consume the nearest cluster.
Aria simply sat down and watched it quietly.
For now, she would just rest.
She needed to let her mana recover before she could even think about what would come next.
Her body sagged a little as she exhaled, finally letting herself breathe.
Meanwhile, the slime eagerly devoured the mana ores.
It had used its Analyze skill earlier and found which veins held the highest purity.
Those were the ones it targeted first, instinctively knowing they should be consumed before anything else.
—
Second Floor.
Far below, the second floor roared with violence.
One of the massive chambers shook under the clash of two titans.
The towering, muscly, and brimming with mana Goblin Chief charged forward with a guttural roar.
His amber-green core pulsed violently beneath his thick chest as he swung a giant mana-hardened club with both hands.
Opposite him, a monstrous beast snarled, its towering frame covered in dense black fur. It resembled a bear, but its eyes gleamed with unnatural intelligence, and a jagged mana horn jutted from its skull, blazing with a deep, furious crimson.
Its claws were hardened with concentrated mana that was sharp enough to tear through stone.
The two monsters collided in a whirlwind of power.
The Chief's club struck downward.
BOOM!
The bear-beast blocked with its burning claws. Sparks of mana scattering like shards of light.
The Chief roared and swung again, mana surging through his limbs.
The beast lunged as if didn't want to appear less powerful. Its horn glowing brighter as it tried to drive the shimmering point into the Chief's ribs.
The impacts cracked the stone floor. Their strike that clashed sent shockwaves through the chamber.
Around them, chaos spread as their forces clashed.
Hundreds of goblins rushed while screeching and stabbing with crude blades charged with faint green mana.
The beast's underlings, smaller creatures covered in coarse dark fur with faintly glowing horns of their own, crashed into the goblin ranks.
Rocks shattered as bodies were hurled across the chamber.
Screams, roars, and the grinding of mana echoed endlessly.
("You killed my children!") the Goblin Chief roared in the monster tongue.
Monsters with enough intelligence could use the Dungeon's power to communicate with each other through that shared language. Because in the end, they were all connected to the same Dungeon Core.
("What the hell are you talking about, you bastard?! You were the one who barged into my territory! You're courting death!") the bear-like beast snarled back, slashing with its claws.
The Goblin Chief blocked the strike with his club, then drove a heavy kick into the beast's chest, forcing it back several steps. But the creature lunged forward again without hesitation.
"HAAARGHH!" The Goblin Chief, consumed entirely by rage, could do nothing but attack. He had lost all sense of reason. All he knew was fury and violence after discovering his children dead one by one in their nest, an unforgivable humiliation in his eyes.
Goblins died all the time. That was simply how the world worked. But killing them inside their own nest… that was an insult the Goblin Chief could not tolerate!
They clashed again and again, creating more chaos and destruction.
Meanwhile, not far above them, the true culprit behind the slaughter, the one who had killed and ate the goblins inside their nest and caused all this chaos, was busy munching on mana ores, completely unaware of the battle below.
—