Chương 81: Chapter 80: Want to Live

Dark-red magic crystals lay scattered all over Rockspring Dungeon. Roderic knelt on one knee, breathing heavily, both hands braced on the black longsword he had taken from the skeleton warlord. He raised his head and looked ahead. Torren split open a black-armored warrior's breastplate with one slash, then reversed his grip and drove the sword up through its jaw, piercing straight through its skull.

After finishing the enemy in front of him, he drew a deep breath, pressed one hand against its helmet, and, trembling, slowly pulled the longsword free. On the other side, Brant was now wielding a black spear he had picked up from some fallen skeleton. He swept the spear through the upper body of a skeleton charging at him, shattering it apart, then turned and knocked another black-armored warrior to the ground.

Before the skeleton could climb back up, Maeve hurried over, dragging her warhammer behind her, and brought it down with all her strength. Bang! At long last, the depths of the cavern fell silent. Roderic slowly pushed himself upright and muttered in a weak, exhausted voice,"Lord... please... no more..." The moment the words left his mouth, the rock wall beside him suddenly split open. A massive scarlet eyeball burst out from inside the wall.

It had barely swiveled toward Roderic when a white spear of light came hurtling through the air and pierced straight through it. BOOM! The explosion blew the eyeball apart and even blasted a large crater into the rock wall behind it. Roderic stared expressionlessly at the hole in the wall. Only after a long silence did he slowly ask,"... What was that?"

"Instructor! Are you all right?" Seeing that there were no more monsters nearby, Zoe and Tanisha hurried over and carefully steadied him. Roderic slowly sat down and pulled a bottle of pale-green stamina potion from the pouch at his waist.

"Quick reflexes, Zoe. Well done." A faint blush appeared on Zoe's face. Roderic did not notice. He twisted off the cap and was just about to drink when he suddenly stopped. Roderic paused, brought the bottle closer, and peered carefully inside.

"Oh. I grabbed an empty one." A single drop of potion was slowly sliding along the bottom toward the mouth of the bottle. Roderic immediately stuck out his tongue and licked the last bit clean.

"Can't let Gern's kindness go to waste." Tanisha suddenly let out a soft giggle beside him. Roderic froze. After a long moment, he silently put the empty bottle away and stood back up.

"W-well then! We should keep moving! Let's try to purify this evil dungeon before the day is over!" Behind him, Tanisha and Zoe watched his slightly stiff retreat, exchanged amused smiles, then jogged after him. Roderic walked over to Torren, who was sorting through his equipment, and gave him a heavy pat on the back.

"Good. You'll take the lead from here!" Torren turned toward him with a blank expression and pointed at himself.

"Me?" Roderic did not answer. He simply gave Torren two more forceful pats, making him grimace in pain. Torren hurriedly gathered up his equipment and jogged to the very front to join Brant. This time, there was no way he was standing next to Roderic again. As they continued deeper into the dungeon, Roderic's group encountered no more monsters worth mentioning. Most were nothing more than Bronze-level skeletons they could deal with casually.

The black-armored warriors from before had vanished as abruptly as they had appeared. Even so, no one lowered their guard. Who knew what else might be waiting in front of the Core Chamber? However, when Torren and Brant approached the dark, square stone chamber deep inside the dungeon with their weapons raised, they found it completely empty. Not a sound came from within.

"This is...?" Torren slowly walked to the far end of the chamber, pressed a hand against the cold rock wall, and pushed hard. It did not budge. He and Brant carefully searched the entire room, but they could not find a single exit, much less any sign of the Core Chamber. It was as though the entire dungeon simply ended here. Roderic walked forward with a grave expression, slowly sweeping his gaze around the room.

"Torren, find anything?"

"Nothing! Brant just checked outside again too. This is the only room left anywhere nearby." Maeve stood beside the silent Roderic. After some rest and treatment, her complexion had improved considerably. At the very least, she was no longer as deathly pale as before. She closed her eyes once again and slowly raised her warhammer in her right hand. The familiar silver-white glow gradually appeared.

"Pure White... Sight! Illuminate the path ahead!" A gentle wave of silver-white light quickly spread throughout the room, sweeping across every wall without missing a single corner. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Roderic immediately looked around carefully. Sure enough. When the silver-white light passed over one particular section of the rock wall, a strange reaction suddenly came from behind it.

Almost at the same moment, Maeve's eyes snapped open. Her body shuddered. The warhammer slipped from her hand and struck the ground as she bent forward, bracing both hands on her knees and breaking into a violent coughing fit. Roderic was just about to move toward her when Maeve raised one trembling hand first and pointed at the wall.

"B-behind... the wall!" Roderic immediately turned.

"Tanisha! Zoe! Take care of her!" Roderic set the black longsword on the ground, picked up Maeve's fallen warhammer, and walked toward the place she had indicated. He slowly lowered his stance and began pouring what little mana he had left into the warhammer. The weapon started trembling violently. The silver-white light across its surface grew increasingly unstable. Roderic hurled the warhammer at the rock wall. It struck the black stone with tremendous force, the entire hammerhead burying itself deep inside.

Less than a second later, the silver-white light around the weapon erupted. The entire rock wall blew open. Stone fragments sprayed in every direction, finally revealing the cramped space hidden behind it. No one dared move carelessly. Roderic went back to retrieve the black longsword, then led Torren and Brant cautiously toward the opening while the dust still hung in the air. The moment he saw what lay inside, Roderic frowned.

"What a profane sight!" The entire Core Chamber was covered in slimy dark-red matter. It spread across the floor and walls in every direction, while faint pale-red light could be seen slowly flowing within it. Zoe and Tanisha started forward while supporting Maeve, but Roderic raised one hand to stop them.

"You three stay back. Leave this to us."

"But Instructor..." Roderic slowly turned his head. The solemn look on his face made Zoe swallow the rest of her words. Only then did Roderic's expression soften slightly.

"Don't worry. If anything happens, I'll call for your support immediately." Zoe nodded. She did not exactly stay put, however. Instead, she rose onto her toes and tried to peek past Roderic to see what was inside the room. Roderic glanced at her but did not bother stopping her. As long as she did not actually come any closer. Roderic bent down and entered the chamber first. The moment his iron boots touched the slimy flesh, he clicked his tongue in irritation. Even so, he did not stop.

He continued deeper into the room until he reached a stone pedestal. Even the pedestal had been almost completely covered by the dark-red flesh, with only small patches of its original stone surface still visible. If Roderic had not been able to just barely make out its outline, he might not even have realized that it had once been a stone pedestal. At its center, nestled within a mass of flesh that slowly pulsed as though it were alive, a dark-red diamond-shaped object caught his attention.

Just then, a faint red glow appeared across the object. It slowly floated free from the flesh and stopped in midair, facing Roderic and the others. A long moment passed before that broken, halting voice sounded again.

"Why... help... enemies...?" Roderic did not answer. He merely raised the black longsword and pointed its blade at the dark-red core.

"Want... to live..." The red glow across the Rockspring core flickered faintly.

"Want... to live..." Roderic was just about to raise the black sword and bring it down when Maeve's voice suddenly came from behind him.

"Wait." Pale-faced, she entered the chamber with Tanisha supporting her.

"Let Tanisha try purifying it first. We might be able to get more information out of it." Roderic did not move immediately. He simply stared hard at the diamond-shaped core before him. After a long moment, he let out a deep breath and slowly stepped aside, though he did not lower his weapon.

"I'm warning you now. If it makes any suspicious move, I'll destroy it immediately." Maeve nodded, then gently patted Tanisha on the back. Tanisha looked troubled. A thin sheen of sweat appeared across her forehead, but she still slowly stepped forward and raised both hands. Gentle silver-white light immediately enveloped the diamond-shaped core. When the silver light touched the slimy dark-red flesh surrounding it, the flesh actually began receding little by little.

Even the dark-red color of the core itself gradually began to fade beneath the silver-white glow. However, once its color had lightened past a certain point, the silver light could penetrate no deeper. The formerly dark-red diamond-shaped core had now become a faint shade of red. Tanisha tried for a while longer before finally shaking her head and slowly lowering her hands. Just then, the diamond-shaped core swayed gently from side to side.

"Feels... much better..." Everyone could only stare. None of them had expected gratitude from something that had controlled monsters and even prepared a Demonic Tide to devour Rockspring Town. Before anyone could react, it spoke again.

"I like... this feeling..." The pale-red core slowly floated toward Tanisha.

"I can... do anything..." The faint red glow across its surface flickered gently.

"Want... to live..."

"Why did you try to unleash a Demonic Tide? Why were you trying to find Blackstone's location?"

"If don't obey... will die... don't want... to die..." Roderic drew a deep breath and glared at the core.

"So you'll trade other people's lives for your own?"

"Isn't that... how it is...?" The diamond-shaped core tilted slightly, its pale-red glow flickering softly.

"We are... enemies..."

"They said... want to live... then kill..." Maeve was about to patiently coax more information out of it when the entire Core Chamber suddenly shook violently. The dark-red flesh covering the walls flared with red light. At the same time, a light screen began slowly unfolding in front of the stone pedestal. Roderic's expression changed. Without the slightest hesitation, he swung the black longsword. The blade cleaved the diamond-shaped core cleanly in half. The next instant, every disturbance in the room stopped.

The two broken halves of the core dropped onto the stone pedestal, faint traces of pale-red light still lingering across their surfaces.

"Not me... it was..." The broken voice did not even have time to finish. The light across the core went out completely. Only two shattered pieces of stone remained, lying silently on the pedestal. Everyone exchanged bewildered looks. Roderic raised one hand and pressed it hard against his forehead. He had misjudged the situation. In that instant, he had thought the core was about to do something dangerous. He had not realized that whatever had caused the disturbance had nothing to do with it.

Roderic clenched his teeth and angrily drove the black longsword into the ground.

"Rod, this wasn't your fault." Maeve's voice eased some of the strain from his expression. Roderic braced one hand against the pedestal and slowly sat down.

"I thought... damn it!" He slammed a fist into the ground and raked a hand through his hair in frustration.

"Whatever caused that just now might have been the one behind all of this, and I threw away our chance to find out!" No one answered. For a time, the Core Chamber fell completely silent. Then the two halves of the core on the pedestal slowly began to melt. A pale-red light emerged from within them. The liquefying core gradually flowed together, eventually condensing into a pale-red crystal of unusual shape. At the same time, the entire chamber began trembling faintly.

One dark-red magic crystal after another fell from above. Clink. Clink. Before long, it was as though a rain of magic crystals had begun inside the Core Chamber. Other than the clear clattering sounds of crystals striking the ground, nothing else happened. ◆ ◆ ◆ Inside Blackstone Dungeon's Core Chamber, Owen stared blankly at the scene before him. This was nothing like what he had imagined.

He had expected a group of paladins representing justice and light to smash their way through a den of evil, finally confront the dungeon overlord responsible for countless deaths, and destroy it amid its arrogant, defiant taunts, restoring peace to Rockspring Town. But the Rockspring core... Owen did not know how to describe what he was feeling. What it had done was undeniably evil. It had unquestionably stood against him. It had even forced Gern into a contract and made him search for Blackstone's location.

And yet, after seeing everything that had happened, Owen somehow could not bring himself to truly hate the core.

"That thing... didn't feel like it was doing any of this willingly..." Owen remembered the period immediately after he had become a dungeon core. That hollow hunger had tormented him every second, urging him to find someone. Kill them. Then feed. Fortunately, through sheer force of will, together with Trial Return, he had eventually found a path that did not require truly killing anyone.

"If I'd chosen the same path it did back then... would I have slowly ended up like that too?" Owen did not know the answer. But he had a feeling. Probably not much better. And back then, his core had been incomplete, so he had not gained access to the chat channel immediately. But what about newly born cores that were already complete? Did they connect the moment they were born, only to have all those things in there latch onto them? Owen remembered the Rockspring core's final words.

The "it" the core had referred to was very likely one of the things in that chat channel. And he had felt far more than one oppressive gaze on him in that channel.

"So... is something corrupting dungeons? And eventually turning all of them into things like that?" The more Owen thought about it, the more wrong everything felt. Then he considered what the system itself called dungeon cores. Management Sprites. That hardly sounded like something you would call a being that went around spreading death and devouring the living. Unfortunately, he did not have enough information to go any further. Roderic's sword had not only killed the Rockspring core.

It had severed the trail of clues along with it.

"Well, it couldn't be helped. If I'd been in his place, I probably would've swung too." Owen bobbed his core up and down.

"But now that I know there might be other things pulling strings behind the scenes, I'd better be more careful from now on."

"I should find a chance to tell Ponytailed Guy and Old Guildmaster too." Owen dismissed the light screen in front of him, then sent another instruction to Roderic and the others.

"Don't dwell on what just happened. Gather the spoils and return as soon as possible. There's still plenty to do."