477 The Dungeon Core's Last Stand
p、A,nd A-n、o、ve,1 —–
Within the depths of the Dungeon, the Core of the Dungeon reacted to the events that transpired on the second floor of this Dungeon, the only floor before reaching the third and last one. The powerful Dungeon Core seemed to have developed great intelligence and cognitive abilities, and therefore, it had developed strong emotions of frustration when she saw what happened. Indeed, it was a “she” as the Avatar she created for herself was indeed a female.
“The Phoenix not only was destroyed but the second colony I’ve been trying to build for so long was destroyed as well?! What sort of ridiculous outcome is this?!” She furiously said. “Not only that but these beings… Just who are they to be able to unleash such incredible amounts of power and Mana? And I even felt my own Mana being drained by that strange, phantasmal woman!”
The Dungeon Core avatar roared furiously, shaking the cave where she was located, her enormous might made everything tremble, as countless Worker Ants serving her panicked, running away from the fury of their… Queen.
“After I’ve been painstakingly trying to get that area and slowly take over the upper floors of my Dungeon so I could come outside… It all ended getting demolished in mere minutes! And not only that but the mine of Demonite I built with all the effort I had was also completely stolen?!” The Dungeon Core roared furiously.
Unlike other pragmatic and colder Dungeon Cores, who had yet to fully develop a more human-like personality, she had developed over the thousands of years since her existence, especially with the contamination of “that” which had brought her such incredible new powers in exchange for slowly making her go mad with power, even more than the norm for dungeon cores.
“As things are right now, I cannot simply sacrifice more troops and go attack them. It would be… better to wait them here and completely eliminate them. I have an enormous army at my command in this place. Perhaps I won’t even need to lift a finger myself.” She said with a smile.
In front of her, an enormous army of monstrous beings made a gigantic line, not only just small Worker Ants, but tall humanoid Ants, and even bigger, titanic ones. There were many shapes and even colors, and they were all more than ready to tear apart their prey in exchange for recognition, the recognition of their queen…
“Now that the opportunity to escape to the outside world is here, I won’t miss it. I shall reach the other Mountain and reclaim the other lost half…” She said, looking at a strange black crystal incrusted in her chest. “Yes… The knowledge and malice this item has provided to me has proven to be the greatest. The guidance of the Evil God is supreme! I am so close to become one of the Calamities of this World… I am so close…”
She quickly looked at the projection in front of her, looking at Maria who was eating a stew while carefreely talking with her friends.
“I won’t let this one take away my position, even if you’re just as strong to be able to inherit such a Title, I will become the Great Calamity… I will… bring back the glory of destruction and vile of my lord, the God of Evil!”
Her words couldn’t sound more cliché, but she was completely nuts. The power of whatever was incrusted into the Dungeon Core’s Avatar chest was fueling her with insane amounts of Miasma and Demonic Power far surpassing common sense. The fury of the gods of committing such a taboo could not reach her, as she was hidden within the Dungeon itself.
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(Maria POV)
When we woke up in the morning, the dungeon also changed, the moon atop the artificial sky was gone and now there was the sun slowly rising from the horizon. This type of dungeon are amazing. I am beginning to think they could truly be a work of the gods…
As I woke up from sleeping for around eight hours, my mind felt refreshed. Overusing my own Mana always gave me deadly headaches that couldn’t let me concentrate, but right now? I felt at 100%! I could easily take down a Boss if I my mind into it.
Everyone was already awake by now, we were preparing some delicious breakfast, while I was also multi-tasking and doing some experiment with Emeraldine. I had taken out a Crimson Herb I got from the Demonite Caves and refined it using Purification, taking away all the miasma, until it suddenly began shining brightly, as if it gained some new and magical aura.
“Wow, this is amazing…” Emeraldine was shocked. “I also have that Title, so this means I can use Purification as well and purify things that have Miasma? And the purification is so clear as well, it easily took away all the bad toxins but left all the good things in the herb… In fact, the herb itself had grown healthier, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it even gained some magical properties.” I said with a smile. “I don’t know if this can be do as well with other stuff, but this blood herb is pretty useful…” I said, quickly beginning to inspect it. “Apparently, based in the description, it can be used as substitute for blood if the juice inside its leaves is brewed into a wine.”
“Eh? A wine?!” Asked Emeraldine.
“Yeah, but I was wondering if it could be possible to accelerate such a process through alchemy?” I wondered.
“Huh, I see where you’re coming from.” Emeraldine inspected the herb. “Perhaps what happens is that once the herb’s juices mature and get a specific type of bacteria inside which turns the juice into alcohol, it becomes a substitute for humanoid blood, maybe if we could artificially add that… But I don’t know if that’s possible.”
“Huuh… A bacteria that turns juice into alcohol you say?” I wondered, inspecting my Skills.
I do remember I have a Skill named [Disease and Poison Creation]…
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