Chapter 173: C Rank Dungeon

Chapter 173: Chapter 173: C Rank Dungeon

Time passed.

The second year moved with its own rhythm — classes, training, cultivation, missions. Lemora Du Maurier had settled into the academy like a cat settling into a house that wasn’t hers.

She appeared beside Lucian in the library, leaning over his shoulder to read whatever he was studying, her breath warm against his neck. Clara had appeared within thirty seconds, her eyes cold, and positioned herself between them without a word. Lemora smiled and left.

She found him at the training grounds one evening, sitting alone between sets. She sat beside him, crossed her legs, and starting random conversations. Rose arrived four minutes later with two water bottles and a look that said get out, bitch. And of course, arguments started.

"You can’t avoid me forever, Lucian."

Every time Lemora got close, Clara or Rose was there. Sometimes both.

Lemora’s smile never wavered.

11 months quickly passed.

Lucian broke through to Peak Core Realm a month ago.

The breakthrough had been smooth — his Transcendent Core absorbed and compressed mana with an efficiency that made the final push from Mid to Late and finally Peak feel less like a wall and more like a door swinging open especially with the help of the Heaven grade Astral Foundation pills. His mana capacity sat at 95,000 MPU. His physical stats had climbed steadily, boosted by the Transcendent Body passive and months of relentless training.

Clara was currently preparing for the Grand Core Realm. Her Moon Goddess bloodline and SS-Rank abilities gave her a foundation that most cultivators could only dream of, but the jump from Peak Core to Grand Core was a qualitative shift — liquid core to crystallized core. She spent hours each day in the cultivation room, compressing her mana, refining her control over Gravity Manipulation and Lunar Authority. Both abilities had grown significantly.

Ryan and Rose had both advanced to Peak Core Realm recently — Ryan through the Silent Star Pool sessions after travelling to New Geneva again and his Critical Mind ability’s capacity for processing mana flow patterns, and Rose with the help of Tier 3 Astral Foundation Pills that Allistar had refined for him which he gave her.

The pills had been a problem.

Allistar’s alchemy lessons had progressed steadily over the year. Lucian could now refine any Tier 1 pill with near-perfect success. His Tier 2 pills had an 80-90% success rate. But Tier 3 pills were a different beast entirely. The complexity of ingredient fusion, the precision required for flame sealing, the mental pressure needed for pill formation — all of it scaled dramatically. Lucian’s Tier 3 success rate sat at approximately 10%.

The failures wasted materials. Rare materials. Materials that Allistar had grown in his garden over years — some over decades. The old man had tolerated the first three failures with gruff silence. The fourth earned a cane to the shin. By the seventh, Allistar had physically picked Lucian up by the back of his shirt and thrown him out of the garden with a roar of "GET OUT OF MY GARDEN AND DON’T COME BACK UNTIL YOU CAN REFINE WITHOUT DESTROYING MY HERBS!"

Lucian had stood outside the gate for twenty minutes before the old man calmed down and let him back in.

The pills that succeeded, however, were excellent.

Lucian stood in his room.

He had told Clara and Rose he was heading into a dungeon. They knew better than to question his training decisions — he’d earned that trust through a year of consistent results. Clara had kissed him and told him not to die. Rose had packed him bags of her blood.

He pulled the C-Rank Dungeon Key from his Shadow Storage.

The key materialized in his palm. Intricate runes were carved along its surface, each one glowing faintly in the dim light of his room.

The system materialized beside him.

"Channel your mana into the key and insert it into the air in front of you. The dungeon will materialize."

Lucian looked at the floating figure. "Any other advice?"

"Hmmm, I don’t think so."

He had obtained this key as a reward from the ICL tournament — upgraded from a D-Rank key by the system after his combat strength exceeded D-Rank dungeon parameters. The academy’s dungeon permits only went up to D-Rank. No institution on Earth would grant a Core Realm student a permit for a C-Rank dungeon. C-Rank dungeons were designed for Grand Core Realm cultivators. The beasts inside possessed abilities, intelligence, and killing power that could shred through anything below Grand Core with ease.

But D-Rank dungeons no longer pushed him. His combat strength had stagnated — he needed stronger opponents, real danger, the kind of pressure that forced growth. The academy wouldn’t give him access. So he would use his own key.

He followed the system’s instructions. He pushed his mana into the key — a steady, controlled stream that made the runes blaze brighter and brighter. The crystalline surface grew warm. Then hot. Then blinding.

He inserted the key into the empty air in front of him.

The runes blazed blue. The key dissolved into particles of light that scattered outward. The air in front of him tore — a vertical slit of blue-white light that widened, stretched, and opened into a doorway. The light was intense. The mana pressure that emanated from the opening was heavy.

Lucian stepped through.

The doorway closed behind him.

He materialized inside the dungeon.

The first thing he noticed was the environment — a vast underground cavern system. Stalactites hung from a ceiling so high it vanished into darkness above. Water dripped somewhere in the distance. Drip. Drip. Drip.

The sound echoed through the cavern, bouncing off stone walls in repeating patterns that made it impossible to pinpoint the source.

Narrow paths branched in multiple directions, some descending deeper into the earth, others climbing along the cavern walls.

[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]

[C-Rank Dungeon — Subterranean Labyrinth]

[Layer 1 of ???]

[Objective: Reach the Dungeon Core. Eliminate all threats. Survive.]

[Reward: ???]

Lucian activated Primordial Sight.

The cavern extended in every direction — tunnels branching left, right, downward, some connecting to larger chambers deeper below. Mana signatures were scattered throughout the labyrinth. Dozens of them. All D-Rank beasts. Their positions glowed in his perception like scattered embers.

D-Rank beasts wouldn’t even slow him down. He needed to go deeper.

He started walking as he activated his blood sense. His footsteps echoed through the cavern — the only sound besides the dripping water. The path ahead curved downward, descending into the earth in a gradual spiral. The darkness thickened. His vampire vision adjusted automatically — the darkness becoming as clear as daylight.

His Blood Sense triggered before his eyes caught it. Multiple heartbeats approached from the walls and ceiling. Six signatures.

Crawlurs. Six-legged reptilian beasts the size of large dogs. They ran along the walls and ceiling with sickening speed, their claws clicking against stone. Their eyes were small and black. Their jaws split into four mandibles lined with needle teeth.

They lunged.

Lucian stood calmly as he simply raised one hand.

Blood spears materialized around him. They hovered in the air for a single heartbeat.

He snapped his fingers.

The spears launched simultaneously — each one targeting a Crawlur with unerring precision. The sound was a wet, sharp series of impacts.

SHK. SHK. SHK. SHK. SHK. SHK.

Four dropped from the ceiling and walls, their bodies pinned to the stone floor by blood spears through their skulls. Two slammed into the cavern walls behind Lucian, spears protruding from their chests, limbs twitching once before going still.

Lucian didn’t look back. He kept walking.

He descended deeper.

The tunnels widened as he progressed. D-Rank beasts appeared at intervals — more Crawlurs, a few burrowing Rock Centipedes. He killed them all without breaking stride. Blood needles. Light bolts. Occasionally a casual swipe of Aethon when they got close enough to make sword work more efficient than spellcasting.

40 minutes passed 77 D-Rank kills.

Then the tunnel opened.

Lucian stepped into the main chamber.

It was cathedral-sized. Waterfalls ran down the chamber walls, feeding into underground pools that glittered in the pale light. The water was clear. Still. Beautiful.

The chamber was beautiful and deadly.

In the center, illuminated by the shaft of light, were two beasts.

Lucian stopped. His Primordial Sight activated.

Two Early C-Rank beasts. Razortail Lizards. Each one was massive — six meters long from snout to tail tip, their bodies covered in grey-green scales that rippled with dense mana.

Unlike D-Rank beasts, C-Rank beasts had abilities. Lucian wasn’t sure what theirs were — his Primordial Sight could read their physical data, but ability details required closer observation.

Lucian activated Light Armor. A dense layer of light mana coated his body — hardening his skin against physical attacks. Simultaneously, he activated Crimson Vessel. His blood circulated at extreme pressure. A faint crimson sheen spread across his skin beneath the golden light, layering defense on top of defense.

The two Razortail Lizards turned their heads toward him. Their amber eyes locked onto his position with focused, predatory intensity. Killing intent rolled off them in waves.

Lucian understood immediately.

They were mating. He had disturbed them.

He smirked.

"My bad."