Chapter 15 – A Nose for Mushrooms

It had been a victory, but only barely.

Ivan lay unconscious. Dark purple lines from mana erosion covered his face, and his breathing was scarcely more than a thread.

Nolan sat on the ground, supporting himself with one withered arm as an occasional cough shook his body.

Ironically, Garrick, whose role was to absorb attacks, remained full of energy.

With no other combatant still capable of fighting, he dared not linger. Garrick poured potions into his two companions, gathered the spoils in haste, tucked one injured man under each arm, and ran to rejoin Nyx.

Only after he left did Evan emerge from hiding. Beneath a fragment of stone armor, he found a piece of Lava Heart as large as his fist.

It was perhaps one-tenth of the intact core. The Half-Dragon had collected the remaining fragments.

Strictly speaking, the Lava Heart was the Magma Fiend’s true body and its only valuable component. The shape that towered more than thirty feet high had merely been a combat form sustained by its abilities.

Standing amid the scattered armor, Evan felt unexpectedly wistful.

The creature he had imagined as his final boss was dead before he could challenge it, killed abruptly by three adventurers whose levels were all lower than its own.

One small weakness had been enough to turn victory into instant death.

Evan had watched every detail. The crack in the Magma Fiend’s chest armor had probably been inflicted during its recent absence.

The battle deepened his understanding of this world’s dangers.

Level did not determine everything. The only true safety lay in never exposing his actual body.

Yet if he wanted to relocate, Evan had no choice but to place that body in danger.

* * *

The passage to the Tenth Stratum was an interesting structure.

Its lower half resembled every other tunnel in the Deep Strata. Crude stairs appeared in the upper section.

Who had built the dungeon?

Evan had learned a fair amount about dungeons from Elara. Although Lady Elara had never personally entered one, she had collected an impressive number of rumors.

None explained where dungeons came from.

She did know about the Tenth Stratum of the Amethyst Deep, also called the Thousand-Stone Forest.

Countless natural pillars divided the entire stratum into upper and lower regions that were difficult to travel between. Winged monsters called Haka Windserpents nested atop the pillars. The floor below was the hunting ground of Werewolves.

Werewolves were not truly monsters. They belonged to Demonkind and had once been one of its most powerful species.

This text was taken from NovelPhoenix. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Three hundred years ago, a Hero killed the Demon King. Demonkind descended into civil war over who would succeed him.

Humans used that period to unite with other peoples and establish themselves. Without the conflict, Demonkind would have remained powerful enough to overwhelm every neighboring species even after losing its king.

The Vampires eventually won the struggle and founded the Veiled Empire. Those members of Demonkind who refused to submit migrated to the impoverished Far West, and the empire ceased contact with them.

Only the Werewolves, the Vampires’ hereditary enemies, faced an extermination campaign. Some Werewolf tribes escaped into dungeons across the world and became part of their ecosystems.

According to Elara, the Western Isles were the only place outside a dungeon where Werewolves could still be found.

Near extinction did not make them weak. On the contrary, the Vampires’ hatred reflected the threat they posed.

Without any training, a Werewolf reached at least LV30 upon adulthood. Their Species Level Cap was LV90, equal to that of Vampires. They were an unquestionably dominant species.

Evan had once asked Elara whether humans and Vampires feared that the Werewolves might recover inside the dungeons, grow powerful, and emerge again.

Elara explained that dungeons had rules. Even on the Tenth Stratum, the Werewolves could reach no more than LV50.

Nor had any ever crossed into another stratum. No Werewolf had escaped the dungeon, and none had even appeared on the neighboring Ninth Stratum.

Elara did not know why. She said only that the rules were common knowledge. They applied to the Amethyst Deep and every other dungeon.

* * *

Silverthorn Company did not stop to rest after reaching the Tenth Stratum.

Despite having two badly injured members, they headed straight for the entrance to the Ninth.

Werewolves sometimes hunted in packs. Encountering one was troublesome even when the party stood at full strength. In their current condition, the company wanted to reach the safe house on the Ninth Stratum without delay.

Evan followed the route the adventurers had cleared and encountered no danger.

He did witness something interesting.

While passing through a hidden corridor inside a rock wall, Evan looked through tiny openings and watched an LV40 Haka Windserpent hunt a rabbit monster.

The Status Panel named that so-called rabbit a Riftfang Beast. It was as large as a brown bear, bristled with fangs, and could leap more than thirty feet.

The creature showed no fear of the Haka Windserpent. It repeatedly sprang into the air and snapped at its attacker.

The Windserpent was too agile. It dodged every bite and sent blasts of lightning into the Riftfang Beast, leaving blackened wounds across its body.

By the time the rabbit tried to flee, its injuries had slowed it too badly.

Curiously, the Haka Windserpent had no claws. It used an airflow-control skill to drag away a body as large as the rabbit’s. Evan had expected it to eat on the spot.

Both creatures made him hungry.

They possessed excellent skills.

Unfortunately, this was not the time.

His quiet journey ended there.

A wolf’s howl sounded ahead.

The adventurers had clearly encountered the Werewolves.

Evan left the concealed passage and found the Half-Dragon and the Elf under attack. The battle was already nearing its conclusion.

Neither side was close to defeat. Although the two adventurers looked battered, they continued forcing the surrounding Werewolves back step by step.

Even Elara had joined the fight.

Her limited senses prevented her from locating the enemies clearly. She simply cast Water Serpent again and again, allowing the Elemental Spirit’s automatic guidance to find her targets.

As the group’s only ranged attacker at the moment, she was genuinely useful.

The adventurers could have held for some time. The battle was ending because they had successfully retreated to the stairs leading to the Ninth Stratum.

Over the last few yards, Garrick used a skill to throw back the surrounding Werewolves. Then the party rushed into the passage.

The Werewolves gathered at the entrance and howled, but not one stepped across the boundary.

Excellent. Evan would not have to confront the moral dilemma of exposing himself to save a former employee.

He only needed to wait for the Werewolves to give up and leave.

So these were the dungeon’s rules.

Evan still wondered what would happen if someone captured a Werewolf and carried it forcibly into the Ninth Stratum.

It would probably die on the spot. Otherwise, someone would have discovered such an obvious loophole long ago.

As his thoughts wandered, the Werewolves fell silent.

One by one, their noses twitched. Then they turned toward Evan’s hiding place.

Oh.

They really did have the noses of dogs.