[Chapter 132. Consequences of Incompetence]

They found a relatively clear patch of stone, tucked away from the sprawling, jagged bone piles that dominated the chamber. Rayan settled first, crossing his legs with a practiced ease that suggested years of manual labor, though the rigid tension in his shoulders betrayed his lingering fear. Samantha hesitated for a long moment, her eyes darting toward the darkness of the surrounding tunnels, before lowering herself beside him. Her new boots scraped against stray bone fragments with a dry, unsettling crunch.

Searanox remained standing. He looked like a statue of dark metal and pale skin against the flickering cyan light. Above him, his assault drones continued their methodical, rhythmic work, the whine of their engines barely audible over the occasional hiss-crack of energy beams vaporizing skeletal skulls.

"Tell me about your daily routine," Searanox commanded. His voice was clinical, stripped of any warmth but lacking the overt cruelty they had grown used to under their previous master.

Rayan swallowed hard, his throat bobbing. "We wake at dawn when the sun rises. We go to our assigned workstations—some to the rubble clearing, some to the water filtration. Thomas’s men oversee everything. If you're slow, you don't get your full credit."

"And the food?" Searanox asked, his voice flat.

"Controlled," Rayan continued, his voice gaining a bitter edge. "They took everything the moment the System integration finished. Every grocery store, every warehouse, even personal pantries. No storage is allowed in the residential blocks, and personal rations are treated as contraband. We line up twice a day for our portions. If you aren't in line when the gates open, you don't eat."

Samantha added quietly, her voice barely rising above the sound of the drones, "Thomas decides who eats and who starves. If a worker is injured or if... if someone displeases a guard... they simply find their bowl empty. Some days, the portions are so small it’s like eating air." She trailed off, her gaze fixed on the glowing cyan lanterns as if she were searching for answers in the magical flame.

"I see." Searanox watched a crimson flash illuminate the far wall as a drone intercepted a rising skeleton. "So no one thought to build a proper storage house. No one planned for the long-term sustainability of the population. No one looked at the horizon."

Rayan shook his head. "Thomas’s men took anything useful the moment it appeared. They weren't looking at the horizon. They were looking at their own plates."

Searanox watched another skeleton crumble into a heap of dust. "Efficiency in theft, at least. That is something. A minor talent, but a talent nonetheless."

"Tell me about the transition," Searanox said after a moment of silence. He tracked another skeleton as it began to pull itself together from the bone pile. His drone vaporized its skull before the creature could even find its footing. "Tell me about when Thomas took over."

Rayan shifted on the hard stone floor, the bones beneath his boots clicking. "The system announcement came, and the world just... stopped. Everything changed in an instant. Cars died in the middle of the streets, their engines turning into dead weight. Guns became useless lumps of metal that wouldn't fire. Even the physics of the buildings started changing—structures falling apart or shifting shape overnight."

Samantha picked up a small, weathered piece of bone, turning it over in her hands with a detached fascination. "Thomas and his inner circle were stronger than everyone else right from the start. They seemed to know what was going on. He could hold back a dozen grown men with one hand. He looked like a god to people who were overwhelmed and terrified."

"And those who resisted?" Searanox prompted.

"They were thrown into the dungeons as 'test subjects,'" Rayan said quietly. "Or they were killed in the street and left for the crows. It was a simple choice: serve or die. Most chose to serve."

Samantha nodded, her thumb tracing a crack in the bone fragment. "They made examples of the first few who tried to organize a resistance. After that... no one else had the heart for it. We were too busy trying to find enough food to survive."

"I see. That’s enough of the history lesson. There is just one glaring problem," Searanox said. He rose from his foldable chair, the movement smooth and predatory. "Thomas’s hoarded food supplies are laughably insufficient. I can’t say for certain how many people currently live within these ruins, but based on the caloric density of what I saw in his storage, I’d give it a few days before the entire city is staring down a famine."

Rayan and Samantha stared up at him, their faces turning a ghostly pale in the cyan lantern light.

"But... where did all that food go?" Rayan’s voice cracked, his knuckles whitening as he tightened his fists. "He said the warehouses were full! He said we had enough for months!"

Searanox’s boots crunched through bone fragments as he stepped toward them. "Your leader was an incompetent fool who confused hoarding for management," he said. Another crimson flash lit the tunnel. "Now you will face the consequences of his ignorance."

He paused at the entrance to the next tunnel, looking back at them. "That means you start hunting. On my way into this city, I saw beasts in the outskirts—bull-like creatures the size of elephants. To my intel they don't reproduce naturally like the cattle you remember from before the fall."

Samantha shivered, wrapping her arms tightly around herself despite the humid air of the cave. Rayan stared at the tunnel entrance, his expression unreadable.

"What do you mean, 'unnaturally'?" Rayan pushed himself up from the stone floor. "They just appear? Like the skeletons?"

Searanox stored his chair with a flick of his wrist. "Beats me. All I can tell you is that if they had a natural birth and growth cycle, the forest near my tower would have been stripped of live within the first week. But that isn't the case. I perform a daily culling, and the numbers never drop. The System maintains the population for the sake of the grind."

He took a step toward the tunnel leading deeper into the dungeon. "But you aren't ready for that kind of hunting yet. So, I will provide the food for tomorrow. Five tons of fresh beast flesh. What you do with it—how you butcher it, preserve it, and distribute it—is entirely up to you. Consider it your first test of civic management."

Both of them froze at his words. "Five tons? How—" Rayan started, his mind reeling at the logistics.

"None of your business," Searanox interrupted. "But since I'm feeling uncharacteristically talkative, I’ll tell you why. I farm dungeons like this one. Daily. By tomorrow, my schedule will include twenty-one clears a day." He stepped closer to them, his presence looming. "Under my watch, no portal stands idle. No resource goes unharvested."

"Is that why you're showing us this place?" Samantha’s voice was barely a whisper. "To make us your farmers?"

Searanox’s gauntleted hand landed on her head, briefly ruffling her hair in a gesture that was almost paternal before he withdrew it. "Yes. From now on, you and the teams you select will clear this dungeon every six hours. It is the most efficient way to raise the average level of the populace."

Her eyes widened at the casual physical contact. "We will? Every six hours? But... we don't have the weapons, the armor..."

Searanox looked down at her, his expression unreadable in the dim cyan glow. "Did I give you the impression that you had a choice in this matter, Samantha?"

"No," she whispered.

"Don't misunderstand me. This isn't a punishment," Searanox said, his voice cutting through the distant whine of the drones beams. "In six days, level five dungeons will be the least of your problems. My information is reliable. The world is going to get much, much more dangerous."

He turned to Rayan. "You need to become stronger. Much stronger. And thanks to some spectacularly incompetent leadership, you have exactly half the time you should have had to do it."

Rayan’s throat bobbed as he swallowed. He gave a sharp, determined nod, his jaw set. Samantha stared at her boots, silent and contemplative.

"Now, we keep moving," Searanox said, walking ahead while his drones fell into a tight guard formation. "The rest of this path is straightforward, but it requires discipline."

He tilted his head slightly, his eyes momentarily distant as if reading a scrolling display, then he shook his head with a quiet, irritated mutter and continued through the tunnel. At the entrance to a particularly narrow, jagged passage, he came to a halt. The darkness ahead seemed to swallow the cyan light from the lanterns behind them.

"This is the only real danger zone for a group of your current level." He retrieved his magitech rifle, securing a cyan lantern to its front rail. "This is why you need the stick I mentioned earlier. This darkness isn't just an absence of light; it contains a different kind of Skeletons—creatures that you won't see until they reach out."

He demonstrated how to advance while maintaining a forward-facing light source, his rifle-lantern combination cutting through the gloom like a searchlight. As the light revealed skeletal forms reaching out from the cracks in the floor and walls, his drones vaporized them with precise, crimson beams. Behind them, the cargo drone moved in, positioning fresh lanterns along the tunnel walls at ten-meter intervals.

"Place your lanterns systematically," he instructed. "You need to know where you’ve been, and the light provides a psychological anchor for the people at the rear of the line. Any questions?"

He glanced back. Both shook their heads in silent focus. "Good."

They approached the final circular chamber. At the far end, a stone throne stood empty, surrounded by dust and shadow.

Samantha peered past Searanox’s shoulder, her voice hushed. "Thomas mentioned this room. He said the armor sitting on that throne made him uneasy. He refused to come back here after his first attempt." She shifted her weight. "I always wondered why he was so afraid."

Searanox’s arm shot out, blocking her path as she moved to step forward. "That line on the floor—the discoloration in the stone. Don't cross it unless you are fully ready to fight. Wait for your group, ensure everyone has their mana refreshed, and make sure your formation is tight."

"But... there is nothing on the throne," Samantha observed, sounding slightly disappointed.

"Is this the Boss room?" Rayan asked from behind.

"Correct." Searanox stepped across the threshold.

Instantly, the sound of stone grinding against stone echoed through the chamber. Six massive sarcophagi embedded in the walls cracked open simultaneously. Greater Skeletons emerged, each standing over three meters tall, their ancient, rusted armor clanking against the floor as they stepped into the light.

"They're enormous!" Samantha cried out, jumping back and colliding with Rayan. Her breathing came in ragged, panicked gasps.

Searanox watched the skeletons form a jagged line. "I suppose they are, for a human."

To him, they were just larger, slower targets. His assault drones eliminated the threats in seconds, the energy beams punching through the thick breastplates of the giants until they collapsed into piles of oversized bones. As the last fragment settled, a system notification flickered into Searanox’s vision.

"Well, that changes things..." he said, more to himself than to the other two. Rayan and Samantha were busy processing their sudden advancement to Level 5, their shocked, excited screams echoing through the stone chamber.

He waited for them to calm down, dismissing all his drones, including the one guarding the entrance.

"Are we done screaming?" Searanox asked, glancing back over his shoulder. "I told you earlier not to destroy more than nine hundred skeletons in the bone filled room. However, it appears the... let's call it the 'punishment' for over-clearing... was a one-time trigger for this instance."

He looked at the clear-status window. "You will clear twelve hundred from now on, just as we did tonight."

Samantha’s eyes widened. "But you said it was bad! You said—"

"Yes, and if you had listened to the rest of the sentence, you would have heard me say the situation has changed. The reward structure has shifted." Searanox turned his back on her, focusing on the exit portal.

"Then why do we have to do so many?" Rayan asked, his voice still buzzing with the adrenaline of his level-up. "Isn't it safer to do the minimum?"

"Because the reward scales with the amount of beasts you kill in a dungeon," Searanox said, staring into the swirling blue light of the exit. "And right now, you don't need safety. You need experience. You need every scrap of power the System is willing to cough up."

He turned to face them fully, his expression grim. "Now, let's get out of here. We have a city to fix."