Chapter 66: Flavored Candy

The subterranean tunnels echoed with the sharp, violent sounds of relentless slaughter.

Dark liquid shadow mist clung to the stone walls, thick with the stench of black blood and crushed monster cores.

Where whole packs of mutated subterranean beasts once roamed freely during the dungeon break, now only shattered bones, torn limbs, and drained corpses remained scattered across the jagged floor.

Summer was not just clearing the dungeon; she was speed-running it.

Fwhoosh!

Her massive pitch-black wings beat against the narrow tunnel air, sending her gliding forward like a phantom of dark light. Beneath her, Maya leaped from stone ledge to stone ledge with terrifying speed, her grayish-blue skin covered in pulsating purple veins.

Whenever a stray dungeon monster or a Mutant charged from the shadows, Maya’s hands flashed forward, unleashing dark corruption tendrils that bound and siphoned their life essence in seconds.

For anything stronger, Summer did not even slow down.

A pack of twenty iron-clawed wolves surged from an intersection ahead, their glowing green eyes locked onto the flying intruder. Summer didn’t even draw a blade.

She simply raised her small right hand, her cold red eyes flashing with lethal intent.

"Gravity Compression."

CRUNCH!

An invisible force of immense pressure slammed down from the cavern ceiling like a falling mountain.

The entire wolf pack was smashed instantly into the stone floor, their bodies crushed into flat, bloody pancakes before they could even let out a single howl.

[Target eliminated. +0.5% Rank Progress.]

[Corruption Core Evolution: 500/1000 Elites.]

[Mana Core Evolution: Elite (Unlocked).]

Summer landed softly on a high stone outcrop overlooking the massive lower cavern chamber. She wiped a stray droplet of black blood from her cheek, her small chest rising and falling in steady, controlled breaths.

"Check status," Summer commanded mentally.

[Summer’s Status]

Name: Summer

Bloodline: Chaotic Corruption

Rank: Initiate (95%)

1. Corruption Core:

Evolution: Elite (500/1000 Elites)

Trait: Undead Body, Shadow Mirage

Class Skill: Elite Puppeteer

Skills: Gravity Compression

2. Mana Core:

Evolution: Elite (0/1000 Elites)

Elements:

1. Shadow (Property: Chaotic Wings)

Her Initiate rank progress bar was already sitting at a staggering 95 percent. In just a few hours of relentless hunting through the subterranean sectors, her kill count had skyrocketed.

Her Corruption Core had reached 500 elite-level kills out of the required 1,000, while her newly awakened Mana Core had already broken through from Ordinary to Elite status after devouring high-grade mana cores from the dungeon monsters.

"Only five percent left until I reach Apprentice," Summer muttered, her small voice echoing with anticipation.

"You’ve been driving this body like a runaway war chariot, little girl," the Shadow grumbled inside her physical anchor, though his tone was laced with clear satisfaction. "Not bad. Most mortals take years of agonizing meditation just to stabilize a newly awakened mana core, yet you pushed it straight into Elite evolution in half a day."

[That is the power of combining pure mana with Chaotic Corruption,] the system added smoothly. [Your core doesn’t just absorb energy; it devours and refines it instantly without any bottlenecks.]

Summer ignored their praise, her gaze shifting toward the far end of the cavern.

At the very center of the subterranean region stood the Dungeon Core Chamber.

The air here was vastly different from the dry, dusty tunnels above. It was heavy, humid, and thick with an overpowering, suffocating pressure that made the surrounding stone walls vibrate faintly.

Summer flapped her wings once, dropping silently down to the cavern floor. Maya landed right behind her like an obedient shadow, her hands already glowing with purple corruption energy, ready for battle.

They stepped into the massive core room.

The chamber spanned several hundred meters wide, surrounded by towering, crystal-covered root walls. But standing right at the center of the hall, rooted deeply into the glowing dungeon core vein, was a terrifying monstrosity.

It was a colossal, ancient tree monster.

Its trunk was made of dark, petrified wood thicker than a fortress wall, covered in glowing green runes that pulsated with heavy nature and holy mana.

Thousands of thick, thorn-covered vines squirmed across the floor like giant serpents, while its massive canopy stretched up to touch the distant ceiling.

At the center of its main trunk, a gigantic, hollow wooden eye burned with deep crimson light.

[Warning: Lord-Type Entity Detected.]

[Target: Ancient Core Arborist (Dungeon Sector Boss)]

[Tier: Lord (Beyond Elite)]

A Lord-type monster.

If this had been the old Summer, the Level 25 Elite zombie who had barely managed to survive against three human hunters, facing a Lord-type monster with high defensive nature mana would have been an absolute nightmare.

A Lord-type beast possessed raw stats, domain control, and defense far surpassing standard Elite entities.

Summer looked up at the towering wooden leviathan. The ancient tree monster seemed to sense her presence, its giant glowing eye snapping open as thousands of thick, thorned vines rose into the air like a wall of spears, producing a deafening, earth-shaking roar.

ROOOOOAAAR!

The pressure alone blew a powerful gust of wind through the chamber, causing Maya to instinctively take a defensive stance in front of her master.

Yet, looking at this terrifying creature, Summer did not retreat. She did not feel a single speck of fear.

Instead, a small, dark smile slowly spread across her pale face. Her eyes sparkled with a chilling, bloodthirsty glint as an eerie, melodic laugh escaped her lips.

"Heh... hehe..."

"Little girl, what are you laughing at?" the Shadow asked.

"I am laughing because..." Summer looked inward at her twin cores, feeling the terrifying, dual-anchored power surging through her blood vessels like a dormant volcano ready to explode.

"Before, Mana cores tasted terrible. But after you appeared, they became as flavorful as Mutant cores."

She raised her hand. Her pitch-black Chaotic Wings expanded to their absolute limit, spanning over four meters wide as liquid shadow mist poured out from her feathers, completely swallowing the surrounding light of the chamber.

At the exact same time, both her Corruption Core and her newly evolved Elite Mana Core flared simultaneously.

BOOM!

A terrifying aura of Chaotic Corruption erupted from Summer’s tiny frame. The sheer weight of her combined dual-anchor pressure clashed directly against the Lord tree monster’s domain, instantly snapping dozens of its thickest vines into wooden splints before the fight had even officially begun.

The ancient tree monster let out a startled, rumbling groan, its massive eye widening as its domain was violently pushed back by a mere child-sized entity.

"Now," Summer whispered, her red eyes burning like two miniature suns in the dark mist, "you are just another flavored candy for me."

Fwhoosh!

The giant tree monster lashed out first. Hundreds of sharp, thorn-covered root spears shot across the chamber floor with blinding speed, tearing through the stone like paper as they targeted Summer from every single direction.

"Maya, cover!" Summer commanded.

"Yes, Master!"

Maya stepped forward, her grayish-blue hands slamming onto the stone floor. A dense, pulsating wall of dark purple corruption energy erupted in front of them.

Corrupted Shield!

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The wooden root spears slammed violently into the purple barrier, creating massive shockwaves, but Maya’s newly converted class held the line firmly, absorbing the physical impact while her Essence Drain passive began leeching nature mana straight from the touching vines, weakening the attack instantly.

With Maya taking the front line defense, Summer did not hesitate for a single microsecond.

She flapped her black wings with maximum power.

CRACK!

The stone floor beneath her shattered as Summer vaulted straight into the air, flying directly into the sky of the cavern chamber.

She bypassed the sprawling thorn forest on the ground entirely, turning into a black beam of light as she dove straight toward the ancient tree monster’s massive central eye.

The Lord tree monster roared furiously, hundreds of thick branch arms swinging upward to swat her out of the sky like a fly.

"Too slow," Summer said coldly mid-air.

"Shadow Mirage!"

Swish!

Her form instantly split into three identical shadow phantoms. The massive wooden branch arms slammed violently through two of the phantoms, dissipating them into harmless dark mist, while the real Summer materialized directly in front of the giant glowing eye.

The tree monster’s eye flashed with blinding holy nature light, attempting to blast her at point-blank range.

"Pure holy light against my new body?" Summer sneered. "Useless!"

Because her physical body was constructed out of pure Ancient Chaos, and her soul was anchored by Corruption, standard holy and light element attacks no longer burned her flesh as they used to.

Summer raised her right hand, condensing pure shadow mana alongside heavy gravity energy into her fist. Black lightning crackled over her tiny knuckles as the spatial air around her fist began to warp violently.

"Gravity Compression... Point Impact!"

BOOOOOOM!

Summer’s tiny fist slammed directly into the center of the Lord monster’s massive wooden eye.

The sound of shattering wood and exploding mana rang out like a cannon blast inside the cavern. The massive eye caved inward instantly, sending thousands of splintered wooden shards and glowing green sap spraying across the chamber.

ROOOOOAAAR!

The ancient tree monster let out a screech of absolute agony, its massive trunk shaking violently as the gravity compression force tore deep into its inner wooden core, crushing its internal mana pathways from the inside out.

Summer did not stop there. Holding herself mid-air with her black wings, she opened her mouth slightly, her sharp fangs catching the dim light of the room.

Dense, liquid Chaotic Corruption poured from her core straight into her hands. She thrust both hands deep into the open wound of the tree’s eye, unleashing her bloodline energy directly into its core chamber.

"Corrupt."

Bzzzt!

The glowing green runes covering the ancient tree trunk turned dark purple at an alarming speed.

The massive leaves withered, the bark turned pitch-black, and the giant Lord monster’s life force drained away rapidly as Corruption devoured its ancient nature core.

Within ten seconds, the colossal Lord-type tree monster stopped thrashing completely. Its giant wooden frame froze, turned to black ash, and collapsed into a massive pile of dust in the center of the cavern floor.

At the center of the ash pile lay a fist-sized, brilliant green Lord Core.

Summer hovered down slowly, her pale feet landing lightly on the pile of black ash.

[Target eliminated: Ancient Core Arborist (Lord-Type).]

[Rank Progress: +5%]

[Initiate Rank: 100/100%]

DING!

A brilliant, overwhelming surge of crimson and black light erupted from Summer’s body. The air inside the cavern trembled as her twin cores resonated together in perfect harmony, shattering her previous limits.

[Congratulations, Host.]

[Rank Breakthrough Achieved: Apprentice (0%)]