The Laws of the Dungeon
"...It's closed."
In a rush to evade the monstrous presence Kir had sensed, we took shelter deeper inside the secret space, and the hidden door we'd entered through slammed shut behind us. Fortunately, the interior was dotted with faintly glowing luminous stones embedded in the walls, allowing us to see without torches or lanterns.
"Kir. What do you sense?"
"Hmm... I can't hear anything from outside since the door closed."
After the door sealed, Rikar caught his breath and asked Kir to check the presence outside again, but she hadn't picked up any sounds from beyond since it shut. Still on high alert, we stood guard for about ten minutes, eyes fixed on the entrance we'd come through, but no sign of anything else forcing its way in.
"Looks like we've dodged the immediate danger for now. Kir, what was that presence you felt like?"
"Ugh... It was an insanely powerful aura, and I heard it butchering the monsters it encountered in seconds flat..."
Kir shuddered and trembled at the mere memory of what she'd called a monster-like presence. Butchering monsters, huh... So the thing Kir sensed wasn't a dungeon monster—it had to be a person? If it had kept heading our way, it probably would've run straight into the Red Hawk Clan... What the hell was going on out there right now?
"At least we avoided the immediate threat, but... what is this place?"
The relief of escaping the unknown danger lasted only a moment. Tearing our eyes from the secret door—which showed no sign of reopening—we peered down the passage, relying on the dim light from the luminous stones.
"The passage itself doesn't look much different from the dungeon's outer corridors."
"No sounds either."
There was no hint the door might reopen, and we had no intention of fiddling with it right now. If it popped open carelessly, we'd be in trouble, so we decided to put some distance from it and scout deeper inside.
"No idea why it opened, but we're already in—might as well see what's here. Hopefully there's an exit leading back out."
"But why did it open?"
"...Who knows. Maybe it needed time?"
I averted my gaze and stayed mum on why the door had opened. No way was I spilling about my replication ability—not even to Karen.
We kinda stumbled into this by accident... But now that we were here, I planned to chase down why my instincts had pointed to this secret space. Or more accurately, not instincts, but...
Grrrowl.
...this hunger guiding me.
What the hell is this hunger?
From the moment I'd used the key to enter, a strange hunger had been gnawing at me. Thinking it was just regular hunger, I'd pulled some jerky from my subspace and ate it, but it didn't help. Then it hit me: what I'd mistaken for instinct was actually this gnawing sensation, like smelling something irresistibly delicious.
What's in here to cause this?
A flicker of unease rose—could it be something tied to the evil god? My body had been altered by its black relic, so it wasn't a stretch that it'd react with hunger here.
Step.
Our party's footsteps echoed softly in the dark passage. Kir scouted ahead, checking for traps, while Rikar and I gripped our weapons, watching our backs.
Step!!
Upon reaching a certain space, we spotted something.
"A warehouse?"
Kir, leading the way, tilted her head and named the space we'd found. Warehouse. A storage area. It fit perfectly.
"Is this a display case? It's beautifully crafted."
"There are books here too. Blech, looks boring."
Just like the entrance to this secret space, which carried an artificial scent, this inner area had a distinctly human aroma.
"How's a place like this inside a dungeon?"
"Seems my earlier guess was right. The dungeon must've absorbed nearby ruins or relics during its formation."
Uncertain himself, Rikar offered the rough theory and opened a nearby display case. But whatever was stored inside was so warped it was unrecognizable.
"...Some ancient artifact? It looks weird."
"Probably just got twisted up in the dungeon's creation process."
Looking around the presumed warehouse again after Rikar's words, a few display cases confirmed it was storage-like, but intact items were rare. Some cases had fused with the dungeon walls, becoming one with them. Most objects were crushed, shattered, or corroded by time and impact.
"Oh? This book's in pretty good shape. Let's see..."
"Hey! There's a dagger here!"
We split up briefly to search the warehouse. Rikar, surprisingly bookish despite his looks, headed to a dusty shelf to inspect the tomes, while Kir rummaged through broken cases for anything usable.
Is it here?
Leaving them to it, I followed my hunger's pull. At its end, I found a display case—unlike the others, it had miraculously preserved its near-perfect form despite the dungeon's formation.
Inside it.
"A bottle?"
A transparent glass vial held a beautifully shimmering, iridescent liquid. The moment I saw it.
Grrrowwll!!
What the—? An intense hunger surged, urging me to gulp it down. Stunned by my body's reaction, I wedged my black iron sword into the case's gap, twisted the lock, and forced it open.
That instant.
Whoosh!!
"What the...?"
Some magical treatment on the case must've triggered it—pure, invigorating mana burst out, slamming into me. Sensing something extraordinary, I swallowed hard, picked up the vial, and reeled at the massive mana flow emanating from it.
This much mana condensed in such a tiny bottle?
It held more mana than anything I'd sensed since gaining the ability—calmly contained in this potion vial. Feeling my body scream to drink it, I realized what it was.
"An elixir..!"
The miraculous drug Karen had described during my mana training. One sip could strengthen mana circuits or permanently enhance the body—no grueling training required. The dream of every adventurer, impossible to buy even with money.
And here it was, in my hand.
"Grab what we can! My backpack has lightweight magic, so..."
"I'll take the shiny stuff!"
Glancing back, I saw Rikar and Kir excitedly scooping up worthwhile finds.
"Don't overdo it. Too much and it'll be hard to carry or sell. Especially since this warehouse seems like what the Red Hawk Clan was after first."
"Why didn't they find it? They had a key too."
"Hm. Just a hunch, but maybe theirs was fake and ours was the real one..."
"Ah! An unbroken gem here!"
"You ask and then don't even listen..."
With the party members happily looting without issue, I relaxed a bit, fully removed the elixir vial from its case, and stowed it in my subspace pouch. Thanks to the subspace's properties, the massive mana leak cut off instantly.
And then.
The moment the dungeon's condensed mana from the elixir vanished.
BOOM!!
"Wh-what!?"
"Ow! Oww... I fell..."
Like an earthquake, a massive shockwave hit, knocking us all off balance.
Dungeons form by condensing vast amounts of mana in one place. To destroy one, you drain that mana somehow, and it collapses naturally—hunting mana-infused monsters, mining mana crystals, excavating artifacts, and so on. Exhaust all its byproducts, and the dungeon crumbles and fades.
However.
Perhaps gaining a sort of spirituality from the immense mana, dungeons sometimes develop defenses against thieves stealing their mana. Special monsters called "dungeon bosses" or built-in traps are examples.
And in the rare case where a dungeon forms fused with nearby relics or ruins.
It treats those relics as part of itself and blocks anyone trying to take them too.
Screeech!!
"What...?"
The party members, rubbing sore rears as they got up, froze. The dungeon wall fused with the presumed warehouse—lifeless and inorganic—began birthing new life.
The dungeon's vast mana converged in one spot. To punish the thief who'd stolen a vital organ-like mana crystal. Like antibodies forming against an invading virus.
Thud!!
A massive foot emerged, stomping the ground, shaking it like an earthquake. Display cases crushed beneath it shattered helplessly.
Thud!!
A huge hand burst out, bracing against the birthing wall as the body rose.
Thud!!
The enormous torso tore free from the dungeon wall like a birth from the womb, asserting its presence.
"GRRRRR!!!"
Finally, two heads emerged, growling low and glaring at the intruders like parasites.
Rikar paled upon recognizing the monster.
"An... an ogre......"
"ROOOAAARRRR!!!!!!"
A two-headed ogre. A variant born from the dungeon's mana. If it needed a name... yeah. Twin-Headed Ogre.
As if deliberately blocking our escape, it burst from the direction of our entrance, sealing the only path with its massive form. Thrusting its hideous faces forward, it bellowed in rage.
Remembering Rikar's mutter of "ogre," I recalled Karen's story from my mana training.
'Me? Back when I was D-rank, I fought an ogre, braced for death... and awakened my mana.'
Karen's tale of surviving an ogre fight as a D-rank adventurer, awakening mana in the process.
".....I didn't want to end up this much like my master."
The grim situation was too much without a bitter joke—I muttered hollowly.
Vwooom!!
A massive rock club—god knows where it came from—hurtled toward me in the ogre's grip.