The Collector sped through the winding maze of tunnels, moving so quickly that even when it did trigger burrowed insects to arise to the surface, by the time they had unborrwed, the Collector was too far ahead of them to catch up.

Its movements snaked along the whole breadth of the tunnel, its serpentine body maintaining enough speed to move on the ceilings or sides to avoid traps when needed.

Eventually, the goblin lord adapted, unburrowing huge hordes of insects in advance. Some of these, the smaller and weaker ones, the Collector could completely brute force its way through by putting its armored shoulder forwards like a battering ram and then activating instantaneous high-speed movement with its mana, smashing through entire crowds and leaving a trail of flying legs and innards in its wake.

But as the Collector went deeper, the insects became larger.

Giant insects of various kinds almost on par with the assassin bugbrute, but at the Collector's current metamorphosis level, even those specimen were of little worth.

These, the Collector just evaded, outmaneuvering them by sliding across the ceiling or snaking past them with quick movement. Better not to waste mana at this point for specimen that had no genetic specialties aside from merely being overgrown.

Fifteen minutes of further travel yielded the next notable obstacle. The Collector stopped in front of a massive set of double stone doors fused together at the center with a thin line of glowing blue magic.

Connecting and locking the doors shut was an elaborately shaped keyhole.

The Collector clicked its mandibles.

Sensing the durability of the stone doors indicated it was a mana-infused structure of exceptional durability, easily capable of withstanding several barrages from the Collector without breaking apart.

Highly resistant to magical manipulation as well such as Sapia due to the strong flow of mana shutting out external interference.

Inefficient to waste time brute forcing it.

'This…this, hm,' said the daemon as her tiny form floated in front of it, scrutinizing the keyhole. 'I…I don't sense any mana scanning features. It won't check for a magical signature. We…we just need something shaped like the key.'

The Collector clicked its mandibles, nearing its head to the keyhole. Its six eyes analyzed the shape of the keyhole, then it tapped a finger to the edges of the keyhole, allowing its sensitive hairs to feel the vibrations echoing within.

Analyzing shape. Structure. Patterns.

Analysis concluded.

The Collector pointed both arms to the ground, and they flashed purple. A chunk of rock emerged outlined in the same purple, and the Collector went to work.

The rock broke apart at the edges, forming quickly into a mold that first approximated the shape of the hypothetical key, and then chipped away in fine-tune detail, carving itself into the exact dimensions of the object to pinpoint accuracy.

'Wow…,' said the daemon as she stared at the key. 'It…it looks so nice, too. I…I didn't know you were an artist as well.'

"Evolution is artistry at its highest form, and this mind and body have been shaped by the Collective – herald of the ultimate evolutionary process. All that I do is akin to what you tinkerers perceive as 'art'." The Collector willed the key into the keyhole, and then turned it.

With a heavy, rumbling click, the key slotted in, and the stone doors began to open slowly, the two slabs of rock drawing backwards with the same magical energy that kept them there.

The Collector squeezed itself through when the gap was large enough and found itself inside a much wider space. An entire cavern that must have been approximately one hundred and fifty meters in diameter.

There was plenty of lighting here coming from large lightstone formations on the ceiling, and the lighting here was not turned off. Water gurgled from a sizable basin at the end, a small waterfall from the ceiling gurgling into it and filling it up.

Racks of black and blue weapons, volcanite and everfrost respectively, stood to the side, as did piles of fruits that dropped down from vine growths overhead.

The fruits used to be laid out in large piles, but now they were scattered about, some half-eaten, and the weapons themselves were in disarray, some strewn across the ground as if left in a hurry.

An area for the goblins to rest and arm themselves, it seemed.

Recently vacated, however.

Beside the stream, there stood a swirling mass of glowing blue energy tendrils – the transit point to the next layer.

That there were no goblins remaining here indicated that the entire force had been defeated. Most likely by the group of adventurers the Collector had dealt with beforehand.

Good. The Collector would take some samples of the weapons, assess the fruits for special properties, and then move on.

The Collector slithered forward a few meters, and when it did so, the stone doors behind it closed rapidly with a resounding crash. The lighstone crystals overhead glowed an aggressive red.

The Collector felt tremors under its feet for a split second before its hairs picked up on movement. It stepped to the side, and a brown spike emerged from where the Collector had been.

The spike was nearly as tall as the Collector and composed of carapace and covered in barbs to prevent removal when it pierced flesh.

More movement underneath. The Collector side-stepped another spike, then another, and then it pushed off with its tail and hovered in the air with its wings.

The spikes did not extend out towards it.

The Collector clicked its mandibles. So, there were insectoid specimen under the ground that guarded this area, shooting out powerful spines based on movement it detected on the surface.

Judging from the size of the spines, these insectoids were of the same class as the Assassin Bugbrute.

The Collector clicked its mandibles. As it was in the air now, it was impossible for these creatures to touch it. But they were quick, capable of moving even burrowed – an adaptation that would be useful for the Collector.

The Collector focused its senses, honing them with mana, and then landed upon the earth once more. Not a second later, and a spine emerged.

The Collector side-stepped it and before the spine could withdraw back into the dirt, grabbed it.

With a flap of its wings, the Collector surged upwards, and with a massive heave of strength, pulled the subterannean insect out of the ground. The insect was a fat, oval shaped bug with huge pincer-like jaws and holes in its carapace to project spikes from.

From the movement of the spines, they seemed to be flexible and could be extended to great lengths and broken off.

Notably, the specimen also semed to possess the means to rapidly rotate itself while closing its jaws to mimic a drill, allowing it to easily move through dirt.

The insectoid specimen resisted, ten slots on its back opening up to try and shoot out spines. The Collector flew up and slammed the creature into one of the lightstone crystal formations before it could, skewering it there and killing it.

The Collector ripped off its six legs, consuming them and making sure it devoured enough to gain an accurate genetic sample.

>>>

*Biomass gained (+10)*

Biomass Level: 260/100

*Root consumption limited reached*

*Genetic material gained*

Stored Genetic Material:

-Black Ant

-Deer

-Black Hobgoblin

-Human

-Lesser Oni

-Frostborn Hobgoblin

-Horse

-Lesser Greatcentipede

-Lesser Greatbeetle

-Spitting Greatbeetle

-Leafblade Insect

-Frostborn Hobgoblin Thrall

-Vineswinger Goblin Champion [Core]

-Flametongue Salamander

-Windcutter Wildcat

-Shockstripe Eel

-Shaker Fish

-Firefly Shinchu

-Lurker *NEW*

Mana Level: 330%>360%

>>>

However, the Collector did not consume the rest of the specimen. Instead, it took out its right hand and made a fist, unsheathing the assassin bugbrute proboscis.

There were cracks all across the proboscis from the shockwave-based attack the four-star adventurer had inflicted on the Collector, but it was still usable because it had been sheathed for that battle, escaping the brunt of the attack unlike the monomolecular claws which had all shattered due to their brittle structure.

The Collector stabbed the skewered insect with the bugbrute venom, expending mana to create its magically enhanced toxins. The lurker squirmed and twitched involuntarily as the venom hijacked its nervous system.

Then, the Collector's thel raised in the air, hovering over the bug as it began to program the corpse. The other insect specimen were too slow to keep up with the Collector, nor were they especially useful, and maintaining programming expended mana every second.

But these specimens, these lurkers, were far more useful, able to roughly keep up in speed with the Collector's travel and also form a secondary, hidden means of attack.

'I see…with what you put into it, you can use Sapia to control it, even when our Sapia isn't meant for controlling,' said the daemon. She closed her eyes and raised her thel as well, aiding the Collector.

The Collector clicked its mandibles, finishing the programming in a few seconds. With that complete, the Collector detached the lurker from the ceiling and dropped it back into the hole it had been pulled from.

There were more lurkers in the area. Probably around two more judging from the frequency and angle of spines that emerged to attack the Collector.

Expectedly, the other lurkers did not attack their companion. A fatal error. In the next moment, the other two lurkers emerged up to the surface, their wriggling bodies skewered by spines.

The Collector stabbed their heads with the bugbrute proboscis as well, programming them to follow it and attack any hostile presences moving against it.

The two lurkers fell to the ground as the spines skewering them withdrew, and the burrowed lurker joined its brethren on the surface. The Collector picked up the legless specimen to carry it while the other two skittered behind, following the Collector.

Samples.

The Collector assessed the fruits by the water basin. Mundane fruits that possessed no special qualities. Above, the vines that produced them also seemed mundane, special only because of the magical energy in the dungeon enhancing them.

Consuming them would yield nothing. Instead, it devoured samples of volcanite and everfrost, storing them for later in its Metalloglottic ossifier.

>>>

*New metalloglottic ossifier samples obtained*

--Lightstone

--Runewood

--Bone Binding Skull

--Volcanite *NEW*

--Everforst *NEW*

>>>

With these samples procured, the Collector moved on, heading to the transit point and the second layer.