“My name is Luca, and I’m here to hide from the bad merfolk.” Said the dungeon core, and Marinus smiled reassuringly at him.

“Nice to meet you, Luca. My name is Marinus. Not all merfolk are bad, you know. And Lady Alba isn’t either.” Said Marinus and Luca snorted.

“Sure, she is.” Said Luca. “She keeps threatening to smash my crystal. But I can’t let her go. I used up all of my mana to create her. And I used the rest to make my defenses.” Finished Luca with a sigh.

“Do you wish to remain a dungeon core, Luca?” Asked Marinus. It was not unheard of for dungeon cores to stop being such. The predecessor of grandpa Thinker had given up and summoned grandpa Thinker from another world. This boy was unsuited to be a dungeon core. He needed to let go.

“Not really, no. But I don’t know how to give up without dying.” Said Luca, then he frowned. “You don’t know how it was here before. The tunnel that dries up was full of with stingrays. Giant ones. And even they weren’t enough to stop trespassers. They come here, they kill my friends, and then they leave. I can’t stand to look at them anymore.”

“So, you made a death trap?” Asked Marinus, disapproving. Would Theanore do the same if someone raided her? They needed to register her in the peaceful dungeons list and soon.

“I did what I could to survive. But my system is tricky. She forced me into the crystal when I bared the main entrance. She wanted me to kill, so I killed in the core room. I am not proud of what I did, but…”

“You don’t regret it, either?” Asked Marinus, and he went to sit next to Luca. He scooped the two-year-old in appearance and hugged him tight. The boy began to sob in his shirt softly.

“No, I do. Too many died. Some were in my dungeon just out of curiosity. I tried to stop the tunnel from draining, I really did. But…” Luca was crying openly now. Marinus hugged him tighter and began to rock them back and forth.

“Do you know where your system is hiding? Or is she just an essence?” Asked Marinus and Luca’s sobs receded.

“She is just an essence, Marinus. But this world is her creation. No one leaves without her say so.”

Marinus looked around and cleared his throat.

“I have many enchanted items on me, system. You can become the new core. Let Luca go.” He said, and he opened his bag and took out a dual enchanted scarf.

All for me?

Came the text, and Marinus nodded grimly. This would become a murder dungeon for humans too with Luca gone, but many dungeons were. Marinus had come here with a task. With Luca free, so will Lady Alba be free. He will just need to spread the word among the merfolk that this dungeon played dirty.

For Luca and Alba? And then you will leave with them? What of her treasures? The life-extending rings?

“We need them. Don’t be greedy.” Said Marinus, and he felt something like an irritation in the air.

Luca, will you renounce your status as core?

“I renounce it.” Said Luca happily. He had been in this prison for a hundred years. If it wasn’t for the life-extending ring around his finger, he would have rotten away in his crystal.

Then I accept. Begone from here, vermin.

Luca rushed and grabbed Marinus’ hand as if he was afraid the system would separate them. All the enchanted items from Marinus’ bag, plus the bag itself, disappeared and the two children were back in the core room. It was quickly filling up with tar.

Marinus looked at the tar dripping from the walls, and he picked up Luca and began to run to the exit. The system wanted to see them die here, even though it had them to thank for becoming a core. Alba was nowhere to be seen. Marinus felt cheated.

He didn’t have time to think on this betrayal, however. There was a sickly sweet smell filling the tunnel. Marinus set Luca down and took off his shirt. He ripped it in half and made two masks. Handing one to Luca, he tied the other one around his nose and mouth.

“She will kill us!” Yelled Luca, despair written all over his face.

“Not if I have something to say about it. Luca, how good of a swimmer are you?” Asked Marinus. If the former system wanted to play dirty, then Marinus will show her dirty.

“I can swim, but we are almost to the bottom of the sea. I will never reach the surface.” Said Luca, brows furrowed and an angry glint in his eyes.

“You have to get the changeling skill, Luca. You have to become a merman. I will try to give you air once we get out, but the pressure will kill you if you are not a merman. Use all of your mana and focus on speeding up the process. On three, I will collapse the ceiling.”

“One.” Luca forced all of his remaining mana in his legs and forced them to become scaly and connected. It hurt, but he didn’t let out a scream. He was not going to give the system the satisfaction of hearing his screams.

“Two.” The next step were the gills. Luca didn’t have time to wait for them to appear through mana. He used his nails to make three wounds on his neck. Blood trickled out of the wounds, and he poured mana inside. The wounds began to get gill like and Luca stopped breathing from his nose and began to suffocate as his gills were incomplete.

“Three.” Marinus forced a spear of mana up towards the ceiling and an explosion happened. Cold seawater rushed inside and the pressure in the tunnel increased. They could hear a scream from the direction of the crystal that represented the core, and a loud crack. Then they were both swimming up with merman tails as the dungeon of stingrays became a flooded cavern.