Silvy kept walking, reaching the final room on the first floor. It was identical to every other room she had passed, neither bigger nor smaller. The only difference was a hole in the middle of it, with a set of stairs leading down. Although, stairs was the wrong word, thought Silvy: these were rocks arranged to create a route leading underground, but they were not polished nor positioned sensibly: you couldn’t just walk downstairs, you almost had to climb down.

Silvy had taken one hour and a half to reach this point, and she had been the first. She had moved through the dungeon carefully, eliminating every monster she came across mercilessly. Those monsters would not have given her mercy, so she had no intention of giving it either.

The two examiners were inside, sitting down on the ground, one reading a book, the other napping.

“Good job, you pass. We’ll wait here for the other two groups, and then we’ll go back.”

The one with his eyes closed, Baomut, who Silvy had thought was sleeping, spoke to her without opening his eyes. She sat down in a corner, waiting with them.

“How was it? Hard? Easy?” Greg talked, looking up from his book.

“Once I understood how the monsters and traps worked, it was easy. I risked only a couple of times in the beginning.”

“Good, someone who can learn from her mistakes. Keep up the good work and you’re gonna go far, kid.”

Silvy nodded, taking out a coin from her bag and playing around with it.

Another group, the one Silvy had not fought, arrived half an hour later, and they had to wait another half an hour for the last one. Everyone was alive, with some people having some scratches or cuts on their armor. The examiners, after having congratulated them, led them back to the entrance in only half an hour, taking the shortest route. They moved quickly through the tunnels, ignoring the spiders who ignored them, piercing the snakes in their nest or avoid the rooms with rats. They were quick and efficient: Silvy wanted to become like them. No, better.

The hour was late, so they stopped in the village for the night, sleeping in a wooden building that functioned as an Inn; she was in a room as well, closing her eyes for a bit, waiting for a level up...

[Chimera level 6→8]

[Basic Bond→Bond: Undead core]

[Passive: Undead nexus]

Undead nexus…?

‘What is the undead nexus? Do you know?’

It probably refers to the undead sense. Have you never asked yourself why the undead never attack other undeads? Why do they attack in a group when one of them discovers a living? That is the reason. Undeads can feel other undeads in their surroundings; the stronger the undead, the larger the range. I can feel undeads around a kilometer away, but most undead can feel each other only dozens of meters away.

‘They can… speak to each other?’

No. Undeads do not speak. But if a single undead in a group sees, hears or smells a living being, the sensation will travel to the nearby undeads, who in turn will transmit this discovery to everyone in range, creating a cascading effect. Wound after wound, an undead will lose his eyes, his ears, his nose: how will he know if something is around? Using other undeads.

That explained why undeads usually moved in hordes and why groups of undeads were feared: you couldn’t pick one off without alerting everyone else, and every single one of them knew where you were. Could you escape from one undead? Probably. Ten? Doable. A hundred? Most likely not.

‘You know core, I never… thanked you. You were not responsible for what happened but without you… I would have died in the forest. So, thank you.’

It w-.

The core stopped speaking abruptly, confusion and anger coming from it.

I didn’t do it for you: I was merely protecting my body.

What was that about? Probably the core just being shy. Could a monster core be shy? Could an undead be shy? It had told her that he didn’t care, but Silvy was quite sure he was lying. Why, though…

I am not lying. You are merely… stronger than before. Your level… that is how you become stronger, isn’t it? Mmm… that class, Chimera, is probably a reflection of your command, control over us cores… And yet you are losing yourself as well, becoming more and more like me: you are fusing with us, and we are fusing with you; I can hear your general thoughts even if you are not directly transmitting them, for example.

Fusing with an undead…? Wasn’t she already undead? No, the core had told her she was not a monster… Would she become one if she leveled up enough? Would she lose herself?

Silvy thought about the near future as well while feeding the cores to the undead sword. She did not need to go back to the city: she already had a badge with silver rank, and the examiners would tell the guild she had passed. Even if she went back, what would she do? She had to become stronger and to do it she had to kill monsters. The dungeon was full of monsters, but there was a problem: she didn’t have any way to heal herself. But…

‘Core, can I continue to fight normally after being wounded, like other undeads?’

The only way to know the answer for sure is to try. But if I had to answer, most likely yes. Your body is undead, and undeads are not slowed down by normal wounds. Of course, losing a limb would impact your performance…

Well, alright, no losing limbs, or head for that matter. But what if she lost her muscles? How could she keep her strength? So strange...

The morning came, and Silvy spoke to Baomut.

“I want to remain here and explore the dungeon. I’m not needed in the guild, right?”

Baomut looked at her, surprised.

“Ah, well, no, you are not needed. We will report your success, and as you already have a silver badge, you don’t need a new one. But I would not advise to go beyond the fifteenth floor: in fact, I would be surprised if you reach it.”

“I see. Thank you.”

Fifteen floors… maybe she would stay on one floor for some time? She had no hurry to go back, as her mana line was still far from half of her mana used. Moreover, she did not need to eat, drink or sleep; her concentration didn’t lapse, she didn’t need for light and she could remember every floor perfectly, facilitating her return even without keeping or buying a map: she was almost built for dungeon diving. The only problem was her recovery: right now she had none, but maybe the elemental core would recover in a few days. Consequently, traps were a big problem, but on the first floor they had been visible even to an untrained eye.

Silvy didn’t lose time: she went back into the dungeon, armed with the knowledge to easily navigate the first floor. The stairs for the second floor were in front of her, beckoning her to go deeper: Silvy accepted the challenge.

Climbing and stepping down, she found herself in a very similar room to the one before, with tunnels the same as the others. Were all the floors made the same way?

Silvy hardly noticed a difference from the first floor: there were a few more traps and a few more monsters, which required a higher concentration, but that was about it.

Rats, spiders, snakes: everything was eliminated or avoided.

She found the stairs for the third floor faster than she had found those of the first floor, getting lucky with her choice of tunnels.

Third, fourth and fifth floors were the same, tunnels with the same monsters and traps, higher in number, more concealed; she still didn’t feel challenged, passing through them without a scratch.

But on the fifth floor, she found a difference: at the end of a tunnel, there was a double door, made of old wood, a bit cracked with time. Finally, something different from dirt. She went towards the door, checking for traps on the way there and on the door itself. Noticing none and having no other way of knowing if it was actually trapped, she opened the door.

A huge, circular room appeared in front of her, with lit torches on the walls. A big opening was on the other side, but the room was empty of anything else and made of dirt.

She looked around, checking for ambushes to her sides or above, noticing none. Shrugging, she walked inside.

After three steps, the door behind her slammed close, torches becoming stronger. A snake, similar to the ones on the previous floors, was making its way from the big opening on the other side. But it was bigger, way bigger than any other: it was probably as thick as an adult, and at least ten meters long. It slithered forward, entering the room, which was plenty big to accommodate it.

Two yellow eyes were focused on Silvy, who had sword in hand and was studying the snake. It didn’t wait for her move, opening its mouth wide and shooting yellowish liquid towards her. She dodged it, unsure of what it was. The liquid splashed on the ground, starting to smoke after that, slowly creating a yellow cloud around it. Was it poison? The stuff that made people see illusions?

She had little time to think, as the snake spit, again and again, creating more and more clouds. As long as she stayed back, it was happy to spit away, slowly filling the room with that smoke. Shame that Silvy had no pressure from it: she just had to not breathe. Unless it was acid…

The thought made her change tactic, moving forward and closing the distance with the snake. It struck forward, trying to bite Silvy; it was fast, but not enough. Her sense of danger had warned her, allowing her to dodge the strike. She swung her sword, aiming at its left eye and cutting it. The snake jerked back, now blind from its left eye, hissing loudly at Silvy. She lunged forward, perforating its scales: they were tough, but not enough. They slowed Silvy’s sword a bit, but she thrust it forward with more strength, penetrating its body. The snake hissed loudly, trying to bite her again; Silvy jumped back, twisting her sword and throwing a dagger in its mouth in the meantime. The snake missed her again, exposing his right side this time: Silvy pierced its eye, all the way to the hilt of her sword. Its massive head jerked violently one last time, lifting up and then slamming down Silvy, laying dead after that. This opponent had been harder, but still not at her level: these monsters were lacking.

She recovered her sword and cut up his head, where the cores were in the smaller variant. And, unsurprisingly, it was there: the core was visibly bigger compared to the smaller snakes, but still as big as a coin. She popped it in her mouth, absorbing a decent amount of energy, moving forward where the snake had come from.

There were stairs there, but these were made of tree branches intertwined together, with leafs growing out of them. They were easier to climb down, fortunately, and the sixth floor was different from the others.

Trees and bushes surrounded Silvy on this new floor, creating a labyrinth of vegetation. The ceiling was much higher now, reaching at least ten meters. The undergrowth was a little lower than Silvy, permitting her to see a bit further: just a bit, because trees were all around, some just as high as an adult and thin, others as high as the ceiling and as thick as five people. Everywhere she turned, trees were in the way, creating a confusing scenery: it was hard to understand if a tree was just further away or just smaller than the others.

There was no clear path that Silvy could see, bushes growing freely everywhere; Silvy just picked a direction and moved forward, cutting away to create a walkable path.

The surroundings were… eerily silent. She could hear her steps, her brushing against leaves and branches, but nothing more: no animal, no wind, nothing; the trees muffled the noises, preventing them to reach too far.

She looked around while moving forward, checking through branches, under bushes; it was much harder to do, as the ground was covered with leaves and branches or hidden by the umpteenth bush.

Danger suddenly coming from above, Silvy took a step back, a big branch falling off a tree. No, not a branch: it was a snake, thicker than an arm, as long as two people. It tried to catch her while falling but missed, and it fell right where she had been standing a moment ago.

This snake was brown, the same color of the surrounding trees: it had stood still on a branch, waiting for someone to pass below. The snake would have then strangled its prey until it stopped moving.

The snake stood still for a moment, studying Silvy, who was studying him in turn. She moved forward, trying to impale it. The snake barely dodged her sword, receiving a cut on its side. Silvy felt like she had just cut wood, not skin or scales.

The snake hissed, irritated, and then lunged forward, its size not an impairment to its speed. She dodged it but came closer to Silvy than she was comfortable, almost grazing her armor. She drew a dagger, driving it deep into the snake, followed by a vertical strike from her sword, trying to cut the snake in two. Her sword cut deep, but not enough to cleave him in two. Silvy’s sword lodged into the snake, allowing it to turn its head and attacking again, wrapping Silvy’s neck in its body and squeezing tightly, trying to suffocate her.

A situation like this would have impaired most humans, but, unfortunately for the snake, not Silvy. She could feel the snake tightening its grip on her, but not enough to break her neck, and she didn’t need to breathe. She grabbed the snake’s head, now within reach, and drove a dagger deep, making the snake go limp. This fight had been harder than the others, but not impossible: this floor was harder but not undefeatable. The core was in its head, like every other snake she had killed; popping it into her mouth, she felt a decent amount of energy filling her, but not so much to justify eating them: the sword would probably benefit more.

A minute later she discovered a trap on the ground: a rope hidden in the leaves and tied to a nearby tree. A branch-prodding later, the rope tightened, shooting upwards. She would have been hanging from the rope upside down, and a test confirmed that the rope was quite sturdy; she would have been able to cut it with a dagger, but it would have taken some time, time where a monster could have attacked her.

She kept moving, paying attention to her surroundings; she was getting more and more convinced that dungeon diving was not something people liked to do. The dangers involved were high, the mental strain was even higher, and the rewards were, while high value, quite rare. People went into dungeons for testing themselves more than anything else, most likely: it was a challenge to one’s wits and strength, both physical and mental. Or, at least, that was why Silvy was here anyway.

Silvy stopped in place, awakened from her thought, attention attracted to a nearby bush. It was… strange. Silvy could not tell what was different, but she was sure other people would not have noticed: there was no natural light, so the only way people could see something strange was with torches or lanterns, which means being close to the problem.

Silvy stayed in place, unsure of what to make of it. Then, the bush… swayed. Every other piece of vegetation was still, unmoving, as there was no wind in the dungeon, but this one had just moved a bit, swayed by some kind of force.

Silvy got as far as possible and hid behind a tree, throwing a coin at the bush; it had worked before, no fault in trying. The moment the coin touched the bush, all of its leaves took flight, swarming the coin with strong buzzing sounds; the leaves were not leaves: they were insects! The bush, in turn, had no leaves on it: only branches remained. But these insects were green and just big and shaped right enough to pass as leaves. After around a minute of attacks on her coin, the insects lost interest, going back to their camouflage.

Silvy was asking herself how she would tackle such an enemy. The insects were many and small, making her weapons quite useless. Maybe fire?

She decided to change the route, abandoning her coin on the ground in front of the shrub, not wanting to fight such enemies: she hoped the boss was not one big swarm of those things.

She found the passage to the next floor after ten more minutes of walking; well, more than her finding it, it found her. It was a hole in the ground, hidden by branches and leaves that camouflaged it: Silvy hadn’t seen it and walked right into it, falling down a few steps.

Embarrassment threw aside, the seventh floor was very similar to the sixth: a forest full of trees.

Silvy found the same two monsters on this floor: it was quite underwhelming. The first floor had three types, why the sixth and seventh had only one?

Pondering this question, she kept going, encountering two more traps or something that resembled a trap. One was a shrub with sharp leaves, which, if Silvy had to take a guess, was poisonous or venomous. She was not worried about it though, so she left it behind. The other trap was a pitfall, this time with sharper and denser wooden spikes at its bottom. Luckily, the hole she had not seen was with the stairs for the next floor; otherwise, right now she would have a few more holes in her body.

Hours passed, and at a certain point, Silvy was sure she had checked the entire floor apart from a few places. She had eliminated every snake in her way and disarmed every trap. The only places she had not checked were behind the bushes with the green insects on them: she did not want to tackle them, so she had just left them alone, hoping to find an exit. But now it was not an option anymore: the exit was most likely close to them, as it was the only part of the floor she had not mapped and studied.

But how to remove the threat? She had no idea what they did either. So, she searched the forest again for a snake to subdue. Fighting a few of them had been useful: they were fast and strong, yes, but they were hardly a danger to Silvy. It didn’t take long to find one: the dungeon just kept creating them, even if Silvy was not sure how. A quick fight later, the snake was dead, and Silvy was back near the insects. Her plan was simple: she would throw the snake towards the bush, let the insects attack its head, and then she would recover it by dragging it back from the tail. That would give her an idea of what the insects did: were they venomous? Did they eat their prey? How strong were their attacks?

The plan worked smoothly: she threw the snake body head first, hiding behind a tree after that. The swarm quickly attacked the intruder, and after about half an hour, they went back on the bush. Silvy retrieved the body by dragging it from the tail, as she had planned.

The head was heavily wounded, with cuts and missing pieces of meat, but they didn’t look like mortal wounds. Silvy looked closely inside the wound, searching for something more. And she found it, after probing around with a dagger: deep inside the cut was a white cluster of tiny objects, probably eggs. Was this what they did? Did they lay eggs inside their victims? Silvy saw bites and stings inside the cuts, and cutting around the clustered areas revealed a yellow liquid, possibly venom of some kind.

Well, the swarm most likely hadn’t done anything of the sort to her coin: it was probably too hard, and it had no nutriments for the newborns.

In the end, Silvy settled for using fire. But just throwing a torch on the bush would, most likely, be useless: they would just fly away. No, she had to be smart about this…

She thought about it for a few minutes, managing to think of a trap. It was simple, really: throw a bait, in her case a piece of the snake body. But not just like that: enclose it in many dry branches, with a few small entrances. The insects would rush inside, trying to eat the meat and/or laying eggs inside it: while they were doing that, Silvy would light up the dry branches surrounding the meat, creating an inescapable inferno for the insects. It was not an elegant solution by any means, but it would probably work: the insects were small enough that even flying through the flames would burn them. Or at least she hoped so.

She cut up a piece of the snake, enclosing it in leaves: she wanted them to smell it, but the longer and harder it was to reach the meat, the better: a couple of leaves would probably not stall them for long, but it was better than nothing. She started her work, arranging branches of similar length in a squarish sort of way, tying them up with a few blades of grass tied together and adding a few dry leaves on the exterior for a quick fire. Other squares were created, tying them together with the snake piece inside, creating a sort of cubic trap. It was ugly, had bigger holes than she had hoped for, and was quite fragile, but that was hardly important; it was a trap for insects, not humans. It had taken her two hours to do, but she was not done: the next step was the fire. She took a bigger branch, making sure it was dry, and cut up a small hole inside it with a dagger, connecting the hole with the air through a small notch to the side. She took a smaller stick and put it inside, twirling away to start the fire. It didn’t take long, given her experience, immunity to fatigue and dry air and branches, for a small fire to start, fed by Silvy with dry leaves around. In little time she had a small fire going, a bit away from the bush, just to not attract attention. She went back there and, as gently as possible, threw the bait towards the bush. The swarm quickly reacted, swarming towards the food. Silvy went back to her small fire, choosing a couple of long branches as her torches.

Only a few insects were outside the trap, trying to get in, with most of them inside. She waited a few more seconds, and all of them were inside: this was a good moment. She closed the distance, placed the torches below the wooden cube, and then bolted away. Smoke rose, and the wood started to burn. A loud buzzing came from the trap, and Silvy could see a few insects escaping alive, but by now the trap was burning: there was no escape for the others inside.

Silvy waited, seeing the still living insects flying away, scared or confused, a few of the trapped ones managing to fly outside but dying burning right after. She waited for the fire to die down before getting closer; only ash remained, the snake meat charred. She couldn’t see any insect body: they probably had been burnt completely; not surprising, really. And she couldn’t see any core, but that was most likely because the cores were too small to be seen by her.

Well, threat of insects removed, she moved forward, searching the surroundings for the stairs to the next floor.

Unfortunately, the place had no hole, and she had to repeat the same trick with another insect swarm before finding the stairs leading down.

Three floors much like the sixth followed, full of the same forest. But Silvy noticed another monster she hadn’t noticed: leeches. She had found one of those attached to a snake, who on its part had been quite weaker and slower than the others. As they were monsters, Silvy expected these leeches to dry out their victim completely or something like that. Fortunately, she was in full armor…

Silvy was on the tenth floor when she heard some voices coming from her right. She followed the sound, not having found any other human in the dungeon before. A clearing opened up before her, with three humans standing around a campfire, two of them quickly noting Silvy arrival and standing up.

Silvy quickly realized they were all women, as they didn’t have their helmet on. They were in full plate armor, dirty and a bit bloodied.

“Who goes there?”

The tall woman with a shield called out, looking towards Silvy general direction. Silvy quickly realized the campfire light did not reach her, and she was carrying no torch, as she had never felt the need.

“Hello. I’m a friendly adventurer?...” Silvy responded, not really sure on how to identify herself.

“Come forward, then. There is place around the fire.” the tall woman answered, but not lowering her guard.

Silvy did, entering the circle of light. Their faces had visible reactions of shock, incredulity, and amazement: they probably hadn’t expected for Silvy to be a child and be so far into the dungeon.

“Hello. I’m Silvy. Nice to meet you.” she tried to play the cute card: it usually worked.

“Shapeshifter? No way, right?” a woman, with a bow in hand, whispered, but in an audible voice, to another apparently unarmed woman.

“It’s easy to tell.” the unarmed woman whispered back “Silvy, answer me: how many fingers are these?” the other woman talked, showing two fingers to Silvy.

Silvy was quite confused but answered, nonetheless. “Two.”

“See? She’s not a shapeshifter. They don’t understand questions, just mimic sounds.”

Well, that explained why they thought she was not a shapeshifter. But why did they think she was one in the first place?

“Why do you think I’m a shapeshifter?”

“There aren’t many children who go around in dungeons, Miss Silvy. Can I call you Silvy?” the tall woman asked.

Silvy nodded, unconcerned about formalities.

“Come, come closer to the fire.”

Silvy went closer, but still far from them; she didn’t know if they were hostile. But they had lowered their guard after that small conversation and had gone back to sitting, so Silvy decided to join them.

“I’m Hethe.” the tallest of the three women began. She had a shield leaning on her left side, a sword belted on the right; she was tall, around 1.75 meters, blue eyes and short, straight, light chestnut braided brown hair, with a noble feel about her, even if a bit tired. “She is Thelma.” she pointed to the girl with the bow, who waved at Silvy; she was shorter, around 1.65 meters, with beady brown eyes and shoulder-length, straight blonde hair. “And she is Veremi.” said Hethe, pointing at the last woman who was as tall as Thelma, had cold blue eyes and elbow-length, curly brown hair, who nodded to Silvy in response.

“We are the Maiden’s Aegis, gold rank. Pleased to meet you.”

Thelma extended her hand, which Silvy shook. They seemed interested in her, and their curiosity was confirmed by their questions.

“Are you here alone? It’s surprising to see someone so capable at such a young age.” started Hethe.

“I envy your eyes; you can see in the dark, right? Useful Skill, that I still haven’t gotten.” said the archer, Thelma.

“Yes, I’m alone, and I can see in the dark perfectly fine. Is that the boss room?” Silvy pointed towards the ominous tunnel leading forward; its darkness was probably magical, as even Silvy could not see beyond it. The clearing they were in right now was completely surrounded by trees, blocking every way apart from the one forward towards the boss or back towards the dungeon.

“Yes, we were resting before tackling it. It’s not our first time doing it, but it’s never a good idea to be tired before a fight. Do you want to fight it alone?” Hethe asked.

“Yes. What is the boss?”

Hethe raised her eyebrow, surprised. “You don’t know what’s the boss? And you are here alone? Do you even have a map?”

Silvy shook her head. Where would the fun be in exploring the dungeon if you had a map?

“Impressive.” Veremi said.

“Indeed. But I don’t think it’s a good idea to fight it alone, especially if you don’t have any magic. It’s a Treant, a giant tree. It can move its numerous branches very quickly, dexterously, and almost independently, making a one on one fight very hard, especially if you don’t have fire on your side. Like every tree, it’s vulnerable to fire, so the best way to fight it is to just protect the mage while he, or she in our case, rains fire on it.”

Silvy nodded, thanking Hethe for the information. This fight would be hard, Silvy could feel it; she would have to cut down the attacking branches before reaching the trunk, where, most likely, the core was. And even then, if the trunk was too tall, how could she find it? Or maybe too tough to cut? Maybe bleed it to death? Do Treants bleed?

“How would you fight it one on one, Hethe?” Silvy asked.

“Mmmh. Right now? I wouldn’t. I would run. Don’t look at me like that: everyone has its strengths and weaknesses. My specialization is in defending against attacks, not overwhelming damage. And to kill a Treant, you need to have a lot of damage, even better if it’s fire. Do you want to fight it with us? If you can reach this floor alone and unharmed, you are good. We could always use some help, you know?”

Silvy considered the proposal. It didn’t sound like a bad deal: she would probably stay close to the mage, blocking the attacking branches, while the mage, Veremi, would rain fire on it. How she wished she had magic right now…

“I agree. When do you want to fight it?”

Hethe eyebrows shot up, while Veremi and Thelma looked at Silvy as if she was crazy.

“You just arrived; rest for some time. How about in one hour? We can chat for a bit anyway.”