Mash didn’t know what he expected to see upon entering the dungeon. Half his mind thought that he would end up in the actual dungeon instead of a special trial. But it seemed like Lisa was right. Rather than the luxurious interior of someone’s home, he was standing in a forest clearing. Simple trees of brown wood and green leaves framed the clearing like a fence. It was almost perfectly placed so that his domain didn’t reach into the trees. All he could see was the grass and dirt around him.

A clearing like this didn’t bother him. Something else about the place made his skin crawl though. It was like waking up to find that the air tasted different one day. Still like air, but just strange air. He couldn’t quite place his finger on it, but Priscilla did notice it.

[There is no mana here. None, even the mana in your energy has been drained or dimmed somehow.]

She didn’t need to explain the consequences. His hand shot forward as he attempted to open a portal. Nothing happened. Not a single thing. That was a problem, one that he didn’t think of either. He had never heard of a dungeon that disabled mana at a fundamental level. Why did that even work on him? It wasn’t like he used mana.

[Mana in all forms is gone. The magical aspects of our energy have vanished as well. I expect it is a law of this place.]

Mash groaned loudly. His friends were going to bother him about the mark, and if he didn’t get back on time, they would be even worse. Not to mention there was the other aspect of their plan too. Jill would wind up stuck here with him if too much time passed. Which very well might happen. The problem was that he didn’t know how much time was being warped in here. A fay here could be a year for them for all he knew. Maybe Jill had already tried and failed to teleport to him. Plus, the lack of magic would limit most of his abilities.

All of these factors probably should have incited some panic, but he felt fine. Calm even. Even without mana of any kind, he was not weak. His domain still functioned, so his other passive skills probably still worked too. More than that, his body wasn’t ever something that could be called weak anymore. Priscilla was quite good at utilizing the new permanence of his transformations. She had helped him make a lot of small modifications to his body to get the best possible performance. There were plenty of things that he didn’t even know about. He had even restricted her from changing his outward appearance too much. Also altering things like his height felt weird, so he wasn’t that different physically. She worked around that limitation easily, fundamentally changing how his body worked. Somehow, she had modified his eyes and made his vision better.

Some changes were more drastic than others, and it felt weird. Priscilla had made changes to his bones and muscles by mixing and changing his forms. Experimenting with his body like that was weird, to say the least. When she wanted to change more sensitive things like his organs, or the basic functions of his body, she had Luke watch. All of those changes had culminated in a body that was easily an advancement beyond him. And that was the bare minimum. Even without using his full dragon form, he was a lot stronger and faster. His reaction times were better, and his natural process was inhuman. More than a few of the creatures he had eaten had the ability to regenerate significant injuries. It wasn’t strictly healing and burned through his energy, but it worked. His body required a lot more food now too. It produced almost no waste, but he still had to eat a lot.

Beyond the dungeon, his biggest concern was his next meal. His storage space had a plethora of food in it. In fact, he had dumped nearly everything that wasn’t edible out and stuffed it with monster corpses. Even if the meat rotted, he could still eat it. The others had enough room to carry everything that had been in there, though he had removed all of his prepared weapons and creations. He couldn’t open that space now, and he didn’t see anything that seemed particularly nutritious. With all of the changes done to his digestive system, his body could probably take the nutrients from the very dirt if he needed to. But that would be a lot of dirt. Which he would need to eat by the handful since his wood magic wasn’t working.

There was nothing but grass and trees though. At least that made his immediate course of action obvious. Secure a source of food and water. One that was preferably endless, or close enough to it. He looked around once more. Then he let his knees drop a little before jumping with all of his strength. Cracks spread from where he jumped, and he flew far higher than he had intended. The trees shrunk as the air rushed past his face. His gaze darted around rapidly as his ascent turned into a fall. The forest around him was encompassing, but it wasn’t endless or empty. A city or village existed like a shadow far to the east. He also saw a river that seemed to lead straight to it. The river wasn’t that far from him.

The source of water and food was a huge relief. His vision let him see more than that though. Small movements among the trees. So subtle that he would’ve missed it without the changes to his sight. Signs of life that were gradually approaching his location in the form of small unnatural movements of leaves. His hunger churned, and he hoped that they were monsters or animals. While people might lead for to a way out, he wanted to satisfy his hunger first.

His feet touched the ground like falling logs. He kicked off the ground at the same moment, dashing toward the signs of life. The noise would alert the creatures, but he was confident in his ability to catch them. He charged into the forest, pushing through bushes and grass without slowing. His eyes darted back and forth, piercing through the trees to find the creatures he knew should be there. He saw it. Brown fur covered an enormous creature that was charging at him. Large tusks and a snout made it some kind of wild hog. It didn’t fear him, and he could understand why. It was half again his own height, and he didn’t have sharp tusks.

He did have sharp teeth, and they flashed through a wide smile as he rushed the beast. It was big, strong, and fast. If he was of average strength for his level a monster like this might pose a challenge. Now, he tore through it. In a literal sense. He thrust his hand forward as the boar tackled him. His fist met with the monster’s skull and plunged into it. Gore exploded from it, drenching his arm in red blood. The thick stench instantly flooded his nostrils, and his stomach growled. He pulled his arm out, feeling only a small twinge of pain around his knuckles. It would heal, he was sure of that.

He walked around the large animal, glad that the meal had delivered itself to him. Even with his endless hunger, a monster of this size could hold him over for a few days if he was conservative. The rustling of the leaves he could hear made him think that he wouldn’t need to be. That thought broke as he saw the arrowhead embedded in the creature’s back and felt the newcomers step into his domain. Their shape alone was enough to identify them. Humans with no unusual features pushed through the forest. Mash waited for them to come to him and tore off a piece of meat from the creature’s side. Its skin was tough, and he didn’t like the feeling of fur in his mouth. He ignored those things and continued to eat the meat. It was satisfying. More importantly, he was hungry, and it was food.

He continued to eat the bland meat, as he watched the people whisper to one another. With the improvements to his hearing, he could vaguely pick out a word or two from the conversation. Swallowing once, he called out to them, tired of waiting for one of them to gain the courage to approach.

“Hello there! I know you're there. Also, I’m not an enemy or hostile in any way. Just hungry, and in my defense, I couldn’t see the arrowhead with all the fur in the way. Plus, I was hungry.”

The group in question rushed out and dropped to their knees. It was a universal gesture, and Mash groaned internally. He didn’t like gestures of reverence, especially when there was no reason for it. Even if they had seen him kill the boar, it shouldn’t provoke this kind of reaction.

“Please, prince! Forgive us. You can of course take whatever you wish. We only ask that you leave us the hide. Winter comes and we.”

The man at the front was rushing through his words, and he cut off when one of the women behind him touched his leg. Mash’s eyes narrowed as he examined the group. Two men and two women prostrated themselves before him. They wore clothes of fur, brown and black much like the boar’s own hide. All four had dark brown hair and tan skin. He couldn’t see anything else with their heads pressed into the grass. His mind worked, trying to figure out what had happened. Maybe this was like the other dungeon. An act where he was playing some kind of character.

“Stand up. Why do you think I’m a prince?”

Their heads snapped up and they leaped to their feet in alarm. Wide eyes stared at him in obvious fear, black irises blending with their pupils gave them a slightly odd look. One of the girls, who looked to be ten or eleven at most, was even tearing up. And one of the men tried to move a little to shield the girl from him.

Mash knew he didn’t exactly look harmless. One of his arms was entirely drenched in blood. His eyes were disturbingly inhuman, and his teeth were weirdly sharp. Not pointed like a shark, but sharp like a rack of knives. His hair was now a pure white color and was also a little red from the boar’s blood. More blood ran from his mouth in a distinctly vicious way, and he realized his own stupidity. The group’s reaction made a lot of sense now that he actually considered his appearance. He could’ve handled this better.