For over an hour, we walked through the dark corridor of the cave until, unexpectedly, a pale yellow light appeared ahead. Passing through a strong magical barrier, within minutes, we found ourselves in a vast steppe stretching in all directions, covered in tall grass that reached almost to my waist. I took a deep breath, inhaling the unfamiliar scents.


    — Monsteeeers! — I exhaled dreamily, unleashing my entire aura and the bloodlust I had been holding back for so long. — Oh, how I’ve missed you!


    — Battle Master! — my companions gasped, crouching to the ground.


    At the same moment, I felt thousands of first-class monsters around us instantly drop dead.


    — Oh, sorry, I didn’t think.


    Watching their comical expressions was actually quite amusing.


    — You know, the first level is too boring. Can you tell me at which level fourth-class monsters start appearing?


    — Sir, we’ve heard that fourth-class monsters might be encountered on the tenth level. On the eleventh, they’re definitely present, though not in great numbers.


    — Alright. Will you guide me to the seventh level? And tell me the general information about the dungeon along the way.


    — This is the largest dungeon on the continent. So far, thirty-three levels are known, and no adventurer has ventured beyond that. The transitions between levels occur through caves like the one we just passed through. The distance between them is approximately a few hours of fast walking. From the exit of a level, you can always see the entrance to the next—usually another rock with a cave. — He pointed to the horizon, where a black dot was visible. — So you can get lost here, but not if you’re purposefully moving between dungeon levels.


    — Wait, you’re saying we’re descending from level to level, but if my senses are correct, the floor of the cave is horizontal. So how could we have moved underground? — I raised my head toward the sky, where a glowing mist shimmered high above. — And quite deep at that.


    — That’s one of the greatest mysteries of the dungeons. Scholar-mages have a theory that the corridor we walked through possesses teleportation properties, and in reality, every step we take there is like a mini-teleport downward. Its straight appearance is actually an optical illusion.


    I pondered that. An interesting theory indeed.


    — Does every dungeon level look like a steppe, or are there variations?


    — No, the deeper you go, the more vegetation appears. On the second level, there are low shrubs. On the third, you’ll find trees. The fourth has small hills covered in sparse forest… But I’ve heard that after the twenty-fifth level, the forest turns into something horrific, something our minds cannot comprehend. Though perhaps those are just tales—I’ve never seen it myself, only heard rumors over drinks with the guys.


    — Are there a lot of adventurers constantly in the dungeon?


    — On the first four levels, yes—thousands of them. But the deeper you go, the fewer there are. On our seventh level, there are only a few hundred, and where you’re headed, even fewer. Though sometimes you might come across War Gods or eighth- and ninth-circle mages who come here to study the dungeon—but meeting them is purely a matter of luck.


    — Is the vegetation here similar to that on the surface?


    — Mostly, yes, but in the deeper levels, it becomes much more diverse. Even on the seventh level, you can find things I’ve never seen on the surface. There are many poisonous as well as medicinal plants. The Healers’ and Alchemists’ Guilds often issue gathering requests.


    — Can you tell me anything about the glowing mist in the sky?


    — Sir, that’s not mist. That’s billions of insects. Usually, they just fly up there, high above. But sometimes, they descend, driving the monsters insane and making them attack anything—even each other. If you ever witness this phenomenon, my advice is to find any shelter and wait it out until they rise again.


    We reached another rock and once more stepped into a cave. This rock seemed larger than the previous one—the one on the surface. Could the continent itself also be like a dungeon level? This sudden thought kept swirling in my head until we emerged onto the second level.


    Indeed, it was nearly the same steppe, with scattered shrubs as tall as I was. I scanned the area around me—only first-class monsters.


    — Are there only first-class monsters here as well?


    — Yes, but they are different from those on the previous level because they can attack in packs of several dozen heads. On the third level, there will already be solitary second-class monsters.


    I casually killed a hairy monster that thought it had hidden well under a bush and pulled out its core. It looked ordinary, no different from the cores of the monsters in the Misty Forest. I wonder, did the monsters there also crawl out of some dungeon? But I had never even heard of such a thing in the principality.


    — Do ordinary beasts without cores appear in the dungeon?


    — No, that’s unlikely. There’s too much mana around for them to survive here, even if there were no monsters.


    Along the way, I kept asking questions, even if they seemed silly. After all, it’s better to understand everything properly than to regret it later.


    Thus, we once again approached the passage to the lower level. I examined the rock. No doubt—it was indeed larger than the one on the surface.


    — Listen, I’m sure this rock is bigger than the one above. Is there any reason for that?


    They exchanged glances and shrugged.


    — Maybe, but we’ve never really paid attention to it.


    Alright, fine. I strained all my senses, trying to determine whether this corridor was truly a teleport. Absolutely nothing—only a magical barrier at the exit.


    — And this barrier, was it installed by people, or is it a natural phenomenon of the dungeon?


    — The barrier is part of the dungeon, something like a self-defense mechanism. It holds back monsters when the insects descend from the sky to the ground. But some mages claim that sooner or later, the monsters will break through it, and then a true catastrophe will begin on the surface.


    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    On the third level, I approached a short tree and examined it closely. On its bark, I could make out thin veins with tiny multicolored specks that trembled ever so slightly. A slight resemblance to the Misty Forest.


    On the fourth level, the surface stopped resembling a flat table, and hills covered in dense forest appeared.


    — Listen, we’ve traveled so far, but I haven’t seen a single river or body of water. Are there any here at all?


    — You’re right, sir. There is indeed little water on the upper levels, but deeper down, it appears quite frequently.


    On the fifth level, right at the exit, I was attacked by a second-class monster.


    — Are you stupid or what? — I said, tearing off its head.


    Inside was a regular orange core. Mahal—I immediately recognized the creature from the second volume of the monster encyclopedia. Slow, but dangerous due to its armor and sharp scythes on its front limbs. A pack of these could pose a threat even to a third-class warrior. I once again approached a tree and


    examined its bark. The colored specks in the veins had increased significantly, and they weren’t just trembling anymore—they were moving slowly, and some were even trying to break free into the air. This was becoming more and more similar to the Misty Forest.


    — Do you know what this is?


    I pointed at the veins.


    — Sir, I’ve heard that mages call this phenomenon the Ash of God, but we don’t know what it means.


    A strange name. I waved my hand, and we moved on.


    On the sixth level, first-class monsters no longer appeared, and the vegetation, besides green, had taken on yellow and red hues.


    — Does the dungeon have seasons? Is this the beginning of autumn?


    — Seasons? — they exchanged glances again. — What do you mean?


    — Well, when one season changes into another.


    — Sir, I’m afraid we still don’t understand you. But if you mean the color of the leaves on the trees, they always look like this here. And the deeper you go, the more plants there are with yellow and red colors, and the less green. But why that is, we don’t know.


    Finally, we reached the seventh level. The warrior and the mage offered to take me to their camp, but I considered it unnecessary, so I bid them farewell and continued on.


    The eighth level. Here, the low hills had already begun to turn into mountains covered in forests, but occasionally, bare black rocks could be seen. I scanned the area within a few kilometers—only hundreds of monsters and no signs of human presence. That’s good. Moving a few kilometers away from the transition between levels, I found a small valley and poured out all the fourth-class cores from the old mage’s ring, which I had obtained in the Misty Forest. A few hundred. I think that should be enough.


    I created magical circles with runes and sat inside. The green cores rose into the air and began to revolve around me in a wide ring, evenly releasing mana, which flowed into my palms like golden dust. This slow process lasted several days.


    There was so much mana that it evaporated the remaining blood in my veins, and a powerful stream of liquid mana, white-gold in color, surged through them. The concentrated power spread outward in waves with each heartbeat, creating a deep hum throughout the valley.


    Finally! A breakthrough to High-Rank Battle Master! A thick beam of energy shot into the sky above me, incinerating millions of insects that swarmed there and revealing the black rocky ceiling with white veins.


    This is it—the true sky of the dungeon!


    Having broken through to a new rank, I wasn’t in a hurry to leave. Instead, I pulled out the storage given to me by Kruk and activated it. Gigantic size. A cube, one kilometer on each side.


    In the center lay a few books, a small box of weapons, an alchemy cauldron, and a cabinet with alchemical ingredients. I took everything out and laid it on the ground. Then I did the same with my other storage items.


    Oh, quite a nice pile of loot I’ve gathered. The most functional storage seemed to be the one that once belonged to Grace, so I decided to make it my primary one. After that, I arranged everything into the designated sections inside.


    The three now-empty storages I chose to use for cores and for keeping the most valuable monster carcasses. They did say there were millions of them here—well, I don’t mind! Having thus completed my preparations for the hunt, I set off for the ninth level.


    The terrain resembled the eighth, covered in multicolored forests, with monsters mainly of the second and third class, which didn’t interest me. The tenth level. The vegetation was now predominantly yellow and red, and packs of third-class monsters attacked the moment they sensed you.


    I didn’t waste my time on them and descended to the eleventh level. But here, whether I wanted to or not, I had to stay, because moving forward without engaging in long battles with massive packs of third- and fourth-class monsters was impossible. The moment I wiped one out, another appeared on the horizon.


    Now I believed in the millions. They kept up this assault for several days, not giving me a moment’s rest. And how did my teacher manage to descend to the thirty-second level when I was already stuck at the eleventh? I extrapolated the difference in difficulty between the first and the eleventh to the thirty-second…


    Damn, I wouldn’t be reaching that anytime soon. But eventually, the packs became less persistent, and I had more free time. My smallest storage was already completely filled with tens of thousands of third- and fourth-class cores.


    Absorbing them all would be madness—my body simply wouldn’t withstand such an amount of mana, so I had to store the excess. Leaving them inside the carcasses without collecting them was also not an option.


    I devoted all my free time to spear combat techniques left to me by Kruk and to studying Sui’s notes, as I hadn’t given up on mastering magic. The strikes and sequences I had learned before the tournament were merely the beginning of the technique, not even its first level.


    And now, I had the opportunity to study these techniques and practice them on monsters. After about two weeks, the number of monsters had decreased so much that I even started reading my teacher’s works on alchemy.


    Overall, he was right—without heavenly fire, I could at best create second-class pills, which was a low level. The medicines Kruk gave me during training, for example, were fifth-class. But I kept studying anyway, since knowledge is never a burden, and life is full of surprises.


    Perhaps one day, I would find heavenly fire and tame it. Judging by the number of high-level alchemists, it wasn’t such a rarity on the continent, but I had no idea where to obtain it.


    One of those peaceful days, I even brewed a second-class restoration potion. But it turned out I lacked proper containers to store it, so I had to drink it all. And while I felt the effect, it wasn’t impressive enough to excite me.


    Second class—you can’t surpass the limit, no matter how hard you try. Time passed, monster packs appeared less and less frequently, so I started debating whether to descend to the next level or dismantle my camp and wander this level in search of them myself.


    In the end, I chose the first option. But there was still one unresolved problem. How would I continue absorbing monster mana? As it stood, my circulatory system served as the storage for mana, but it was already completely full—I doubted I could fit even a few more drops in there.


    In my storages lay hundreds of thousands of third- and fourth-class cores, several times more than I had absorbed throughout my entire time in this world.


    I wondered—could mana be compressed into a solid state? And perhaps replace my bones with it, for example?


    I spread out mana and rune circles and poured out several thousand cores beside me. Sitting inside the magic circles, I lifted the cores into the air, setting them into a rotating motion. A yellow mist stretched toward my hands, but unlike previous times, it could no longer enter my circulatory system. Instead, it began condensing into droplets under my skin and within my muscles, causing me intense pain.


    Several times, I tried gathering those droplets together and compressing them, but they only scattered into sprays, heating up significantly in the process. I was about to stop the process when I opened my eyes and saw several lines of new runes blinking slowly beside me.


    This was something new—I had never seen these lines before. I began integrating them one by one into the flowing chain that constantly moved from top to bottom. The runes suddenly started spinning faster, and then an additional magic ring appeared above and below, synchronizing their rotations with the others!


    For a moment, all the magic around trembled, shifting to a new level of quality, and the cores began releasing mana even faster. But this time, the mana no longer tried to enter my circulatory system. Instead, it flowed straight into my bones, traveling through them to the phalanx of my left pinky finger.


    I closed my eyes again and looked inside myself. Mana poured into the phalanx in an incredible stream, gradually replacing the bone tissue. I watched in fascination—until suddenly, the process stopped.


    Thousands of third- and fourth-class cores were depleted. They weren’t even enough for a single tiny bone.