《Why Can't I Stop This Dungeon From Growing?》 Chapter 1 - Beginning A sharp pain awoke me. I cannot say what it was, but it was gone when I was finally aware of myself. I cannot recall how I ended up where I am. I cannot recall much of anything, to be honest. The only thing I know right now, is that the situation I am in does not feel normal at all. For one, I seem to be in a very dark, wet cave, and the surfaces I can see do not seem to be stone, but I can¡¯t identify what they actually are. Second, I have a vague feeling that I should be human, but I don¡¯t seem to be human anymore, at least. I seem to be a crystal, lying on the wet floor of the unknown material. I can see in all directions without moving the crystal, and my sight is not connected to anything physical. I sat there for an indeterminate amount of time, trying to not freak out and sort my thoughts. I then realized that I felt hungry. For what? I¡¯m not sure. The feeling would not go away as I tried to figure out what to do about it. Looking at myself, I didn¡¯t seem to have a stomach, or mouth, or anything in this crystal body, but then I came to a realization. Despite my sight being able to rotate in all directions, my areas of vision all originated from a small area around my crystal, and there was a hard line that I could not create ¡°eyes¡± beyond. I focused my attention on this edge of my awareness, and it suddenly moved. I slowly moved it farther, extending it to the nearest wall. As I touched the wall, I realized I was no longer feeling the hunger pangs. This left me baffled. This edge of my awareness also gave me a sense of touch that I didn¡¯t realize I had until now. Not only were the walls wet, but they were very slimy. I then tried to push on the wall, only for my area of awareness to pass straight through the wall, and to the other side. From that, I was able to gather that other than the crystal, everything else I had control of was intangible. The other side seemed to be more of the same, but there was a harder substance along some edges of this wall. I pushed my area further, to touch the harder substance, when one of my intangible eyes caught a beam of light. I pivoted my movements towards the light, and once I got close, I realized this is not a cave. Now that the walls were in the light, I realized the walls were all a bright red. As I pushed further, I saw more of the hole the light was coming through, and it looked wrong. It was narrow, but stretched for a long distance in both directions. The hole was directly up from my area that I could see, so I pushed myself upwards. Once I was out, I realized there seemed to be patches of a red liquid that had dried up at some point not too long ago along the edges of the entire opening. I then had a revelation. The cave I was in was a human body. The hole was a gigantic laceration that stretched from the right shoulder down to just below the ribcage. This person appeared to be a woman when she was alive, but upon looking around I realized her corpse was stretched across an entire mountain range. I finally looked up at her face, and was wracked with pain upon doing so. I blacked out from the overstimulation. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ My name was Felix. I had lived a happy, if short, life, when I died. That was when I met her. ¡°Oh, my poor dear,¡± she said in her angelic voice. ¡°You are such a cutie, you know that? How cruel for you to have such a wonderful life cut short.¡± ¡°Uh, thanks, I guess?¡± I had answered sheepishly. ¡°Oh! Where are my manners?¡± She then jumped back as if she suddenly remembered something. ¡°I never introduced myself. I am Elsa. I am a Goddess of Fate, and am here to shepherd you to your next life.¡± ¡°Oh, I guess I did die, huh?¡± I asked back, still a little bit nervous now that I realized this was a goddess. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about that, the past isn¡¯t what we need to focus on, what we need to focus on is your future.¡± ¡°My Future?¡± ¡°Yes!¡± Elsa said as she pulled me in to a hug, where it dawned on me that I was nothing but a spirit without a body. ¡°You are one of the souls I have been allowed from the higher ups to reincarnate, and you are such a cutie that you deserve a special next life.¡± The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. I felt like this Goddess was a bit odd, I didn¡¯t think I was that ¡°cute¡± or whatever. Besides, I was literally a floating spirit now. ¡°I have a special world that I personally keep watch over, no major worries, and other reincarnates I have sent there have all had a grand time.¡± ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­ Seeing Elsa¡¯s face jogged my memory, I realized once I woke up from that black out. I couldn¡¯t remember anything past her picking out that world, but seeing her corpse, I could make a guess as to what happened now. She had been hugging me so tightly that my spirit had been right in the middle of her chest, and whatever made the deep cut going from her right shoulder diagonally across to the bottom of her ribs must have hit my soul as well. I guess I should be thankful that my soul wasn¡¯t destroyed, but that also made me feel fear. Someone had killed a Goddess, and I had no idea who it could have been. The biggest worry was that I was still inside her corpse. I can¡¯t do anything about her killer for right now, but I suddenly had ideas for the other problems. Now that my memory of my old life returned, I had a better idea of what I was looking at. For starters, my old memories from my past life coming back gave me recollections of reading stories on certain websites about dungeon cores, which seemed to be what my spirit had become, based on the crystal core that was still sitting near Elsa the Goddess¡¯s heart. I then remembered that dungeon cores usually had control of their ¡°dungeon¡± and since my senses were already outside, I proved my earlier self wrong about being intangible by grabbing onto a piece of the mountain Elsa¡¯s corpse was lying on and making a tendril of rock to extract my core from her corpse. I placed my core down just outside her corpse, when I realized something was WRONG. Looking down the mountainside, I could see foliage further down, but it was all withered and dead. I extended my senses down to take a closer look, and realized it was still decaying. I tried to analyze what was killing the plants by surrounding them, and suddenly my eyes could see mana. The thing that was killing all the plants on the mountainside was a violent wind of mana coming from the corpse, and as the wind hit my senses, I got a sour taste on incorporeal taste buds I didn¡¯t even realize I had. One thing I did notice as I covered the nearby trees and shrubs was that they stopped withering once I engulfed them in my dungeon. Now that I could see mana I pushed the mana that I seemed to be absorbing into the plants and they immediately flourished once again. This seemed to be happening in every direction, so I started extending myself across the entire mountaintop to halt the damage. Several hours later, late into the night, and I had spread across the mountaintop to stop the awful destruction. Elsa¡¯s body was still plainly out in the open, and I really didn¡¯t want to leave her like that, though. I had an idea, but it would take several more hours. Luckily, I didn¡¯t need to sleep thanks to my new dungeon body. I extended my dungeon down, into the mountain below the Goddess, and just like when I used stone from the mountain to move my core, I manipulated the stone and excavated out the mountain under Elsa. I then opened up the top of the mountain, reformed stone into small tendrils to hold her, and gently lowered her down into the new chamber that had taken several hours to clear out. While I kept the mountain itself hollow, I reformed the top of the mountain to have the appearance I assumed it must have had before we fell on it. I then tried to make ice inside, to preserve and protect Elsa, but realized I couldn¡¯t. It seems that I need to have touched a material to recreate it elsewhere. Luckily, I spotted a river near the mountain when I focused my attention outwards. Hoping this would further my plan, I extended part of myself all the way to the river, touching the water, and on a hunch decreased the temperature in that part of my dungeon. The plan worked flawlessly as the part of my dungeon that touched the river froze the water into solid ice, which I could then replicate and put Elsa in to keep her preserved. I know I didn¡¯t have to go that far, but she seemed to have genuinely wanted to give me a better life, so I thought I should protect her body from scavengers and keep her body intact. To keep my core safe, I used rock tendrils to make a small hole in the ice, then lowered my core into it, and filled it back in with ice. Physical material had no effect on my senses, so it seemed best to keep my core near the body I was also protecting. As I prepared to relax for a moment, without much thoughts for what to do next, a strange sensation came over me. Several of the edges of my dungeon were continuing to extend outward. I really wanted to stay in place, not move further outward yet, but my dungeon continued growing. I tried to halt the advance on one side, but my mental exertion only halved the speed of growth. I then tried to analyze what was going wrong, and my mana sight suddenly kicked in and showed me that the density of mana inside my dungeon was increasing almost exponentially. I then tried to find the source and realized that Elsa¡¯s body was still pouring out mana like a faucet on full blast. I may have blocked the mana from killing everything else, but now I was absorbing all of it. At least my dungeon extending outward didn¡¯t kill what it touched. But I still didn¡¯t want to accept that I had almost no control over my dungeon¡¯s growth. ¡°WHY CAN¡¯T I STOP THIS DUNGEON FROM GROWING?!?!¡± Chapter 2 - Reflection I felt better after my little outburst. I had created several objects and flung them against the walls of the empty cavern below the mountain to vent off steam, but even then, it took twenty minutes to finally calm down. After my tantrum, I looked around to gauge how fast my dungeon¡¯s growth was. While my dungeon is invisible, I cannot make my eyes beyond the boundary of it. The growth in each direction outward was mostly uniform, except for my upward edge being far slower. My only guess as to why this is the case would be that the mana that makes up my body is under the effect of gravity. The outside part of my dungeon¡­¡­did not look good. The death mana that had been permeating everything until now had left even the sturdiest life around the mountain as nothing but husks. I set about sucking all the death mana away and using my dungeon¡¯s ability to replicate what it has seen to create seeds of the plants that were standing on the edges of the death and plant them. I was able to find some residual life mana in some of the plants that were furthest away from my mountain, and after seeing it I could twist the death mana that I had a constant supply of into life mana which had a very rapid impact on the seeds I planted as they immediately sprouted. Now that I had a more normal landscape, I recalled that the dungeon core stories that I was familiar with usually had some menu system to help the dungeon along, so I thought that I would try and find one if it existed. It seemed like it should have popped up by now, if it was going to. ¡°Status¡± I said in my head. Nothing. ¡°Menu.¡± Nope. ¡°Display.¡± Nada. I thought it was worth a shot, despite the lack of any video game system even while I had amnesia. Speaking of my earlier amnesia, it was obvious to me now that when I felt hungry earlier it was mana that I ate and was perfectly satisfied afterward. The other anomaly from earlier took a bit more guesswork to come to an answer for it though. While I can manipulate all other materials that are inside my dungeon, I cannot do anything directly when it comes to Elsa the Goddess¡¯s body. I had to melt a bit of ice near her for some testing on why that was, but I think I have an answer to that now. Maybe. The theory that is backed up by my evidence right now is that she is so dense in mana and whatever else makes up the divine that my tiny soul powered dungeon does not have the weight behind it to directly make changes, but I can at least move her around when I need to by moving objects around her. The section of ice that I melted was near her hand, which seemed to intensify the amount of Death Mana leaking out in that area so I covered up the small hole I made again with more ice and that slowed the leakage back to the normal pace. While it was leaking out my dungeon was growing even faster than the current normal rate, which then uncovered something I wasn¡¯t expecting to see out in the wilderness. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Hidden in a previously forested area was a small village. The death mana had hit this area hard, though. All the trees were blackened and dead. I was hoping that someone was still alive, that my intervention that stopped the death mana leakage was enough, but as I got closer the place looked completely abandoned. Then I went in the houses. There must have been no warning whatsoever. Corpses were mummified all simultaneously. It must have been after dark when it happened, as everyone was inside, some sitting around dining tables and others doing various household tasks. I mentally apologized to the people of this village, as I felt bad for them getting hit by the death mana, then located a spot to place a cemetery for all of them, and started digging. It barely took 30 minutes with my control over the elements, and I placed them all at rest and made memorial stones for the poor victims that I unfortunately didn¡¯t have names for. In my melancholy mood after that, I recalled that I had also died before whatever happened to me in this world. I wondered what happened to the rest of my family and friends after my passing. Too bad I can¡¯t really ask about it now, as my only currently known link back to Earth was also dead due to mysterious circumstances. To get myself out of this depressive mood, I decided to get myself busy. I was slowly realizing that my dungeon mind was way too good at multitasking for just one task to get my thoughts off the bad feelings, so I started multiple projects at the same time. I decided that my mountain was a bit too open for a ¡°dungeon¡± so I started filling up the open area with earth and sculpting tunnels into a maze to make it harder to find the ice encasing me and the Goddess. While I was sculpting a more dungeon like interior, I wanted to map out the terrain on my dungeon¡¯s outside in a more methodical fashion. I created swarms of invisible eyes all over the place so that nothing was missed, which gave me the view I needed to layout everything in my mental map. I was under a mountain, with a river running nearby. Most of the mountain range was in a heavy forest, except for where all the trees died from the death mana, but that was slowly coming back. I raised some eyes up to see where my dungeon body was going to, and in the distance, I could see several villages, outside of the damage done by the Goddess¡¯s corpse. I pointed my sight downward and in a small grassy clearing right on the edge of my dungeon I saw a small group of people. I froze up at that as I wasn¡¯t expecting to see other people so quickly. Chapter 3 - Contact The group I saw was composed of 6 people, 3 girls and 3 guys, though one girl and one guy were a bit stranger than the others. The strange man was covered in scales, had horns, and a small set of wings covering his back. The strange woman seemed to be a combination of human and centipede, with her lower half being long and having more legs than the rest of the group combined. ¡°Rui,¡± the centipede girl called out to a girl with a cloak. ¡°How far are we from the destination?¡± ¡°We should be to the area we need to map out by sundown,¡± Rui answered back. ¡°Because of the trees we can¡¯t see it but when we get close it will be obvious Rebekkah.¡± The centipede girl, Rebekkah, stopped walking and started twitching her feelers around. The five other members of the party all stopped moving and turned questioningly to her. ¡°Is there something wrong?¡± the other girl, who had the appearance of a cleric from my old world, asked Rebekkah. ¡°Yes, Seirah, I¡¯m already feeling mana in the air,¡± Rebekkah said back as she started spinning to look all around them. ¡°This doesn¡¯t look like an area afflicted with death mana, though,¡± the scaled man said. ¡°Grimm, that¡¯s not what I¡¯m sensing,¡± Rebekkah answered back, then looked at the other two men. ¡°Greyson, Solaire, get ready for combat, I think we have just entered a dungeon.¡± The entire team tensed up at that, like I was some sort of boogeyman. I didn¡¯t realize that a dungeon could cause this much alarm, but they all pulled out every weapon they had, and Grimm seemed to be some sort of shifter as his appearance looked more bestial than it did before, with the horns and wings getting bigger and his hands becoming adorned with claws. ¡°When did we cross into it?¡± Grimm asked her as he continued to shift into what almost looked like a dragon now. ¡°Not too long ago, just as we started across this clearing,¡± Rebekkah answered. ¡°Well, Solaire, what is the plan?¡± Greyson looked towards Solaire, his rather large hammer at the ready in case of danger. ¡°We need to pick up the pace,¡± Solaire said. ¡°We need to find the source of this dungeon. Rebekkah, what mana is the dungeon giving off?¡± ¡°It seems to be mostly giving off life mana, but there¡¯s very small quantities of death mana in there, which worries me as if that means what I think it means¡­..¡± ¡°¡­¡­This dungeon originated from the death mana explosion,¡± Lui finished for her. I thought that I had turned most of the death mana into life mana, but upon closer look I realized they were right and I still had pockets of death mana lying around even where they were, which was a bit concerning. ¡°Grimm, we need faster transport, how long can you maintain your magic?¡± Solaire asked as he hurriedly walked over to where Grimm was keeping watch. ¡°I will get us to the mountain, no problem, besides,¡± Grimm said in a very self-assured voice, ¡°a dungeon increases the necessity to get there quickly.¡± I watch them all get on Grimm¡¯s back as he finishes his transition into a dragon large enough to carry them all into the sky and take off. I took notice that when I pushed some of my eyes closer to the group Rebekkah started twitching her centipede feelers. I was curious if I could get her attention that way, but I couldn¡¯t move the eyes close enough after they picked up speed in the air. I watched them approach my mountain very quickly compared to their previous travel speed. Grimm¡¯s altered form was only maintained because of how much of my mana he was soaring through. Every few seconds, Grimm¡¯s body would start to contract in on itself, but then he would open his jaws and inhale my mana and solidify again, which was very weird to watch in action from my perspective. It didn¡¯t cause me pain, but it didn¡¯t feel comfortable either. I didn¡¯t want to think about what this Grimm fellow experienced every time this happened. I pondered how to approach interacting with them. I was worried with how they were suddenly in a hurry when Rebekkah identified that I was a dungeon. My thoughts trailed back to some of the stories about dungeon cores, and how in several of them the dungeons that went wild and unchecked were dangerous threats. Was that how this group viewed me? My memories drudged up one story where an adventuring party tried to put a restraint on the dungeon to hold it back. If this group had such a device, I would be very grateful to clamp down on this constant size issue. I just needed a way to communicate with them. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. After a very quick flight, they landed on the top of the mountain. Rebekkah got off Grimm first and examined the mountainside. ¡°I am sensing heavy mana concentrations here,¡± she reported to the rest of the group. ¡°The dungeon¡¯s center is right here where the death blight originated from.¡± ¡°Well team,¡± Rui said in a lackadaisical tone as she motioned around them. ¡°We were sent out to do something about the death mana, but now this dungeon has done our job for us.¡± ¡°Not quite,¡± Solaire said as he brandished a very exquisite sword. ¡°The giant corpse is gone, but we have a new issue to deal with that also relates to mana. We need to get down to the core of this dungeon.¡± ¡°Solaire, wait,¡± Rebekkah said, turning to him. ¡°The dungeon hasn¡¯t done anything compared to how much damage the death blight caused. We should return to town and report the change to the situation.¡± ¡°No,¡± Seirah stepped forward in front of Rebekkah. ¡°Dungeons are a disease. Left unchecked, they cause more devastation than that death blight did. We need to go in and kill it.¡± ¡°I really wish you hadn¡¯t said that out loud,¡± Rebekkah said angrily back to Seirah. ¡°The moment I realized we were in dungeon mana, I felt like we were being watched. I had a hunch it was the dungeon, but since that feeling hasn¡¯t stopped even now on top of a mountain, I can guarantee you it is watching us and just heard you say we plan to kill it.¡± ¡°Ah, I thought she sensed me. Good to know,¡± I thought to myself and saw Rebekkah¡¯s antennae twitch towards my nearest invisible eyes. She then looked right at it as though she was trying to have a staring contest with me, but then she looked back at her companions. ¡°So, what do we do?¡± Greyson asked Solaire with a very confused expression. ¡°Well, as you said Rebekkah, this dungeon is most likely aware we are here, yet it hasn¡¯t attacked us yet,¡± Solaire said nodding to Rebekkah. ¡°However, Seirah is also right that something needs to be done. The last person to track how far the death blight had reached returned not too long ago, and in such a short time this dungeon removed the entire stain and extended its borders even further. A dungeon with that much unbridled growth is a very dangerous element.¡± I felt like they were going to get into an argument again, so before they had a chance, I extracted my core from its ice cocoon with tendrils of rock and moved the rock of the mountain to lift myself up to the conversation. ¡°Can the dungeon you speak of have a word in here?¡± I tried to mentally say, hoping someone could hear me since Rebekkah reacted to my thoughts earlier. Rebekkah and the others jumped backwards. Grimm tried to put himself between the group and me, but Rebekkah pushed forward towards my core. ¡°Why would the dungeon come up here?¡± Lui asked everyone. ¡°I wanted to negotiate,¡± I mentally said, and Rebekkah¡¯s eyes widened as her feelers twitched. ¡°I can hear its thoughts,¡± Rebekkah said almost in a daze. ¡°It just said it wants to negotiate.¡± Solaire looked back and forth between the rest of the group. ¡°Rebekkah, I am giving you my position as the temporary leader as you are the only one that can hear what the dungeon said. We need you to talk to it and figure out what it wants to negotiate.¡± ¡°Why did you do that?¡± Rebekkah asked as she got closer to my core. ¡°Some of our group want you dead.¡± ¡°I figured this was the easiest way to show that I am not a threat,¡± I responded to Rebekkah. ¡°And to interject that I did not remove the death blight issue as you called it, I am containing it.¡± ¡°You are doing what?¡± Rebekkah shouted. ¡°The source of the death blight is still below us, I could not get rid of it, but I have contained it with ice and am absorbing the mana, which is why you picked up traces of death mana leaking out of me. Very embarrassing for me when you pointed it out that you still saw traces of it.¡± ¡°But then¡­¡­¡± Rebekkah¡¯s eyes went wide as she heard a member of her party run behind her. She turned around to see Grimm, who I had already seen make his move, transform into his dragon form, and try to blast Rebekkah and my core with his dragon breath. I immediately created a wall of solid stone that blocked all the flames from hitting me or Rebekkah, then formed a giant rock fist that I launched upwards at Grimm to hopefully knock him out. The punch hit him, but he was still conscious. ¡°That was rather rude of him,¡± I thought out loud. ¡°He would have caught his own party member in the crossfire if I hadn¡¯t intervened to save you.¡± Rebekkah looked at me blushing and twitching her feelers, but before she could say anything Greyson and Solaire ran forward, each on one side of my wall, and tried to slam the ax and the sword into my core. As they were mere inches from me, I made large chunks of ice erupt from under both adventurers and wrap around both of their weapons, so that neither one could move forward. I looked over at Lui and Seirah, the only members of this party that weren¡¯t attacking, and they were just watching everything with worried expressions on their faces. I mentally sighed at how fast this situation turned violent. ¡°Negotiations have broken down, I¡¯m sorry,¡± I said to Rebekkah. I reshaped the mountain under me again to lower my core back down to my little hiding spot, then created mini avalanches to send everyone off the mountain. I made sure to not kill any of them, but sent each one in a different direction so that they would have to try to reconvene. As I started to try and find a way to rest my thoughts, I took one last look out to where everyone ended up and noticed Rebekkah curled up where I sent her looking depressed. I created an entryway near her and tried to give her a mental nudge. She opened her eyes at that and looked around until she noticed the entrance. ¡°You were friendly towards me, and your team tried to kill you while attempting to kill me,¡± I said to her. ¡°You are welcome to come in, if you like, unlike the rest of them.¡± At those words, she rushed in on her many insectoid legs. I wasn¡¯t expecting her to take the offer so willingly. Chapter 4 - Tragedy Since I had just invited a guest, I realized I needed a place in my dungeon for Rebekkah to relax. Her centipede lower half made normal chairs difficult, I would imagine, so I created a room near my core with a bed large enough for her to lie on properly, and snaked the trail Rebekkah was walking on towards the little room. Rebekkah followed the trail until she found the room, and smiling, crawled onto the bed. ¡°So, what¡¯s your deal?¡± Rebekkah suddenly said as she shifted into a more comfortable position. ¡°I have seen dungeons before. None of them hold a candle to you. That was also rather dangerous to bring your core up to us, like I told you up there. Any other dungeon that tried that would not have been able to defend itself or me from that attack. Thanks.¡± ¡°And like I told you up there, I came up to tell my side of the tale, as it were,¡± I replied, filling in the tunnel Rebekkah had entered in so that the other five party members wouldn¡¯t be able to follow her. I still didn¡¯t trust them after that incident of Grimm trying to roast Rebekkah immediately after she was declared the ¡°party leader.¡± ¡°I would have been able to do a bit better with convincing them, maybe, if you had warned me before you shot through your dungeon to join us. That still seemed reckless,¡± Rebekkah said as she collapsed further onto the bed, her grey hair covering her yellow eyes. ¡°I need to rest for a moment, if you would go and busy yourself with whatever dungeons do.¡± I abided with Rebekkah¡¯s suggestion, and let her rest. When Rebekkah finally went to sleep, I very quietly moved the structure inside my mountain so that when she wanted to leave, she wouldn¡¯t have to walk as far. I moved all my other structures away from the room she was in so that I could shift it straight to the surface when she was ready to depart. While I was doing that, I also checked up on where everyone else in her former party was. Rui and Seirah had found each other, and had started to run back the way they came, before realizing how far they would have to go if they couldn¡¯t fly on Grimm¡¯s back. Greyson and Solaire were both circling the mountain, looking for the rest of the party, but hadn¡¯t found Rui and Seirah yet. Grimm, on the other hand, had at some point become his dragon form again, and had perched himself up at the top of my mountain. Red scales glistening in the sun, I could feel him dragging my mana into his dragon body, not enough to hurt me, but starting to get more intense as he stood on all fours, hunched over and concentrating on seemingly speeding up the process. The draconic form grew before my many eyes, wings lengthening, claws becoming sharper, and when he seemed to be satisfied, a beam of pure energy erupted from his mouth, straight down. Grimm was attempting to bore a hole straight through my dungeon. I tried to create barricades to protect myself, but the pure energy went straight through. I tried to throw a rocky fist at Grimm¡¯s face, trying to disrupt his attack, but the mana that was empowering my punch started to get absorbed by his draconic body as it approached, causing the fist to lose speed and scatter harmlessly around Grimm. Tracking Grimm¡¯s beam, it was aiming straight down towards the Goddess. My core was close to where the beam was descending, but it would miss my core. However, I had sworn to protect the Goddess, so I had to do something soon. Coming upon a realization, I put a plan into motion. I first nudged Rebekkah awake, then made all my mana pull itself away from Grimm. The results felt very weird to me. As Grimm slowly realized what had just happened, his draconic form lost cohesion, and his beam of pure mana fizzled out. By the time he stood up, he had barely any dragon features left as my trick to starve him of mana, like one would starve a fire of oxygen, had done the job. It felt weird to me because I had to prevent my mana that wanted to fill up every available space from touching Grimm. Without his dragon power, he was slow enough that I could keep the mana shaped around him so that it didn¡¯t touch him.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. As I did this, Rebekkah finally woke up. I started to shift her room towards the summit of the mountain, as I needed her help. ¡°I have Grimm contained for a moment. I need you to talk to him. Otherwise, he will just try and dig me up again,¡± I said mentally to Rebekkah. ¡±I can¡¯t,¡± Rebekkah said, recoiling in fear. ¡°Grimm is a Dracomorph. Their culture views other Demihumans as lesser. They can¡¯t be reasoned with.¡± ¡°Well, you will need to try,¡± I said. ¡°If nothing else, I will negotiate with him, but I still need you as my translator.¡± ¡°In all the chaos, I don¡¯t even know your name, how am I supposed to talk on your behalf?¡± ¡°My name is Felix, nice to meet¡¯cha,¡± I said to her, opening her room up to the summit where Grimm still was. ¡°Let¡¯s calm things down a bit.¡± Once Rebekkah was at the summit, Grimm immediately turned towards her, a feral look in his red eyes. Rebekkah cowered slightly at this, her antennae shivering, but steeling herself, she crawled forward on all of her centipede legs. ¡°Why are you here,¡± Grimm yelled. ¡°You feel sorry for this Dungeon? I will rip this dungeon apart, remove the Death Blight, then make you regret ever being born!¡± I felt a little bit peeved at that, but stayed my hand. I instead gave Rebekkah some instructions on what to say back in my stead. ¡°The Dungeon does not take kindly to threats, to itself or to me,¡± Rebekkah blushed as she said that last part. ¡°It does, however, recognize that the threat of the Death Blight needs to be removed if possible. If you will agree to stop destroying it for a moment, it will release you from the mana prison you are in and will escort us to the source of the Death Blight so you can deal with it directly.¡± ¡°How dare you talk to me like that!¡± Grimm roared out, but then as Rebekkah stepped back he seemed to have calmed down. ¡°But fine, I will agree to this Dungeon¡¯s proposal.¡± At those words, I released my hold on my mana so that it could return to its normal state, then formed the closest equivalent I could to an elevator and told Rebekkah to get Grimm and herself in. Once they had done so, I pulled solid stone out of the way so that the elevator would carry them straight down to the block of ice that was holding the Goddess. As the elevator stopped, Grimm looked at Rebekkah menacingly, and as he got out, he quietly said ¡°Don¡¯t expect any pity from me, pest. You are still going to die along with this Dungeon once the Death Blight is taken care of.¡± Rebekkah stayed near the elevator, while Grimm walked out onto the ice. He got near the center of the corpse, right above her chest, which made him look tiny even in dragon form, then he started to breath a blast of fire straight down into the ice. I watched with my vision that could see mana directly as he did this, how quickly he absorbed the death mana that was defrosting out of the ice as he went. His draconic body increasing in size as he was basically eating it. Considering my own experience with comparing the taste of Death mana with other types, that surely tasted awful to get so much so quickly. Everything seemed to be going fine, until the ice had melted far enough that the skin of the Goddess was now exposed to the open air. It took half a second for everything to go wrong. The surge of pure death mana, which had been held back by the ice, hit Grimm full force. I was able to handle it because my Dungeon Core had literally been formed in that tomb, but Grimm wasn¡¯t so lucky. I created a barricade to separate Rebekkah from what was about to happen, as Grimm¡¯s body exploded. Like a cancerous growth, scales, claws, teeth, and horns sprouted all over Grimm¡¯s body where they didn¡¯t belong, and in that split second the disgusting sight had filled the entire cavern, then detonated into bloody chunks. Chapter 5 - Negotiation I could not believe what had happened. I knew that Grimm could absorb mana. I knew that the Goddess was releasing such huge quantities of mana that even I, a dungeon, had issues with keeping it all contained. I did not expect such a violent end. I quickly directed my efforts to covering up the Goddess with ice again, then letting Rebekkah out of the makeshift elevator. Rebekkah¡¯s face was filled with dread. The grisly sight in front of her left her looking like she was about to throw up, and her antennae were twitching violently. ¡°Did you just kill him?¡± Rebekkah asked, then before I could answer she continued with a shake of her head. ¡°No, you aren¡¯t a killer. Grimm made a mistake somewhere between his giant ego and threatening both you and me.¡± ¡°You are correct on that front,¡± I mentally said to her. ¡°He could handle the Death Mana until he made direct contact with Elsa, then his absorption went into overdrive and killed him.¡± ¡°Wait, you know who caused the death blight?¡± Rebekkah asked, suddenly surprised. ¡°Who was she? The officials from our Kingdom that sent us out here didn¡¯t recognize her.¡± ¡°I only knew her briefly,¡± I admitted. ¡°She introduced herself to me as Elsa, a Goddess of Fate. I was about to be sent to this world from a different world by her when something killed her.¡± Rebekkah looked down, speechless, her centipede feelers twitching as though she was contemplating my words. ¡°I know Grimm tried to kill both of us, but you don¡¯t seem as upset by his death as I thought you would have been,¡± I said after a long moment of silence. ¡°While he was an important member of the team, Dracomorphs bully my kind while the humans and other species watch silently. Even though they feed on mana, they require us Centipede Demis to track sources of mana and identify what it is as they don¡¯t have such senses.¡± ¡°I am sorry for making you relive that pain with my question,¡± I mentally apologized as I started cleaning away the pieces of Grimm that were still all over the floor Rebekkah was standing on. ¡°What do we do about the rest of your team?¡± I asked her, focusing on my swarms of eyes that were following the four of them now huddled together outside watching the mountain for any sign of Grimm and Rebekkah returning to them. Rebekkah froze at that, apparently having forgotten about them. Her feelers and antennae twitching as she looked around in deep thought. ¡°I can¡¯t think of any explanation for what happened that they will accept,¡± Rebekkah said, dejected. ¡°Grimm¡¯s absence will mean I can¡¯t lie, and the fact that Grimm¡¯s dead and I¡¯m alive will make them think I made a deal with you to kill him, and they will instantly label me a traitor of the Kingdom.¡± ¡°Well, we can¡¯t avoid facing them forever,¡± I said, starting to make a new tunnel to lead back to the outside world. ¡°I can assist if they are hostile, but you will have to talk to them. Sorry to make you be my voice again.¡± I finished the tunnel to the surface and put the starting point near where Rebekkah was standing. She looked over to it just as it finished forming and skittering on her dozens of legs made her way through the hole. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Rui was the first to notice the hole on the surface, and she threw a dagger at it just as Rebekkah was about to make it to the surface. Rebekkah ducked at that as I made a rock fly into the dagger¡¯s trajectory and knock it off course. Just from that I had to agree with Rebekkah that this conversation will not go smoothly. Solaire moved to the front of the party as Rebekkah finally built up the confidence to finally exit the tunnel. Greyson and Seirah turned towards Rebekkah as well. The former party members were all wearing furious expressions directed at Rebekkah, but I was ready to intervene if the worst happened. ¡°Where¡¯s Grimm, Rebekkah?¡± Solaire asked, drawing his sword slowly out of its gleaming hilt. ¡°Dead,¡± Rebekkah answered back, emotionless. ¡°The Dungeon can contain the source of the Death Blight, but cannot remove it. It agreed to allow Grimm to try to remove the source, but it was too much for Grimm¡¯s Dracomorph physiology, and the rampaging Death Mana killed Grimm.¡± ¡°You aren¡¯t just saying that to hide your murder, are ye, you pest,¡± Greyson slowly inched forward as well, his giant hammer in one hand and his ax in the other slowly threatening Rebekkah. ¡°I know you dwarves are hard headed, Greyson,¡± Rebekkah said as she tried her best to stand her ground. ¡°But how would I have killed Grimm? Dracomorphs are way too sturdy even for you dwarves to take down in a fight, let alone a lone centipede such as me. The Dungeon couldn¡¯t have done it either since he can absorb the energy of everything the Dungeon throws at him.¡± Rui stepped forward, holding a knife up in front of her. ¡°Just because you two couldn¡¯t fight Grimm alone doesn¡¯t mean you wouldn¡¯t find a way around those issues by colluding together, traitor. We all know you have been working with it from the beginning.¡± As Solaire, Greyson, and Rui got closer to Rebekkah, she knew she wouldn¡¯t be able to handle all of them. At that moment just as she started to move, a magic glyph appeared around Seirah. Chains flew out of the ground and wrapped themselves around Rebekkah. ¡°Thank you, Seirah,¡± Solaire said as he stood in front of the now tied up Rebekkah. ¡°Good to see we still have some reliable support members in this party.¡± I didn¡¯t intervene because Rebekkah had wanted to handle this on her own from what I could tell, but things were getting way too dangerous now. ¡°Two can play at that game,¡± I mentally said loud enough for Rebekkah to hear, causing her antennae to twitch slightly. Greyson, Solaire, and Rui all suddenly found their feet covered in ice, and frozen to the ground. Rui tried to make a motion to throw a knife, but as she swung her arm back, I made a small pillar of ice form around her hand and catch her mid-throw. I could see the mana of Seirah¡¯s spell in the air, and with just a thought I broke it. They were all in my Dungeon. I held full control here. I then weaved the spell back together, and made the chains wrap up Seirah instead. This caught her off guard, and she fell to the ground. ¡°The Dungeon isn¡¯t a killer,¡± Rebekkah said once she was sure I had restrained everyone. ¡°This Dungeon¡¯s voice is unlike other Dungeons that I have seen. It is not a bloodthirsty maniac. Even if you are too thick-skulled to see it, it is saving all of us right now. The Death Blight¡¯s source was too much for even a Dracomorph to handle, which would have killed many more expeditions, but the Dungeon has sealed it away and stopped it, even though it can¡¯t get rid of it either. It didn¡¯t kill any of you either, even though it just proved it could.¡± Seeing that all of them still had expressions of hatred on their faces, Rebekkah sighed, and turned back to my mountain. ¡°You know this isn¡¯t over, you traitorous pest!¡± Greyson yelled as Rebekkah walked away. ¡°You and your little Dungeon are not long for this world!¡± Rebekkah gave me a hand signal, and I formed a tunnel directly in front of her. I sealed it directly behind her so that none of her former party could follow, then thawed out the ice holding them, and made the chains tying down Seirah vanish. They all made a hasty retreat, with Solaire pausing for a moment to look back at my mountain before catching up with the others. Finally, I led Rebekkah back to the bed I had made for her previously, and she immediately curled herself into it and let herself cry over the events of the day. I gave her the space she needed, as well as peace and quiet.