Monster Core 2 by Dante King

Author:Dante King [King, Dante]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-03-24T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

As a dungeon core myself, I was probably in a better position to appreciate the impressive dungeon than the average adventurer who risked death every time they set foot in here.

My surroundings in Zagorath were all stone, minerals, and what I could scavenge from the gutsy divers back home. But, here, in the Nature Realm, the core responsible for this dungeon had so much more to work with.

I kept my eyes on the grassy floor, walls, and ceiling as I strode down the first stairwell to the Second Floor. The soft lighting of the organic lantern-lights chased away the gloom. I had to remind myself more than once that I was underground. Soft grass peppered with small white flowers carpeted the floors. The room reminded me of a closed-in clearing in a forest. Not a carnivorous creature that hungered for my flesh.

I stepped over wolf corpses left by Ralph and the others, moved down a narrow stairwell, and entered the Third Floor. It was a circular room with huge trees and clusters of thick ferns. I found it difficult to believe all this could be contained within the rotted corpse of a tree, so I figured this was a kind of pocket dimension.

This was the floor Bolnir and the others had found impossible to pass. But why?

I kept my eyes peeled for danger as I progressed but found no sign of minions or traps. There were corpses, of course, but they belonged to forest creatures. Piles and piles of corpses. Some were felled by ordinary wounds, but others bore great cavities from Puck’s shadow-spheres.

None of those under my command had fallen, not unless the dungeon had already absorbed them.

Nothing triggered as I moved through the dungeon’s second room. No poison spikes, thorned branches, nothing. Either the dungeon had heard my suggestion and deactivated its traps, or she was lulling me into a false sense of security.

I knew the dungeon was watching my descent toward her heart. I didn’t need to be a core to know that. I could feel the tension in the air that came with being followed as I moved across the Third Floor.

I found an exit behind a fern and pulled aside the giant leaves to enter a stairwell that led to the dungeon’s Fourth Floor. This was much the same as the last, except the ferns had neon-purple leaves, and the trees glowed with emerald-green veins.

Human blood had been splashed across the grass. The unmistakable scent of Ralph and the Harrowbark brothers lingered here. I saw corpses of giant bears with horns on either sides of their heads and wondered how great the battle must have been. I wanted to take it slow and examine everything, but I didn’t have the time.

I came across no traps or minions, so I figured the dungeon was holding back. Did she want to speak with me? It certainly seemed that way.

Each step I took was strengthening my suspicion that the dungeon wanted to meet me. Surely, it would

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