Is it wrong to try to meet someone in a dungeon?

When he was born, he was a weak and vulnerable being.

Even if he followed his monstrous instincts and wreaked havoc, he would only be ravaged by the humans who trampled the labyrinth. They stabbed him with swords, burned his skin with fire, and sent him flying with hammers. It was almost a miracle that he didn't lose his life in the early battles.

Undoubtedly, he belonged to the group that was forcibly taken from and robbed.

However, he only had a tiny bit of intelligence, really only a tiny bit, compared to his fellow clansmen.

Several times he used his own kind as bait or his abilities to escape the clutches of humans. Burned by the rage etched into his being, a rage called destiny, he relentlessly attacked humans, yet survived time and again.

Suddenly, things took a turn for the better.

One day, he wasn't fighting against humans, but against his own kind. Perhaps he accidentally sliced ​​off a piece of his opponent's body, which seemed to anger him. Not wanting to die, he fought desperately, biting through his kin's throat with his jaws, and repeatedly tearing his opponent's body apart.

Then, he swallowed the "core" along with the chest of his kin.

He trembled as he bit into the blue-purple crystal. A beam of light shot across his vision—the forbidden climax he had experienced from breaking taboos.

His entire body surged with power, every nerve receiving a flood of stimulation. It felt as if his body had expanded, a sense of omnipotence he had never experienced before. He had gained power.

At first, he was intoxicated by this sense of omnipotence, but gradually he began to indulge in this pleasure, becoming increasingly preoccupied with pursuing and devouring others of his kind. In other words, he was killing his own kind. He would ambush his kin from behind, dragging them into tree hollows time and time again. As he devoured more and more of them, he gained a clear understanding of the feeling of being reborn from within his own body.

Soon, he began to think about how to efficiently devour his own kind. In the labyrinth, where he silently observed like a mother, he piled up small mountains of dust, squatted on the ground, and greedily devoured countless blue-purple crystals. Greedily, stubbornly, and enthusiastically.

By the time it was noticed, he had already become the one being deprived.

How exhilarating it is to easily crush one's own kind with a brute force of a fist! And what a pleasurable feeling it is to pierce through a human being with a part of one's own body!

In this matter, he still revels in the pleasures of violence and devastation.

Its power, growing stronger day by day, has never been suppressed.

Then, that day came.

Having embarked on a path of cannibalism, he gradually lost interest in humans, but they were unwilling to let him go. The hordes of humans attacking were extremely troublesome, more difficult to deal with than his own kind. Battles were avoided whenever possible. Normally, he would hide as much as possible, but that day's group of humans was relentless. Therefore, it had been a long time since he had so readily followed his instincts and defeated them.

After he had slaughtered all of humanity, he discovered that the human corpses all carried "that."

And there are a lot of them.

Only then did he realize that humans were just like him. And of all people, he was the one who found out.

They knew that those humans were also extracting and collecting "that" from their own kind.

Those humans possessed "that"—a large quantity of "magic stones".

*

"The 'magic stones' collected by adventurers have become the target of monsters!?"

Upon hearing Mr. Lewis's explanation, Lily's expression changed drastically.

"Lily has never heard of such a thing!"

"But it's true... When it attacked our squad, the first thing it did was target the rear guard who was also providing support, and steal the pouch full of 'magic stones.' It ate the 'magic stones' right in front of us... rendering even 'magic' ineffective, and we could only flee from it..."

"That's when the 'seed' was planted in me," Mr. Lewis replied to Lily.

According to Mr. Lewis, his team consisted of four people, all of whom were Lv.3. Furthermore, they seemed to be adept at exploring lower levels, yet this group of capable individuals was utterly defeated.

"Speaking of which, we came to this 'Mysterious City of Water' because we accepted a request from adventurers... The purpose is to search for missing persons or remains. Besides our [Modi Familia], you know that the [Manny Familia] to which Dorumur belongs also accepted the same request, and we argued about it the whole way..."

"Oh! Is Mr. Dorumur on this floor too?"

"Yes," Mr. Lewis nodded. Since arriving at the "lower level," the two seemed to have gone their separate ways, each handling adventurer requests.

"It kept chasing us. However, almost the entire squad was badly injured, and in order to regain their strength, they had to resort to any means necessary..."

"So, for the sake of your companions, you used the remaining 'magic stones' as 'bait'?"

"Exactly..."

Miss Aisha snorted, and Mr. Lewis nodded emphatically at her.

Then he became serious again and told us:

"That monster is a menace. It has learned what efficiency is and will become so powerful that it cannot be compared to any of the previous 'enhanced species'... even surpassing that 'bloody giant'."

As Mr. Sakura and the others' expressions changed drastically upon hearing his urgent words, Miss Cassandra looked up.

"I remember the 'Bloody Giant' should be..."

"...It's one of the 'enhanced species' that has caused serious casualties over the past ten years. By the time the 'Guild' became aware of its existence, a large number of high-ranking adventurers had already been killed, and even elite teams of level two or above that went to hunt it down were repelled. I heard that more than fifty people died."

"Fifty...fifty...what happened in the end?"

"After the guild's desperate pleas, the Freya Familia defeated it. According to those people... the opponent's strength seemed to be equivalent to Lv.5."

After hearing Miss Aisha's explanation, Miss Haruhime was speechless. Not only her, but Miss Daphne and Mr. Sakura also gasped when they heard about the tragic events caused by a certain "enhanced species".

But compared to this terrifying "bloody giant," the "enhanced species" actually harbors an even greater danger?

...Indeed, perhaps.

They specifically target adventurers who have collected large amounts of "Magic Stones"—this is far more efficient than hunting other monsters in the vast dungeons, and most importantly, the returns are enormous. Adventurers who have made it to the "lower levels" likely possess top-tier "Magic Stones" in both quality and quantity. Furthermore, enhanced species are immune to attacks from their own kind unless they take action themselves.

The most troublesome thing is that the "enhanced species" has gradually learned the techniques to attack adventurers.

The retreat after planting the "seeds" is a good example of this.

The "enhanced species," skilled at hunting adventurers... is undoubtedly an anomaly and a threat.

"If we continue to leave it unattended... it will cause an unprecedented catastrophe."

After hearing Mr. Lewis's intermittent words, the cave remained deathly silent for a few seconds.

Everyone looked tense.

"It's really strange that they had to come on this 'expedition' during such a terrible time."

Miss Aisha rudely brushed aside the long hair hanging around her neck, realizing the seriousness of the situation, and said with such contempt.

She drew everyone's attention to herself and continued:

"We really can't let that kind of thing run rampant. But whether it's us who put it out or the 'guild' that receives the news sends out a subjugation team is another matter."

"However, the more time we give it, the more difficult it will become to deal with—that's self-evident. Many adventurers may perish as a result. More importantly, we cannot abandon Lord Luvis's companions..."

Miss Ming explained urgently.

As if confirming her opinion, Mr. Sakura and Welf also chimed in:

"Besides, it will take at least a day to return to the surface. We don't know if Chigusa and the others have the stamina to keep up. Not to mention, it's not certain whether the surface healers can really cure this 'parasitic tree'."

"As long as we have a bunch of 'magic stones,' that 'enhanced species' will come closer on its own, right? It's obvious which method saves more time."

"However, defeating the 'enhanced species' itself doesn't guarantee the removal of this 'parasitic tree'..."

"No, the possibility should be quite high, right? I remember that the individual moss that split off from the 'Moss Giant' would turn into dust as soon as the main body containing the 'Magic Stone' was defeated, right? I think this 'parasitic tree' should be the same."

When Lily offered her opinions on the male lineup, Miss Daphne interrupted. Under Lily's hesitant gaze, she shrugged and said, "I don't really want to play either."

"But the whole thing sounds... like that monster won't let us go."

This is a common premonition among advanced adventurers. You could also call it "intuition."

It knew that the moment we turned our backs to that "enhanced species," it would bare its fangs.

"...Lily has already stated all her opinions. Now, let's..."

"Did you hear me? What did you do, Bell Craney?"

Following Lily's gaze, Miss Aisha also spoke to me.

I stood up, considered the opinions I had just heard from everyone, and finally made my own decision, telling them:

"Defeat that monster!"

"Alright!" Welf said, clenching his fist into his palm. "Let's fight." Mr. Sakura suddenly hoisted his battle axe. Lily and the other supporters nodded to each other and immediately began preparing to set off.

The "expedition" of the dungeon unexpectedly changed its purpose.

Faced with unpredictable "abnormal situations," the faction alliance (us) stepped forward to fight against the "enhanced species."

*

Upon learning that the human race possessed a large number of "magic stones," the first thing he did was to observe the human race and learn from them.

First, he noticed that the guys playing "songs" at the back of the group were troublesome. Their "songs" repeatedly burned their own bodies, nearly killing him; they were vicious things. Therefore, he had to defeat the guys at the back first.

The humans at the forefront of the group were very strong, and under his focused observation, they had killed countless of their own kind. Among humans, these individuals were often outstanding. However, in a one-on-one situation, he would likely win. Therefore, another focus of his attention was how to reduce their numbers, preventing his opponents from forming large groups.

Those who possess "magic stones" will receive their protection. In his quest to defeat humans and seize the crystals, he developed various weapons, including the "seed."

With everything prepared, he launched a confident attack on the humans.

Those who "sing" are mostly long-eared people. Killing them always shakes the human race to a laughable degree. He takes advantage of this opportunity to beat them, smashing their skulls and splattering their brains. Being able to ravage the beings that had previously tormented him so much gives him a sinister excitement and pleasure.

The female humans were very good at crying and screaming. Hearing them made him feel inexplicably better. It felt as if some part of him was gradually being satisfied. He grabbed their thin, branch-like hands and feet and flailed them around, slamming them to the ground again and again, hitting and biting them repeatedly. "Please!" "Stop!" They cried and screamed repeatedly, but he couldn't understand what they were saying. He only felt that the timbre of their songs was soothing. The flesh of the female humans, who were spitting blood, seemed to taste more delicious than that of other humans.

--Ugh, I really want to kill someone.

—I really want to bite them to death, the more the better.

—The more the better, the more the better, the more the better.

Even if you fall off the cliff of death, you will be reincarnated.

However, he started from the perspective of the weak and never succumbed to instinct.

He prioritized listening to the wisdom that had always saved him. And that was the right thing to do.

He would never let any human who tried to escape get away. If they were allowed to escape, these people would surely "change" like him. This was intuition, and he was right again. He descended from his birthplace to the water's edge to seek higher-quality "magic stones," and also to prevent the humans from escaping. The roaring water silenced the humans' screams, which helped him. He also learned how to use "water." As long as he threw the killed corpses into the water, no one would notice.

When he determines he cannot defeat everyone, he plants a "seed" and retreats. His clones not only grow "vines" to weaken humanity, but also reveal the enemy's location. Weakened humans are easily devoured. He considers the "seed" a priceless treasure.

On the other hand, there was still much for him to learn. At the same time, he also felt fear.

His greatest fear came when he saw a blonde, golden-eyed girl and her entire group. Just seeing them from afar terrified him. That "no," he couldn't be involved. Before they could get close, he fled into the depths of the labyrinth. Besides them, there were other similar human races. Some were beings with whom one should never fight. At least not now, if one's strength was inferior. He had learned that lesson.

He also noticed something strange about some of his kind. They were a group of "heretics" who had betrayed him and the rest of his kind. He was consumed by overwhelming disgust and burning rage, and several times he nearly acted impulsively, but a wise whisper prevailed over his emotions. Those creatures were in groups; he couldn't defeat them alone. He needed the strength to defeat them alone. He grew even more thirsty for power in order to devour his "heretic" kin—especially that seemingly delicate singing bird. His first step was to take down the "female" who had settled there.

He learned to hunt at the right time.

At some point, he began to become arrogant about his "hunter" skills.

Hiss, hiss, he dragged his crystal hammer and spear forward on the crystal road.

Illuminated by the faint light of the white crystal, he stroked his body with his rough, calloused fingers. His body, wounded by the blade, had now healed.

He recalled the "hunt" he had just experienced.

Although it happened by chance while chasing prey who had escaped with the "magic stone," he ultimately failed to hunt down all of them.

Especially the white-haired human who injured him.

That might be a bit troublesome.

He was also concerned about the brown-haired mother human waiting in the back. The others who had survived the "seed" ricocheting bullets were not to be underestimated either. He had experienced firsthand how troublesome a team of capable humans could be.

It was necessary to set a "trap." He made his decision.

He stopped, smashed the crystal pillar he was looking for with his hammer and spear, and slid his body into the gap he had created.

There is a small cave inside.

Leftover food that I had carefully grabbed and hidden lay scattered at my feet.

Let's use these.

"Eek, ee...!?"

"Don't come any closer...!"

The long-eared humans were trembling. Their eyes were filled with tears.

He knew that many humans wouldn't stand idly by and watch their comrades die. If he could just scratch or make them cry, those humans, no matter how badly injured, would bravely step forward and ultimately be defeated.

Should he torture the female to death? He had considered it, but then decided against it. He had learned that licking one's lips while the prey was still alive was foolish. He must not be careless or underestimate his enemy until the last human breathed his last.

He slowly raised the hammer and spear he was holding in his right hand.

"Please stop! ────…………"

He was unmoved by the ambiguous pleas and raised his arm high without a second thought.

Immediately following, "Kaha ...

A shrill, unpleasant, and ugly scream erupted.