NOVEL NEXT 36: Dungeon Core
[Achievement Unlocked: "Helping Hand" - Successfully distracted the dungeon boss by becoming a pancake! That's what we call taking one for the team!]
[Dungeon Progress: Birchwood Cavern Level 1 Boss Encounter Cleared!]
Level one?! That was fucking level one?!
[Deploying Reconstitution: Body severely compromised. Regeneration sequence commencing...]
[Warning: Clothing and equipment lost in acid dissolution. Backup attire not available. Prepare for tactical nudity upon regeneration.]
Tactical what now?!
Awareness returned gradually—first as abstract sensations, then as more coherent thoughts. My body knitted itself back together cell by cell, bone by muscle by skin, the Reconstitution energy flowing through me like liquid silver from my mostly melted remnants.
I gasped, drawing air into newly formed lungs. My eyes snapped open to find myself lying naked in a shallow depression in the rock—a perfect handprint seared into the stone. Around me, smaller slimes flowed back toward the lake like retreating waves with shredded remnants of my hockey goalie armor and clothes.
The lake itself had gone dim and still as glass, its surface reflecting the crystalline glow of the tree at the island's center.
"ALEC!" Nessy's voice broke through my disorientation. She skidded to a halt beside me, dropping to her knees and wrapping me in a fierce embrace that knocked what little air I'd managed to gather right back out of my lungs.
"You're okay! You're okay!" she repeated, her voice cracking with emotion. Her fur was a tad singed in places, her hockey uniform and clothes torn and melted in others, but her blue eyes shone with fierce relief. "I saw it crush you, but I knew you'd come back! I knew it!"
"Nessy," I managed. "Can't breathe."
"Oh! Sorry!" She eased her grip slightly but didn't let go entirely. Her nose pressed against my neck as she inhaled deeply. "You smell… new. Like fresh snow and ozone."
"I feel like I've been through a meat grinder," I admitted, slowly sitting up with her help. "What happened to the slime monster?"
"Kristi shot the core," Nessy explained, helping me to my feet. "The slimes are on their own now, clueless and confused. Come on, you need to see this."
She shed her somewhat melted hockey uniform top with number 7 and tied it around my waist, creating a makeshift covering that preserved at least some of my dignity. Together, we made our way toward the central tree where Krysanthea stood waiting.
The tree was unlike anything I'd seen before—its trunk and branches made of what appeared to be crystallized slime, transparent and glowing with internal violet light. Its roots plunged deep into the rocky island, spreading like a network of glass veins.
And at the base of those roots lay a body.
A human male, perhaps in his late forties, in a ranger's uniform, his chest split open like a grotesque blossom. Inside the cavity where his heart should have been sat a small, shattered crystal sphere, its fragments still connected to the tree by thin filaments of same glassy material.
"Holy shit," I breathed. "Who's that?"
Krysanthea stared down at the body, her expression grim.
"Ferguson's old park ranger," she said quietly. "Richard Thornhill. He went missing in Birchwood the day Systemfall hit. We couldn't even locate him by prad smell." Her clawed finger traced the air above the crystal structure in his chest. "The System must have found him. Used him. Turned him into... this."
"A dungeon core," Nessy said, her voice somber.
I stared at the dead man, trying to process what I was seeing. "He was controlling the slimes? From inside the tree?"
"Not controlling," Nessy corrected, her nose working as she analyzed the scene. "He… he was the slimes. Some mad, confused, angry fragment of his consciousness dispersed across thousands of individual organisms connected via this crystal network." She gestured to the tree. "When Kristi shattered the core, she broke the connection."
Krysanthea holstered her gun, wincing slightly as the movement pulled at her acid burns. "I knew Richard. He was a good man. Loved these caves. Spent more time down here than anyone." Her amber eyes narrowed. "The System must have perverted that connection, turned his love for this place into... this."
A somber silence fell between us as we contemplated the fate of Richard Thornhill.
"Is it over then?" I finally asked.
Nessy closed her eyes, inhaling deeply. "Yes," she confirmed after a moment. "The coordination smell is gone. They'll revert to simple organisms now—predictable. Manageable."
"We… should recover Richard's remains for proper burial." Kristi let out.
"Umm… how are we getting back across the slime-sea?" I asked, eyeing the eerie lake of slimes behind us.
"We…" Nessy sniffed the body. "We use Richard. The slimes won't melt him. He's still their master, even in death. Kris–carve him outta there with your talons."
The raptor-girl nodded, proceeding with the grim task of obliterating the crystalline webwork of threads leading from the dead man to the tree overhead.
As I stood there, naked save for a Nessy-granted hockey shirt around my waist, staring at the remains of the first dungeon level we'd conquered together, I felt something shift between the three of us. An unspoken acknowledgment that we'd faced death together and emerged victorious.
[Achievement Unlocked: "Dungeon Delvers" - Completed your first proper dungeon-boss murder as a pack! Rewards: Increased pack synchronization granted to all members!]
[Hidden Achievement Unlocked: "Core Breakers" - Destroyed your first dungeon core!]
[Pack XP: 100/100% - Level Up Available!]
[Countdown until Birchwood Dungeon Level 2 is unlocked: 77:77]
"Second level?!" Kristi groaned, pulling the body of the ranger from the roots. "How many bloody levels are there?"
The system didn't reply.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"Dunno," Nessy sniffed the air. "I smell nothing of interest below. Maybe it's dimensionally sealed off somehow? We'll know in seventy seven hours, I guess?"
Nessy turned to examine the crystalline tree more closely, its translucent branches still glowing with an ethereal violet light despite the core's destruction. With a decisive motion, she reached up and snapped off a substantial branch about the length of her forearm.
The branch came away with a musical chime, continuing to pulse with internal light in her paws.
"What are you doing?" Krysanthea asked, her voice tight with exasperation as she struggled to maintain her grip on Richard Thornhill's remains.
Nessy held the branch up, admiring how the light played through its crystalline structure. "Souvenir!" she declared with a bright grin. "Pretty, isn't it? Might look nice on the RV shelf. Or maybe I could make it into a lamp!"
Krysanthea's left eye twitched violently. "A souvenir?" she repeated, her voice rising an octave. "From a Systemfall dungeon? Are you completely insane? One crystal tree in the RV isn't enough for you?!"
"Nope, gotta collect 'em all," Nessy replied cheerfully. "But you gotta admit it's pretty. Besides, your sisters have been stealing Systemfall shit from the infinite Superstore for weeks! Why can't I take one pretty slime-tree branch?"
Krysanthea opened her mouth to argue, then closed it again. Her shoulders slumped slightly as the fight visibly drained from her. "Fine," she muttered. "Whatever. Just don't blame me when it tries to take over your brain while you sleep."
"Nah," Nessy shrugged, waving the branch about. "Besides, I have a feeling it might come in handy."
"For what purpose could a glowing slime-tree branch possibly—" Krysanthea began, then shook her head. "No. I don't want to know. Let's just get back to the surface before my sanity completely evaporates."
With Richard's body carefully secured by Krysanthea, we approached the edge of the slime lake.
"So," I said, eyeing the expanse of gelatinous fluid that separated us from the tunnel back to the surface, "any bright ideas for crossing?"
Nessy nudged Kristi forward. The slimes seemed to recoil away from the dead ranger's body, creating a round depression in the surface.
"Just like I sniffed," Nessy nodded sagely. "Master imprint remains active even after death. The slimes recognize their leader." She turned to us with an unsettling grin. "Time to part the Still Ocean, Slayer-style!"
"I'd appreciate it if you didn't compare us to biblical figures while I'm holding a corpse," Krysanthea grumbled.
"Onwards!" Nessy ordered.
We moved towards the lake. The effect was immediate and astonishing—the gelatinous mass parted before us, creating a sphere of dry stone surrounded by wobbling, wave-like walls of slime.
"See?" Nessy beamed, her tail wagging triumphantly. "Told ya!"
"This is deeply disturbing on multiple levels," Kristi commented, staring at the glistening walls of slime that towered on either side of our newly formed bubble of safety.
"And yet significantly less disturbing than being dissolved alive!" Nessy pointed out, taking a tentative step forward. When the slimes remained parted, she grabbed Kristi's elbow and pulled the raptor after herself.
We proceeded across the lake bed, the walls of slime undulating gently around us. Occasionally, a small blob would extend slightly out, as if curiously examining us, before retreating back into the mass.
"I think they're saying goodbye to Richard and to us," Nessy whispered, waving at a particularly inquisitive slime formation.
"They literally tried to kill us fifteen minutes ago," Krysanthea reminded her.
"That was when they were being controlled by a hungry, dead, Bloom-tree-corpse," Nessy countered. "Now they're just regular slimes, doing regular slime things."
"Like what?" I asked. "What do regular slimes do?"
Nessy considered this for a moment, her head tilting thoughtfully. "Slime around? Dissolve stuff? Procreate through mitosis? Ya kno', normal slime activities!"
"Fascinating scientific analysis," Krysanthea deadpanned. "I'll be sure to note that in our official report. 'Slime activity post-core destruction: sliming around.'"
"See? You're getting it!" Nessy grinned, completely missing or ignoring the sarcasm. "Oh, oh! We should use this place for garbage disposal! It's totally a great idea, right?"
"Sure," Kristi huffed.
As we reached the far shore, the slime sphere vanished behind us, returning to their lake-like state with a series of wet plops. The tunnel ahead led back to the upper caverns, promising a return to the surface and civilization.
"You know the way back, yes?" Kristi asked tiredly.
"Yepperoni," the husky nodded. "I'll lead us back to the tourist section," she bobbed.
"And then what's the plan?" I asked as we began walking back.
Krysanthea's gaze met mine. "We debrief the team. Submit our report. Prepare for whatever comes next."
"And what comes next is level two in seventy-seven hours!" Nessy added cheerfully. "Ke ke ke."
"We don't know that for certain," Krysanthea argued, though her voice lacked conviction. "The System message could be a lie."
"You think that the System would lie about that?" I asked.
The raptor shrugged wearily instead of a reply.
Our journey back through the cave system was mercifully uneventful with the exception of crossing the river once again, this time Nessy carrying me. The smaller, random slimes we encountered seemed docile, sliding harmlessly out of our path rather than attacking. The tunnel gradually widened, rock formations giving way to the recognizable tourist path with its safety railings and lights.
As we emerged into the larger chamber on the beach, we found most of the team missing, the rest attending to the wounded. Officer Grayfell was the first to spot us, her silver ears perking up.
"They're back!" she called, prompting a wave of surprised exclamations from the others.
Katerina pushed forward, her golden eyes widening at the sight of her sister carrying Richard Thornhill's remains. "What the hell happened down there?"
"We found the source," Krysanthea replied simply. "And neutralized it."
The team gathered around, a mix of awe and disbelief on their faces as Krysanthea briefly explained what we'd discovered. She left out certain details—notably the System messages and our stats—but conveyed enough that they understood the threat had been contained.
"So the slimes should be manageable now?" Katerina asked.
"Yes," Krysanthea confirmed. "They'll still be acidic, but they've lost their coordination. No more tactical awareness, no more evolution."
"Alec..." Katerina suddenly said, looking at me with narrowed eyes. "Where are your clothes? And why are all three of you completely soaked?"
I became acutely aware again of my near-nudity, the only covering being an old hockey jersey tied around my waist. "Acid incident," I explained awkwardly.
"We got wet because we had to cross an underground river," Kristi replied tiredly.
"Convenient," Katerina muttered, her claws flexing. She stared at the tree in Nessy's hand.
Dr. Barksdale approached, examining Richard's body with professional interest. "How curious," he murmured, adjusting his spectacles. "The crystalline formation appears to have integrated directly with his cardiovascular system. I'd like to conduct a full examination back at the lab."
"Maybe after his family has had a chance to say goodbye," Krysanthea stipulated firmly. "This was a person, not just a specimen. Whatever, please deal with it. I'm beat from running through wet caves."
The retriever nodded solemnly, accepting the body of the dead man. "Of course, Chief Ranger."
As the team resumed the debriefing, occasionally coordinating with the others in town via walkie-talkies, I found myself standing slightly apart, still processing everything that had happened. Nessy nudged my side, her blue eyes studying me.
"You okay?" she whispered quietly, wrapping me in another fluffy, wet hug from crossing the river a second time. "Being dissolved and reconstituted can't be a pleasant experience."
"I'm fine," I replied automatically, then reconsidered. "Actually, no. It was... pretty awful. Being conscious through it all."
Nessy's paw found mine, her fingers intertwining with mine. "But you came back. You always will," she whispered, leaning in to give me a face lick.
"That's both comforting and terrifying," I admitted.
"Just Systemfall things," she said with a small smile. "Where everything is both amazing and awful at the same time."
"You!" I heard as Kristi accosted her sister on the beach. "I left you in charge of the Superstore supply runs! Why the shit haven't you told me that…"
"Shhhh," Katerina hissed, pulling the angry raptor aside. "Not around others."
They began to angrily whisper-hiss at each other.