Chapter 282: Exploring the Underground Labyrinth!

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Within the endless formations of caves covered in jewels and metals, a beautiful fairy lady extended her arms into fleshy and slimy tentacles, devouring two enormous mole-like monsters covered in scales that also possess gigantic claws that could tear down these hard caves like nothing, Rank 7 Giant Scaled Moles.

The moles struggled with their enormous, over four meters tall bodies and the gigantic claws that they possessed, using the sharp ends to slice off the fairy's extended and grotesque flesh.

But as if the flesh itself was alive, even after being sliced several times, it regenerated again, the wounds entangled with each other until they were closed, and not even a drop of blood was released from the wounds.

The moles were absorbed by the flesh as if it were slime, and munched and broken apart inside, and digested by the charming beauty.

Although she was a Rank 5 Monster, her appearance and power were deceiving of such Rank… Her stats in specific, which were above the norm for anything at Rank 5, being capable of eating Rank 7 monsters alive without any actual issue…

The fairy smiled as she seemed a bit satiated.

"Phew, that was tasty, the monsters in this world really do have some kind of different texture and flavor to them… Is this because of the Source Energy that they're made of?" she wondered, smiling at the boy beside her and the living armor woman at her other side.

"Eh? You just ate it, Kireina!" said Veronica, a bit surprised. Although her strength could simply pulverize anything in this dungeon, she was still surprised at the fairy's easy time dealing with these monsters. Especially because she was summoned just three days ago.

"We can finally come to level up in here, the lowly monsters in the little dungeons didn't give me enough EXP to even rank up, but these ones are pretty juicy," said Kireina.

"Impressive, you're really the clone of a goddess, huh?" said Ervas with a surprised expression.

Besides the three, there were also most of Ervas and Veronica's tamed monsters, alongside Pekorina, Acathea, Amelia, Ismene, Anna, Jason, and a few more.

Today the party had decided to explore the second dungeon within the mountain that was once inhabited by the Bear-kin and Harpy Tribes, aside from the Dungeon where the fight against the Necromancer was unfolded, there was another Dungeon of the Labyrinth-level, which extended all inside of the mountain, going deep into the underground. This dungeon was said to be even faster than the Undead Dungeon, and that it has existed for way longer as well.

"So this dungeon is even elder than the Undead one?" asked Pekorina as she kicked out a large earthworm with her blazing legs.

"To think that the Undead Dungeon was made by the corpses of that Undead… And that it all happened by its own scheme… So the tales about the heroes fighting against humans were not true? They actually fought against themselves by that damned monster…" said Gaius, walking with the rest of the group.

"He's done, for now, so don't worry about those things, Gaius," said Ismene.

"Indeed, and we are currently healing all of the souls of those former heroes, their bodies are also being repaired as we speak. Sooner or later, we will be having a lot of friends of old times," said Ervas.

"Hm… I wonder how they used to be in the past? I kind of want to meet my ancestors now…" said Gaius.

"You will soon meet them… I mean, not dying, in real life," said Ervas.

"Hm, since Kireina came that the healing of souls and the reparation of bodies had become even faster than before, peko!" said Pekorina.

"Oh? I just did a few things, I haven't regained that much power, but manipulating souls and healing them is something rather easy in my world, although here it seems to be more complicated," said Kireina.

"Just how overpowered is your world? Is everyone there ridiculously strong?" asked Ervas.

"Hahaha… Kind of, and I am pretty sure that it is several times bigger than Kritias as well…" said Kireina with a bitter smile, her original world, Genesis, was a place filled with dangers at every corner, even more than Kritias.

"It would be cool to visit it one day… Well, that's like a pretty long-term goal, so for now, let's concentrate on our current tasks…" said Veronica.

"Indeed, I will gladly welcome all of you into my Empire… Although I have discovered that there is a certain time dilation between worlds. This world seems to be going several times faster than in Genesis… the difference is rather big, by the info I have exchanged with my main body, it seems to be a difference of a day in here is a mere hour there…" said Kireina.

"That's an enormous difference!" said Amelia.

"Quite big… Oh, I wonder how can you speak with your main body… Can you do it directly?" asked Ervas.

"Just as I said, due to this time difference, it is impossible, but what we can do is exchange messages, like email… Although it does takes some time to reach her," said Kireina.

"I see… I wonder if you can draw power from her?" asked Veronica.

"Nope, I can't… But I can give her power though. Very little, but I am constantly pouring her this world's Source Energy, which is very vast and freely available," said Kireina, as she was attacked by an enormous Earth Worm covered in golden scales.

Her entire torso and head were munched by the creature's head, torn apart.

"GAAHH! K-Kireina!" cried Acathea.

However, Kireina's torso and head grew immediately after Acathea's cry, giving the little girl a wink.

"Don't worry, that was nothing… oh, and this one is dead as well…" said Kireina, as the Golden Scaled Earth Worm fell into the ground, its stomach had busted open like a piece of flesh, the one it bites, appeared, and merged again with Kireina…

"That had already happened several times, but I can't help but find it terrifying…" said Ismene.

"Kireina, is there any other hunting method for you available? Can't you just use magic at least?" asked Anna with a bitter smile.

"Ooh… But I am feeling quite lazy today…" said Kireina, she used the simple method of letting monsters eat her away and then using the parts that they ate to attack them internally.

It was an incredibly strange method, not even beings such as Nyarlathotep and Shoggoth did such a thing, as their regeneration was not near as impressive as Kireina's.

"Is Kireina immortal?" asked Amelia.

"That's… A bit of a stretch…" said Ismene.

"Immortal? Not entirely, my dear… I am fairly sure that if Ervas and Veronica put some strength into it, they should be able to shatter my soul into pieces," said Kireina with a gentle smile.

"E-Eh?! Don't do that, peko!" cried Pekorina, glancing at Ervas and Veronica with anger.

"Huh? Why would we even do that?! Kireina is simply giving an example of how she can still die," said Veronica.

"Y-Yeah… I believe that we are allies, not enemies…" said Ervas.

"It was just a joke, haha! If I were to use my magic, it might end up affecting you guys, as it is pretty strong even at level 1…" said Kireina.

"Eh? Even with your Divine Mana Control Skill?" asked Veronica.

"Y-Yes…" said Kireina, she was actually masking that she was indeed very lazy today.

"Anyways, on which floor are we right now?" asked Jason, taking out his club from a large, scaled mole.

"We had been rushing through, so we had mostly completed all of the mountain's floors, we are now entering the true underground of this dungeon, which leads to below surface…" said Ervas.

Kireina glanced at the stairs near the large cave section that the party was, remembering that through their little traveling, they had gathered a few items brought by the Treasure Chests.

Although unlike the items collected in her world, they were 'simpler' and less game-like.

In Genesis, items possessed many effects, and often even came with special skills and other things, but in Kritias, items crafted or made by dungeons were often simpler and not part of the System. Although they still came with some special effects, such effects were engraved in magic runes and were often just spells that slightly enhanced offensive or defensive capabilities, sometimes increasing resistance to certain attributes at most, some weapons were able to release an elemental attack when swung for the price of some Mana, but that was the limit of how far they went.

"A pity that Bosses in here don't drop Reward Loot Boxes or Legendary Rank Treasure Chests!" said Kireina.

"What kind of world is Genesis? That sounds like some crazy MMO mechanic…" said Ervas.

"We thought that Kritias was already pretty game-like with its system… but there is an even worst place?!" asked Veronica.

"Indeed, Genesis might be a place even dangerous than in here, but the items that drop there are often charged with power, there is also something called Epic System, which lets special people like Heroes be rewarded after completing certain tasks and stuff, even to the point of being given special items like swords that can evolve with them as they progress," said Kireina.

"That's insane…" said Ervas.

"A pity that I could not bring my cool weapons with me… But well, Veronica can eat the ones we find in here and get crazy powerups, right?" asked Kireina.

"Well yeah, kind of…" said Veronica.

"Yeah, she can even learn Skills from things she absorbs into her metallic body… Like the powers, you used to have, but I guess more nerfed because what you had was clearly very broken," said Ervas.

"Oof… Indeed, not getting skills from what I eat truly feels strange… Now I have to collect skills like everyone else! What a pain…" said Kireina.

"But you already got plenty of awesome Skills, Kireina…" said Ervas.

"Yeah, I guess… Oh, right, I am planning in helping you guys learn my own Skills," said Kireina.

"Eh? How?" asked Veronica.

"I will tell you after we are done with this place," said Kireina.

The group descended through the stairs, as Kireina snacked on the various crystals and metals growing in the caves she found.

"These crystals and metals… I think I should be capable of absorbing them to acquire a few new upgrades, they see of way higher quality than the ones found in that Dungeon near the Kingdom, where I recruited Nidhogg," said Veronica.

"Oh right, you can upgrade yourself with materials, right? That's quite awesome, to be honest, and you can even get powerful skills or abilities if you absorb something charged with power, don't you? That sounds a bit like my original power… Damn, I'm jelly now… Maybe I should become a Living Armor as well~" said Kireina.

"E-Eh? You can!?" asked Veronica and Ervas at the same time.

"Huh? Of course not… I was joking! …Did you seriously believed that?" asked Kireina.

"Your powers are so ridiculous that we might have thought that you could…" said Ervas.

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