Live Dungeon!

”I must say, it’s been underwhelming so far,” Xeno muttered.

”Yeah… but something about it gives me the creeps,” Hannah replied, eyes narrowed.

Xeno had drawn the aggro first and was still untouched, soaring through the air with ease. Hannah, flying beside him, was focused entirely on reading the monster’s movements. Yet the Corroded Elder Dragon had only unleashed its corrosive breath so far, easily avoided by retreating into the air. Its lumbering motions were slow, almost laughably so.

”[.”

”[.”

Diniel’s arrows pierced bone with pinpoint precision, while Leleia’s Spirit magic engulfed the Dragon’s body in flames. But even under this assault, the creature showed no reaction. Instead, a thick, dark-red ichor began to ooze from its bones. The liquid flowed freely, undeterred even by fire, gradually staining the Dragon’s entire body in a sickly, blackened hue.

Then, something changed.

”What is that…?” Korinna whispered.

As the blood swirled around the Dragon’s left breast, she heard a steady, pulsing throb. It was not one of her usual hallucinations. It was no phantom echo conjured by her sensitivity to death. This was real. The Corroded Elder Dragon’s hollow chest now housed a beating heart.

The instant the heart fully formed, the Dragon reared back and released a thunderous roar. It was not like the vengeful bellow from before, but something vibrant and alive, like a newborn declaring its presence to the world. Blood, bright and arterial, exploded outward, the droplets spraying through the air. A few of them twisted mid-flight, rising diagonally up toward Xeno.

”Tch…!”

In midair, he had no way to brace himself. The droplets solidified into jagged crimson spears in an instant, hurtling toward him. He managed to raise his buckler just in time to deflect a direct hit to the face, but the impact still sent him reeling backward.

”Looks like it can control its own blood now. Should we start blasting?” Diniel asked.

”…Not yet. Let’s study its attacks first,” Korinna said.

”We waste too much time, and it’ll just regenerate the rest of its body. You saw how fast it rebuilt that heart.”

Even now, thin red lines traced across the Dragon’s massive frame, pulsing as if invisible veins coursed through its body. Within, blackened blood began to gather once more, slower than before but unmistakably aiming to regenerate some other vital organ.

”If Hannah can’t do her job, none of us can hold out. We need to force it to commit to more attacks,” Leleia said.

”Then let’s start by clearing that mess.”

Even as she spoke, Diniel loosed an arrow with surgical precision, shattering one of the blood spears still pursuing Xeno. The weapon burst apart into powder and rained to the ground, rendered inert. But others remained, streaking toward him with unrelenting momentum.

”Hmph. What a hassle,” Xeno grumbled. ”[!”

With the brief window Diniel had created, he unsheathed his short sword and cleaved several more spears from the air, each cut leaving behind a silver flash of combat aura. At the same time, Korinna’s preemptive [ took effect, knitting together the bruises and cuts he’d taken.

”Here comes the main body!” Hannah warned.

The Corroded Elder Dragon, now drawn by Xeno’s [, surged forward. Its movements grew faster with every heartbeat, its growing vascular system pumping dark blood through limbs that once barely moved. As it raised a massive front claw to swat him out of the air, the motion was no longer sluggish… but still, it was just about as fast as an unboosted Mount Golem.

Xeno dodged the sweeping strike, grimacing at the grotesque limb. Blood, not muscle, seemed to be animating it. Its arteries bulged, and its bones creaked beneath the strain.

Then the claw hit the ground. A loud crack split the air as the limb struck stone, and the veins within it burst. A spray of blood exploded upward in violent arcs.

”I knew it!”

Anticipating the trap, he weaved through the air as thorn-like blood crystals erupted from the ground, aiming to skewer him mid-flight. Just as suddenly as they had formed, the crimson spikes began to melt, retreating back toward the Dragon’s underside in liquid form.

”Diniel,” Korinna called calmly. ”Avoid targeting the areas with those veins. Focus on the heart first.”

”Yeah, if I hit the wrong place with [, we’re all dead. I’ll use [.”

If one of the veins ruptured, blood would again attack whoever had aggro, who was currently Xeno. So instead of a high-powered burst, Diniel shot two arrows at a time. A [ from a typical Archer was just two shots flying in succession, but when Diniel shot hers, the arrows moved as if guided by invisible strings, perfectly aligned in flight, streaking straight for the Corroded Elder Dragon’s heart. Only someone like Diniel, an Elf with decades of experience, a honed body, and an intimate understanding of her Archer skills, could unleash such a seamless double shot.

”Ah.”

Though she aimed with the precision of a machine, avoiding every one of the creature’s countless blood vessels was impossible. A few strands tore away mid-flight, staining the fletching with dark blood. Even so, the arrows did not lose momentum; the first one plunged into the heart with a solid thunk, and the second followed it a breath later, striking the exact same point.

”What a drag…”

Activating [ mid-flight, Diniel watched the arrows’ perspective to make fine adjustments, calmly releasing shot after shot. Occasionally, she mixed in elemental arrows. Those imbued with Lightning Magic Stones packed so much force that it could have been mistaken for an actual, sky-splitting lightning bolt.

”Man, she’s as ruthless as ever,” Hannah muttered under her breath, watching the arrows streak across the battlefield like comets. ”She doesn’t even need to use any additional skills to make her shots that fast. It’s like watching a monster disguised as a woman…”

Diniel’s unimposing figure and her usually apathetic demeanor made her look frail at first glance, but she wielded her jet-black bow with ease. This was probably due to her high level of skill in handling the bow, but it wouldn’t have been possible in the first place without her basic muscle strength. After all, its bowstring was so impossibly taut that even Leleia, with her shredded core and defined abs, had struggled to draw it.

Hannah considered herself pretty strong among female Explorers. Back during her days in Ealdred Crow, she’d rarely lost a leg-based contest of strength.

But after joining Absolute Helix, that confidence had begun to erode. Even Korinna, who by the numbers was the party’s weakest in terms of raw strength, had a surprising amount of muscle built up from years of hard physical work as a nurse. She was even stronger than Tsutomu, a full-grown man. And when it came to raw power, Amira easily topped the entire team. It made Hannah wonder what had become of the old ‘women are weaker than men’ paradigm.

”Hannah, have you finished assessing its patterns?”

Korinna’s voice snapped her out of her thoughts. She’d been so lost in a swirl of muscles and comparative strength that she hadn’t realized her focus was slipping. Startled, Hannah flinched and instinctively spread her blue-feathered wings before turning her eyes back to the Corroded Elder Dragon.

”Y-Yeah, I think we’re good to swap Tanks anytime. For now, its attacks are manageable… but I don’t think it’s gonna stay like this forever.”

She had, in fact, managed to read most of the Corroded Elder Dragon’s attack patterns. The creature itself was not much of a threat… at least not yet. The real danger was its manipulation of blood. But even that, upon close inspection, wasn’t as unpredictable as it first seemed. Most of its assaults came in the form of needle-sharp sprays or projectiles, but they lacked sophisticated homing or long-range reach. The only real trouble so far had been those initial auto-tracking blood spears.

Besides, Xeno had taken a few hits on purpose to gauge the damage, but Hannah was sure that if he wanted to dodge, he absolutely could.

Still, no one believed the hundredth layer’s boss monster would remain this tame. Even Hannah could feel it. The beast was evolving. Its blood vessels were multiplying. More organs were forming. With every passing minute, it was growing stronger.

Korinna nodded thoughtfully at Hannah’s analysis and narrowed her eyes, fixing her gaze on a spot where the Dragon’s body was subtly pulsing mid-reformation.

”Judging by that shape… I’d say it’s forming a liver now.”

”The liver?” Hannah tilted her head. ”…Uh, what’s that, again?”

”Well, speaking in food terms, it’s the part that has a distinctly rich, earthy taste. I quite like it, actually.”

”Ahh… that. I know it’s supposed to be nutritious, but I’ve never been a fan, honestly.”

Hannah stuck out her tongue, recalling the iron tang of liver on her tongue.

”Anyway, the monster began using blood-based attacks only after its heart regenerated,” Korinna went on to explain. ”It’s just a theory, but… I think every time it regenerates an organ, it gains a new ability.”

”So if it grows a liver, what’s that mean?”

”Well, there’s no way to tell, but… the liver’s main function is detoxification. It could become immune to poison or other status effects.”

”If that’s all, I don’t think it’s too bad, then?”

”Maybe,” Korinna said cautiously. ”But until we know what each regenerated organ does, we need to keep track of the order and effects. Ideally, we’d destroy the heart… but it doesn’t look like we’ll get to do that anytime soon.”

Diniel and Leleia were continuing to target the heart carefully, avoiding pulling aggro from Xeno. Their attacks were landing, each shot visibly wounding the pulsing organ, but not enough to stop its rhythm. The giant heart, constructed from rubbery, fibrous muscle, seemed to throb stronger with each beat. If they could destroy it, the Dragon’s blood attacks would likely cease. But reaching that point would take time.

”That said, I might actually be able to help this time.”

”Oh? That’s rare,” Hannah said, raising an eyebrow. ”You sound quite confident that it’ll work out.”

”There might be differences depending on the species, but when it comes to internal organs, I’m fairly well-versed. From the look of it, this boss’s organs fall within the range of what I can identify. That alone gives us a method.” Her expression lit up, clearly proud to be useful, especially on this milestone layer. ”I’m not some world-class surgeon who can save lots of lives, but I’ve spent enough time watching over patients to understand how the human body fits together. And if I understand how to build it up… then I can figure out how to break it down.”

”…R-right.”

Hannah couldn’t help but inch away slightly, flashing a strained smile at Korinna’s unsettling enthusiasm.