The trail wound through the trees and Arthur followed the path until he saw another two minotaurs. They had the same reaction as the last group of minotaur’s and attacked him. Arthur prepared his shield and started to fight them off. He mostly used fire attacks as that had been most effective last time. As he fought he also found that he was getting used to the new form of his body. His movements and attacks had become more fluid and less stilted than the last fight.

Arthur finished them off quicker than the last group of minotaurs. He opened up the chest and head of one of them to be sure of his findings. The minotaur didn’t have a mana core. He continued onward.

Arthur followed the trail and came upon the sight of a cave when chills ran through him. He felt his dungeon core shake as he stepped forward. It slowed as he forced himself to take steps forward. He was already familiar with this feeling but didn’t want to believe it. There was another dungeon with the cave. Arthur wanted to turn around right away now that he had found out where the minotaurs came from. At the same time, something pulled at him to continue forward.

Before he could commit to a choice another five minotaur’s left the cave and charged at him. Evidently, the dungeon had noticed him entering their territory and wanted him dead. Arthur released [Sand Trap] which caused the charging group to tumble. With another release of magic, he sent [Multi Fire Bolt] at each of their heads. Multiple explosions rocked their bodies and the minotaurs fell over. As Arthur approached the dead minotaur’s and the cave the bodies dissolved into motes of mana before fading away. Arthur felt some of that mana flow to him instead of the dungeon to be replenished.

‘Interesting. This dungeon was creating these minotaurs directly from mana. Was it trying to lead me here or just trying to expand its territory?’

Arthur walked into the entrance of the cave. Compared to the outside of the cave the inside was carved of smooth stone. In front of him were steps leading downward which he started to follow. The stairs down to the first floor led to a winding tunnel. As Arthur followed the tunnel more and more minotaurs were thrown at him. He could hear them from around corners as they started their charge.

Initially, Arthur thought to create [Earthen Wall]s to stop them but the dungeon stopped them from growing from the ground. This forced him to switch tactics and use [Web Ensnare] and [Thorn Whip] to stop them. The minotaur’s still used the earth magic attack when they couldn’t get close but now he kept a [Mana Shield] up to stop them. Arthur also now realized that the magic attacks of these minotaurs were more effective against him because of the other dungeon’s aura infused within them that was antithetical to his being.

Each time they hit the dungeon’s aura would roil within him until he could force it out. Something which was becoming harder the deeper into the dungeon’s body he went. As Arthur continued through the tunnel he got more comfortable dealing with the minotaurs. He kept his [Mana Shield] up at all times because he now knew it was his most important defense. Next, he prepared [Rock Blast] because it could summon earth from his mana. He would then target the minotaur’s feet and legs with the attack. They would tumble around and occasionally drop their weapons after that long enough to get in a kill shot against two or three of them before the rest were ready. From there he used a mix of fire magic to finish off the rest.

Arthur followed this method for a while on the first floor until it opened up. The first-floor boss was a much larger minotaur that dominated over the other monsters of the floor. It also wore a heavy set of armor instead of being bare chest.

The minotaur chased him around the open area of the floor. The other minotaurs followed and spread around to box him in. He could no longer leave because the entrance was sealed. Arthur found that his best defense was [Blizzard] one of his lesser-used area of effect spells and an overcharged [Chain Lightning] for his attack. The gathered enemies made for great targets to bounce off of when he attacked. He slowly picked off the smaller minotaurs.

Arthur found out quickly that his [Mana Shield] would no longer cut it because it shattered after one magic attack from the boss. Arthur moved around the boss making sure to keep the egg safe first and foremost. He kept it in a bubble shield safely by itself while he reminded himself he shouldn’t have brought it here.

As Arthur picked off the small minotaur’s he was slowly doing damage to the boss minotaur. Soon he had finished off all of the small ones and only had the big one left. The minotaur charged at him, and Arthur prepared a [Fire Spear]. The attack hit the minotaur but only broke off pieces of the armor. The minotaur continued to charge, and Arthur was knocked to the side.

Arthur expanded the egg’s bubble to encompass him as he rolled. As he got up a wave of the ax’s power slammed into his shield shattering it once again. Arthur fired off two [Fire Spear]s immediately after to prevent the minotaur from attacking again. The minotaur stumbled back from the attack and the last of the armor fell apart off it. Arthur finished the fight with one last [Fire Spear] that he overcharged and sent right through the minotaur’s heart. It collapsed and burst into mana.

Arthur felt the mana flow into him at three times the normal amount of the other minotaur’s. Throughout his trip into this dungeon, he had tried replenishing his mana but was rejected within this space. Thus, this had become the only way to regain mana. The difficulty of this dungeon had increased compared to the dwarves that might stumble into this place. As Arthur absorbed the free mana the doors opened around the boss room. Two sets of staircases appeared. One led up to the surface and one led down towards the second floor. Arthur continued downward the pull of another dungeon core enticing him.

The second floor held no minotaurs, but more traps. Arthur almost had a spike fall on his head during the first trap activation. The spikes fell behind him as he jumped forward. From then on he watched for traps with his [Mana Sense] active. As he progressed he forced the traps to activate in front of him before they could deal him damage. Occasionally they would spray fire at him, but he took it on with no damage to his exterior.

Arthur found the second floor’s theme to be fire pretty quickly. Through the tunnels, elementals made of pure fire rushed at him while sending fireballs and waves of fire towards him. These tunnels opened up more often where waves of the elementals would rush him from all sides. Arthur started to rely on [Ice Spike] exclusively and [Blizzard] when he was rushed. The elementals went down quickly with the attacks opposite to their existence. Arthur had found that his power over his ice and water attacks had increased since learning the [Control Water] spell.

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As Arthur fought he slowed his pace because of the egg. Arthur regularly refroze over the egg once he had cleared out one of the wave groups of fire elementals. He got more comfortable with the floor as he progressed and did not stall because of traps until the end. Arthur reached the boss room in about as much time as he had the minotaur floor. The boss for the second floor was a large lava monster. It resisted his [Blizzard] spell by creating natural heat and began to raise the temperature of the room. If Arthur was organic the head may have made him uncomfortable, but he kept the egg climate-controlled in a bubble and fought the boss without much worry.

Arthur was forced to avoid flaming rocks as he fought the lava monster. It towered over him as a mound of lava and sludge. The ice attacks sunk into its body and dissolved into steam. Some of the heat was dying down as it cooled but Arthur didn’t feel it going by quick enough for his mana expenditure. He switched tactics when the next boulder was thrown.

Arthur put as much magic as he could into [Control Winds] and redirected the boulder. It slowed in front of him before rebounding towards the lava creature. The boulder smashed into it and the lava creature separated into multiples of itself. It tried to reform but Arthur followed up his attack with ice causing the smaller lava creatures to freeze over and solidify into rock unmoving. They exploded into mana shortly afterward.

The dungeon shifted and the doors opened. Arthur was already on his way to the stairs when the door opened. He went on to the third floor.

On the third floor, Arthur’s crawl slowed further as the traps got more advanced. Spider monsters started jumping at him while he was trying to deal with traps. The spiders seemed to easily avoid the traps and were naturally ignored by them. As Arthur fought the spiders he had a few close calls as the spiders triggered traps to kill them and him at the same time. These suicide spiders hissed at him and were gleeful as he got knocked around by some of the traps. Arthur wasn’t able to be crushed by any of the traps, but they held him down while the spiders shot webbing at him.

Webs covered his body now as he fought off the spiders. They pounced on him and tried to dig their poison-tipped fangs into his body. They couldn’t break through his metal body but did stab at his joints. Ever since Arthur had reinforced and changed up his vine pathways inside this had become less of a problem. Once the poison tried to spread to the vine area he killed off the poison and regrew the section as needed.

Arthur continued through the levels of the dungeon. Each level was themed differently with some new monster and occasionally old monsters returned. On one floor the giant armored minotaur returned this time slightly smaller to fit the tighter rooms but now as grunts for the floor boss.

Artur alternated spells regularly to fit the floor’s requirements. Arthur found his mana slowly diminishing over time as he passed the new floors. When he had started he had entered with 100 percent of his mana capacity, but now had at most 75 percent throughout fights and dipped to below 50 percent during boss battles.

Arthur passed through another floor and found himself at another boss battle. A large green, coiled snake unraveled in the middle of the room as the doors to the room shut. Arthur prepared a [Fire Shield]. The snake shot out from its spot and spat out acid. Moss covered the floor of the room, but Arthur was unable to use [Vine Trap] to manipulate it.

Arthur raised his shield and most of the acid was blocked. A few speckled hit his arms and the acid immediately began to eat into it. Arthur fired [Rock Blast]s at the snake but it broke them apart easily. Arthur moved out of the way of the lunging snake.

It spun around trying to coil around him. Arthur cast [Blizzard] causing the temperature to drop around him annoying the snake in the process. It dropped its act of squeezing him to death and slapped Arthur with its tail.

Arthur was thrown back and hit the moss-covered wall. The snake's tail burned slightly from the attack, but it seemed to be grinning as it hissed and stuck out its tongue. As Arthur got up the moss stuck to him and wouldn’t fall off. He checked his feet and found that they were covered in the moss as well. Arthur felt his stamina draining and tiredness sweep him. Arthur tried brushing the moss off, but it stuck to his hands instead.

The snake slithered to him in a rush, and he panicked. Arthur activated [Wall of Fire] in front of himself and then stepped into it while keeping the egg protected. The moss seemed to be alive as it screamed and popped once it burned.

Arthur stepped back from the fire and prepared another spell. [Chain Lightning struck the snake right as it entered the flame. It spat out acid and started to writhe shortly after. Arthur was hit by more acid, but the snake got the worst of the trade. It writhed in pain and burned within the fire wall. It was unable to escape as it burned alive. The snake stopped moving shortly after and turned into motes of mana.

Arthur began healing the holes in himself as the doorway opened again to reveal the stairway up and another room. He walked into the new room weary of what lay inside. Arthur readied his spells, but no monster was there to greet him. Instead, he saw the dungeon core. It sat on a pedestal in the center made of the same carved stone of the room. Illustrations of the different monsters he had faced in the dungeon covered the walls. The dungeon floated upwards and spoke.

“It would seem I have lost this battle. In my greed to expand and take your power I failed. Make it quick.”

“I still have some questions.”

“Do not make this embarrassment take longer than it needs to. With my power will come my knowledge. Your answers will come then. I don’t have much energy left. If you wish to leave do so now because if you let me recover. You will foolishly die here to my last resort of a monster. Even if it means I have to collapse some floors in the process.”

Arthur felt the tug of the dungeon pulling him forward. He let into his desires and grabbed hold of the dungeon and crushed it in his hands. The dungeon's power, area of influence and pieces of knowledge flooded to him and became his. The knowledge settled in his core for him to access while the dungeon’s power expanded his mana storage and output. Suddenly Arthur felt his world expanding. Instead of the 360-degree view around himself, he suddenly changed his view to the exterior of the dungeon. He could see the side of the mountain and look into the floors now with broken traps and no monsters.

“I can’t do this,” Arthur said to himself. “Maybe if I was still the dungeon of my past. If I stay here then this place will just become a cage of my own making instead of someone else’s. I need to leave this place. I’m not sure where I am going to go but this is not the place I will stay.”

Arthur turned to the stairs and began the walk to the top. Once Arthur ascended the stairs he exited next to the entrance. Arthur felt his area of influence spread throughout the caves. He was tethered to it. Stuck to the caves. Arthur pulled the area back into himself and all the mana contained within.

The mountain shook and the cave trembled before crashing down. Arthur took steps back as the rocks fell and then the wave of mana hit him. He could barely contain it and it started to spill out when the egg on his back started to eat it up and absorb it. Arthur released his hold on some of the mana and let the egg do what it wished. Arthur felt the egg grow heavier and saw it grow larger as well. The egg continued to absorb the mana and split it between the two of them until there was nothing left of the enemy dungeon’s mana.

Arthur took several steps back from the broken cave. He knew people or creatures would come to investigate what had happened. Birds already circled and had scattered when the trees had shaken. Arthur was looking around for where to go when he felt the egg shake. He instinctively knew what it meant. The egg was going to hatch soon. Arthur picked a direction and ran for it with the egg on his back and the wind increasing his speed.