The entrance to the dungeon was as majestic as the time it made it. A big open hole with chiseled stones in the shapes of rectangles decorating the edges. Some moss could also be seen between the lines.

The hole seemed to lead into a normal cave. A change that it was sure the rest of it made as when it left, the cave was made entirely of ice, not stone.

The Bird flew into the dungeon without delay. It didn't want to be separated from the rest of its body for longer than necessary.

The moment its body went in, it started shimmering with white light and if one looked, they would find that the places the light touched disappeared.

After a few seconds, it finally remerged with the Core and became one once again.

It didn't know what the humans' reaction was as they were still outside its territory. It hoped that they would soon come in.

Before that happened, it wanted to purchase the language they were speaking with. Not wanting to be left without precious information.

The Core opened the shop function and filtered it to language mastery skills. The image that it was shown was disappointing, to say the least. Every language that could be bought was bought, and the ones that were too expensive, like the Divine Tongue, could not have been spoken by the humans as they didn’t have the organs to replicate the sounds required for speech in that language.

With no other option, It observed its floors and decided that it was as ready as it could be for invaders. The valuable loot was in place and the monsters guarding it at full strength.

The first floor didn't contain much treasure, but it hoped that wouldn't deter the humans as no monsters on that floor could even hope to kill them.

That fact was deliberate, the deeper you go the harder it is to escape and at some point, the only option is to go deeper.

Although that will only happen when it expands its dungeon. And that can only happen if the Village head calls the authorities because of the missing swordsman and lined human.

That means that they need to die and make it take 2 steps closer to its goal. For that, they needed to first come inside the dungeon, something that they weren't doing.

The Core did not have plenty of patience left after trying so hard to lure them deeper, but it couldn't do anything other than wait.

After a while, the swordsman came in first. Sword ready at hand.

The Illusion vines which were spread all around the floor tried their hardest to disguise the monsters lurking around. A futile attempt as the Mute bats and Silent rats, unlike how their names may imply, were not actually that quiet.

The swordsman immediately spotted the monsters who were trying to sneak attack him. Although the beasts themselves weren't aware of that fact.

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The invader decided to not wait for the monsters and stabbed the closest Silent rat. An action that led every monster in the area to throw themselves at him. Unfortunately, that also included the monsters that were made to protect the loot. The Core couldn’t even do anything to patch the glitch up as that would mean increasing their intelligence and that just wasn’t doable at this low of a level.

The swarm tried their best to attack the swordsman to minimal effect, leaving him with little cuts and bite marks around his hands and face. Not any other body part as the enchanted robes covering his body provided too though for the claws and teeth to do anything to it.

The lined human finally came into the dungeon, slashing their sword in a way that only those with no swordsmanship skills did. Nevertheless, with their help, the swarm was dealt with quite swiftly.

The less experienced human with no enchanted robes nor armor was much worse for wear, their clothes were torn and the hair tie that was holding their hair together got bit through by one of the mute bats leaving their unconventionally long hair hanging down. It will make fighting harder further down the lines as they would need to maneuver around it during battle. An impossible task judging by the skills they just showcased.

The swordsman was visibly angry, and the lined one was visibly upset; an argument quickly started. The Core was even more dissatisfied by its lack of a language mastery skill as it wanted to know what could cause such ire for the normally calm swordsman.

The quarrel lasted only a while and it ended with the lined human standing by the exit and the swordsman going deeper alone, a risky action.

The experienced fighter took one look at the loot that wasn’t guarded, yelled something to the lined human, and walked further in. He didn’t even attempt to check what was in the chests.

A fact The Core was appealed by, because if not for the loot, then why would anyone even visit it? What if a rumor spread that it didn’t have any treasurers? The mere thought caused it distress.

The second floor was themed on the underground. The walls were dirt and there were specially placed there roots. It was filled with Overgrown Worms and the Kiselina shrooms. The chests there were protected by Armored Beetles. In short, it was a step up from the previous one but not enough to kill anyone who was as cautious as the swordsman.

He sensed the Overgrown Worms before they could pull a successful attack and because of their size, it was difficult for them to reorient themselves, making the split second they were in the dungeon-made tunnels life-threatening. He was also too paranoid to get close enough for the shrooms to release their spores and since he didn’t want the loot nor got near it the Armored Beetles left him alone.

The Core cursed its inability to command its monsters when invaders were around, that would have made the swordsman crusade so much harder.

The third floor was a giant room filled to the brim with vegetation and water. The Vampiric Fishes that resided in it were surprisingly effective in dealing damage when paired with Hypnos Lotuses and Mirage Lilies.

It helped that the swordsman spent so much time on this floor because the stairs leading deeper were covered in water and he didn’t want to get wetter than he already was, the monsters living underwater also didn’t help his courage.

He even tried to leave but at that point he was at the very end of the room, making returning to the surface difficult and he seemed to decide that advancing would be the better option.

Nevertheless, after a while, he found it and went to the fourth floor. The beginning of this floor was a seemingly peaceful forest which unnerved him, but he still took out one of his healing pills and ate it then proceeded to meditate.

The Core, now armed with Mana sight, could confidently tell you that nothing was happening in his body. Even though there definitely should be at least some mana movements there just wasn’t.

The injuries on his legs healed but not fully, the worst one refused to close, and the swordsman settled on bandaging it since it wasn’t life-threatening.

During the entire process The Core was starting to regret ordering Nature Deer to exist further in the floor as the False Fruits and Specter Trees weren’t exactly the most mobile beings. When it finally killed the humans, it would rectify the mistake immediately.