“Hey,” Ray shouted at the Tower Node of the Fleshcrafter. “Where the hell do you think you’re going?”

It didn’t listen to him. Didn’t even bother responding with a blink or something along those lines. The Tower Node simply kept floating towards the curiously watching Sylvan.

“My, my, what strangeness appears,” he said. His voice was starting to turn a little uncomfortable to listen to. Wet and squelching, like the Greater Flesh Elementals moving past Ray’s mimicked room. “As if this Affliction wasn’t bad enough.”

It wasn’t surprising at all that the Fleshcrafter found a dungeon full of flesh interesting, one way or another. But why now? What was so interesting about the Sylvan that it had appeared in this instant instead of anywhere else they had encountered all sorts of fleshy constructs?

Despite knowing it probably wasn’t going to be helpful, Ray used Primordial Gauge on the Sylvan anyway.

[Primordial Gauge]

Ankel Sui Fifty-fort [Denizen]

Race: Sylvan

Path: Path of Core Growth [Epic]

Class: Acrobat Assaulter [Uncommon] [Tier 3] at Level 19

This Denizen’s skills are locked due to affliction: Growth Mana Infection.

Well, if nothing else, it had at least shown Ray that the Sylvan was quite weak. Or rather, Ray’s perception of strength had changed. He had almost always fought those who were far stronger than him. So having an opponent several levels weaker was unusual.

Nevertheless, Sylvans were vicious warriors. He’d do well not to underestimate Ankel just because he was infected.

Although, that begged the question of whether the Sylvan was even capable of fighting in his condition. After all, Primordial Gauge had stated that the skills were blocked. Surely that meant Ankel couldn’t use any of his abilities.

The Tower Node had come to a reast next to the Sylvan, not really doing anything.

Ray frowned. “I hope you didn’t just suddenly decide to switch sides…”

Ankel laughed. “If you wish to reclaim it, why don’t you come and take it, then?”

“You do realize your skills are blocked off, right?”

“Come and face me, coward!”

Ray sighed. Then jerked his arm forward and cast Spiritsorb. The Sylvan tried to dodge, but his lumbering gait faltered as he was weighed down and unbalanced by the pustules on his legs. The first Spiritsorb missed because of his fall, but the second hit him square in the chest.

Ankel cried out as he was struck, the spell causing his chest to begin to mutate. Flesh split, bones spiked out, blood boiled as the vessels wormed everywhere.

That was when the fleshy growths all over him began moving. The pustules and tumours literally ripped free from their locations and converged to the point where Ray had hit Ankel with Spiritsorb. They all began squeezing into the Sylvan’s body, heedless that they had left more wounds elsewhere.

“Is this your doing?” Ray asked the Tower Node.

It still didn’t blink. Ray was not appreciating its mysterious behaviour.

The Sylvan began rising. Laughing too. “Ah, I hadn’t realized it would take this form. I have so much more to report when it is time.”

“What are you talking about?” Ray asked.

“Don’t you see, little human?” Ankel paused, an almost euphoric look passing across his face as his skin ripped in places while the flesh underneath bulged and deformed. “Blessed Burgeoner, that felt incredible.” He focused again on Ray. “This mad flesh comes from unrestrained Growth Mana. And Growth Mana comes from us. See it now?”

“You’re trying to see what happens when you infect yourself with Growth Mana?”

“Precisely! And my oh my, you brought me the key I was missing. The final puzzle piece.” He stared almost lovingly at the Tower Node. “Who would have believed that all I was missing was a Tower Node.”

Ray wasn’t sure what exactly had changed. When he used Primordial Gauge, the space where the skills should have gone were still blocked. But then, he recalled something.

One didn’t need any abilities to use a Tower Node’s powers. Ray himself had used the Tower Nodes of the Marauder and the Mentor without any extra, System-granted skills. The Sylvan here had to be doing the same thing, which meant that the Node’s allegiance really had shifted to Ankel somehow.

But that couldn’t be right. How could a Tower Node just up and float over to a new master?

Ankel pointed at Ray. “It shan’t be so easy this time, human.”

Ray ignored it and focused on himself. Primal Spiritcraft to Channel Prayer to Fleshed Exchange. It only hit him now, when he was pressed for time, how lengthy it felt that he had to go three spells deep before the actual effect he wanted manifested into existence. Kind of nuts, if he was being honest.

The Tower Node shifted in its spot, like there was a strong, stormy wind blowing against it.

“Ha!” Ray said.

While he felt as though he still retained some measure of control over the Tower Node, it was hard to see it in effect. Ray cast Spiritsorb against Ankel, but the Sylvan dodged. He was moving more fluidly now, despite the ungainly look of the flesh stuffed within his body. A couple more of Spiritsorbs all missed.

Grinning, perhaps believing he had the upper hand, Ankel charged at Ray. His massive, tree-trunk fists slammed in to crush his target.

Ray waited until the last moment, waited until he was sure the Sylvan wouldn’t be able to dodge. Then he dived. As the Sylvan sailed past, Ray struck bare-fisted against Ankel’s side.

The punch exploded. Ray had used Fleshed Exchange to trap chaotic energy underneath a new layer of skin. It was ostensibly supposed to be a defensive ability, but he had seen the offensive applications as soon as he had read the description.

Ankel staggered as he came to a stop. He recovered quickly though, whirling around even as his waist mottled, spilled blood, and oozed flesh.

Ah, alright. It was interesting but the ability from the Fleshcrafter Tower Node wasn’t that powerful. Ray didn’t mind. He had only used to assert his dominance, to prove that he still retained at least some measure of control over the Tower Node, regardless of whatever the Fleshcrafter wished.

He had earned it.

It made him curious, though. Had both he and his opponent channelled the Tower Node’s power, one after the other? Was that even possible?

Questions for later. Right now, he had to take out this annoying enemy.

Ray crafted up a Soulstrike arm, smashing it at the onrushing infected Sylvan once more. He dodged it, arcing to one side before charging straight at his target. But Ray simply pulled the arm in closer with a rapid withdrawing motion. Just as Ankel leaped at him, the impaling point slammed in and pinned the Sylvan to the ground.

He screamed. “Unhand me, you mongrel! You shall pay gravely.”

“Struggling is pointless,” Ray said. With all his skills locked away, the Sylvan had posed next to no threat at all. “But I don’t want to kill you. If you answer some questions, I’ll let you go.”

“You think you can threaten me?”

“I can torture you, if you’d prefer.”

The Sylvan grabbed the impaling point of the Soulstrike arm. His palm sizzled and started growing chaotically, but he didn’t appear to care. “There is nothing you can do to that will make me oblige to your little demands. I am the superior being here. You’re just a human!”

Ankel was being annoying enough that Ray didn’t feel bad about torturing the guy a little. He summoned the Greater Windbane Maw construct and made it start chewing off the Sylvan’s arm.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Alright, alright!” Ankel said after some moments of screaming and chewing. He panted as Ray called off his construct. “What do you wish to know?”

Well, that had been easy. In fact, this whole final encounter had been a bit too easy for a Tier 10 dungeon. Nevertheless, Ray proceeded with his inquiry.

“What are you doing here, Ankel?” Ray asked.

The Sylvan’s eyes bugged out a bit, though whether that was in surprise that Ray knew his name or because the name was being butchered by Ray’s probably awful pronunciation was hard to tell. “Should I not be asking you that, mongrel?”

Ray made his flying draconic head snap its jaws next to the infected alien’s ear. Ankel winced. “Just answer my questions. How long have you been here?”

“For a long while. A long, long while. Almost as long as I’ve been here in the Tower, it feels like. I don’t actually remember, now that I think about it.”

“What were you doing here?”

“Investigating. Growth Mana was abused. The Floor Lord and I wished to get to the bottom of it. We were tricked by these false Denizens. The ones who proposed they would work with us, then only sought to claim what we possessed.”

The Sylvan spat in disgust.

False Denizens? The Sylvans wouldn’t allow any Denizens to actually work for them, would they? They were supposed to guide the Denizens up the Tower via reasonable challenges. But their idea of reasonable definitely wasn’t great and they did work with Denizens when needed. The Wild Tides had been quite chummy with them.

But Ray got the sense the Sylvan didn’t mean Denizens in the sense of people climbing up the Tower. What he was actually referring to were the people from this Everstead kingdom.

“So they betrayed you?” Ray asked. “Was that what the whole argument with the king was about?”

“Argument? There was no argument. Only outrage at the betrayal, at their gall to think this Floor was theirs to rule.”

Ray tutted. “You and your Floor Lord should have just done it yourself instead of hiring an entire kingdom.”

“Kingdom?” The Sylvan actually forgot about his pain in his surprise. “What in the world do you mean by kingdom?”

“I mean… your Floor Lord hired an entire kingdom of these fake Denizens, right? The Everstead kingdom?”

“I know not what you speak of. We employed some of your kind who were actually never your kind to begin with.”

“Yes, I know. They weren’t actually Tower Denizens from Earth. They’re people from elsewhere.”

“No. They were never people.” The Sylvan suddenly laughed, a mad light in his eyes. “Ah. Ah! It seems they have gone far beyond when I left them.”

“What do you mean they were never—”

The dungeon began shaking. It wasn’t the kind of trembling that had occurred when the ceiling had split open to reveal the main passage. This was worse. Everything was shaking hard, cracks popping up like critters of the undergrowth running in fright. Ray could hear things breaking and falling in the distance.

“What’s going on?” He barely got the words out with how much his teeth chattered.

“This dungeon…” The Sylvan winced as Ray was forced to pull out the Soulstrike arm. “It’s collapsing.”

This was confirmed when a Dungeon Obstacle notification popped up.

[Primordial Gauge—Dungeon Obstacle]

The One Beneath

Actions within the dungeon have awakened one who has remained dormant since birth. A being that cannot be fought or beaten by any normal means. A creation of flesh that seeks to only consume. In its grasp, the entire dungeon is in peril. Escape, lest you end up as pulp.

What in the world was this Dungeon Obstacle? A creature that couldn’t be fought or killed? That reminded Ray of the Eternal Guardian. Was it something that ridiculously powerful?

Ray desperately wanted to see it, wanted to at least get close enough to use Primordial Gauge on it, but he had no idea where it was. More importantly, he had to focus on getting out of there. Especially since the whole room was breaking apart.

“Where’s the exit?”

“I do not know—argh.”

The sudden cry came about as a result of a chunk of the ceiling falling upon them. Ray was able to draw back in time, but the injured and infected Sylvan wasn’t so lucky. The falling masonry crushed half his body, splattering blood and gore everywhere.

At the same time, a loud roar came from below. From far, far below, well lower than the floor Ray had been on after entering the dungeon. That had to be the monster the Dungeon Obstacle warned about. The noise made it sound like it was deep underground.

Ray was about to get moving, but he hesitated. The Sylvan was still alive. Rescuing and helping him was out of the question. He was basically dead, regardless of his technical condition.

But maybe Ray could end his suffering.

“A last question, Sylvan,” Ray said. “Answer me, and I’ll make sure you don’t die a long and painful death. Where is the Floor Lord now?”

“I am not—”

“And if you don’t know, then where was the Floor Lord?”

“On the first cliff. That’s where we met them.”

“Thank you.”

Ray cast Mottling Spiritguard. While the majority of the orbs protected him from the falling debris, he made one of the nearer ones shoot straight at the Sylvan. It crushed Ankel’s head, killing him instantly.

[Enemy Defeated—Sylvan]

Acrobat Assaulter [Tier 3] Sylvan: [Level 19] x1

Essence: +2,850

Knowledge: +3

True Mana Restored: +190

Essence to Level 26: 39,250/41,300

Knowledge to next Threshold: 843/1,000

Safeguarded by his Spiritguard orbs, Ray got moving. It wasn’t easy at all to barge through a rumbling dungeon while not taking any damage. At least, not when the monster far underground decided to interact directly.

Bloody tendrils waved through the air, shooting at anything that was alive. In most cases, this was Ray and his accoutrement of spells. Occasionally, however, the tendrils would go for a stray Flesh Elemental. He even saw several of the tentacles trying to pull a gigantic Greater Flesh Elemental down into the ground.

Ray himself was kept safe by the sparking orbs. They turned into slicing arcs that slashed through any of the tendrils that got too close to him.

The roaring grew a lot more intense when he reached the end of the corridor. The monster’s pull had had strengthened too. Ray was physically hauled down, like gravity had grown much more powerful. He tried to keep flying, but at this rate, he wasn’t even sure where he was. Everything was too broken to recognize.

Ray found himself staring down, just to see if he could locate what exactly was causing all this. He really shouldn’t have.

A sinkhole had opened up at the bottom of the dungeon. It revealed an enormous mouth. A giant, bottomless cauldron of flesh ringed with teeth that were each as big as Ray himself. It was this huge mouth that was sucking in everything in the dungeon.

He swallowed. That was a monster that dwarfed even the Greater Flesh Elementals. But it wasn’t fear that entranced him. It was heady excitement.

Just how much Essence would he receive as a reward for killing something like that?

His ambitious ideas were interrupted when several broken parts of the dungeon rushed at Ray all of a sudden. A huge section of the roof, several massive chunks of the wall and the floor, lots of random paraphernalia like cabinets and beds, and of course, a few Flesh Elementals caught in the maelstrom.

Ray wasn’t at all certain he’d be kept safe by his sparking orbs. Best to avoid them if at all possible.

And the only way to do that was by throwing himself into a different corridor he didn’t recognize. A corridor that became trapped as soon as he entered.

The opening Ray had flown through was suddenly blocked off by what looked like one of those Greater Flesh Elementals. On the other side, debris left no room for anyone to get through. Ah, crap. Ray might well and truly be stuck.

When he attacked the Flesh Elemental with Spiritsorb, it only grew outwards as its flesh split and then chaotically grew even more.

Ray tried to carve out some space with Soulstrike, but it wasn’t working. His heart lurched as the whole corridor began falling, making him lose his balance and his aim. Blood burst through the cracks in the walls, dozens of tendrils shooting in and destroying everything. All the while, he was heading straight for the gigantic monster’s gullet.

They all slammed down. The corridor probably hit the floor, which explained why their descent jerked to a halt so hard that Ray smacked into the ceiling. Or perhaps it was also that fact that the whole corridor imploded under the pressure, burying Ray under the rubble and flesh.

That added to the difficulty of emerging out of the dungeon, but he wasn’t dismayed. Even if Ray himself found it hard to get past all these obstacles, he had a different hope.

Quick casts of Lifeblood Graveyard created an imitator and a flying eyeball construct. Together, he ordered them to get out of the dungeon via any means possible. Such a command would probably not have been easily translatable. Constructs tended to do much better with direct, specific orders.

But Ray lent them his intelligence. His mind split again, but he was getting used to the sensation now. It wasn’t like he himself could think his way out of this place. He was stuck.

Which was where his constructs came to the rescue. The eyeball and the mimic went off. The Imitator turned into a fleshy tendril as it sought to serpentine its way between the debris. It opened pathways just big enough for the eyeball to squeeze through as well.

“Go,” Ray whispered. “Faster. Faster.”

His constructs still met obstacles, of course. They came across Flesh Elementals trying to stop them, tendrils rising out of the monster far underneath to catch them. But with Ray’s own intelligence empowering them, they were able to evade or bypass most.

It helped that one of his constructs could turn into anything in the vicinity to hide its presence.

The ground around Ray’s actual locations started shifting. Sinking. The gigantic mouth was drawing them all ever closer. He could hear it much closer and clearer now. So loud. His ears felt as though they were being squeezed by the noise. The stench had grown impossibly strong too. He couldn’t take this any longer.

Ray tried to desperately climb out on his own. He could barely move his arms, and his spells didn’t really have any effect on non-living matter like the broken dungeon walls. But he dug desperately anyway. Come on.

Too late. All too late. Ray was suddenly free falling. When had he reached the huge mouth?

Everything plummeted around him. Ray just remembered to summon his wings, but it wasn’t helping much at all.

The world closed around him. Light disappearing, his senses sinking into nothingness, drowned out by the terrible noise and the awful odour. Was he already in the gullet? It was too lightless to be sure, but the foreboding feeling haunting his soul suggested so.

Shit. Shit. He had to get out. He had to do something. What else could he do? What else was he capable of? Why couldn’t he think of anything—

Light bloomed, blindingly bright, in one corner of his vision. It began growing, taking up a third of his sight.

Was he free? No, a part of him was. A part of him that was enough.

Fleshy tendrils had grabbed him. Their touch burned. He was literally being dissolved. The mouth far above had closed now, shutting off the world and sinking him in darkness, happy to digest everything it had swallowed.

Ray tried to think through the pain and the panic. What was he supposed to do? What had he planned? A part of him was free, but most of him was being eaten alive. How was he—

Ah, right. Ray opened his eyes. He saw nothing, of course, but the action helped him focus.

Spectral Step.

The world blurred, distorted, set Ray’s already haggard mind afire. Light. So much light. He was out.

[Dungeon Cleared—Ruptured Philosophers’ Hole]

Rewards

* 1 Tower Node of the Fleshcrafter

* 15 True Mana shards

* 1 True Mana Tier Point

* Adamantine Gravity Boots

* +2,000 Essence

* Reputation: +15 Ruthless

Essence to Level 26: 41,250/41,300