Kron ran out of the dungeon, Val panting heavily right behind him. Actually, they all should have realized that the miner wouldn’t have the stamina to run all the way back to the guild.

Kron pulled him to a stop, and he placed both hands on his knees as he caught his breath. “This won’t work. I’ll head to the guild to inform them. Once you’ve rested enough, find someone with a rope and bring it to Sam and Murr.”

He nodded, took in a deep breath, then said, “On it. You go. On ahead.”

Kron downed a stamina potion and made a mental note to grab a haste-type spell once he could afford one. Then he ran up the sandy hill until he reached a grassy area at the top. Before he continued, he looked back down to check on Val one last time.

The miner waved and a few people in new adventurer gear jogged out from behind some large boulders.

Hopefully, those people had some rope and were willing to lend it out. If they were real adventurers, they would. If they were high enough level, they might enter the mine to help.

Believing that his friends would soon get help, he breathed easier as he sprinted toward the guild.

It took him about twenty minutes of running at his top speed while downing stamina potions, but he made it inside the guild. He pushed his way past various people waiting in line. A large orc woman in warrior gear grabbed his shoulder, stopping him from going forward, and glared. “Wait your turn, kid!”

He didn’t have time to deal with this, so he yelled. “Emergency!” Then he pulled out of her grasp and darted between the first person in line and the desk. He slammed his guild token in front of the clerk. “Balrock’s Mine might have become a necrotic dungeon! We need immediate help and expertise.”

The clerk paled. “That’s serious.”

Without pausing, she ran in the back of the guild and started talking to other guild members, who then were sent out in various directions.

“You should have said that from the beginning! We would have moved,” the warrior yelled.

“No time. My friends fell into a hole with a bunch of zombies. I don’t know how long they’ll last or if Miner Val managed to grab a long enough rope for them.”

A catfolk woman in mage’s robes ran into the guild and jogged up to Kron. From the way she handled herself, he could tell she was in the higher levels. “I’m Hellvian. How many are in your party?”

“Aside from me? Two and a miner.”

She waved her hand. “Miners don’t count against who can enter a restricted dungeon like Balrock’s Mine. I can’t remember if five or six people is the limit.”

She pointed at the clerk. “Bring me Ruffulos and Inkan. And you,” she gripped the golem’s shoulders with a surprising amount of strength for a mage, “I need you to lead us to your friends. Rescuing them... or recovering their bodies is our first priority.”

***

Murr and I snuck around another corner, found an alcove, and froze. We’d managed to escape the massive pile of undead, but we were still on the second level of the mines. There could be monsters or zombies anywhere.

During a quiet moment, as we waited for a pair of zombie crabs to scurry across the floor, I had come to some conclusions.

There were definite signs that the mine had changed in some way. The mushrooms being pink were one thing. No one had mentioned that, and it seemed like a pretty weird phenomenon that would be commented on.

Another was Mrs. Dimcrab. She was on the first level, but when I looked at her details, it revealed that she lived deep in the mine. So what was she doing in the initial mining area?

There were also all those crabs that were near the entrance. From the information we gathered, it was supposed to be mostly lizard-dogs in the beginning area. The sheer amount of crabs we ran into should have given something away, but we were too new to adventuring.

We also should have listened to Mrs. Kron’s words about going to the guild the moment we found something off. But hindsight was useless at this point.

Another half dozen zombie crabs shambled past our hiding alcove. I peeked around the corner to see if they would leave the area, but just then, a few non-zombie crabs entered the hallway. The regular mobs started fighting against the undead. This was the perfect distraction.

I touched Murr’s shoulder and pointed down the hallway the zombies had come from. He nodded, and we both tiptoed past the fight.

Once we turned the corner, we skidded to a stop at the sight of a massive undead horde larger than the one at zombie hill. Most of these guys were covered in tiny pink mushrooms, but some of them even had large mushrooms growing out of their heads showing how long they’d been zombies.

Fortunately, they hadn’t noticed us yet.

Murr scowled at me, then whispered, “You just had to choose this way.”

“Oh, come on.” I whispered back. “This was the logical choice.” I grabbed his shoulder and had us slowly back out of the room.

My back slammed against something hard and round. I turned to see a large undead crab. Actually, there were several of them. Apparently, the zombies won against the live monsters.

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It lifted its claw, and I jumped back just as it tried to hammer my skull in. Instead, its claw crunched into the stone floor, sending cracks along its surface and making part of its exoskeleton shatter.

This also had the terrible side effect of causing all the undead in the room to look our way.

Murr started shooting his bludgeoning shot at the legs of any zombie that neared us.

“Do these guys seem more powerful than the previous ones?” I redirected a bite attack from a lizard-dog then broke its back legs with one swing.

“Is this really the time to be focusing on how strong they are?” Murr shot the legs of a crab, causing it to stumble before it attacked me. “We’re about to die! Just break their bones and let’s run for it!”

I used the same bone-breaking technique I had on the original zombies, but it didn’t work on these larger crabs. Elite crabs?

With a grimace, I slashed down on its leg while activating Thousand Will Do. It barely made a dent.

It shoved me back with its good claw and I slammed into Murr. We both fell further into the room.

These guys must have been mid-bosses, smaller than Mrs. Dimcrab but more powerful as if their strength was concentrated.

As the horde closed in on us Murr continued to break bones while I kept most of the zombies focused on me. I redirected their attacks and shattered legs where I could. Frankly, the only reason we weren’t overrun was because they were beyond slow. But as we fought, we were still forced deeper into the large cavern.

When we reached the middle, I noticed the largest mushroom I’d ever seen surrounded by a cluster of pink mushrooms. It was thick, rather than tall. Its cap opened up, revealing row after row of teeth-like thorns and a glowing hole that led down into its stem.

That was when it all came together for me. The mushrooms, the zombies, and a little fascinating fungus from my past life that infected ants and controlled them like undead.

This whole time, we were being led into a trap. Right here. To get eaten alive.

Was this the master mushroom controlling all these undead? If it was, we had to kill it, now.

“Murr, if we want to get out of here alive, we need to kill that mushroom!”

He turned towards it and his eyes widened. “Oh, shit!”

“I’ll hold off the mob while you attack it!”

I jumped at the nearest monster. From the corner of my eye, Murr turned around and shot a black shot at the mushroom. It bounced off its massive aura and hit my shoulder.

“Ow!”

“Sorry!”

“Try something else!”

I continued to hold the zombies back while he tried his various trick shots and cursed every time they didn’t work.

“What about your new dagger?” I asked as I deflected two attacks and crushed a couple of lizard-dog legs. Then I kicked a claw out of my way and used another Thousand Will Do on the big crab’s legs. It finally was sliced off, but there were more. It merely compensated for the loss and kept attacking me.

They just would not die.

“It’s not working. This thing’s aura is just too thick.”

Fuck. We might really die here.

My stamina was running out, and feeling hopeless wasn’t helping. I pulled out a yellow potion and downed it.

Unfortunately, the claw from the elite crab caught my arm as I was pulling the flask from my lips, and lifted me high into the air. Then it threw me into the mouth of the mushroom.

The first thing I did was try to get to my feet, but its massive cap closed. Its thorns dug into my armor.

“Sam!” Murr’s voice came from outside the mushroom.

I knew that if I tried to get out, those thorns would cut me, and if I stayed. The digestive fluid that was slowly dripping down its mouth would eat me alive. At least my face was safe. I wonder if the goddess had any more of those armor pieces. I’d use them even if I looked naked.

Also, I still had my swords. But the worst part was that I knew Murr wouldn’t last long out there without me. And while I suspected that this mushroom was the cause of the undead, that didn’t mean it wasn’t animating them with necrotic magic.

Which meant that Murr might really die if I didn’t do something.

I sank deeper into the glowing mushroom, then dropped down about eight feet into a shallow pool of acid that came up to my thighs. It started to seep into my armor and eat away at my skin.

Yeah, nope. I used Cover Body on my legs, but the digestive fluid constantly ate at my aura, draining me of energy.

I quickly downed a stamina potion to give myself time to think.

While my situation wasn’t good, at least there was air to breathe and space to move. Without thinking too hard about it. I sliced toward the mushroom’s skin, only to have my blades bounce off.

Well, that was shitty. And here I thought I could slice my way out of a giant monster. Too bad it had already evolved an iron stomach.

No. There had to be a way out of here.

I had to get back to Murr. He could be dying out there right now. Dying for good.

If I didn’t survive, I couldn’t see my family again. My mother, all of my little siblings, and, grudgingly, my crazy-ass-father who reeeeeaally doted on my mom. Even if death was always a risk for an adventurer, they would be sad if I didn’t come back.

Also, I refused to die without proving that I wouldn’t have been a burden to my ex-friends.

This led me to a hard fact. I needed a new attack.

While I’d tried various ways to make an armor-piercing skill, there was one idea I hadn’t fully explored yet.

Some acid ate through my aura and burned my feet and calves. I hissed as my mind blanked for a second. Then I renewed my Cover Body. Still, the pain from my injury made it very difficult to concentrate.

I pulled out a healing potion, one of my last few, and drank it.

I focused on my Aura Manipulation ability and pressed the tips of my swords to the glowing wall.

Concentrate. Auras had frequencies, as well as a variety of other strange properties. They weren’t exactly made from particles or waves, though. They were their own thing. I couldn’t define it with the science from my past life because it was essentially magic. Technically, it was a kind of body-based magic that didn’t have all the properties of mana, while also having some unique aspects to it.

While mana was collected from exterior sources, and divine energy was a blessing from the gods, Aura came from the body. That was the one truth everyone learned.

The acid ate through my Cover Body again. My legs burned. My brain became fuzzy. My legs wobbled so I locked my knees. Fuck. I needed to hurry.

I downed a health potion and a stamina potion and renewed Cover Body. If I didn’t do something fast, I would eventually run out of supplies. Then I would die a horrifyingly painful death. And possibly worse, everyone would say I died by getting eaten by a pink mushroom. One that had teeth.

This was not how I wanted to go!

Okay, if aura came from the body, then what if the frequency was similar to the heartbeat? But plants didn’t have a heart... but some, like trees, had pulses. Or were they more like oscillations?

So, change the frequency from something like a beat to an oscillation. Reverse it.

When I pressed my blades to the wall, it didn’t break through, but I felt something give. I was close. But I was also running low on stamina.

Then what other properties could I adjust? Maybe something like speed and heaviness?

I tested out different speeds and heaviness.

Cover Body gave out. My swords slipped past the aura into the flesh of the mushroom.

“Ow!” I downed another stamina potion and put Cover Body back up.

Congratulations! Through hard work and countless errors, you have created a new aura skill!

D Destroyer - Rank K - Pierces through your enemy’s aura defenses by canceling out your enemy’s aura frequency.

Finally! And what a fitting name.