The sound of scraping stone encroached, its pace slow and steady. She knew the monster did not need to hurry as it had no need to catch her. If she wanted to pass, she would need to confront the monster within the stone walls tinted in a glowing red.

Rana dropped to one knee as she clutched her torn arm with the one that was still intact. Her mind was dulled and she felt a chill slowly expanding across her body. She was tired, and the fight to make it this far was not an easy one. Her left arm was listless and dangled upon cracked bones and rotten flesh. She glanced at her Status and quickly closed the window. Her guess was correct, she did not have much mana and health left.

Still, it was enough.

The pace in which the monster approached was slow, but it was definitely not sluggish. She made the mistake of assuming it was. The large shell it had on its back and the steely scales that covered its legs gave it an impression of a miniaturized fortress. She was wrong and she paid a price she did not feel comfortable paying. Still, once the monster showed its hand, all that was left was for her to grasp victory.

The scraping of stone was heard within the walls and every scratch was clear and louder than the previous one. It then stopped.

Rana rolled to the side as an open maw snapped forward, out of the walls, and towards where she was. She gritted her teeth and ripped her arm off and tossed it to where the monster opened its mouth. The fangs clamped down and swiftly retracted back into the wall, claiming its prize, and little did it know that the prize was a bomb.

She felt her torn arm being gnawed by sharp teeth, but she also felt the mana she stored within surge with a wave of fiery crimson anger. There was a muffled blast within the walls and dust fell from above as the ground shook slightly. The hostility was no more.

Rana sighed her relief and examined her now absent arm. The monster had strong jaws. Her jacket was intact, but whatever flesh and bone beneath was crushed with just one bite. Still, the function of her zombie body was rather mysterious. It seemed like she was still connected to parts of her body even if they were severed. She knew that already, but the fact that she could actually suffer no damage by tearing away a half-torn arm herself was new.

Personally, she would like to test the limits of her body further, but the lack of means to replenish her health made it rather impossible.

Rana rubbed the bump that was now her left arm. It was no longer a horrifying mess of protruding bone and dangling skin. Her left arm was blown to pieces deep within the walls, along with the monster that attacked her. It seemed like her special physiology provided quite an advantage against the monsters of this Dungeon.

The monsters of this Dungeon could all move freely within the walls of the Dungeon as if they were swimming in water instead of being stuck in solid ground. She initially thought it was a specific ability of the mutated Wave Weaver, but it turned out it was a trait of Sunset Spears.

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This trait made fighting the monsters difficult. They had the walls as protection, whether as a shield or an impediment that no human could go through, and could mask their presence and attack from angles they normally could not. This trait, however, could also be abused. The stones that made up the walls were not something special. The only notable aspect was the red-tint that shaded their exterior from the inside as if the core was providing the walls energy.

That was when she realized the truth behind this trait.

When Rana exploded the path that connected the platform and the tunnel, she cut off the connection the platform had with the core and its energy. When that happened, it was as if a solid rock suddenly materialized within the body of the waver weaver, chomping the monster in half. This was the same way she defeated the monster just now. The explosion created chunks of stone that were disconnected from the core. It was like if hundreds of shrapnel suddenly materialized within the body.

Still, to think her arm would go into the wall once it was consumed by the monster.

However, that was not important. What was important, was the giant monster that the expedition encountered outside the Dungeon. If what she discovered here was the truth, then the implications would be too dangerous for her to stay. She had to get out, and not just because she had to escape, but also to prevent the worst-case scenario.

Rana checked her Status and drank a vial of life-essence. She now had one more remaining. Her health did not fully recover, but it was enough for the time being. She was close to where she wanted to be, but the remaining distance was not as short as she would’ve liked. The chance of encountering a monster was very real, and her remaining resources and strength were only barely enough.

There was only one option.

Rana ran.

Her steps thundered within the tight corridors and each echo aroused more and more hostility lurking within the stone walls. It reminded her of the time when she was running away from the Rot Eaters and their Rot Mother. She was insignificant and her life was a flicker of fire in the wind that could’ve been easily extinguished with but one wrong move. That was how weak she was. That was how weak humans were.

However, unlike the time when she was running away in fear and when the knowledge in her mind was nothing but strange recollections and a cascade of pages in a book without rhyme or reason, she was no longer a lost sheep. She regained her memories and experience, and now, she was running with a clear intent and goal. The direction she ran towards was not driven by fear, it was a decision based on the most optimal course of action.

The attacks came but she weaved through each one of them without slowing down. The Dungeon was filled with aquatic creatures that gained the ability to swim in stone, but their main traits remained. Most of them only had close range forms of attack, and their long-ranged ones risk destroying the walls and the solid water they moved in.

Her mind was in overdrive, calculating each possibility of where the attacks would come and where she could go with the minimum damage. She used the chains to pull her and allowed her physically impossible movement angles. Her blades of ash swirled and exploded, changing the enemy trajectory just ever so slightly so that she had an opening to pass through.

Rana ran. She did not know for how long. She didn’t stop until she could no longer sense any hostility, and her mind that piloted her body through instinct alone finally returned to normal. She walked into the faint glow of a setting sun and found herself returning to the surface.

In the distance were smoke and the signs of continuous battle. The expedition from Nye was still battling with those from other cities, and all those participants were oblivious to the danger that would soon follow.

She sighed. She still had to run.

Rana hurried to the battlefield.