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The Dungeon.
August left his Supporter behind, changed his gear, and went into the next part of the Dungeon alone. He wasn't planning a big monster hunt today. His goal was to scout out possible routes.
He trusted his vehicle's scanners to search for hidden floors as his heavy off-road truck sped toward the Middle Floors.
Walking wasn't an option for him—he preferred to drive.
The truck, covered in thick military armor to withstand monster attacks, crashed through wide intersections and tight stone hallways.
Any monsters in its way beca nothing more than speed bumps.
Operating the onboard tactical terminal, August monitored the radar sweeps as he drove.
"Once I hit the eighth floor, the monster density spikes. But the mont the truck rolls through, they scatter. They know they can't crack the armor, and the Dungeon isn't throwing them into a pointless at grinder."
August checked the teletry data for the Upper Floors and realized what was happening. Except for the monsters he ran over, the rest were shifting their aggression toward other Adventurers instead of attacking him.
The Dungeon's Will was subtle, but it was clearly in control.
Hitting the eighth floor—the site of his very first Dungeon dive—August parked the truck and began investigating the adjacent caverns.
A quick scan showed sothing was off. The architecture didn't match the usual style.
"This wasn't carved out by the Dungeon," August muttered, checking his terminal. "This was excavated by humans..."
August stepped out of the armored cab and walked into a part of the floor with no monsters. This was a sub-level of the eighth floor. The Adventurer's Guild had mapped it, but the damage here didn't look like the usual results of Adventurer fights.
"Soone tried to glass this place with fire magic," August observed, running a gloved hand over the scorched stone.
The Dungeon usually kept a self-repairing ecosystem wherever monsters appeared. But this area felt lifeless. It wasn't a monster nest. His visor detected strong traces of leftover magical fire burned into the walls.
"This has to be a test site used by the Evilus." He analyzed the blast patterns. "They were actively trying to collapse the entire floor."
Getting this information was the main reason for his detour. Still, the politics of the dark factions weren't his concern. After recording the data, August got back in his truck and headed for the tenth floor.
The mont his tires hit the fog zone, the resident Orcs and Imps caught his scent and launched a frenzied ambush.
"Visibility is still terrible down here."
August kept driving without slowing down. He snapped his fingers, and a dozen automated turrets appeared, quickly taking out everything hiding in the mist.
Unlike his previous runs, August didn't stash the dropped Magic Stones into his inventory. Instead, he swept them up and dumped the massive pile straight onto the truck's passenger seat.
"Co to think of it, I've never run into the Xenos." He glanced at the glowing loot. "I wonder if this pile of rocks is enough to bait them out."
With the bait ready, August hit the gas and drove toward the eleventh floor.
The eleventh floor felt strangely calm compared to his last visit. The monsters didn't attack unless an Adventurer got too close. The truck's threatening presence kept them away. The monsters saw him as too dangerous and stayed back.
"So this is how the eleventh floor reacts."
The sll of death from his last battle seed stuck to the truck.
That, along with the energy from the pile of Magic Stones, made him a perfect threat. The Dungeon's monsters saw him as a top predator and kept their distance.
After logging the behavioral data for the eleventh floor, August pressed deeper.
The twelfth floor was the last stop before the Middle Floors. It was a huge cavern. Because of its layout, August focused on exploring. If the Evilus were active here, there had to be secrets hidden on this floor.
He parked the truck and carefully searched the area. He was determined to find what he was looking for. His digital maps showed that this level had uncharted sub-levels, with signs of old, man-made digging.
His sweep produced results.
August found several caverns marked by man-made damage. The destruction was so bad that the Dungeon's repair systems had stopped trying, leaving the stone broken for good.
'According to the lore, Ouranos projects his divine aura over the first twelve floors to suppress the Dungeon's pain receptors,' August recalled. If the ancient God wasn't acting as a buffer, this level of structural damage would have instantly triggered the spawn of a Juggernaut.
"Who's there?"
August quickly turned toward the shadows, his combat instincts kicking in. Soone was watching him.
From the intense feeling behind the gaze, he knew it wasn't human—it was a monster...
Down here on the twelfth floor, he didn't need to hold back. He could resort to heavy armor-piercing rounds. A massive 125mm smoothbore tank cannon appeared from the void, locking dead onto the source of the gaze.
A rumbling growl resounded from the dark corner.
An Infant Dragon ca out of the shadows, staring hard at August with its reptile eyes. The creature looked angry, but its body language was defensive. It was clearly wary of the huge cannon pointed at its head.
"An Infant Dragon..." August raised an eyebrow. "What the hell is one of you doing hiding in a sub-level?"
He looked the creature over. His instincts told him sothing was off—this beast was much stronger than the ones he had fought a few days ago. The energy coming from its scales was far above normal. This one was at least [Level 3].
More importantly, the beast was thinking. It was judging the danger of his heavy weapons and knew they were deadly. It wasn't attacking without a plan.
"A Xenos?" August muttered.
The creature was being careful. Instead of acting on instinct, it stood its ground and weighed its chances against the tank cannon. It was clearly intelligent.
The mont the word 'Xenos' left August's lips, the Infant Dragon flinched. It clearly hadn't expected a surface-dwelling human to recognize its true nature.
The Dragon let out a hot breath of air and raised its proud head, locking eyes with the human.
"..." It watched him closely.
At first, it had planned to rob him, but now it realized he was heavily ard.
Why try to rob him? August's passenger seat was full of Magic Stones. He had run over hundreds of monsters on his way down. To a Xenos, that glowing pile of loot was an irresistible, all-you-can-eat buffet. It planned to mug the lone human and score a free al.
But seeing the cannon pointed at its face made it clear this human was very dangerous, though still less cruel than the poachers who hunted its kind.
"Strange. Aren't you Xenos supposed to be holed up on the twentieth floor?" August asked. "What are you doing all the way up here?"
Judging by its strong presence, this beast wasn't newly born. It had survived in the Dungeon for a long ti. With the strength of a [Level 3] Adventurer, it was an elite among intelligent monsters.
In response to August's question, the Infant Dragon let out a quiet rumble and glanced toward the shadows at its flank.
A Silverback Ape stepped into the light. Unlike the huge brutes August had fought before, this one was about the size of a human. The fear in its eyes showed it was another intelligent Xenos.
"A Silverback Ape..." August noted.
Unlike the Dragon's calculating stare, the Silverback Ape looked at August with terror.
It wasn't curious. It was traumatized.
Deep in its mories were flashes of total destruction from the artillery attack August had used on its kind days ago. The Ape shook with fear, seeing August as a grim reaper. It whimpered and chattered at the Infant Dragon, trying to show how scared it was of the man in front of them.
The Infant Dragon blinked, taken aback by the Ape's frantic warnings.
It hadn't known this human was so terrifying. The Silverback was a new Xenos, just spawned on the twelfth floor. After a fight with so Adventurers, it ran into the sub-levels to hide. The Dragon had co up here to rescue its new companion.
But the Ape's fear was intense. Its terror of August seed to be part of its very being. The trauma and death from August's last attack had made the Dungeon create this Ape with extra awareness.
Thanks to the localized translation module Hestia had embedded in his mind, August could parse the emotional intent and crude linguistic energy emitting from the Xenos. He understood exactly what the Ape was saying.
"Hoh. So it's a fresh spawn," August chuckled, piecing it together. "Did my artillery barrage traumatize the Dungeon so badly it gave the respawns PTSD? Even after cycling back through the Dungeon, the fear is still hardwired into its mory."
August laughed. Running into this strange eting in an empty sub-level was the last thing he expected today.
"If I recall correctly, a pack of Infant Dragons orchestrated that massive ambush against ," August said, looking at the cowering Ape.
"Logically, after watching slaughter your frontlines with tank shells, basic survival instincts should have kicked in. You probably tried to desert the horde right before I blew you apart. That intense desire to flee must have carried over when the Dungeon recycled your soul, allowing you to respawn as a Xenos."
August quickly figured out where the Ape ca from. The trauma of modern battle had basically forced the monster to beco sentient.
The Silverback whimpered, scratching its head.
As August explained his theory, the Ape's scattered nightmares started to make sense. It matched what the human said. It rembered being pulled into a huge horde, forced to charge, and then being destroyed by loud, explosive weapons when it tried to escape.
The Infant Dragon's eyes suddenly widened in realization.
"YOU'RE AUGUST FROM THE HESTIA FAMILIA!!"
Over the past few days, Fels—the Xenos's secret sponsor—had circulated an urgent warning among the intelligent monsters. An anomaly of a human was sweeping the Upper Floors.
If they saw him, they were ordered to retreat imdiately. No hesitation. The man wielded incomprehensible, devastating weapons and slaughtered monsters with extre prejudice. Engaging him was strictly forbidden.
The Dragon cursed its luck. It had just co up here to rescue a lost sibling, and it walked right into the literal apex predator Fels had warned them about.
"You know who I am?" August asked, his translation blessing picking up the Dragon's panicked revelation. "Let guess... Fels gave you the heads-up?"
August guessed the skeletal sage had shared his profile with the Xenos. It made sense. August handled Dungeon runs like a machine—any monster he targeted beca a Magic Stone. Fels was probably afraid August might accidentally kill one of his precious talking monsters.
The warning was fair, but August had no interest in hunting sentient creatures for fun.
"You... you know Fels?" The Infant Dragon recoiled. It hadn't expected a surface-dwelling Adventurer to be on a first-na basis with their shadowy benefactor.
"You could say that. Thanks to him, I just got saddled with a very tedious quest," August replied casually.
August had a practical view of the Xenos. If a monster was smart enough to fear death and run from a fight, he wouldn't chase it just to increase his kill count. Unless they threatened the surface or he had orders from the Guild, he left them alone.
Monsters that broke free from the Dungeon's control and valued their lives were basically intelligent beings. Killing them felt more like murder than hunting.
August looked the two monsters up and down. "Still, lounging around the Upper Floors is a bad move for you guys. If you hang around here too long, you're going to run into one of those poaching Familias."
"It is fine. I have already secured my brethren," the Infant Dragon replied defensively. "I just need to lay low for a bit, and we can slip back down to the deeper floors."
The Dragon was four ters long. Moving through the narrow upper corridors without being seen was tough for a creature its size, but it had its own secret paths. It understood what August ant by 'poaching Familias.' Those groups hunted Xenos for profit.
Unlike August, who was scary but kind, the poachers were truly evil. They didn't care if a monster could talk or beg—they captured them and took them out of the Dungeon to sell. The Dragon had heard enough horror stories from survivors to know the risks.
"Since you're already here..." August cracked his knuckles. "How about you act as my sparring partner for a bit?"
He wanted to test his close combat skills against a smart, elite monster. August put the big truck back into his spatial inventory. Then he picked up the heavy sack of Magic Stones from the passenger seat and tossed it at the Silverback Ape's feet.
"Consider this your compensation for the spar."
The sack was overflowing. It had more than enough energy for the Silverback to level up. It wasn't enough for the Dragon to reach a new level, but as paynt for a spar, it was very generous.
"Are you serious?" The Infant Dragon stared at the sack of loot in disbelief. It hesitated for a mont, weighing the risk, before giving a slow nod.
The Silverback Ape, however, frantically tugged at the Dragon's scales.
"Is he going to use those exploding weapons??" the Ape chattered nervously. It hadn't forgotten the earth-shattering artillery that had wiped out its previous life. Those weapons could vaporize them in a heartbeat.
"Calm down," the Infant Dragon rumbled, cutting off the Ape's panic. "If this human wanted us dead, he would have blown our heads off the second we made eye contact."
The Dragon was smart... It had the clever mind of an elite predator. It knew that soone like August could destroy them easily if he wanted to. There was no reason for him to set a trap.
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