A few days had pa.s.sed since the incident that nearly killed Somnus. The absurd nature of magic compared to his understanding of chemistry and physics still hurt his now-meat brain. He realized that he still had quite a lot to learn about an entirely new model of the universe—one that only covered magic and its effects on the world.

The struggle to obtain this knowledge was not in vain. Somnus understood that, besides combining the elements and creating their compound forms, every force and phenomena in the universe had its type of mana or was related to it in some way.

After optimizing the refining process in a way that did not lead to death, his experiments ended up in a useless trash pile. Of course, Somnus's definition of "useless" and that of the inhabitants of the Dungeon were two completely different things. As such, the trash pile became more of a donation pile. Every monster from the Dungeon took an item or two of Somnus's discarded experiments.

Lod himself carried a silver sword with red-gold metal at its core, recovered from the trash pile. The sword itself was possibly one of the most dangerous weapons the world had seen in quite some time, but not quite up to Somnus's standards. Along the edge of the blade was a magic related to the Void—vacuum itself. There can never be a true vacuum, where no matter exists—that is what Somnus thought. However, Void-type magic was exactly that; Complete and absolute emptiness. The sword that Lod carried, along its edge, was laced with magic that collapsed s.p.a.ce itself into an empty dimension, but it would not erase it from the Information Dimension, the existence of which was proved with that very sword. Somnus did not think the weapon was useless, but it was merely an experiment. Its true application would be harnessed later. But for the monsters of the dungeons? It was unthinkable.

This is how they came to this place. Somnus learned that he did not need the Dungeon Core to learn about his skills or jobs. He simply had to say out loud, or think, the words "Skills" and "Jobs" to receive the information. That is when he learned about the skills of Void Sword, which he received for unlocking the Magic Slayer job.

Void Sword D+

[Information Layer Destruction]

Somnus understood that only those with the ability to "think outside the box", as the phrase goes, would understand what [Information Layer Destruction] meant—the true requirement for learning the Mana Knight job which was the basic cla.s.s of the Magic Slayer. Magic Circles were not physical phenomena even though they could be seen, unless hidden, in the EM spectrum. They also, themselves, did not interact with matter, block or bend light, or do anything normal things do. In other words, they were not part of normal s.p.a.ce.

Somnus soon figured out that magic circles exist in the Information Dimension as he called it, and nowhere else, specifically the Information Layer. Everything, from forces to matter, had Layers describing them in some way in the Information Dimension. Somnus did not know all of the Layers but he knew of at least two: The Information Layer and the Form Layer.

The silver sword Lod carried interfered with the Information Dimension, affecting the Form Layer of objects. However, it was not capable of interfering with the Information Layer—therefore, the sword could not cut magic circles. The latter was Somnus's intent and the inability of the sword to live up to expectations is why it ended up in the trash pile.

On the other hand, using the skill Void Sword, despite also having Void in its name like the magic type of the sword, Somnus could use an ordinary stick to cut through magic circles with ease.

Why was there such a stark difference? They both used the same type of magic but had such different results.

"What are you waiting for? Go terminate it," Somnus said, nodding to the door.

"But Master… it is dangerouses. Very dangerouses… Lod hungry… is true… but Lod end up as food…" the goblin whined, shoulders slumping defeatedly. "Lod no food… Lod taste terrible."

"Lod taste like goblin; Ugly and stupid." another goblin spoke. His name was Det and he was a Lieutenant in Somnus's armed forces—as Somnus promised to accept them all if they succeeded in recovering magical ores. His name came from an abominable misunderstanding of how the word "Destroy" is spelled.

Incidentally, Lod was the captain.

"Lod give Det sword. Det do it," the goblin said and then looked to Arcadia who was standing behind Somnus. "b.o.o.bs wait for Det. Det proves he strong. Stronger than Lod."

Arcadia covered her chest and a flash of anger burned in her eyes. Of all the nicknames the goblins gave her, Det's was the most barbaric.

"I am sort of lost… what is behind this door, my Lord?" Emily asked, standing next to Arcadia.

When Somnus did not appear to be interested in answering the question, Lod spoke up. "Dungeon expands. Dungeon finds new caves. Dungeon integrates new monsters living in caves." Lod nodded to the door. "New monster no pay rent or obey Dunge—Somnus. No obeys Somnus, must die."

Emily blinked and then nodded, glancing to Somnus. Why did Somnus even care? Was this another experiment?

"Master… if Lod go kill evil one, can Lod have meat? Lod must feed family…" Lod said. "Lod have two kids… and three wives… Lod must pays separation tribute… or wives kill Lod."

"Lod wives scary. Bigger than ork. Dumber than ogre," Det said, nodding his head. "Det single, though," the goblin added, glancing to Arcadia and showing her a smile full of broken teeth.

Arcadia grimaced.

"Commence operation," Somnus said, "or face consequences for insubordination."

Both Lod and Det frowned and without further complaints they pushed the door open.

Behind the door was a large chamber. Larger than even Somnus's throne room, which he took from Nezaras. The chamber was circular and the outermost ring was a pit filled with stakes, save for the bridge that led to the circular platform.

In the center of the chamber was a snake, about twenty meters long with fangs the size of a human person. It was coiled up, and very dead.

Standing over the corpse of the snake were two elves, a human and a dwarf. One of the elves wore clothes woven from forest leaves and plants, holding a bow, and the other one wore a white robe. The human wore black leather armor and had a shortsword in one hand, and a buckler in the other. The dwarf was in fully articulated platemail and wielded a ma.s.sive hammer with apparent ease.

As the door opened, the four adventurers looked at the two goblins and the three humans standing behind them.

"You are too late," the human said. "We killed this monster. Also, thank you for opening that locked door. This Dungeon belongs to us now, the Red Skulls guild. You may leave or die."

"They tooks my meat…" Lod whispered under his breath, eyes wild. "Lod wives gonna kill Lod. Lod doomed."

"The Red Skulls are raid-scouts for the Black Skulls… they are dangerous, my Lord," Arcadia said.

Somnus only half turned his head to glance at Arcadia from the corner of his eye, and then he looked to Lod. "Go terminate," he said. "Permission granted to keep meat."

Lod looked up to Somnus. "Really? But they is adventurers like master. Master forbids goblins from killing adventurers."

It was true. Somnus did forbid the monsters, including the goblins, from killing adventurers, but not because of some misplaced loyalty to his apparent kind—Somnus did not and will never see himself that way. He forbade them because he didn't want the outside world to know of his existence. To the adventurers outside, Arrod was a low level dungeon suitable only for beginning adventurers. Therefore, he allowed the "newbies" to kill the weak monsters on the upper levels, get some loot and then leave. None of those adventurers ever went deep enough to realize that Arrod has become a Heroic Dungeon.

But now the ruse was up. Somnus never expected that the Dungeon Core would connect its dungeon to what appeared to be another dungeon.

"Covert action no longer necessary. Time to take initiative. Terminate all invaders," Somnus ordered the goblins.

"What are you whispering over there? I warn you one last time, you stand no chance against us. If you leave, we will not kill you," the human adventurer said with an evil smirk. It was hard to believe they were actually going to let them go.

Det nodded, "Det put master's gift to good use!" The gift Det was talking about was [Gale Steps] and [Swordmaster]. Somnus taught Det the two skills, as he was a Lieutenant in Somnus's army. Not just Det, but also Lod. The two of them were terrifying fighters at a level of 60. Before the Dungeon Core upgraded, they were a measly level 12.

Det reached out for a throwing knife, with a leaf-shaped blade, which was hanging off his belt. This was another one of Somnus's failed experiments and, as far as Somnus was concerned, it was far inferior to Lod's sword. It had a special Formation that Somnus named [Distance Shrink] and another one called [Momentum].

As Det threw the throwing knife, it went through the air at a speed that was simply unreasonable. It reached the elf in white robes at the speed of thought and went straight through her head, as pink mist exploded from the wound on both ends.

Det appeared behind the elf, leaving just a mild breeze in his wake, and s.n.a.t.c.hed the still flying throwing knife out of the air. This was [Gale Step] and its [Windwalk] technique—a high-speed movement skill.

[Momentum] was a double edged sword. It provided immense power on impact, turning throwing knives into ballistas, but canceling the momentum was also like trying to catch a ballista projectile.

As Det caught the knife, it nearly ripped his arm out of its socket before he managed to activate the [Weapon Momentum Cancel] skill of [Swordmaster].

The surviving elf screamed as b.l.o.o.d.y mist settled over her.

Panic exploded in the boss room.