A few hours earlier, before the Scaly and the rest who had avoided falling into abyss leading to the blank dungeon floor where the dungeon core was hard at work, the towering mist serpent and the bone construct under the control of the leading necromancer both crashed into the blank and empty landscape with nothing of note in sight outside of the bright core that had turned itself into a miniature sun at the very core of the blank floor. Becoming the sole thing of interest as the empty ground around it had already begun shifting and transforming into all sorts of shapes and sizes. Lowing to create a bottomless abyss at one point, while raising the ground to create a towering mountain the next seconds.
The simple fact that a mountain of massive lake could be created in a few short seconds was a clear show of just how powerful the dungeon core was in its current state and at the same time also made both the mist serpent and the leading necromancer halt their battle with one another after landing. Both understood that their current situation wasn’t one either of them would get out of alive if they insisted on continuing their battle.
If anything, continuing to fight might result in the two of them turning into building material for the ninth floor of the dungeon, something both wanted to avoid for obvious reasons.
Still, avoiding death on a blank dungeon floor was far from simple, as the best way to survive when one landed within a blank dungeon floor would be to land somewhere the dungeon core and already finished its work and finalized said part of the ninth floor of the dungeon. Landing anywhere outside this already finished plot of land that simply didn’t exist at the moment, was a death sentence for most given how one would have to pass through the expanding development ring of the dungeon core and had to face the power of the dungeon core head on.
Well... Not exactly head on, as in that case, even a powerful monster like the mist serpent stood no chance of survival. One had to look for areas in the expanding development range of the dungeon core where less power was being allocated by it and try to pass through those areas when the dungeon core momentarily focused its full attention on creating some important areas that demanded most of its attention.
Of course, even with most of the attention dedicated elsewhere, the ninth floor of the dungeon would continue forming and only those weakened areas that already had little to no attention from the dungeon core would lose power for a few minutes. Allowing one to safely pass through those areas if one was fast enough.
But even then, one wouldn’t be safe from the dungeon core, as it might go backwards and change around a few things, something that was impossible to avoid. Only getting closer to the core where the terrain was in a more complete state, would one be able to avoid the situation of safely making it through the expanding circle of dungeon floor development under the control of the dungeon core only to get killed off when the dungeon core decided to change the tree you happened to pass under.
Thud~
As she was lost in thought thinking about how to deal with the current situation. Having shifted her attention away from the mist serpent that no longer proved to be an enemy worth fighting, the leading necromancer still firmly standing on top the bone construct was startled by a sudden loud thumping sound behind her. Forcing her to turn her attention away from the dungeon core in the distance and instead shift it towards the location of the loud sound-
"An undead...?"
And what she saw on the ground caused her to freeze for a few brief seconds before another similar sound woke her back up again and made her look up. Only to see what looked like countless undead, skeletons and monsters alike of all shapes and sizes raining down from above.
Normally, this wouldn’t have been much of a problem given how she and the mist serpent had long since cleared any living and dead that might have been close to their battlefield, but the abyss they had fallen into before landing on the blank dungeon floor was strange and the monsters, undead and skeletons that should have landed around them far from where they had landed, had appeared directly above the two of them, the few earlier ones missing only by a few meters.
Even if those countless bodies raining down from above didn’t have the strength to kill either of them given the vast disparity in strength, millions of bodies landing on top of her wasn’t something easy to dig out through. After all, she wasn’t made up of mist like the mist serpent was- or that was at least what she had wanted to say, but after fighting with the mist serpent, it became clear that the monster wasn’t entirely made of mist but carried some kind of core inside its body that couldn’t turn into mist.
Meaning, the mist serpent also had to avoid the bodies that would come raining down from above in another few seconds.
Outside of this problem that had already made her issue a command to the bone construct beneath her to escape, there was the much large problem of the massive commotion caused by millions of bodies landing would draw the attention of the dungeon core and could potentially result in these bodies becoming perfect fertilizer for the dungeon core to create some kind of special building or unique landscape where they landed.
After all, while the dungeon core might be expanding outwards in a circular manner, it was only doing so because it was the most efficient form of dungeon expansion and wasted the least resources according to the endless research papers written by those dungeon researchers from the Adventurers’ Guild.
Though it might be resource inefficient to start working on an area outside the expanding circle of development, the countless bodies more than made up for the potential lost resources and would make such a move beneficial in the eyes of the dungeon core who would undoubtedly be more than happy to make full use of so many free resources.
But what was consumed also determined what could be created by the dungeon core and with so many undead, skeletons, monsters and even necromancers about to be swallowed up by the dungeon, there was a good chance that the place they landed was going to become a holy land for necromancers like herself.
In fact, with the number of beings about to get swallowed by the dungeon core, she wondered if it might be possible that the swirling sands dungeon turned into an undead dungeon, a place a necromancer like herself held in the highest regard because of the large number of skeletons and undead without any owners they produced.
The ninth floor of the swirling sands dungeon turning into a place like that made her reconsider any of her earlier plans of seizing the dungeon core, as a dungeon floor this deeper would be able to regularly supply SS Rank undead and skeletons for the Eternal Life Sanctum and potentially also had the ability to produce undead and skeletons that had surpassed the SS rank.
Undead and skeletons of that level were incredibly rare and difficult to procure and every single source of those powerful skeletons and undead was monopolized by the Liches of the Eternal Life Sanctum along with a few ancient Crypt Guardians that had lived far longer than someone like herself. Reaching a level that even made some Liches fear them.
Even if she had to give up her own advancement, it would be worth it if she could get her hands on such a place, even if it was temporary as she would inevitably have to run away once the true power makers within the Adventurers’ Guild shifted their attention to the swirling sands dungeon.
After all, while what had happened earlier might not have been enough to draw the attention of those senior figures within the guild, once news of the dungeon expanding and the appearance of three being above the SS Rank reached them, the guild would mobilize in earnest.
And when that happened, even those old liches and ancient crypt guardians had to run, let alone someone like her, who was still lacking behind those upper echelons of the Eternal Life Sanctum.
Bang-! Thud~ Thud~
As more and more monsters and undead alike began crashing into the ground all around her, the leading necromancer solemnly glanced back in the direction of the dungeon core. Pushing her own thoughts to the back of her mind for now as she made a quick escape before the true danger could descend. Relying entirely on the bone constructs speed to get as far away as possible.