Exactly like the leading necromancer had believed, the mist serpent that had similarly managed to escape from the dungeon core when it descended and reduced most of those who had ended up being dragged down into the ninth floor of the dungeon to building material for the undead kingdom that had already risen within the developed part of the dungeon-
Rumble-!
Found itself thrashing around wildly as an intangible power had grabbed hold of it amidst the empty expanse of the ninth floor that hadn’t yet been developed. Although it had managed to escape and avoid being reduced to building material immediately, it didn’t know anything about the danger it currently found itself in and had thus ended up clashing with the developing part of the dungeon. Drawing the attention of the dungeon core, who in turn immediately set its sights on devouring the mist serpent and integrating it into the ninth floor of the dungeon.
However, the mist serpent was still ultimately a monster that had managed to surpass the SS Rank, so it wasn’t exactly simple for the dungeon core, even in its current state, to forcibly devour it.
To ensure success, it had to pause development in some less important areas and instead focus more power towards dealing with the mist serpent. The very action the leading necromancer had been able to take advantage of to slip inside the developed part of the dungeon alongside the hundred or so still alive necromancers that had followed behind her. Luckily for both her and the weaker necromancers, the battle between the dungeon core and the mist serpent didn’t end fast and gave everyone more than enough time to slip inside.
Only after being worn down over ten minutes of extended thrashing around did the mist serpent run out of strength and found itself being dragged through the air at a terrifying speed before finding itself crashing directly against the oversized dungeon core that had turned into a miniature sun at the very core of the ninth floor of the dungeon.
Fwoosh~!
Not even managing to let out a single sound before it melted into the dungeon core and was turned into nutrients for the growth of the ninth floor of the dungeon. Allowing the dungeon core to create a mist sea like the one on the eighth floor of the dungeon that might very well give birth to another mist serpent of similar strength in the future.
From start to finish, the battle itself didn’t put much strain on the dungeon core itself, as it just had to slow down development in a few locations to handle the slightly stronger monster that was the mist serpent. Displaying just how terrifying the strength of the dungeon core was in its current state. A state that only the dungeon core understood couldn’t be used anytime other than during the process of floor expansion, as the resources required to keep itself in this kind of state was downright terrifying under normal circumstances and only the expansion of a new floor would allow it to sustain this kind of situation because of how the continued expansion of a floor also meant a constant stream of mana was being absorbed through the void that the dungeon existed inside of.
Without this constant stream of mana, it was simply impossible to keep up with its current state. If not, dungeon destruction would have been far harder to accomplish, as a dungeon core could simply switch on the terrifying power up whenever they were threatened and turn it off again a few seconds later when the danger was dealt with to avoid the resource drain.
In a way, it was this strange interaction between the dungeon core and the mana streaming into it from the void that allowed adventurers and others lucky enough to observe a dungeon core during this powered up state to learn new unique skills that were normally close to impossible to learn without the assistance of a dungeon core.
The reason being that one would either need an equally immense quantity of mana to play around with or directly gain an understanding of the mana that existed within the void that was home to dungeons.
The first was not possible given how downright terrifying the quantity of mana flowing through a dungeon core was at that time, while understanding the flow of mana within the void was an equally difficult endeavor that had stumped dungeon scholar and researchers since the discovery of the first dungeon in the ancient long forgotten past.
...
Unaware of the fact that the mist serpent that had chased them not that long ago back on the eighth floor of the dungeon had already perished at the hands of the dungeon core that had turned it into a brand-new sea of mist on the ninth floor, Scaly and Verdell continued their unimpeded path towards the dungeon core at the very heart of the ninth floor. Finding it increasingly strange how they didn’t encounter any especially powerful monsters along the way with the strongest amongst them barely reaching the level of an S Rank Monster.
Strange to the point that Verdell felt something was wrong and decided to have the two of them land on the ground to explore the ninth floor a bit more closely instead of rushing forward towards the dungeon core.
Not because he thought it was some elaborate trap created by the dungeon core, but if it knew about their presence, it would have long since swallowed them whole. Instead, he was worried that the monsters on the ninth floor of the dungeon might have been concentrated around the dungeon core and should they continue forward, they might end up flying directly into a swarm of powerful monsters.
Not a trap so to speak, more so a defensive measure the dungeon core might have arranged for itself when it inevitably finished the ninth floor of the dungeon and returned to its former weak state to recover from the exhausting endeavor.