The new area is the same height and width as the original core room, but instead of gray brick, pure rock walls. Hilda recognizes the material of the walls that the workmen have had so much trouble chipping away and breaking through. She enters with leaden feet, alert to discover any traps, be they threads or pressure plates. A bitter smile unconsciously creeps on her face, because now Hilda knows she was right to be wary of Arrax's crazy invention.
The place is more brightly lit than conventional dungeons. The torches on the walls, though helpful, inspire low confidence because each contains fire inside a human skull. Hilda approaches the torches and tries to recognize the features of her subordinates in the neat skulls. She frowns as notices malformations in the skeletons, as if they belong to people with wider foreheads and jaws than normal. Deciding to ignore the torches on the assumption that they are some kind of Dungeon Core trick, she returns to analyzing the chamber.
Not counting the entrance, there are three tunnels that go in unknown directions; the one on the left goes to a place from where a deep smell of herbs and humidity spreads; the path located at the bottom center, goes to a mysterious darkness from where constant sounds of heavy pendulums can be heard; and the one on the right emerges a strange steam.
The warrior was ready to take the front path, but a voice calls behind her back.
"Hilda," Lynel enters and the female captain turns to look at him. The man approaches until stands next to the woman, and probes the surroundings with a conflicted expression. "So it's true, the core was doing something wrong... Was Claus' helmet really mistaken?"
For Hilda that question doesn't need an answer, it's obvious that the core was waiting for them to let their guard down to act and spread.
"Did you see soldiers on the way here?" asked the woman with the eyes fixed on the center tunnel. Lynel clarifies that he did not see any.
"Do you think the core secretly killed them? That would be impossible! We would have found out when the troop count was taken"
"We've been divided and tired these days, worried about new attacks from underground, more concerned about the future than what lies ahead. Even our fun is limited to training and preparing for combat. Tell me, Lynel, how much sleep have you had since the invasion?"
"Maybe about seven hours... It's hard to sleep when I know that everyone is working hard to help the kingdom. Even his majesty is keeping awake. How much sleep have you had, captain?"
"No sleep at all"
"Nothing?! I find that hard to believe. You always seem so composed"
"Like you, Captain Lynel, I find it difficult to rest when I know the job is half done... Or when I feel a threat growing under my nose. Not that this trait of mine is to my credit either... Captain Claus sleeps like a baby, and he's still the strongest of us, even if it bothers Axel deep down"
"If only those two would get here soon, we'd be done with this dungeon before lunchtime," Lynel squints and assesses the routes. "The center one seems to be the main path"
Hilda nods, agreeing with the theory.
"The secondary paths usually contain treasures and useful things, clues to solve riddles, keys, even healing objects," Lynel reports, recalling an adventure manual he read many years ago. "Some people say about dungeons being tests imposed by the gods"
"There's nothing sacred here, Captain. They just like to play games with us," Hilda says in a voice that gives no space for debate, "Would you agree to go right while I take the left-way?"
"Are you sure about separating forces, Captain?"
"A multiple and fast approach from several flanks. It will give the core less room to think and maneuver, I believe"
"Well... If you say so... You have more experience in this than I do" agrees Lynel, who prefers to fight in tournaments or wars than in claustrophobic corridors full of traps and riddles. Before he could ask Hilda for advice on how to proceed, the woman was already walking away in the direction of the plant-scented tunnel.
Hilda moves forward with a determined expression, aware that what she told Lynel is a hoax. When dealing with a dungeon that has never been mapped or explored, it is recommended going in a large group and with great care. But it is true that Hilda wants to destroy the core with her own hands.
She clenches her fist and stops in the curve of the tunnel. For an instant the footsteps echoing make her feel like a novice adventurer again, and that brings back dark memories... But Hilda quickly regains her composure and resumes her determined gait.
The tunnel is not descending, a detail that makes her understand that she's still on the 1st floor. That gives her confidence, the first few floors of newborn dungeons are usually easy for any experienced warrior. But of course, this is not a conventional dungeon but the creation of a wizard with too high aspirations. There could be surprises.
The fresh, heavy, slightly sweetish scent becomes more intense the further you go.
"[Breathing style: Pure Breath]" She whispers power words that help regulate her breathing. She learned the technique after suffering terrible pain from noxious gases and airborne poisons. Expends Ki while maintaining the breathing style, but it is a cost preferable to risking inhaling any dangerous or lethal substance.
The tunnel widens and two torches at the bottom indicate the entrance to a new area. Hilda crosses the stone threshold.
The cavernous area is low-ceilinged and compact in size, it can be traversed in its entirety with 15 steps. Moss, vines, grasses, and all manner of weeds grow on the floor, walls, and fall from the ceiling, greenery hydrated by an incessant drip and a fresh water well in the center of the room. Oval, red to yellow-skinned elements, which Hilda sees for the first time, dangle from branches peeking from cracks in the walls.
Hilda takes a stride and throws a slash, cutting one of these strange ovals in half, thinking it is the eggs of some monster. Yellow pulp and juice leaps out and stains her sword. The warrior brings the blade close to her face and looks for some corrosive capacity. She also notices the cut oval, now lying in the grass, with no small corpse escaping from its center. Hilda changes her theory, it's not an egg, but something else, probably something bad.
"FOR THE GODS! YOU...! I DON'T BELIEVE IT!"
Lynel's scream startles her. She rushes back into the central chamber, finding Marnie lying panting on the floor. Hilda ignores the disciple and invades the third tunnel, breaking through the steam to try to save the captain from the terrible fate prepared by the Dungeon Core.