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Late Evening - Late Fall : Deep Ocean (West of Central Sirathian Mountains)

-WAIT, THAT'S THE DUNGEON CORE?!- My jaw fell to the floor as I looked through the 35-meter wide and 70-meter tall glass wall. -The room must just be filled with some insanely dense ambient mana… It can't be that big, right?-

Not believing my eyes, I set my hand on the glass and sent my aura through it.

But the instant my aura finally got to the other side, my eyes widened. "It's actually.. a core..."

Stumbling backwards, I looked all the way to the top of the window and noticed the uniform wall of mana that made up the core was not only pressed up against the glass and adjacent walls but also the ceiling.

Just thinking about how much mana could possibly be contained in such a disgustingly massive core made me want to vomit, but some part of my instinct made me feel an endless hunger, a greed for strength unlike anything I had felt previously. -What if I absorbed it?-

Thankfully though, before I could do anything rash, the rational side of my brain finally caught up and squashed the thought.

But even still, that temporary, senseless greed I felt was so immense that it caught me off guard.

-Why did I even consider that?- Glancing back at the core, my face paled slightly, and a shiver passed down my spine.

-Even with how stupidly dense my reserve is.

. that much mana would make it too big to even fit in my dragon form, let alone my humanoid one. ..-

But as I stood there, dwelling in my thoughts, the greed I thought I had suppressed peeked through again. -Maybe I could just absorb everything I can when I'm here...-

As that thought passed through my mind, I subconsciously changed back to my dragon form and thinned the walls of my reserve as much as I could.

*vwooom* It was a bit surreal to visibly see the dense mana flowing around me start to bend into my body, but at the same time, the pressure I felt in my reserve ruined the moment.

"Ugh..." -I can never get used to that feeling.

..- But that uncomfortable pressure from absorbing as much as I could without rupturing my reserve just reinforced the fact that such a colossal dungeon core, although containing an unfathomable amount of mana, also accumulated more mana around it than I could actually handle.

-To think I can absorb so much and barely even affect the ambient mana around this thing. ..-

But as I sat there, focused on the mana around me, I heard a noise so quiet and subtle, that I almost passed it off for random ambiance. The issue was that I somehow could understand it as if it was a voice. A woman's voice. "~?? ?????? ????? ??? ????????? ????????? ??? ?????? ??????~"

Before a conscious thought could come to mind, my pupils dilated and locked onto the source of the sound, where the fabric of space was abnormally warped.

Although it could have been my eyes playing tricks on me, for a split second, I felt like I could see a humanoid silhouette, but by the time my consciousness caught up, it had completely vanished.

Still in fight or flight mode, I expanded my aura several-fold and paid close attention to the fabric around me.

But even after several minutes of intently watching it all, the warp never returned.

Once I eventually calmed back down, I sat down and took a deep breath.

"Hooh..." -Just what was that thing...- Although I didn't want to believe it, the voice was too clear to be simple mind tricks, and the unusual warp was something I had encountered previously.

-To think I really wasn't just imagining things last time either. ..-

Falling deep into thought, I sat there and tried to make sense of everything, but my thoughts were cut short by the structure suddenly tilting several degrees. *Creeaaakkk*

-What the?!- Understanding that the only thing that could move it so much was another monster, I hastily made my way into the docking area and outside, before darting up above the structure.

Almost immediately, I came face to face with a massive crab-like creature with a tall body and thick claws and legs trying to climb onto the structure. -Oh, it's one of you...- It was a type of crab that liked to lurk just outside the entrance to the dungeon, and a type I was very familiar with.

-How did you even get here...- I was more shocked it made it this far into the dungeon without dying than I was mad or annoyed. -In any case, I can't risk you damaging something in there.-

Immediately darting over to its massive 40-meter wide body, I dug my claws into its face and stretched out my wings to launch me towards the ground.

*Crackle* The crab's hard carapace cracked from the insane change in momentum before getting smashed against the ground. *CRUNCH*

As I pulled my arm out of the pile of shell, meat, and rubble, I couldn't help but glance back at my wings in awe. -To think they've gotten that much stronger in the past few months...-

Turning back towards the structure, I started thinking about the warp and voice again before finally setting it aside and taking a moment to think of the plan ahead.

But in the end, there wasn't much to think about. -I guess I'll meet up with Amara for the pilgrimage and just come back here to try and figure out how it all works whenever I get the chance...-

Although I wanted to come back right after the pilgrimage, I knew that if I found the things related to the Ancient Fenrir like I hoped, coming right back would be difficult.

-But thankfully, all of the devices in the control room seemed to be in working order, so it should be safe to leave this place for a while.

I should definitely check the corner before I go though. ..-

Quickly making my way back to the top of the cube, I tried my best to scan inside the walls of the structure and thankfully didn't find anything that looked too damaged.

Although the exterior damage to the corner looked quite significant, there was not too much actually in the wall aside from a few small sensors that just barely survived and some miscellaneous cables.

-It's not even leaking water somehow...- Although the corner was crinkled quite a lot, it still remained watertight.

-But, I'll add another layer to it just in case. ..-

Not wanting to risk water getting in the walls, I did my best to patch it up enough to not need to worry about it.

At the end of it all, the corner became the strongest part of the entire structure, and I was finally confident that I could leave the structure alone for several years without worry should the worst-case scenario happen.

-But hopefully, I won't need to wait so long to get back to work on the lab. ..-

Finally feeling content with leaving, I swam back under the structure and picked up the massive mana core. "Hoooh..." I had to take a deep breath to shake off some of the discomfort as I started absorbing it. -Well, time to head back to the surface!- *Vwoom*

As I hopped into the void, I felt unusually excited to finally return to the surface and see how much progress I had made.

-I've grown a lot stronger since I first came down here.

.. I honestly feel like I grew more in the past 4 months than in the whole two years on the surface but it may just be my imagination. ..-

*Vwoom* Popping back out of the void over the Laboratory, I turned for the entrance and started making my way to the surface.

*Rumble* The rumble of the thrusters was as loud as ever as I slowly but surely made my way back up through the 70 kilometers of water pressing down on me.

But, the longer I swam, the less the water pressure there was and the faster I started going.

After just a couple hours of blasting thrusters, I could finally see some light. -The surface!- *Splash-RUMBLE* As the thrusters threw me into the air, I stopped using them and closed my wings to 'lightly' flap them, but the force I used was the same as when I was at the bottom of the ocean.

*CRAAACK-FWOOOSH* I ripped through the sound barrier immediately, traveling nearly a dozen kilometers into the air in a single second. -Holy sh*t, I forgot to adjust my strength!-

Immediately straightening out my wings and blasting thrusters, I tried to slow down as fast as I could, but by the time I actually slowed down, I was just shy of 20 kilometers into the cold dark sky.

"Hooh..." I could see my own breath as I exhaled to calm my adrenaline, but my attention was quickly dragged away when I looked up into the unusually clear, and unbelievably colorful night sky. "W..wow..."

I felt like I lost my breath for a moment as my mind drowned in the beauty of the countless stars, massive nebulas, and distant galaxies dancing and twinkling around one another, with a clarity and vibrancy, unlike anything I had ever seen. -It's so.. beautiful...-