After the long-awaited lunch—at least, according to Rue—we stepped back into the pink fever dream. We waited a few minutes, expecting the lightning, but the landscape just... sat there. So, we shrugged and headed toward the step-path. The moment we reached the first step, a lightning bolt slammed into the ground about twenty meters from us. It flared and winked out, leaving nothing behind.

"Was the bolt defective?" Mahya asked, squinting at the scorched spot.

"Maybe it was a pilot-bolt before the real show," I joked.

That was when the earth warned me. Not my premonition, but the earth itself. My connection with her strengthened sharply from her end, and a warning pulsed reached me. Strangely, my Perception and Luck stayed completely quiet, as if they hadn’t gotten the memo.

"Something in the ground," I said, and shoved my mana sense into the earth. Three somethings were tunneling toward us. Fast.

The first reached Mahya.

"Mahya, jump!" I shouted.

She did, just as a familiar green snake head with four glittering eyes burst out of the ground where she'd been standing. Al moved and sliced its head clean off before I could react. Another two exploded out of the dirt just as Mahya landed. She pivoted and cut both in a single stroke. I didn’t even have time to check their level, but we knew the monsters.

"Tuanela burrowers," Mahya and I said in unison.

"The bestest yummy snake!" Rue exclaimed, and the pure, blinding joy that shot down the bond almost made me stumble.

The first snake started to disperse.

Rue’s joy cracked, then shattered into horror. An overwhelming wave of sorrow and defeat slammed into me like a punch. He drooped where he stood, tail sinking, ears flattening, and head hung low.

"Rue hate monsters," he mumbled mournfully.

The second batch consisted of five snakes, and this time, I caught their levels—35. We handled them the same way. I sensed them, and they cut them.

Then came the third bolt, and this one dropped something new. And weird.

Seven creatures hit the ground in a tangled heap. They were canine-ish in shape, but all wrong. Gaunt, skin with no fur stretched tight over bones, looking half-starved and half-decayed. Bone ridges jutted out of their spines, and each one had two heads, both snapping and snarling, with glowing red eyes that screamed do not pet. All of them were level 37.

Al groaned.

Mahya darted in and sliced one of the heads clean off the closest one. It kept coming. Didn’t even flinch.

"Take to the air," Al said quickly. “John, use ranged healing.”

I ducked under a lunging jaw full of yellow fangs and looked over at him, completely lost.

"They are undead," Al said, voice flat and annoyed. "From a dungeon I cleared before I got my class. They are especially susceptible to life mana; it burns them."

After that, it was a fast cleanup, and my Ranged Heal spell even went up two levels.

Next came Rue’s personal contribution to the nightmare buffet. Nine cats. Not the small, weak ones he demolished in the Tuanela dungeon. These were the final boss versions. Or more precisely, the ones they would’ve turned into if we hadn’t collapsed the dungeon. They were massive, with sleek black fur that shimmered like oil in the light, eyes glowing with killing intent, and the highest agility I saw to date from a monster. Level 39 all of them.

They had a lot going for them: speed, power, homicidal grace, but sadly for them, no wings. We had swords/flight and the wind element. That gave us the edge, but even from the air, they were a pain. Too damn quick, darting and leaping like parkour champions on caffeine. Bullets, wind blades, and crossbow bolts mostly missed. But with sheer determination, aerial harassment, and Mahya cursing like a sailor with a stubbed toe, we got the job done. Eventually.

The last batch was another mixed bag, all of them at level 40, and after the cat circus, we didn't take any chances, but stayed airborne. The final snake burst into motes of light that shimmered for a second, then coalesced into a bone dagger that clattered to the ground. I landed, picked it up, and gave the tip a casual poke against my finger.

Mahya’s voice shot through the air like a whip. “What are you doing?!”

“Checking if it has poison,” I said, watching the tiny drop of blood bead up.

She stared at me like I had lost my mind. “And?”

I cast Neutralize Poison, feeling the spell soak through my body like a warm towel. Then cast it again. And again.

“Yep. Poison. Strong one.”

At least the spell leveled up. Four more levels and it’d finally hit the first threshold at ten.

Mahya reached out to smack the back of my head, but I caught her wrist mid-swing. “Don’t.”

“That was stupid,” she said, glaring at me.

“No, it wasn’t. I have Neutralize Poison, remember?”

She narrowed her eyes, clearly debating whether arguing was worth it. Then let her hand drop with a mutter.

“I wonder why we didn’t get anything from the dark mana submachine guns,” I said.

“Probably because the scrolls erased them from existence,” Al said.

I let out a sigh.

“Don’t look so depressed,” Mahya said, arching an eyebrow. “The loot here is shit.”

“Yeah, but it’s still loot,” I said. “I like loot.”

Mahya went to collect pink trees for our future lakeside village, and Al went to collect purple bushes for his future potions. I watched them for a moment, then let my thoughts drift back to Earth. And dungeons.

I knew the integration had started there. That bizarre class offer I got was proof enough. I had no idea how far along it was or how people were coping, but I didn’t need to guess. For a lot of folks, it was probably chaos, fear, and way too many things with teeth. Still, even with my less-than-thrilled attitude toward combat, I had to admit that dungeons had their charm. In a twisted, mildly traumatic sort of way.

They were also an amazing source of resources. Just the amount of ore we pulled from this place alone was ridiculous. And that was before counting the trees, the plants, the tools, and weapons in various dungeons, and whatever the final reward turned out to be. Dungeons were treasure troves. Dangerous, sure, but profitable as hell.

And that got me thinking. Back on Earth, most wars in history started because someone wanted what someone else had: land, gold, oil, water, and resources. People didn’t start wars for fun; they started them because they wanted the stuff on the other side of the border.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

The British didn’t take over India out of boredom. They wanted the spices, the silk, the cotton, and the tea. Basically everything that made life comfy back home. The Opium Wars? That was Britain muscling into China to protect their trade profits, even if it meant forcing opium down people’s throats. The Middle East? Half the conflicts there had a nice oily core. Even World War II had resource grabs baked into it. Germany needed more land, more fuel, more everything.

So what happens now, when countries start looking at dungeons like glittering underground oil fields with monsters on top? Will they send troops to secure the portals? Slap a flag on them and call dibs? Will someone destroy a city to take control of a dungeon spawning in its center? Would wars now be about who gets access? Who gets to go in first? Who gets to sell the loot?

I sighed and shook my head, pushing the thoughts aside before they spiraled into full-blown doom forecasting. It wasn’t my planet anymore. Not my circus, not my flaming dungeon portals. Even if there were monkeys involved. Still, even without wars, I had no doubt they’d eventually wrap the whole thing in enough red tape to strangle a dragon. Bureaucracy always found a way.

Mahya and Al had finished demolishing the landscape, and I took another picture. Now the place looked apocalyptic, but in my opinion it was better. Or maybe not better, but more fitting. With the churning skies above and the disgusting feeling coating my mind, the cheerful candy colors had created a strong dissonance. Now, with deep holes in the ground where trees once stood, no plants in sight except for a few brown empty stems, and an overall appearance of “after the apocalypse,” it matched my mental image of what a place like this should look like.

image [https://i.imgur.com/TGaWB3K.jpeg]

image [https://i.imgur.com/lWpVA5h.jpeg]

Back in the hall, the first three doors they tried didn’t budge, but the fourth one creaked open without a fuss. This time, I wasn’t even that surprised by what was inside. Maybe I was getting immune to the complete lack of dungeon logic.

Nah… probably just numb to it.

The door opened into a massive room, round and sunken, clearly artificial, though nature had done its best to reclaim it. The walls were made of stone, or maybe concrete, covered in thick roots and dark vines that pushed their way through every available crack. A shallow pool spread across most of the floor, dotted with giant lily pads and bright orange flowers that looked like oversized lotuses. Some of them were nearly as big as my torso.

Above us, part of the ceiling had collapsed, leaving a wide opening that revealed flashes of lightning and the edge of what looked like an ancient ruin. Soft orange lights hung from the roots overhead, casting a dim and moody glow. The water was clear, almost suspiciously, with a faint green-blue tint hinting at magic.

I pulled out my camera and waited. The moment the lightning flared, I took the shot.

image [https://i.imgur.com/95ys1Fz.jpeg]

Once again, nothing showed up on the surface. Just calm, clear water pretending to be harmless. I crouched at the edge and dipped a finger in, sending a ripple of mana through the pool. The surface shimmered, and like before, something answered.

I raised a hand, focused, and a water bubble the size of a small hot tub lifted lazily into the air. Inside it, three fish wobbled mid-bubble. Ugly things. Each one looked like a piranha that had gone through a combat-focused evolution path: oversized jaws, too many sharp teeth, and fins and tails bulked up like they’d spent every moment in the gym. All muscle and menace. Each of them tagged level 43.

We squinted at them in synchronized suspicion.

“Maybe the toothy fish from the Mana Occurrence?” Mahya offered, arms crossed, eyes narrowed.

Al and I both nodded slowly. I didn’t have a better guess, and I wasn’t in the mood to argue with something that had biceps in its tail.

I clenched my fist. The water pressure inside the bubble spiked, and the fish collapsed in on itself with a satisfying crunch. Their remains dissolved into neat little mana crystals before the bubble splashed harmlessly back into the pool.

A new bolt hit the water.

Five eels slithered up into my next bubble. Long ones. They thrashed around with jaws full of needle-thin teeth, like they were born to make people regret swimming. If the fish were the gym bros of the Mana Occurrence, these were the nightmare noodles.

“Yeah,” I muttered. “We’re definitely revisiting the Mana Occurrence. At least it’s not the wooden cats we had trouble killing,” I added, trying to find a bright side.

“Shh!” Mahya and Al said at the same time, both turning on me like I’d just dared the dungeon to make it worse.

“What?” I said, throwing my hands up in the air. “You keep insisting that dungeon cores aren’t sentient. So why are we shushing me?”

“Just in case,” Mahya said.

While we bickered, I crushed the eels. Another bolt followed.

This time it was seven mega-jumbo shrimp. I swear they were shrimp. Except they were the size of horses, had rows of serrated teeth, and eyes that didn’t blink. They flailed in the bubble like they were trying to chew their way out. Level 37.

Squash. Crystals.

Then came the frogs. Nine of them. Big, ugly, muscular things with extra teeth and legs that looked like springs. They tried jumping even while suspended in the bubble, smacking against the inner surface like angry toddlers in a bounce house. Level 39. I was very proud of myself for identifying each creation.

Squashed again. More crystals.

The last batch that came up was a mixed party of pure chaos. I couldn’t even tell what half of them were. They were the same creatures as the separate groups, but they had tangled so badly you couldn’t tell heads from tails. They snarled, slashed, and immediately turned on each other, trying to rip each other apart while still floating helplessly in the water bubble I was holding up like an aquarium tour guide.

I let them wear each other down, thrashing and snapping until their rage turned sluggish. Then I closed my hand. The bubble compressed, and the last batch popped like overripe fruit. The water hissed, mana surged, and that was it. Fight over.

Our reward this time was a trident.

It floated in the middle of the bubble for a moment before I lowered it to the ground. The thing was ugly. Made of dark metal, jagged tips, and had some magic script on it. I didn't even need to "read" it to know it was cursed. We all stared at it in silent disappointment.

Mahya wrinkled her nose, then sighed and stepped forward. “Fine,” she muttered, grabbing it and tossing it into her Storage like she was taking out the trash.

I turned back to the water and raised my hand again. A fresh bubble formed, gliding across the surface, collecting every crystal from every round. Dozens of them swirled inside the sphere, sparkling faintly in the orange light.

Then I pulled out my core and chucked it into the pool.

“Why?” Mahya asked, watching it sink with a frown.

“This water is so saturated with mana it’s practically liquid mana,” I said.

“It is liquid mana. Just in a recognizable form,” Al said.

“Exactly. So my core’s going to love it.”

Before my core finished “drinking” all the water, Al jumped in and collected all the plants.

“Why didn’t you wait till all the water was gone?” I asked.

He shot me a dirty look. “Because your core eats everything.”

I hovered near the edge of the water room, eyeing the opening above. The ceiling had collapsed, leaving what appeared to be a clear way out, and my curiosity was driving me crazy. I wanted to see what was outside and check if I could see the mansion from a different angle, so I flew up.

I slammed into something that absolutely wasn’t air. My whole body jolted as electric currents danced across my skin, stinging with a thousand tiny needles. I dropped back fast, wobbling midair as my limbs twitched. The illusion shattered. Where the opening had looked clean and real a moment ago, I could now see the dungeon’s hazy barrier. It rippled faintly, almost like it was laughing at me.

Well, that answered that.

Back at the hall, another three doors didn’t budge.

“I wondered if the doors are for decoration purposes only, or if we have to do something to unlock them,” I said.

“No idea,” Mahya said.

The next door opened into another outside view.

This one led to a winding stone path that stretched toward a mountain so tall, its peak disappeared into swirling clouds. Lightning danced across the sky in constant, silent flashes, branching in every direction.

But the part that really caught my attention was the plants. Everything on the ground was red. Not autumn red, but glowing, almost bloody red. The bushes, the trees, even the small leaves scattered across the rocks were the same deep crimson. It looked like the landscape had been painted with blood.

I took a picture, but didn't step forward. Not yet. I just stood there, watching the sky tear itself apart, surrounded by plants that looked like they wanted to eat my shoes. Rue stayed beside me, probably didn’t want the plants to eat his booties.

Mahya and Al looked back, waiting for us.

Oh well. If they try to eat me, I’ll stomp them.

image [https://i.imgur.com/Ups6nJ9.jpeg]

This time, we walked the entire length of the path without any gifts from the lightning. No monsters, no loot, just the steady crunch of boots on stone and the sky throwing tantrums overhead.

At the end of the trail stood a massive metal gate, half-rusted but still solid, barring the entrance into the mountain. Mahya and Al slowed to a stop and turned to look back down the path.

“What?” I asked, already suspicious.

“The red trees will look great with the pink and burgundy ones,” Mahya said, surveying the view with hands on her hips.

“The intense red color exhibited by the plants signifies a high concentration of the fire element. This ingredient is of significant use in many different potions,” Al said, already eyeing the nearest bush with a focused expression.

I sighed, pulled out Rue’s beanbag and a lounge chair for myself, and gave them both a lazy go-ahead gesture.

They turned and marched off with alarming enthusiasm to go demolish the landscape.

Rue sat down beside me, tail thumping once against the stone. He looked at me with hopeful eyes and asked, “Lunch?”