The third key was heavier. Not in weight — in feeling. The crystal pulsed like a heartbeat, faintly wet to the touch, as if veins ran beneath its violet surface.
[New Dungeon Key: The Bloodroot Depths]
[Threat Level: Catastrophic]
[Time Limit: 72 Hours]
[System Assistance: 12%]
[Objective: Purge the Heartroot Source]
I turned it over in my hand, lips quirking. "Blood and roots. Sounds friendly."
The storm inside me hummed uneasily, but hesitation wasn't in my nature. I pressed the key forward.
The world bled red.
The dungeon was a forest.
But not one I had ever seen.
The trees stretched miles high, their bark blackened, their branches twisted into clawed fingers. The ground pulsed like muscle under my boots, soft and warm. Thick veins of crimson light snaked through the soil, feeding the forest itself.
The air reeked of iron.
And then came the sound.
A slow, steady thump. Like a heart. The whole forest beat with it.
I clenched my jaw. "So that's the source."
The monsters here were grotesque.
Beasts shaped like wolves, but their hides were stripped bare, skin torn and veined with the same crimson light. Their eyes were empty sockets, but their teeth dripped a liquid that sizzled when it touched the ground.
The first pack rushed me before I could take a step.
I struck back instinctively — purple lightning tearing through the first beast's chest. It screeched but didn't fall. The crimson veins stitched it back together in seconds.
"Regeneration again?" I muttered, annoyed.
But this wasn't like the Titan. This wasn't shards reassembling. This was the dungeon itself feeding its creations, the whole forest working as one.
Which meant I wasn't fighting monsters. I was fighting a body.
And the forest was alive.
The next two days blurred together.
Every step was a battle. Wolves. Deer with antlers of bone. Insects the size of horses, their wings dripping blood like rain. Even the trees themselves lashed out, roots erupting from the ground to pierce my legs.
Every wound bled longer here. Every strike I landed seemed to pulse into the veins, making the forest angrier, hungrier.
The storm in me fought back, but it wasn't enough. Not by brute force.
I had to adapt.
So I watched. Listened. Learned.
The forest wasn't infinite. It was connected. Every vein, every beat, every pulse led back to one place. The center.
The Heartroot.
By the third day, I found it.
The forest opened into a cavern — a hollowed space where the ceiling was nothing but tangled roots. And in the center, pulsing with every beat, was a massive heart fused into the ground.
The Heartroot Source.
The dungeon's life.
The ground trembled as I entered. The roots lashed downward like whips, crimson wolves crawling from every corner. The cavern became a storm of blood and wood.
I grinned, despite the exhaustion pulling at me. "Finally."
The fight was brutal.
Every cut I made against the Heartroot sealed itself shut, blood stitching over the wound instantly. Every root I burned sprouted two more. My lightning tore through wolves, but they reformed faster than I could count.
It was suffocating. Endless.
But suffocating storms were where I thrived.
I forced my storm outward, covering the cavern in a violent domain. Thunderous Dominion cracked the ground, suppressing the regeneration slightly, just enough to give me a window.
I summoned my wraiths. Rael's spear tore through packs of wolves. Veyra danced between roots with her blades. Kaelith's shield held back collapsing branches.
But even they faltered.
Blood filled my mouth. My skin split open, veins glowing faintly with stormlight.
Still, I didn't stop.
I pulled everything inward. Lightning and blood clashed in my chest. My storm converged — sharper, hotter than ever before.
And I struck.
The Heartroot shrieked.
Not with sound. With everything. The cavern shook, the forest above screaming as the veins went wild. The heart split under my strike, storm searing through every crack.
The regeneration faltered. The wolves collapsed. The roots froze.
And then the entire forest went still.
Silence.
The system chimed at last:
[Dungeon Cleared: The Bloodroot Depths]
[Reward: Innate Skill – Blood of the Storm (natural resistance to bleeding, stamina drains, and parasitic effects)]
[Passive Upgrade: Storm Veins strengthen body durability permanently.]
[Reward: Elixir Ingredient – Heartroot Core]
I collapsed onto the blood-soaked floor, chest heaving.
My body ached like I'd been chewed and spat back out by the world itself.
But I was alive. Stronger. Sharper.
"Three down," I whispered hoarsely. "One left."
The storm inside me purred, satisfied but restless. Because the next key… was already waiting.
And I knew.
The last dungeon wouldn't just test my storm. It would test everything I was.