(67) The Heart and Basilisk

In that whole day, over forty parties challenged the two Bosses. Fifty-two of the explosive canisters had been tested and the results had been documented in the Data Rock.

The differences between the canisters weren't massive as most of them were similar to each other. But, every twenty or so canisters were grouped separately from the previous twenty due to a larger alteration.

Out of the three batches (two and a half to be more precise), the second batch contained the most impressive power for each canister individually. However, these canisters also required the most materials to make out of the 830 specimens.

Nevertheless, exploding humans was fun. Oh, how their eyes popped out in surprise as the flames engulfed them, their bodies squirming in the heat, baked by the flames and metal that coated them.

And boy, were the blasting figures into the cave ceiling just like watching fireworks in the night sky. Just like fireworks, never to be seen descending back to the earth after shining brightly in the sky.

Kraton was satisfied with each of the explosives, they were definitely worth the time and effort to make them. In fact, the whole process was fun. It was the same creating a domino castle, fun in the making, and fun in the breaking.

Kraton sat in his corner next to the two neat piles of canisters. the larger pile was the untested pile, whilst the smaller one was compiled of the fifty-ish canisters which still had eight or nine uses left.

*Cling...*

A bright, clinking noise rang out catching Kraton's attention. He sighed in relief that a canister had only toppled over without bursting into flames.

*Clink...* *Clang...*

Suddenly, a dozen more canisters rolled down the large pile as the ground trembled in what seemed like fear. The metal cylinders rolled down each other, time seemed to freeze in place as it approached the ground.

Kraton lifted his two log-like arms, bracing himself for the explosion. His eyes peered through the holes between his hairs, watching the metal canisters fall slowly.

At the point of impact, the air turned still, petrified into silence. The ground ruptured, stones flew up around the canisters like hands.

'Wait... that's odd.' Kraton thought to himself. He blinked twice and shook his head, nothing changed. Kraton slammed his fist down onto the ground, a loud *smack* resounded against the floor.

He peered back up at the fallen canisters, they remained tightly grasped by the floating stones. Each canister was still whole, no fractures, no burnt or melting edges.

Kraton realised what was odd, there had been no noise - no explosion. After carefully inspecting the canisters and the rocks which held it in place, he found a shocking revelation.

It really was a stone hand which was holding each of the dozen canisters. The rocky hands shuddered and descended back into the ground, gently placing the metal barrels down.

A ray of light glinted onto the sinking rocks and that was when Kraton realised the rocks, were in actuality, brown, muddy crystals.

At the same instant, a large rumbling came out from one of the large crystal spikes in the room. Barren emerged, its humanoid form seemingly hugging its stomach. A bright glow shone through Barren's arms, from its placement it looked as though Barren had two cores, one above the other.

However, as the Ancient Golem opened its arms, the bright light fell out of his embrace. The whole room shook as the mysterious orb hit the ground.

Kraton forgot about the fallen canisters as he watched the orb sink into the ground as though it was intangible. It only took around twenty seconds for the orb to disappear from view, shortly afterwards, the room stopped vibrating completely.

"What was that? Did you blow something up?" Lysine had rushed down the staircase and into the Boss Room upon feeling the strong vibrations and seeing the bright light through the gaps in the door.

When she entered the room, she saw nothing out of place; no burn marks, craters or cracks in the floor. Soon, she realised Barren was also standing up instead of hiding as a crystal.

"Why do you always assume I blew something up-" Kraton began wailing at being falsely accused.

Lysine ignored Kraton and glanced at Barren, "You're awake? Was that you then?"

The Crystal Golem nodded its head rapidly, but since there were two crystal plate-like bevors [1] over his neck, Barren's head only appeared to be bobbing up and down.

"What was that glowing orb?" Kraton asked Barren, recalling the mysterious glow that fell into the floor.

"This one?" Barren pointed towards his chest.

"Of course it's not that one you blockhead! I meant the one which sunk into the ground."

"Oh, that? That was the Heart." Barren waved it off nonchalantly without giving any further explanation.

"The Heart?! As in 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 Heart?!" Kraton and Lysine exclaimed simultaneously.

Barren nodded, ignoring their surprised yells. The two shocked Bosses immediately called up the Dungeon (Central) Data Rock, and true to Barren's claims, the rock read: "Heart established" Among the other information.

The Heart - or Heart Stone - was the energy source of a Dungeon, enabling it to level up and support more floors, monsters and repair itself faster. Normally, the Heart would form by itself if the Dungeon was a high enough level, however certain skilled monsters adapt with mystical energy could also grow one themselves once they had rooted to a dungeon.

What was more was that some monsters could also upgrade a Dungeon's Heart, allowing it to become more powerful, give more energy and become ultimately more useful and precious.

Barren had been cultivating the Heart for only two weeks after discovering that Ophid Crypt didn't have one yet. Even with the short amount of time to produce the crystal it was evident that it had been fully integrated into the dungeon, showing that its quality was at least acceptable.

"It's not finished yet, it hasn't even grown its physical structure so it's only a B-Rank Core." Barren shrugged it off as if it were nothing. "I'll continue cultivating it every other week, it takes too much of my energy." He pointed towards his own core which was slightly dimmer than it usually was.

Kraton and Lysine gaped at Barren. B-Rank! For a dungeon Like Ophid Crypt, it was extremely rare for the Dungeon to even have a Heart at all, let alone a B-Rank core.

In fact, since their Heart had not even gained any physical structure, it would be A-Rank or even S-Rank once completed. The Heart Stones were normally graded after being fully manifested as there was still room to grow before that.

Barren left the two awestruck with their jaws hanging wide as he morphed back into a crystal, planning to have a rest to recover his energy.

After recovering from the shock, the two quickly became excited. With a B-Rank Dungeon Heart, not only could they adjust the Dungeon's shape, size and formation with ease, but they could also harness the additional effects from such a high-quality Heart.

If their levelling rate before was stunning, then it would definitely be unbelievable now that they had this Dungeon Heart. One of the effects the Heart had was the increase in concentration of Experience from players.

There was an ancient Monster Philosopher that hypothesised that Experience was a type of mystical energy unbound from the laws of the world. Each time a Monster killed a Player (or vice versa), Experience would be dropped and absorbed automatically. However, not all the Experience would be concentrated into absorbable particles and would disperse into the environment.

Heart Stones could increase the amount of Experience that was concentrated into an absorbable level. The higher quality the Heart was, the better the effect it had.

Another effect the Heart could also give was increasing the Dungeon monsters' ability to gain and understand Knowledge. It was unknown on how the Heart did this as no mystical energy or waves had been detected allowing this improvement, truth be told, there was no evidence for this effect at all.

But most monsters chose to believe this as many monsters who dwelled in Dungeons with high-quality Hearts had a higher chance to receive an epiphany and breakthrough in their Knowledge Points.

The effects of a B-Rank Heart was not to be underestimated. On average, it would help the monsters in the dungeon increase their level by plus three or four each year. And yes, it would help all the monsters in the Dungeon that had either been linked with it or had stayed resident for more than a month.

With that being said, the next time the human Appraisers would visit, they would be in for a major shock at the increase in difficulty.

It took a while for the excitement to calm down, but when it did, Lysine remembered something.

"Let's go, they should be done now." A smile blossomed her face as she dragged Kraton out of the room and up the stairs.

Earlier, she had visited the Nagas, reassuring them of the Awakening process. In the whole of that day, all of the Nagas had broken through to Level 30 and were ready to Awaken.

During the advancement, the monsters would have a limited amount of control of the distribution of their power, but this little bit of control would not be the major factor to determine what their 'evolution' would be. The most important factor which determined this was the overall stat distribution up to this point. It was unlikely that a Naga which specialised in Agility would be able to become a 'Brawny Naga' over an 'Agile Naga' advancement.

When the two entered Floor Four, Kraton breathed in. There had been too many shocks and amazing things happening today, happiness and awe had clouded his mind leaving him dumb in front of the sea of eyes and glinting scales.

The Nagas had changed quite a bit after the Awakening, those who had assigned their levels to power and strength had become Brawny Nagas, growing strong, durable muscles that didn't hinder their movement at all as well as their tail size growing to match their larger physique.

The Nagas that had become Agile Nagas, on the other hand, had smoother, sharper scales which were streamlined against their body. A few fin-like scales also stuck slightly out of their body and arms but could also be pressed against their skin like armour. Their tail had also become slightly slimmer and more pointed and the arrangement of scales primarily focused on mobility rather than defence.

In the swarm of Nagas, one figure stood out among the rest. Her aura exuded a more powerful presence, her limbs bursting with power despite her delicate looks. Her tail was much longer than the Brawny Nagas, but still held the slim, streamlined looks of that of the Agile Nagas. Yet, she looked more like the Agile Nagas, but her aura seemed more fit for something even stronger than a Brawny Naga.

Even Lysine was shocked by the Nagi's different advancement from the rest.

"You've awakened a... Basilisk Bloodline, Calea.."

~~~

[1] Bevor: A piece of plate armour designed to protect the neck, similar to a Gorget. However, Bevors also cover the mouth and sometimes nose (like metal ninja masks) whilst Gorgets only cover the neck (A massive collar, idk ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ).