“A dungeon?” Alysia let out an alarmed gasp.
“Well, it isn’t anymore. The core was removed. This is just the dried-up husk of a dead dungeon.” I responded.
“Oh…” Alysia’s response was contemplative.
A dungeon could exist without the dungeon core, but only for a short period. Eventually, the connection between the two would cease, and the dungeon would begin to break apart. This was such a dungeon. If the core had been destroyed, the entrances to the dungeon would have collapsed and it would have more quickly broken apart. This was a slower death. Based on the loss of miasma, the core must have been taken a month or two ago.
“Around the time Lady Death Appeared.” I sighed.
“Come on… let’s keep going.”
I continued walking down the dead hallways. There wasn’t much dust, but the entire place had a feeling of decay and abandonment. The hallways had many offshoot rooms. They varied in function. Some of them were residences. Some were mess halls. Some had purposes I couldn’t even guess.
“If the lore is gone, how can we hope to learn what happened to Miki here?”
“This dungeon is different,” I responded. “People were living here until recently. This wasn’t just a dungeon. It was a workplace. The catkin had turned a dungeon into a portable building.”
“S-seriously? Dungeons can be used even in this manner?”
“Based on appearances, I guess so.” I reached the stairway to the third floor, not hesitating to continue.
“What were they doing here?”
“I can offer a guess.” I frowned.
“What is it?” Alysia couldn’t help but ask.
“A few of these rooms appear to be labs. I’ve seen rooms dedicated to alchemy and others to runes and formations. I believe this was a research facility.”
“A research facility.”
“You are correct.” A voice suddenly came out of nowhere.
I summoned Alysia immediately, spinning to see a man standing behind me. He appeared to be a foxkin. He wore glasses and a large lab coat. He was standing where I had just walked past. There was no way I would have missed him.
“I suppose you would call me the former dungeon master of this facility.” He spoke calmly. “I detected the presence of another dungeon master. I’m afraid there isn’t much to take from this place though.”
He seemed peaceful, so I put up my blade, but I kept myself ready. I remembered how quickly that lizard Gram had attacked before. If I had to use Return and portal back, it’d be a pain, especially since I was so close to the answers I sought.
“Yeah, I get that a lot.” I gritted my teeth. “This place is a laboratory?”
He nodded. “This is the finest in animalkin engineering. A curse by design. It can be set up anywhere. Experiments can be run in secret, and when the time comes, the entire thing can be collapsed, leaving not a trace behind.”
“I take it that this didn’t happen.”
“No.” He sighed. “Six weeks ago, one of the subjects broke containment. The core was lost, and everyone in the facility died.”
“Subject?” I sneered. “Don’t you mean…”