Genesis Code: The Genetic Awakening-Chapter 76: Dungeon Core (1)

Once Caleb defeated the dragon, there was nothing else to do except to leave. However, the G-system discovered a hidden chamber on the final floor.

Caleb climbed up what was left of the volcanic mountain, reaching all the way to the edges. Even with the cold air circling around his body, the heat continued to reach him.

"What am I looking at?" He asked the system. All Caleb could see was a sea of lava swirling and boiling with intense heat waves.

[Jump in.]

"Huh?" Caleb couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows. "In case you can’t see what I’m seeing, that is a crazy bowl of hot earth. Jumping in would mean getting roasted if not killed."

[...]

The system remained silent. It had already given the directive and it was up to Caleb to follow or leave. It couldn’t force him.

’Hmm... The system hasn’t done anything but be helpful to me.’ Caleb pondered seriously. ’There’s no reason for it to lead me to my death. Not when I haven’t achieved anything of significance.’

He still had it at the back of his mind that the system could probably be some beta testing program or something akin to fattening the pig for slaughter.

"Fine..." Caleb sighed, his eyes staring straight into the boiling lava. "I’ll do it." He picked a small stone and tossed it in first.

He locked his senses on the stone to see what would happen. Unfortunately for him, his domain sense couldn’t penetrate more than a few centimetres.

"Here goes nothing." Caleb took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "This is going to hurt." He took a leap of faith and jumped in.

As soon as he plunged into the lava, his clothes got incinerated and his skin began to melt, the lava eating into his body.

Caleb gritted his teeth as he groaned in agony. However, as fast as the pain came, it disappeared.

"What...?" Caleb opened his eyes only to find himself in a completely different chamber. "The hell...?"

He looked up to see if there was lava above him, but there was nothing. Above him was a solid ceiling made entirely of finely cut stone.

However, carved into the stone was what looked like a large magic circle that glowed a faint turquoise.

"So a gateway of some sort, huh." Caleb sighed as he lowered his gaze to his body. "But why put it in a literal pool of fire? And the pain and burns seemed to have been some sort of illusion." He was unscathed and completely naked.

The naked part he had no explanation for. Accessing his storage, he retrieved another pair of clothes; a T-shirt, pants and boots.

Caleb looked around the large chamber, taking in all the unique magic cycles carved into the walls. He counted over forty circles at a glance.

The magic circles appeared to be in groups as many had similar patterns etched into them. Caleb could already tell what those magic circles were for, and the realization left him slightly stunned.

Then at the very center of the chamber was a circular pond approximately 70 meters in diameter, filled with some dense and cloudy liquid.

The chamber itself had no source of light except for the glow coming from the pond and magic circles. The glow from the pond reflected off the walls in an everchanging dance of light with shadow.

[Genesis Fluid]

The system identified the liquid in the pond. Just like the many magic circles, it glowed a turquoise hue. And from this pond were streams of energy that rose and diffused in the chamber.

From his own observation, Caleb noticed the rising energy disappeared into the numerous magic circles. And around the edge of the pond was a purplish revolving spell matrix ring that glimmered with a familiar signature.

His eyes focused on the description of the fluid.

[A pond that gathers the vast energy of the dungeon core, infusing it with a foreign signature before diffusing it into the birthing circles of the floors.]

’I knew it.’ Caleb furrowed his brows. ’The dungeons didn’t come out of nowhere. Someone put them in this world, contaminating the monsters it births. The question is why...?’

Caleb stepped closer to the [Genesis Fluid] to get a closer look. He didn’t dare touch the revolving ring, focusing on the fluid itself.

"The fluid is not contaminated. And if it’s directing the energy from the core, then the core must be somewhere around." His gaze shifted around, searching for anything that stood out.

"Bingo."

Caleb spotted a small opening in the ground some meters away, close to one of the walls. However, he didn’t immediately move to check it out.

Instead, he turned to the many magic circles carved into the stone walls. Monsters being born from the dungeon core he could understand. He was intrigued and wanted to understand how they got their abilities.

Caleb unleashed his domain sense, putting everything in his field of vision.

"System, scan the magic circles and analyze what the patterns and symbols mean." He instructed. "Also, make a catalogue of all the symbols and see if we can deduce what they do."

[Affirmative.]

Through his domain sense, the system got to work and made a copy of all the symbols and patterns on the walls. Surprisingly, it didn’t take the system more than a minute to generate what Caleb ordered.

"Wow, that was fast." Of course, he wasn’t complaining. "Let’s see..."

A long list of the symbols and patterns was displayed on his HUD.

’This could take a while...’

Caleb looked around for a place to sit. He found a spot on the walls and went to sit with his back against the wall.

[Each magic circle is linked to a floor of the dungeon.]

’As expected, it is linked to the many floors...’

[The magic circles absorb the tainted energy and direct it to the aligned floor where it conjures the monsters.]

[The symbols and patterns are magic runes and descriptions of the monster type. Through this combination, the circle creates the monsters specified, integrating the spells into their structure as abilities.]

"I see..." Caleb muttered thoughtfully. "That means if a person is capable of integrating spells into their makeup, it becomes an ability instead of just a spell." The discovery was a pleasant one.

"But it can’t be that easy..."