Chapter 377

Chapter 382: The Corrupted Fairy

“——————”

Silence.

Upon reaching the unexplored territory of the fifty-ninth floor after traversing the entire passage staircase, the adventurers were met with silence.

The scene that unfolded before their eyes left everyone speechless.

“The Glacier Realm”?

No, it wasn’t there at all!

Instead, a landscape of lush green trees and vines greeted them. Before the passage stretched a dense forest of towering trees, with emerald grasslands and vibrantly colored flowers blooming on the ground.

The walls of the enclosed floor, as well as the distant surroundings, were covered in verdant greenery, with countless flower buds of various sizes hanging from above. It resembled a flourishing tropical rainforest.

This unsettling jungle bore no resemblance to the recorded image of the fifty-ninth floor.

“It’s almost like the ‘Flowerpot’ on the twenty-fourth floor…” Ririria hugged her wand to her chest, her voice trembling as she whispered.

Looking at the familiar scenery, Bert also narrowed his eyes: “It’s exactly the same, just much larger in scale.”

At this moment, an odd, high-pitched sound reached their ears.

It sounded like chewing, followed by something cracking, and then a tremor.

“Up ahead? No, it’s coming from the center of the floor?”

Even from a distance, the sound was clearly audible. Finn gazed intently at the area obscured by the dense jungle and gave a firm command:

“Move forward.”

With a single word from their leader, the group began to advance.

Bert and Tiona took the lead as vanguards, leading the team along the single path towards the heart of the jungle.

Everyone kept their eyes scanning both sides of the jungle, ready to respond to any unexpected appearances without losing composure.

Above, dozens of meters up, the dome glowed faintly. Only a portion of the uncovered area above allowed the team to truly recognize that this transformed floor was indeed the dungeon they knew.

A few minutes later…

“…What is that?”

As the jungle thinned out and the view suddenly expanded, Tiona opened her lips and blurted out.

At the center of the jungle lay a vast clearing, a broad expanse of gray earth.

Within this space, countless larva-like creatures and man-eating flowers crowded around a new type of female creature with a massive plant-like lower body.

“A mysterious pearl-infested female monster?”

“The base form is… ‘Corpse King Flower’…”

Just as Riviria furrowed her delicate brows, Izay beside her identified the original race of the monster.

The Corpse King Flower is a super-large plant-type rare monster that resides in the ultra-deep regions. This monster devours anything, be it its own kind or adventurers, and is one of the most likely to evolve into an enhanced species in the ultra-deep levels!

As the adventurers had learned, this female Corpse King Flower was currently feasting voraciously.

However, what it was eating were the “magic stones” of its own kind.

The larvae and man-eating flowers gathered around it, offering themselves and their magic stones as sacrifices, providing nutrients for its growth.

When the others noticed it devouring its kin without hesitation, they realized a horrifying truth upon seeing the large amount of ash-like gray powder piled around them.

—The gray earth beneath their feet might not be some unique green wall environment but simply the accumulated remains of countless mutated monsters turned to dust.

“Is it an ‘Enhanced Species’?!”

As the members shivered down their spines, feeling cold despite the tropical rainforest environment, Finn’s expression twisted.

And it was beyond imagination—an Enhanced Species!

In the next instant after Finn realized this, a change occurred.

“—Ah～～～～～!”

The female figure raised her upper body, emitting a weak sound from her faceless head.

The monsters that hadn’t yet sacrificed themselves began to tremble from within, and the top of the female figure started to swell, inflating like a giant flower bud, wrapped in several enormous petals.

Then,

it blossomed like a flower—a sight akin to a butterfly emerging from its cocoon, revealing a graceful feminine figure.

“—AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!?”

A joyful scream erupted.

The piercing high-frequency sound nearly ruptured the adventurers’ eardrums, causing them to cover their ears and contort their faces.

The newly emerged female figure leaned back, her dull golden eyes gazing at the sky, rejoicing in her birth.

Her long flowing hair was beautiful and radiant. Her supple arms, chest, and waist appeared alongside colorful attire, and the side profile looking at the dome, trembling with joy, possessed beauty rivaling that of a goddess.

Not only did her upper body transform into human-like form, but her previously strange lower body also underwent structural changes.

Giant roots plunged deep into the ground, sprouting countless petals and tentacles.

“What in the world is that thing!?”

The sight of the colossal creature screaming made Tione unable to suppress a groan.

“It can’t be… that’s…”

Following her words, Ais’s slender frame began to tremble, her usually calm demeanor gradually overtaken by shock.

Listening to her own heartbeat and the resonance of blood caused by that existence,

“…that’s… a fairy…?”

“Alya—? Alya!!”

As if responding to the voices discussing her, or perhaps simply sensing Ais’s presence, the female figure slowly turned her head, her dim golden eyes directly locking onto Ais, calling out “Alya” repeatedly.

“Fairy!? That grotesque thing!?” Upon hearing Ais’s words, Tiona cried out in disbelief.

“Of course not! Fairies are the first followers of the deity, rumored to be the deity’s incarnation; they can’t possibly be something like that.” Izay firmly stated.

He, who had deeply communicated with the deity, was certainly qualified to speak on this matter.

His azure pupils stared directly at the ominous, malicious, yet beautiful female figure: “Ais, that’s merely a monster. It can’t possibly be a fairy, just as you aren’t ‘Alya’.”

If one must describe it, it was merely “corruption.”

The dungeon has the ability to preserve soul memories. It can give birth to “heretics” and tolerate “monstrosities.”

So over thousands of years, it’s entirely possible that fragments of the souls of the “fairies,” who once nobly assisted ancient heroes in battles within the dungeon, were unfortunately captured.

After being eroded by the desires of countless fragmented monster souls, those soul fragments eventually transformed into creatures that only “consume, seize, and indulge.” What now stood before everyone was precisely such an entity.

That was no longer the original “fairy.”

Rather, it was a corrupted and fallen monster, even inferior to a “heretic.”

At least the souls of the heretics retained traces of humanity.

If the corrupted fairy is the result of a fairy being eroded by monsters, then “heretics” are probably the result of monsters being purified by human souls.

The existence of these two entities are opposite extremes.

But they are both possibilities among the many in the underworld.

“Uranus?”

Through the eye crystal on Izay’s body, Fels, observing that monster, couldn’t help but look back at the old deity with surprise, seeking his opinion.

The sage felt that his wisdom of eight hundred years was insufficient at this moment.

Upon hearing the black-clad person’s shout and seeing the image reflected in the crystal, Uranus sitting stably on his divine throne closed his azure eyes.

The old deity murmured softly, “Indeed…,” then closed his eyes and answered Fels’s doubt.

“Izay’s words align with my thoughts… That isn’t a ‘fairy,’ but rather a corrupted entity produced after being consumed by monsters. Although it bears characteristics of a fairy, the two cannot be equated.”

Calling it a “Corrupted Fairy” would be more appropriate. Uranus whispered, making a conclusion, with a hint of sorrow in his expression.

He thought the same as Izay.

Everything has two sides.

The existence of heretics defies reason, but they represent the “good” side.

And now, the equally unreasonable “Corrupted Fairy” probably represents the “evil” of the dungeon.

The possibilities of the underworld…