Elias sighed, It had taken longer than anticipated to quell the rage that had surged within him, travelling down the endless corridors, cursing the System, the Dungeon and the blatant call-out for him having 'no path'.

  He read the description once more:

  [Innate Ability: 'Corrupted' Core. Tier: 0 - Level: 3 - Rarity: Unknown]

  ['The corruption of the cosmos flows within your body']

  [Passively absorb a minute amount of essence, up to a maximum amount]

  [Essence can be spent to enhance and minimally alter the effect of skills]

  [Minimal increased resistance to the effects of corruption on the Mind and Body - Note that resistance is not immunity; due to the passive absorption of corruption, you are likely to experience adverse effects after prolonged exposure]

  He sighed, 'corruption of the cosmos'? "Yeah…" It was certainly that.

  He looked down at his 'feet' and clasped his claws together one at a time as he balanced on each of them, one at a time. Several thoughts had come over him as he had stormed forwards down the almost endless corridors, the first, how was he going to explain claw-like feet to anyone outside the Dungeon—the reality was, he wasn't.

  He needed to get rid of them before he left.

  He had some ideas on how he could do that, which led him to his second thought: how to decrease his own essence? He figured that he could do it one of two ways, stand by the crimson plants and hope they don't transform into a terrifying monster as they drained him of the absurd level of corruption coursing through him—or, fight a terrifying monster and hope the sudden release of Essence doesn't overwhelm his own body and leave him crippled.

  Despite the more than pleasant feeling of the energy coursing through his channels, he knew that too much of a good thing, was more than likely going to be bad.

  Undecided on which of the two routes to take, his final occupying thought had wrapped him in both anxiety and concern. Where was Uthred? And why had he not come in to rescue him yet? Uthred was an incredibly powerful Knight of the Order, possibly more powerful than Jacob himself, definitely so if he employed the magical skills he had in his arsenal.

  It made him worry that something had happened to him as well, and if Uthred hadn't made it to him unscathed, then how was he going to get out?

  In the end, Elias had to bury the thoughts and focus his crimson tinted vision on his surroundings, the long slabbed corridors and solid stone walls dressed with brightly lit torches had begun to transform to a more noteworthy and grandiose setting, the slabbed corridors turned quickly into a finely tiled flooring with engraved walls, decorated with pictures of bizarre scenes quite unlike anything he'd seen before—but he was still so distracted by the bubbling Essence within him that he couldn't quite maintain the focus to study the images. All he knew was that they were vast, they covered the next hundred or so meters ahead of him and were only ended by an ornate door set in a thick archway that dressed the end of the corridor ahead of him.

  "Trials of Orus ahead. Yay…" he said with feigned excitement that his audience—if he had, had one—would have seen straight through.

  He clawed along the floor, finding it increasingly difficult to maintain his previous calm towards his transfigured limbs, it irritated him and left him cursing the System's cruelty—quietly.

  Elias reached out for the small knob on the ornate door ahead of him and twisted, slowly pushing forwards to reveal a larger room, as he took in the contents of the room he grinned—now this was what he'd imagined a dungeon to be.

  Ahead of the now open door was a hexagonal room with two doors, left and right of the centre, the similarly etched walls were dressed with rows of bookshelves full of thick tomes and dusted parchment. In the centre of the room was a writing desk and a chair, a single piece of parchment decorated with text he couldn't make out led atop it, ink and quill adjacent.

  Behind the desk was a chest—yes, a chest, and exactly the reason Elias found himself smiling, it was just like the stories, fight the evil Aberrations, save the princess and plunder the hoard of treasure. Now, there were no Aberrations, no princess and the hoard of treasure looked like a small box that you'd keep in your own house, but—"Treasure!" Elias said, his thoughts unable to stay contained as his crimson vision narrowed onto the wooden chest in front of him.

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  He took a step forward, what would be inside? A sword? Mana stones? or maybe some armour? His last thought accompanied a quick glance down at the tattered and spoilt clothing he adorned, ripped and torn in more places that was fashionable, even for a grizzled adventurer—of which he wasn't.

  Another step forward, the feeling of excitement and joy bubbling within him. "This'll make everything worth it," he thought as he imagined a head-sized diamond that shot light into the entire room, or armour etched with glowing runes embedded with the power of ancient adventurers.

  His smile could grow no further as his cheeks hurt from the glee he felt in the moment, his eyes narrowly focussed on the approaching chest.

  No.

  Elias stumbled slightly as his clawed foot pulled backwards from its trajectory and momentarily his head swam with a surge of emotions contrasting his previous, his vision smashed like a pane of glass "What the FUCK!?" he gasped in horror as his eyes absorbed the horrifying visage around him. He was surrounded by tens of figures, tinted green and dressed in ragged clothes that fit loosely around emaciated forms, jaws hanging loosely, bloodied faces and dripping wounds covering them.

  Eyes like the darkness of the void pierced into him, the heads of the figures contorting and flashing into angles unbefitting the natural way. The desk was replaced with a chair, two manacles attached to chains at the arms and the stains of blood and ichor decorating the entire room.

  The visage smashed like a pane once more as the warmth of the treasure trove and the vision of the decorated room returned, he gasped a breath to calm and shook himself. Maybe it was just a…

  Open your eyes. NOW!

  A final time the glass like shattering of his view gave way to the many forms. They were closer now, almost upon him, reaching out with fingerless stumps and sinewy amputations that had never been bandaged, the veins still spurting dirtied blood towards him, the greenish hue of their twisted bodies made him feel sick.

  Adrenaline pulsed through him as for the first time in his life, he was witnessing something more terrifying than the Aberrations themselves, whatever these twisted creatures were, they made him want to drop to the floor, cry, hide, run.

  He couldn't. Energies started to surge within him, Mana already flooding his channels on an instinctual reaction to the presence of the bodies. Essence starting to seep from his core.

  His hands barely moved as he froze into place, his willpower colliding with the complete fear that embraced him, his palms clammy, sweat pulsing from his pores and his legs numb, even the almost magical balance of his clawed feet seemed to give way to his emotional state.

  "Fucking… horrible!" Elias spat as a single-fingered hand reached out for him. An overpowering smell of rot and mould pushed into his nostrils, and he gagged as he pulled backwards, his arm shooting up and his mind screaming "FLAMES OF ORUS"

  Essence, Mana and a heap of Adrenaline merged with his thoughts as they thrust into the crimson and orange runes that shot out of his hand, dozens of runes span in a spiral around his open palm and in less than a second the same coloured flames surged outward. The heat was intense and a sharp pain stabbed into his core, followed by a searing pain that coursed through his channels. Essence was swarming from him, his body had reacted purely out of primal necessity to defend itself and as with the rats, the Essence had rallied to the cries of his instincts.

  Crimson-gold flames engulfed the figures ahead of him, he waved his hand in an angle across the span of the bodies. The flames stuck to the creatures like glue as their flesh fell from their old bones, their faces contorting even further as their eyes remained fixed on his own, trying to pull him into their cursed embrace.

  As the flames quickly doused the monsters and their bodies fell apart, Elias's adrenaline only spiked further as his heart leapt, beating faster than it had ever done before, he wanted to be sick. Not least for their appearance, the smell of charred rotten flesh and the shock that coursed through him, no, it was the lack of screams, the lack of noise, the lack of anything denoting emotions from these wicked deformities.

  They fell, one after another as the flames pushed out. Still not in complete control of the skill, his channels felt like they would tear apart. It felt like the fires consuming the corpses consumed him as well, but it was a blur and he was numb, completely gripped by fear.

  Seconds, which had felt like minutes passed and Elias forcibly cut off the skill. It was an effort to do so, but the only reason he'd endured the torrent of pain he felt upon his multiple skills interacting with each other was because of the endless surge of adrenaline that had started to slow. His Corruption Core's release of Essence combining into the Legendary Flames of Orus was a potent combo and one he couldn't admire or study as his entire being was simply reacting.

  He clasped his chest and took heavy breaths as his thoughts swam back to him. He shook his head violently and then glanced at the bodies before him, still crisping in the uniquely coloured flames. "Shit. Well, that worked…" he said.

  He quickly glanced to his left and right to make sure no other creatures hid in wait for a drop in his guard. He could see none that weren't embraced by his combo of skills.

  The room itself, now devoid of the treasure chest, bookshelves and desk was replaced by the nightmarish view he hoped was just an illusion. The manacled chair in the centre of the room, now alight and only two doors to the left and right of the centre remained.

  "It was a trap—" he said to himself as his mind flashed to the intense stares of the creatures that had almost embraced him, "—they messed with my emotions? It was so entrancing—" his words continued as thoughts in his mind as he swallowed hard, that feeling of getting hold of treasure, of such one-minded drive, it was like he'd transformed into a brute focussed solely on loot. He'd even thought that all of this—all the shit the dungeon had put him though, might be worth it?!

  Who'd be mad enough to think these kinds of horrors could ever be worth a sword? Or a gem?

  "No, I'm never going to turn into someone like that. Strength… yeah, Power, yeah. Distracted so easily by a simple chest in a nightmarish hell, isolated from everyone and targeted by the System - No." Elias finished as he regained control of his breathing and slowed the beating of his heart.

  [Sub-objective updated: Pass the Trials of Orus 0/1]

  [Hidden objective: Pass the Trial of Greed 1/1]

  "Trial of Greed?" Elias said in disbelief as his mind flashed with images of the outstretched and mangled limbs of the frightening creatures, sure, there was a treasure chest but it had felt more like hypnosis than the simple allure of treasure. The eyes of the creatures drawing him into their skill—whatever it was. He dismissed his own confusion over the naming conventions of the Dungeon and focussed on the new text in this notification; 'Hidden Objective' and grumbled slightly. He had no way to tell how many trials there were down here. Maybe picking a door would complete another?

  "Hah!" he laughed as he stood in a burning room, smoking with the ashes of rotten and decrepit monsters, pain flowing freely through his own body.