'Wait.
'Isn't there one thing that is completely impossible to hide, no matter how much smoke and dust is in the air?'
'That's right.'
'The soul!'
The Spell-Weaver ability had a strict range limit.
Whether it was raw mana or magic elements, his perception would drop off a cliff beyond five meters, making it impossible to manipulate them.
But if all he wanted to do was see souls, he just needed to keep the skill active!
Noah's eyes were once again covered by a faint, glowing light.
In his vision, soulless things like the choking dust and shattered stone quickly lost their original colors, leaving behind a muted, black-and-white world.
But within this monochrome world, there were several massive glowing masses of spiritual energy.
'I can see it!'
'That bastard soul.'
Jura was still in the exact same spot, not moving an inch.
No, he couldn't move.
As expected, the restraints holding the prisoner were not just simple iron chains, there seemed to be powerful magic cast on the floor restricting his movement.
After a quick scan of the room, Noah discovered that Finn was currently being swarmed by several enemies.
Judging by the dark, twisted color of their souls, they seemed to be monsters as well.
He wasn't worried about Finn running into trouble though.
The current remnants of Evilus did not have the combat power to pose a serious threat to a Level 6.
Compared to worrying about the Pallum captain, Noah was much better off focusing on himself.
This meant he would have to deal with the giant Lambton on his own.
Since he could see the massive enemy's soul through the smoke, stalling for time wouldn't be a problem.
However, he had a much better idea.
Noah flung his hands out, summoning two violent blasts of wind in completely opposite directions.
Observing through the soul vision, he saw that the giant serpent had indeed lost its lock on him for a moment.
It whipped its massive head left and right, completely confused by the sudden air currents.
Seizing the split-second opportunity, Noah instantly morphed his silver bracelet into the Annihilator sniper rifle and loaded the Bombard formula.
Target locked: Jura!
"Cluster Strike, activate!" Noah commanded.
He furiously compressed three Bombard formulas directly into the chamber.
"BOMBARD!!"
BOOM!
A blinding, fiery red beam pierced straight through the thick smoke and dust, instantly punching through the cat-person's chest at a speed he couldn't even process.
The scorching heat ray violently cauterized the edges of the massive wound, sealing the ruined flesh shut.
This time, not even a high-grade Elixir would be enough to save him.
Jura stared blankly down at the massive, smoking hole in his chest.
He weakly struggled to raise a hand, wanting to touch his own heart, but his fingers passed straight through his chest, touching nothing but empty air.
Before he fell to his knees, he stared intently in the direction the laser beam had come from.
He could see nothing but dust and smoke.
He was filled with absolute, boiling hatred!
In truth, if he had just endured Finn's interrogation a little longer, he could have escaped.
His Evilus comrades had been coordinating an attack from the inside and outside, using the Lambton to breach the prison.
This special monster from the Deep Floors, the "Lambton," had a terrifying, unique trait: it could move seamlessly between different floors using its exclusive skill, Burrow.
Yes, not even the indestructible walls of the Dungeon itself could stop its movement when it burrowed.
To make this monster even stronger, his allies had hunted other monsters and fed the Lambton their magic stones, artificially forcing it to evolve into a highly dangerous Enhanced Species.
If it weren't for this boy framing him, his escape plan would have been perfect!
If he had succeeded, he would have had a chance to deal a heavy blow to the Loki Familia!
But now... it was far too late.
Thud.
Scenes of past memories violently flashed through Jura's fading mind—the so-called "revolving lantern" of a dying man's life.
He had heard this was humanity's highest level of self-preservation.
When faced with a truly desperate situation, the brain would rapidly dig through a lifetime of memories, desperately searching for a way to cheat death.
Unfortunately for Jura, who had just lost a vital organ like his heart, no memory could possibly repair his ruined body.
As his body temperature rapidly dropped, a final, sickening spark of madness flashed in Jura's eyes.
With his last ounce of strength, he mentally commanded the Lambton to return to his side.
To Noah's astonishment, the giant serpent monster stopped searching for him and quickly slithered over to Jura.
Then, doing the unthinkable, Jura actually thrust his bleeding arm straight into the Lambton's mouth!
He violently ripped out the monster's glowing magic stone and without a single second of hesitation, shoved the crystal into his own mouth!
CRUNCH—
For a Level 4 adventurer, their jaw strength could easily shatter a magic stone.
"He is actually eating the Lambton's magic stone?!" Noah gasped in shock.
It was the first time he had ever seen a human do such an insane thing.
That was basically a gruesome suicide!
With the massive enemy no longer chasing him, Noah began to manipulate the surrounding wind, sending out sharp slashes of wind blades to clear the air.
He also mixed water elements into the wind to make the heavy dust stick to the ground and walls, stopping it from flying around.
In just a few quick moves, he successfully cleared all the smoke and dust from his line of sight.
With his vision clear, Finn's movements immediately became faster.
The braver easily slaughtered the few monsters that had been attacking him.
Noah noticed that those monsters were not Lambtons, they were just weaker beasts that had probably crawled up through the tunnel the Lambton had dug.
The two adventurers stood side by side, watching Jura, who was kneeling on the ground and roaring in absolute agony.
He had already swallowed the entire magic stone.
Beside him, the Lambton's massive ten-meter-long body instantly crumbled into a pile of gray ash, since its core had been destroyed.
"Something is not right..." Noah muttered, looking at Jura's violent convulsions.
"What do you mean?" Finn asked, his eyes locked on the prisoner.
"I pierced his heart. Normally, he should be lying there quietly by now, bleeding out. How is he screaming so loudly?"
Without a heart, his physical strength should have faded in seconds.
But Jura's condition was actually getting wilder and more energetic by the second.
'Don't tell me this guy is actually mutating into some kind of freakish monster!'
"Finn! Use this!"
Noah tossed his [+3 Excellent Iron Sword] to Finn, who caught it flawlessly in one motion.
Finn hadn't brought his legendary spear with him to a prison interrogation.
As Finn gripped the iron sword, a look of pure amazement flashed across his face.
'This is...! What an incredible weapon!'
It looked like an ordinary cheap iron sword, yet it emanated a sharp deadly chill that made even his heart beating so fast.
The blade was unbelievably sharp and incredibly light, almost as if it had no physical weight at all.
Taking the sword, Finn immediately sprang into action.
He crossed the room in less than a second, appearing right in front of Jura and raising the iron sword high.
Jura violently snapped his head up, crossing his arms above his head as if trying to block the blade with his bare flesh.
Swish!
As if cutting through a piece of wet tissue paper, Finn felt only a faint resistance from the blade.
He smoothly sliced off both of Jura's arms at the elbows.
The tip of the blade even grazed Jura's face, cleanly slicing his left eye in half.
'It really is sharp!'
'Even a Level 4's durability is totally useless against it!'
Finn marveled inwardly.
He seamlessly spun his body and swung the sword again, aiming straight for Jura's exposed neck.
The cat-person suddenly let out a furious, monstrous roar and charged forward without dodging.
Even as the blade pierced deeply into his throat, he made no attempt to evade.
Instead, he pushed himself up to his feet!
He threw a bloody, armless shoulder-check right at Finn's chest, but Finn merely swayed to the side, not even taking half a step back.
The crazed, bloodthirsty look on Jura's face faltered, as if he was stunned for a moment that his attack had failed.
At that exact moment, the ground beneath Noah trembled slightly.
"No way..."
Noah's pupils shrank as a terrifying possibility instantly flashed through his mind.
'There wasn't just one Lambton...'
Finn realized it, too.
He hurriedly tried to pull back to protect Noah.
But Jura suddenly lunged forward, biting down onto Finn's shoulder and clamping his jaw shut like a vice.
"Damn it!" Finn cursed.
Finn struck with his full, Level 6 strength.
A brutal horizontal slash completely lopped off Jura's head.
He followed up with a devastating kick that tore a massive hole through Jura's mutating torso, finally breaking free from the dead man's bite.
But just then, the solid stone floor beneath Noah suddenly collapsed.
A massive bloody maw erupted from the bedrock, swallowing the boy whole before he even had a millisecond to evade.
Finn burst forward at his absolute top speed, but the second Lambton faithfully executed Jura's final spiteful command.
After swallowing Noah, the massive worm unhesitatingly dove back into the crater, frantically burrowing deeper into the Dungeon.
"Damn it! We were played!" Finn roared.
He clenched his fist and slammed it furiously against the shattered floor.
Jura's severed head hit the stone, his twisted consciousness somehow still intact for a few final seconds.
From the moment Noah had framed him, Jura knew his only end was a gruesome death.
Since that was the case, he had completely given up on escaping.
At the very least, he had dragged that smiling little devil down to hell with him!
...
At this exact moment, deep inside the second Lambton's pitch-black mouth, Noah experienced a brief moment of sheer panic.
He immediately jammed the Annihilator vertically between the monster's crushing jaws.
The heavy barrel of the Annihilator was forged from pure Orichalcum.
Not even a Level 4 Enhanced monster could possibly break or deform it.
By bracing the indestructible gun like a pillar between its teeth, Noah prevented himself from being chewed to death.
'I have to escape from here!'
'With Bombard spell, it wouldn't be difficult to blow this bastard's head off from the inside.'
A monster's physical defense was usually concentrated entirely on its exterior scales and muscles; its internal organs were relatively soft and weak.
Not to mention, he could aim his rifle directly at the magic stone from inside its throat.
Just one shot, even without using Cluster Strike, would be more than enough to kill this thing instantly.
The problem was, he had to do it at the exact right time!
If he killed this burrowing monster while it was digging through the solid bedrock between floors, he would get trapped in the physical gaps of the Dungeon.
If that happened, he would be buried alive under thousands of tons of rock when the Dungeon automatically regenerated its walls!
He had to time it perfectly.
He had to deliver the fatal blow just as the creature burst out of the ceiling and passed into an open floor.
Only then could he successfully escape!
----
Worm Well : A Worm Well is nicknamed Lambton (ラムトン) by adventurers. It is a rare giant snake monster that is 5 meters tall, 10 meters long, has blue skin, and three sets of amber eyes.