Meanwhile, under the association building on the outskirts, the dark-haired beauty with glasses Eren had seen previously walked out of the red-colored dungeon gate casually while holding a red-colored orb.
Her gaze was entirely fixed on the orb as she examined the flow of spiritual energy inside it.
Behind her, the red dungeon entrance cracked like a broken mirror and immediately turned into dust, vanishing entirely.
"S-She did it…!"
"Hey, it hasn't even been 15 minutes since she entered!"
"Gloomfang Den is completely gone now!"
"How did she do that?!"
Members of the Awakener Association went into an uproar as they witnessed the sight.
Among them, an old man who looked to be in his mid-sixties let out a huge sigh of relief.
He walked toward the girl and spoke politely.
"Lady Lyssara, you really stopped whatever those filthy Demon Cult bastards were planning and saved our city. I am truly grateful for your assistance."
But Lyssara didn't even give him a glance.
She kept looking at the orb as she said,
"It's definitely not done by the Demon Cult."
Lyssara extended the orb toward the old man and asked,
"Look at this… Doesn't it seem weird?"
"???"
But the old man couldn't understand what Lyssara was talking about.
He kept looking at the orb but didn't find anything unusual, and he simply smiled helplessly.
Which earned dissatisfaction from Lyssara.
"Tch… You can't even tell what's wrong? How the hell did you become the head of the association for this branch?"
Those words immediately froze the surroundings.
The people who had been praising Lyssara all took sharp breaths.
Everyone was stunned beyond reason.
No one had ever spoken in such a disrespectful way to their association head.
Zephyrion, the most powerful Tier 4 combat profession holder in the city and the head of this association branch.
Despite having such an old and fragile appearance, he could even lift a small mountain with ease.
He had slaughtered countless enemies on the frontlines in his prime.
But the man of such standing didn't mind Lyssara's words at all.
He simply accepted them with a humble gesture.
"Listen closely."
Lyssara adjusted her glasses and began to speak like a teacher.
And the old man also humbly complied, earning many gasps from the surrounding people.
"These dungeon cores are nothing but parasites that prey upon the spatial paths that connecting our world and the so-called motherlands of other races."
"These dungeon cores are usually born without attributes and cannot be defined under any faction. But once they start absorbing spatial paths, they completely adapt to what they consume."
"For example, this one has eaten the spatial path that connects the motherlands of demons and our world."
The old man nodded his head as he looked at the red orb.
"Even though this orb has now turned into an Abyss-type, it doesn't mean it can absorb all kinds of abyssal energy."
"These dungeon cores will choose a particular attribute within the faction they adapt to and will spend their entire existence devouring that same type of essence."
"That is also the reason why all dungeons are occupied by similar kinds of monsters. Other types of monsters simply cannot survive there."
"Just like how the Elemental Faction is divided into Fire, Water, Earth, Air, and Lightning, the Abyssal Faction is divided into Shadow, Void, Blood, Corruption, and Nightmare."
"This dungeon core adapted to the Shadow attribute with hound-type creatures."
"So… do you know how the Demon Cult manipulates and forces dungeons out of control?"
At this question, the old man seemed genuinely offended, and he replied with an angered tone.
"Lady Lyssara, even this clueless old man knows what everyone knows."
"The Demon Cult worships the demons who specialize in Corruption."
"These demons bestow corpses or items rich in corruption attributes to the traitors and make them place those items inside the dungeon."
"Not only that, they also force the dungeon cores to absorb those things."
"That eventually leads to unstable spatial fluctuations and corrupts the monsters' minds."
"This also allows those cultists to gain a certain level of control over them, making dungeon outbreaks and forced evolutions possible."
It was very common knowledge, and also the reason why all Abyssal dungeons with corruption attributes had been destroyed in human lands.
No one wanted to have a ticking time bomb in their territory that could be exploited by Demon Cultists at any time.
Lyssara nodded in agreement.
"Right. So, what do you think will happen to dungeon cores that are corrupted with attributes other than what they usually absorb?"
The old man fell silent.
He didn't know that.
More likely, he had never cared about it.
"Their spiritual energy will be completely ruined. They will be permanently damaged, their potential will be stripped off entirely, and eventually the dungeon itself will collapse on its own in the long run."
"But this one…"
Lyssara took another deep look at the red orb in her hands, a huge amused smile appearing on her face.
"It looks like it evolved very naturally over time, with no damage, nor do I see any problems with its spiritual energy."
"Even if it absorbed the same element as the dungeon monsters, it should have at least left some traces. But I see none."
"It feels just like it has been overeating the monsters and their drop items inside its own dungeon."
The association head widened his eyes as he completely understood what she was saying and exclaimed,
"That's impossible! We have tracked every change inside the dungeons all these years. We haven't noticed any huge difference until yesterday."
"Then suddenly this dungeon evolved out of nowhere… How can that be possible without any interference?"
"That's exactly why I said it's weird."
Lyssara shrugged slightly.
"The only way something like this could happen is when a well-organized team continuously hunts monsters and repeatedly leaves the drops without collecting them for a very long time."
"It's something only those from big clans would do to enrich their dungeons."
The old man looked as if he had just heard something absurd.
"Why would anyone do that? If they are not from the Demon Cult, who else could they be? What is their goal?"
Lyssara gave him a side glance with an annoyed expression.
"How the hell would I know? That's exactly what you guys have to figure it out. It has nothing to do with me anymore since it was not done by demon cult."
"Have you collected information about the people who entered this dungeon in the past two days?"
In response, a middle-aged man who was standing beside the old man stepped forward and handed Lyssara a file.
"Only 19 people have entered."
The middle-aged man was the same person who had accompanied Lyssara when Eren met her earlier.
After storing the dungeon core, she quickly went through the file, which contained photos, names, and other details of the nineteen people.
"Mm?"
Lyssara's gaze quickly landed on the photo of a young man with dark brown hair and eyes.
She muttered subconsciously,
"Eren Morrow... This guy also entered this dungeon…"
"Lady Lyssara, is there any problem?"
The middle-aged man asked in concern, seeing her lost in thought.
Lyssara just shook her head and handed the file back.
"It's nothing… Try to find who is using this dungeon regularly from this list, and also track if any of them bought large amounts of this dungeon's drop items in recent days. You will find the culprit soon."
Without bothering with them anymore, she started to walk away as if nothing had happened. As she left, she said casually,
"I will take this dungeon core as my commission. It's not like you guys can use such a high-quality material anyway… I have a feeling I am going to make something good with this~"
Everyone politely gave way as she enthusiastically disappeared from their view.
"She really is an amazing person," the middle-aged man muttered in amazement, making the association head nod his head in agreement.
"Not only is she Tier 4 at such a young age, she also has a good head on her shoulders."
"She entered a Tier 2 dungeon forcibly, cleared it within 15 minutes under tier suppression, and was even able to locate the dungeon core in such a short amount of time."
A faint smile crept onto the old man's lips.
"She is a monster in human skin… Now I am even more confident that the younger generation of our humanity won't fall on the frontlines like we did."
He turned to look at his middle-aged assistant with a serious face.
"I don't know how long she will be staying in this small city, but give every bit of assistance she asks for from now on."
"Yes, sir!"
***
On the other side, Eren was having a hard time accepting the truth.
'Fuck! How am I being such an idiot?!'
'Because of the dropped items I left behind, the dungeon evolved! Directly to level 25!'
Eren had been completely on edge since morning.
"Hey Eren, if you're really going to sit there doing nothing, just come and help me…"
His little sister's voice woke him from his thoughts.
As he looked at her, he saw her cleaning the entire house, sweeping away every bit of dust and trash all by herself.
Their mother had gone to take care of their father, leaving him and his little sister to clean up.
Usually, he was the one who should have taken care of most of the work.
But since morning his mind had been in complete chaos, and he kept occasionally glancing at the door, afraid that someone from the security department might come knocking.
Eren let out a deep sigh.
'Whatever… I just hope no one finds out that I'm the culprit.'
After making up his mind, he went to help his little sister.
Thankfully, until evening, no one came for him as he had feared.
His mother brought his father home after he was discharged.
Everyone was happy that Alan had returned home safely.
But Eren noticed his father occasionally blanking out in the middle of conversations and freezing while eating.
"Dad, are you okay?"
Even after calling out to him, his father looked blank for a while.
"Uh… What were we talking about again?"
"We were talking about Mira. She's the one who did most of the work today…"
"Yeah… yeah!"
Similar conversations happened more than once, but no one other than Eren seemed to notice or mind it.
So Eren also decided to give his father more time to adjust.
Except for the issue of his father's sudden forgetfulness, and the constant fear of being caught manipulating the dungeon level, nothing unusual happened that day.
Not only that, he didn't even receive any inquiry or message from the Awakener Association regarding the incident.
Which brought him huge relief.
The next day, he received a message stating that all the materials for his skill up, along with the storage ring, had been delivered to his account.
"Finally!"