Before Floor 20 even opened up before his eyes, Uhtred had begun to cycle his metal magic into his battleaxe, hoping to use the moment of his passage to bypass the few seconds it took for him to connect with the higher grade metal element of the star metal.

Not only that, he also kicked his heat manipulation into gear, dual-casting two elements at the same time.

His control of the heat aspect, coupled with his current higher use of his metal magic, proved a bit difficult the moment he tried juggling the two at the same time.

However, by the time he crossed fully into Floor 20, he had found a balance between the two.

Neither his heat magic nor his metal magic were fully active yet, but his cosmic essence already cycled between both, ready and primed for action at a moment’s notice.

Uhtred spread out his senses the moment his vision cleared and Floor 20 opened up before him.

The first thing he noticed was the immense amount of energy that emanated directly from the center of the floor, and the second thing he noticed was the absolute emptiness and silence.

There were no beasts here... at least none that Uhtred could sense. And unlike his first time on Floor 19, it wasn’t a situation where the beasts were already dead either. It was simply a plain silence.

Normally, this kind of weird situation would have made Uhtred even more vigilant than he already was, but the spectacle that lay before his eyes made him certain there truly was nothing on this floor.

The chamber of Floor 20 itself was massive, with high ceilings and a very wide expanse of nearly a square mile in every direction. But the true spectacle was what lay at the center:

A large, glowing white crystal hovered at the center of the chamber, emanating immense waves of raw cosmic essence that doused Uhtred’s body, rejuvenating all lingering weariness in his muscles.

His primordial grade core, which already had an insane passive draw, drank the waves of essence coming at him greedily.

"Bloody hell... This place is a literal haven for cultivation," Uhtred muttered under his breath.

He focused his gaze on the hovering crystal at the center, curious about what made it capable of releasing such thick, immense waves of cosmic essence. To his slight surprise, his biological inspect skill actually brought up the information of the crystal in his vision:

[Regional Dungeon Core, Zone 1 (1 of 4)]

One of four?

Uhtred raised a brow. Did that mean there were only four of this type of dungeon in Zone 1 all around the world, or was it just for this region alone?

In fact, what exactly was classified as a region? A congregation of sectors, or what exactly? Uhtred couldn’t be certain yet, but there was one thing that was for sure: this dungeon was way more valuable than he had initially thought.

Do I have to do something to that core for me to claim this dungeon?

His eyes narrowed as he observed the surrounding of the floating crystal more carefully. There were no explicit instructions about what to do next, but Uhtred felt he was right.

However, the same intuition that made him theorize that the floating crystal had to be claimed for him to take ownership of this dungeon also made him stand in place, wary.

He had not yet met the requirement to claim the dungeon core. Whatever he was meant to fight on this floor hadn’t appeared.

Uhtred became even more certain of this as his careful observation of the area surrounding the dungeon core finally yielded results.

Right below the hovering core, the ground beneath had a peculiar pattern, one that was not immediately discernible from a distance. But the more he looked at it, the more the pattern became visible.

It resembled the high-level hieroglyphic magic spell circles found in fantasy games. And Uhtred knew that whatever trial this floor held, it was tied directly to that formation.

As if to prove him right, the ground beneath the hovering dungeon core began to glow. The lines that had been faint were now very clearly visible, shining with a bright neon blue light.

The light spread across every single pattern of the circle, and once every nook and cranny of it was reached, a blinding light suddenly congregated at the center as a figure materialized into existence.

The glare of the light dimmed, and the full figure of the newcomer was revealed.

The figure was humanoid, but that was the only resemblance to anything remotely human about it.

Uhtred stood entirely still, his hand tight around the shaft of his battleaxe as he observed the entity, trying to understand exactly what he was looking at. He debated internally whether he was staring at some highly evolved beast or an actual alien.

His mind leaned heavily toward the latter, rather than the first, simply because of the intelligence in the creature’s gaze.

The moment it materialized, its beady eyes immediately passed over them in a quick perusing glance, before shifting to calmly observe the wide layout of the chamber.

The creature was massive. It stood at nearly eight feet tall, its frame heavily angular with sharp edges that made calling it humanoid a bit far-fetched.

It was bipedal and possessed two long arms, but its blocky head looked more like that of a stone golem than a living being.

Its skin was made of some sort of brown earthen material, but from how glossy it looked under the radiant white light of the floating dungeon core, Uhtred could tell it was extremely dense and solid.

In fact, he was sure it was most certainly denser than the bodies of the Level 19 Ferrum Stygite Trolls he had just finished butchering on the floor above.

Hoping to gain some quick clarity, Uhtred activated his biological inspect skill. The familiar translucent panel popped up in his field of view, displaying the details of the creature directly above its head:

[Terranid Warrior - Level 20]

The exact moment Uhtred activated the skill, the Terranid snapped its head down, bringing its gaze away from the dungeon core it had been observing with interest to lock its eyes directly onto Uhtred.

It opened its jaw, speaking in a clear, distinct alien language that consisted of heavy, scraping consonants.

Uhtred couldn’t understand the raw sounds, but the language translation device resting against his chest vibrated lightly, deciphering the words into what he could understand.

"I was wondering why there were only two of you," the Terranid spoke, its deep voice echoing in the silent chamber. "So you’ve reached Level 10 and gained access to the multiversal store?"

Despite the fact that Uhtred was only hearing a translation, he could somehow still tell, perhaps through a secondary effect of the translation device, that the creature’s tone was incredibly dismissive.

"I guess that is decent for a newly integrated world," the Terranid continued, its blocky hands resting at its sides. "But you are still several months too early to be challenging the last floor of a regional dungeon, especially just with you two alone—"

The Terranid suddenly paused mid-sentence.

Uhtred did not move a single inch, continuing to stare back at the giant stone entity with a cold expression. Behind him, Zara remained far back just like he had told her to, her blue eyes looking on with her usual flat, expressionless gaze.

There was no physical change in the creature’s facial features. Its face was simply too solid and featureless to form any sort of organic expressions. But if it were capable of doing so, Uhtred was certain a slow realization would be dawning on its face right now.

It seemed to only just now be registering the reality of the situation. For Uhtred and Zara to be standing here on Floor 20, they must have cleared all nineteen floors of the dungeon entirely on their own.

Uhtred saw the beady eyes of the creature narrow as they focused intensely on him. He knew immediately that he was being inspected.

He couldn’t feel the intrusive spark of the skill because of the level difference between them, which meant this Terranid possessed an inspect skill... perhaps even higher leveled than his own.

"Impossible!" The Terranid suddenly roared in shock, its voice vibrating the stone walls. Its eyes flicked past Uhtred to settle on Zara, its entire rocky body becoming incredibly rigid and taut.

"Level 17 and Level 16?! There are two Pathfinders on this fledgling world?!"

Uhtred felt the immediate change in the alien’s demeanor. Without a second thought, his primed heat and metal magic began to thrum, his muscles locking as he readied his body for an imminent attack.

However, what happened next left his mouth wide open in complete shock...