Lumina was having the time of its life.

The tiny plant had crawled from Ryan’s shoulder to the top of his head, where it sat like a living hairpiece, its petals opening and closing in rhythm with Ryan’s footsteps. Occasionally, it would extend a tiny vine and tickle Ryan’s ear, making him flinch and swat at it like he was brushing away a fly.

"Stop it," Ryan muttered, tilting his head. Lumina tickled him again. "I said stop. Bad plant."

Lumina’s petals drooped — an exaggerated, theatrical sadness that lasted approximately two seconds before it perked back up and tickled him again.

"You’re training it to be annoying," Lucian said.

"I’m not training it to do anything. It’s doing this on its own." Ryan paused, touching Lumina gently. "Actually, I think it’s bored. It wants mana stones."

Lucian crouched near the cavern floor, picking up another low-grade mana stone and adding it to the growing pile in his hand. He’d been counting. Seventy-eight. Seventy-nine. Eighty.

His Blood Sense swept the cavern one final time. And then he realized something.

The heartbeat.

The massive, slow, rhythmic pulse he’d been tracking since they entered the sub-layer — the one he’d assumed was some ancient beast lurking in the depths — it was coming from directly behind him.

From Lumina.

Lucian stared at the tiny plant on Ryan’s head.

The plant’s mana signature was being amplified by the cavern’s ambient mana, bouncing off the walls and echoing through the stone. What he’d interpreted as a massive creature was actually a tiny one in a massive resonant chamber.

"You’ve got to be kidding me," Lucian muttered.

"What?" Ryan looked up. Lumina swayed on his head.

"Nothing." Lucian turned back to the wall. His Eyes of the Eternals scanned the stone surface — and there, embedded behind a thin layer of rock, was the dungeon core. The true core. Not the fake one upstairs. This one pulsed with a deep crimson light, matching the rhythm of the sub-layer’s ambient mana.

He’d found it.

"Ryan. It’s time to go."

Ryan looked up from the mana stone he’d been feeding to Lumina. "You found the core?"

Lucian pressed his palm against the wall. His fingers found the edge of the crystal. He channeled Light Blade energy into his hand — a concentrated, point-blank strike — and drove it forward.

CRACK.

The stone split. The core was exposed — a fist-sized crystal, crimson and alive, pulsing like a heart. Lucian wrapped his fingers around it and squeezed.

SHATTER.

The crystal crumbled in his grip. Crimson light exploded outward, washing over the cavern. The ground shuddered. Dust fell from the ceiling. The walls groaned.

"Run," Lucian said.

Ryan didn’t need to be told twice. He sprinted toward the staircase with Lumina clinging to his hair, Lucian right behind him. The cavern collapsed behind them — stone grinding against stone, the ceiling giving way, the entire sub-layer caving in on itself like a mouth closing.

They tore up the spiral staircase three steps at a time. The spirit flowers on the walls crumbled as the stone cracked. The bioluminescent fungi flickered and died. The air pressure dropped as the dungeon’s structural integrity failed.

They burst through the surface layer — the wasteland of cracked earth and dead trees — and saw the portal. Still open. Barely. The edges were flickering, destabilizing, the orange light sputtering like a dying flame.

Lucian grabbed Ryan and threw him through the portal first. Then he jumped.

WHOOMPH.

The portal collapsed behind him with a sound like a thunderclap. The energy discharged outward in a shockwave that rattled the barricades and sent loose debris flying.

Lucian hit the ground on his feet. Ryan landed on his ass. Lumina was still on Ryan’s head, petals fluttering in the wind.

Silence.

Lucian looked up.

Every single person outside the barricade — the Crown Task Force officers, the independent hunters, the Mid Neophyte awakened guards — was staring at them.

Not just staring. Gaping.

Ryan got to his feet, brushing dust off his pants. He looked around at the stunned faces. "What? What is it?"

Nobody spoke.

Lucian understood immediately. The dungeon portal had changed color before it collapsed. It had shifted from orange — F-Rank — to a deep, pulsating crimson. E-Rank. The dungeon had mutated. Upgraded. Every person outside that barricade had watched an F-Rank dungeon turn into an E-Rank dungeon while two Late Neophyte students were still inside.

They’d written them off as dead.

And here they were. Alive.

Ryan seemed to realize this at the same moment. He looked at the disbanded portal, then at the stunned crowd, then back at Lucian.

"Ah," Ryan said. He turned to the nearest Task Force officer — the stocky woman with the buzz cut and jaw scar. "We cleared it. The dungeon’s done. Can we get our completion form?"

The officer stared at him for a long beat.

She blinked. Shook her head. Pulled a stamped form from her tactical vest and handed it over.

"Mission completion. F-Rank dungeon, Sector 7. Duration: six hours, twelve minutes. Cleared by..." She squinted at their IDs. "Grimaud and Duncan. European All-Star Academy."

She stamped the form with a heavy thud. Ryan took it, folded it, and slipped it into his storage ring.

"Thanks," Ryan said cheerfully.

The officer just stared.

They got in the hovercar.

The academy registrar’s office was a small, efficient room on the second floor of the administrative building. A middle-aged woman with reading glasses and a permanent expression of mild annoyance sat behind the counter.

Lucian slid the completion form across the desk. She picked it up, scanned it, and her annoyance shifted to surprise.

"F-Rank dungeon, Sector 7. Cleared by a two-man team." She looked up. "Duration: six hours."

"Is there a problem?" Lucian asked.

"The dungeon was reclassified as E-Rank two hours ago. The Task Force flagged it as an active threat." She looked at the form again. "You two went in as F-Rank and came out of an E-Rank."

"Correct."

She stared at them for a moment. Then she stamped the form with approval and typed something into her terminal.

"800 Academy Points each. Credited to your accounts." She paused. "Don’t make a habit of this."

Lucian took the form and left without another word.

Havenford. Lucian’s apartment.

Ryan sat on the living room couch, his legs crossed, his storage ring open, his face split by a grin. Lumina sat on the coffee table in front of him, munching on a low-grade mana stone with tiny, crunching sounds.

"Eight thousand," Ryan said, savoring each syllable. "Eight. Thousand. Academy Points."

He’d sold most of the beast cores and a portion of the spirit flowers at the academy exchange. The E-Rank scorpion venom sac alone had fetched 600 AP. The bulk F-Rank cores went for 200 AP per dozen. The spirit flowers — rare, cultivated, in pristine condition — had sold for 400 AP each.

After everything, Ryan’s total stood at 8,000 AP. Minus the 4,000 he’d already transferred to Lucian’s account.

"Sent," Ryan said, tapping his tablet. "4,000 AP to your account. We’re even."

"We were never uneven. You owed me nothing."

"You paid for the storage ring and the taming scroll. We’re splitting everything. That’s the deal."

Lucian didn’t argue. They divided the remaining loot on the coffee table.

The low-grade mana stones — 101 in total — were split. Lucian took 45. Ryan took 56, because Lumina needed them as food. The remaining beast cores that hadn’t been sold were divided evenly. The Blood Lily Heart Core stayed with Lucian. Ryan didn’t complain.

The spirit flowers — 20 remaining after the sale — were split five each for Lucian and Ryan, leaving ten.

"Those ten are for Rose and Clara," Lucian said.

Ryan nodded. "Fair."

As if summoned by her name, the front door opened. Rose and Clara walked in, chatting and laughing. They were still in their academy combat gear, their faces flushed from a mission.

"—and then the idiot tried to flirt with me while I was literally pulling ice spikes out of his leg," Clara was saying, shaking her head. "Some people have zero survival instincts."

Rose laughed. "You did freeze him to a tree."

"He deserved it."

Clara spotted the mana stones on the coffee table and stopped. Rose nearly walked into her back.

"What... is all this?" Clara asked, her eyes scanning the spread.

"Dungeon haul," Ryan said, still grinning. "F-Rank dungeon. Turned out to have a hidden E-Rank sub-layer. We cleared it."

Rose’s eyes went wide. "A hidden sub-layer? You two went into a hidden sub-layer alone?"

"It was fine," Lucian said.

"You could have died!"

"We didn’t."

Clara picked up a low-grade mana stone, turning it over. "How many of these are there?"

"Were 101," Ryan said. "We split them. And these—" He gestured to the ten spirit flowers. "—are for you two. Five each."

Rose picked up a spirit flower, her eyes softening. "Ryan, these are worth a fortune."

"Which is why you’re taking them," Lucian said. "For cultivation."

Clara looked at Lucian. Her crimson eyes — a shade darker since her turning — held that particular mix of warmth and exasperation that she reserved exclusively for him. "You’re ridiculous."

"You’re welcome."

The group settled in. Clara recounted their mission — an escort assignment protecting a supply convoy through a beast-heavy corridor between academy sectors. Rose provided support with her Aegis barriers. Clara handled the combat. They’d killed a dozen beasts and earned 300 AP each.

"300 AP each," Ryan repeated, leaning back. "We made 8,000."

Clara threw a cushion at his head. "Rub it in, why don’t you."

Lumina caught the cushion with a vine and threw it back. Clara screamed.

"WHAT IS THAT?!"

"That’s Lumina," Ryan said proudly. "My plant."

"YOUR WHAT?!"

The conversation continued for another hour — laughter, teasing, storytelling. Rose examined Lumina with scientific curiosity. Clara poked it and got her finger tickled. Ryan gave a detailed account of the Blood Lily fight, dramatically exaggerating Lucian’s dive into the plant’s mouth.

Eventually, Ryan stood up, cradling Lumina against his chest. "I need to get back to the lab. With these resources — the mana stones, the spirit flowers, the Blood Lily samples — I can push the zombie cure research forward. Weeks of work, maybe less."

"You’ve got enough?" Lucian asked.

"For now." Ryan’s eyes gleamed. "This is the breakthrough I needed. I can feel it."

He left, humming to himself, Lumina bobbing on his shoulder.

Rose and Clara retreated to their rooms to cultivate with the spirit flowers. The apartment went quiet.

Lucian went to his room. Closed the door. Sat on his bed.

He opened his system.

Two quest rewards waited — one for clearing the F-Rank dungeon, one for clearing the hidden sub-layer. He’d dismissed them during the mission. Now, in the silence of his room, he finally checked.

╔═══════════════════╗

║ QUEST COMPLETE ║

║ CLEAR THE F-RANK DUNGEON ║

║ Reward: ║

║ +500 EXP ║

║ +1,000 SC ║

║ ◀ NEOPHYTE BREAKTHROUGH PILL ▶ ║

║ Allows cultivator at Neophyte realm to safely breakthrough.

║ Removes impurities from Mana Core during breakthrough.║

║ ◀ D-RANK SPELL SCROLL: LIGHT CHAIN ║

║ NET ▶ ║

║ Upgrades Light Chains spell to area-of-effect binding. ║

╚═══════════════════╝

╔═══════════════════╗

║ QUEST COMPLETE ║

║ CLEAR THE SUB-LAYER DUNGEON ║

║ Reward: ║

║ +5,000 EXP ║

║ +3,000 SC ║

║ ◀ SPIRIT TEMPERING PILL ▶ ║

║ Permanently increases mana capacity by 1,500 MPU. ║

║ ◀ SHADOW STORAGE EXPANSION ▶ ║

║ Capacity: 5m³ → 15m³ ║

║ ◀ TITLE: DUNGEON DELVER ▶ ║

║ +10% EXP from dungeon beasts. ║

╚═════════════════════╝

Lucian stared at the rewards.

The Neophyte Breakthrough Pill. He’d been on the edge of Late Neophyte for weeks. One pill and he’d break through.