I was trapped.
I had no idea how many days I had been wandering through those corridors — hungry, furious, and exhausted. Every path led me into a dead end. The catastrophe monsters in this place were weak, no different from ordinary prey. Their frail bodies were mostly covered in corrupted matter, which my fangs tore through without effort.
I ate and ate endlessly, yet I was never satisfied. I could stuff my jaws with that substance dozens of times — the very matter that coated everything around me — and still feel as if I had eaten half of a scrawny rabbit at best. Hopeless. After what I estimated to be about a week, I had devoured most of the corrupted creatures nearby: mutated snakes, rabbits, and bizarre half-fish, half-mantis abominations slithering across the dark-violet ground.
All that remained was to eat, and eat, until I grew numb from it. No matter how much I consumed, I was never full. Over time, the weak aura contained within that matter accumulated inside me until I could feel it attacking me from within. The pain was immense, yet I had no choice but to eat whatever was at hand. Seconds turned into minutes, minutes into hours, and hours into days…
Even as an extreme introvert by nature, I felt unbearably lonely. I even found myself missing that scheming vampire woman. Maybe — just maybe —she would have come up with something.
Inside this place, I had far too much time to think. Too much. I imagined that once I escaped, I could live as a god of the goblins, lounging comfortably inside a secure stronghold, casually chewing on weeds and meat.
After some time, as I slowly began to resemble the very monsters around me — dark violet spreading across both heads and my neck, my body soaked in corrupted aura — I noticed something unexpected while idly checking my skills.
[Low Wild Dungeon Assimilation — The holder of this skill partially ceases to be treated as a foreign element by a wild dungeon. Wild dungeon monsters attack less frequently. Catastrophe aura detection is enhanced. While inside a wild dungeon, a constant low amount of experience is gained.]
Another useful skill.
It helped me descend to the lower levels. There, a strange stench filled the air. Breathing became difficult, and the oppressive aura weighed heavily on me. I sensed something like miasma — a toxic atmosphere that burned my lungs. The matter there was hot, and the steam rising everywhere was saturated with aura.
I had never felt this terrible since awakening as a hydra. Even when I was burned alive during the battle by the river, the suffering and fear had been lesser than this. My eyes remained shut, my entire body ached, and breathing itself was agony. The aura of the wild dungeon crushed me, overwhelming my very being.
Was this where I would die?
That question echoed endlessly in my mind.
I refused to rot here and dissolve into nothingness. I began biting and devouring as much of that heated, aura-filled matter as I could. I activated [Iron Skin], struggling to stay conscious. It took countless hours to force myself to consume that filth. It tasted like crumbled stone and reeked of gasoline mixed with rotten slop.
Disgusting.
I was fighting myself. Back when I was human, I had read Goggins' "Can't Hurt Me" and other self-improvement bestsellers during my darkest moments, yet I had never been able to change for long. This time, I couldn't afford failure.
The hunger of a hydra was beyond comprehension. I no longer had the [MP] to control my second head and stop it from devouring the malicious, hellish matter soaked in ominous aura. I fought against the foreign energy invading my body, against the pain filling every corner of my existence.
I did not let it kill me.
Through sheer cursed stubbornness, I obtained the passive skill [Catastrophe Aura Resistance]. The pain lessened — perhaps by thirty percent — as if the aura had become half as harmful. It gave me the strength to keep moving forward until I escaped the area filled with toxic miasma. At last, I could open my eyes without clenching my teeth in agony.
I emerged into a place resembling a vast forest — yet still part of the wild dungeon. It was filled with corrupted matter, aura-tainted waters, and monsters only slightly weaker than myself. Without my two newly acquired skills, I would not have survived long. The plants were poisonous and alive, attacking me in an attempt to devour me. Some were massive and hard as stone. More than once, I broke my fangs and claws on them, smashing them with my tail and slamming them into the ground until they finally yielded and could be eaten.
I was so weakened that even checking my stats felt difficult. I truly believed I would die there.
I suspect I spent half my life within that inescapable prison. I hunted small but incredibly fast catastrophe creatures and plants above level twenty. Without my advantage in speed and mobility, I would have starved to death. Consuming matter had become like drinking sweetened water — I grew hungry faster than it could sustain me. I had long since lost the path back to the miasma. The dungeon itself was alive, constantly shifting its structure, leading me astray. It behaved as though it wanted me dead. Only a hydra's instincts kept me alive.
After a long time, the dungeon granted me two additional passive skills:
[Predator Focus] — increasing concentration and reducing fear during real threats.
[Catastrophe Instinct] — allowing me to recognize catastrophe monsters from a distance and instinctively gauge their strength.
The greatest benefit of the latter was avoiding low-level trash that only wasted my energy and inflicted wounds which could have killed me in the long run.
When I reached level [27], I finally felt strong enough to cross a poisonous river as wide as the Nile during a flood. Mutated fish gnawed at me beneath the surface while the current dragged me sideways, yet I refused to spend even one more hour in that cursed forest beneath a ceiling dripping with scalding, aura-filled sludge.
In the struggle against my own limits, I acquired two more skills that allowed me to make it across. The crossing took perhaps an hour — though it felt like an entire day — but I survived that damned place.
[Swimming] and [Corruption Adaptation] were such a valuable gains. The latter passive skill, which accelerated my regeneration in corrupted zones, proved absolutely crucial within the wild dungeon.
On the other side awaited a desert of pure catastrophe matter. It was the densest, most potent aura imaginable, and absorbing it felt like my insides were being seared with molten iron. A cursed land. I slowly lost myself — consumed by hunger, thirst, and above all, despair.
I gazed toward the horizon and saw nothing but an endless dark-violet mass. No auras. No structures. Like a desert beneath a sealed sky. I trudged forward like a ship on an infinite ocean, the sludge splashing beneath my paws. My second head lost consciousness, and at some point, I felt a breath on my back.
I sensed that I was being watched.
I collapsed completely, surrendered, and waited for the end. Then I saw something extraordinary — something like a dream.
A beautiful woman with a slender figure approached me barefoot, dressed in an ash-gray gown. A scar marked her neck, and she held a wand in her right hand. Her long raven-black hair and eyes contrasted sharply with her pale skin. She crouched before my head and laughed softly, as if she were looking at a helpless child.
"Don't tell me you've already given up, Mr. Oskar Zelek," she said in a gentle, warm, almost angelic voice. "I thought you were capable of more. You possess potential — it's a shame you hesitate to use it. Know this: among hundreds of millions of souls, yours answered my call. There is something within you that longs to break free."
She raised her left hand, and a massive mirror emerged beside her. Within it, I saw myself from my previous life. I stood beside a beautiful woman hidden behind a veil. We rode in a luxurious Bugatti through breathtaking landscapes. I could not see her face, yet even as gray overtook my hair, she remained by my side. We were surrounded by numerous healthy children and grandchildren — smiling, happy. A fireplace crackled, marble walls bent beneath shelves of books, and a dog lounged on the rug.
I felt bliss — something I had always wanted: peace, fulfillment, respect.
Then the mirror shattered into thousands of fragments, vanishing into the filthy sludge. I could not force a single word from my throat. I was dying in both body and soul.
"Well then… that is how your life could have turned out," she said softly. "Could have? Or perhaps it still can? Who knows… Do not waste your second chance, and everything you dreamed of today may yet come true. My loss. I will help you one last time — only once more. For the second and final time."
She blinked, stuck out her tongue playfully, and waved her wand. In that instant, uncontrollable darkness swallowed my body. I felt cold — then warmth again. Something called out to me from afar…
"Artax! Artax! You idiot! I told you to run — this is all my fault! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"
The vampire woman was crying. I saw two massive wounds torn open in my chest, a vast pool of blood beside me. A great catastrophe monster lay dead nearby, its body pulverized by countless strikes from Valeria's summoned monsters, which now circled loyally around us.
"I thought you were dead… You weren't breathing. You weren't responding. Swear to me you'll never do this again!" she shouted, shaking my neck desperately, demanding comfort and a promise.
Meanwhile, still overwhelmed by everything that had happened, I barely heard her words. Sensation slowly returned to my body. My second head gradually regained consciousness. The words of the mysterious woman echoed endlessly in my mind — I could not forget her gentle presence.
Was it a dream?
A dying hallucination?
Madness?
I checked my status and saw level [28], along with every skill I had acquired during that hell.
"What happened? Are you alright?" I finally managed to ask, still sprawled on my back. All I could think about was standing up, sealing this cursed place, killing the boss — and helping not only Valeria, but myself as well.
"Forget me! I dealt with that beast quickly. What matters is you! What happened to you!? How are you alive!? That monster's strike could have wounded a true wyvern!"
I rose onto all my legs and looked around. Dozens of monsters lay dead. A massive half-boar, half-hedgehog creature lay shattered, its spines broken. Lost in thought, furious at my own weakness and starving, I lunged at it under [Bloodlust], tearing it apart from below and devouring every morsel greedily.
Valeria wiped her tears — the first I had ever seen from her.
"I had a strange dream… I'll tell you about it someday. For now, I need to become stronger and help you defeat the boss of this hell. I will make you a queen — not just of goblins, but of all monsters. At least in this life, I will obtain what I have always desired…"
The vampire nodded, tightening her grip on her weapon.
Together, we headed toward the boss's lair.