Activating all of the cottages was easier than I expected, doing this was one of the requirements I needed to complete the ritual. The next step would be to create a battery capable of holding enough mana to run a transmutation spell for several hours.

  Now usually I would make this battery out of monster cores, but I had a feeling that something like that simply wouldn't be enough and so, I decided to go over the expectations of the original recipe and use a rather unconventional battery: a dungeon core.

  To accomplish this, I set out on wiping the Humus Dungeon for all its worth and with all the perks, levels, passives, and stats I've accumulated so far, the task has been an easy one.

  The extreme regeneration— and I mean extreme regeneration, I can heal from getting my head cut off right as long as it's close enough to my body. — that the mender's set has given me is fairly useless right now, I don't think the boss fight would force me to use it even.

  All of this is, of course, thanks to my [Corrupted Giant Killer] sub class, as technically speaking, the monsters in this dungeon are stronger than me, they also have higher levels so the boosts that the perks give me are out in full force.

  Every single one of my spells are capable of tearing through groups of monsters easily, the moles stand no chance against [Gale Blade], the vibrations of [Microseism] makes quick work of the golems, and the sensitive ears of the ferrets, bats, and rats become a liability when faced with [Thunderous Blast].

  Even if I made them as versatile as they could reasonably get, the spells in my dagger are specifically tailored for dealing with the monsters of humus dungeon. I did this just in case I wasn't powerful enough to solo it by the end of winter.

  As it turns out though, I didn't need to go so far, now my levels are more than enough to kill the monsters and my passives practically make me unkillable so there's no risk of death even if I fight these things in a battle of attrition.

  Point is, the humus dungeon wasn't the threat I thought it was. My paranoia was completely unfounded and I realized that maybe taking things slowly was the right path all along, but do I regret power leveling to my current state?

  Nope. Even if I gather several dozen sub classes before reaching level 20, all of them would be nothing compared to corrupted giant slayer, which I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have gotten if I fight the Warped while strong.

  Or something like that, I'm probably wrong and there's a chance I would have gotten the sub class regardless.

  But what ifs are pointless here, I've already passed the point of no return and now I have to live with the consequences of my actions, which just so happens to be a general lack of stats.

  Fine by me, I didn't mind. Becoming an inhuman boosts my stats anyway, so I'll catch up.

  "Would have loved to actually—" I grit my teeth and move my dagger downwards, causing a violent burst of wind to kill a swarm of moles. "— get more stats than I would have thought."

  In the end, the fact that I didn't have as many stats as I potentially would have is never going to change, I'm just gonna have to live with it.

  Going even faster, I start slicing through multiple groups of monsters as I make my way to the heart of the dungeon, soon, I find one of the many spawning rooms and instead of taking it out, I instead block the entrance.

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  That done, I continue crawling through the monster filled hallways until I reach the core. Usually, dungeon cores would have some kind of guardian protecting them and this one isn't an exception, back in Firelight Chronicles, the boss fight for the humus dungeon was this gigantic worm that eats magic and is immune to slashing attacks.

  Here, it's some kind of golem, I don't know what caused it to change in the future and I could care less. I was prepared to enter the guts of an oversized invertebrate but this works too.

  And a golem is much easier for me to kill too, my main attacking spell is literally meant to break apart rocks.

  "[Wind Blast." I cast the spell as I dodge a rock thrown my way, I run to the left and duck another thrown rock.

  With two failed ranged attacks, the golem decided to walk towards me, did it think punches will be more effective or something? Funny. While it's slowly closing the gap, my dagger goes sideways, my invisible spell quickly reached the golem and hits it on the chest dead center.

  Cracks ran across its stone body and pieces of rock fell to the ground, the following [Microseism] broke it even more, the large rocks on its chest that made the golem look like it had pecks fell off, revealing soft dirt underneath.

  The golem roared and slammed the ground with its feet, causing the chamber to shake violently.

  Dodging the falling rocks from the ceiling wouldn't have been so annoying if it wasn't for the fact that the golem is repairing itself while I'm doing it!

  "[Wind Blast]."

  My boots anchor themselves to the ground and I stop running the moment I see the golem pick up another rock to repair itself with. I threw a wave of vibrations at it, aiming for its arm, the spell connects and the rock that it's holding falls to the ground as its arm goes limp.

  Another wave comes to it, this time it hits its stomach, which wasn't effective. I grit my teeth and continue running away, all the while wondering where it is hiding its core.

  Relying on luck and hoping that one of the spells that I toss out hits it eventually will not work, I needed to be smarter about this.

  "[Water Ball]."

  Re-thinking my plan, I decided that stalling it with cc spells is the ideal route. I pointed my dagger at it and stopped just long enough to cast the [Freeze] spell bubbling within its bladed body, once the ice took over the golem's leg, I shot a frozen arrow at its head, freezing it entirely.

  A single [Microseism] was enough to shatter it and render the golem blind, and if I had anything to say about it, he would stay in this headless state for the rest of the fight.

  I emptied my dagger by shooting it with [Thunderous Blast], shaking its bones, or what accounts for its internals, then I used [Gelid Bones] to hurt it even more, now it should be feeling the damage to its core and the ice growing inside of its body will make it even worse.

  Panicking, the golem started rampaging, but a child throwing a tantrum is easy to deal with and all it took for me to avoid it was simply walking backwards.

  When its tantrum didn't work, the golem tried to pick up a boulder to replace its head but another [Freeze] stopped its arm in place.

  Unlike its leg, which it can just rip off the ground when frozen, a frozen arm would need the assistance from its hand to break the ice. I froze that as well, and now it's trying to run towards the wall to try and break it but I didn't let it.

  Hitting it with [Microseism] every time it moves guaranteed that I was doing damage to its body, it may not be the core, but my spells are doing something. Its legs freeze in place again, and by this point the golem is now nothing more than a glorified statue so I hit it with spells until its core shattered.

  The tell tale sound of shattering glass echoed throughout the chamber and I knew that the golem is now dead, my thoughts were confirmed when the 10 foot humanoid mass of rocks and dirt fell apart.

  A sigh came out before I could hold it back, was the fight more stressful than I thought it was? Probably, dodging all those rocks had been incredibly annoying.

  Anyway, with the golem dead, I walk to the orb floating in the middle of the room and gently touch it. The lore states that touching a dungeon core can give someone how they are feeling at that moment and it wasn't wrong.

  The core is scared, terrified. I can feel the emotion coursing into my palm and entering my heart, making it race.

  "Don't worry, I'll just take you off your dungeon and drain you of mana." I say with a smirk. "Everything is going to be okay."

  You know, I expected the humus dungeon to be scarier than this, as it turns out, it's incredibly easy. Was I so scared of fate that I somehow overestimated this place? I totally did, didn't I?