OP Absorption
Chapter 43: New Domain

Chapter 43: New Domain

They pushed deeper into the web-draped tunnels. The air grew thick and heavy, carrying the faint, acrid smell of something chemical. Fin walked near the back, his mind still snagged on the dissolving spiders.

Monsters in dungeons usually left corpses, cores, something. These just... melted. It felt wrong, unnatural, even for a dungeon.

The tunnel opened into a vast, circular chamber. Unlike the rough caverns before, the walls here were unnaturally smooth, almost polished black stone. Dominating the space were eight colossal spider statues, carved from the same dark stone, facing inward toward the center of the room.

They were unnervingly lifelike, their multiple eyes seeming to watch the team’s entry.

"Creepy," Joe muttered, scanning the statues warily. "Feels like a boss room, but empty."

"Map shows this chamber connects to three other passages," Hana said, consulting her device. "Let’s check the exits. Gary, Susan, cover the rear."

Fin stepped further into the room, looking up at the statues. They seemed ancient, emanating a cold stillness. He reached out, touching the leg of the nearest one. His power gave him nothing – just cold, dead stone. No residual mana, no history whispered through his touch.

CLANG!

The heavy sound echoed through the chamber. Everyone spun around. The stone door they’d entered through had slammed shut, the seams vanishing, leaving only a smooth, unbroken wall.

"What the—?" Gary rushed back, pounding his fist against the stone. It didn’t budge. "Trapped!"

A low hiss started, coming from vents opening near the ceiling. A familiar greenish liquid began to drip, then pour down the walls, pooling on the floor.

The acrid smell intensified rapidly.

"Acid!" Susan yelled, taking a step back as the liquid sizzled where it touched the stone floor. "Same type as the Acidspits!"

The pool spread quickly, the level rising.

"Find the other exits!" Hana ordered, her voice sharp but calm. The team scattered, checking the walls where the map indicated passages should be, but found only solid stone.

"Nothing here!" Mary called out.

"This side’s solid too!" Joe added, running his hands along the seamless wall.

Lucas unleashed a blast of energy at the wall near the sealed entrance. It hit with force but only left a faint scorch mark. "Reinforced. Standard attacks won’t break through."

Gary swung his warhammer against the wall with a roar. The impact boomed, but only chipped the surface slightly. "She’s right. Tougher than dungeon bedrock."

The acid level was already ankle-deep, steam rising from its surface. The air grew heavy with corrosive fumes, stinging their eyes.

"It’s rising fast," Susan noted grimly, shield held ready as if expecting an attack from the acid itself. "We have maybe five minutes before it’s too high to stand."

Panic began to set in among some members. Joe paced nervously. Mary scanned the statues, looking for levers or switches.

"There has to be a mechanism," Hana said, analyzing the room’s structure. "A pressure plate, a sequence..."

Fin tuned them out.

The dissolving spiders... the trap... the smooth walls. Something felt deliberate, manufactured. His power tingled, useless against the dead stone statues, but what about the floor? The walls? Where did the acid come from?

He knelt, pressing his palm flat against the cool floor, ignoring the rising acid nearby. He closed his eyes, shutting out the rising panic, and focused, extending his senses through his Absorption ability.

Not pulling power, just feeling. Feeling the flow of energy within the structure itself.

He felt the faint vibrations of the acid pumps hidden within the walls. He felt the dense energy of the reinforced stone. And then... he felt something else. A subtle concentration, a focal point of mana embedded in the floor near the base of one of the giant spider statues on the far side of the room.

It wasn’t a switch, more like a structural node, weaker than the surrounding stone.

"Found it," he said, opening his eyes and standing up abruptly. The acid was now nearing their knees.

"Found what?" Hana demanded, turning toward him.

He didn’t waste time explaining. Mana surged into his legs and staff as he sprinted across the chamber, splashing through the rising acid, ignoring the sting as it splashed against his reinforced boots. He reached the spot he’d sensed near the statue base.

"What are you doing, Fin?" Gary yelled.

Fin raised his staff, pouring energy into it until the tip glowed brightly. With a focused shout, he slammed it down onto the specific point on the floor he’d identified.

CRACK!

Unlike Gary’s earlier attempts, the floor fractured under the focused blow. Cracks spread outward, and a section of the stone gave way with a grinding sound, revealing a complex network of pipes beneath. The staff strike had shattered the central conduit feeding the acid vents.

Immediately, the hissing stopped. The flow of acid pouring from the ceiling ceased. A low gurgling sound came from the floor as the existing acid began draining away through hidden grates that opened up.

CREAK... CLANG.

The entrance door slid open again. The walls where the other passages should have been also slid open, revealing the three tunnels Hana’s map had shown.

The team stared, first at the draining acid, then at the open passages, then back at Fin, who stood breathing steadily, staff still humming faintly with residual energy.

"How...?" Lucas started, bewildered.

"Sensed a weak spot," he said simply, lowering his staff. He didn’t elaborate on how.

Susan looked from the shattered floor conduit to Fin, a grudging respect replacing her earlier skepticism. "Quick thinking."

Hana nodded slowly, her analytical gaze studying him intently. "Good work, Fin. Very good work." She clapped her hands.

"Alright team, acid’s draining. Let’s move before the dungeon decides to throw something else at us. Check your gear for acid damage."

As the last of the acid drained away, the team checked their gear. Fin’s reinforced boots had held up, but the lower edges of Gary’s hammer shaft showed faint pitting.

They regrouped near the central passage, the air still carrying a faint chemical tang.

"Alright, let’s move," Hana ordered. "Stay sharp. That trap felt too clean, too deliberate."

Fin nodded silently. The dissolving spiders, the perfectly engineered acid room... it didn’t feel like a natural dungeon ecosystem. More like a constructed test, or a prison.

Was this place even a normal dungeon, or some kind of pocket dimension built by something else entirely? The thought lingered as they entered the next tunnel.

The following hours were a tense, monotonous crawl through more web-filled passages. They encountered smaller spider variants – Scuttlers that moved in swarms, Web-slingers that tried to immobilize them from a distance.

The A-ranks handled them with practiced efficiency, Fin falling back into his observer role, collecting the few minor cores and materials the creatures dropped before they too dissolved into ichor.

Nothing truly challenged them, but the lack of significant resistance felt like the calm before a storm.

Finally, the tunnel widened, opening onto a distinct boundary. Ahead, the familiar brown, rocky floor of the caverns abruptly shifted to a strange, unhealthy-looking purple hue. The ground looked diseased, cracked, and faintly luminous.

The air grew heavy, thick with a cloying, sweet-sick smell that hinted at potent toxins.

"This is it," Hana said, consulting the map. "End of the known territory. Everything beyond this line is unexplored."

The team paused at the threshold, peering into the purple-tinged expanse. Webs here were thicker, darker, and the silence felt heavier, more oppressive.

"Looks poisoned," Susan observed, tapping her shield against the purple ground just beyond the line. It left no mark, but the air seemed to shimmer faintly around the point of contact.

"Everyone ready?" Hana asked, scanning her team. Nods all around. "Standard formation. Watch your footing, and report any unusual effects immediately. Let’s move."

They stepped across the invisible line, onto the purple ground.

Instantly, a crushing pressure slammed down on them. It wasn’t physical, but mental, spiritual – a wave of pure malevolent presence washing over their senses. Breathing became difficult, thoughts sluggish. It felt like wading through invisible molasses laced with dread.

Fin grunted, staggering slightly under the weight. It was far heavier than anything he’d felt before, dwarfing the aura of the Bone Dragon or even the unsettling power of the samurai zombie. This felt ancient, deeply hostile, and overwhelmingly strong.

"Status report!" Hana snapped, her voice strained but steady.

"Pressure... intense," Gary gasped, leaning on his hammer.

"Mana flow restricted," Lucas added, his hands sparking erratically.

"Feeling sluggish," Mary confirmed, her blade held defensively.

"This presence..." Joe whispered, eyes wide. "It’s huge."

"Agreed," Hana said grimly. "This is beyond standard Rank 6. Something else is here." She took a step back toward the brown ground they’d just left. "Pulling back. We regroup and reassess."

The team turned, ready to retreat just a few steps into the perceived safety of the previous zone.

But the tunnel wasn’t there anymore.

Where the entrance to the cavern had been only moments before, now stood a dense, unnaturally thick wall of gnarled, black-barked trees. Their branches twisted together, forming an impenetrable barrier woven with the same dark, pulsing webs found deeper in the purple zone.

There was no sign of the passage they had just walked through.

"What—?" Susan stepped forward, reaching out to touch the strange bark. She recoiled as if burned. "It’s draining mana."

"We’re trapped," Mary stated flatly, her calm demeanor cracking slightly.

Lucas fired a weak energy bolt at the trees. It fizzled out harmlessly against the dark wood. "It’s absorbing attacks too."

Hana stared at the impossible forest that had replaced their only known exit. "It moved us. Teleported us, or changed the dungeon layout around us." Her voice was tight with controlled urgency.

"We didn’t just step into a new area. We stepped into its domain."

The heavy pressure intensified slightly, and the cloying smell grew stronger. They were cut off, deep inside hostile territory, facing a presence far exceeding their mission parameters.

The storm had arrived.

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