They Wanted a Hero. They Made a Monster: Born at the Bottom
Copyright© 2026 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 14: The Heartwood Strike
Following the adventurers from a distance, Evan grew increasingly uneasy.
Why did this route feel so familiar?
They were heading for the Magma Fiend’s home.
Evan knew no battle had occurred in the Magma Fiend Lair. The mushrooms he had stationed nearby would have detected the mana disturbance.
Had the Magma Fiend remained away after its latest outing, allowing the adventurers to pass without encountering it?
Evan had assumed they used another route he had yet to discover. The Deep Strata were unimaginably vast and surely possessed more than one entrance. He simply lacked the strength to explore them.
If they had come through the Magma Fiend Lair, one question mattered now.
Had the Magma Fiend returned home?
“Now I can finally relax.”
Finding the duke’s daughter had greatly improved Garrick’s mood. What adventurer would not covet an entire city as a reward?
“Boss, you have no idea how desperate I felt when you said the signal shifted on the Ninth Stratum. I thought she really had fallen into the tenta...”
Nyx kicked him before he could finish.
Garrick glanced at the pink Puffcap in her arms and remembered that Elara was present. He had spoken far too freely.
“Ahem.”
As usual, Captain Nolan rescued the conversation.
“Ivan, are you certain you can undo Lady Elara’s Polymorph? Should we find a specialist in curse-breaking once we reach the surface?”
Ivan bristled. “Do you think I’m inferior to those third-rate frauds? Someone cast Polymorph and followed it with a Polymorph Fixative. You believe that can defeat me?
“It won’t be any harder than turning all of you back from scarecrows after the Strawman Abyss.”
Nolan had only meant to change the subject. Instead, he had stepped on Ivan’s pride.
“I know nothing about magic. If you’re confident, that’s all that matters.”
Without noticing, the party reached the entrance to the upper stratum.
The cavern remained as hot as before.
Nyx already hated heat, and carrying a Puffcap made it worse. Lady Elara was a noblewoman, however. Even in this form, passing her casually to one of the men felt improper.
Nyx endured the heat and quickened her pace.
Elara showed little reaction. All her resistances were LV6.
“Wait!”
Ivan’s sharp warning stopped them.
“The mana pattern has changed.”
[Reconnaissance] “Nyx,” the Archmage said calmly. “Take Lady Elara and go.”
Nyx looked at him once. The old Halfling often lost his senses to mana addiction, but when lucid, he was the most experienced member of the company.
Without hesitation, she carried Elara into the long shadows cast by the party and raced into the passage at impossible speed.
The cavern began to shake the instant she disappeared.
Lava pools on either side churned like boiling veins. Thick bubbles of molten gold and crimson burst one after another, while sulfurous smoke and waves of heat billowed outward.
Nyx’s flight told the hidden enemy that it had been discovered. It no longer intended to let the remaining prey escape.
An inhuman roar shook the cavern, and an enormous figure rose from the lava.
Its mountain-like upper body was assembled from half-solid magma and charred bones. A dark-red shell covered its torso like armor, protecting the Lava Heart within.
Dozens of flame creatures, each the height of a person and shaped like smaller copies of their master, leaped from the pools and blocked the route ahead.
Garrick swallowed hard.
“The Magma Fiend ... and lava golems.”
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