They Wanted a Hero. They Made a Monster: Born at the Bottom
Copyright© 2026 by CaffeinatedTales
Chapter 32: Beneath the Caverns
No, how had it accomplished this?
Evan had been in the dungeon for ages without seeing a single LV10 skill. Why did this creature have them in bulk?
Crystal Symbiosis increased the power of an ordinary bat’s skills by only twenty to thirty percent. How had this one reached five hundred percent?
Were all the crystals on its body S grade?
If Evan still had eyes, he would have rubbed them hard.
How else could he be seeing such an absurd Status Panel?
Most absurd of all was the Beyond Death title.
A title could be obtained only by fulfilling its corresponding conditions.
Yet such a powerful title had appeared on an ordinary Crystal Bat.
Evan sent over several more Puffcaps.
This time, he deliberately made them emerge from two different passages in sequence. The second group came out only after the first had died.
Using the interval between the enemy’s attacks, Evan finally saw its true form.
An enormous body more than ten feet long hung upside down in the center of the cavern. Dark red veins showed through the wrinkled membranes of its wings, and a pure, deep-purple Mana Crystal was embedded at the end of each wing bone.
They really were all S-grade Mana Crystals!
And they were enormous!
Compared with these three, the S-grade Mana Crystal in Evan’s possession deserved to be called a fragment.
Without the Status Panel, Evan would have believed anyone who called this Crystal Bat a dragon.
The moment he saw it, however, another question occurred to him. At that size, could it fit through the tunnels?
The caverns here were nothing like the passages in the Deep Strata, which were often dozens or even hundreds of feet across.
Many of these smaller tunnels had been gnawed out by Rock Lizards. They were rough, uneven, and generally no more than six feet wide.
The old bat was so large that it probably could not enter them.
Did that mean it was trapped in this cavern with nowhere to go?
Excellent. At least Evan did not have to worry about it escaping.
More than a hundred spore Puffcaps remained scattered through the cavern system. Evan ordered all of them to converge on this location.
They gathered in separate passages but did not enter the main cavern. Instead, they began spraying Hallucinogenic Spores from where they stood.
The old bat immediately noticed the poisonous haze drifting in from the smaller tunnels. It was intelligent enough not to wait passively for death.
It flew to one tunnel entrance and beat its wings with tremendous force.
Even without using a skill, the resulting wind dispersed the still-thin cloud of spores.
Then the old bat placed its mouth near the entrance and unleashed [Infrasonic Attack LV10] directly into the tunnel.
The nine Puffcaps inside died instantly.
It repeated the method at every other passage emitting poisonous mist.
By the time Evan realized the danger and tried to retreat, it was already too late. Not one spore Puffcap survived.
Damn it. His entire force had been wiped out.
Puffcaps truly were vulnerable to wide-area attacks that left them nowhere to dodge.
The tunnels also extended the reach of a sonic attack. Evan’s last group of Puffcaps had fled a considerable distance, yet a single cry still killed them all.
Tch.
He could not use artillery, and poison had failed. How was he supposed to fight this thing?
More than a hundred Puffcaps had not even scratched its health.
Evan might command far greater resources now, but he could not sustain losses like these.
After considering the problem, he concluded that the only short-term solution was to lure a high-ranking adventurer here.
If an adventurer killed it, however, what spoils would remain for Evan?
At most, he would receive a corpse.
The old bat’s most valuable possessions were the three S-grade Mana Crystals on its body.
There might also be other secrets hidden within it.
Of course, Evan could kill and rob the adventurer afterward.
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