As Dante walked in the tunnel, he met two other tunnels, but by using the same compass, he found the most suitable one.

As expected, the path started to curve downward with a slight rotation to the right.

'If it continues like this, we'll go down and at the same time rotate a full circle to where the opportunity is.' Dante analyzed internally.

The problem was that Dante didn't know how deep that opportunity was. Would they need to go down only a few kilometres or tens of kilometres?

Tak, tak, tak, tak!

As Dante was lost in thoughts, he suddenly felt the ground shaking. He could clearly see the pebbles jumping beneath his feet.

"Hide behind me, something is coming." Dante whispered before giving the glowing flower to Ruby.

Taking a fighting position, Dante focused on both his back and front, as he didn't know where the enemy would come from.

CRACK!

Just then, a small rock fell on Dante's head. Before the realization could hit him, snow, rocks, mud, and pebbles—all fell on him as the ceiling opened widely, revealing a terrifying monster that Dante had seen only in the White Abyss book.

'You have to be kidding me!'

Ignoring Ruby, Dante quickly turned his tattoo into a shield before a glowing blue beam launched at him.

The shield blocked the freezing beam, but before Dante could use Shadowstep, a gigantic mouth, filled with rows of sharp drill-like teeth covered his vision.

BAM!

The world around Dante turned into pure darkness, and the smell of disgusting saliva filled the place.

Dante sighed in relief as he understood what happened. The beast that attacked him hit the ground before it could close its mouth and eat Dante alive.

'It has low intelligence, as described in the book.'

Tssssss!

At that moment, Dante heard the same digging sound again. Looking at the sides, he saw that the drill-like teeth were digging in the stones while making bright sparkles due to the friction, trying to reach for Dante.

He knew that it was only a matter of time before they reached him, as that monster was the one responsible for these tunnels. Its sharp teeth allowed it to dig through everything in its path while searching for prey.

"Let's see who has the best drill."

Dante quickly turned his shield into a drill blade, giving it the ability to dig through hard materials while being safer than the arm drill.

With a simple thought, the drill activated, rotating at a fast speed. Next, Dante walked to the mouth walls, which were closing quickly toward him, and dug into it!

ROAAAR!

Hearing the screams of the monster above him, Dante continued digging through the monster's flesh.

At first, it was only soft flesh that caused blood to splash all over Dante's figure, but after a moment, it became significantly harder to penetrate, suggesting that Dante had finally reached the hard skin.

Crack!

Unfortunately for the monster, Dante's relic was significantly stronger than some hard skin.

The drill penetrated the mouth and revealed a small hole that led to the outside. Without wasting a single second, Dante turned into a shadow and passed through it.

After leaving the mouth, the first thing that Dante saw was Ruby attacking the monster with decaying flowers. She noticed him immediately and her eyes widened.

The second thing that he saw was the monster itself.

It wasn't a maggot.

It was a giant maggot!

It had sharp spikes of ice covering its back like a shield and six small, glowing, blue eyes. The maggot-like monster was biting the ground under it, its sharp teeth digging into it with ease.

BAM!

Finally, it closed its mouth, eating the ground as though it was nothing. But the moment it swallowed, it only took a second for everything to go to the other side.

With the ground not stopping it anymore, the maggot lay on its belly like most legless creatures and looked at Dante with intense hunger.

Other than its teeth, it also had two small hands that ended with three sharp claws. But they were underdeveloped and unusable currently.

It was called the Frostmaw Maggot, the creature that could sense the tiniest movements to find its prey and dig tunnels to catch it by surprise.

The maggot suddenly opened its mouth widely, a blue light illuminating inside of it. But before it could shoot another beam…

Shadow Spell — Fire Javelin!

BOOM!

Dante fed it an explosive spear!

The maggot screamed in pain and agony, feeling itself burning from the inside.

The inside of its body wasn't as solid as its teeth and skin yet, it could be described as underdeveloped like its small arms. Even while eating, it had a mechanism to push everything that might be harmful outside its body.

BOOM!

The next second, Dante threw another javelin, burning the maggot's eyes.

Before the maggot could react, Dante emerged on its head and turned the drill into a sword before piercing the maggot's head.

[Your Greed Knows No Bounds]

You have slain a pathetic Rankless Newborn Frostmaw Maggot. Spirit absorbed: +0

'Another newborn that can kill an adult human. What the hell is wrong with these creatures?!' Dante wondered while reading the runes before dismissing his relic. The sword quickly returned to Dante's arm as a tattoo

Dante remembered clearly the newborn Master of Decay that was Rank 2. At least the Frostmaw Maggot, despite its strength, was only Rankless.

But the "newborn" Master of Decay had a core! And a Rank 2 core above that!

"What was that weapon just now?!" Ruby approached Dante with a glowing flower in her mouth and asked with sparkling eyes.

"Oh, the weapon? Just an annoying relic that I don't like." Dante answered honestly, then grabbed Ruby's new flower.

"Anyway, that thing doesn't have a core, so let's continue."

"Yes sir—!"

BAM!

Before Ruby could complete her sentence, something fell from the hole that the maggot came from.

As Dante turned around—

BAM! BAM!

Two other objects fell.

What Dante saw at that moment was three Frostmaw Maggots on top of the corpse of the one that Dante killed.

Without wasting a second, they dug their teeth into the corpse of their sibling and started eating it piece by piece.

By the time they finished their meal, Dante and Ruby weren't there.

A/N: for the privilege readers, I want to say that I'll add a new tier soon. So, the prices of the third tier will decrease a bit next month to balance them (I know I'm so generous)

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.