While Aria was trapped inside the mind realm alongside all the other adventurers, the dungeon's core, the artificial consciousness with a certain purpose of life, was analysing the situation.

The guest dungeon architect that it had learned so much from the last time did not follow the direction that it was taking.

While it was partly her fault that the anomaly was born in the first place, it was more of a coincidence according to the dungeon's classification.

Based on logical reasoning, the dungeon concluded that the guest architect was simply trying to survive against the guardians that the dungeon mistakenly summoned.

So, ultimately, it was due to the dungeon's actions that the guest architect was forced to take those measures.

Fortunately, there were some interesting results from the events that occurred right after the evolution of the snake mother into the Naga.

She gained powers that she should not possess on the lower floors, an occurrence that was only possible because she was in an environment not belonging to the dungeon inside of the dungeon.

The special conditions gave birth to the new kind of anomaly, and the dungeon started studying it extensively.

The only reason it went so far and allocated so many resources to it was because of the uniqueness that the creature possessed.

-Tring!

[ "Death rate: 1%. We will start the analysis again." ]

The dungeon's theme was based on a progression of power set on certain rules. So, what would be more interesting to an entity following the ascending power scale than a being of absurd strength in a place where only babies should live?

The dungeon's fascination over the creature was great enough that it wanted to keep it there as much as possible and place it under many different scenarios if possible.

Sadly, it was on a floor that could not sustain the creature. For adventurers as well, it was an eyesore that the dungeon had concluded to be an environmental anomaly.

Ultimately, the creature was going to die and since it was on the first floor, the restrictions on it were pretty loose as well.

The dungeon had greater control over it naturally, so… the dungeon made use of it the best it could.

The process was not something the dungeon would have come up with in normal circumstances, but the situational adaptation was what brought them to that stage.

[ "Death rate is climbing up to 3%. We cannot continue with this strategy." ]

"I know!"

The guest that the dungeon had high hopes for went against the quest and killed the creature even before the dungeon could finish recycling the waste through it.

[Death rate: 6%.]

Had she just followed the quest and dealt with the adventurers for a little longer, stalling time until the corruption was complete at the very least, the dungeon would have accepted her auctions as passable.

But the architect ruined the logical plan that the dungeon had in place. And while the actions brought unexpectedly better results somehow, the dungeon had to punish the guest architect.

The method was set according to the rules, the lives were at stake, and the way it was supposed to be, the dignity of the architect was on the line once again.

[Death rate: 11%.]

If it went against the dungeon's quest, then she should have been prepared to save all the people she tried to save as well.

The method wasn't something new for a dungeon architect, the dungeon made the trial according to the rules. But, from the looks of it, the dungeon made the difficulty a level worse than what the guest architect could handle this time.

"Argh! No!"

Aria was calculating the Mana path the best she could. She placed her mind on autopilot and thought about the problem at different stages.

[Death rate: 15%.]

She partitioned her mind and calculated the paths on different stages.

With the help of her assistance system, she was able to get answers to the questions that she would have taken much longer for.

In her mind, the questions were flying around at different stages. Some were more complex, like which threads right now connected to important people like Reddy and Sir Lux.

Even if she needed to sacrifice people, she wasn't going to give up on people that mattered more to this world and, more importantly, to her.

[Death rate: 21%.]

She was not that altruistic or empathetic that she would see all humans as equals. She was also not righteous enough to put the general good before her own happiness.

She knew she would not forgive herself if Reddy was caught up in the whole mess that was her fault at the end.

She calculated all the possible connections that were connecting to her by making her the core of her calculations.

Even though she was seeing a cluster, she made sure the structure before her was more defined.

She was also careful of the greater masses. While she did not care as much about the others as she did about Reddy, she needed to make sure that she does not increase the death toll more than what they needed.

[Death rate: 30%.]

At the end, the fight was against her ability to predict, calculate, connect, and execute the total calculation in the form of Mana output.

"Damn it! What the hell is this?!"

The way the dungeon changed the rhythm of the wave structures frustrated her beyond help. She wanted to destroy the dungeon in its entirety right now.

But she did not let the anger get the best of her.

She remained calm as much as possible and made did her best to come up with the right solution for the problem.

[ "From the analysis, the dungeon seems to be following a certain code. The dungeon is asking you a question–!" ]

"That much is obvious! It's asking me why I did that!"

Aria had read the quest that the dungeon and Rose presented. She understood why the dungeon was doing this, but at the same time, she did not know how to present the answers that the dungeon wanted.

[Death rate: 36%.]

She knew the question, but she did not know the language in which she needed to present her answer.

She did not have enough time or chances to present a wrong answer.

That was the very reason she was trying a hit-or-miss kind of strategy. She needed to figure out the kind of code language that the dungeon was using and to do so, she needed the core code of the code language.

She would have cracked it if she had enough time to analyse the code, but, from the moment the strings made that complex structure around her, they had started affecting one another.

[Death rate: 40%.]

The more time passed, the more the corruption would affect all of them. And at a certain point, like an iceberg collapsing on itself, the whole structure would fall apart.

She could see that as well so she was fighting against time right now. But the 'fuck around and find out' did not work as well for her as she had hoped.

The few lives that were lost weren't known to her, but they were people who died for nothing.

She wasn't feeling too well for that right now.

"Fuck it! We will just calculate the whole thing!"

[Death rate: 48%.]

She picked the center core, designated five other points as center, channeled her energy to balance the output load on the different colors strings attached to different black stars, and made herself the observer.

Her green eyes glowed, her instincts that were on the highest alert they had ever been, were highlighted further.

[ "Master…" ]

All sounds, including the one inside her mind, disappeared for her. The only thing that remained was the strings before her, the numbers that she had assigned to these strings, as well as the energy that was flowing through them.

Her focus peaked.

She detached her 'task' from everything around her. In an endless white world, she detached herself further, going into a kind of Zone where only she existed.

The task became a process, and everything else became the elements connecting to that process which were ultimately a part of her.

She reached a state where only those who had reached the pinnacle of mortality were allowed.

[Your Skill: Task Division (S) is blooming!]

-Oooooooooooooooooooong!

In a world where only she existed, she was everything. She was the numbers, she was the remaining people, she was the world and everything that was part of this world.

The dungeon's mind realm that she was inside became the entrance to her own transcendental world where she was the ruler, the rule, and the judge.

[Task Division (S) has bloomed into the Adolascent-skill: Saint Origin (SS).]

[You have reached the EXP threshold. Your level will be increased.]

[Dungeon Architect (Level-2) >> Dungeon Architect (Level-3).]

[Ding!]

[The dungeon has detected an unforeseen event.]

Aria opened her eyes in the dungeon's Mind realm, her body in the real world in the dungeon glowing with a strange warm energy.

"..."

The moment the branch manager saw this, he wiped his tears and got up, looking around himself with a new ray of light.

He stayed there and watched everything happening.

Almost half of the people who started the raid, who won the raid, and who had risked their lives during the raid, had already passed away by the time this happened.

Still, there were about half of them remaining.

And, in a situation where every single life was at risk, he did not have the luxury to wish for more saved lives.

He wasn't the one doing anything.

As a bystander, the only thing that he could do… was to simply watch this horror unfold right before his eyes.

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