The elevator ride from the Mezzanine to Floor 3 was a descent from heaven into the boiler room of hell, Grika had called on Reed about a problem going on on Floor 3.

Reed leaned against the rattling iron cage, watching the brass numbers on the dial tick backward. Above him, the faint, thumping bass of the Casino's magical sound system faded. The scent of Vesper's expensive perfume, the crisp ozone of the slot machines, and the clinking of gold coins vanished, replaced by a thicker, heavier cocktail of smells.

Sulfur. Hot iron. Greasy rag. And the distinct, coppery tang of goblin anxiety.

Ding.

The doors groaned open.

Floor 3, The Iron Works, was usually Reed's favorite place to hide. It was a cathedral of industry where Terra's magma flowed in neat, orderly channels and Grika's conveyor belts moved with hypnotic, rhythmic precision. It was the one place in the dungeon that made sense. Input + Labor = Output.

Tonight, however, the rhythm was wrong.

The machinery was silent. The conveyor belts were halted. The usual clang of hammers was missing.

Instead, a crowd of Orc workers had gathered near the far back wall, the Obsidian Seal that separated the dungeon's industrial sector from the unexplored depths of Floor 4.

"Boss!"

Grika sprinted toward him from the gloom. She wasn't wearing her "Game Show Hostess" persona anymore. Her welding goggles were pulled down over her eyes, and she was clutching a seismometer that looked like it had been built out of a grandfather clock and a Richter scale.

"You need to see this," Grika said, her voice tight. She didn't offer a joke. She didn't ask for a head pat. She grabbed his hand with a greasy, trembling grip and pulled him toward the crowd. "The bass drop upstairs... it's syncing with the basement."

Reed frowned, letting her lead him past the silent stamping presses. "Syncing? You mean resonance?"

"I mean the wall is dancing," Grika snapped.

They pushed through the circle of minions. The Orcs parted way instantly, their brutish faces pale. Even the skeletons looked rattled, their bones clicking nervously as they shifted weight.

Reed looked at the seal.

It was a massive slab of black volcanic glass, thirty feet high and fifty feet wide, fused directly into the bedrock. Ancient binding runes glowed faintly on its surface, designed centuries ago to keep whatever was down there, down there.

But Grika was right. The wall was moving.

Thump... Thump... Thump...

It wasn't a large movement. It was a vibration. A low-frequency pulse that traveled through the floor and up into the soles of Reed's boots. It matched the tempo of the music playing two floors above, but it was heavier. Slower. Wetter.

It sounded like a heartbeat.

"Structural integrity is dropping," Grika reported, reading the needle on her device as it vibrated wildly. "The vibrations from the slot machines and the foot traffic are acting like a tuning fork. It's waking up the... biology downstairs."

"Biology?" Reed stepped closer to the wall.

He placed his hand on the obsidian. It was warm. Not magma-warm. Flesh-warm. It felt like touching the neck of a sleeping giant.

"System," Reed whispered. "Scan."

[SYSTEM ALERT]

[Target: OBSIDIAN SEAL (Floor 3/4)]

[Status: COMPROMISED]

[Integrity: 8%]

[Warning: Biological Breach Imminent.]

"Eight percent," Reed cursed, pulling his hand back as if burned. "Grika, evacuate the sector. Get the Orcs back to the elevator. We need to reinforce this with-"

CRACK.

The sound was like a gunshot in a library.

A hairline fracture appeared in the center of the obsidian slab. It didn't look like breaking stone; it looked like tearing skin. The rock groaned, a deep, mournful sound that echoed through the cavern.

Bright, violent violet light spilled out of the fissure.

And then came the smell.

It hit Reed like a physical blow. It was thick, cloying, and overwhelmingly sweet. It smelled of rotting orchids, crushed berries, and potent aphrodisiacs. It was the scent of a jungle that wanted to seduce you before it ate you.

"Gas mask!" Grika yelled, fumbling at her belt.

Before she could deploy it, the crack widened.

HISSSSS.

A cloud of purple spores erupted from the wall, drifting into the Iron Works like lazy smoke.

"Back!" Reed commanded, throwing up a [Void Shield] to deflect the mist. "Everyone back!"

But the mist wasn't the threat.

From the darkness of the crack, something lashed out.

It moved too fast for the eye to track. A thick, muscular vine, glowing with bioluminescent purple veins, shot across the room like a striking cobra. It wasn't wood; it was fibrous, wet muscle covered in thorns the size of daggers.

It bypassed Reed. It bypassed Grika.

It snatched an Orc worker named Bricka who had been too slow to back away.

"ARGH!" Brika roared as the vine coiled around her waist.

The thorns didn't just pierce her heavy leather apron; they sank into her green skin with a sickening squelch. The vine tightened instantly, lifting the three-hundred-pound Orc into the air like a ragdoll.

"Help!" Brika screamed, dropping her sledgehammer. She clawed at the vine, but her thick fingers just slid off the mucus-coated surface.

The vine retracted, dragging her toward the crack in the wall. It was trying to pull her into Floor 4. It was trying to feed.

"Brika!" Grika shrieked.

She didn't hesitate. She pulled a stick of dynamite from her belt, lit the fuse with a snap of her static-charged fingers, and hurled it at the vine.

BOOM.

The explosion rocked the cavern. Smoke and debris filled the air.

"Direct hit!" Grika cheered, raising her wrench.

But as the smoke cleared, Reed's heart sank.

The vine hadn't broken. The explosion had stripped away the outer layer of bark, revealing pulsating red meat underneath, but the limb was already knitting itself back together. The regeneration was instantaneous. It absorbed the kinetic energy of the blast and seemed to grow thicker, pulsing with angry light.

It yanked Brika harder. She slammed against the obsidian frame, her legs kicking wildly as she was dragged halfway into the fissure.

"It eats impact!" Grika realized, horror dawning on her face. "Explosives just feed it!"

She grabbed a massive wrench and charged, intending to beat the plant into submission.

"No!" Reed shouted. "Grika, stand down! Physical damage won't work!"

He could see it. With his [Dungeon Vision], he saw the mana flowing through the vine. It wasn't just a plant. It was a construct powered by the massive reservoir of Void Mana downstairs. Cutting the fiber was useless, the mana would just restitch it before the blade left the wound.

He needed to cut the signal.

Reed stepped forward. The air around him turned freezing cold as he dropped his mental shields.

Elara, he thought. Anchor me. I need the knife.

I am here, the Banshee whispered in his ribs. Her presence was a spike of ice in his chest, cooling the sudden heat of the Void Shard. Cold heart. Sharp mind.

Reed's eyes flooded with violet light. He switched gears. He wasn't the Manager anymore. He wasn't the Tired Dad.

[SKILL ACTIVE: OVERLORD MODE]

[Output: 100%]

The shadows in the room lengthened, reaching toward him. The purple mist froze in the air. The temperature plummeted, frost forming on the conveyor belts.

Reed raised his right hand. He didn't summon a weapon. He extended his fingers, turning his hand into a blade.

He looked at the vine dragging Brika into the dark. He didn't look at the meat. He looked at the glowing purple line of mana connecting the limb to the main body deep in the earth. The lifeline.

"Sever," Reed commanded.

His voice wasn't loud, but it carried the absolute, crushing weight of a Dungeon Core's authority. It resonated in the bones of every Orc in the room.

He slashed his hand through the air.

A crescent of pure, concentrated Void darkness flew from his fingertips. It made no sound. It cut through the mist, through the light, and passed straight through the vine.

It didn't cut the plant physically. It severed the definition of the plant.

SNAP.

The light inside the vine died instantly. The bioluminescence faded to grey. The muscular tension vanished as the mana flow was terminated.

The vine went limp, turning from a deadly predator into a heavy, dead rope.

Brika fell to the floor with a heavy thud, gasping for air, the dead vine looping loosely around her waist.

For a second, there was total silence in the Iron Works.

Then, a low, angry hiss echoed from inside the crack. The severed stump of the vine writhed once, spewing a jet of thick, pink sap onto the floor, before retreating back into the darkness of Floor 4.

The sap hit the hot stone floor and sizzled. It smelled like honey and blood.

Reed lowered his hand. The violet light faded from his eyes, leaving him swaying slightly. Using Overlord Mode for a conceptual attack was draining. It felt like he had just run a marathon in ten seconds.

"Brika!" Grika scrambled over to the fallen Orc. "You okay, big girl? How many holes?"

"Many holes," Brika wheezed, sitting up and pulling the dead thorns out of her side. "But... alive. Thanks, Boss."

Reed walked over to the crack in the wall. He kept his distance, watching the darkness swirl inside.

The vibration had stopped. The plant had retreated, but it wasn't gone. It was waiting.

Thump... Thump...

The heartbeat was slower now, but louder. It sounded wet.

"It knows we're here," Reed whispered.

He looked down at the puddle of pink sap. He dipped a finger into it (carefully). It was sticky, warm, and tingled against his skin.

[ITEM IDENTIFIED: ALRAUNE NECTAR]

[Properties: High Potency Aphrodisiac / Mana Catalyst.]

[Origin: The Matriarch.]

Reed wiped his hand on his coat, disgusted.

"Grika," Reed said, his voice grim. "Get a Hazmat team. I want this breach sealed. Use the reinforced steel plates. Weld them shut. Double layers."

Grika walked up beside him. The manic energy that usually defined her was gone. She looked small. She was clinging to the fabric of Reed's trousers, staring at the dark crack with wide, yellow eyes.

"Boss," Grika whispered. "That wasn't a monster. That was... part of the floor. The whole floor is alive."

"I know," Reed said, placing a hand on her head to steady her. She was trembling. "It's a garden."

"I hate gardens," Grika shuddered. "Gardens don't explode. They just... grow over you. They eat the metal."

Reed looked back at the elevator. Upstairs, the casino was partying. Down here, the seal was broken. He had promised Vesper a potion in three days. He had just realized where the ingredients were going to come from.

"We have three days to figure out how to kill a jungle," Reed said. "Or the jungle is going to eat the casino."

He turned to the shivering goblin.

"Grika. I need you to build something. Something that cuts, burns, and doesn't care about regeneration."

Grika looked up. The fear in her eyes was replaced by a flicker of engineering malice.

"A weed whacker?" she asked.

"A big weed whacker," Reed corrected. "Go to the lab. I have a potion to brew."

[QUEST STARTED: THE GARDEN OF SIN]

[Objective: Seal the Breach (Temporary).]

[Objective: Prepare for the Raid.]

[Threat Level: CRITICAL.]

Reed took one last look at the bleeding wall. The smell of perfume was already drifting toward the elevator shaft.

Elara, Reed thought. Keep the air filters running. Don't let that pollen reach the guests.

I am trying, the ghost whispered back, her voice sounding strained inside his head. But the flowers... they are singing to me. They want to bloom.

Reed gritted his teeth and headed for the lift.

The party upstairs was just getting started. But the war downstairs had already begun.

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