'This is quite a nice place to build a secret lab.' Alex thought as he walked through the dense trees, following the directions given by the system.
After walking for a few minutes, Alex stopped in front of a tree that looked no different from the tens of giant trees in the surrounding.
'This is the entrance.' Alex thought, looking at a small hole in the tree's roots.
Alex entered the narrow entrances and crawled his way through the narrow passage for three minutes, he reached a small opening, and after going through it, he entered an open area.
Alex looked around and saw that he was in a narrow cave passage with no natural light, and at the end of the path was a four-meter-high stone door.
'This is a 40 Men team dungeon which means a lot of monsters and a lot of levels for me.' Alex thought as he stretched his arms and walked toward the door.
Alex opened the dungeon door and immediately got the system notification congratulating him about discovering a hidden dungeon and welcoming him into [Abe the Dishonored Lab].
'Let's do some stretching.' Alex thought as he took his sword out and entered the dungeon.
Alex walked through the empty hallway that was built using dark brick that bounced back minimal light from the light stone embedded in the ceiling, and with most of the light stones not working, the visibility was very low.
The whole place was silent, and the atmosphere was creepy, but Alex had no problem with the ghostly silence or the visibility because he had the mana sense, which helped him sense any movement around him.
'So There are a total of four floors in total.' Alex thought, checking the map of the dungeon.
The map provided by the dungeon was completely blank and provided no help in navigation, but it would get updated as Alex explored the floor, which would help him avoid missing any areas.
Alex walked for a few meters and found his first monster, a humanoid creature that looked like a demi-human with his whole body covered in twisted flesh mutations.
'An infected lion demi-human.' Alex thought, looking at the creature's information.
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[Infected Mindless] (Elite)
LVL: 180
Rank: Second Rank
HP: 180K ...(See More).
Description: A mindless creature with heightened senses and strength infected with the diseases of flesh moves on instinct and attacks every moving thing in sight.
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'I wonder what is the back story behind these mutated creatures.' Alex thought as he walked toward the creature who was sniffing the air.
The creature sensed Alex's presence and lunged toward them with a shrill cry, but he easily avoided his sharp claw and decapitated his head with a swift sword slice, instantly killing him.
After collecting the loot, Alex started roaming the first floor to update his dungeon map while killing any creatures he encountered.
Alex spent the next forty minutes cleaning most of the floor while checking all the rooms for loot and anything of value, and from his search, he discovered some information on the head researcher named Abe.
'So this Abe person was a King-grade Alchemist Sage who was researching the process of evolution.' Alex thought as he read some documents.
Alex was surprised knowing that this lab belonged to a King-grade Alchemist Sage, who had attained a level in two fields of knowledge just one step away from the known pinnacle Emperor Rank.
'I have discovered some good potion recipes and other good stuff, but if this is the personal lab of a King-grade researcher, then my loot is just crap.' Alex thought as he left the room.
Alex left the room and searched the whole floor, not missing any area as he wanted to know more about the researcher because the Beast Monarch and the process of evolution were very closely linked.
Alex spent twenty more minutes combing through the whole floor, not missing any room unchecked or leaving any creature alive, and then he went to the first-floor guardian room.
'The mutations are getting out of hand.' Alex thought, looking at the first-floor guardian.
The floor guardian stood close to 8ft tall and had a hideous appearance with giant bulging and twisted muscles covering his body.
The arms of the guardian were abnormally long and big, covered in huge snake-like veins, while his skin was grayish dark, and his massive fangs were on full display.
'All these infected have much higher stats than normal creatures.' Alex thought, looking at the creature's information.
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Infected Brawler (Epic)
Name: Igoth
Rank: Second Rank (Peak)
LVL: 200
HP: 570_K
Skills: (Hardened Skin)(Intimidating Roar)(Infection Fumes)(Paralyzing Breath)(Mindless Charge)(Berserk)
Description: A mindless creature turned into an abomination who is not dead or alive while his body constantly struggles with the pain of mutating flesh.
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"GROORRRR"
The floor guardian roared using his intimidating roar skill, but it was ineffective against Alex, and in the next moment, he charged toward him using the agility skill.
Alex sprinted toward the creature, easily avoided the wide swig from him, and used an upward slash to cut his arm off clean.
The brawler roared in pain and swung his other arm while his whole body turned a shade darker and started releasing thick grayish smoke.
Alex slashed at the guardian's chest, but the cut and damage he did were relatively shallow due to the increased defense from the hardened skin skill.
Alex's strength was higher than even a third Rank creature, so the fight was completely one-sided, and even after the guardian went berserk, it didn't change anything.
After a few seconds of struggle, the floor guardian was killed with his arm cut off and his body covered in deep gashes.
'A Rare third Rank potion recipe for the heightened Sense.' Alex thought as he checked the loot from the floor guardian.
Alex checked the other loot, and there was nothing special, and after checking the room for any documents, he used the stairs to get to the second floor.
-------------------
[9 Hours Later]
'If the third-floor guardian was at the peak of the third Rank and with such a significant strength boost, I can only wonder how strong the final boss would be.' Alex thought, looking at the mangled body of a colossal creature.
Alex cleared the second floor in two hours and gathered everything that it had to offer as it was filled with the strongest of infected being at the early third stage, and even its size was not much bigger than the first floor.
The third floor, however, was much larger, five times the size of the first floor, and had hundreds of rooms and countless infected, with the strongest being in the middle of the third Rank.
The third floor also had the best loot so far as Alex found tens of high Ranking potion recipes and equipment of Alchemy.
Alex also found rare skill books and documents with the research of various things that could be sold for a lot of money and contribution points to the Alchemist guild.
The best discovery, however, was finding the history of the lab and learning more about the head researcher, Abe Muejivrifk, and his motives behind this lab.
The story of Abe Muejivrifk was almost what Alex expected, as he was a researcher who loved doing experiments and was also obsessed with evolution, as he knew it was the critical attribute of life.
According to Abe, if living beings have control over their evolution, it would open the path to reaching the pinnacle of lifeform, ultimately making them achieve the goal of gaining more life and strength.
'Let's see if you drop any history lessons for me.' Alex thought as he walked next to the third-floor guardian corpse to collect the loot.
Alex collected the loot, and as he was hoping for, the guardian did drop a journal, so without checking any of the other loot, Alex started reading the journal's contents.
'So this person's name was Tozak Rehrihk, and he was a Grand Master Researcher in the field of biology and was also head assistant under Abe, helping him in his evolution research.' Alex thought after reading the first few pages of the journal.
Alex kept reading the journal, and even though the information was interesting, most of it was useless as it just explained the advancement and failures made in the research, but after reading half of it, he found the information of his interest.
"So Abe found an Unknown source that he could use to create a prototype serum that could hasten the evolution of any creature." Alex thought with a bright smile.
"So Abe found the first heart of the Beast Monarch," Alex said, certain that he would find what he came for.
Alex was confident that the unknown source couldn't be anything else but the Beast Monarch's heart because the consumer of the Beast Monarch's heart would gain a few broken abilities, all of which help the person evolve.
Alex continued reading the journal and the following information only strengthened his belief in the fact that the Beast Monarch's first heart was in this dungeon.
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