I can see experience bars after being transported to another world.

Lu Yuan looked at the giant tree hanging upside down.

From root to trunk, from trunk to fruit.

A complete ecosystem.

A suspended farm.

Then he noticed the edge of the cave.

On one side of the sphere, near the deepest part of the cave wall, the cross-section of a copper pillar is faintly visible.

It was exactly the same as those he had seen in the abyss.

The bronze-colored surface was covered with densely packed runes, and a faint blue light flickered in the darkness.

Several thicker vines extended from the bottom of the sphere in that direction and embedded themselves into the rock wall near the copper pillar.

The thickest of them had already touched the bronze pillar itself.

Grayish-green filaments extend from the ends of the vines and pierce into the runic grooves on the surface of the bronze pillar.

The copper changes color at the point of insertion.

It changed from bronze to dark brown, and from dark brown to grayish-green.

The copper is being replaced.

At about one-third of the height of the bottom of the bronze pillar, the runes had all been destroyed.

The remaining two-thirds still shimmered with a faint blue light, but along the boundary line, the gray-green roots continued to spread upwards.

[Detection Target: The core sealing structure of Bronze City has been detected... and is being eroded by an unknown creature... You now know the whole story...]

[Current Status of Bronze City: +5...12/50]

The moment the gray text appeared, Lu Yuan finally understood why the seal on the Bronze City had a gap.

Why has Bronze City ended up in this state?

So this is what caused it all.

At the same time, Lu Yuan noticed something else.

On the side of the sphere facing the copper pillar, in the area with the densest root system, a large area of ​​grayish-green tissue turned dark brown.

That damage seeped in from within.

The runes still glowing on the bronze pillar, emitting a faint blue light, were slowly but steadily burning every mycelium that had penetrated into it.

The bronze pillar is fighting back.

It is not passive food; it is an active defensive seal.

As this thing burrowed its roots into the bronze pillar, the runes on the pillar were also scorching its roots.

It was just very slow, so slow that it struggled desperately to expand outwards.

But it is paying a price every moment.

The destruction of the sub-core, or perhaps something else, finally brought the price to catch up with it.

Lu Yuan suddenly realized something.

"This strange creature is running for its life."

Go upwards, away from the area suppressed by copper, and spread out a network of mycelium on the ground; that's where it can survive.

They sealed off the water collection chamber.

The core component was destroyed.

This effectively blocked its only escape route.

[Detection target: ? (Main core...extremely dangerous...stay away...)]

[...You have glimpsed an existence that transcends cognition...It is not a living being...not the traditional supernatural...but something entirely new...that is transitioning from the unconscious to consciousness...]

[...You found it before it was fully formed...]

[Warning: The target is currently in a weakened state... but is still far beyond your comprehension...]

[Taboo Studies - Seeker of Knowledge: +2.0...20.3/100]

[Current Status of Bronze City: +3...15/50]

[Rationality: -3...-2...59/120]

Apart from the slow, deep pulsating sound of the sphere, the cavern was deathly silent.

Lu Yuan stood about twenty meters in front of the sphere.

The pale white light from the sandworm oil lamp did not illuminate the entire space, but it did illuminate the side of the sphere facing him.

Looking at the prompt, Lu Yuan felt even more confident in his chances of winning.

He also had two exorcism grenades, a can of mithril, a bottle of anti-ghost potion, two scrolls of holy light, and a bottle of invisibility potion on him.

Rationality 59.

The time synchronization function can be activated for at least thirty seconds.

That's enough for me to take the risk and try it.

But just as Lu Yuan was about to make his move, a change occurred inside the sphere.

Inside the translucent shell, the light spots that had been jumping between the brain tissue fragments suddenly stopped.

It was as if something had become aware of his presence.

Then the light spots started flowing again.

The direction has changed.

All the points of light converged on the side of the sphere facing Lu Yuan.

It was as if countless eyes had turned in the same direction at the same time.

The air inside the dome became viscous.

Lu Yuan felt a fine layer of goosebumps rise on the surface of his skin.

Something is watching him.

Then the sound came.

It did not originate from the sphere.

It was from behind.

From the suspended area he just passed through.

The corpses hanging upside down, all those with vines still remaining inside their skulls, opened their mouths at the same time.

Dozens of mouths spoke at the same time.

Intermittent, overlapping, and misaligned, like dozens of people speaking at the same time, but each one is half a beat behind.

"You...smell...not like...a human..."

Imperial language.

It was extremely vague, but the meaning was clear.

It's like a brain that has just learned to think is trying to get dozens of mouths to speak in unison, but it hasn't learned yet.

Lu Yuan placed his hand on the bottle of the Potion of Devouring Terror.

They did not act immediately.

"You...have...an aura..."

The sound was clearer than before.

"The aura of a kind..."

Lu Yuan froze upon hearing this, because this was not the first time such a thing had happened.

But he still couldn't figure out where the aura on his body came from.

Perhaps it was witnessing the destruction of Grimport, or perhaps it came from the Sea of ​​Knowledge...

Therefore, in the perception of this thing, one feels that one and it share the same origin.

"Why...did you...help...them...?"

Dozens of mouths are working in sync.

The delay was reduced from half a beat to almost synchronization.

It learns how to speak while it is speaking.

Less than a minute after entering the cave, its expression has changed from single words and sentences to short sentences.

This speed sent chills down Lu Yuan's spine.

Give it another ten minutes, and it might be able to recite a complete paragraph.

Give it another month, and it might be able to think like a human.

Give it another year...

Lu Yuan didn't let himself think about it any further.

He was looking at the bronze pillar.

Look at the root system between the sphere and the bronze pillar.

Look at the necrotic, brownish-red area at the bottom of the sphere.

"I can...stop."

The sound suddenly became complete.

Instead of uttering individual words, they flow into coherent sentences.

"No more... upwards, the cities above... I can avoid them."

Lu Yuan's gaze did not leave the direction of the bronze pillar.

As it said, "I can avoid it," not a single gray-green thread-like object that had pierced into the grooves of the bronze pillar's runes retracted.

Not only did it not retract, but the first few strands were still spreading upwards at an extremely slow pace.

He said he would stop, but his body didn't.

What do you need?

The voice became clearer. The way it spoke started to sound more human.

"Knowledge, wealth, power—I have all of these... My microbiome can... penetrate into many... places."

"...I'll give it to you. Whatever you want...I'll give it to you..."

The sound of the mycelium became softer.

It's like a mother comforting a hesitant child.

Lu Yuan did not answer.

His gaze passed over the sphere and landed on the bronze pillar behind it.

The gray-green roots are still spreading upwards.

Every second is eroding the new rune slots.

When the light from the sandworm oil lamp shone on him, he could clearly see the tiny threads at the very tip of the root system piercing into the copper surface, moving extremely slowly but never stopping.

Lu Yuan just watched.

He neither spoke nor made any movement.

The sphere's pulsation quickened slightly in the silence.

It is waiting for a response.

"...What are you...thinking about...?"

The voices of dozens of mouths carried a hint of uncertainty.

Lu Yuan withdrew his gaze and looked at the sphere.

"where do you come from?"

Lu Yuan did not answer the sphere's question, but instead asked it a question.

Dozens of mouths stopped talking at that moment.

The rhythm of his heartbeat slowed down a bit, as if he hadn't expected Lu Yuan to ask him a question.

After a brief silence.

"...I...have always...been...here..."

"Always?" Lu Yuan's tone was completely flat.

"The runes on the bronze pillar have existed for at least several hundred years. If you had really been here all along, it's impossible for it to have grown to its current size."

silence.

It was much longer than the previous silence.

Then the sound rang out again.

"...A long time ago...something...flowed in...from the crack..."

"...It wasn't me...it was the seed...waiting for a long time...in the cracks of the copper..."

"...until...the pipeline...changed..."

Lu Yuan made a mental note of it.

seed.

crack.

waited for so long.

"How did the pipeline network change?"

"...Copper...has become weaker..."

"...The above...is no longer..."

[Taboo Studies - Seeker of Knowledge: +0.3...18.6/100]

The sphere's answer was hesitant and faltering, but Lu Yuan didn't press further.

He looked down and glanced at the bottom of the cave.

The sandworm oil lamp illuminated a limited area, but he saw many pale white things.

What's scattered on the ground isn't stone.

It's bone.

Human bones.

A vertebra, half a scapula, and a few scattered finger bones.

There was also a metal button, the pattern on which was blurred by the sap.

After they were used up, these people fell off the vines and shattered on the ground.

It's not even worth dealing with.

Lu Yuan looked up again, his gaze sweeping over the suspended hosts.

Humans, ghouls, crawlers, and other eerie, dark gray creatures he had never seen before.

"That's all?" Lu Yuan asked.

"...What...?"

"Your materials." Lu Yuan's voice was very soft.

"There are over a hundred humans, dozens of ghouls, and other odds and ends. You learned to speak by eating the brains of these things."

He looked at the sphere.

Is that enough?

The sphere's pulsation paused for a moment.

"...not enough..."

This time the answer was very quick.

It was almost blurted out.

A newly born consciousness doesn't yet know what it shouldn't say.

"...More is needed..."

"...It's never...enough..."

Lu Yuan did not respond.

Because he already knew.

The roots kept growing upwards even as it was told to stop.

Its intelligence credibility is zero.

"How much is your promise worth?"

Lu Yuan spoke, his voice this time very calm, even carrying a hint of killing intent.

Dozens of mouths stopped talking at the same time.

"You say you won't go up, but you need a new brain to maintain your consciousness. Your roots are being burned by the copper pillar, your body is decaying, and you need more nutrients to survive."

"You've consumed most of the strange things in the pipeline. The only way you can get nourishment is upwards."

Your promises are worthless.

The dome fell silent.

The pulsating rhythm changed from deliberately slow to rapid.

"...So what do you want...?"

"...Tell me...I'll give you anything..."

"...The secrets of this city...the structure of the pipe network...where do those copper pillars lead...?"