Born in apocalypse

Both master and guardian were walking down the dark passage while expecting to get attacked from any direction. The only source of light here was the flame that Dhruv was keeping on.

"How long do you think this passage is..." Dhruv wondered aloud as he realized that he had been walking for more than two minutes. The passage was quite wide, making the journey comfortable yet anxious nonetheless.

"Huhh! The eagle hasn’t found anything as well, master. Which means this is going to be a long road..." Azarex reported after connecting with his eagle’s vision.

"Hmmm!" Nodding his head, Dhruv continued to move forward expecting nothing for quite some time.

This prediction of his proved to be wrong as just after walking for another three minutes, he heard Azarex’s hurried voice from behind.

"Master, the eagle has found something..."

"What is it?.." Dhruv asked as he turned to look toward Azarex.

He didn’t see any panic on his skull, which meant that the situation in front of the eagle wasn’t anything dangerous. This was good news as they didn’t want to lose the only method to effectively scout in this hellish dungeon.

"This passage leads to.. a-another cave.." Azarex muttered with a confused expression.

"Huhh!.."

"Yes, master, there appears to be another cave hidden in this cave.." Saying these words, he shared Eagle’s vision with his master.

’Why is it so dark...’ questions appeared in Dhruv’s head as he saw the scene before him.

He couldn’t see anything properly as the scene in front of his eyes was almost dark; Almost because something lying on the floor was giving off a slight amount of light. It wasn’t alone either, multiple such things were lying on the ground.

The light source was the reason they were able to see the cave. Looking at the light refracting from the surface of the cave, Dhruv found the place somewhat intriguing.

At first, he wanted to send the eagle to check what it was... but stopped as he thought it could be some type of monster that uses light as its method of hunting.

"Let’s hurry up.." Sending the command to the eagle to keep itself safe, Dhruv and Azarex fastened their speed.

After a full minute of speed walking, they finally reached the place where the eagle was waiting for them. Removing the undead who was blocking the way with his wide-ass wings, Dhruv entered the cave...

’What are these...’ Thinking this, Dhruv looked at the space in front of him.

Because it was a light source, he couldn’t truly see what it was. Keeping a safe distance from it, he cast the spell, Fire Torch around that light source. The moment he cast the spell, he saw something that shouldn’t be there.

"Why are there bones... no piles of bones here... And the thing that was illuminating the light was.." After pausing for a second, he whispered,

"... cores," Azarex whispered as he walked and picked one of the stones lying to confirm it really was the thing they thought it was.

Bending down, Dhruv picked one as well and thought of checking its description. Within a moment, a screen appeared in his eyes.

...

[Item: Lesser Frozen Cold Tundra Naga]

[Rank: Uncommon]

[Tier: 2]

[Description: The Lesser Frozen Tundra Naga is a species of snake that likes to reside in the cold part of the cosmos...Like their name, they are very cold toward their prey; once seen by it means there is no way except fighting this thing.]

...

These really are monster cores... but how is that possible? Whoever killed them should have absorbed the cores, right? I mean, isn’t absorbing cores the reason monsters kill each other, so they can evolve further?" Dhruv thought out loud as he went around picking up cores one after another.

After a minute of checking the cores, he comes to another conclusion which makes this whole thing even more puzzling.

’The cores here are of different types of monsters at different tiers... This totally validates the thinking that this could be a hiding place of a particular type of monster and they were killed by something overnight.’ thinking this, he throws the core in a particular direction and begins to walk around the area.

"Azarex, place all the cores in one area.." Saying these words, he begins to collect all the cores at the entrance of this cave.

When all the cores were placed, Dhruv activated his mana sense and began to look around the cave. He carefully walked to every inch to search for any monster or clue.

After five minutes of careful search, the only thing he got his hands on were... a few more hidden cores.

"There really isn’t anything here.." Dhruv couldn’t believe that he was saying this, but this place was really deprived of anything except a ton of bones and cores.

While Dhruv concentrated on examining the room using his mana sense, Azarex observed something different. Realizing at last what it was, he remarked, "Master, there is an issue here."

’Finally, I knew this place couldn’t be normal.’

Suppressing his excitement, Dhruv gazed at the undead lord and inquired, "What?"

"The quantity of bones is just too much compared to the cores we have found." Being made out of bones, Azarex sure possessed knowledge about such matters.

"Huh! Now that you bring it up... that indeed appears to be the situation." Dhruv expressed as he began to observe the abundance of bones that were scattered around him.

While he was observing the bones around, Dhruv realized something. The moment this realization struck, the excitement of his fell to the bottom. Looking toward Azarex, he muttered, "I think I have cracked the case..." 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Gazing at his master, Azarex lifted his skull and asked, "Can you explain, master.."

"Of course, see this might be what has happened..." Taking a breath, Dhruv began to explain,

"Before we entered the dungeon, there might have been another thundersnow storm and to escape from the storm, monsters would enter the cave to find shelter. Although they entered this part, you know how monsters are... because they can’t really be in a place, they must have begun to fight, and after the battle royale, one of them had survived..." After pausing to take a breath, Dhruv continued,

"After the fight, the last one must have begun to absorb the cores, and before finishing all the cores, it must have reached saturation to evolve, and that’s why it had to leave this place before... despite being a big enough area, this place can’t handle a tier 4 monster.." Dhruv explained as he looked toward Azarex, waiting for his reaction.

"Your genius truly knows no bounds..."