The second floor felt wrong immediately.
Not dangerous.
Infested.
The crystal glow from the first floor was still present, but muted now beneath thick curtains of webbing that clung to the walls and ceiling in layered sheets. The strands shimmered faintly with mana, refracting light into sickly blues and greens that made the cavern feel diseased.
Bulbous hive sacs pulsed behind the webbing.
Something moved inside them.
Hundreds of somethings.
Tiny scratching noises echoed faintly through the walls.
Jax slowed his pace instantly.
The others noticed immediately.
"This floor is built differently," he said quietly.
Bunny adjusted her grip on Earth Breaker.
"How differently?"
Jax scanned the tunnels carefully.
"Not ambush predators."
His eyes narrowed.
"Overwhelm predators."
Nyxian wrinkled her nose.
"Insects."
A pause.
"…Lots of insects."
Even Echo looked offended.
Jax nodded once.
"Which means we don't let them play their game."
He pointed toward the web-covered ceiling.
"We burn the floor before the floor burns us."
Bunny grinned immediately.
"Now that sounds fun."
"Llandra," Jax said calmly. "Flame arrows. Strip the walls."
"Bunny. Fire Tornado. Full spread."
Neither questioned the order.
Starpiercer hummed.
The first flame arrow struck a hive cluster—
and the cavern exploded.
The hive ruptured violently as wasp-like creatures burst outward in a screaming cloud, only to vanish instantly inside dragon fire before they could even orient themselves.
Then Bunny moved.
She launched upward, twisting once through the air before Earth Breaker came down in a crushing rotational arc.
Inferno Cyclone activated.
A roaring tornado of dragonfire ripped through the chamber.
The effect was catastrophic.
Webbing ignited instantly.
Entire sections of the cavern ceiling caught fire as hidden nests ruptured one after another in chain reactions of heat and pressure.
Spider-like creatures spilled from burning tunnels.
Crystal-winged insects burst from the walls.
Centipede horrors writhed through collapsing hive pockets.
None survived long enough to reach the ground.
The cave screamed.
Not metaphorically.
The sound echoed through the tunnels like thousands of tiny shrieks layered together into one horrific noise.
Then—
silence.
Charred remains rained slowly from above.
Jax stepped forward carefully, enhanced perception sweeping across the floor.
Then he exhaled once.
"Good call."
The walls were riddled with narrow tunnels and hidden chambers.
Not defensive positions.
Deployment points.
Entire swarms had been waiting behind the walls for intruders to push deeper before flooding the battlefield all at once.
Zee stared quietly at the destruction.
"Most parties probably walk directly into the center," she murmured.
"And trigger everything," Llandra finished.
Jax nodded.
"And then die tired."
Nyxian stared at one still-burning hive.
"…I hate bugs."
Jax raised one hand.
"Come forth."
Shadows peeled upward from the largest surviving corpses—massive insectoid forms with enough structural integrity to maintain useful shapes.
Darkness reshaped them into obedient servants.
The Vixens were adapting to the shadow summons now.
That somehow made it worse.
Because Jax was doing this casually.
Like inventory management.
"Harvest crystal formations," Jax ordered calmly. "Separate by quality and structure. Escort gathered materials back to floor one."
The shadow insects immediately scattered through the tunnels.
The cave was actively being dismantled while they advanced.
Twice more, Jax halted the group with raised fingers.
"Trap pocket ahead."
Each time, precision strikes followed immediately.
Llandra fired dragonflame into hollow walls.
Zee detonated mana pockets.
Bunny collapsed infested tunnel sections.
Each time—
more creatures died before they ever entered combat.
By the time they reached the floor's final chamber, the Vixens weren't even sweating anymore.
The cavern widened massively ahead.
And there—
waiting near the center—
stood something enormous.
A gigantic locust-like creature crouched against the crystal stone, its body anchored into the cavern floor through jagged crystalline limbs. Veins of mana pulsed visibly beneath translucent armor plating while its swollen abdomen shifted constantly with movement inside.
Waiting to hatch.
Waiting to release.
Surprisingly few guards remained around it.
The creature clicked its mandibles sharply.
Confused.
Waiting for the swarm response that never came.
Jax's System activated immediately.
CRYSTAL LOCUST QUEEN
Rank: B
• Spawns mana-devouring locust swarms
• High magic resistance
• Sonic scream causes paralysis and disorientation
Jax tilted his head slightly.
"So you're the problem."
The Queen screamed.
The sonic blast ripped through the chamber hard enough to shake crystal formations loose from the walls.
Zee reacted instantly.
Sanctaris flared brilliantly as layered barriers snapped into place around the group, dulling the paralysis effect before it fully formed.
The Queen convulsed violently.
And released the swarm.
A black tidal wave exploded from beneath her abdomen.
Millions upon millions of tiny crystal locusts surged outward like living sand, devouring mana from the air itself as they advanced.
The Vixens moved immediately.
Zee unleashed waves of controlled dragonfire, vaporizing massive sections of the swarm.
Nyxian's twin whips became burning arcs of death, carving corridors through the insects before they could surround anyone.
Bunny didn't target the swarm at all.
She targeted the Queen.
Earth Breaker slammed into the ground hard enough to destabilize the entire chamber, forcing the giant creature sideways to avoid the impact.
And that created the opening.
Jax vanished.
Burst Acceleration.
One instant he stood beside the group.
The next—
he fell from above like a descending execution.
Peacemaker came down in one brutal strike.
The Queen's head separated cleanly from her body.
The swarm died instantly.
Millions of insects collapsed mid-flight, lifeless before they touched the ground.
Silence returned all at once.
Then dragonfire swept the chamber.
Everything remaining burned.
Jax landed smoothly beside the corpse and immediately stored the body before decomposition could begin.
Then he released it again.
Shadow extraction surged.
Darkness climbed upward from the fallen Queen like smoke reversing direction.
A gigantic shadow locust emerged from the corpse, perfectly preserved in blackened crystalline form.
The System chimed softly.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO NAME YOUR B-RANK CRYSTAL LOCUST?
Jax looked at the towering nightmare insect for exactly one second.
"…Lucy."
Silence.
Nyxian stared at him.
"You named THAT Lucy?"
Jax shrugged.
"She looks trustworthy."
Lucy lowered her head obediently.
Echo hissed in outrage.
Satisfied, Jax immediately assigned Lucy and the remaining viable summons to crystal harvesting operations.
The chamber quieted.
Then the massive stone doors at the far end groaned open.
FLOOR CLEARED
Jax checked the timer.
Forty-five minutes.
Bunny blinked.
"…That felt longer."
"That's because bugs are emotionally exhausting," Nyxian muttered.
Jax rested Peacemaker across one shoulder.
"At this rate," he said calmly, "we're going to destroy the standing record."
The cave remained silent.
But somewhere deeper below—
something ancient shifted.
And the Crystal Cave began preparing for them.