Rune Matrix: Programming Magic After Transmigration-Chapter 119: First dungeon

The containment spell expanded.

Zephyr felt the drain immediately. Mana poured out of him, a steady, rushing stream leaving his system to fuel the growing volume. But almost instantly, the mana gathering spell kicked in, spinning up to siphon ambient mana and plug the vacuum in his cores.

He could keep this up for hours if necessary. But endurance wasn’t the objective here.

His gaze dropped to the ground below.

The ground was covered with innumerable dark entrances where the berserk rabbits had clawed their way into the light. If he wanted this to end, he couldn’t just contain the smoke above ground. He had to feed it to the earth.

Zephyr took a breath, centering himself.

He closed his eyes, visualizing the geometry of the spell. He didn’t just need a sphere; he needed a funnel. A conduit. He mentally grabbed the bottom of his smoke sphere and extended it, driving a connection toward the widest burrow mouth near him

The magic snapped into place.

It felt like connecting a high-pressure hose. An invisible, tubular channel formed, sealing the gap between the smoke sphere and the ground. The smoke, having nowhere else to go and under immense pressure, surged downward.

It worked.

Moments later, the field began to release smoke.

Thin, grey wisps curled up from a hundred different holes across the clearing, like the ground itself was catching fire from the inside out. The tunnel system, which the rabbits had dug, was no longer safe.

It was now a contained death zone.

Zephyr allowed himself a grim smile. Particulate matter. Noxious gases. A total denial of oxygen.

’Let’s see how they handle that.’

Down in the darkness of the burrow, they squirmed.

A few seconds ago, the rabbits had been a unified force of mindless aggression. Moving together, attacking together, and rampaging together.

With the intrusion of the smoke, the air changed.

Heads snapped up in unison, noses twitching. They weren’t looking at a predator. They were looking at the grey smoke rolling into the tunnels, leaking down from the ceiling, pressing in from all sides.

They squinted, tears forming in their beady eyes. They cried together, confused.

The air was hot, stuffy, and impossibly dense. Each time they took a breath, it made them cough, sneeze, and wheeze.

The rabbits down below the ground panicked. With teary eyes, snot-covered face, they ran up.

They knew instinctively that staying inside the tunnel was dangerous.

–

Above ground, a low hum of squeals appeared. Zephyr instantly knew what was happening.

"Elenor, seal the exits you see." He said, sighing.

Killing the rabbits was not something he enjoyed. Still, he had to do it.

"Okay." Elenor nodded, flying away.

Now, Zephyr was alone, standing atop a stone pillar, feeding the smoke into the ground.

At the same time, the rabbits began to emerge from the ground. With red in their eyes, they screamed, happy that they could leave the burrows.

However, the happiness was short-lived. The outside was also covered in a layer of smoke. A few meters away, fire was burning hot, radiating heat towards them.

There was no way to escape.

Zephyr, standing on the stone pillar, was raised above the chaos. Even though he was close to the fire, the heat he felt was comparatively less.

He watched from above with cold, emotionless eyes as the escaped rabbits, one after another, fell to the ground, suffocating.

—

Near the centre of the village.

The death of rabbits triggered something inside the remaining ones. Together, they froze; their eyes becoming even redder. Rage was building up inside them like a volcano on the brink of eruption.

The squeals of death coming from afar made their bodies tremble.

One.

Two.

Three.

....

A few seconds passed by without any change. Then, chaos erupted.

The village became a battlefield.

The rabbits began to dash in all directions without caring about anything. They stepped on each other’s bodies, jumping and leaping, without end.

At the same time, a rolling wave of smoke began to cover the entire village.

The fire Aurelia started around the village was taking effect. The smoke from the green plants burning together flowed in and swept the village.

This change exacerbated the whole situation. The rabbits that ran without direction, one by one, began to fall to the ground, just like how they fell near Zephyr.

In front of his sly tactic, they stood no chance at all.

—

A few minutes passed by just like that.

Zephyr stood motionless, releasing the smoke containment spell. The fire they created had already died down. There was no more smoke being collected into his spell. It was time to let go.

He sighed.

Taking a deep breath, he turned to look at the land behind him.

From where he stood, he could still see smoke rising from the ground. Besides that, every inch of the land was covered in the dead bodies of the rabbits.

He sighed again.

It was not a pretty sight.

In their final moments, the rabbits in their confusion had bitten each other, tearing apart skin and fur, leaving trails of blood all around. They had also pissed, puked, and defecated, releasing a pungent odour.

It was unbearable.

’A gruesome sight to behold.’

All the thousands of rabbits that attacked them had died. However, Zephyr was not at all happy with the result.

He watched the smoke rising from below and sighed again.

It was his plan.

It was his plan that caused the death of the rabbits. Even if they were nasty, berserk rabbits, they were still alive. Killing all of them—old and young didn’t feel that great.

He turned his eyes away from the burned village to look at the forest far in the distance, but the smoke clouded his vision. He knew another, much more dangerous threat was waiting for them there.

Aurelia said she sensed monsters there.

Will they come attack them? He wondered.

Till now, they have yet to realise what the hell triggered the events that transpired.

From the disappearance of Tom to what happened later was beyond confusing.

’Take baby steps.’ Zephyr said to himself, looking down at the ground.

The ground was littered with carcasses.

A lot of rabbits had gathered below the stone pillar he was standing on. And they had died, leaving behind a mess.

He didn’t feel like climbing down into it.

So, he waited for Aurelia and Elenor to return.

Time passed.

One minute went by.

Then two.

Then three. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

It was odd. They were supposed to return after making sure the villagers were okay.

What happened?

Though he was on the elevated platform, the smoke had clouded his vision. He couldn’t see clearly what was happening at the centre of the village.

"Did something bad happen?" He wondered aloud.

His voice was tense. A little shaky.

Even though confused, he still waited for the smoke to clear away to get a clear view.

It took a few more minutes to finally see the distant platform.

"FUCK!"

He cussed aloud.

The large platform, large enough to carry two hundred people, was missing.

"FUCK!"

He cursed again.

He was at the topmost portion of the hill. It should have been easily visible from where he stood. And yet, he couldn’t see it.

"Where is it?" His voice rose in shock.

He couldn’t see the platform at all.

"Did it fall?"

He strained his neck to get a better look.

His attention focused on the ground below.

"There..."

His eye caught sight of the destroyed stone pillars. There were on the ground, lying sideways.

A few meters away from them, there was a giant hole. A hole wideenough to swallow a house.

"What is it?"

Zephyr choked.

What he was seeing was not normal. There was no reason for a hole that wide to appear in the village.

"Is that some kind of sinkhole?"

He frowned.

Sinkholes occur when underground water gradually dissolves soluble bedrock, such as limestone, creating large subterranean caverns. When the ground surface can no longer support its own weight over these hollow spaces, it collapses inward.

There was no reason for something like that to happen exactly when they are killing a bunch of rabbits.

Breathing heavily, he looked closer.

There was no sign of soil caving into the huge hole. It was as if something had carved through the mountain, clearing everything in its path.

"If there really was a sinkhole, I would have heard the sound of rock shattering and moving beneath the ground. It would have certainly made some noise. So, it must not be one." Zephyr scratched his chin.

As he was scratching his itchy face, he remembered he was not in the real world. There was no need to find a scientific and rational explanation for what was happening.

"Don’t tell me?" His eyes widened to the size of a ball.

"Don’t tell me..." He repeated, squinting at the large hole near the centre of the village.

"...Is it a damned DUNGEON?"

His voice cracked.