Please pro­vide the text of the chap­ter so I can sum­ma­rize it for you accord­ing to your require­ments.

Wait­ing ai

Wait­ing ai

Wait­ing ai

Wait­ing ai

In Chap­ter XI of “At the Earth­’s Core,” the pro­tag­o­nist faces inter­ro­ga­tion by the Mahars—intelligent dinosaur-like crea­tures rul­ing the inner world of Pel­lu­ci­dar. Dis­be­liev­ing his account of the out­er world, they con­demn him to the exper­i­men­tal pits for vivi­sec­tion, dis­miss­ing his sto­ry as an insult to their intel­li­gence. Chained among oth­er human vic­tims, he wit­ness­es a hor­ri­fy­ing scene of vivi­sec­tion, which fuels his des­per­a­tion to escape.

Uti­liz­ing a small sur­gi­cal tool dropped by one of the Mahars, he inge­nious­ly frees him­self from the chains. His escape is per­ilous, nav­i­gat­ing through the dark cor­ri­dors, he stum­bles upon a cham­ber where Mahars sleep, real­iz­ing he’s back in the vicin­i­ty of his ini­tial cap­ture, indi­cat­ing a twist­ed stroke of fate or per­haps prov­i­dence lead­ing him back to ally with his fel­low cap­tives, Per­ry and Ghak.

Decid­ing to act swift­ly before being dis­cov­ered, they dis­guise them­selves with a heap of skins and nav­i­gate through the Mahar’s domain. The pro­tag­o­nist embarks alone to ful­fill a cru­cial part of their escape plan, which involves killing three Mahars in their sleep to obtain a great secret Per­ry has instruct­ed him to find.

Intrigu­ing­ly, while attempt­ing to per­form this task, he stum­bles into the very cham­ber hold­ing the Mahar’s great secret, only to con­front two of the crea­tures. In a dead­ly alter­ca­tion, he man­ages to kill them, find­ing him­self both the hunter and the hunt­ed with­in moments. His encounter is vivid with raw com­bat, des­per­a­tion, and the will to sur­vive, lead­ing him to dis­cov­er the room hold­ing the sig­nif­i­cant secret they sought—a skin-bound book amidst an exper­i­men­tal set­up. The chap­ter clos­es with his sit­u­a­tion more pre­car­i­ous than ever, chal­lenged not only by phys­i­cal adver­saries but the loom­ing threat of their broad­er plot being dis­cov­ered, empha­siz­ing his per­ilous jour­ney for free­dom and knowl­edge in the alien under­world of Pel­lu­ci­dar.