Chapter 198 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground”

Pov Carl

Our camp went silent when we all felt the rumble. Back in the day, we celebrated when this happened. Now, I saw faces of disappointment and frustration.

"Damn it, we just finished the 38th floor, and we're just two weeks into the 39th, and the 40th floor is already open. It’s just so fast, and it's not like we're behind anyone. Was it like that back in the day? I heard y’all talking about vacations—how did they feel?" one of our younger clan members complained and asked at the same time.

He was completely right. ETG's pace is too fast. They continued to complain and reminisce about the past, but I was the leader here—and kind of the leader of the whole clan. For me, this wasn’t just a problem to complain about; I needed to think things through.

It wasn't like we were slow. We were still front runners, pushing the map of the unknown forward every day, but it had become too much. Not because we would break—this group of nearly 80, and the other two frontrunner groups of the same size, were strong—but it was the clan I was worried about.

The distance between us and our other groups continued to rise. We must do something about that. Yet, what should we do? I took a moment to just look around and see the campsite we had set up.

A lot of resources and logistics went into keeping this place functional and in a quickly movable state. When you delve into the unknown, you need a lot of things, and often, you need to repair stuff, so we had everything. This all had still slowed us down, but it was necessary; otherwise, a group this size couldn’t function.

Was that the problem? Quickly, I started to run through scenarios. No, this was still absolutely the best way to do things and the fastest, but only if we are talking about a large group like this.

Then I looked towards my son, all grown up and already an excellent fighter. A lot of my children have already grown up. In fact, this particular one is going to have his first child in a few days—my first grandchild. Pushing so much has kept us from going back, and we could never truly leave this camp unattended.

"I have come to a decision," I said in a deep and powerful voice so everyone could hear. The complaining, joking, and general conversation stopped immediately as everyone looked towards me.

"We still have two parties out who will return by tomorrow morning. When they are here, we will pack up our camp fully, leaving nothing behind, and go back home. It's time for a change. And you, my son, you will not miss the birth of your first child, nor me, my first grandchild."

Everyone looked at me in utter confusion. The only one brave enough to ask, while I was looking so mad, was my son. "Father, what are you thinking?" I focused on him—why in the frozen swamps was he so big? Time seems to be merciless as of late.

"We have been pushing too hard." Immediately, I saw that everyone wanted to argue, but I held up my hand. "That doesn't mean what you think it does. I am 100% certain that none of you would ever break, and we could go nonstop until we reached the center of this world, but is that the best decision for us as individuals and as a clan? No, it is not."

"Our other members are falling further and further behind. We have barely focused on our outpost, and what have we have there. We are still frontrunners like we were when we had singular parties up at the front.”

“Now, do we make more coin because of this? Yes, we do, we make a lot more coin. But do we actually need that much? A singular party is also faster and could move from one area of the floor to another in just a moment."

"Yes, you heard me right. We will not be abandoning the frontline; we will just be changing tactics. There will be a lot fewer of us on the frontline, but we will be rotating parties. The ones who are on the frontlines will be helping our other members push forward faster. We will also be focusing more on the outpost, as we have gotten reports that indicated we might earn more from there than by pushing with a full group at the frontline."

"What about the other two groups?" one of the supply officers asked. "Yes, I will take care of it right now." I took out a communication scroll spell, and activated it, connecting me to Sandy and Caspian, who were running their own groups.

It took a bit, with Sandy connecting first and asking what was up, then Caspian. "Good, I have you both on the line. Change of plans—get packed up as soon as you can, completely take down your camps, and head home. It’s time to change tactics."

There was a short pause before Caspian spoke up. "So, you figured something out? I was racking my brain trying to figure out why I didn’t feel good about continuing as we have."

Sandy started to speak, but she sounded a bit awkward. "Yeah, sorry guys. We were just going to go like we always have. But when you brought it up, I could see what you guys mean. We are simply going too slow."

"That’s not what I mean. We can't go faster—no one can. The floors are simply too big for that and too dangerous and complex. Yet, I think that might be on purpose. We are all forgetting what ETG stands for.”

“This dungeon’s name is Eternal Training Ground. During our time here, we have seen it put many challenges in front of us, yet I think the pace we are advancing is another challenge—not to overcome it, but to understand that some things you can't win against." My words resonated not only with my two former party members but with everyone around me as well.

"It will take us three days to get back home," Sandy said in a serious voice.

"We have quite a few parties out, so it will take us four days at the minimum, but we will be returning home as soon as we can," Christian added.

"It is decided, then. We will have a clan meeting after everyone has returned. We can figure out everything then. See you all soon enough," I finished and then ended the spell.

"It looks like we don’t have to ration anymore. Bring out the good stuff!" I yelled out loud, and was met with cheers. I think that we will not be the only ones to switch things up. The guilds will continue to push has they always have but they also have a lot more manpower.

We should probably use the first wave so that our parties can start at the very edge of the known dungeon. It would mean that we will need to step up our intelligence gathering and make good with some first-wave guilds that focus on guiding others towards the frontline.

I looked at my hand. It wasn't like it used to be; it had calluses and scars from all the battles I’ve been through. Healing could only do so much, but I liked it like this. It was a reminder of time passing, as my face certainly didn't show it.

I’ve come to learn that the only reliable way of gauging someone's age is by their eyes. Eyes can't hide how old you are. My children were getting old, and a few of them, like my son here, were already married.

If we don’t help the ones push forward who aren’t genius fighters like the people here, then I might actually see one of my children die of old age before me.

That is unacceptable to me. Yet I knew if things continued like they were, I was going to get to platinum rank before this dungeon reached floor 50. In fact, I was going to reach it well before that. From what I’ve been told, this is something that shouldn't happen. Yet I wasn’t the only one; almost everyone here was in the same boat.

That also meant more and more adventurers will be coming here, and not just black gold ranks and everyone below, even platinums, will come, and that will shake up the power structure a lot.

Another reason to focus on a few parties instead of large groups is that, logically, we should get to platinum faster. That way, we will not lose influence when so many new powers come to this dungeon. I kinda hated that I needed to think things through, not just for me but for my entire clan. The responsibility was stressful, yet I wouldn’t change it for anything.