Chapter 117 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground”

Pov Faris

I was not certain if I liked my big hands or if I disliked them. Doing paperwork was so much easier now, but I really missed flying around. Those were, however, just unnecessary fleeting thoughts as I had a hard job to do, and my feelings about this human form had nothing to do with the mission at hand.

The paperwork was never-ending, but I liked it. It was why I had gotten this position and why I will get my mission done. More and more people shuffled into the room, most were still getting used to how to move in human bodies.

The artificer who made our rings is truly a master. These rings have allowed us to fool the dungeon and with the most critical time over, I’m certain we can remain secretive until the end of our mission.

As I looked at the human faces that hid the dungeon fairies, I was a little bit concerned. While the rings would not fail us, I was certain a simple slip of the tongue might doom our mission.

“I will start by saying this. Only during a breakthrough and on the surface will we ever discuss our mission. If any of you fail in this simple task, I will make sure the acid dungeon makes you suffer.”

I could see the shivers and fright go through them. That dungeon was one of the scariest places we had access to. It was not a deep dungeon, but it was certainly one of the most dangerous.

“I will start by saying that you have all done an admirable job. The Shadow Guild we started is doing really well. The influx of powerful adventurers we were able to hire has helped us immensely, and now we are able to recruit local adventurers without a problem.”

“That being said, this is not enough. Because of this, we will be making two more shadow guilds. While we could make the current one a lot bigger, we would run into resistance from the other guilds, and we would be under more scrutiny. Now, I want to hear more about recruitment.”

"Yes master, we are careful who we choose. It has limited our expansion a bit, but I think overall it’s a net positive. We target people with looser morals. We estimate that currently about 90% of our members would be willing to start a large-scale war within the dungeon if they think they have something to gain."

That was excellent. It became quite clear almost immediately that the adventurers in this dungeon would try to protect the dungeon, so we need a distraction to keep them busy while we get to the core. We're still a long way off, but I’m confident that this will work. "Now, what about the recon on the dungeon core?"

"It has been a more challenging task than we expected, master. It seems that this dungeon has some sort of skill that allows it to have a larger core room, or perhaps it would be even better to call it a core floor. I have been able to slowly map it out while being invisible just before the tunnel into the core floor."

"The underwater area is moderately large and filled with deadly water creatures. This should not be a problem. After that is a large room that looks like a boss-arena room. I did not see any creatures there, so perhaps the dungeon has yet to make any.”

“Up until this point, nothing is a problem. After this, however, comes a ludicrously large and deadly maze. I have yet to reach the end, and the poisonous creatures would pose a threat."

That was some unfortunate news. "Tell me more about that maze." As she continued to talk, the more problematic this sounded.

It would take too long for us to go through the maze even if we knew where to go. "Wait, what did you say?" She immediately stopped talking but only for a moment. She started once again at the important part.

"I said that the maze wraps around in a circle, so we need to go around it multiple times because of the design." Now that was something. It would be hard to get permission to use them, but I think we will only need four of them.

"We use a dungeon melter to get through the maze quickly." They immediately started to protest, but I held up my hand.

"This dungeon is large enough that it would not immediately shatter the core, and in all honesty, I think it would be good if it was weaker and hurting when we make it to the core. It would make what follows easier. Now, is there anything more?"

One hand went up from the back. "Yes, what is it?" I said to him. He made his way towards my table and started to speak.

"I’ve been running mana numbers. They are quite impressive, if I have to say so myself. There is, however, a huge problem. Right now, the dungeon is clearly making positive mana. But there was a long period where it was nowhere close to being able to support so many monsters."

"Let me start from the beginning. For the first few floors, everything seemed fine by the record. Yet, after the 5th floor, it should have run out of mana to sustain as many monsters as it had.”

“Crystal deposits could account for this, but only in the last four or five floors was there enough mana flow from adventurers for it to sustain the amount of monsters. That leaves ten floors. Ten floors! No amount of crystals should account for this."

"For a moment, I thought that perhaps it was because they were giving monsters to the dungeon, but from what we have been able to dig up, it's not enough. Nothing I have found could explain this, and that's not to speak of the dungeon itself and how large it is.”

“It also seems that the only reason the dungeon doesn't advance is because it hasn't finished making its latest floor. Now, if this all wasn't enough, the dungeon still isn't making any combined monsters."

I held up my hand. "That's enough. Get me all of this data on paper and be extremely careful while pursuing this. I have come to a similar conclusion; things just don't add up. Once again, I must tell you all to be incredibly careful. We have, basically, on our hands a wild dungeon with unknown capability. At least we know of its gold rank trait. We must remain vigilant."

The meeting continued as we needed to set everything up for the next 10 years. We would only be meeting while the dungeon has a breakthrough; otherwise, it would be too risky.

This dungeon worried me. From everything I have seen, it has a real chance at being a maker, and we can’t let another one of these dungeons escape our grip. We must restore our place in this world by any means necessary.

No, I can’t think about it. I took a few relaxing breaths and focused back on the current speaker. Yet the anger was still there. I still can’t believe my ancestors were so naïve. Now, we have to fix the problem they made with competition trying to beat us to it. One thing I was certain about: I was either going to succeed in this mission, or this dungeon would be shattered.

I think it’s time to contact some of my darker contacts. No one needs to know about this, but I should get a few more dungeon melters and the services of things that should not be alive.

It will come with a heavy cost, but I already have an entire race's future on my shoulders. I am not the only one to bear this burden, but I will do my part even if it means my death. Just a few more floors and this mission will be over, one way or another.