Chapter 94 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground”

POV Ace

"Holy shit," one of the generals said as we watched from the central tower at what the cylinders that the dungeon gave us did. I was in complete shock, and we could still hear screaming from the people who hadn't yet died from being made into a sieve.

Fortunately, it seems that a lot of the enemy did die. This should give us a fighting chance. The shock was only felt for a few more moments before the head general spoke in a commanding voice, using his skill so every person under his command could hear him. "Continue fighting; we go back to the regular battle order."

I looked down at the wall to see the information spread as the commanders on the walls started to issue commands again and order seemed to be slowly returning. It looked like it would take the enemies a lot longer to recover from their shock, and I could even see some groups of people starting to run away from the wall.

There was always a small hope that fleeing people would cause a domino effect and make a large portion of the enemies break. I continued to watch, but unfortunately, it seemed that the enemy commanders were able to get the situation under control.

It was then that one of the information gatherers spoke. "They estimate between 4,000 and 8,000 enemies dead." That was a significant portion, and I think there will be at least a few hundred who would survive the injuries and would need to be treated, which will expand their resources.

This has truly given us a better chance. The fighting continued, and the march of the siege towers continued. We were able to slow them down, and while some were able to climb intact ladders, we had stopped a large portion from climbing onto the wall.

When the watchtowers were about 30 meters away, we could finally see a rush of people being orderly directed towards the wall from the dungeon. So many seemed to have accepted the quest, and I was incredibly glad to see that.

I looked towards the head general, and he gave me a nod. We needed every fighter, and I was a fighter, so it was time for me to leave this relatively safe place and take my post at one of the main gates where impressive-looking battering rams were being pushed closer to the gate.

Rushing out, there was a group of six people following me. They were all gold rank, and while one of their directives was to protect me, we were also a reactionary team to any other gold rank individuals that came into our section.

The horror I saw from their cylinder devices charged up my talent, and I could feel refreshing energy coursing through me. Unfortunately, my talent didn't make me stronger immediately, but at least it could help sustain me.

As we got closer, we saw a group of intact ladders and already saw quite a few enemy soldiers on top of the wall. "Each of us takes one ladder. Destroy it and anyone who gets in our way," one of our members said.

He immediately disappeared and reappeared at the furthest ladder, slashing through two soldiers and then dropping what looked like a fire grenade onto the ladder that quickly seemed to catch fire. He then needed to block multiple attacks, but we made it there to help the regular soldiers and relieve our comrade.

The fight didn’t last long, and we were soon running to get to the gate front, but every time I saw blood spray during the brief fight, I could feel my talent filling up even more. I had never heard about such a talent, but I think it tells a lot about me as a person.

It basically takes all the negative I see and feel and helps me process it, turning it into energy that nourishes me. It will slowly help me get stronger and stronger and even help me boost my mana capacity, but it will do it slowly.

Talents are tricky things to understand, but that’s what I have been able to figure out, though I still feel there are hidden parts of it that I haven’t truly understood how it works. Whatever the case might be, it was currently working overtime.

When we reached our destination, I heard someone yell on top of the wall, "For Lord Ace!" and then we could hear the sound of combat pick up. I thought that I was already at capacity with my talent, but I was surely mistaken. In just a few seconds, it seemed that it doubled in size.

I had been warned about this. It seems that there was one thing that can corrupt any person: seeing someone willing to fight for you. I had felt this many times, but not this strongly. It was supposed to be a slow corruption, even more addictive than the root of the hally tree.

Fortunately for me, it won’t be a lifelong struggle, and at this moment, I truly felt thankful for the sort of talent I got. We heard a cheer coming from a section of the wall and saw one of the siege towers slowly crumble to the ground. This land was mine, and this city was mine; no one is going to take it from me.

POV Dungeon Core

Damn it, this hurts so much. There was an ugly-looking crack on my core. I know I shouldn’t have pushed myself so hard, but I pushed mana into repairing myself, and I could visibly see the crack closing. In a day or two, I will be once again completely fixed.

Getting the fruit fly containers to so many people and placing those items onto their person was incredibly hard and would not have been possible if I didn’t have the necklace connection to them and quite literally using up two and a half mountains full of mana crystals to fuel this madness.

Yet the results were magnificent. There were a few reasons why I chose to go with fruit fly containers. I wanted to see them in action, and wow, did they exceed my expectations. Those tiny things could be surprisingly vicious.

I could have been a lot deadlier by giving poisonous bugs, which would have been a lot more effective and could have ended the war, but they were simply too dangerous and could do as much harm as good.

Not to say that the fruit flies were perfect; there were two instances of people fumbling their devices and dropping them, and that was an unfortunate situation for the people around them. Once tossed, however, they worked magnificently, and I was quite certain they would help win this battle.

With so many ladders destroyed, not to mention the soldiers lost, it will take a while before a proper attack against the walls could be made. By that time, basically 90% of the rest of the adventurer population could make it outside and to the walls to protect against the coming assault.

What caused the crack? It wasn’t me expending so much mana and placing objects onto the people. It was actually pulling back my territory. I needed a person to be inside my mana influence, which I could extend beyond my territory a little bit, to give them a quest.

But to place the objects, they needed to be inside my territory, and pulling that back was ridiculously hard but unfortunately necessary. I should have tested this out, but I could have never imagined it being so against my being that it could actually cause me harm.

The fighting slowly intensified, but like I predicted, the reinforcements started to trickle in before the siege towers made contact. With the defenses bolstered, the enemy soldiers would have a hard time getting any beachheads.

Time ticked by, and so many died, the majority being in the attacking force. The defenders were doing a good job, and whenever a beachhead had been established, mostly thanks to gold ranks, the defenders' gold ranks answered and soon killed or drove them off the wall.

The fighting lasted for six hours before the attacking army blew the retreat horns. I could see the enemy commander being livid, but there was nothing he could do about it. Ace had won this battle, killing about 28,000 enemy soldiers and losing about 3,500.

It was a brilliant victory, but the war wasn’t over. The attacking army continued to siege and would probably wait for the rest of the army to get back to try another assault. Fortunately for Ace, I’m pretty sure that he could continue to pay everyone a lot of coin as I’m pretty sure he had been saving up for this conflict.