Chapter 86 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground”

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No chapter tomorrow or next Monday. I will be going to see my family for the holidays. 

Happy coming holidays to all of you :)

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POV Enn

None of us could remember exactly how long we had been in this cursed city. We have found everything there is to find here, and we have even lost some dear friends.

I still remember the original plan: get the two power cores and get back to the runic gateway. This city was underneath a small mountain, and it wasn't actually a city; it was too small for that, at least by adventurer standards. For us, it was enormous.

When we tried to leave, we found a group of mammals we believe are called rats. They were bigger, and it was hard to get through their fur, but we fought, and we got out of the tunnel only to find that they weren't here alone.

There were also birds; they were actually small, but they were so fierce, and their claws were truly dangerous. Both of them worked together, something I didn’t know could happen, and we were driven back into the cave that connected to the city.

Even now, occasionally, we have to hold off the advances of the rats, and sometimes the birds try to join them, but the ceilings are too low, and we are able to kill them quite fast as they can't maneuver or gather enough speed to pose a true danger to us.

During this time, we have been confined to the city. Fortunately, there was fungus in the city that we have helped grow so we could eat something. Of course, the corpses of the rats were delicacies compared to the fungus that was only good for keeping us alive.

Then we felt the tremble. Our father had grown deeper once again. Since we were long ago waiting for a rank-up, we prepared and hoped that we would be able to use our advancement to surprise our enemy and break through their blockade.

However, things didn't happen as we planned. We suspected we had about a week or two before we could advance our rank, but instead, it happened in only two days after our father was able to push deeper.

It came as a surprise, but I quickly got everything organized, and in only two hours, we had all finished our minor rank-up, getting ever closer to the gold rank. Thanks to our organization and efficiency were able to surprise the enemy, who had some currently in the process of ranking up.

They were easy kills, and we were able to drive them away, but we knew that they would eventually return, so we headed as fast as possible back to the gateway.

The forest was so much different here. It was interesting to see how mammals and creatures more like us changed the ecosystem of the forest. The grass was so wild here compared to the grass on our floors.

If I had to put a word to this, I would say this was wild and ours was tamed. If we weren't currently running for our lives, I would know that I would appreciate this type of environment more.

It was difficult to keep moving, especially because of the three rune stones strapped onto my back. I was the biggest and strongest, but we needed these rune stones so we could change the destination of the gateway that's in the first ruin I discovered.

It was at this point that we heard a terrible sound, a mix between a dog barking and a deer calling for its mate. Whatever these orange creatures were, they were the most clever mammals we have come across.

As soon as we heard it again, one of my companions stopped for a moment and arched her back, shooting out a ball of power and acid. It hit a tree, destroying a piece of it, but more importantly, it spread acid all over a large area.

We heard the creature yelp, and hopefully, we had driven it off. Our journey continued, and thankfully, we still had our healer who had a skill that helped keep us awake and constantly running.

I did not know if nighttime or daytime was more dangerous, but we continued to escape. We noticed that this place seemed wilder since we last were here. It's almost like they lost their rulers, making the surroundings more wild because of it. Fortunately, we only had to scare off a few mammals, but we noticed some of them starting to trail us.

I was so tired, yet we continued. The birds were now back, but we were still able to keep ahead of the rats. It also seems that they needed to fight the other creatures as much as we did. The longer this went on, the scarier this place became; it was almost like we were a beacon, and more and more creatures were heading this way.

When we finally reached the clearing with the runic gateway, we were basically surrounded by creatures that soon understood we were not from this floor, and it seems that they started to work together.

We set up a defensive perimeter, and our long-range fighters were constantly working on keeping the different kinds of birds from swooping down to attack or carry us away. We had almost gotten the power cord to work when we heard a howl.

The surroundings immediately grew silent, and the creatures that were attacking us backed off. It was then that we saw gigantic wolves, and they looked incredibly mean. As they continued to walk towards us, I eventually saw 12 of them.

It made my antennas shake in fear. Our mage made a bubble around us, and all of us supported her as the wolves started to try to break the bubble. "Charge faster, damn it!" I heard one of us yell; it might have been me, but I was so tired, and I was running out of mana.

We didn’t think that things could get worse, but as we were running out of mana, the bubble started to shrink, and the glowing claws of the wolves started to rip apart the gateway itself. Just before the wolves would have broken the bubble, the gateway activated, and we were in another place with a severed wolf head to keep us company.

POV Ace

Things continue to get worse. The only good news I had was that the dungeon surprised us all. It blew all predictions out of the water and advanced at least three years ahead of anyone's expectation.

Now, of course, people were panicking about that, but there weren’t more deaths of adventurers than normal, and most think that it perhaps managed to claim a deposit of mana crystals.

I didn’t care. It meant that the secret soldiers, who were constantly working on improving themselves inside the dungeon, would be able to get even stronger. And they needed to become stronger because early signs of mobilization and the coming war were already being seen in two of the kingdoms, and I’m sure the others will follow soon. It was almost confirmed now that there was going to be a war.

In the continent council, the surrounding kingdoms were constantly bringing up that dungeons like this, bordering other kingdoms, should be shared resources. Of course, other complaints were that I was incompetent and a better ruler must be appointed, of course, from their own kingdom.

Some are even declaring the dungeon too dangerous, but there weren’t many of them, and from my understanding, they were in the pockets of the Dungeon Pixie Guild. It seems that no one was happy that I was the sole owner of the dungeon.

Our kingdom and its allies, of course, continued to disagree with all those facts, even if some are true. Now, my current kingdom, and probably soon former kingdom, will not truly protect itself even if war is declared. The reason is that no other kingdom, no matter how closely allied, will not join this war as it's just not good for them.

So, you might ask, like I did, why wouldn't my kingdom just give up this territory and declare me independent? Well, one, it would be quite a bad image to grant independence to one of your own vassals.

But I think the second point is even more important to them: they're getting quite a lot of tax revenue from me, and every month they can keep this dungeon under their kingdom, the more they gain. It's like having a second capital because we truly generate so much income.

Of course, there are also the negatives, which they can mitigate to almost a non-issue. The war will happen, but they will not fight it; they will let the enemy capture one city, then surrender and give up my territory, and they will lose nothing else. Even the city will be returned to them that they allowed to be captured.

Everything is basically already written; the only thing that I want to change is that they conquer this city before my kingdom gives up. At least that aligns with both of our plans. Hopefully, they will surrender first so I could declare independence, and if I can defend long enough, I will be given independence by the continent council.