Chapter 16 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground”

POV Ace

I had forgotten how good it felt to just relax. When Mark's servants started to run everything I was able to delve into the dungeon once again. This time, I had to retreat from the floor guardian, but I am certain that next time I will be able to win. I need to be more careful of the wolves. I did manage to kill one, but another got a good bite on my leg and after that, I escaped.

Days after that, I truly came to learn why having excellent subordinates is so important. From the 16-hour workdays, I’m now down to about two. I only have to give a few signatures that only I can give and hear reports and options that are truly important for me to know.

The dungeon was making new rooms fast but for some reason it was doing two routes simultaneously which slowed it down. It has taken some time before the first room was finished and we were able to see what monsters we will be fighting. For one of the routes, it seemed to be hobgoblins which seemed appropriate, but the other was horn rabbits.

At first, almost everyone thought that the dungeon made an easy route to make up for the two previous floors. But no one thinks that now, especially after you fight them. They are now a lot stronger and the horn is truly dangerous with it being so large and sharp. They're using swarm tactics, which is not a problem against five of them, but if the dungeon keeps to its patterns, then the final few rooms might have dozens of them which would be truly a scary sight even for strong adventuring parties.

It hadn’t been more than a week and a half when another young noble showed up. I had just hired a few more people to learn from Mark’s servants, so I was quite frightened that they might do something to offend the noble, which would not end well for anyone. I had never expected that I might be able to encounter two reasonable nobles back-to-back, but that seemed to happen.

This noble also had an adventuring party, but only consisting of five people, but he brought a lot more servants. He wanted to be able to purchase a piece of land in the center of town where he could set up his base and a crafting shop.

He was willing to give me excellent discounts if I was able to get him more delve slots and he wanted VIP status for his party for opening a crafting shop that’s better than anything within 500 kilometers of here.

I was going to have to give up a few personal delve slots, but everything else was quite reasonable. I would have accepted the deal immediately as I did with Mark’s, but something was wrong. Why was another reasonable noble here?

They were supposed to be as rare as sapphire honey drops. I still accepted the deal as it was particularly good for me and the town itself. There are always problems with equipment, especially when the dungeon keeps getting deeper, so this will solve a lot of problems for little cost.

POV Ludwik Mark Wolfenstein

I was rechecking my gear once again. It will be my first delve into a Dungeon and while I knew that I was as prepared as possible, I was still a bit nervous. It was at this moment that I saw my servant quickly moving towards me and I saw a bit of worry in his face.

Everything had gone so well, what could possibly have happened? I hoped the minor noble didn't cause any problems. If he did, I would be disappointed. I had hoped that Ace would be a good ally. "My Lord, I bring troubling news," my servant said. I indicated for him to continue and so he did.

"One of the young Willfires is here and from what I understand, he has a similar plan as yourself. He has already secured more delve slots and plans to open a crafting shop here," my servant informed me.

I had hoped others wouldn't realize this yet, but I guess that was too hopeful. However, my mood brightened when I figured out that they were trying to do the same thing as I was, which means that we weren’t technically opponents, although we weren’t allies either.

After my long silence, my servant spoke up once again, "If others have noticed, do we have to prepare for the Pixie Guild to arrive?" I indicated for him to shut up and my disappointed glare made him apologize profusely.

"They don't have the budget to figure this out yet. The bags of coins and favors our family is using should be enough to keep it a secret until the dungeon finishes the 10th floor. In fact, this might be a good thing as it means more favors and coin are being used to keep this a secret. Go and make contact but don't be too obvious. I will deal with this later. I have a delve to start."

I put everything else out of my mind and exited my Tavern room. The building itself was well made and the smell of the fresh wood was quite nice. I was accompanied by my bodyguard, but he would be staying outside the dungeon as I wanted to learn to fight solo and the first few floors were quite excellent for starting out. That's, of course, one of the reasons I’m here, among many others.

Some of the older buildings were made shoddily, but I knew that they were going to be torn down and new ones built. For a town of this size, it was incredibly safe, which was something I hadn’t expected. Ace was doing an excellent job even though he was quite overextended. When I walked past the Guild Hall, my eyes were drawn to one of the walls. Behind it was an upgrade crystal, something that was incredibly expensive, but this one especially so.

That was of course because it was the Guild master's personal upgrade crystal and another reason why I’m here. Upgrade crystals are not all equal and some have a lot more potential than others and have a lot more skills to offer. This one was incredibly old and completely up to date and comparable with the best upgrade crystals available in this Kingdom or the surrounding ones.

The Guild master and my grandfather knew each other, and that was the reason I even heard of this place. I do not know why this monster was stationed here, but I was glad. It means that this place is practically one of the safest towns in the Kingdom.

I approached the checkpoint just before the dungeon and handed my token to the guard here. Without any problems, I was told that I needed to wait another 10 minutes and then I could go through. The guards were another thing that had surprised me. They were respectful and well-trained, a combination rarely seen. When I was allowed through, I was quite excited and when I saw the greyish horn rabbit, I prepared my sword and shield. I would prefer a spear, but it's not a noble's weapon, which was annoying.

The rabbit died quickly enough as its own momentum was enough to kill itself as I held the sword in front of myself. The next room was a bit more difficult but nothing I couldn’t handle. I grabbed the two pieces of meat and put it in my Bag of Holding.

My goal was to at least make it to the third floor. With that in the back of my head, I continued forward. In the next room, I had to take one of the hits onto my shield which made my arm numb, but I didn’t mind it as one of my goals was to get a defensive skill with my next breakthrough.