Chapter 140 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground”

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From the announcement feedback I have decided that for a bit, there will not be homesteading chapters. This way I can hopefully finish that story in a good way.

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Pov Faris

I watched as teams of Pixies took off their rings so they would return to their original bodies. We were stronger fighters like this and more importantly, could move through water as if it were air. We were also not going to play fair as multiple teams charged in, the only reason they were split up was so that they would be more efficient.

It would not be an easy job getting through the underwater section as the monsters there were truly dangerous. We only have a few Pixies that are at the platinum rank and we couldn't use them to clear the way as it would exhaust them too much. The first rooms were cleared quite fast and we were starting to push forward when something went wrong.

"The spawn rate seems to be crazy. As soon as they kill a monster, a new one comes from behind."  That should not be possible. "Explain now, the dungeon shouldn't be awake!" I commanded.

Immediately, I saw the teams of analyzers go to work. It didn’t take long for me to get an answer. "It is a Dungeon rule that was previously not activated and only triggered when we started the attack. That’s why we didn’t notice it before."

It took them a bit longer to figure out the exact rule. The details were crazy. The amount of mana this dungeon needed to force what was going on in the water was quite literally ludicrous. "Find out where it's all coming from; I don’t want any more surprises," I ordered and watched as everyone got back to work.

Then the reports from the war we created started to come in. I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t manage to assassinate more of the important figures, but the timing was as good as it could be, I guess.

"The assassination failed; Ace is alive," I heard from one of the communication crystals, and not only me, but a lot of others looked towards the Pixie handling that crystal.

I had expected that the gold rank would fail; we had been failing for years, but why wasn't there another report? "Did the black gold assassination already happen?" I asked.

This was critical; Ace needed to die. If the black gold also failed, it would mean that we would be crossing the Assassination Guild. That would set us back and would mean that we would need to give a lot of concessions so we could keep this dungeon.

"Lord, I... I'm sorry, even the platinum assassins failed," I felt a sharp pain in my eye. Everyone backed off from me a few steps. "Explain now!"

It took this pathetic thing way too long to start to speak, but that also helped me control my anger a bit. "We do not know all the details, but there was someone else in the same room with him. It seems that we have some wrong information about Aylin and her capabilities. She was able to protect Ace."

That fucking bitch. That entire nation should be burned. Because of her nation, we lost the economical advantage against the rest of the world and since then, things have only gotten harder.

We are inheritors of this world, not the lesser species. I could only hold my tongue and curse my ancestors for their foolishness.

"Everything just got harder. If possible, take the opportunity to kill Ace; otherwise, just keep to the plan." While this was the worst news, more bad news kept coming.

We weren't able to get all the hub stations, which was a true failure. Fortunately, we were still pushing the rest of our goals although, in the end, that war didn’t matter much.

What was more important was the progress into the core floor. We now were protecting certain junctions where teams needed to constantly fight to keep a clear path deeper and so we could keep reinforcing. What was even worse was that we were already losing Pixies. Every single death, it hit me hard as it was quite difficult for us to raise our numbers.

It took time, but eventually, we were getting closer to getting out of the water section and into the so-called guardian room. Before the rest of us needed to move into the water, we had another opportunity to kill Ace. That idiot wanted to come to the negotiation table. He was truly too young to lead. All of us waited to hear if the assassination was successful.

"He had his own team of platinum guards." was the first thing I heard, and I already knew that we had failed. For a moment there, I didn’t hear anything else that was said. This day couldn’t go any worse.

When I managed to open my eyes, everyone seemed shocked. I had to order someone to tell me what happened, and afterwards, I wished I had a few slaves that I could kill to lower my anger so I could think clearly.

This was bad, really bad. "Cancel all the borderline plans," everyone had just waited for me to give this order as they were already prepared to do what I told them. We now needed to be careful, and if things continued to get worse, we might actually need to destroy the core so no one could find out that we were the true culprits behind this mess.

That would, however, mean my ruin, and I couldn’t accept it. "Even if we are in a losing state with the war above, don't use any contingencies. In fact, bring the few pixies who are leading down here as well. We can't risk anything." Now it was time to see what these fake guardians could do.

A lot of us were standing in the entrance room to the guardian room. Behind me in the water, there was still fighting, but it was a fighting retreat to get everyone we needed to keep pushing forward here. A lot of pixies stayed behind to keep running the war above and to report back to me on the more important developments.

"I see we are still fighting the fake guardians. How many of them are dead and how soon do you think we can move on?" I asked the Pixie in charge of the assault. When I saw him swallowing in nervousness, I felt another sharp pain in my eye. So now I had another eye that was red from a burst blood vessel.

"Lord, the guardians are a lot stronger than expected. We have yet to kill any of them. We had not expected them to be so good at fighting with each other. I do not know when we can continue."

As soon as he finished saying that, I saw multiple teams rushing in and one team returning with only two members out of the ten that went in, and one of those members was missing his wings and one of his arms.

I looked inside to see the bloody battle. I saw a rhinoceros commanding wind like an elemental slashing through attacks and Pixies. "Send in the platinums now."

Immediately, the strongest members here started to prepare to join the fight. I didn’t dare to look any longer. If things continued like this, we might not even get past this room.

Once again, I looked at my analysts. "Explain, and tell me why you are failing. Do you not understand how important this is?" I was about to continue, but one of the analysts interrupted me.

"Those are not normal monsters; they are too real. They also seem to have a lot of experience fighting together. We do not know exactly what's going on, but something isn't adding up. While before we were doubting our numbers, we now know they’re wrong. Something is really off about this dungeon."

"That it is," was the only thing I managed to say. Everything was wrong. I tried to rack my brain as to what it might be. There wasn't anything in the histories to indicate what might be going on. "What about the basic rules? My mentor always used to say, 'If you can't figure something out, go back to the basics.'"

My words made the analysts think. No one, however, had a quick answer, so I went back to monitoring everything else.

It took quite a while, but we finally managed to kill one of the mountain lions. After that, it didn't take long to kill its twin. While I was wondering who would die next and hoping that we could finally stop losing pixies, one analyst finally shouted out.

"This dungeon has bugs. One of the basic rules is that all new dungeons have to kill all bugs. Later, we let them have more impressive bug patterns, and there are even fully bug dungeons. So, why that basic rule and especially for new dungeons? It's the only thing I can think of that might not have happened with this dungeon."

He might have been onto something. I left them to continue to figure out what was going on. When we finally killed that damned beetle, we had lost nearly 400 pixies, and with the losses we suffered in the water section, we had nearly lost 500. That was a hard pill to swallow.

As I entered the guardian room, I witnessed a scene of horror. So many pixie bodies, so much blood. I was not the only one close to puking, and from the sound of it, some couldn't handle the scene in front of them. "But they weren’t even real guardians," I heard one of the analysts say.

"We are lucky in that. There is a reason why we stop our dungeons from having one. They have a deep connection with their dungeon, so not only are they a lot stronger than they should be, most of the time they rebel against us as they sense the dungeon’s need for freedom."

As I finished my explanation, it was finally time to enter the labyrinth. There was no way to hide our next action, but if we didn't do this, it would take us years to actually make it to the core. "Have we confirmed the changed location of the core room?" I asked one of the analysts, who immediately nodded.

The dungeon changed its location from the center of the large open space in the center of the labyrinth to inside the labyrinth. Now, you would need to finish the labyrinth, reach the large open space, and then re-enter it at a secret location.

It's a good trick, but it actually helps us. We now have some breathing room as we should only need three dungeon melters to reach our desired location.

I digested this news. We already knew that the dungeon core had moved, but who would have guessed that it would have made this kind of rookie mistake? Of course, it couldn't have known about the dungeon melters, so I guess I could understand this mistake.

It brought a smile to my face to know that even during a breakthrough, it was going to feel excruciating pain. "Activate," I ordered.

A yellowish beam hit the dungeon wall and melted straight through it, quickly opening a pathway deeper into the labyrinth and straight towards the core. Don't worry, dungeon, you get to feel that twice more.