Chapter 137 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground”

Pov Ace

"It looks like we have to cut this short," I said to Aylin. "Ah, so that was the dungeon. Ours is quite a lot further away from the palace." I looked at her gentle smile and wished that this nice break didn't have to end, but it was time to get back to real work.

Well, actually, this time it shouldn't be too bad as the new floor was already opened. Still, it was nice to feel young once again and to do things for me, although I think I truly went overboard with everything.

From down the hallway, I could already hear people running towards here. It was time to get back to work. Wait, what about her living arrangements? I looked at Aylin, feeling a bit embarrassed.

"You know, I never actually expected you to stay here. It’s a pleasant surprise, but how attached are you to luxury? You see, I never actually planned on continuing to live in this, what we should now call a palace—perhaps a 'luxury palace' would be a better descriptor?"

She looked at me in that cute way of hers when she got confused. During our conversations over the years, while using communication mirrors, I had seen that look a few times, but in person, it was even cuter.

"So yeah, I don’t like this kind of luxury at all, so I plan to turn this place into a display of sorts, where everyone could visit and even stay here for quite cheap. You know, to show everyone how rich we actually are, that we can simply make a luxury palace a public feature of the city."

"You truly don't care how many people you make mad, do you? I will be honest. I have no idea. I have lived in luxury for the majority of my life and even before that, I don’t think you could call it anything but luxury. I do wonder, however, where do you plan to live? I don’t remember a secure enough area or even a free place to build a manor where you could live in the city."

“That is true, since my plans are slowly being put into motion. I have a secluded area being built, with the manor already done and a portion of the fortifications. It will be in the mountains, a place that would be a lot securer than this place. We have had a bit of trouble with assassins.”

She grimaced at that. Those damn fairies have had a bounty on me for quite a while now, but fortunately, the Assassin’s Guild does have some rules that they don’t break. For any job you take, you would need to be in the same rank as your target. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be alive.

Finally, a few of my assistants were about to enter our current room when I felt a small breeze. Immediately, my hand went up as I activated my skills. This assassin was truly good, but I was able to catch his hand just before the knife entered me near my heart. My other hand was at his neck, and before he could truly understand what had happened, I squeezed and heard the crack.

As the body dropped, I looked around but didn’t notice anyone else. All of a sudden, every emergency contact device I had either shattered or started to emit a noise.

Something was really wrong, and then I felt it again. This time, however, the knife pierced me, and the only reason I could even catch his hand before he pierced my heart was because of the influx of negative energy that was flooding me.

It didn't give me a boost normally, but I had never felt so much, not even during the siege. This new assassin looked at me in surprise, and I knew why he was surprised. He was a lot stronger and definitely not a gold rank. It was hard to tell, but he must have been black gold. We moved at the same time.

He pulled his hand free for another strike, while I, from my ring, made a cylinder appear. With my hand, I destroyed it, releasing the swarm of the most dangerous fruit flies I know.

With my other hand, I activated an isolation barrier. It was a device that I should not be using. The three rings that made up the device on my left hand made the isolation barrier appear around my assassin, trapping him in it with the fruit flies.

The device broke, taking its toll by crippling a part of my hand that will need a strong healer to fix. Still, the result was good enough. The assassin did try to escape, but he couldn't.

The fruit flies tore him apart, and fortunately, the isolation barrier held long enough for the fruit flies to die from the use of their skills, whatever those skills might have been that allowed them to do such terrible things.

I expected things to now be over, but then I heard clapping. "You are impressive. We could have argued that black gold is a fake rank, but unfortunately, even he failed. But now you die."

The voice came from all around us. I didn’t see anything, but I felt my death approaching. Then, all of a sudden, six of what looked to be like metal grates but made out of light appeared around me.

The next moment, I saw how six assassins who were aiming knives at me passed through those light grates and were cut into tiny pieces, only leaving piles of slowly bleeding meat.

Immediately, I looked towards Aylin, who had both her hands up and looked to be thoroughly exhausted. "Who the hell have you pissed off that six platinum rank assassins just tried to kill you?" Aylin said, giving me a stern look.

"I only know one who could pull this off, but we would never be able to actually prove it," she now looked mad.

"Why was it easier to be the ruler of the richest nation than to actually try to... Never mind that, I don’t think your troubles have ended," she said while pointing towards my assistants. I looked there to see one of my generals rushing into the room.

"My Lord, there's a revolt in the dungeon. Follow me quick..." His words halted when he saw the eight dead bodies in the room. He immediately looked towards Aylin.

"I thank you, miss, for keeping my Lord safe. We need to move now; this is bad." In all my years working with him, he never actually called anything 'bad' before, even during the siege. What the hell was going on?

I turned to Aylin. "I am sorry, but I have to go." "Of course, you don't have to worry about me," she replied. As soon as she finished saying that, the general, my assistants, and I ran towards the war room.

When we got there, it was utter chaos. The general, however, was efficient, and quickly a clearer picture started to emerge. The situation was worse than we had ever expected it might get.

"We do not know the exact numbers of those who are revolting, but they are incredibly organized. They have been able to gain a lot of ground thanks to their surprise attacks.”

“It seems that some have given up their cause with the dungeon quest alert, but on the other hand, others fight with even more fervor. I have only seen such devotion in religious fighters. It will take time to get more information."

It took us time to start organizing a resistance, but the hours spent on it were crucial, and our enemies gained a lot of ground. At some point, the Adventure Guild master joined us, but unfortunately, all he could do was order the hostilities to stop, but that didn't do anything. It was so hard to be in this room while so much misery was happening.

We lost so many way stations to the enemy, as well as many adventurers. The places that were most secure were Guild territories, as they were already meant to deter such attacks and were somewhat ready. That included my Guild that was training the city-state's soldiers.

The biggest blow was the loss of so many hub stations. Only two were able to resist the initial assault and the follow-up attacks. They were now quite stabilized thanks to the support we were able to send from the surface.

We still didn't know the exact number of enemies, but we had confirmed 70,000, though the general thinks that there must be a lot more. One thing, however, was still unclear. Perhaps even they didn’t know, but they could never accomplish anything. All of this felt so pointless, so there must be something more to it, but I just couldn’t figure it out.

"General, it’s bad. The enemy pushed into the entrance. We are cut off from the dungeon. They came out with force and a lot of strong people. They aren't, however, pushing deeper into the city and are just fortifying the entrance."

There was a momentary pause before the general spoke up. "I want the entrance fully surrounded, deploying defensive barriers to make it so that if they wanted to push into the city it would cost them dearly. I will be there shortly." He then looked towards me, and I gave him a nod and started to follow.