Chapter 132 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground”

Pov Caspian

Damn, moving was getting difficult. We basically ran out of food a month ago and have only been eating the tiny amount we have left when it truly gets too bad. If it wasn't for Sandy's magic, we would not have survived; her restoration magic was simply on a different level. However, one of her weakest spells has been keeping us alive for months now.

I never expected basic water creation to be so crucial. Our gold-rank bodies could survive longer without food and water than bronze-ranked bodies, but the torture was still the same and even more prolonged. I was checking on the ropes to make sure that everything was still tight when I noticed ahead of us a mountain range.

Because of my current weakness, it took me a solid minute to understand what I was seeing. It was the Eternal Mountain range. We had made it.

Finally, my brain started to work properly, and I figured out that the winds were blowing slower. "Sandy, make some more water, a lot of it, and get the last of our food now. We will need as much strength as we can get for what’s to follow."

"Finally, I do not think I could have lasted another day without eating something," I heard her say from below. We both ate, making sure to do it slowly, although it wasn't as crucial to us to be careful with how much we ate after starvation. Slowly, I could feel my strength returning.

It was another three days before we were both behind the wheel and strapped in for what was to come. "Are you ready, Sandy?" she nodded. "Cut the main sail ropes."

Immediately, she started to weave magic spells, and one by one, they cut the ropes holding the main sail, letting it flop without catching much wind. Immediately, we started to slow down, and I slowly started to reduce the repulsor crystal power.

We slowly started to descend. We couldn't do it too fast; otherwise, we would be ripped apart by the difference between the trade winds and the normal air. The ship started to shake when we got lower. The wind wasn't constant, but the closer we got to the mountains, the slower it got. Now, we just had to wait for the perfect moment when the wind was particularly slow.

I do not know if this trip was ill-fated or if we were unlucky, but we just couldn't seem to find a pocket of slow wind. We were quite close to the mountains now, and no matter how much I steered, we were being pulled into the slipstream that would take us around the mountain. I could already feel how the winds were starting to pick up once again.

The ship was now shaking violently. We only had a maximum of 5 minutes before it was too late, and then I felt it: the small calm in the midst of a storm. Immediately, I cut almost all power to the repulsor crystals, and we fell through.

The turbulence shook the ship, and we heard a large crack, and then we saw the devastation it caused. One side of the ship had a large crack in it, and the very next moment, what was left of our main sail was ripped away.

I held my breath, waiting for the ship to break in half, but it didn’t. We were now falling through the air but were out of the trade wind. Immediately, I pushed the repulsor crystals to the max, and we could feel how the ship twisted a bit, but it still held.

We were still dropping way too fast. Next, I pushed the thrust crystals to the max, which actually seemed to take pressure off the ship a bit, stopping it from twisting as much as before.

We were now gaining horizontal speed once again, which helped slow down our vertical speed. Slowly, we were regaining control over the ship, but then we heard another crack. My hands moved faster than my brain and reduced the power to the repulsor crystals. That stopped the ship from being torn apart, but it also meant we were dropping faster.

It was at this moment that the communication crystals started to crackle with mana. Immediately, I touched the crystal. “Mayday, mayday,” I stopped as I now had to say the ship's name, but if I did, there would be a solid lead for that madman to follow. “This is TUE Greystone; the ship is cracked; we're losing altitude fast. Need coordinates for a safe crash landing.”

"Mayday, mayday, this is TUE Greystone; the ship is cracked; we’re losing altitude fast. Need coordinates for safe crash landing?" There was a moment of silence that continued to stretch until it was broken by the sound coming out of the crystal. "TUE Greystone, eternally airship command center acknowledges. Current safe crash-landing sites are as follows."

They started to give numbers, and I quickly looked at the mana map that displayed the surrounding area. It had already connected to the airship command center, so I could see the safe crash-landing sites.

The reason they were safe was that they were purposely made to have no people around; the ships that were broken could, if possible, crash into an area where there weren’t any other people that could get hurt.

Unfortunately, this ship needed to be completely destroyed. We couldn't leave any traces. "Sandy, get the emergency gear ready. But wait just a moment." I pushed the repulsors to max, and course-corrected so we would aim for the right area.

Immediately, the ship started to twist and crack again. Sandy looked at me like I was crazy but started to prepare the emergency gear. In the far distance, I saw airships moving towards us, or more precisely, towards the area where I had told them we would be putting the ship down.

But no matter what we did, the ship would crash into that area. I purposely opened up the panel underneath the wheel and pulled out the specific wire that controlled the aft port repulsor crystal.

When before the ship was cracking and twisting, now it was breaking apart. "Move, move," I said to Sandy as we both rushed towards the starboard railing. We both jumped off, activating the emergency gear that would slow our descent.

"Make us invisible now," I said to Sandy. She gave me an eyebrow raise but still cast the spell. The ship was soon underneath us as we continued to drift apart. It didn’t take long for the ship to truly start breaking, and for all the crystals to go inert.

It started to fall even faster when it completed breaking apart almost down the middle. When it finally hit the ground, it crashed apart, and a second later blew apart from the mana collection crystals breaking apart. There was only burning scrap left.

We, on the other hand, landed in a forest that was strangely full of berries. "Why did you do that?" Sandy asked me. "To keep us hidden. And let’s move towards their city; we can't disguise ourselves as travelers when we get closer to the road. As to why I did that, it was so it would take as long as possible for that madman to find out where we actually are."

We started to walk through the woods as quietly as possible while Sandy kept our invisibility active. It should take some time before he figured out that the ship's name was a fake.

'TUE' was the designation for the Trade Union Eastern ships, and 'Greystone' was one of the most popular ship names. In fact, it was so popular that it was actually on the banned list, which meant no new ships could be named that, but old ships could still have that name, which will hopefully confuse things even further.

Fortunately, the trip out of the forest was a simple one, and the berries were incredibly nice and nutritious. We walked onto the road, still invisible. Sandy dropped the invisibility when we had sneaked in between two large groups while we had cloaks on. Fortunately, we were not noticed as we slowly blended in with the trade caravans, both filled with a lot of travelers.

I had expected it would be a bit harder to get into the city, but they basically had an open policy. Then I understood why they had such an open policy as we saw a second wall. After a bit of listening around, we discovered that this outer section was used to deal with a large influx of people and cargo. To get into the city proper, we would need to go through a more thorough verification process.

We both had special rings, so we weren't hurting for money. It was easy enough to spend about a week in this outer section so we could get ourselves proper papers. We were now refugees of a war between one of the neighboring kingdoms. Sandy was quite good at this, and it only took her a bit of time to find the criminal underground of this place.

After that, our entrance was quite easy, although we did get a few eyebrow raises as to why two gold ranks would need to be war refugees. Technically, we still were, just not from the kingdom we were claiming to be from. The main city was incredibly clean, and from what Sandy told me, the underground only existed because it was permitted, and only to a limited extent.

While walking through the streets towards the dungeon, I felt Sandy elbowing me in my ribs. "What?" I asked her, only to see her pointing towards the food stalls. I looked there to see fresh bread being sold. I was confused as to why I was supposed to look at it when I noticed that a loaf of bread only cost coppers. "How have they been able to keep that so cheap?"

Sandy simply shrugged her shoulders. That was actually quite impressive to have it so cheap in such a big city, and a city that has a dungeon. It looks like the leader is actually competent, which is good news.

We were walking through Main Street, so we had to pass the main square. We both, however, stopped when we noticed the strange-looking block in the middle of the square.

We decided to approach it to see a huge stone glass block that looked to be filled with coins. There was a plaque to explain it all.

"So the dungeon made all these platinum coins and still gave out rewards even when they died protecting the city. Never heard of a dungeon doing that," Sandy said after we both finished reading the plaque.

The designs on the coins were incredibly detailed, and I was surprised to see that absolutely everyone somehow seemed heroic. This was an absolute fortune in platinum. I guess this city didn't need that extra coin, or perhaps the city lord was a person worthy of more respect than I originally thought.

I was damn certain that every one of my family members would have happily pocketed every coin and spent it on things that should not be mentioned.

It took us quite a while to get here; during that time, I had a really long time to think. While I’m still incredibly sad about how many lives were lost in our kingdom, I was actually kind of glad that my family was dead. Sandy immediately looked towards me, most likely sensing my mood. “I’m fine,” I said to her while starting to walk towards the dungeon.

The entrance was truly magnificent, and the stories certainly did not do it justice. It felt like I was walking into the halls of giants, but seeing the market stalls around kind of felt comforting.

We had gathered some information in the outer circle, so we knew where to head. There were a lot of recruiters here, but there was only one guild that we were going to join to get the information we needed: the Runners Guild.

An hour later, we were standing in front of the gateway, waiting for our turn to enter. It was weird not to go with the recommendations from the Adventurers Guild, but from a guild of this dungeon.

The Runners Guild had the information we needed; they had the shortest routes and most likely the most information, so joining them was logical.

This dungeon was a little bit too shallow for us, as we usually delved near the 30th floor in other dungeons, but then again, we normally had a full team and we weren't delving into what was being called one of the hardest dungeons in the world. “You ready?” I said to Sandy. She just gave me a bright smile.

---

The gateway flashed behind us. We had gotten used to these gateways over the past two years of us delving into this dungeon and finally reaching the frontrunners.

“So, Sandy, are you ready for our first raid room?” She gave me the side-eye as we continued to walk towards the meeting point. We were quite early, but this was our first invitation to one of the raid rooms, and we were quite excited—well, at least I was.

This was a hilly waystation, but it didn't take us long to reach the top of one of the hills and start to see others who we were going to fight together with.

"Hey Sandy, look over there. Do you see that short female with those crossbows? That's Ziiipe. Be nice to her; we will most likely need to start commissioning gear from her a few floors deeper, and it looks like she’s with Carl. He's one of the best melee damage dealers around."

Sandy looked at me as if she was trying to puzzle something out. "What?" We were able to walk only a little bit before she finally answered.

"How do you remember all those names? It's like you know everyone." That made me chuckle a bit. "It’s something I was taught, even if I was the spare. Anyway, let's continue to head towards the meeting point."

When we got close to it, we saw a few other people waiting nearby, but I only knew one of their names. Then we felt it—the telltale shake of the dungeon going through a breakthrough.

Immediately, I saw everyone becoming alert. "Well, damn it, we might not be able to do this raid room now. You know what’s interesting? This dungeon is very inconsistent about when it opens up the next floor and when it advances."

I wanted to continue speaking, but someone was approaching us. I turned towards them, only to barely manage to put my shield between the spear thrust headed towards my head.

Immediately, I used my ally shield skill to block the attack heading towards Sandy. The man who attacked me seemed surprised, and he was even more so when the next moment, I decapitated him.

Sandy was currently burning the person who attacked her, but the only other person I knew around here, the mage Vinny, wasn't so lucky. There were three people surrounding him, and he had already been hit in the back. "Sandy, the man on the ground— heal him now!" I used my ally shield to block the attack that would have taken his head off. Immediately, the three people looked toward us.

That was the wrong decision, as Sandy’s healing magic brought Vinny back, and the next moment, a magic spell that knocked all three people backwards thundered out. Vinny looked towards us.

“Thanks, let's finish them off!" I gave him a solid nod. I did not know what was going on, but we were not the only ones being attacked as explosions and magic flashes were happening all over the waystation.

These three enemies recovered quite fast and started to rush towards Vinny once again. This time, however, one screamed the battle cry, "Freedom for the dungeon! All who support the city lord must die!"

The next moment, he exploded from whatever spell Vinny used. Damn it, I do not think that this is an isolated case, from what he said. This might be bad.