Chapter 93 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground”

POV Carl

I looked towards the east where the sun was slowly rising. It had been a few horrible days amongst many bad ones. I could feel the itch of wanting to go back into the Dungeon, but I couldn’t leave, and let someone I didn’t know take control of this place.

Perhaps that was a bit too presumptuous of me, thinking that I could dictate who was in charge. I liked this Ace. While he was a noble now, he didn't used to be, and he took care of the people and, most importantly, the children.

Perhaps the new rulers might be even better, but I couldn’t take the chance. That's why I was on top of the wall and in charge of a small section of it. There used to be a proper army commander in charge, but since the siege equipment in the section was destroyed and there weren’t any replacements, he was moved elsewhere.

I was given charge of the fighters here. All of us were from the dungeon, but we were from different shadow guilds. Those distinctions hadn’t mattered for a while now.

The people around me were tired as we all had helped contain the fire. It was the most horrible thing I have been a part of, and I have seen some horrible things. All of us were waiting for the enemy army to attack, but it didn’t.

At least they seemed to have some honour. It seems that I am the freshest out of all the people here, but that’s thanks to the rune I have. It has helped me keep going. I wanted to give the knowledge to the city on how to make runes, but I have come to learn that it would not help us as I envisioned.

We all got some training, and from there, it was quite obvious that even silver-rank people would need to use over half of their mana pool to get any of the current runes we have. That would seriously hamper their ability to use skills, and as I've come to learn, during a siege, burst damage could be more important than sustained damage. You need it to deal with unexpected situations, as one mistake could be a domino effect of the entire wall falling.

The runes will probably not be that useful, at least at the start, but I believe eventually they will help a lot of people. For that reason, we sent Tristan out of the city a while ago. Now, no matter what happens here, the knowledge won’t die.

I looked beyond the walls to see the enemy soldiers lining up like they always did, and like always, I waited for them to stand down so I could go and help the people in the city deal with the aftermath of the burning.

As time slowly ticked by, I watched in confusion as the enemy soldiers kept standing. Then I heard it: war horns. "No, shit, please not today," were the only few words I was able to make out as basically every soldier said something when we heard the war horn.

"Shit, why isn’t no one sounding ours?" I then quickly moved to the hook that had a war horn attached to it. I quickly took a big breath in. Then I blew into the war horn, producing one of the saddest sounds I think I have ever heard.

I knew I was going to lose a lot of friends I had made, but I picked up my weapon and waited. Yet, just a few moments later. I felt like I was once again back in the dungeon, but only for a moment. I could have sworn I heard the sound that indicated I received a quest.

I went inside my head for a moment to see that I actually did have a quest and I quickly looked at the text.

"You are a brave defender, yet your true duty starts now. For already being a defender, you have received the reward you will find on your person. If you choose to accept this quest, you will earn one platinum coin and access to the war chest where you can use your contribution points for specific rewards. Be brave and join the defense.”

I was floored by their quest text. A platinum coin was a decent amount of currency, and if I understood the quest correctly, everyone would receive it. The war chest was interesting, but I didn’t have time to think about it right now.

I accepted the quest and then started to look through my pockets. I wasn’t the first to find it and already saw a person next to me holding a cylindrical object that was a little bit larger than a hand. On the device was written 'do not drop.'

"Do not use the devices given by the dungeon; wait for my order to use it. And do not drop it!" A voice sounded in my head. It was one of the generals, and as I looked around, I knew that everyone else heard it as well.

I then looked up, hoping that the enemy army had stopped because they must have noticed that something happened, but the soldiers were still marching, and the constant bombardment was still happening like it always was.

"What do you think it is?" the person beside me asked. I could only shrug my shoulders. I had no idea what this could be. I hadn’t realized Ace had so much control over the dungeon that it could make it do things like this.

Yet, as soon as I thought of this, it didn't feel correct. Whatever the case was, I focused back on the incoming soldiers. There were so many of them, and it seemed that the months of training they had received at least allowed them to march properly.

We started to fire back using our surviving siege equipment, and this time their mages couldn't defend as well as they couldn't cover the entire army. We were killing a lot of enemies, but there were just too few siege equipment left.

Then I noticed how the enemies reached the red markers. On the ground, there were many red-coloured stones, then yellow, and finally green. "Ranged fighters, prepare!" I yelled out as I needed to give this command when the enemy reached the red zone. I could hear similar commands further down both sides of the wall.

“Range fighters, get ready to fire,” I yelled as the enemy soldiers made it to the yellow zone. Things were getting critical now, but there were also a few ranged fighters who had already started to fire; they had permission as they had a longer effective range than most. They knew their own orders.

The enemy soldiers just continued to walk, but before they reached the green zone, the enemy bombardment started to lessen. “Ranged fighters, engage!” I yelled out, and bows were drawn and loosed in one smooth motion, and ranged skills were channeled and launched to reach the enemy soldiers.

When the attacks hit, I felt the urge to vomit, but I had gotten a lot of practice in the dungeon, so I was able to keep it down, and it seemed like everyone else was as well, although I could see some swaying a little bit.

“Keep firing!” I yelled to get everyone back and focused on the fight. It took the enemy soldiers until the front lines were well past the green zone until we started to receive fire back. I ducked a well-placed arrow. Unfortunately, I could see some were not as lucky as me. I could hear cries of pain from all around me, and I could swear someone was calling for his mother.

The enemy soldiers were carrying a lot of ladders meant to scale the walls. Yet, I was most intimidated by the siege towers being pulled by a lot of strong-looking soldiers.

When the siege engines finally reached the green zone, I needed to yell out another order, but it seemed that the soldiers were getting so close that they could start deploying ladders. Why was everything happening so quickly? “Ranged fighters, target the siege engines; everyone else, prepare to repel attackers!”

I readied my own weapon and watched as the ladders were slowly being lifted. “Everyone, throw the dungeon reward near the ladders!” The command came out of nowhere. It took me a moment to realize I needed to act.

I fumbled a little bit too much and threw the device a little bit later than the rest, but as mine flew in the air, I was able to see the ones that the others threw break on contact, and from inside, what looked like a swarm of small insects were released. Were they fruit flies?

I was not the only one confused. I could hear one of the enemy soldiers starting to laugh, and then it happened. It was like a wave went through the small fruit flies, and they started to glow and then fly through everything.

The screams were deafening, yet I could still hear and even smell vomiting from near me. The flies didn't seem to last long, only a few seconds from the looks of it, but the areas around the ladders were devastated, and even the ladders seemed badly damaged. Oh God, don’t tell me it will be a future enemy in the dungeon.