Chapter 81 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground”

On the ant floor, the situation finally went critical. The two sides, which had been continuously hostile to one another, had a border skirmish just because two groups of patrols accidentally got too close to each other.

What stopped an outright war from being declared that day was that even they didn’t want something like the previous huge war to happen again. Yet, things moved fast; participating nations were counted and signed up for war, and a lot of work was done tirelessly to figure out where and how many assets could be used in this war.

Since many nations were involved, almost 30% of all the current nations in the ant world, quite a large stretch of land was chosen that was between a few nations that were going to be on other sides of the war.

It was mostly farmland or unclaimed lands where champions fought and gathered resources. To my surprise, the war wouldn’t start immediately; there would be a few months for nations to build up defenses and infrastructure.

There had been multiple smaller wars, and usually, they were quick affairs, but I guessed this wasn’t going to be like that. Also, both sides wouldn't start with the same amount of resources; the amount of troops and other resources they had access to would depend on their population size, their overall economy, and a few other aspects.

When the war papers were signed, one side would have access to 257 million soldiers, and the other, 308 million. With the number of workers added, both sides were allowed to use over a billion ants to take part in this war. A number quite large, but actually quite reasonable compared to how many ants fought in the Great War, as they were calling it.

They, of course, weren’t the only intelligent creatures in my dungeon who fought their own kind. The kobolds were constantly infighting and trying to conquer other tribes. Their fights, however, usually were small ones as they didn’t have large populations to begin with.

The orcs still had border skirmishes between one another but not a large war for a really long time, as they didn’t have the population. One exception was the Arden goblins, who had the whole floor to themselves.

Well, that wasn't completely correct, as over time there had emerged a few strong creatures who held dominion and threatened the goblins around them. They were, however, the minority, as most of the time goblins were able to kill those kinds of creatures with overwhelming numbers.

Their society had been progressing steadily, with a few city-states emerging that continued to grow and claim more land around them with an iron fist. What this created were safe areas for growing crops, fueling the population growth goblins were currently experiencing.

It had been quite a while since the declining population stopped, and more goblins were being born than dying. This, of course, started to lead to more conflict.

The original settlers I made were placed in loose groups, and usually, one group in an area managed to outpace the others and eventually conquer or absorb everyone around them. However, this wasn't always what happened.

In a particularly resource-heavy area with a lot of black dirt that seemed to grow anything put into it with vigour, two quite strong city-states emerged that were actually quite close to each other.

The hostilities started slowly and actually by accident, as one city state's patrol attacked the other city-state’s group, thinking they were a different group of goblins they had been keeping an eye out for.

Some reparations were made, but not enough, and slowly a border started to emerge between the two city-states. The problem was that both sides wanted to build farmlands and gather resources close to each other's borders, which were hotly disputed.

It didn’t take long for things to become hostile, yet both sides were reluctant to declare war as they didn’t know the extent of the other's power. This state of affairs couldn’t last much longer, as many had already gotten spies into each other's city-states.

I wondered what would happen first: the war between the city-states, the war between the Ant nations, or if Enn and her group of champions would reach the lost city.

I looked on quite anxiously as I continued to make dungeon rooms for the 18th floor. Only one of those events had a set date, and that was two months from now. Another quite interesting thing going on was that Carl was purposely hunting down shamans and other elite warrior orcs to study the markings they had on them.

He even looked for quests like the ones they had done that involved orcs in any way. If he kept up like that, and with the help he had, he might actually figure out how to do the rune tattoos that helped empower the orcs to be even stronger.

So many things were happening that I was actually a bit overwhelmed, yet I watched on with incredible excitement. The war between the city-states was the first to begin, about a month before the war of the Ant nations.

They had measured each other and found the other side lacking, but in reality, they were quite equally matched. So for the first time, around 200 trained soldiers from each side met in battle.

It was a messy affair. They didn’t have a lot of knowledge about how to battle in large groups. After attacking each other at range, they simply charged and fought in a large melee until one side won.

After that, they marched and conquered the other city-state, becoming the first city-state to own two cities and becoming a proper nation. What I wondered was whether they were going to be able to keep the two cities. The answer came only two weeks later when, during one night, most of the occupying forces were killed.

The next major event to happen was Enn and her group finally reaching the lost city. They were quite relieved as they had followed a false trail for quite a while before they figured out they were going the wrong way.

The now-found city was mostly empty, but there were a few creatures who had made a home there. Still, it would be an easier time than their journey here, as they had to fight quite a lot of large creatures that cost them the lives of two champions.

They would need to do some searching, but there were eight power cores available in this city. Two of them were quite easily gotten, and I wondered if they were going to leave when they found two or stay longer and discover more power cores and a few more gateway locations. Whatever the case might be, I was quite looking forward to their journey.

Then the time finally came. The designated land where the war was going to happen had changed drastically. There were multiple fortresses and many fortifications along the border between the two forces.

There wasn't going to be a naval battle, as the few rivers and lakes on the land where the war was going to happen were small and not well connected to the rest of the larger water network.

However, there were going to be a lot of air battles, as both sides had invested quite a lot in airports and a large portion of their available resources to have huge numbers of aeroplanes and airships.

There wasn't going to be any railway tactics like in the Great War, so I wondered what the tactics were going to be. The reason why I already didn’t know was that I was purposely not looking up that information.

I have found that in a lot of cases, it's better not to know and just observe. That way, I could be surprised by what strategies and ideas they have come up with.

The start wasn’t an all-out battle. Millions of troops didn’t charge across the border and started attacking fortifications. No, the first part of the war was going to be reconnaissance, but that also meant we were going to see some air battles quite soon.

While the technology the ants were using hadn’t changed by a lot, it was more refined and, in general, larger, as the ants that were using those war machines with skill engines were generally larger.

It was also quite curious how technological advancement kind of stalled as it started to veer in a more magical direction. One of the biggest changes was the airships that, in the Great War, were just target practice, but now, thanks to more refined enchantments and skills of ants, were now fortresses that could stay airborne a lot longer than aeroplanes.