Over the past few weeks, the Black Feather squad had been going through quite the rough time. The death of their thief, Ali, left a hard scar on each of their minds, and so, after returning to the city of Caspel, they immediately turned in the wolf and wolf-man evidence and met with Viscount Marcel and the Adventurer Guild master Arche before turning out to their own devices, opting to take a break from all of the chaos and mourn the loss of their beloved Ali.

All of them mourned the loss of Ali differently; Luna simply stayed within the small home she owned in solitude, Weld and Ramey honed themselves by taking small quests in the adventurer’s guild, and Allen…

“Old man Arche.” Allen said as he plopped down on the chair in front of the Guild Master’s desk. His face was grim, and the stubble of facial hair could be seen, owing to the lack of care he had given himself in the coming weeks since he had arrived back in Caspel. He was currently within the office of the guild master Arche; located deep within the Adventurer’s Guild headquarters located in Caspel. Glancing around the room, he noted out the simple furnishings of the office; a desk, chairs for Arche and a visitor, and a painting resembling a strange monster behind Arche’s head, with two windows on each side of said painting. The monster in the painting appeared to be of the slime variety; it looked like a huge mound of black, tar-like sludge. Allen couldn’t be bothered to remember what kind of monster it was. “Please believe me. There are more of those damned wolves and wolf tamers out there. Why else would they take Ali out of the Dungeon? What use would it have been to take him out if there weren’t more lurking outside?”

The guild master of the adventurer’s guild of the Aspean Kingdom sat before him, yet Allen was talking in such an informal and familiar manner. This was due to Arche’s personality; he was never the type to appreciate or pursue formalities unless he truly disliked a person. For instance, anyone who addressed or was addressed by Arche in a formal manner was someone who Arche disliked greatly.

The guild master Arche glanced once over Allen before snorting and standing up. His kind and smooth face held the wisp of a smile, and his black hair gave him a slightly ominous feel when combined with his relaxed attitude. Arche’s eyes were always closed, and he always wore a strange black leather armor on his body which fit his skin. His lithe yet tall frame loomed over Allen, and his calloused hand firmly clapped Allen’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry, Allen. Marcel already asked me to mobilize. He wants to build a town nearby the Dungeon, get that?! GAHAHHAHAA!” Arche suddenly burst into carefree laughter before turning his face to Allen. “I’ll send some higher ranked groups to investigate as per required when building the town anyway. I want YOU and your group to mobilize and join the builders and guards. We need to secure the area around the Dungeon to an extent, gehehe… Before our Great King Aumbrough and the rest of those greedy nobles snap it all up and make moves on our territory!” Arche sneered as his voice dripped with sarcasm.

“Well, they will leave in a few weeks after gathering materials and people to move, and I truly want your team to be on the case; at the bare minimum, you all have observed the Dungeon and can help to limit mistakes and casualties. If it makes you feel any better, I’ll send Parish with you guys since I have to hold the fort here, alright? I know you guys won’t disappoint me.” With that, Arche sat back down and the smile on his face deepened as he turned his seat to face the painting of the monster. Allen let a wry smile fill his face as he turned and left. Although the guild master was belligerent, carefree, and talked over others, he knew that Arche wasn’t the type to let his people down; Allen could definitely trust him. Although Ali was gone, under Arche, they would get revenge on the rest of those monsters and finally allow him to rest peacefully.

After Allen left the room, Arche smiled at the painting before opening his eyes to look up at it, suddenly turning serious. If one were to look into his eyes at this moment, they would be shocked to find out that the color of his eyes matched that of the black slime shown in the painting. His eyes were like pitch black orbs with glowing white pupils. Staring at the painting, Arche asked: “It appears that Lord Gehennia has plans for that Dungeon…Shall I ‘free’ it from his grasp hm, Falynx?”

After staring at the painting for a while longer, Arche’s eyes closed once again, and he resumed his carefree appearance. Tearing off a part of the black armor which covered him with his bare hands, he tossed it onto the ground. Within a few moments the black armor seemed to melt into a puddle of tar-like fluid clearly resembling the monster on the painting, although a smaller version. The ball of liquid then began to froth and shake as its body expanded far past what it should have been capable of; slowly taking the form of a crow before carefully changing its body to complete the slightest details. Within a few seconds, a large pitch-black crow was standing before Arche.

“Freedom Knight Arche commands you.” Arche pointed through one of the windows. “Bring Freedom Glimpser Parish to support the Dungeon Town effort. Observe the Dungeon with her while you’re at it eh?”

The crow stared at Arche for a moment before taking off, flying straight through the window as if it were a ghost, and taking off into the sky. Arche smirked to himself as he sat back down in his desk. “Heh, she should arrive within two days, otherwise I might need to ask Falynx to enlighten her…”

Ding!

Congratulations!

You have completed the quest issued by Gehennia!

You have received the following rewards:

[Subordinated] Amordophon (B)

[Summoned]: Amordophon (B)

Following the quest completion screen, Dylan felt a connection extend from the amordophon to him, binding them together. A magic circle appeared directly next to the trapped and subordinated amordophon, and the form of another of the beasts rose up from its depths. The newly summoned amordophon was of a silvery color compared to the brown of the first amordophon, and was slightly larger. Its horns were longer, and the beast had runes on the left and right side of its torso, along with its back. These three runes all depicted different things, and Dylan sought to observe them immediately. Well, after he gave out some orders.

Dylan called back all of the goblins, then ordered the rest of the second floor to return to normal. He would replenish numbers later after he checked out these amordophons. Moving his vision quickly up to the first floor, he also observed Maynard and the other humans cooking up some freshly caught fish near the river. He might have to question either them or Clikchia about that later, as although the monsters within his dungeon fought and killed each other to eat and grow stronger, they didn’t truly need to eat, and Dylan could prevent them from killing each other if required. The humans, however, needed to eat and drink water. Due to the lack of large bodies of water within the breeding cave, Dylan had had to micromanage the situation with the humans by providing them water at random intervals; even when he was distracted by the amordophon!

After doing a round to ensure that his humans were fine, Dylan focused back on the amordophons. He ordered both of them to ignore the effects of [Natural Order], then absorbed the casing of plants, stones and dirt surrounding the first amordophon. Comparing their sizes, it appeared as if the first amordophon was actually a female. The male amordophon had an interesting silvery shine to its skin, and its three runes certainly meant that it could be considered higher rank amongst a group of them. Due to having the summoning info of the beast, Dylan knew that the amordophons travelled in herds, normally led by an alpha male with females and younger males mixed within. Only the alpha male was eligible to breed, but the position of alpha could be challenged by other male amordophons.

Now moving on to the runes… Dylan just began to focus on the runes and barely caught the glimpse of one which seemed to resemble interlocking chains, when both of the amordophons suddenly roared and ran off together. Startled, Dylan watched them run off, charging directly towards his core. The thing that scared Dylan the most during this moment, however, was the connection-or frankly, lack of connection he felt to the amordophons in that very moment. They were fighting him. They were disobeying Dylan’s commands and lashing out in anger.

The two beasts trampled through the forest, heading right towards Dylan’s core. Dylan knew that they knew through the thin connection he retained with them. They were connected to him just enough so that they knew exactly where the being who had subordinated them was. Gasping in shock, Dylan called out to everything within his Dungeon, but deep down he knew that it was too late. There wasn’t much left to stop the amordophons. All of the remaining goblins and wolves within the area couldn’t keep up with their momentum and had already dispersed, so only Dylan’s three guardians and the ember wolves which directly guarded Dylan’s cave could truly attempt to stall them. Sending waves of distress, Dylan urged these monsters to prepare for battle.

Shit! Is this really it? Dylan swore and cursed as Kuraura and the others hastened to grab their weapons. Within a few minutes, the amordophons burst through the trees, their roars echoing as they charged forward. Grotho charged towards the brown amordophon with Kuraura while Charlatan hurled his spear with all of his might, coating his body in fire and electricity before charging the silvery amordophon. With a snort, the silvery amordophon’s side began to glow as the runes which Dylan had tried to analyze activated.

The runes which resembled chains glowed a pale light as what appeared to be real metal chains seemed to erupt from the amordophon’s side, wrapping around Kuraura, Grotho, Charlatan, and the spear. The chains seemed to grow, continuously wrapping and binding the guardians before their ends finally emerged from the rune in the amordophon’s side. The chains wrapped and forced the three guardians to the ground, digging deep into the earth of the second floor. Within that quick moment, all of the guardians had been sealed away by the chains; no matter how they struggled, they couldn’t break free.

The two beasts forced their way into the cave, and the ember wolves rushed to meet them. The silver amordophon roared out once more as the rune on its opposite side began to glow. Dylan barely had a moment to react as a violent wave of cold slammed outwards from the rune, filling the entirety of the cave with a chill. Following that, an even stronger burst of cold slammed outward, and all of the ember wolves went stiff as they collapsed. The wave of cold slammed straight through the depths of the cave, striking Dylan’s core.

Dylan felt one use of his [Nullify Damage] skill fade away just from the impact of cold, and he also knew that the ember wolves had perished; freezing instantly from their close proximity to the amordophon. The two beasts arrived into the room where Dylan’s core rested, forcing their way through the hanging stalactites and scraping past the walls, the two beasts eyed Dylan’s core, and Dylan could feel the burning defiance and anger through the meager connection they retained. The larger amordophon opened its gaping maw and aggressively clamped down onto Dylan’s core before attempting to crush the core with all of its might. Dylan’s last use of [Nullify Damage] activated, repelling the amordophon’s jaws and causing it to drop the core in surprise. Luckily, this mere drop wasn’t enough to harm Dylan’s core, but the amordophon leaned in for another try.

As Dylan helplessly watched the incoming jaws, the short memories from when he had first entered Thunnberg flashed through his mind; the memories of first starting off, the insect battles, evolving his first monsters, expanding and completing the first floor, the goblins, preparing for the wolves, creating his first guardians, etc. All of those memories flowed through Dylan’s mind like water as the amordophon’s teeth slowly neared.

Is this truly the end? Dylan helplessly wondered as the amordophon’s maw filled up his vision. The world seemed to turn completely dark as the panic within his heart settled into acceptance.