Altia could only bear the pain and torment of feeling Nero being hurt over and over again because of Crystal's calming song and her Charm spell. it became so unbearable that she asked for the [Enchantress]' help. Her screams were loud enough to wake up the whole village.

"He's delving," Byron declared. "That's why the wounds were happening closer to one another, midnight is almost upon us. For all we know, he could be going for days without getting hurt. Calm down," He told Altia's deaf ears.

Rhynne squeezed one of Altia's hands while Crystal did the same on the other side. Altia felt as if her heart would burst and she only wished she'd die before she felt the accursed [Heart Bond] end with his death. She only endured because he would know if she also died.

A mixed blessing, indeed.

Nero woke up with Kefira licking his face. He had such luck with women. He prepared himself, summoned ammunition, charged his devices to the maximum, and opened the portal. The stampede was still going strong. He checked his Dungeon clock but the device was just telling him he'd spent a month and two days inside the Dungeon. No shit. Since he didn't set foot in the real world between delves, it still counted as the same.

He rushed out with his lioness, both fighting with teeth and claw, both organic and metal through the stampede. Nero had to find a way to finish this once and for all when it clicked. He was a master of portals, all he had to do was to put them in the right spots. And so he did. With one of the shameful prince's thirty-thousand-plus crystals, he made a portal to Rodther's shelter in front of the Dungeon exit.

Which he couldn't use. The portal could be a painting for him for all he knew. The only way out for him would be an [Egress] card.

That directed the flood into the portal to his temporary shelter, to join the other monsters as they scoured the place in a vain search for things to kill. Then he opened another portal to each of the temporary boxes, creating a U-shaped barricade of portals. He curbed the flow into the real world and gained some respite. The monsters could choose between hitting the back of the two portals to his side, or entering the portal to the other shelter, or dying to Nero's bayonet and Kefira's claws.

Most didn't choose the opening into what looked like the real world and the reason was obvious to him once he gave it some thought. The walls and ceiling of the temporary boxes were bright white, leading the monsters to believe it was the way out into daylight.

His answer was to retreat into one of the boxes for a respite and make more of them. fearing they would awake and become more Dungeons, he only paid for a week of upkeep. With ten such boxes, Nero connected them to a spot of open-air in Rodther's shelter and placed them outside, facing outwards. The flood of monsters would push one another into the portals and down into the shelters. Nero went around, opening the portals facing outward and finally dove into another box that was linked to the space behind all the portals.

Boxed by the hexagon made out of the backs of the portals, Nero and Kefira sighed in relief. The monsters rushed for the glowing boxes and then into the shelter. Or directly into the shelter, as there was no room for even a wolf to squeeze between the portal Nero made and the one leading to the outside. From between the oval portals, Nero stabbed monsters here and there, adding to his kill count and the carpet of crystals and cards underneath the portals.

He eventually had to replace the portal blocking the real exit with one that would last for a few days for every point of mana he spent. Nero sat and waited, withdrawing into one of the boxes while the stampede raged on. At least they weren't going outside anymore.

It took a week of Dungeon time for the stampede to end. Nero had no idea how many thousands of monsters left the Dungeon but funny enough none of them wanted to return to the Dungeon through the portal. The opening linking to the real world closed and Nero did the same to all of his portals. He looked around. The Dungeon was devastated. The crystals and cards from his kills were littered on the ground around the clearing, some cards too damaged by the trampling monsters to be useable. Nero gathered everything diligently and then hunted the Dire Warg.

Fearing what he would find outside, Nero did the same as before. Build a tower, clear the trees - half of the job was already done by the stampede - and then fireball everything back to gray-grade. Even the boss cavern as he found out that if he tossed a fireball inside it was enough to lure the boss outside.

The Dungeon could be cleared with nine fireballs. Eight in a ring pattern, the ninth down the boss cavern. Nero's Attribute boost of the last few days? Month? It was hard to track when delving skewed your sense of time. Anyway, His boosts put the rank III Dungeon at his mercy. He only had trouble looting but he knew the right helpers for that. He only didn't want to link the Dungeon to the shelter and skew the sense of time for his three hires.

Kefira wasn't too good at not swallowing the Essence crystals. Nero only hoped she would be able to process it.

He learned a lot about Dungeons and their inner workings. Enough that he wrote his ideas and discoveries in one of the notebooks, the least memory failed him. One thing about stampedes was that it happened over a long time in the Dungeon, but instantly outside. Thousand of monsters just burst into existence close to midnight and that was it. It meant that he couldn't exit the Dungeon right now, even though he had a dozen [Egress] cards. He needed to give the horde time to spread out and away from the portal.

He had the right device for that, the day-skipping pyramid. But he had another issue to take care of before he could skip the day. Clearing the monsters in Rodther's temporary shelter. That part was almost as easy as shooting fish in a barrel. All he had to do was open a portal up in the sky of the shelter and shoot at whichever monsters were in his field of view. Since they all were land-based monsters, he didn't need to worry about any of them reaching the portal. He tossed a fireball as an opening gift but he couldn't use two of them for fear of breaking the drops and infusing the shelter with too much Essence.

The last thing he needed was to birth another Dungeon. Did that make him a father? No way!

To dismiss the silly thoughts, he used the rewritable diagnosis card to check his last Accolades since he left Leonal Prince's Shame.

Strength: +6

Vigor: +9

Endurance: +8

Agility: +3

Dexterity: +2

Perception +1

He killed more than three thousand monsters over the last few days during the stampede. That included the ones he lured into the shelter. Nero noticed that the amount of strain required to grant an Accolade on the Attribute increased with the value. He was almost breaking the 100 points barrier across all Attributes. He was lacking only on Strength and Charisma.

Looting the Dire Warg Dungeon, Nero found the ruined and trampled remains of the tents as well as the Arbitrii and bandoliers from the dead soldiers. It seemed that when the new Dungeon formed, the extraneous matter was dumped on the outside, in this case another Dungeon.

Byron watched his clock as midnight ticked in. Once the last second went by, Altia relaxed. She cried on Crystal's shoulder, but these were tears of relief.

"He's alive. And unhurt," She sighed.

"Good. Good. Now sleep. You need your strength," Crystal sang her to sleep, her over-the-top Charisma and her singing Skills lending an unearthly property to her singing voice.

Once the three of them were outside Altia's bedroom, Rhynne spoke. "My Essence detector sensed an overflow, Byron," She showed a device. It is too far away, but the Essence burst was massive if I could detect it from this far away."

"Where?" Byron asked, his trained instincts readying himself for combat immediately.

"In Honeywitch's direction. I don't know more than that. Not nearby us."

"Must be nothing. We need to wait for Nero's return," Byron dismissed.

"No," Rhynne said. "He was fighting and getting wounded moments ago. And now I detected an overflow. It isn't a coincidence."

"He's safe. It meant that whatever he was doing, it is over now. Wait!" Crystal exclaimed. "The guild master! She wanted Nero to trigger an overflow! Maybe that was it!"

"Nero would never..." Rhynne protested.

"Yes. He turned that down. And if he was fighting now, it was to stop the overflow," Byron said. "I know my child's character."

"Of course, father," Crystal said apologetically. "I know very well my brother's strength. I didn't say he caused the overflow, just that he was involved. probably fighting it."

"That would mean he was inside the Dungeon as it happened!" Rhynne gasped. "Something went terribly wrong out there."

"We should redouble our watch," Byron said and prepared to go outside. "Daughter, stay with Altia. Don't let her do anything stupid or lose heart. Nero is coming home but something is not right. We need to be ready."

Crystal bowed and smiled. "Yes, father."

Nero felt he needed a vacation. Killing monsters, harvesting epic gear, and millions of Essence were all good, but nothing beat relaxing with family. He was ready to go back home. Nero triggered the pyramid, reset the Dungeon, cleared it one more time just for kicks, and to spend some time and left. He had his orange [Rogue] build on, stealth active, and the lioness in Rodther's shelter. The clock showed it was four in the morning. Several monsters prowled around the forest but he cared not. Nero opened a portal to Rodther's shelter and closed it right after him. It was the Kingdom and the Guild's problem now.

He traveled to the location of the keyed portal that would take him two hundred miles closer to home from the Dungeon and crossed it. Now all he needed to do was to run across the countryside and reach home. He put his foot to the non-existent road and legged it, going more than a dozen times faster than a normal person. He rose a dust cloud behind him and chuckled as he wondered how many farmers would mistake the stealthed running person for a dust devil.

He found the first pack of diseased wolves attacking a farmhouse in the first hour of the day. Most of the stampede should've gone toward the castle, but a few scattered in other directions. The wolves were clawing the wooden door, trying to reach the people inside. The barn was already broken and the death grunts of the farm animals rang from there. Nero took his rifle and let the bullets fly. His rifle was loud and soon people on the second-floor window were waving at him. His cloak was flashy under the sunlight.

"Greetings!" He shouted at the farmers after he cleared the monsters.

"We owe you our lives, brave Adventurer!" The farmer shouted back.

"There are no monsters in the farm right now, but unfortunately your livestock is gone," Nero said with regret. "A Dungeon overflowed in the valley, it is dangerous here."

"Thank you, but we don't need--" The farmer suddenly shut up. Nero herd the farmer's wife shouting at him, a child crying, the man talking back. After a while, the woman showed up at the window.

"Brave Adventurer, could we trouble you a bit more? We are poor and don't have much wealth, but we would like to ask you to escort us to Honeywitch."

"I'm not going that way. What I can offer to you is a safe passage to my home village. The other farms around should be under attack as well. I would need to check on them as it would pain me to leave them to their own luck," Nero said.

The truth was that he was partially responsible for the overflow. He had to do something to help the innocent people It would delay his return but each life counted.

"We know where the other farms are but we don't have the beasts to pull the wagon anymore," She shouted back.

"I'm a magician," Nero said and felt the woman's disbelief as she looked at his bulky and strange weapon. "I can make a portal to a safe haven. If you entrust your lives to me." He opened a portal to Rodther's shelter and brought Kefira. "This is Kefira, my tame beast."

Kefira yawned and stretched, her tail swaying above her. Maybe he was hasty in labeling the lionesses lurkers and the lynxes lazy.

"Gus, pack your things," The woman shouted as she turned inside. "We are leaving the farm before it becomes a death trap!"

Yes, that would delay Nero a lot, if each farmer wanted to take the kitchen sink with them. He sent all of them to Rodther's shelter, unwilling to show them his house-tree or disturb the dwarf quartermaster's vacation. With the farmers' guidance, Nero visited other farms. At some of them he arrived too late, some of them too early. The farmers knew each other, and a show of the familiar faces already inside the shelter and the tale of woe from the nearby farms was enough to convince them to pack up and leave.

The day was spent rescuing the farmers and Nero arrived at the nearest village at night. It had a simple wooden fence that couldn't even be called a palisade. Some wounded guards stood by the gates. Both had Arbitriii on their wrists.

"Halt, who goes there!" A man in his forties shouted.

"I'm a traveling Adventurer. I spent the day rescuing the farmers from the monster stampede. How were things around here?"

"We got a dozen wolves," the senior guard said. "How are the farmers?"

"Alive but they abandoned their homes to come with me," Nero said and the guard looked over his shoulder, skeptical. Do you think your village can hold? The monsters are level fifteen to twenty-five."

"We can try our luck. The village is on lockdown. We can't let a stranger enter, even if you helped the farmers, sorry."

"No, no. I understand. I just ask you to take care of them. I have to go on my way."

Without waiting for a reply, Nero opened the portal and ushered the farmers out. Maybe the guards could help them retake their farms but it wasn't right to take them with him. He'd rescued one hundred and forty-two people and that eased the bitter taste the last few encounters left on his mouth. He made sure there was no missing child hidden in the shelter and he dismissed it.

"Thank you, Adventurer," Gus' wife shook his hand. She was pivotal in convincing the others with her busybody attitude. "Can we know your name?"

"I'm Nero from the minnid village of Hom. Please be safe. Things are dire that way," He pointed toward the valley pass between nations. The armies were fighting, the Dungeon overflowed. I'm traveling home now. Bye."

He didn't give them time to rope him into some other request. Nero stealthed and dashed away. He was strong enough to vanish in front of them, neither of the people watching him had enough Perception to see him even if he was in plain sight. Skills were weird like that.

Nero ran with the wind. The countryside blurred around him and he was nearing Hom as he stopped to catch up his bearings. He was in a heavily forested area that was scheduled for a reclaiming effort in the next years but right now it was an untamed stretch of wilderness. He was running in a straight line, using the sun to orient himself but now he needed to pause and look around. Searching the woods, he saw the light of a campfire ahead. He checked if he was stealthed and moved closer to check. It could be bandits, or just people camping out.

This close to home, he would take no chances. As he approaches, the enhanced Perception granted by his build let him catch up on the conversation. The accent was familiar but strange. His worries were confirmed as he approached the camp and saw the shining armor. Streamlined for swimming. The blue and green hair of the people there was enough of a tell even if he wasn't seeing the fins at the side of their heads.

Knights from Coriander.

Why did Nero meet these guys out here of all places? He went around, counting fifteen knights. He noticed several things. First, these guys were sorely missed up there during the assault from the shameful prince. Their absence was the reason the knights from Bast were able to dominate and win the battle. If it weren't for the elf's betrayal, the prince would be at his Castle, consolidating his position and celebrating his victory. At least the harlots would be alive, poor women.

The second thing was that they were too damn close to home. They had probably moved in a straight line just as Nero did, with a headstart of a few days. He had no doubt they could move fast but not as fast as [Rogue] Nero. Honeywitch must've told them where the former princess was as a token of his allegiance shift. Then that Calder guy sent this unit here to retrieve her. it meant they were going to attack Hom, and Nero had no doubt it would be a massacre even with his parents there.

He wished he had some monsters saved for later. He could set them loose on the knights and gain some time. But they were preparing to sleep so he had some time to make it back home. Nero moved away carefully, even though his Skills granted him near-undetectability. He also made a point to hold no hostility toward them as to not trigger any danger-sense Skill. He noticed one of the knights looked up when he thought of releasing the monster stampede.

With happy thoughts in his mind, Nero broke into a controlled run and kept his eye out for landmarks. He needed to get home yesterday.