Celia was done, there was no way she was going into that hellscape, especially not as unprepared as she was. The rogue glanced back down the stairs behind her and shivered a little and the memory of the freezing climate further down. She had made it through three floors worth of swamp floors, dodging monsters she couldn’t kill and getting used to her new technique. She had even made it all the way to level 27 after only about two days on the tier two floors, but she was leaving.

Her armor and clothes were in tatters from repeated close calls, she was practically out of food, and to top it all off she had lost another of her throwing daggers. It had been worth it to scare away one of the few wolf packs on the swamp floors but she wished she had checked what was behind the monster before throwing her dagger. The rogue grumbled softly to herself as she leapt from tree to tree making her way slowly but steadily back to the fifteenth-floor exit.

She almost wished she could explore further and level some more, but the truth was, she needed a break. She had been fighting nonstop for days, and it was starting to wear on her. Celia was also completely unprepared for a cold environment and with the state her clothes were in right now she would probably freeze to death without even needing one of the monsters to kill her. Nope, for the best to just leave it here, she couldn’t wait to get a hot bath and some new clothes, she definitely had the money for it right now.

Several floors and a few unfortunate monsters later, and she had arrived back on the eleventh floor. She made her way back to the exit but stopped hiding at the top of one of the nearby trees listening. She could hear voices drifting out of the stairs before her. “...worthless, we need to go kill the other boss that’s down here. Then we might get some proper loot.”

She saw boots come into view and hunkered down even further, they were fellow humans and there might not be any danger but they were also deep in the dungeon and it would be easy for an unfortunate ‘accident’ to befall her, no one would even find her body after the dungeon absorbed it. “Fine whatever, let's head down. Hopefully, there aren’t too many more floors before the next boss.”

“Shouldn’t be too many, didn’t that first group find the core on the eleventh floor? It could be right around here somewhere.”

Shifting her position carefully, the rogue got a better look at the adventurers as they made their way out of the stairs and further into the floor proper. “Just shows how much you know. This is a baby dungeon, it’ll grow fast for a while at least before slowing down. It might be a long way yet before the next boss.”

Celia sank further back into the tree wishing there were more leaves around her to conceal her presence. With a start, she remembered there was one other thing she could try. The technique she had found did have an external component to it that was supposed to help conceal her when she moved, but frankly, she had no practice moving chakra outside her body and wasn’t any good at the technique yet. It was worth a try though, one more thing to help conceal her from the other adventurers.

“Hey, boss, is there something in that tree over there?”

Feeling her breath catch in her throat Celia forced herself to focus, chakra moved just outside of her skin in delicate patterns. Sweat coated her brow as she concentrated hard on keeping the pattern in place, she couldn’t even spare the focus to look at herself to see if this was working.

“I don’t see anything over there you idiot. Must have just been a bird or something, this place is lousy with all kinds of monsters. Now, who wants to go first? Money isn’t going to make itself now.”

Celia sank back on her branch panting as the adventurers moved away from the stairs. It was good to know she could actually pull off the second half of her technique, it was going to be a while before she could use it in a combat situation though. Careful not to attract the attention of the other adventurers, the rogue creeped out of her hiding place and slipped up the stairs. It was weird leaving through this way, on the way down she had to go through the boss room but this time was different. She just passed right through where the boss room should have been without seeing it at all, what’s more when she looked back it was mysteriously back where it should have been.

It was a little weird to have the room vanish and appear like that but she supposed she should be grateful that she didn’t have to fight the boss again to get out of the dungeon. Come to think of it, that other group of adventurers had just killed the boss so it wouldn’t have been a problem either way. She shrugged and turned back to the floor at large, setting out, she still had quite a ways to go before she reached the surface.

Valens had been having a good day up to this point, he had finished the eighteenth floor, which he had been slacking on a little, and had gotten through a good portion of the nineteenth. He also had some quality entertainment with the solo adventurer who had been down here. The current lowest group in his dungeon though was driving him crazy.

The idiots were sitting around one of his trees on the thirteenth floor which they had decided to light on fire. Why didn’t they just make a regular campfire like normal people? He wasn’t sure. What he was sure about was that if they burned down one of his floors with their idiocy he was going to sick Magnus on the, he was sure the drake would agree to give them some fiery karmic playback if he asked nicely.

Pity that the other adventurer didn’t go any deeper into the ice floors. It made sense, she wasn’t really equipped for the cold but still, it would have been interesting to see how she handled the challenges of those floors. As it was the core was now hoping to see this party torn to shreds, they were just rubbing him the wrong way for some reason, maybe it was their flagrant disregard for his plants, or them ignoring the dangers his floors had. He tried to calm himself down, spending a good chunk of his massive reserve of mana to almost instantly create a new section of floor nineteenth; it didn’t work.

Valens, what’s up? You seem a little agitated. The drake sounded mildly concerned but not really that worried.

It's nothing Magnus, I should be getting worked up so much about a random group of adventurers.

Spit it out Valens what’s bothering you. The drake tapped his claws impatiently on the ground staring down the core knowingly.

It's just that this party seems like they're going to get one of my floors burned to cinders, again, and they’re just kind of bugging me with how they’re acting. Maybe I’m spoiled after the last few humans who came this deep but they are just aggravating.

Magnus took a look for himself at the humans that were winding the core up so much. I can see what you mean they’re not even setting a watch are they, and using an entire tree as a campfire is a bit much. Valens nodded emphatically, someone else understood his pain. However I think you might just need to calm down a little, that floor’s really too wet to all start catching like the forest floor did. Also, them being idiots just means they’ll be easier to kill. Survival of the luckiest and smartest, all the idiots will get themselves killed eventually, we just need to wait them out.

The core reluctantly conceded the point. I might encourage one of the crocodiles to wander over there though. Let's see if they get close enough to the water to have a bite taken out of them.

Magnus let his friend scheme away on how he would engineer the demise of the adventurers, it wasn’t like he was sending the entire floor swarming the offending humans, they had a chance. The drake chuckled darkly to himself and flipped through his codex, it was the most concentrated source of knowledge he had ever found and he had added to it ever since acquiring it. He wished however that more of the knowledge it contained was practically useful, there were quite a few things in here about different immortal tier races but not really anything on the advanced mana types. He sighed and made another note under the high elements section he created, the drake would figure it out himself, eventually at least.

Silas woke with a start as someone knocked on the door to his office, brushing aside way too many papers that should be necessary he got up. “Come in then.” His apprentice poked his head into the office, a slight look of concern on his face.

“Master Silas, you should probably come quickly. There is someone at the gate making a ruckus. Kira went out to see them and sent me back here, she also said to tell you that it's noble politics and that you should bring the duke’s letter saying you’re in charge of the dungeon.”

Silas groaned letting his head fall into his hands, noble politics were always a pain and there was only one noble family around here and they were extra difficult to deal with. Digging around his desk the old mage quickly came up with the letter the duke sent, it was rather important and he had made sure to keep track of it. “Right Arthur, you can come if you want but you need to make sure that you stay quiet no matter what he says. Nobles are a prickly lot and you would do well not to draw their attention, especially these nobles.”

Arthur nodded as he trailed after his teacher, together they made their way to the south gate which faced Corinth city. There were several wagons stopped waiting to get through the gate along with a large amount of stamping horses, their riders wore metal armor and carried a banner as well, a golden sword on a purple field. Silas groaned again, this was a day for groaning, usually, he liked being right but he would have given his wonderful beard just to be wrong this once.

Silas quickly came up behind Kira who was calmly talking with an increasingly irate individual outside the front gate. The old mage frowned; they just had to send Gary, didn't they? Actually, it might be better this way but he still didn’t like the little prick.

“Sir Bancroft, good to see you, may I ask the occasion for this surprise visit?” The overstuffed little peacock glared over at Silas, his ridiculous purple robes dragging in the dirt.

“You’re in charge of this rabble, are you? That is Lord Bancroft to you commoner, and I have come to claim this dungeon as is my right as a noble. Now tell your lackey to get out of my way and direct me to the nearest house so that I may rest my weary feet.”

Silas looked over the noble’s shoulder and saw a massive and ornate carriage pulled by three teams of horses, resting his feet, sure. “I’m afraid I will have to deny your request, Sir Bancroft, you see we have had word from the duke, and I am to stay in command of this dungeon until Lord Storm decides to appoint a lord of this dungeon.” Silas preemptively held open the letter in front of the noble’s face, fortunately, the duke had sent an official order with his personal seal along with the letter, so he didn’t actually have to show Bancroft everything the duke had written.

Gary spluttered in outrage and indignation but dutifully read the letter. “Fine, direct me to my quarters while I stay here, it's far too late to return to Corinth now.” Silas looked up contemplatively at the noon-day sun, blasted nobles.

“Very well Sir Bancroft, there are several taverns around here that I am sure will accommodate you. Also, I would like to inform you that at present I am the acting guild leader of the mage guild and per the guilds agreement with your house I would like to report at dawn tomorrow at our training field.”

Gary grumbled as he pushed past Silas and moved further into the town, but didn’t argue. He knew full well what his family had agreed to even if he didn’t like it, Silas also took a perverse pleasure in watching the noble curse his way down the street holding his elbow. His mana shields were quite strong and trying to throw an elbow into them is just going to hurt the elbow not him. The old mage sighed, this would complicate things he could feel it but he couldn’t just order the noble to leave, bother.