Silas groaned as he dashed through the forest, he was too old for this his bones ached. He ran beside Commander Aiden Smith as they made their way through the forest. Both men, even Silas, were faster on foot than any low-tier horse imaginable. Of course, Smith was quite a bit faster than him, but that made sense given his chi class. They were going as fast as Silas could manage, he just hoped that they could find the monster in time. Gabriel was already out searching, hopefully, they could catch up to him soon.

The younger mage, Silas reflected, was gifted, but still, if the rampaging monster got to tier five then Gabriel alone would be in danger. It wasn’t like any of the lower-tier fighters were going to be any help at that point, and mages usually had it rough if they got ambushed. The old mage tried to shake off his bleak thoughts, it wasn’t like a tier five monster was guaranteed. Actually, that was the absolute worst-case scenario and based on the reports they had gathered this monster hadn’t slaughtered enough villages to make it through tier three yet much less all the way up to tier five. Firmly fixing that optimistic line of thought in mind, Silas focused on running as fast as his comparatively weak mage body would allow.

Regardless, trees and grass sped by in a blur until they crested a hill, where Commander Smith stopped and cursed. “What is it Aiden… Oh.” Silas reached the top of the hill right as he gasped out his question, and fell silent panting. The village they were running to, the one that the adventurers had predicted to be next in the monster’s path, was a husk of its former self.

Everything in the village from the livestock to the people was now just a collection of mutilated corpses strewn like broken toys throughout the streets. Silas got back just enough breath to start his own stream of curses matching Aiden as the other man started down the hill. Silas scrambled to catch up as the knight power-walked down the hill.

Aiden carefully examined the confusing mess of tracks through the village and began briskly walking towards the opposite side of the village. “Well good news there’s still only one monster doing this, bad news is obvious. Dammit, we were too damn slow.” Silas nodded, he trusted the other man’s word, and it wasn’t like he knew anything about tracking or hunting.

“Also I think Gabriel is ahead of us. I can’t quite tell because the ground is all churned up, my father could say better, but I think that some horses came through after the monster. That should be Gabriel if he’s sticking with his lower tier escort, which he should be.”

Silas nodded, ambush was a real problem for mages, especially if they were running themselves ragged trying to chase a monster. The only reason he felt comfortable doing it was because Aiden was there to back him up, and he had a lot more experience than Gabriel anyway. “Any idea what type of monster this is?”

The Commander squinted at the ground and then glanced around at the large rents in the buildings. “Can’t say for sure, but I think it's something with claws. Not that that narrows it down much, and if I had to guess I would say it's a solitary hunter. Any type of pack animal should have formed a group by this point and then we would really be in trouble.” They started running again, pounding their way down the now obvious trail of destruction the monster had left on its way out of the village. “I hope the evacuations of the rest of the villages around here go better.” Silas wordlessly nodded, saving his breath for running, as they sped after the monster as quickly as his legs could carry him.

“Lord Gary, a report for you, the Storm party just left the dungeon.”

Gary perked up, promptly dropping the scroll he had been reading carelessly on the ground. Who knew ruling required so much paperwork? “Well, were they arrested as I ordered? Where are they now?” His assistant hesitated, and his mood darkened significantly. “Tell me what happened now, that’s an order.”

“They went back into the dungeon, someone met them at the entrance, and then they turned right back around.”

Gary took a deep breath, he was a lord now the perfect picture of control and nobility, and promptly slammed his fist down on his desk shattering the entire thing. “How was there someone else close enough to get there before we did? Are all of you incompetent in this little dirt hole you call a town? Why did the guild desk even let them back into the dungeon? Get out of my sight before I kill you.” The assistant promptly turned around and fled, good instincts there, for a commoner.

The young noble paced furiously around the guild master’s office, his office now, before seating himself back in his chair. He stared down at the destroyed desk and a smile slowly crept its way across his face. Maybe it would be better this way, with only capturing the young Storm noble, there was always a chance that he could be rescued and reinstated as the dungeon lord. If happened to, vanish while in the dungeon though. Gary grinned wolfishly, no need to bother his father with the details, he just had some trash to take care of anyway.

Valens took a deep breath and fought to keep the annoyance out of his voice. Why are there only two parties in my dungeon and what the heck are they doing?

Magnus chuckled as he juggled a pair of mana spheres, all the same, deep blue color. Well, the reason for the lack of parties is the rampage going on, we talked about that already remember?

Yes, I remember, blah blah blah, humans are tasty.

The drake chuckled and tossed one of his mana spheres against the wall of his room. The wall didn’t even shake but the sphere exploded drenching Magnus and the rest of the room and a layer of water. Yes well, said humans are going to be a lot more concerned about this than you are. A lot of the adventurers will probably be trying to get jobs scouting for the monster, or hiding behind the walls of the settlement like scared children.

Why would they go looking for a monster like that unless they’re sure it's not as strong as them? Many adventurers did stupid stuff in his dungeon, but he had yet to have a party enter the tier two-section when they were tier one.

Magnus shrugged as he pulled water off himself with magic. Well, the smart ones are the ones not running out into unknown danger, but the others aren’t completely stupid either. The scouting jobs pay really well, and any knowledge of a rampaging monster is worth its weight in gold. That’s of course assuming you survive long enough to get paid for that information. Some adventurers go looking for a rampaging monster out of a sense of responsibility, maybe they grew up in a small village or they feel obligated to stop the carnage. Whatever the case there are reasons for people to be wandering around looking for trouble, they’re just not always great reasons.

Valens was vaguely annoyed by the whole situation, why couldn’t the humans just come to his dungeon if they wanted to die so badly? At least that way some benefit could come from flinging themselves into horrible danger. So if all the humans are so worked up with this monster thingy, then what’s the deal with these two parties?

The drake sighed heavily and flopped onto the ground heavily as the water slowly dried around his room. I don’t know Valens, I’m not all-knowing. Maybe you should take a good look at them and make some educated guesses and then see what happens.

What if they’re dangerous though? They could be trying to steal my core. Not that he’d admit it aloud but events were making him paranoid, he was hoping Magnus could lay those fears to rest but apparently the drake wanted to be stubborn today.

Oh please Valens, they’re not even close to the core. One group has been in the chimera boss room for about a day now, and the other is higher up in the dungeon hiding in a staircase.

Valens grumbled to himself and looked carefully at the two groups starting with the lower one in his boss's room. This group was the one that he was more annoyed with, they kept killing his chimera every time she respawned. The entire group looked tired and vaguely annoyed, there were ten of them with one person watching the entrance to the boss room and two others keeping watch for the chimera.

Does the lower group look like they are waiting for something? Maybe the other group of humans because I can’t figure out what else it would be, but it's rather unusual for humans to deliberately meet here. Most of the time I would think they would like less dangerous locations.

That’s true, but this is probably more along the lines of an unexpected meeting. The drake seemed amused for some reason. Valens thought about the situation again, the group on the stairs looked vaguely familiar.

Wait, you're talking about an ambush, aren’t you. It wasn’t his fault it had taken him a minute to figure it out, he had little to no experience with human intrigue. The group on the stairs was here for a while on the tier two floors. They must be exhausted from combat but came back for some reason. The other group must be waiting for them because… Valens trailed off, unable to figure out what exactly was going on.

Magnus nodded his scaled head. Well done, that is pretty much the basics of what’s going on. I have been listening in on the two groups for a little while now trying to figure out exactly what’s going on. The boss room party was particularly vocal, especially after their first day of waiting in vain. Anyway, it seems like this is a scuffle with the local nobility for control of your dungeon.

Valens snorted and had to hold back laughter. Neither of them is controlling me though, and I don’t think anything of the sort is likely with you around Magnus.

The drake grinned a teeth-filled smile and nodded. Likely not, but what they’re actually fighting over is who controls access to your dungeon. It's enormously beneficial for the noble who can monitor that. They can get a huge amount of taxes off people entering, and use our dungeon as a personal training ground for themself and their forces.

Alright, the core was confused again. Couldn’t they use my dungeon for training anyway? I haven’t heard about anyone not being allowed in.

Yes you’re right they could have, but they’d be reliant on the person controlling the dungeon letting them have access. Which isn’t a given all the time as it has been here. Also, it's a matter of pride for them, it's prestigious to control a dungeon so they’ll fight each other for the right to claim one.

Well humans certainly seem stranger the more I learn about them but is this usual, surely most humans have more sense than this?

Magnus chuckled faintly in amusement. You would be surprised how foolish humans can be, but actually, this situation is a touch unusual. Fighting over a dungeon is common enough, but the party in the boss room seems like they’re gearing up to straight-up kill the other party. The last time I checked that was highly illegal in this part of the world.

Well, it's really none of my problem, it should make for an entertaining show though. Also, I wonder how the ambushers know where the other party is. Wouldn’t it have been funny if they camped out in the boss room for no reason? Seems like they got lucky this time though. Magnus nodded, and both of them went back to watching the two groups. The one on the stairs had begun to move deeper into the dungeon, unaware of the greater than normal danger that awaited them in the upcoming boss room.