Well, that was entertaining, pity that the chimera only got two of them. Valens watched in amusement as the human Gary was dragged through a small stream. The human kept trying to yell at his captor but he was securely gagged and all he could do was mumble angrily. Personally, the core thought it was quite amusing how badly the ‘ambush’ had gone. Seriously, that plan had practically imploded from the very start. Hey Magnus, any reason why those tier threes were so pathetic? Sora was almost unkillable to the tier two monsters in the dungeon so he had been expecting a better fight than what he had gotten.

Well, they were chi classers, so knights, and do you remember what I said about that particular class? Magnus commented as he tinkered with a runic array.

Yes, yes I remember, they have to train to put their chi to good use right? Something about breaking the body down so the chi can build it back up even stronger than before?

Magnus delicately carved another rune into the stone plate he was playing then stopped and moved away from his workstation. That’s correct and was a big reason why the tier twos were able to slip away more or less unharmed.

Seriously though? I mean the soldiers were still tier-three shouldn’t they have been able to rely on the superior physical aspects of their higher tier to take out a couple of tier twos?

So something to keep in mind Valens is that humans don’t get quite a large jump in physical power like monsters do. For example, I’m a tier six mage, or mana user, whatever. In any case, I am strong enough just from being a drake that I could overpower almost any other tier six mage out there with pure physical might. I could probably also hold my own against most tier six knights as well even without using any spells. Those races that are classified as being ‘monstrous’ generally have much stronger physical bodies than what is considered the ‘sentient’ races.

So humans and the like have to rely more on tactics and being clever to kill monsters right? Based on what he had seen in his dungeon, that seemed accurate to him.

That’s right, the monstrous races aren’t all that smart at low tiers. That weakness generally goes away after a while as we get smarter and smarter though. All races get exponentially stronger as they progress though so it's never impossible to kill something else at your same tier, technically at least.

Valens shook his head, then stopped and grumbled, he didn’t have a head. He really wished he hadn’t inherited so many biological habits when he had gotten a good chunk of Magnus’ memories. As interesting as this is, we’re getting off track. So base humans don’t get that big of a physical jump from going up in tiers. That makes sense, they’re evolving their class, not their race, but it still doesn’t explain how a tier-two knight was able to kill multiple tier-three knights.

Magnus shrugged at that. I think you’re still underestimating how important training is to the knight classes. The reason chi is so popular is that whatever you do will help you get better physically at whatever task you do over and over again. However most low-tier combat is rather short, and for that reason, combat-focused knights need training. It’s the equivalent of a mage with no spells, sure they’ll still be dangerous, but blindly blasting things with unstructured mana will only get you so far.

Valens thought about it and considered how useless a mage without spells would be. Okay fine that does make some sense, but still, it seems like that Vance kid still did too well. He should have been maimed a little bit, right?

Magnus chuckled to himself as he curled his massive bulk onto his giant pillow. You’re correct that he was rather lucky, all his opponents ended up being slower than him. That allowed him to get away relatively unscathed. It also sounds like he’s a high human, which means at a base level he is just better than a normal human. The nobles of this country also tend to hoard the best training methods, just like they horde spells and other knowledge. He probably has a very effective martial art style that lets him integrate his chi faster than normal, which would mean whenever he trains he gets more out of it than someone with no idea what they are doing.

That seems like a rather unfair advantage to be honest. Not that he cared for the most part, humans were more or less entertaining experience on legs. Wait, would he give more experience than other humans? You said he’s a different race right? Plans of throwing Sora at them danced in his head before he remembered the plant mage with them. He wasn’t sure if his favorite lizard would win against that. Maybe if she set an ambush she could kill off the high human before getting killed herself.

Yes, but that’s a rather bad idea. Ignoring the tier four following him around, the kingdoms tend to get jumpy when their nobles start vanishing in dungeons.

Wait, really why?

Usually what happens is that someone decided the dungeon would be the perfect place for killing off their rival rather, like now. This can lead to some rather unfortunate attention for the dungeon in question. I’d rather not be discovered for a good while longer if it's all the same to you. The noble’s not worth it trust me.

Valens grumbled slightly but acquiesced. Fine, fine I won’t go out of my way to kill him, but if he dies on his own then it's not my fault. Magnus chuckled, a dungeon was still a dungeon at the end of the day after all. Anyway, how do you know so much about these kingdoms anyway? I got the sense you weren’t really from around here.

I’m old Valens, I’ve been around a few times. Before I settled on becoming a dungeon lord I wandered the world looking for a way to cheat death. Before even that, I wandered around looking for an immortal to kill. So I know quite a lot about many different places, much of it might not be totally up to date nowadays though. Magnus started to close his eyes, weariness echoing through the bond to Valens.

The dungeon core quickly shook off the foreign sensation and asked hurriedly. How would they find you? I thought you disguised the entrance to your room and the actual core room?

Magnus yawned widely. I did disguise it, but if they send a tier six to check the dungeon, which isn’t likely but is possible, then they would be able to tell something was up. Not that they could actually get through the barrier that’s in place, not right away, but it would make them curious enough to keep looking. Humans tend to think hidden things mean more loot, and putting up warning signs is tantamount to encouragement.

Sound’s like you had some personal experience on that subject, Magnus. Magnus?

The drake let out a heavy sigh and barely cracked open an eye. I’m tired Valens, please just let me sleep for now.

The core silently agreed and the drake’s eye drifted shut again. Valens heaved a sigh, he hoped his friend would be alright, which was silly considering that Magnus was immortal so long as the dungeon existed. Sleep well, my friend. He’d just have to get strong enough to fix whatever was the matter with Magnus, growing stronger seemed to be the answer to all of his other problems so with luck this one would be no different.

He turned his attention to the deeper levels of the dungeon, he had been holding off on expanding until he at least had some tier three creatures. He didn’t want to cheat and make more dire salamanders even if he did have that pattern from Sora. Valens wanted a more natural ecosystem to develop, and having one species be tier three right at the start would give them a massive advantage.

Now that he thought about it, he would get the patterns for later draconic evolutions when Sora evolved, wouldn’t he? The core chuckled evilly as he thought about floors with hundreds of drakes populating them. When he got enough power, it could happen eventually, in fact, it was such a tantalizing idea that he might just have to make sure it happened.

Lord Bancroft lounged in his favorite chair once again, this was a very good day. He had gotten a message from his son confirming his takeover of the dungeon had been successful. That was to be expected with everything arranged in advance, what was more impressive in his eyes was the successful capture of the young Storm. That family was a slippery and conniving bunch and it was good Gary had managed to handle them so effectively. It might be time to name an heir now that he thought about it, something his children had been badgering him to do for a while now.

“Boo,” He roared in alarm at the unexpected sound, spinning around and grasping at the dagger hilt concealed in his boot. “Oh relax, Fred, if I wanted to kill you, you’d be dead already.” Standing behind him was a black-cloaked figure wearing a featureless white mask with two eye holes. Normally it was impossible to tell the emissaries apart, they were all interchangeable, featureless, and serious, except for this one. Frankly, he would prefer to work with a normal emissary instead of this prancing idiot who thought he was funny.

“What do you want? Our plan is working but it will take some time before the dungeon can be secured and tribute sent to you.” He had never met his mysterious backers, they always worked through their ‘emissaries’ he had wondered a few times why they chose that particular name for their servants.

“Oh tribute, don’t worry about it. With recent developments, we’re expecting it somewhere between now and never.” Fred could just tell that the insolent emissary was grinning behind his mask, what kind of servant gave back talk before even delivering their message? “I was also wondering, why do you people have such ordinary names? I mean were your parents just not feeling pretentious when you were born or is it some kind of weird tradition? All the other nobles I’ve met try to have noble or stuck-up sounding names, but yours seem downright ordinary.”

Steam was practically coming out of his ears as he replied in clipped tones. “My name has been passed down my family line for generations. I am the fourteenth Fred of my house dating back from far before the kingdoms were founded. I would thank you not to comment and what you fail to understand now tell me why you are here.”

The emissary’s eyes narrowed and he stepped forward threateningly. The head of the Bancroft family was suddenly very aware that they were alone with no guards in sight. He had never been much of a combatant even if he had achieved tier four as a knight. “Well, I suppose telling you is the whole reason I’m here anyway.” The emissary’s posture shifted in an instant and he went back to seeming like his usual harmless if slightly mysterious self. “How long has it been since you heard from your son? Likely a week or two?”

“It's been two weeks since his last letter saying that he had taken control of the dungeon town and captured the Storm brat.” What was the emissary playing at, they would hold up their end of the bargain there wasn’t any need to be worried about that. They would just skim a little off the top from what they’d promised to send with the emissaries.

“Well I hate to break it to you but you're probably not going to be hearing much from him for a while at least.”

“He’s dead?” Fred had not been expecting that, but this could work out well. They just needed to manage the inevitable reprisal in such a way that gave them the most power possible.

“Nope, unfortunately, that would be too easy. Instead, it looks like he’s been captured.”

Maybe he needed a new favorite chair because it seemed like this one had been rather unlucky for him lately. “How in the world did that happen?” Forget making him heir the next time he saw his son he was going to make him a chambermaid for a month.

“Oh you know, your genius of a son decided to try and kill the Storm boy in the dungeon. Fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, he failed. Silas the local guild master seems to have left a rather powerful mage behind to keep an eye on our Storm friend.”

Fred drummed his finger thoughtfully on the arm of his chair as he stood. “We still have some time then right? The guild masters should still be busy chasing down your people’s pet monster. If we can get to the dungeon town, free Gary, and capture everyone else, we should be able to claim that it was all just a big misunderstanding.” That way they could keep possession of the dungeon as well. He had no idea what Gary was thinking of trying to kill another noble, even if the Storms were more commoner than not. The inquisition into one of their deaths would have stripped them of the dungeon, and most of their remaining wealth and there was a good chance of them being thrown out of Corinth. Who knows what would happen later, and that was only if they couldn’t prove who did the actual murder. Extensive records were kept of who went into and out of the dungeon and it would be simple to find out who was to blame.

“I’m afraid it's a little too late for that.”

The head of the Bancroft family came up short. “Why, we just need to take care of everything before that meddling old fool Silas arrives.”

The emissary smiled behind his mask. “You see that’s the problem, it seems that our monster had no sense of self-preservation. It attacked the hunting party as soon as they got too close instead of leading them on a merry chase. Oh well, you can’t predict what cats will do in the best of times. In any case, once the hunters returned to the dungeon town they reopened the dungeon. A few days later the Storm comes out none the worse for wear along with his protector, Silas’ new apprentice, and your son getting dragged like a trussed-up pig. Of course, they immediately went to Silas and tattled about everything that had happened in the dungeon.”

Fred sat down heavily, head in his hands. “This is going to blowback on the entire family, we’re finished. Gary doesn’t have the guts to take all the blame himself, he’s going to say it was our plan.” Even if they wouldn’t be killed for a failed assassination attempt, being stripped of most of their power and influence would be a fate almost worse than death

“That’s about right my friend except you're forgetting one crucial detail.” He looked up into the slightly red-tinged eyes of the emissary, shuddering at the barely checked mania. “My masters still think you’ll be useful in the future so for now, you’re all coming with me.” Fred swallowed hard as the emissary grinned beneath his mask.