Author's note:-

why am i late? because this is a double chapter, with a lot of thoughts put into it.

i tried my best to not spoil the fun, but if someone finds it faulty then do P.M me you version. If i think that it is better than this than i'll rename the chapter to your name and upload it.

Well, every comment counts. They help a lot.

want to know why? Then do read my blabber at the end.

.

Enjoy.

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Third person P.O.V:-

He looked at her, while she kept her eyes at him, but a feeling of anxiety washed over her cause of his words.

“What do you mean who, I am talking about our captain James, where is he? Did you…kill him too?”

But he did not answer her straight away and laughed for a while, and with his eyes slanted backwards he slowly said, “Illusion.”

“Huh?” was her reaction.

“Ahaha. He was nothing but an illusion. What, you thought he was a real?” He said mockingly.

“What’s with those eyes? You don’t believe me?” he got angry at her for looking at him doubtingly.

He didn’t hit her for that but still answered her instead, just like he promised, “You don’t believe me huh. Then tell me, what do you think a hero was doing here alone without his party? It’s not like you don’t know where he is. Right?”

When she heard that her eyes trembled, cause she suddenly remembered a news that she had heard some months ago.

‘The hero and his party is travelling with a legendary figure from the empire on a mission to the other side of the continent’ it said and the most important part, they would not be back for some more months..

She hated herself; she hated herself for neglecting such a small opportunity what their enemy had provided them moreover intentionally.

‘How could I have forgotten about such a news’ but she knew that there was no profit in regretting about her past mistakes. So, after getting her mind straight, she looked back at him.

“What! Not satisfied with my answer? This worm still doesn’t believe me, Huh. Then wait a second.”

What happened next really put a dent on D’sue and Dust’s faces.

Air around the assassin shook slightly and he got covered in a black smoke, his visage completely covered. It situation remained like that for some seconds, but then a change happened.

The assassin simply took even less than ten seconds and then the shadows around him started disappearing.

A foot came out of the smoke and so did the rest of his body. The assassin was nowhere and instead of him James was standing in front of them.

He cunningly spoke, imitating James heavy voice, “So, what do you think now? Still don’t believe me then tell me, why didn’t your captain use any of his sword skills and only ever used his speed? Why were all the decisions taken by me, but they were all still accepted. Huh.” He looked at them, but then began shaking his head left to right, sighing once.

“I mean, come on! I know that knight had a hard head but even you, I didn’t know you were an idiot too.”

On one side he was laughing his ass off and on the other side D’sue was deep in thoughts. He was still numb from hearing that their captain was an illusion too.

‘How is this possible? Just how much has he practiced his skill, to so skillfully pull wool over everyone eyes and we didn’t doubt even a single thing? Was everything really a lie?’ he was having the most difficult discussion of his life in his mind.

“Ho…w?” Dust was putting her everything to ask him the reason, before her flowing blood could make her a cold body.

“Well, you see, my shadow displacement skill is not an ‘S’ ranked skill for nothing. It becomes very easy to move large distances with it.

Anything else?

Ask me quickly!

At least ask me why my master asked me to do it!” His conceited self had started to show its true nature, and he was losing himself slowly.

She gritted her teeth and the sound echoed inside the room. Even though she had no energy left, but when she heard him talk about his master an unimaginable amount of hate entered her mind and she grinded her teeth in anger.

When Enco heard that sound his mouth curved into a crescent shape and he said, “Seems like you hate my master more than you hate me. Well, at least you’ll die hating someone truly powerful.”

She was waiting for him to tell her the reason for his actions, because the time had come.

“You see the real target is not you guys. You guys are all just preparations, raw materials for a big boom. The real target is this dungeon.”

She spoke in a very soft and low voice. She was extremely exhausted and was suffering from ‘Mental Strain’ ‘Physical Strain’ ‘Anemia’ “Infection’ like effects. But she still asked him in a breaking voice,

“Why? If this really is a dungeon then was do you have to destroy it. But even if what you want to destroy is the dungeon then why kill us?”

“This one is no good, it needs to be destroyed. As for the reason to kill all of you, think what would happen if you all die here and no one returned back to the guild.” He asked her.

“If we die here then the guild would send more adventurers to investigate. Ah!” and then the thought suddenly hit her.

‘But if they investigate then, won’t they also just destroy this dungeon. Because who would want to let a killer prosper in its own backyard, a monster spawn that could kill “B rankers’ Even though it was clearly a new born.’ When the thoughts hit her she felt a bit heartbroken.

“But, why does your master wants to involve our guild in this mess?”

It was getting out of hand. She really believed him. They really were just preparations; the real mission was something much more sinister and evil than she could even think about. She knew that whatever the reason to their supposed deaths was, Enco didn’t know it, but she still asked him and he also gave her the expected answer.

“That I don’t know. Well, everything has its cause and effect. The world doesn’t work on fairness and pride, but on money and politics. So, how would this weak me know about my masters genius. This is just one of the works that goes behind in the background, while others continue to live their lives, strangers to all of these.”

You all are dying for a greater cause, so don’t feel sad.”

“Why can’t you..”

What she saw asking him was that why can’t he destroy the core. This was not a question to him, but a cue to D’sue who was waiting for the right moment to attack.

“You see though the queen can’t see through my illusions, but the dungeon master can and if he starts controlling the queen, then won’t he be able to kill me. Huh… wait a minute!” His smile vanished and he shivered in fear and he saw a change occurring in Dust’s eyes.

Her eyes and his surroundings were quickly turning and were being colored in an orange glow.

Why had the time come for Dust?

Because Enco had made some very fatal mistakes in his calculations.

One, He didn’t knew that she could see through his illusions with the help of glasses that she was wearing.

Two, unlike he thought, D’sue was not dead.

Three, he didn’t know about her ant vision lenses and he also didn’t know that the queen could see through all the illusions. So, his so called illusions were not the reason why she was not attacking them.

And if what he said was really true and this cave really was a dungeon, then the core was also waiting for him to finish his explanations.

This means that their entire plan was based on whether the queen would attack him or not.

So, she was waiting, waiting for the queen to act and just as she did, D’sue gestured her about it and she nailed the question on Enco’s cowardly soul.

She had to prepare a lot for the plan to work and just to make sure that he wouldn’t be able to see the attack coming, she let him kick her to move her position on his own.

They were now positioned in a straight line. Dust was on the ground, Enco was in front of her. He was looking at her, but his back was facing the queen and the big rage monster was just some distance behind him, staring straight at his back.

Though she could not lift her head high enough to look at the queen but neither could Enco see her actions, because he had his eyes fixated on her.

But she was not alone. Why would she need to look at the queen herself when she had D’sue to do the part!

Her job that was to buy time was over. Now it was others time to act.

Why was the question needed to be asked?

It was asked to confuse him, to make a slight difference in his ability to think.

It is a proved truth that, a second of delay in making a decision and taking action could prove fatal in a life or death battle and to make his thought process slow was her intention.

When he moved his neck to look back, one of the light balls behind the queen exploded in a flash of light.

It created radiance so frightening that everything got covered in a white light.

It suddenly became so bright that Enco almost became blind cause of it, but the queen wasn’t affected like him and then her fireball finally reached him.

*Boooom*

It exploded and created a sea of fire just like the one that Martha’s poorly aimed attacked had created thought the effect of this single fire ball weren’t so drastic and dramatic.

The impact created no pressure waves just some vibrations, but it lightened the room dimming room exponentially.

But Enco was already gone from the place, by the time that fireball exploded on the ground.

What happened was that, though Martha’s flash bomb had created a brilliantly bright light inside the closed room, but it was only for a sec or two.

By the time the flash ended and the fireball reached Enco, he had already moved from his initial position.

His levels and Rank wasn’t for show after all. When his body noticed that he was in danger, it moved at the top speed that it could muster without any command from his brain and escaped the danger.

Human mind and muscle are more complicated than it is thought of them to be.

Sometime no matter how much one wants their body to move it doesn’t listen and refuses to do so, but sometimes, it moves on its own.

The thing is D’sue and dust both knew that Enco would be able to evade queen’s attack, and would use his fast movement speed to escape the fireball. Though the fireball was all very powerful, but it had nowhere near enough speed to hit him.

Enco moved, the light ball flash was already over, the reaction from queens attack was still going on so after moving at his top available speed he finally got out of its rang and got near the debris.

The plan to kill him was not ended yet, it was now in its second and final stage. Now everything was in D’sue hands.

He ran In D’sue direction because there was no other place to run for him. The destruction that Martha’s fireballs had created was not on a small scale. It had nearly destroyed the whole room.

There were big wide stones everywhere and some places even had part of the roof fallen down and where they were, was the only safe haven in the whole room. Moreover it was so because D’sue had used his skill to save them.

If he had started running without looking back then he could have run to the other side but he didn’t do that. Instead he looked back and so to save his life he had to move straight and it brought him in front of the debris where D’sue was waiting for him.

……………………………………………………….

After Gesturing Dust to look at the queen, D’sue got busy.

He vigorously looked everywhere to find Martha and when he found her she was already awake, but silently looking at Dust with her eyes swollen and red.

He somehow got her attention without Enco and was barely able to explain his plan to her.

Then he wiggled and waggled until his sack was set loose from his waist. Then he used his teeth to open it and drink one of the regeneration potions to improve his overall condition.

The potion worked and his extremely sorry state turned into at least bearable for him to move. He then drank four more of the same potions to get at least 40% of his power back, but left enough of them for Dust.

Then after drinking some mana and stamina potions he was ready.

‘Though I’m only at 40% of my normal condition but I think that it is enough to kill that son of bitch, after all it will be head on collision, moreover a surprise attack.’ He thought while looking at his once broken arms, which had already healed and only had some superficial wounds on it.

Then he looked at his sword that was still there right where he had buried it. He removed it from there and saw that the mana that he had inserted into it was still there.

When the queen was getting ready to move, he quickly gestured Dust, then he looked towards Martha and nodded.

When Enco looked back at the queen Martha wasted no time exploded one of the light balls.

The lights exploded Enco got blinded, but like he had thought, he ran away, and like they had prepared, he ran straight towards him.

………………………………………………

When the fireball exploded on the floor, he had started charging his sword with his mana.

He had tried to use the same skill before but he couldn’t use it at that time and his mana charged sword was left buried in the ground.

So now he made his already charged sword into an overly charged bomb. He emptied all of his mana inside it and waited for Enco to get close enough to him.

And just when Enco got near the debris area where he was, he unleashed his skill, ‘cross-slash’.

His sword broke and turned into dust. Well, it was bound to happen because he had not slightly, but massively over charged it with mana.

But he didn’t care; the skill had already left the sword and was it was moving extremely fast, faster than the fireballs and even faster than the assassin.

Enco who was running away from the fire, suddenly saw a blue colored cross slash coming towards him, but because of his movement and its speed, he couldn’t stop himself at time, neither could he evade it and directly collided with the beam like attack.

The ‘Cross-Slash’ touched him, cut him, and moved on. It didn’t stop even after passing through his body and after travelling some distance at hyper speed, it exploded after colliding with the wall behind him.

When D’sue saw that he knew that it was finally over the villain was dead and they could leave if the queen let them. He was going to move his body and walk toward Dust, but his feet stopped in the air in the middle of stepping forward.

He saw that the Enco’s body that was cut in four pieces by his skill was not falling down, but floating. It floated in air, slowly turning translucent and then completely vanished.

Sometime luck plays very important role in a life and death battle.

Just when the cross was about to collide with Enco’s body, his foot touched a shadow which was created from the fallen roof and queen’s fireball.

Enco then went with the flow, used shadow movement and he vanished from his place. The cross cut his after image, passed him by and made a huge impact on the wall.

D’sue mouth hanged, he had failed. He had expended all of his energy, his sword was broken, Martha was already unconscious because of high mana usage and Dust…

Enco was really scared; the one after another coordinated attack had given him heart attack after heart attack, but he had also become aware of his mistake, which was to not just kill everyone and be done with it.

‘Why did I not just kill her? Why did I not just kill that monkey? Why did I not check on that bimbo?’ He was regretting his decision of playing with them.

He wasn’t scared of the queen, he wasn’t scared of Martha’s mana burn, he wasn’t even cared of that brute and he definitely wasn’t scared of that no arm girl, but their team effort had almost ended his light.

Though he had just exited a death sentence, but he was again thinking of playing with them.

Like they say old habits die hard. He knew that, it was safe now because there was no one left to attack him anymore.

He had decided to make all of them pay for their crimes and had already decided their punishment, ‘I’m going to cut all of their limbs and then skin then alive slowly. Just you all wait and see.’

He felt safe, so he exited the shadow and…

*guck*

“Huh?”

He looked behind him and saw no one, he looked to his left and right still no one, then He looked down and saw a spike joined to the ground, extended straight to his chest, entering his heart and leaving from his back.

He lifted his head and saw a girl without any arms lying on the ground, but looking at him with a crazy smile on her face, clearly laughing at him.

He couldn’t speak properly because of blood that was climbing his throat and entering his mouth.

“I see” he said. His eyes turned red and veins bulged on his forehead.

How could he have thought that the girl who was nothing more than dead meat to him would end up taking his life, moreover using a simple spike? A spell that he could evade even with his eyes closed.

He kept on looking at her, and her smile slowly turned into laughter. It looked like they were having completion of who would die first, which he lost.

The light in his eyes dimmed and he died while looking at her smiling face, which was clearly mocking him.

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D’sue saw it happen with his own two eyes, but he still couldn’t believe it.

Enco had clearly gotten away, their plan had also clearly failed, but what happened next was excitement from out of the world.

He didn’t know how she pinpointed from where he would come out, but she did the impossible and the villain who didn’t die even from the collaborated effort of the queen and his super spell, died from a mere spike.

He moved, no he rushed, no he ran and ran until he got near Dust.

He couldn’t stop and crashed on the floor, but his excitement was too high for him to care about such small stuff.

He lifted the girl who had lost conscious, smiling while looking in devils eyes.

He lifted her head with his left hand, and placed it on his lap for support. He opened her mouth and started pouring health regeneration potion in her mouth, but she didn’t swallow and it soon flowed out.

He knew that the situation was dire and he need to take some drastic measures, if he wanted to save her.

So he chugged some of the regeneration potion, placed it in his mouth, and made her swallow it by giving her mouth to mouth.

He repeated the same procedure until he had poured two flasks worth of medicine into her body. Then he placed her head back on the floor took, out two more such flasks and directly poured them over her cut arms.

He knew that just lesser regeneration potions won’t be enough. She needed immediate help from a cleric or a healer.

The regeneration Potions did make her bleeding stop and her face also regained a bit of redness, but it didn’t mean that she was out of danger. She was still unconscious after all.

Even though he was doing all of this but he was still wary of the queen who was looking at him from where she was standing at.

He didn’t knew whether she would attack them or not, but he didn’t care and after finishing helping her he ran straight towards Martha, who was lying on the ground, unconscious.

He knew that she was not injured in any way. She and had only exhausted her mana reserves. So, he lifter her from the ground and started shaking her to wake her up, and after feeling some earthquake like vibrations she woke up and started screaming.

But then she saw D’sue and her screaming stopped, but instead tears started falling down from her eyes. She hugged him tightly and started crying.

After some time, when she finally stopped crying opened and her eyes, D’sue explained everything that happened after she exploded the light ball and had lost conscious.

Then he gave her a health and mana regeneration potion to help her regain some strength and looked back at Dust.

Then both of them returned to dust who was still unconscious, they lifted her up and were going to go out of the room, when the queen started moving again.

They were petrified, Martha really turned to stone and stopped breathing.

But unlike what they expected, she didn’t attack and instead returned to the dark corner of the room from where the dungeon core was.

Martha, who had stopped her breathing, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

D’sue lifted Dust up in a princess carry and carried her out of the room. When they reached the room exit, they looked back once. Feelings of excitement and eagerness flooded their bloodstream, but D’sue shakes his head once, before he started walking again.

He didn’t notice that when he had looked back inside the room from outside the cave, a small little friend of him was also looking at him from inside.

Then after walking in the darkness and travelling back on the same but a bit unknown path, they finally exited the dungeon.

After getting healthy again, the three of them formed a party and then started their journey to the future which they had yet to behold.

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Author's note, again:-

How the story changed after Neruz’s and blazingfrost’s comment:-

Before their comment; James aka. ‘The Swordsman’ aka ‘The Leader’ was setup to kill Roby aka ‘The wretched Archer’. Well, not because of his hate toward him but because of the evil seed that had bud inside of him.

Then they would have one sided wrecked the queen and he would have wanted to destroy the dungeon. Then D’sue would have come and acted righteous and stopped him.

Then them going back giving news about the dungeon being a insect type with a weak ass boss. Then they live happily ever after.

No, tension, no immediate villains, and no need for or Mc to get stronger in a hurry.

The characters would have never returned and our Mc would have remained poor.

What changed:- (Spoiler’s ahead tread with caution.)

The villain changed.

Hero became an illusion.

People died and made our dungeon rich.

We saw a great fight with the queen. (I think so atleast.)

The queen became op which I wanted to avoid, but I was able to bind her powers.

I made our hardheaded, muscled, brute knight, intelligent.

Now these characters will be back in no time.(I hope so.)

We have a New Great Mystery villain, who is against the whole world (sorry I exaggerated, a lot.)

And for me it has become a lot easier to keep the story going.

Now Rocky needs to get stronger and has a time limit to get there. So you all will go through a roller coaster ride with rocky.

New friends coming soon.

Clues that were given regarding the James and Enco:-

The table of ch-16.1 (I know, I know. No need to tell me again and again.)

James using speed to attack Roby, when swordsman are not know for speed.

Enco giving suggestions for all the decisions and James accepting them, all.

Their turn by turn talking. Like when James spoke Enco didn’t and vice-versa. Enco was silent the entire time James talked about how Roby died.

James using a dagger to attack the queen.

James not using any skill of a swordsman’s.

And I forgot the rest of them

If anyone could figure out who Enco’s boss is, then comment about it.

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Next I’ll upload a question answer session and a poll. So do read it if you have any doubts about the characters and their behavior.

And please do vote on the poll, but only after reading the thread. Cause it might change your opinion.

Thank you everyone. Now, this arc is officially finished. I think so.