Enjoy.

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Third person’s P.O.V:-

Beyond the prepossessing lake named jade and beyond the undying jungles of life lies a flourishing city where stands a magnificent and humbly beautiful palace of the biggest empire of the world.

For the last million years the palace has received the change of rulers without any problem. And even after the passage of such a long time there is still not any change that came to its position or to its ego that could denounce its beauty.

This palace, though is the oldest monument to date and it spans and covers 250 acres of land; making it the biggest yet the sturdiest palace of this world,

According to written glyph stored in the palace treasury, though the palace is big, but it only took one month for the workers to complete it at that time. It is also written in the documents that its construction which looks staggering to be completed in a single month was also done only by one single person who later became its first occupant.

And later when people started rushing towards it from everywhere and started building buildings near its vicinity, it turned that lone palace standing in the middle of nowhere into humanities first kingdom.

Then the population kept on increasing and the authority of the palace and its masters also increased until it swallowed the whole world.

While at first all the humans were joined under a single banner, but with the passage of time generations and times when the dispositions and struggles of kingdoms started disturbing the lives of some non working, sturdy but vicious humans, they decided to take control over the palace and kill the king.

Their revolution was mercilessly defeated, but because of their king’s kind nature instead of destroying the weed from its roots, the strugglers and bringer of chaos were only banished from the empire, and were banned from entering any of its kingdoms and villages.

These people travelled far and left the area under the rule of The Aryan empire, which to their astonishment had already covered the whole continent by that time.

In only one thousand years, countless new kingdoms came into existence and even more villages came to be and the count of people living under the banner of this empire became uncountable.

Though the passage of tens of millenniums was enough to dwindle the faith of people and the prowess of the once world renowned power. Now the power and authority of Aryan Empire is nowhere near to what it once used to be, but it is still standing. Though some of its land was forcibly reclaimed by the descendants of those weeds who had left the empire at the start of it all, but it still remains the biggest empire yet to date.

But with changing times the situation surrounding the empire and its power also changed and even the empire, which used to have no enemy started losing its bearing and footing to the greed of humans.

The king whose forefathers once used to rule upon the whole world now has authority over just 30% of the total population of the world.

&

Right now in the same luxurious but sturdy castle, created from the purest of the marbles and marveled with sculptures and Petro glyph which seems to be crafted by gods sits the current king Herman de Seiza, on a rocking chair in his personal room which is being dimly light from sunlight coming directly from the curtained, which are covering the whole kingdom from his view.

The king has a build large enough for him to be accidentally considered a brawler, but the aura and magnificence of a king can be easily felt from a gaze through his red eyes. Though he might not look like it, but behind his youthful appearance he holds the experience of forty years of adventuring and battles at the front line.

Though it seems uncanny for a king to greet danger face to face on his own, but he and his friend Arnold has done things what others might consider as having one foot in hell from the start of their adventuring years.

But after a long and fulfilling life consisting taking care of unruly bandits, horrible monsters, master plots and wars at the stage of empires and meetings with death itself; both of them finally settled. While one became the king to rule over the whole world, the other became his general of wartime, who is currently on a vacation.

But those times of endless fighting and continuous motion can be only mentioned as past glory as they hold no meaning to changing times and new generation.

Right now he is currently waiting for his personal aide to bring him the object which he was promised, while his red hair spike hairs are strongly holding the a beautifully crafted crown which is also glorifying his head in return.

He is anxious, because the holograph that he is holding states that once the blood line of the first ruler thins to the extremes, a change would come. And according to his knowledge he knows that if this continues then in only a generation or two the change and it would undoubtedly bring a disaster along with its, which might ruin their hundreds of years of prosperity and advancement.

So he is anxious and waiting, waiting for his aide to bring him the good news.

But his anxiousness lessened a little when like always at the corner of the room a shadow solidified and took the shape of a person. A man covered in black outfit from his head to toe walking out of the shadows, advanced towards him and bowed before the king in respect.

“Good morning, my liege. How are you today?”

“Everything is fine Meredith. Everything is fine, for now that is.”

“My liege, I have brought you news.”

Herman’s eyes opened wide with amazement and he hurriedly stood up while the script fell on the ground and the drink in his hand spilled on it. But due his excitement he didn’t give it a second look and spoke to Meredith.

“It’s finally here. Let me take a look at that artifact, that bracelet. Oh gods really are merciful~!”

He was blowing the beguiles of his happiness when he noticed his servant standing still without taking out the thing which was meant to be given to him and his face turned pale as his shouts of joys rang in the room.

He also noticed that he was behaving unusual for a king, so he controlled his ragged breathing and cheerful demeanor, but he also lost his temper and ended up speaking in a heavy voice.

“What happened? Give me the bracelet Meredith.” With every word his voice got heavier and louder and by the end of his sentence he was almost shouting at his aide.

But instead of bringing something or anything out and presenting it to his majesty, Meredith looked at the ground, his eyes full of shame as he said, “I’m sorry my liege, but something happened and we lost the artifact.”

He had lost the artifact, but his king lost his temper.

“Preposterous.” And the metal chalice which the king was holding was crushed and deformed out of shape.

“What happened? Tell me or I am going to hang you and all of your subordinates.”

When the guards standing outside the room heard such commotion coming from their king’s room they all hurriedly entered inside and when they saw a man in black outfit standing in front of their liege, they readied their weapons to strike him down, thinking that he was an enemy assassin.

But the king shouted at them in rage, “Get out! Who told you all imbeciles to come inside! Get out NOW!”

They couldn’t understand what really was happening, but seeing their benevolent and kind king showing such rage and anger they couldn’t help but have doubts about the situation and hesitated to move out of the room, but then the king whose red eyes had literally started burning with anger couldn’t control himself.

“You all really want to neglect your orders, My Orders?! Get out before I decide to kill you all!”

The soldiers stiffened from the pressure coming from their king as they all hurriedly left, leaving the men in black alone in the room with their king.

“I’m sorry my liege. It…”

The time it took for the soldiers to move out of the room was enough to calm the king down. He sighed, looking at the closing door and then stared at Meredith, who was still standing at the position.

“What happened? Tell me the whole story and don’t leave anything. We’ll decide what to do with you after hearing about the situation.”

“My liege, according to my subordinates, the person who was bringing the bracelet here while travelling via the barren and inhabited parts of devil Pass Mountains never arrived at the next checkpoint. He went MIA somewhere in the mountain ranges.”

“Do you mean to say he was abducted by our enemies or was he killed?”

“We are currently investigating the matter, but we still haven’t gotten any information or clue regarding his situation or position.”

“Find the reason, find him if he is alive or find the culprit for his death, but don’t come back before finding something that hints towards his or the package's whereabouts. Understood?”

“Yes, my liege.”

Meredith said that and bowed once again before he started walking towards the dark corner. He moved and the corner and he become one with the wall, as he vanished once again into the shadows.

The king didn’t give another look towards him, but looked out of his room; his sight travelling behind the curtains, beyond the balcony and towards the ominous mountains.

* * * * *

Meanwhile, back in the dungeon:-

Rocky’s P.O.V:-

“So, shall we start Minie?”

“Yes, please do.”

“But what are we going to buy? Have you thought about it?”

“I think with the amount of mana and credits we have, we should buy four or five ant workers for the digging of the second floor and then we’ll see what to do next. Does that sound Okay?”

“It sounds like a plan to me.”

That was me and Minie, and we were talking about what we should buy and how much we should spend on the workers.

I was going to open my dungeon interface to see if we had any new addition into our monsters now that I have leveled up, but I was stopped in the middle by a sudden red box which appeared out of nowhere.

[table=red]Warning!!

Intruders alert.[/table]

When I saw the box coming out of nowhere my reaction was explainable at best, and boring at the least.

“What again?”

“What kind of a reaction is that? What are we going to do?”

Minie panicked a little, but I spoke leisurely.

“Um… let’s first check what is here, I hope it’s not a human and if it is; I hope it is not a powerful one.”

“Yes, let’s check it out.”

Then she opened her side of the dungeon interface and fiddled with it until a video of some humans entering through the hole started playing in front of us.

One of them was already waiting at the starting tunnel and the others were currently hanging from a rope climbing down from the surface.

Though just till a day ago the entrance to the tunnel looked like the hole going straight to hell, but today it was glowing with blue light.

The mushrooms glowing near and surrounding everywhere around the pond were completely lighting the entrance in a beautiful, magnificent light, which actually made them look friendly.

“Hmm, aren’t they quite venerable if we attack them now?”

“Huh, actually, yes, they are. From the quality of their armor and the way they are getting down hanging from ropes and everything, oblivious to the danger that might be lurking inside; I think they are either complete amateurs or they just don’t know about this entrance being an entrance to a dungeon.”

Yes, she is right. If they knew that it was a dungeon moreover one which gave a ‘B rank’ party run for their money…

“Really, we did that?”

“Ahem… I think they know that this is a dungeon or do they? Should I go and stalk them. I mean, eavesdrop on their conversation. No, I mean…”

“Don’t worry, there are only two of us here and we both know each other very well, don’t we. So just go and do the stalking to your heart's content, but do come back before they completely traverse through the narrow tunnel, Okay.”

“Yeah, okay.”

So I shifted my presence and travelled through the walls till I was at the entrance of our dungeon, standing just over their heads.

While coming here I noticed that our buff ant had already finished the work on the first floor and it was now ready and waiting. Because I had not given it any other orders, it was waiting standstill at the second diversion of our cave.

I shook my head and attentively looked at the humans invading our home.

There were roughly five of them, no, four and a half?

“Haha~ What half? How can you count something living as a half? That right there is a dwarf, a dwarf~”

“Whoa, is he also a human? I didn’t know humans could be so small?”

“Well, that is what happens if you don’t eat your vegetables.”

“Huh, really?”

“Ha0ha, actually, no.”

“Okay, Now stop being funny, I am going to check their information.”

“Okay.”

Dungeon InterfaceStatusFloors, Monsters, Store,Creation,QuestsNameThe cave of MiseryTypeInsectFloors1Total no of Monsters2Rooms/floor7Total no of invaders5---Reserved Mana: (390/515)Dungeon(Floors/Rooms)200+50Monsters100Resources0upgrades0---Dungeon Currency1916ReputationGood (+138)DC Inc.0/dayMana Reg.20/hr-----FloorStatus/Monsters/store/creation/questFloor : 1InvadersHighest Rank/levelLowest Rank/levelClass50/590/24Bandits and Thieves

“Huh, small fry, moreover, thieves.”

“Minie, don’t say that. Well, actually, they are small fry.”

“Okay, so what should we do with them?”

“Um… let’s give them a chance. I think we should let them leave if they don’t have any malice towards us.”

By time we stopped our chatting they all had come down from the surface and were now standing in front of the narrow, long and now, not so dark tunnel.

“This place looks nice.” (Vice captain)

“Yes vice captain, boss will be happy with this.” (Underling A)

“We actually found such an amazing place to create our hidden headquarters at, moreover, this place is also completely away from the city and secluded. No we will ever be able to find us here.” (underling B)

“Yes, even these mushrooms look so beautiful and the pond water is also so clear.” (Underling C)

“I think it will be okay to make this hole as our territory.” (Vice captain)

“Should we inform boss, sir?”(underling B)

“Nah, let’s go deep before doing that. He was the one who sent us, so he knows we are here. He is coming in a day or two.” (VIcecaptain)

“Don’t tell me you lot don’t know what we are sent here for?”(Vice captain)

“T- To clean the hole, sir?” (Underling A)

“Yes, kill all the monsters before the boss comes here.” (Vice captain)

While they were talking the one in shorts who liked the mushrooms picked a handful of him and placed them in his pockets. Making his pockets glow beautifully.

But I didn’t notice. When I heard them say making my home as their headquarters my heart bumped and when their vice captain or whatever said to kill everything here I lost it.

Okay, let’s do it.”

“Vice captain shall I pluck some mushrooms too? Won’t they help us see in the darkness?” (Underling D)

Their vice captain, a tall but skinny man looked astonished by the intelligence of one of his men, even he hadn’t thought about such a great idea after all. He nodded his head in confirmation and all of them ferociously plucking the mushrooms, but no matter how many they pocketed it didn’t put any dent in the light or their cluster as there was already a lot of them to even count.

After doing the hard work of manually plucking mushrooms when he saw that everyone's pockets were glowning radiating blue light he stopped them and spoke, “oh! Stop now! This cave is already ours. What are you rats being so greedy for? Hurry up lets go.”

“~Osu~” they all collectively and enthusiastically shouted.

But to their bad luck, I had already made up my mind to not let them leave alive.

“Minie, send the buff worker and kill them all.”

“They want to take over our home! So let’s send them to hell!”

I went back to my room and slowly not hurriedly opened my monster chart to see if I had another option to swiftly take them out. I was also worried that our bodybuilder wouldn’t be enough to handle them all, as I didn’t want him to die.

By the time I had opened the chart, they were already exiting the narrow tunnel and were entering the small open room where normally an ant would have been waiting for them, but at that time we only had one worker and he was also not in that room.

The monster chart opened with a ding

Dungeon InterfaceMonstersStatus / Floors / Store/Creation/Quests---NameRankMana ReservedPriceAnt egg05Mp25DcAnt Worker010Mp50DcAnt caretaker025Mp75DcBuff Ant Worker(U)175Mp175DcAnt Soldier(UQ)?????????Ant Queen(S)3100Mp500DcBee Egg015Mp75DcBee Farmer020Mp100DcBee Worker160Mp300DcBee Queen(S)3350Mp1750DcNameless Soul10Mp, {Needs Greater Mana Stone}

+ ???0Dc---------LOCKED----------

My sight traveled till I saw that it was possible to buy the buff worker now, but after looking at his price I didn’t gave it much thought and hurriedly bought four ant workers for 200 Dc reserving 40 of my mana in the process. The numbers balanced and I grinned happily thinking about the onslaught which they would bring to those pesky humans.

Then I noticed something unusual on chart, but before I could clearly take a look at new information I was called by Minie who was ordering our buff worker to go demolish the humans, like it did with the rooms.

I also closed the interface and ordered the workers to go and show them the might of our dungeon.

The thing is though the workers bought from the system couldn’t evolve and everything, but they were still powerful enough to blow them low ranker's to smithereens. Because I saw that even the system bought workers had a minimum level of 50 while the best of them topped at 65, for now.