I was surrounded by fools. The only reason I came to this dungeon was because I owe the Adventurer’s guild a favour.

Having to suffer the infantile antics of that nobleman set my teeth on edge. If I could make it look like an accident, he wouldn’t be going back to the city…

And what were they arguing about? This argument had raged on for the greater part of a day. Do they not understand what an orb of corruption does?

These mages… the strongest amongst them was only Rank D. Most were Rank E or even F. Of course the big mage guilds didn’t send their strongest, they wanted to check whether the rumour was right. As if they should ever doubt the adventurer’s guild.

I reported back to the adventurer’s guild using a magic mirror tool that was linked through resonance with one the guild leader held.

I told him about the shadowmancers, as well as the discovery of the 3 different tribes that lived there… then with a more guilty tone I told him that an orb of corruption had been used.

‘An orb of corruption? They really spared no expense did they? *sigh* What can we do now? That dungeon is as good as lost. Why don’t you head back to the city?’

‘I will, but during the course of the events, one of our adventurers was saved by the tribes that had been living in the dungeon. She went with them because we can’t tell if any of the remaining mages are shadowmancers as well…’

Starla was with them, and the meeting was going to be tomorrow. They haven’t taken her hostage… she went with them voluntarily.

I frowned. I’ll see again when I meet them. I don’t believe she would leave the city to live with dungeon folk, as long as we can guarantee her safety she’d be willing to come back with us… the problem was… how? Shadowmancers can hide their puppets in plain view. They are the pinnacle of deception, using their puppets memories and mannerisms to fool those closest to them while the puppets had been living. Only inexperienced shadowmancers would be caught, and usually because their shadows moved a little differently than the bodies. It took a keen observation to see this…

And they were notorious for not forgiving those who crossed them.

The mages outside my tent were still arguing. After the matter of the corruption hitting the dungeon, the mages had split into 3 groups. One group wanted to go capture the corrupted dungeon crystal. What utter fools, did they think an Orb of Corruption would be given to a novice? That was a high ranking shadowmancer. Besides, what use was a corrupted dungeon crystal? They probably fooled themselves into thinking they can purify it.

Another group wanted to track down the dungeon folk that had disappeared into the forest. That or lay an ambush for them when they showed up for the meeting. I narrowed my brow. My guess was that group was led by the nobleman. Gods above I hated all those nobles. Crooked, vapid, idiotic and a danger to their allies more so than their foes.

The last group… they were already leaving back to the city. A 3 week long trek here and another 3 week long trek back, they had bitter smiles on their faces as they made their way back. They were the smarter of the three groups, they were cutting their losses and leaving. Unlike the other two groups.

I sighed. This mission was a failure. I was supposed to secure the dungeon as a training ground for the adventurer’s guild, while also letting the mages use it for a small fee. It was a treasure trove for us… but to think they sent a high ranking shadowmancer.

In fact, I had posted a guard in from of the dungeon and didn’t allow anyone inside. Only two fates became of a corrupted dungeon crystal. Either the crystal would shatter, or all the creatures inside it would go mad and charge outside and attack anything around the dungeon.

Orbs of Corruption were rare and expensive… they weren’t just used to attack dungeons of course. Their main usage was to power those who were aligned with corruption. Their second usage was to attack mana sources.

So… why did they use one of a new dungeon? Regardless of the specialty of the dungeon, using an orb of corruption was killing a rat with a greatsword.

I recognized that itch at the back of my mind. Why did they use an expensive artifact like this? I was missing something…

They… weren’t trying to destroy the dungeon? That didn't make sense... That's the only thing that would happen once it was used.

I went cold. What were they trying to do then?

I thought furiously. What did they accomplish here…

More than 100 mages and adventurers left the city to come here.

I came here.

Something... to draw people away from the city?

I stilled my anxiety. It just paranoia.

It’s true that I am the strongest adventurer in the city but there were many others that were strong. And the king had his personal guard as well.

I just couldn’t shake the uneasy feeling that I was being led around like a puppet… controlled by the shadows.

‘Well fuck.’

This was the general consensus among all of us… the fuck are we supposed to do with a dungeon that only had 2 rooms?! They aren’t even big rooms! You could sneeze from the entrance and your snot would hit the dungeon crystal! AAHHHH I was so mad!

‘That piece of shit really did a number on us didn’t he?’

The inside of the dungeon crystal was over flowing with people right now… I could feel a bit of strain keeping them inside. I would have to release them out soon… but where the hell are they going to go? Outside the dungeon are the adventurers and mages. I don’t even want to think about how they’ll react if more than 8000 dungeon folk came bursting out of the dungeon.

Oh 8000? Did I mention that? All the shadowspawn… and the golems… they were in a dungeon contract with the dungeon crystal the shadowmancer was using right… and it turns out that after a dungeon master’s duel, when he dies, everything he owns now belongs to the one who defeated him, that turns out to be me. And all the special abilities of his dungeon also get transferred to me as well.

The mana ability [Create Corrupted Creature] has been unlocked

This ability will disappear if corruption reaches 0%

The corruption of your dungeon will increase

The soul ability [Corrupt Creature] has been unlocked

This ability will disappear if corruption reaches 0%

The corruption of your dungeon will increase

There was three, the first two were useless. But the third…

The unique dungeon ability [Wanderer] has been unlocked

This ability will disappear if corruption reaches 0%

Wanderer (Dungeon Ability) Lv Max Mastered

After corruption, the binding that ties a dungeon crystal to its dungeon crystal room weakens

You are now able to take the dungeon crystal outside the dungeon

However you lose connection with everything that was within the dungeon

Once the dungeon crystal leaves the dungeon, everything in the dungeon will be destroyed

All dependent creatures will be destroyed

This was… how the shadowmancer could move his dungeon crystal around! Every dungeon will have unique abilities, although this one was quite strange.

The problem was the corruption.

Corruption of the dungeon: 1%

I didn’t know how to get rid of it. At first I thought it would be healed like the rest of the corruption had been through holy spells but this last 1% refused to leave…

Of course the dungeon abilities required that corruption and would disappear if it was removed. The other problem was all the corrupted shadowspawn that fell under my control. I could feel their presence… maybe that’s why the corruption wouldn’t clear. I needed to get rid of all the corrupted beings now in my dungeon…

This was a problem for another day. I had more pressing issues at hand.

First, the skill [Wanderer]. It allowed the dungeon crystal to leave a dungeon, although the dungeon would die behind it. But… well, for me? What dungeon? It was destroyed, completely and utterly. All the hundreds of thousands of mana I had put into it were used up to fight. And now I had more than 8000 inhabitants, more than 8000 shadowspawn.

Actually that brought its own problem…

But the skill also opened up an option, the ability to basically… flee.

This was vastly important… especially right now with the mages camped outside. The beginnings of an idea started growing in my head.

‘Everyone gather round. We need to figure out what we’re going to do…’

The upper circle came to gather around me. Max, Levine, Tolk and Eva were in charge of the groups from the dungeon.

From the huge group of summons crowding out the dungeon crystal, a mage, a warrior and a priestess had been selected as their representatives.

The mage looked human, but he was an elemental. If you looked in his eyes, you could see brief flashes, as if a fire had was burning inside them. He was quite interested in Eva, as a being who has such an aptitude for the fire elements, he could of course sense it coming from her.

The warrior was a Drakin, one of the races that claimed to be descended from Dragons. Which dragon group he belong to wasn’t easy to figure out, his body was covered in scales that were a dark green in colour but with no indication of what tribe he was from.

Lastly, the priest was a sprite… she looked more druid than priestess but she was of the following of Gaia, who was of the Pantheon of Purity so she had no problems with us.

There was one more in our group.

Starla… what do we do with Starla? She had fought with us inside the dungeon battlefield, despite her injuries. She had signed a contract with me.

On the other hand, she knew secrets about the dungeon that I wasn’t willing to divulge… and I would like her to join us properly in the dungeon but I couldn’t force her. That would be counterproductive.

‘Ok guys, we have a few issues to deal with here.’

I looked around. Everyone was sitting in a circle… on the floor… *sigh* we didn’t even have tables or chairs! I had absorbed everything I was capable of… this was so sad.

‘Our dungeon… is now only 2 rooms… I had to absorb everything in the last fight. I’ll be honest with you, we were lucky in winning that. That shadowmancer underestimated us… and even then he brought an army of 10 000. He knew a lot more about dungeons than we did! During the battle, he blocked us from unlocking stronger monsters. He attacked me the dungeon master with a soul attack first to keep me out of the fight… he did everything almost perfectly.’

‘This is the enemy that we are dealing with… and I am confident in saying this. By killing him… it’s like a declaration.’

‘Whoever is behind him will be suspicious at his death.’

I didn't believe he was working alone. All the preperation that would have been needed just to gather all the orbs he use in the fight was proof enough for me.

‘So we have to figure out what to do.’

In my mind I had three plans.

One, we use Starla to negotiate with the adventurers to become allies.

Two, we flee. We could find another place that to set up the dungeon again. In fact this would be the ideal time to do so since we basically had nothing to lose for moving.

Three? We wipe out the adventurer group. We had more than enough people to kill them all.

‘I have 3 plans for us. I want to know what you guys think, because this will concern all of us.’

‘Starla was part of the adventurers that are currently guarding our dungeon as we speak. She fought alongside us in the dungeon battle. My first plan involves asking her to help us negotiate with the adventurers. The mages seem hostile to us, thus this is a risky plan. And we risk exposing the nature of this dungeon.’

Rox answered me, ‘I don’t like this plan. Those mages obviously want to take our dungeon and our dungeon crystal away from us. If they discover that the Orb of Corruption failed, they’ll attack in droves. Anything that increases that risk, I don’t favour.’

I knew this would be Rox's opinion and in fact I agreed with her. I looked towards Starla to see what she would say.

Starla looked down before quietly speaking, ‘I can’t speak for the mages… I am myself a witch, a spirit magic user, not a traditional magic spell user. I am part of the adventurer’s guild. There is no witches guild in the city, and there is a reason for that. The mages hold a lot of power in the city and that is due to their skills and abilities. However, mages don’t like us witches. When they use their skills, they need some time to concentrate their mana before launching their spells… however as a witch, I keep mana spirits around me at all times. So for me launching a skill using them takes no preparation time.’

To demonstrate she looked up. A mote of light dancing around her enlarged to become a small bird shaped sprite… which rapidly formed into an icicle. She made the icicle dance around in the air in front of her before making it dissipate.

‘The reason I tell you that, is because they do not tolerate other magics well… they don’t even tolerate each other well. And… Eva… Eva’s group already showed themselves capable of magic in front of them. I don’t… I think…’

She took a deep breath.

‘Even if we ally with the adventurer’s guild… I… I think I agree with miss Rox…’

We. She was putting herself together with the dungeon folk now. I looked thoughtfully at her. She was not welcomed by the other magic users in the city. An outcast…

‘Well, I guess that plan will have to be at the back of the list. Max I know you said you would meet up with them tomorrow. We will still do that… but we need to make some contingencies… I don’t trust them at all.’

‘Right, the second plan… is to… run away.’

The dungeon folk looked at me confused. How can a dungeon… run away?

‘Yes I didn’t misspeak, did you guys not wonder why the shadowmancer could move around with a dungeon crystal while not being in his own dungeon? He had a special ability to move the dungeon crystal outside the crystal room! So what does this mean? We can leave! We can run and set up the dungeon somewhere else. We lost everything in the attack anyway so leaving it all behind isn’t a problem.’

‘Before you guys talk let me bring up the last plan.’

I turned to look at Starla.

‘Starla, I know you are one of the adventurers… but what I will say might not be pleasant for you to hear.’

‘The last plan I have is to wipe out the adventurers. After that? We’ll probably have to flee as well.’

‘So the decision remains… do we flee, trying to sneak by the adventurers and mages outside our dungeon entrance? Or do we kill them all before running.’

Starla looked stricken. I didn’t want to do this to her but this matter concerned the survival of the dungeon as a whole.

If we killed the mages, we could pretend it was the effects of the corruption and that we had died in mutual destruction. Not even the Rank B swordswoman can fight off an army by herself. However the risk was that they would send teams to investigate and they might accidently discover our new dungeon location. Also... if one of them escapes...

If we snuck away, we risked being tracked by them… but they wouldn’t think that the dungeon was moving. Later on when they explore the cave again, they would discover us gone, hopefully coming to the conclusion that the dungeon had perished.

Two plans.

We discussed what to do all through the night. We still hadn’t reached a consensus by the next morning. Starla was of course against killing the adventurers, although she really couldn’t care less about the mages.

Rox wanted to wipe them out, but she was willing to admit that could increase the danger to us. Especially if the adventurer’s guild suspected some strong entity in the forest killing everyone and sent in an elite team to investigate.

It had almost reached the time when negotiations were to start.