“What are you doing down here…?”

Quinn swings the torch around practically squealing at the sound of my voice.

Quinn: “Two-Twelve! Where did… How did you get here?”

“I can teleport remember… And we have been looking for you for hours.”

Quinn: “This place! I saw several monsters out there in the corridor… I saw a hairy beast, and a huge demon! This must be were the monsters are coming from, it is part of the dungeon!”

“I am assuming that hairy beast you are referring to was poor little Leveret, I sent him to come get you, but you started screaming and running. Gave the poor kid a heart attack…”

Quinn: “But the demon! The demon was real!”

“That’s impossible, this is a tunnel the dwarves built, there is nothing down here but you, me, and the shadows on the wall…”

Quinn: “I know what I saw!”

I move the shelf from blocking the door, Quinn tries to stop me from opening the door but I swing open the door to an empty corridor. I take one of the runic stones that hold the light spell and activate it liking the entire area around me, far better than Quinn’s torch.

“See, nothing out here…”

Quinn: “But it was right there!” –He says while pointing.-

“Running through the corridor scared, with only that little torch lighting your way, you probably just seen a shadow off those barrels there and your mind was playing tricks on you.”

Quinn: “I wasn’t scared!”

“You screamed loud enough to scare Leveret that he was shaking… It’s alright, being down here, by yourself, when those monsters are attacking the town, there is nothing wrong with being scared.”

Quinn: “But I didn’t just see it, I bumped into it, I felt it…”

“Not unless one of the orcs found its way down into this tunnel, but if that was the case he would have tried to get through that door. There is nothing down here. It is just a tunnel the dwarves built that connects Katie’s workshop under our house to the dwarves’ houses…”

Quinn: “But the weapons and armor, it is just like the monsters use up in the dungeon…”

“The dwarves make the items for Denova’s shop, for the soldiers in the fort, and we even send some back to the capital. As for them being like the ones up in the dungeon, I am sure that has to do with the way dungeons work. If you paid attention in Sofia’s class she would tell you that a dungeon’s overall strength is determined by the strength of the people and adventurers around it, so with the dwarves making all this equipment, it stands to reason the dungeon would produce similar items.”

Quinn: “Then why does nobody know about this place?”

“You know how much dwarven gear is worth, do you think it would be wise to have racks of weapons and armor of dwarven make just lying around? Besides the dwarves prefer working underground.”

Quinn: “None of this makes any sense… That demon I bumped into was real, I just know it…”

“Look, Tobes is under attack, and we don’t have time for this right now. Take my hand and I will take us back to the Mage’s Guild where it is safe.”

I offer out my hand, and Quinn is hesitant to take it, but one he finally does I transfer us to the Mage’s Guild.

Belinda: “Oh thank goodness, you found him!”

“He was hiding in the dwarven tunnels.” –I tell her with a serious expression.-

Quinn: “And there was a demon down there but Two-Twelve said I imagined it, but I know I didn’t. It has to be because of the dungeon, I just know it.”

Belinda: “Let’s just get you inside, and you can tell me about this demon…”

Quinn: “I’m not crazy!”

Leveret quickly appears causing Quinn to jump again, Leveret quickly apologies for scaring Quinn in the tunnel, but he has a worried look on his face and quickly turns back to me.

Leveret: “Master, we have a huge problem!”

“What is it?”

Leveret: “It would be easier if you just saw it yourself…” –He says nervously while twitching his nose.-

“You got this, Belinda?”

Belinda nods and tries to usher Quinn into the Mage’s Guild and he still seems quite shaken up.

Leveret: “Master, we have to hurry.”

“Alright.” –I say then we both transfer back to the dungeon core room.-

Once I arrive back in the dungeon core room, the other two trainee bunnies are in a panic, and after looking at the screens I can see why. We have been doing our best fighting off waves of monsters every half hour or so from alternating locations, but now…

The screens are full of monsters, it’s like the attack from the night before, except they are for all three locations we are trying to protect at one, and they are monsters of even higher rank then before. With this many monsters even holding one location would be difficult, but all three?

Not to mention they are hitting each location from multiple angles, so even if we were to abandon two locations we would still have to transfer everyone from the other locations to the one we are planning to protect, but there is no way we could transfer that many people quickly enough.

I don’t think even Dyson and Ceres could help the massive casualties that we are about to be facing…

Leveret: “Master… What do we do…?”

Lily: “We have to send monsters! It’s the only way to defend our dungeon!”

Levi: “It isn’t the dungeon, it’s the town… You want to send monsters into town? Are you crazy? Did you not hear anything Lilah taught us?”

I quickly look at the amount of xp we have… Summoning more humans or beastkin would be pointless at low level, and even summoning sentient demi-humans right now would be a waste because making them sentient just eats up more xp that we can’t afford right now.

“She is right… Monsters would be our best bet right now.”

Leveret: “There is no way it will go unnoticed by the humans.”

“It is either this, or we lose the town completely!”

I quickly open [Menu] to try to determine what to summon… If I summon anything like the monsters attacking already, it could cause quite a bit of confusion, so I need to summon something completely different.

I could summon some minotaurs, but we've already seen Quinn’s reaction to that, and we don’t need all the townsfolk freaking out like that. Maybe something more clearly associated with the dungeon… The boss-like monsters…

The hellhound or any shadow monster might be too frightening, but the others? In open battle, the crab would be too slow, get walked around, and not much use in this situation, and we have too much fire as it is, so the phoenix would definitely be a bad idea.

The earth dragons might be helpful, but I think it should be the griffons. Plenty of wide open space to fly around, and we could even use them to evacuate if necessary… I look at the griffon in [Menu] and look at the amount of xp we have again…

One or two just aren’t going to cut it, and even if I summon 5 to each location, we are talking just over half a million xp, that is all our xp reserves and even most of the emergency funds…. If this doesn’t work we could break down some of the dungeon’s inventory, but that would be time consuming.

“Levi, you go to Denova’s warehouses and tell our people there to watch for some of our monsters incoming. Leveret, you go to Belinda and tell her the same, and Lily you go to the market district. Once you tell our people about the monsters, get back here quick I am going to need all the help I can get trying to control all of them.”

As the trainee bunnies quickly transfer from the room I summon 15 griffons, I don’t really have time to get creative with their names, so I just number them 1-15 and split them into three groups, one for each spot I want them to defend.

As the trainee bunnies start returning I use [Menu] to equip myself in my armor.

Lily: “Master, what are you doing?”

“I am of no use to you here. You three were summoned for the task of controlling far more than just 5 monsters each. You add Lilah’s training on top of that, and I will just be in the way.”

Leveret: “But if you go down there and something happens to you…”

“Don’t worry. I will make sure to transfer out if things get too rough, but I can’t just be sitting on my hands here.”

Levi: “We haven’t controlled monsters in an actual battle yet…”

“The griffons should be more than enough to deal with the types of monsters attacking right now, so the trick is to make sure you don’t accidently hit any of the townsfolk. If anything changes just come get me and we will deal with it when the time comes.”

Lily: “Lilah is going to be so mad at us…”

I pat the trainee bunnies on the head, pick up Rory to give her a kiss on the forehead before setting her back down to play with her plush toys, and after reassuring the trainee bunnies that they got this I transfer from the room down to the Mage’s Guild.

I arrive to see everyone fighting off the hordes of monsters, Belinda isn’t exactly struggling, but she has her hands full fighting off several monsters at once. I pull out my sword and rush to her side to give her a hand.

Belinda: “Two-Twelve, why are… What are you doing here?”

“I can’t let my wife do all my fighting for me.”

Belinda: “But if something happens to you…”

“Have a little faith in me.”

Belinda: “Leveret told me you were sending monsters from the dungeon, what about them?”

“They are in good hands. Now, let's save our town!” –I say, then cast a spell and blast several orcs into pieces of shrapnel that shred the ones coming behind them, buying us a bit of time.-

It is then that the griffons arrive on the scene with a thunderous choir of cries that causes several of the adventurers and mages to clutch their weapons as they either fall on their asses or get ready to flee, but then they dive down and begin decimating the orcs and ogres.

A griffon's dive... I've definitively been hamstringing the one in the dungeon with that small a room to fight in. An orc gets turned into red mist by the sheer strength of the griffon tearing through its body on its path to reach the ground, and then the griffon seems to 'bounce' from its landing spot with a grace belittling its size, pushing with the strength of its hind legs and wings to pounce into a nearby ogre.

The other griffons' work has similarly spectacular results, with swiping claws, buffeting wings, and flesh tearing beaks. I am sure it is one thing to see a body that has been cut down by a sword, but this has a completely different aftermath.

Orc and ogre bodies... no, orc and ogre chunks and bits lay scattered about. I am sure an eagle would tear our eyes and face flesh, but a bird orders of magnitude larger and weighting half a ton? Flesh has been gouged, and the larger ogre bodies are left with chasms almost half a foot deep running from throat to groin, while orc arms and legs lay down on blood-soaked dirt, the bodies they were connected to having vanished, just vanished, and almost everybody still recognizable as such is lacking its head, as the griffons seem to have a taste for them.

All of that in two seconds. The lead griffon pauses, lifts its head to inhale, and then lets out a cry-like roar at its opponents. Dungeon monsters should have no concept of fear or self-preservation, but I could swear the orcs stiffened as the griffons begin advancing upon them.

A gnome wearing an angry mask calls out while waving a short sword as if it was a two-handed blade: “Baba ga dungeon helps to save babas!”

The adventurers and mages stare in confusion for a few more seconds, but as the griffons jump forth and orc chunks start flying in every direction, they warily return to their senses. It may be too much to ask of them (and I'd rather not test the bunnies fine control of the griffons yet) to stand and fight side by side with their sudden reinforcements, but they quickly begin to gang up on any stragglers the griffons may have missed, and both spells and arrows start flying forth in long arcs to hit the monsters further in the back.

The addition of the griffons makes a huge difference in the battle. They are meant to take on entire adventurer groups by themselves, after all, and under the wide open sky, they are able to run up houses and leap into the sky whenever they get crowded, allowing them to dive back down and pulverize whatever foe was giving them trouble just a moment ago.

We have on our side those like Roc, Isi, the fairies from the dungeon, and even Sigrun, but there are just enough magic casters and ranged attackers amongst the enemies that whenever they do take flight, it isn’t for any extended length of time.

The griffons on the other hand are sturdy and fast enough that they are able to either shrug off or dodge most of the attacks, but as one of them dives through a fireball fast enough to have it explode behind it. I can't help but worry about healing them once damage starts piling up.

The sun's position betrays our perception of time, as the shadows' length tells us it’s still the early afternoon. The monster bits (can't really call them corpses anymore) are starting to stack up high enough that incoming monster waves need to push through impromptu walls of flesh in order to get close to us.

That isn’t to say we aren't taking losses as well. With every new wave, we lose a few more adventurers and mages, and I've even lost some of my monsters as well, mainly amongst the demi-humans. The remaining gnomes retreat into the Mage’s Guild, because what few left of them there are just can’t keep up any more.

I don’t know how the other two groups are faring, but the monster waves have become extensive enough we only rarely catch sight of the griffons every now and then anymore, swooping through the air in the distance, and the trainee bunnies haven’t come to get me, so they must be holding on like we are.

Most of our xp gathering groups are at the market district, and although the group leaders are quite strong, the newest members are only as strong as the mages and adventurers here, so I'm quite worried about them. That isn’t even mentioning Denova’s warehouses… That group consists almost completely of adventurers and mages, so I hope Lylah is alright.

Things then take a turn for the worse. I don’t know if it is in response to the griffons or if it was planned this way from the start, but as the newest wave begins to approach, several people point at enemies in the air…

As if the ogres in wasn’t bad enough, the sky is now dotted with harpies and giant bats. Even some dragonkin have made an appearance. Though they are no stronger than the ones I could summon, dragonkin are exceedingly rare, so for the failed cores to be able to find someone to produce them is quite troubling.

A griffon flies overhead, swarmed by a clamor of harpies that part and surround it whenever it tries to stop, hover and fight. They rake and tear at its rear end, dealing small but numerous wounds each time it swipes and tears one of them apart. The spectacle is somehow reminiscing of a swarm of ants taking down a beetle, and just as sad to watch, the massive boss monster being whittled down bit by bit.

“The griffons are really taking a beating now… It just isn’t enough…”

Belinda: “What else can we do?”

“It doesn’t matter if we killed them or not, every monster, adventurer, and mage that has died within the edges of the dungeon provided xp to it. With the strength of those that are falling now, we should have recovered quite a bit of xp already. I am going to get us some reinforcements.”

I transfer back to the dungeon core room, and the trainee bunnies are glued to the screens doing their best. I haven’t seen how the other groups are doing since I went to fight myself, so I look over the screens…

Things where getting rough, but I thought we were doing better, but one look at the screens shows me that it is worse than I feared.

The market district had most of my boss monsters in addition to the xp gathering groups so they should have been in better shape than the Mage’s Guild, but they seem to be getting hit twice as hard. They've already lost two griffons, and from the chaos on the screens I can’t be certain, but it looks like even if they fight off the monsters, we may still lose the district.

Denova’s warehouses are in even worse shape. They look to be getting hit with the least amount of monsters, but they've lost all but one of the griffons already, and there can’t be more than a dozen or so people left defending the area.

“The other districts are lost… Go down there and tell them to fall back to the Mage’s Guild. Have them transfer as many people as they can, and I will do what I should have done from the start. It may be hard to explain once the battle is over, but I don’t see any other way.”

Leveret: “What are you going to do, Master?” –He says while the other two transfer down into town.-

“Once the other two return I want all three of you focusing on transferring as much of the merchants and Denova’s supplies into the dungeon inventory as possible. By the time you are done with that, we'll hopefully have some new monsters to help save what little of Tobes is left.”

Bless hasn’t made any attempts since she has arrived here, but with the collar blocking her magic that Dyson put on her, and being locked in a room with no doors it isn’t like she could do anything anyway.

We got some useful information from her, and the failed cores haven’t even made an attempt on the dungeon, but I can’t risk this attack being an attempt to rescue her.

The failed cores’ item will prevent her name from being displayed everywhere, but they should at least learn of her death, so seeing no other option I transfer down to her holding room.

Bless: “Some host you turned out to be, do you know how many days I have been locked in here without so much as word from you. Especially after I gave you so much help!”

“Your “help” just led us into another trap, which I am sure you knew about, but Tobes is under attack. I can’t risk you getting free and causing even more havoc than has already happened…”

Bless: “So you are what? Going to grow a pair and try to kill me? My magic may still be blocked, but come at me and see if you think you are strong enough!”

“There is too much at risk right now, and it may be cowardly, but… I’m sorry!”

Bless was right, and there is a chance she could overpower me even with the collar. Bless is a fire dungeon core, so I cast the strongest water spell I know to try to make it quick, but our level differences are so great that the screaming echoes in my ears long after Bless is dead…

I receive the message about Bless’s death at my hands and I can’t help feel sick to my stomach. I know she was one of the traitors, but after everything she has been through I don’t know if death was a justifiable punishment.

The room was closed off from the rest of the dungeon so the dungeon doesn’t receive any xp, but my [Heroic] skill increases by 1 rank, and I myself receive a pretty substantial boost in xp causing me to not only gain a level but reach well into the next level as well.

Once I return to the dungeon core room the trainee bunnies are avoiding eye contact with me while following my instructions about the supplies, I look at [Menu]. The amount of xp we have takin in, even with all the monsters, adventurers, and mages that have died, is far less than I thought it would be.

No matter how I try to figure it up in my head, the amount of xp is far less then we should have recovered just from the monsters at the Mage’s Guild, much less the other two locations as well. For some reason we are not acquiring all the xp we should, if we are acquiring any at all…

The griffons already dealt a huge blow to our xp reserves, maybe I should of connected Bless’s room to the dungeon before killing her, but I couldn’t risk her escaping… With these meager earnings, it won’t even make up for replacing the griffons… But there is another option. There are plenty of monsters in the dungeon that aren’t rift monsters, but if I sent them out and the dungeon is attacked. It would basically just be the labyrinths and traps keeping the intruders from killing me.

The question is: Do we put the dungeon at more of a risk to save the townspeople? Saving them is important by itself, but there is also my daily income of xp to consider. I am sure it has already been dealt a major blow due to the amount of townsfolk that have died so far, so we literally can’t afford to lose any more of them.

The confusion between the intruder’s monsters and our own is going to become a huge risk, but I just don’t see any way around that. If we had the time we could perhaps give them each an identifiable marker like a colorful cloth bracelet or such, but there is none, and there is always the chance the intruders would copy it at well.

Most of these monsters won’t ever leave the dungeon itself, but to be on the safe side I give each of them a number as a name before sending them down to Tobes by the dozens.

347… The last of the dungeon's non-rift monsters to transfer into Tobes, ends up with the name 347. Hard to believe there are that many non-rift monsters in the dungeon. I am sure there will be a lot less before this is all over though.

Lily: “Master, we can’t control this many monsters at once!”

“They all have an order to not hurt the townsfolk, so just control as many of them as you can and the others will just fight like normal monsters.”

Levi: “But that will make them so much weaker…”

“We don’t have a choice. I am going to go back down there and make sure the humans don’t start panicking when all the new monsters start showing up, if anything changes, let me know.”

I transfer back down to the Mage’s Guild, and things are starting to look a bit better here. Trying to defend three locations was a dumb move from the start, I could have saved a lot more of the supplies, and protected a far greater amount of lives if I did it this way from the start, without worrying about how it would look to the townspeople.

“Everyone take caution on what you are attacking, I teleported to get a better vantage point and saw a large group of monsters exiting the dungeon and attacking the invaders. If they are like the griffons, we may have more help on the way, so make sure whatever it is you are attacking is an enemy, because if they are the dungeon's, we don’t want to anger it…”

Indeed, my dungeon's monsters start walking in from the opposite direction of the invaders. The crab, which is the largest of the boss-like monsters is... surprisingly imposing. It stands up low (relative to size), and easily spins in place whenever it gets swarmed, its massive left claw smashing flesh, bone and buildings alike, reducing it to a bloody, redish rubble its legs have no issue walking over.

A harpy clamor swoops down on it, but it just shrinks its eye stalks back into its shell and covers them with its smaller claw, then proceeds to magnificently ignore them as it keeps doing its own thing.

The enemy orcs are, likewise, mostly ignored as it focuses on anything ogre-sized or larger, using its massive claw to smack them down, causing a splattering of blood, bile and bits to splash in every direction each time it pulverizes a thing. Without the bunnies control, it only seems to have the two attacks, though, smacking and spinning, but that seems to be enough to turn it into a massive headache for the invaders.

The minotaur, that I armed with the mythril armor from one of Hecate's companions had, is either swinging its axe in large sweeps, or head-butting things large enough to have a large time dodging, but the sheer weight of numbers is giving it a much harder time than the crab's. It isn't large enough to just ignore the orcs and ogres, and so it has a much larger number of actual foes to deal with.

All too soon, though, it runs out of orcs. A victim of its own success, it is now surrounded by nothing but ogres and trolls, and while its armor may not dent from their blows, it still feels the impact, and is quickly overrun.

Most of the shadow monsters stay closer to the back, attacking the enemy monsters as they enter town, in a effort to not scare the townspeople, but unlike the other boss-like monsters I have a surprised number of hellhounds, so they have been spotted on occasion.

The imps and mephitis are also seen joining the other flying creatures of the dungeon are giving the harpies and bats a taste of their own medicine, swarming them while cackling and tearing at them from all directions... I guess bigger isn't necessarily better, after all.

The crab would disagree, though. It just grabbed a troll by the head, and squeezed. I almost feel bad for the troll, as it managed to raise its arms to try and protect its head, all it got for its troubles was its arms pinned and crushed in place.

When I was with Listel we made short work of the crab we faced, but we used strong shadow magic negating most of its armored shell. The invaders however, keep attacking it with axes, claws, swords, and spears, none of which do much more than slide off its shell.

It is almost hypnotizing to see the crab skitter along from foe to foe, but its story is just one amongst 347, and I can't waste focus on it.

Hours go by, but there is no reprieve to the monster waves, and there isn’t anyone that isn’t at least mildly injured in some way. Our magic is starting to get pretty scarce, so we are trying to use it as a last resort only.

The monsters I pulled from the dungeon either waddled into the enemy and disappeared, like the crab, or died, and I don't have the time to look for them. Low-tier flying aberrations have replaced the drakes that replaced the harpies, and the sky belongs to the enemy now.

Uh, I think I'd like to try a floor themed around those things, if my dungeon survives, but it has been 24 hours now since the first attack yesterday evening, and even though Tobes was built quite quickly, that speed was nothing compared to how quickly it fell…

“Belinda, I connected a tunnel to the dungeon that connects to the Mage’s Guild. It will lead you outside of Tobes and into the forest. Start taking all the townsfolk into it as you can, and get them to safety. Once that is done, go get Rory and unbind any sentient monsters still bound to the dungeon. Take them to your father's…”

Belinda: “I’m not leaving you to die!”

“Tobes is gone, and with it gone I will no longer be able to sustain my dungeon anymore. You and the town are just collateral damage, the one they want is me, and if you go now, you should be able to make it.”

Belinda: “I refuse! I am not leaving you!”

“Our daughter needs you!”

Belinda: “And I need you!”

“You knew the risks of falling in love with me… I was hoping we'd get to spend many years together, but we have a child, and she needs you now more than I do.”

Belinda: “They haven’t even tried attacking the dungeon yet. Who cares if Tobes has fallen, we can reduce the dungeons size so the consumption is more manageable, but don’t just give up!”

“I don’t plan on giving up… But I need to know you and Rory are safe.”

Belinda grabs and kisses me.

Belinda: “I will get Rory safely to my father’s, because that is what I promised you this morning, but I will not leave you behind, so once she is safe, I am coming back!” - she kisses me again, and heads into the Mage’s Guild.

“Everyone fall back into the Mage’s Guild, we are evacuating Tobes!”

The few people that are left head into the Mage’s Guild behind Belinda, but Lilah comes over to me, instead.

“You too.”

Lilah: “Lilah’s place is with Master.”

Zoey: “She is right boss!” –She says walking up as well.-

“No, you and Roxy have Wolfic, you have both done more than your fair share.”

Roxy: “And we owe that all to you, Belinda will make sure he is safe.”

“Don’t make me use an ultimate command…”

Sofia taps Roxy on the shoulder. “You two go, Lilah and I will take care of Two-Twelve.”

Poppy: “Our group has decided that we are staying as well. There is no place for demi-humans unless it is with Master.”

By the time the townsfolk begin evacuating through the tunnel I made under the Mage’s Guild I am left with Poppy’s entire group (Poppy, Lynx, Reti, Orino, Isi, and Nyxia), Iris (the only one remaining from her group), what’s left of Kit’s group (Kit, Suzie, and Karina, the river otter beastkin sorceress), Katie (All of Bandy’s group survived, but all of them except Katie evacuated with the townsfolk.), then of course Lilah, Sofia, and Bell.

Azami, Moss, Lala and Lele didn’t evacuate either, because they haven’t been seen since they exited the dungeon and started looking for the location the monsters are coming from, so I don’t even know if they are alive or not.

“It looks like this is it… We will buy them as much time as possible, if you become injured and can no longer fight, transfer as far as you can and at least try to get out of here alive.”

Sofia: “You heard Two-Twelve, no holding back!”

There is no way we can hold off all these monsters with under 20 people, but we have to keep them from the evacuation tunnel for as long as we can. I don’t know if we have any of the dungeon monsters left, but I start casting large area spells to try and slow down the monster waves by collapsing the buildings in their path.

Uh, what do you know, the crab is still going...