V3 Chapter 52

The Princess Expedition Group used one week for preparation.

Now that they finally have a real goal, a destination where their mission finally leads to. They didn’t waste any more time, and hurriedly prepared everything needed to be prepared.

They reinforced their camp and made dozens of forceful reconnaissance. They wiped out all other enemies they could find so that the entire surrounding would be clear from any danger and obstruction. They did their best to replenish their perishables as soon as possible and headed towards the battlefield—the Dungeon.

Leticia felt her breathing become shallow and took a deep breath.

The scenery in front of her was no different from last week.

The dark Ogre Lair has been conquered, though many monsters had escaped, and was surely going to come back for revenge. But they had no choice but to make a stand here, and defend. Until they conquered the Dungeon and take back the Holy Sword, they cannot leave the area.

Fortunately, the preparations proceeded smoothly.

The Ogres didn’t appear for quite a while, and everything was able to be prepared immediately. As the royal knights of the Kingdom, each and every one of them owned several weight reduction containers known as magic bags.

Bringing along perishables and equipment needed for this kind of important expedition was common knowledge.

With the blood of the Heroes running in their veins, she, along with the descendants of the 12 Great Clans were beyond qualified enough to enter the Dungeon. Though, because they could not read the words written on the Monolith, they didn’t know how to open it.

However, they did when they drop blood on the Monolith. It was Celis's suggestion remembering that one of the factors that can open the Dungeon is the Blood of the Heroes. So she thought, perhaps one needed to drop blood on it—and it worked. A portal opened for a moment.

Leticia then sent Doram and his group of knights inside the Dungeon as scouts to gather information. They then returned after a week, bringing with them incredible news. To think it was a Growth-type Dungeon, one that is very rare and precious. However, one of the main problems is that the monsters found in the Dungeon are quite strong—even the weakest Lv1 has strength comparable to an Lv2 monster.

That is why, despite it, just the first floor, Doram, and the others had taken quite a long time to reach the Mausoleum of Heroes and return.

This caused Leticia to decide to prepare intensively for a week, as it was clear that it was no ordinary Dungeon before charging in. But that is only expected if this Dungeon is truly the work of the Great Hero Arthuria.

The Inheritance of the Hero, if anyone can just become one, then wouldn’t everything be worthless?

However, as everyone busied themselves preparing, Leticia realized something in her own free time. A thing that had confused her all this time, as well as give her an incredible suspicion.

If the one who can only open the entrance to the Dungeon are those with the Blood of the Heroes, how did that boy entered the Dungeon?

Was he able to read the Language of the Otherworld?

Or does he possess a relic of the Heroes?

Either case, even one of these methods already proves how mysterious his true identity is.

Leticia thought that perhaps, that boy was just a normal person. Even if he looks similar to the current head of the Aquarian, it must have been just a coincidence as him being a son of the Aquarian is already impossible.

Though perhaps he might be a relative—but that too is almost impossible. She had never heard anyone like him. Even Celis and Celia who was very close to the Aquarian haven’t heard anything about him before. They had known each and every one of them, even including the farthest relative of the Great Clans. And even if they did not, how can a boy from a Great Clan not know them?

So who is he?

But Leticia just couldn’t find an answer.

Asking him directly would even be more impossible.

And for some reason, the more he knows about him, the more confused she becomes.

Though she was very curios and interested in that boy, but the current situation doesn't allow her to waste her time on anythnig else. In the end, Leticia can only set aside the matters about that mysterious boy for now.

What she needed to do right now was to focus on obtaining the Holy Sword. After that, she would deal with this issue.

“Is everything prepared?”

Leticia walked out from her tent and walked towards the knights busy preparing the supplies and weapons needed.

“Everything is prepared, your highness. We can go when you’re ready!” Doram walked towards her and said respectfully.

“How many parties are coming?”

“At the first run, we would go with four Parties consists of the greatest Elites we have, your highness. If it's still not enough, then we can prepare better in the next run. Our current goal for the moment is to completely understand the Dungeon, not completion.”

Although the Dungeon’s monsters are much higher level than expected but were no threat to the expedition group with an average level 4 and some were even much higher. Hence, the princess is quite confident of their success. However, there are too many unknowns in the dungeon and Leticia was worried that the deeper they went, the higher the level of the monster is.

Moreover, she can’t help but become worried just by the fact that the ones who made this Dungeon is the Great Hero.

This Dungeon is made for their successors; hence, the difficulty should be quite high.

Therefore, Leticia decided to go with half of their group first.

In other words, only 24 people including the Princess will enter the Dungeon first. And these 24 people would be comprised of four parties; each party of six was then numbered from 1st to 4th.

The basics of group battle in this world were the party made of six people. It was an unspoken rule made and practiced by the Adventurer’s Guild, which is said to follow the teachings of the Great Hero Arthuria.

Even now, it was quietly still followed.

A Six-man Party seemed to avoid many problems and issues within members during a battle. Each and every member has their role to play; hence confusion could be avoided during battles. Even healers or buffers, if the party had one, can easily focus on his/her priority so this kind of composition was greatly popular among adventurers.

Though, since this is not a game, the numbers consisting of one party actually are not that specifically noted. And there was no such thing as the correct composition. More so, in the roles of four parties composition raid. But it was common to see or followed during raid battles like this, that the 1st party focus on defense and the 2nd party be well balanced for guerrilla missions. The 3rd and 4th parties concentrated on the attack and were responsible for bringing down the enemy.

The first problem in planning a raid was assigning members to parties. Truthfully, Leticia wanted Doram to stay in her group. Since there was no one more reliable of a comrade than him. Furthermore, he too was the highest level Guardian Knight they had with the level of 5.

Having him would mean that no matter what happens, Leticia would be alright. But sadly, he was tasked to lead the first party, meaning the Princess would be left on her own accord as she was the leader of the 3rd Party.

This would have been difficult to swallow since the role of Doram was to protect the princess no matter what happens. And being the leader of the first party meant that he would not be able to protect her, or help her when Leticia needed it. However, he has a great role in the composition of the Raid Parties.

They had never expected that the expedition team would become a raiding team for a Dungeon. Hence, the sudden difficulty. If they had, they would have bought more experienced and powerful veterans in raiding dungeons.

This party is ought to be just for investigation, or at least, for exploration, but not Dungeon Conquering. Though it seemed the same, there was actually quite a large difference between two, where the latter is much more dangerous.

If you thought about the roles each member played, it would be based on their job class. For example, the tanks in the 1st party formed the defensive line for the whole raid, as it was impossible for all the tank-class job knights to withstand the attacks of the enemies indefinitely.

The main tank would need to have the highest defense and endurance, and use the best taunting skills to focus the enemies' hate on himself. Only a Guardian Knight like Doram met all these criteria. Although some shield-based professions were also viable choices, such as Shield Knights and Templar Knights, Guardian Knights were still better with their numerous abilities and skills that focused on tanking an enemy.

But that was only in normal situations.

If the other Shield-based professions was of a higher level than the Guardian Knight or had better equipment, they would be the better choice. And more important than the level and equipment were the characters of the warrior. In raid battles, spending long periods of time tanking the enemies' attacks was a heavy burden.

Skills were important, but mental toughness and teamwork with others were crucial as well. There were some Guardian Knights out there who preferred to concentrate on attacks and hated taunting enemies and protecting teammates. Instead of assigning them to the front lines, they would be more suited for command or the 3rd or 4th party which concentrated on attacking.

This meant that detailing the members was not limited to classes and levels, but also the character of the warriors—a complicated puzzle to derive the best combination. Taking into account the weaknesses and movements of the enemy monsters, there were plenty of permutations to consider—hence, a difficult question that had plagued commanders for the past dozens of years.

But even if the other Shield-based knights they had were equipped with the best equipment possible, one's character can never be that easily honed. And Doram surpassed all the knights present in the expedition team in terms of mental fortitude and character as a Guardian Knight that protects.

In fact, he has the highest mental power among all the members of the group, including the Princess. Hence, even if the consequence was putting the life of the princess into jeopardy, Doram was tasked to lead the 1st Party and support not just her, but the entire expedition group.

As for Garas, he was a knight that is more of an Assassin. In fact, he is considered a Templar Assassin. Although his Class is that of a Templar Knight, but because of the innate nature of his Clan; the Scorpium Clan, he is a knight with an assassin build.

He’s good at ambushing and was trained to fight speedy battles. However, unlike common knights, he has less defensive skills as he was built for a vicious and relentless attacking style. He was put to lead the 2nd Party.

Celis, one of the Geminin Twins, has a Mage Job, and also the one who chosen to evolve into a rarer Class: [Elemental Sorcerer]. She’s in the fourth group, a party consists of support classes. The only one, who can protect the Princess better than the others if a situation came worse, was none other than Celia, the other twin as she’s a Magic Knight. She’s also in the third group and was chosen by default to protect Leticia at all costs.

As a Magic Knight, Celia is deadly in terms of spell and sword, and combining both, she’s got a good balance between offense and defense. Though, she prefers fighting wth her sword rather than casting spells. In fact, she can even be seen as clumsy in terms of magic control. But she has her own trump cards she can use, making her an reliable and dependable ally.

After doing the final preparation, the Expedition finally decided to enter the Dungeon.

“Don’t you think it would have been better to ask for Rain’s help since he was able to clear the first floor. With him, everything would be much easier.” Celia suddenly said.

Leticia halted and turned at her with a mischievous smile. “It seems like you’re really enamored with that boy.”

“That!? That’s not it! I just, I think it would help us a lot if he comes with us.” Celia denied hurriedly with a bright red face. “And besides, he already has the Lamians. I don’ think there would be a chance…anyway, I don’t really have any intention at all…really,”

“Indeed, though I don’t actually think that’s a big deal at all. But with your status, there would be a lot of opposition if you have some relationship with the Demi-humans.” Leticia said.

The current state of the world is just too discriminatory to Demi-humans. Although the Delouria Kingdom has the least negative opinions for the Demi-humans, it doesn’t mean the people of the Kingdom treated them better.

There are still many negative opinions about them, and most people even discriminate Demi-humans. Especially the Nobles. Despite the history that founded the Delouria Kingdom, most Nobles had already forgotten about it.

A testament of how humans always change as time passed by.

Change is the only thing that is constant and never-changing.

“I said I’m not, okay. I’m grateful to him for saving my life, but nothing beyond that. Anyway, I really think it would be better to have him on our side.” Celia let out a helpless sigh. “I’m just thinking logically in this situation.”

“Be that as it may, I understand where you are coming from. However, I want, asking him for help, as a last resort. There are so many things we don’t know about him. He’s a mystery for us, a big, huge mystery. And I fear the mystery that covers him. Not to mention, it would be difficult for us to even see him, much less even ask for his help.” Leticia shook her head with a helpless smile.

In fact, she had tried to see him a few days ago. However, before she could even find him, the Lamians would stop her immediately. She tried numerous times, only to end the same.

The Lamians seemed to be determined to never let any humans interact with him. It was even to the point that Leticia started to doubt if whether that boy was being trapped by them.

But seeing him personally, and the intimacy he shared with the Medusa, it was safe to assume that it was not the case. Nevertheless, it was really suspicious that they are trying to obstruct him from meeting other humans. Still, this problem can wait. What she needed to do now is to focus on getting the Holy Sword back.

That was her one and only mission. Other than that, we can wait for later.

“…we can do this. Conquering a Dungeon is what we do best.” Leticia said with a faint smile.

“So, better you focus on our task first, Celia…we will deal with the matter regarding the boy and the Lamians after we succeeded on our mission and bring back the legacy of our Great Hero.”

“I understand,” Celia smiled wryly and nodded her head. She took a deep breath and her expression turned serious.

The moment they entered the open portal, they then appeared inside a dim, dark corridor seemly made of brown bricks. No matter how one has good eyesight, in this place, the vision is still limited due to darkness. Nevertheless, this was already expected, and the parties hurriedly recomposed their positions.

The first party in the front, followed by the second, third and fourth. Their expressions were vigilant and full of fighting spirit. Even more, those with better perception-skills, and senses, especially abilities similar to [Enemy Detect], [Danger Sense], and [Night Vision] were placed in between the shield-bearing knights. They were tasked to act like enemy radars, in fear of getting ambushed in this unknown, mysterious place.

“Enemies!”

“Goblins ahead!”

After walking for a few minutes inside, they finally encountered their first monsters—Goblins.

The members of the expedition team immediately moved, the first party drawing their shields and standing in front like a wall.

“Form up, boys!” Doram cried out. His body shone blindingly, followed by the other Knights, as the Goblins started to charge towards them with manic haste upon sighting them.

This was the activation of skill, [Fearless] where Knights gain a layer of blessing, giving them immunity to all attacks for the next 5 seconds. It’s a high-level skill for all knights, almost making them invincible.

"Don’t you dare let anything pass you! Defend until you die!!”

“OOoohhhh!!”

“Gyaaaaahhhh!!!”

With that said, the clash between knights and the dwellers of the Dungeon occurred in an instant.

… …