Day 1251
Little has changed in the dungeon, the number of adventurers has fallen further, they are mobilized to the east. The lord of the city is strengthening the guard, it is likely that refugees will arrive in the coming weeks.
If I play my cards right I can take advantage of the situation, the vampires are ready to hypnotize the newcomers to send them to die in the mines. The influx of people will provide me with a source of energy, if the rumors of disappearances are controlled.
I am now classified as a C-rank dungeon and the city is benefiting from rapid growth, minor nobles have settled down to profit from businesses, and a social life has developed.
With my new abilities I start my experiments again, the speed of spell calculation has exploded and I can now simulate more complex situations.
I am trying to recover demonic souls and can now summon groups of demons and refine them into souls with almost no difficulty. I think higher demons have a restriction. I have read that high rank demons are linked to their worlds and they cannot leave it easily, I think this is the reason why I cannot control their souls.
I can summon them though, but the hit is too high to trade what would help me.
I noticed something new, some humans who enter my dungeon seem to have a connection between their soul and the outside. The connection is sometimes imperceptible but can be much more important in others. This connection breaks when they die but I sense a slight resistance in souls with a strong connection.
As I observe, I notice that the few priests who enter are strongly connected. This is probably what connects them to their god. I discovered a way to experiment on the gods. Unfortunately the connection is too weak to be able to reassemble it. Only very godly believers have a stable connection, these humans are powerful and too high level to die. For the time being.
Day 1253
My treasure is starting to be well supplied, it should be comparable to that of a small kingdom, between potions, magic weapons, magic formations, ores and magic herbs.
The invasion officially began and the kingdom mobilized the national armies. Civilians are not yet concerned, the surrounding kingdoms are watching the turnaround in the meantime.
The ants are spreading faster and faster underground and I let them. I ask them to find me a wyvern, I want to use it as a boss for the 20th floor. Even if they are not optimal to fight this kind of adversary they will be able to overwhelm him with their numbers.
I am waiting for more energy to improve myself and my servants are slowly strengthening themselves on the outside.
Day 1277
The invasion was much more brutal than expected, the enemy army penetrated deep into the kingdom. The crown prince retreated to a fortress town to stop the enemy advance, but lost a third of the army and was wounded in action.
Both sides are waiting for reinforcements to continue but 10% of the kingdom is under enemy control. I'm not too worried about the situation, the dungeon is still far from the front line and the objective is probably the capital.
Day 1296
The crown prince is dead, the news shocked the kingdom, but it's not the worst. After the reinforcements returned to the fortress, the situation should have stabilized, but the enemy realm used heretical siege magic.
I don't know where they found this technique, they were all destroyed by the Holy Empire 1000 years ago after the fall of the Avariant Empire. I only heard rumors of it.
The technique consists of sacrificing a large number of people, body and soul, to cast a long range heretical spell that explodes on impact, the greater the sacrifice the more destructive the power.
It seems that the Eastern Kingdom gathered 50,000 civilians and were able to raze the fortress city with its occupants.
The army is routed and all civilians are fleeing for fear of being sacrificed. The surrounding kingdoms hesitate between attacking and remaining neutral for fear of the terrifying power.
The Church has reported and the Holy Empire will not stand still in the face of the situation, the King is overwhelmed and trying to restrain the news and mobilize a new army. They are discussing an alliance with his neighbors to solve the problem.
I don't understand why they used this magic, they point to themselves as a target to be taken down by the greatest power on the continent.
We are accelerating the plan to welcome the refugees and transform them into energy with the least possible loss.
Day 1302
The army of the Eastern Kingdom continues its advance and massacres the untrained, demoralized and poorly organized army. The alliance responded but they will not send men for fear of heretical magic, they were forced to intervene by the holy empire.
The holy empire is too far away to send its armies and mobilize its churches, the count told me that there were rumors of possible crusades.
The first waves of refugees arrive, the rich few are accepted in the city but the majority go to the slums. We are not the city that receives the most, but more than 10 million refugees are on the roads of the kingdom. The nobles from the conquered territories have already fled to neighboring kingdoms.
The influx of energy increases and the slum gangs are overflowing and must recruit advantages. The account fears a food shortage.
Day 1324
The army of the eastern kingdom and the alliance clashed in a plain 100 km from the capital. During the last 3 weeks 12 cities have been razed by a heretical spell. Despite being outnumbered the Eastern Kingdom won the battle using a Blood Frenzy Mass Buff.
They no longer have any obstacles to the capital, 50,000 soldiers are heading there, it's not much for a siege of a city of 1.5 million inhabitants, but there is no longer an army. . The rest of the troops attack the big cities of the kingdom. A column of 100,000 soldiers is heading north.
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The city is overflowing with refugees and the food reserves are not enough any more, in consultation with the guilds of adventurers and the church, the lord of the city opened the dungeon to everyone. Every day, thousands of civilians armed with sticks and rudimentary weapons rush into the tunnels. Their masses give them a certain security.
I increase the number of monsters to eliminate civilians but also to motivate them, the source of food is important and barely enough to survive. The death rate is 30% per day, although there is no regulation the mortality is evident. Despite the indignation of the church the situation continues to my great pleasure.
The unexpected consequence is the drastic increase in the amount of iron extracted from mines. Even if the situation is catastrophic, the gangs are getting richer and exploiting the refugees. Vampires are in their element and grow quickly.
The health situation worries me however, diseases develop quickly, and risk decimating the population before I consume them.
My energy storage is filling up quickly and I'm happy with the overall situation.
Day 1325
After the defeat of the alliance and the death of many priests, a crusade was launched the surrounding countries were " invited " to assemble an army to crush this diabolical threat.
The nobles of the city left with some merchants, the column heads north and slaughters the towns in its path. The flow of refugees is uninterrupted, some continue their routes and others stop in the city.
I have enough energy to build my 18th floor, I continue on the same pattern with a steep slope, troll caves and basilicas, I add a few eagles. At the top of the slope a cave with a small troll tribe of 25 deceased members a long stone staircase that goes down to the next floor.
Day 1333
The capital was looted but the south and west were spared, columns of peasants and believing civilians rushing from the borders to subdue evil. They are followed by the professional armies of neighboring countries.
Cannon fodder is intended to exhaust enemy forces. The worst news is that 42 cities have been wiped out. The northern column continues its paths and after having plundered the Moira duchy they are heading towards me. I am one of the last remaining medium-sized towns of the kingdom.
Heretical magic is terrifying, in a few months a kingdom has been almost destroyed. I'm starting to worry about the city. Fewer and fewer refugees are stopping and some residents are fleeing the city.
Seeing that the situation is not good, I send the vampires to capture as many adventurers and powerful priests as possible to sacrifice them for my growth.
The only good news is that the column counts only 40,000 men after several battles and is pursued by the crusaders, they do not have time to recover sacrifices for their heretical spells.
Day 1338
I managed to capture the bishop in a panic, the population thinks that spies have infiltrated and killed the priests. I keep the bishop alive deep in the dungeon with other priests and powerful adventurers for experiments.
The vampires were able to capture them by poisoning them, the chaos of the refugees making it impossible to find them.
The city's population has dropped to between 50,000 and 20,000 in the slums. All the rich fled.
The column is still approaching and the crusaders are unable to catch up with them.
Day 1349
There are only the infirm and the sick, the city contains only 1000 people against 5000 for the slums. The count seized all the precious possessions to hide them in the chests of the cliff.
I recall all my servants in the dungeon with the exception of the lord and his guards who maintain the morale of the civilians.
There are no more refugees arriving, the countryside is calm, we see columns of smoke approaching from the south-east. According to the latest spy reports, there are still 30,000 soldiers, they are exhausted but they are professionals and there are five times more than the civilians in my camp.
I start to worry and rearrange and clean up the dungeon after the chaos of the past few weeks. There are still a few poor people in the slums, but some new gangs have looted and set everything on fire before fleeing.
Day 1350
The Crusaders have started the fight and pushed back the army from the east despite very heavy losses. New armies attacked the eastern kingdom directly, but the fortifications held up and the losses were enormous. We will have to wait for professional weapons. The elites of the Holy Empire arrived a few days ago by air and are fighting.
The king is dead but some members of the royal family remain alive. The kingdom north of ours is still not moving, they are waiting for the column to be exhausted to attack.
I think the kingdom will never recover, its borders will be drastically reduced and the surrounding kingdoms will take advantage of this to expand and “stabilize” the territory. The biggest concern is actually the population of the 23 million citizens, 14 have fled and 3 have died.
Only a massive influx from neighboring kingdoms could restore the situation. The end of the war is approaching and it is obvious that the Eastern Kingdom will not win. Refugees are poorly received and the majority will return home at the end.
Day 1351
We see the column arrive, unfortunately they are accompanied by tens of thousands of prisoners, which is the reason for their slowness.
I have less and less hope for the city but I'm not risking anything… I think so.
The slums are in panic and try to enter the city but the doors are closed. They then retreated to the only closed place, the mines. Thousands of old and infirm lurk inside the dark guts.
A massacre begins after I summon goblins. With a few hundred of them calm returns and only the city has any living.
I bring the count and his guards back and switch the dungeon to defense mode.
In the afternoon the column arrived from what the panthers saw there were 60,000 prisoners. This is too much for a city of this size, there is not even a magic shield!
I'm starting to get stressed out but I can't do anything, the only option would be to send the ants. With their numbers they could win. But there would always be survivors and the ants are my asset I do not want to divulge it. If the ants are found I will be a target of all kingdoms and even the church.
And imagine that I manage to kill all the witnesses, how the count would explain his victory against 30,000 professional soldiers with only a hundred Guards and a city intact.
The last inhabitants of the city take refuge in the dungeon escorted by the guards. It is indeed the only way to survive for them. But I wouldn't let them go, I let the goblins swarm and slowly wear them out before I kill them all.
There are a dozen survivors hidden in their caves, the countryside, the city and its surroundings are calm and deserted. Two kilometers from the city, mages build a complex formation with the prisoners in the center.
I don't know what their goal is in destroying a deserted town, they are almost certain to die.
I think then of a terrible idea, there are terrifying heretical spells, by using dungeon cores to channel spells it is possible to cast them hundreds of kilometers away.
Maybe this is the reason why they destroyed all the cities, they aimed at the dungeons and their core and then brought them back to their country. I am the last dungeon town in the north, there is nothing left to the east or south and the west is now impregnable with its crossroads. They probably already have a dozen cores and I'm their last target.
It's bad I have to prepare myself. I've been full of energy the last few weeks but I can't just focus on my monsters.
Professional soldiers are probably classified between E and D, but it is not impossible that there are elites classified C or even B for the general.
I think of several solutions and prepare a plan while they set up the training. I chose a guerrilla strategy at higher levels by maximizing the number of monsters. Then on the 18th floor I prepare defenses, walls, towers, ditches. I create crossbows, fire potions, pitch barrels, ballistae, catapults. I have trolls, ogres, and goblins on multiple fronts, each with a role. Frontline trolls and goblins as shooters. I have them rehearse for a few hours, that's already it. Finally the vampires, the panther and the account guards are positioned in strategic places to protect me. Finally, I add different powerful monsters to unbalance the battlefield.
The fake heart room is still there, but they probably have sensing devices so I trap the heart with mana overload to detonate from a distance.
Finally the ants are positioned below between my top floor and the false room to flood the army as a last resort.
Night is falling and the preparations are almost complete, the heretic formation is almost ready but I don't think they will attack now.
They will probably rest tonight to be in good shape tomorrow. They don't expect to meet such strong resistance from a C-rank dungeon.
I am a little saddened by the destruction of the city, I spent a lot of resources on the construction.