Even after Alissa’s party returned to the Royal Capital, Sir Inolet kept them apprised about the circumstances on the frontlines. In his opinion, since the [Heroes] already made contact with the demons, there were no longer any reasons to keep them in the dark about the progress of the fighting. On the contrary, he believed that letting them hear about the developments of the battles would be beneficial to their mentality.
As such, news about the ongoing battle at the border became part of Alissa and Ethan’s daily briefings – and likely Joshua’s as well, though they could not tell for sure – typically being read to them by a scribe while they were having breakfast. It lent a heavy air to the usually relaxed atmosphere they had their mornings in, to say the least.
After the incursion they heard about while they were still on the way back to the Royal Capital, they heard news that the demons had made several more pushes towards the border that the defenders on the frontline only managed to hold on against after suffering heavy casualties. Troops were mobilized from regions deeper in the Kingdom and moved towards the frontlines in order to make up for those losses.
Despite the thousands of casualties already suffered by both sides in the fighting, they were told that all that they had heard about were just probes and preliminary fighting, nothing more than skirmishes in force, in some ways, rather than serious pushes intended to go deeper. At least for the time being, the situation remained a stalemate that way, as both sides hemorrhaged soldiers – especially the weaker ones – on the frontlines of the fighting.
While there were many fourth tiers and late third tiers stationed at the border, the bulk of the army for both the humans and the demons were still people in their second tier or early third tiers. These were naturally a lot weaker than those who were at higher levels or tiers than they were, and thus accounted for the majority of the casualties as well.
Some who took up arms and stood at the walls might even just be [Militia] or [City Guard]s as their classes go, rather than proper soldiers, but the Kingdom was not in good enough shape to be choosy with their defenses at the moment. Any adult from the surrounding regions with suitable class would serve on the walls, one time or another, as part of the forces defending the Kingdom’s borders.
That morning, four days after they had returned to the Royal Capital, seemed to portend something special, however, as instead of a scribe reading the news to them, it was none other than Sir Inolet himself who did so with a grave look on his face.
“Did something happen at the frontlines, Sir?” asked Alissa as she noticed the foul mood that the old knight exuded. Seated next to her, Ethan similarly perked up and raised his head as he paid attention to whatever news the old knight deemed important enough to personally tell them.
“There has been… developments, and at the moment it’s difficult to tell whether it’s a good or a bad thing for us,” said the old knight with a shake of his head as he took a seat at the table, grabbed a small loaf of bread and gnashed it between his teeth to calm himself. “The news just arrived first thing in the morning today, so it mustn't be more than a day or two old, but it would seem that one of the demon [Champions] had seen fit to show themselves at the frontlines.”
“Just one of them, Sir?” asked Ethan with notable curiosity. Like Alissa, he had learned about the history of the wars between the humans and the demons, and he had not failed to notice the bit of information in Sir Inolet’s words just not. “Then had our side made an attempt to capture the [Champion]?”
“The commander at the front rejected the suggestions, fearing rightfully that it might be a trap. We are not certain if the demons are aware that we are one [Hero] short or not, but if they were… I wouldn’t put it past them to lay a trap with a [Champion] as bait so that they could lay waste to our armies,” noted the old knight with a shake of his head. “Even if we tried to capture the [Champion] it would only be possible by gathering many of our strongest warriors in that region of the frontlines, which in turn would weaken the defenses to a rather intolerable level.”
“So they fear that the demons might be baiting us with one [Champion] to decapitate our best fighting force in that area and push their advantage…” mulled Alissa as she listened to the old man’s explanation. “What would you say are the chances of us succeeding to capture the [Champion] had they gone with the attempt?”
“Depends a lot on the kind of [Champion] in question. Mage or priest equivalents are generally easier to handle once you get to them, as they’re less physically powerful. The [Champion] we received reports of are nothing of the kind, though,” said the old knight. “It was reported that the [Champion] was one of Ner’vhok’s, who rode a wild steed with expertise, and was very good with both the bow and the blade. None who fought against them managed to last long.”
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“They already have a [Champion] in their third tier?” Ethan asked with some worry.
“Apparently that [Champion] was first seen at the last levels of their second tier, but quickly reached the third tier in battle that same day. They had been rampaging all around the frontline but never made themselves an easy target, so far,” said the old knight with another shake of his head. “We have no reported sightings of the other three [Champions], which was what threw some suspicion on the matter. More worrisome is that many speculated that the [Champion] we face might well be a [Great Champion], given their prowess.”
“Damn it. They’re going to be our problem soon, aren’t they?” lamented Alissa as she rubbed her forehead with one hand.
“Pretty much. The King had asked for your party to be prepared as soon as possible as we would need your presence in the frontlines to counteract the [Champions] before long. The plans we had won’t change. Next week your party will head for the dungeon up north to hit your third tier, which we expect you to do as soon as possible,” replied the old knight while nodding sagely and pouring himself a cup of strong tea. “Please try to come out of that dungeon with as few casualties as possible. You will need every member of your party once the fighting gets serious.”
“We’ll try,” noted Ethan and Alissa both as they nodded at the old knight’s words. The rest of the breakfast went quickly in a rather gloomy mood, and later that day, after their training, they prepared their equipment for the planned foray to the dungeon that would hopefully bring them up to their third tier. It was mostly a precaution, as the crafters at the castle already performed some maintenance on their equipment before that.
They – along with the rest of their party – departed from the Royal Capital the first thing the next morning, surprisingly with less hanger-ons this time, just their usual chaperones. Even the harvesters would only follow after them later in the day, and there was nobody else attached to their group. Since haste was the order of the day, it would only be the twelve of them trying to clear the dungeon as fast as they possibly could and hopefully reaching their third tier in the process.
The dungeon itself was located roughly a day’s travel north of the capital, once again located in an underground complex of caverns. Unlike the first dungeon they went into, where the cavern was relatively smaller, the cavern complex this time was far larger, with many of the caverns easily large enough to house a village or a small town within.
Right from the start, the three saw why they were told to carry some gear intended for climbing and rappelling, as some areas of the cavern were separated from the rest by sheer cliffs. Even in the first cavern, shortly after they entered, they had to rappel down a cliffside to access the rest of the dungeon and did so in groups.
Sir Inolet and Magus Drummond actually covered them while they made their descent, the old knight apparently strong enough to just jump down the sheer cliff unaided, landing deftly despite being saddled with a fake leg, while the Magus slowly floated down as he used his magic to slow his descent. The two kept the lower area where they would descend into clear from obstructions and monsters.
As for the descent itself, it was not something they trained for, but given the greater physical prowess that their higher stats allowed, Alissa and Ethan found it to be easier than they expected. At first they gripped the ropes tightly as they lowered themselves inch by inch, before they realized that it was far easier than they had expected.
Once they were low enough, Alissa even skipped from outcropping to outcropping lightly, deliberately making use of her greater dexterity to keep her balance while doing so, until she alighted lightly on the ground below. She did keep the safety rope held in hand at all times, though, just in case she missed a step on the way down.
Bronwen was the last of the party to climb down, and she did so without the safety rope, as it was her task to carry the rope down with her. Despite the increased danger, the woman climbed down with ease, as if her feet had eyes that easily found footholds beneath her, and it was not long before Bronwen joined the rest of the party at the bottom of the cliff.
“That was something,” praised Ethan. “Did you do a lot of mountain climbing before?”
“I grew up in the mountains,” replied the woman with a smile. “There we had to climb the mountain to get anywhere or do anything, so anyone who was born there would learn to climb to mountain before they’d learn to walk,” she added with a serious tone, though the way some of the others laughed suggested it was a joke on her part. “Seriously though, had I not become a [Temple Guard] I would have become a [Mountain Ranger] instead. That was one of my class choices back then.”
“It is a good class, that one, Dame Bronwen,” said Sir Inolet with a nod of affirmation in support of Bronwen’s words. “Many of the Kingdom’s finest scouts were [Mountain Rangers] from that region as well. They were unparalleled as mountaineers go, as Dame Bronwen here had just shown us with her feats.”
Alissa, Ethan, and even Joshua nodded at Sir Inolet’s explanation. They had descended the cliff safely with no training mostly due to their improved stats. Even most of the rest of the party did the same, as they relied on their stats to ease their way down the cliff. It was nothing like the easy familiarity Bronwen showed as she climbed down the cliff while carrying the bundle of safety rope with her.
It was obvious that the woman could have climbed down that same cliff, with the same weight, as a young child, without much issue, relying only on meager stats and what passives a first-tier child could have. In fact, considering that Bronwen joined the temple and became a [Temple Guard], she was likely relying on learned skills from back in her childhood days to make that descent so easily.
“All right, you’re all here, safe, and nobody stupidly died by falling off the cliff. A good start,” said Sir Inolet with a slight smile on his wizened face. “Now you all need to get to work. There’s your playmates for the upcoming week or so,” he added nonchalantly even as he made a wide, sweeping gesture with one hand.
Further in the cavern, Alissa noted how several mounds of what she had thought as rocks as first began to move and shake, transforming – or rather, unfolding – into animalistic shapes before their eyes. It had not taken a genius to put two and two together to realize that those “piles of rock” were none other than the monsters that inhabited the dungeon they were in.