Three groups came into the dungeon at the same time, shouting at each other already. Viv recognised two of them - Wolves of Chaos and Kael the Puppetmaster. The third one was brand new, though he knew who they served.

“What the hell?” The party of three shouted at Artorius standing near the entrance, his sword already drawn. Before the other groups could explain anything, the trio fell upon the goblin swordsman. Although Artorius was relatively strong for a goblin, he was torn to shreds by twin blades, his skull crushed by a hammer.

“There was no need for that. He’s a decent bloke,” Ray spoke, twirling his spear.

“These damn wolves are crazy, I’m telling you. How can a filthy goblin be a so-called ‘decent bloke’?” The fellow dressed in red poked his paladin companion, spitting on Artorius’ corpse.

Ray scowled and the rest of his party raised their weapons, but they proceeded onwards as if nothing had happened. Ray exchanged a look with Kael, his expression was forever unchanging.

Kael was strange. Hailing from Elythria, he commanded three puppets like he would his own body. In exchange, his actual body was stiff, his joints moving like a puppet. He had shoulder-length blonde hair, his eyes always wide open, a mix of black and red. He wasn’t wearing any armour. Instead, he was dressed in a black suit, white gloves covering his hands.

Viv eagerly spied on their conversation as they moved through the first cave, listening in on the details. The new group was called Evil’s Bane, a group that came from Livia. Tenebral the Holy, Cera the Hammer, Noe the Red - fancy titles for only C rank adventurers.

The three lead the way, slaughtering through the first floor. The adventuring groups had a small dispute over who would fight Xeel, but the others graciously let Evil’s Bane take the lead, forgetting to inform them about the guardian’s abilities.

“By Lumin’s name, this is a demon! There was a foul odour in the air, but I thought that was just how wolves smelled,” Tenebral shouted, gripping his holy symbol, a white dove. Moments later, it lit up like a beacon, illuminating the entire room. Cera simply nodded.

“I dedicate this kill to you, Raegel. May this demon dance forever in the Eternal Halls.” Noe ran his finger across his throat, gripping two blades with wicked edges. His body began to shimmer with a red light, leaving behind a trail of red.

With Cera in the lead, they engaged Xeel in combat. Viv’s blood ran cold as he saw their cursed rituals.

“Let me guide you. Take out the one with the white robes, the holy priest.” Viv commanded Xeel, immersing himself in combat. While he couldn’t control Xeel, Viv had decades of combat experience - his instructions would make him much stronger.

“Left, dodge the hammer. Split your arm into tentacles and make the red priest dodge. While he’s dodging, plunge your sword into the ground and weave a shell of darkness. Then, create a trap for Lumin’s priest.” Xeel fought like never before, predicting each of his opponent’s moves. The two groups observed the fight in shock as the enraged demon manipulated the battlefield.

While Xeel’s sudden battle prowess was unusual, what was even more unusual was how the three of them fought. They had no teamwork to speak of, each doing their own thing. Each relished every second of combat, smiling throughout the fight.

“More, more. Let me taste your beautiful song more!” Noe laughed, flipping through the air and slashing through the razor-sharp spikes. His speed increased by the second, his wounds bleeding more and more.

After several minutes of fighting, Viv had created an opportunity. All three of them were far away from Xeel. He inhaled, mana surging towards him like a flood, air rippling and contorting. He opened his mouth and screamed, sending ripples throughout the ink pool. Then, the pool began to come alive.

Shadows rose from the pool, dancing in joy. Faceless horrors, spectral wraiths, abominations - every horror one could think of emerged as the three of them clutched their ears. Both Cera and Tenebral had their heads hung down, stopping all movement. Their voices joined Xeel’s scream, blood coming out from every orifice.

“O Lord of War, Lord of Song and Dance, lend me your strength. Show my companions what a haunting tale the demon tells.” Noe sang as a red sun rose from the pool, a three-faced phantom enveloping him, in one hand a spear, in the other a flute.

Noe roared, a haze of blood descending on the battlefield. His two companions snapped out of their trance just in time to avoid a whip of darkness severing their heads. Cera shouted in rage, her warhammer blasting every shadow into pieces.

“Retreat and wait. Three, two, one, now!” Viv shouted, feeling alive once again. Xeel plunged his arm into the darkness. Thin thread surrounded Tenebral as Xeel pulled, creating a cocoon of darkness. The thread cut through the priest’s robes but got repelled by light clinging to Tenebral’s skin.

“Tch. I forgot we weren’t in my domain.” Despite Viv’s best attempts to kill one of them, Xeel was too weak to properly follow instructions. He inflicted plenty of injuries on the godly group, but in the end, Xeel was slain. The group was much stronger than the others, Noe already reaching B rank.

“I haven’t had a fight this interesting in a long time. It’s true what they say - this dungeon is incredibly deadly,” Noe said, his wounds surrounded by a red glow.

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“It’s a demon. Never underestimate them,” Cera said, breathing heavily. She was wearing heavy plate armour and wielding a two-handed warhammer, and she used both in combat with ease.

“Don’t you think it was a bit more ferocious than last time?” Famir whispered to his team, to which they nodded.

“It must have been pissed since it saw Lumin’s symbol. Demons hate that thing with a passion,” Hycan, the wolf earth elementalist, commented.

Following a short break to recover from their wounds and cure the corruption on their skin, the three groups descended the slope until they arrived at the dimly-lit plains. Wolves of Chaos had already seen the scene, but for the other two groups, it was a novelty.

“So, here’s the plan. We’ll each head in separate directions, but don’t stray too far from each other. The floor is way more dangerous than you think. Blow the wind whistle whenever you’re in danger, the other two groups will rush over to help.” Roy said, pulling out a light-green whistle from his backpack.

“Don’t think you can take the giant worm on alone. If you see it emerging, blow the whistle immediately,” Kael nodded, and while the rest of Evil’s Bane was largely ignoring him, Cera solemnly nodded.

And with that, they spread out. Once Viv heard that there was going to be an expedition into the second floor, he expected tens of adventurers to be flooding the dungeon. Instead, they had a subpar group of wolves, a single person with golems and some religious nutjobs.

Still, he had to deal with threats to his dungeon appropriately. He directed Devourer towards Wolves of Chaos, calling various animals to distract them. Thieving Ferrets and Mistfire Foxes, while not great in combat, had great synergy. Viv watched as the foxes shook their tails, ethereal fire burning the air. They elegantly wove their illusions, a mirage in the middle of the plains.

Although the ranger had sixth-sense, it wouldn’t be of any help here. The group entered the illusion, their eyes clouding over. They would snap out of it if anything happened, but nothing was going to attack them. Instead, a group of ferrets descended on them, rummaging through their pockets and opening their backpacks. They scurried away with gold and potions, leaving the group none the wiser.

While the group was stuck in an illusion, Viv sent a group of Lightning Cheetahs to probe Kael’s strength. He had gone east, barely avoiding the large forest. His three puppets followed him close behind, brimming with mana.

Ordering them to spread out, the cheetahs surrounded Kael, the two groups carefully observing each other. After a tense staredown, one of the cheetahs had enough and ran full speed at Kael, a lightning blur in the sky as it jumped.

Kael stiffly moved his arms, a pair of mana strings appearing in Viv’s vision. A five-metre iron golem moved in front of Kael, a massive iron greataxe in its hands. Its entire body was covered in runes which wildly spun around each time it took an action. Each of its steps shook the ground as it covered Kael with its body.

The cheetah's lightning bite chomped down on the iron golem only for its teeth to completely shatter. It yelped in pain as it landed, but before it could do anything else, a silver longsword sliced it into five different pieces.

Next to the cheetah’s body stood a doll. Its body was slim and shaped like a dancer’s, its long, blue hair trailing behind it as it shot through the air, just as fast as the cheetahs. It landed beside the pack, each of its actions deliberate. One by one, it started slaughtering the bunch, moving like a swordmaster.

Then, the third puppet took action. One of its hands was replaced by a long, metal tube. The tube was illuminated by a white light as a whirring sound alerted a cheetah. Then, it pointed at a cheetah, disintegrating half of its body with a beam of light. Like clockwork, it turned to the next cheetah, predicting its movement.

The puppets easily slaughtered half of the pack before Viv made them retreat. Both Kael and Evil’s Bane were closer to B rank than C, eclipsing the wolf-mixes in sheer power. Kael would easily prove to be the most challenging of the bunch. His skin was too hard for regular spiders to bite through, and even if they did, his body was closer to a golem’s, he wouldn’t be affected.

Viv sent monsters to their death to alter Kael’s path. Slowly but surely, he started heading more to the east, away from the forest, until he finally reached the first chest. It was an open field that stood before him, a chest in the middle of it. The only complication was that there were hundreds of fireflies lighting up the air, all staying close to the chest.

Unfortunately, Kael knew what the fireflies could do already. Still, the lure of a chest was too much for any adventurer to ignore. Deeming the three of his golems incapable of doing the job, he lightly pulled at his arm, twisting it in the process. With an audible pop, it detached from his body. It started moving on its own, scurrying along the ground.

It deftly avoided the fireflies, the puppeteer yanking it away from danger using his strings. It jumped on top of the chest, fingernails catching the lid. The fingers bent unnaturally as the hand lifted open the lid, the puppetmaster examining the chest’s contents.

That was the exact moment a rune appeared on the chest, burning a hole into it. The rune flashed, and a second later, the entire chest exploded in an inferno of fire. All at once, the fireflies detonated, overlapping each individual explosion. A tremendous bang resounded through the cavern, the earth shaking even on the first floor. The explosion tore through everything in its way, creating a hole a hundred metres in radius.

Kael lost connection with his arm immediately. At the last moment, he managed to hide his puppets and himself behind the iron golem. Most of the golem exploded into shrapnel, hurting Kael as much as the explosion. Still, it managed to do its job as a defender, withstanding the explosion and the shockwave.

The iron golem collapsed, exposing its glowing, magical heart. It was a core made out of pure lumirock, the most magical metal in the world. Viv commanded the remaining cheetahs to swarm the place, sending in both wolves and ferrets to get the core. Despite the recent loss of a golem, Kael was still battle-ready, his remaining puppets suffering injuries as they protected the core.

Viv cursed himself for sending Devourer the other way. If it could have swallowed the core, it would have gained drastically different abilities. He sent wave after wave of animals, but despite losing more than half of his limbs, Kael and his puppet were left standing.

Any more and it would look suspicious. Viv desperately wanted the core, but judging from the way the man fought, he had more trump cards to play. Admitting his defeat for the second time today, Viv directed his rage toward Evil’s Bane. No matter what happened today, they had to die. Even if he had to throw the entire dungeon at them to kill the priests, it would be worth it.