Hey here is the newest and promised chapter of this week. I have realized that writing a battle scene is very difficult for me as you have to constantly know how big the battlefield is and where all the characters are and I had to rewrite it a couple of times. I also realized that the things I had planned for the story aren't enough to really fill it and I suddenly have a gap to fill in which the dungeon gets stronger without constant time skips. I think that there will inevitably be one, but I had hoped that it wouldn't be this soon. 

Another problem that came up was that I went back a lot in the earlier chapters that I posted all together at the start and I edited many parts that I wasn't happy about. But now that I have rushed the chapters out like last week it would be very annoying for readers to have a story that constantly changes the parts that are already out.

The last problem that I noticed was that I have no backlog of chapters for the times when I have no/ not much time to write. So in the next few weeks I will probably post less chapters and create a buffer that I can also edit any time that I come up with a better idea. I will also take the time to better plan out what will happen in the next few chapters so that I can get to writing with a clear plan  in mind.

TLDR: Less chapters in the next week, but hopefully a better story and less stress for me. Now enjoy.

Edit: If you want to know where I got my main inspiration for the story try Mystery of the Dungeon by VRDrako. It isn't continued anymore, but he had many ideas that heavily influenced my story.

2386 Words

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Groggily Cog was waking up. Then he registered the alarm and the screams of people. On the bed next to his Grom was just waking up and he still looked a bit dazed, just like Cog was feeling himself. Then the mighty voice of the cut through the noise.

"We are under attack. arm yourself immediately and gather at the dungeon. The wall has been breached and it is no longer safe there."

Now they were awake like someone had poured a bowl of freezing water over their heads. On the third bed of the hut Seth was also finally awake. In the last week they had always explored the dungeon with him, helping him find new species, sparring with them so that he could formulate a tactic against them and carrying the resources that they obtained. Those tactics against beasts were a very hot commodity at the moment that the outer disciples desperately wanted. Especially the data from the lower floors. It was estimated that the first rank 2 beasts would pop up in a week since the beasts advanced at a terrifying pace.

But the greatest difficulty was that they were accustomed to daily life and death combat in opposition to the disciples that were mostly hunting weaker prey. That led to the beasts being at least a stage stronger then their cultivation indicated, making them very formidable foes.

When they had all dressed themselves and taken out their weapons they opened their door to a screeching with a short sword and shield. Cog immediately thrusted out his spear but the eye with his rapier.

The sight of a clearly sentient being dying right before their eyes twisted their insides, but now was not the time to dwell on that. Now was the time for a kill or be killed mentality.

Outside their hut chaos reigned. All kinds of elements and spells were flung through the air. The all had red, bloodshot eyes and were attacking with unbelievable aggression and recklessness. A that had lost one arm and his weapon jumped at them and tried to bite down on any exposed flesh.

Grom managed to block him, but got large scratch marks over his face for his effort. Before the could find balance again a spear penetrated his throat.

When they ran behind their hut to find a way deeper into the camp they ran into five .

Seth immediately  jumped forward and attacked 3 of them in a flurry of attacks, his normal scholarly self nowhere to be found. His acceleration synergized well with his weapon of choice and let him have the advantage, even against three stage opponents.

Grom an Cog on the other hand had more problems with their opponents since they had the massive disadvantage of cultivation stages to overcome. So they opted for a more defensive style and hoped that Seth would win quickly.

Seth on the other hand didn't let up the pressure. Like the term 'acceleration' suggested his speed picked up more and more. Soon his three opponents were riddled with little cuts. Now the berserk state they were in worked against them, as they couldn't formulate a tactic to use their numbers effectively to push him into a corner.

Then one of the three made the unavoidable first mistake, sealing his end as his head went flying through the air. With their comrade gone the last two were helplessly slaughtered. in the moment the last of the three fell, Cog managed to hit a lucky thrust into his opponents artery. Seeing that Cog had all but won Seth ambushed Grom's opponent from behind and ended the fight quickly.

When they made their way further into the camp, they saw a well known teacher that taught skinning being swarmed by 20 , one of them even at the stage. Helplessly they had to watch as he slipped on the arm of a slain enemies corpse and got his head bashed in by a war hammer.

Frightened they they hid themselves behind a nearby hut and waited until the were on their way again. When they felt it was safe to move again they once again moved in the direction of the dungeon.

The closer they got the more often they saw elders and teachers rushing through and taking 10-20 opponents by themselves, since most were at the stage. 

Then they finally met up with a large group of about 200 disciples that battled about double their number in on the main street leading to the dungeon. They pushed them away from the dungeon and back to the entrance gate. 

The three of them decided to circle around and join the group from behind to avoid getting surrounded by enemies. But when they turned to use the houses as cover once more they were met with the sight of the with the war hammer that had killed the elder. Thankfully he had separated from the rest of the group and had some nasty injuries from the earlier fight.

They quickly got into formation with Grom standing in the middle and desperately trying to block the advance while Cog and Seth attacked from the sides and tried a pincer move on him. For a while it went well, but then the decided to mix it up and threw his hammer at Seth while lounging at Grom to take down and die together.

None of the three had expected this move because it was just insane to do so. The had apparently lost the last shred of his sanity and that was what made his move so unpredictable.

Subsequently Seth was barely able to dodge the hammer, but he was unable to directly rush to Grom's help. 

A loud scream escaped Grom's lips as the clawed hand gauged out his left eye. Only then did Cog come to his senses and he used his spear at the same time that Seth's rapier arrived. 

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But the damage was already done. His eye was gone and his scream could have alerted any nearby attackers. Seth quickly opened his enchanted bag and took out a pain numbing pill and a healing salve. After they had forced the pill down Grom's throat and had applied the slave to stop the bleeding they each took an arm and lifted him up between them.

Quickly they left the scene and luckily managed to circle around the remaining houses and the combat to reach the safety of the group. Grom had also recovered a bit on the way and was now able to stand without help.

Meanwhile somewhere else on the battlefield Torian was facing off against three . One of them was the apparent leader of the raid and was exceptionally skilled in the use of his explosion to block his sword with incredible force.

The  two helpers were apparently  not fighting the first time together with him, as they had a very good rhythm that covered for each others weakness.

Torian also couldn't just defeat them with raw power since that would leave him drained and unable to further aid in the defense of the camp. At least not as a fighter. Slowly he managed to gain the upper hand because the other side only had someone at the beginning of and two at the peak of .

Then he finally got one of the helpers to trip up and cleaved his head in half. That spelled the end for the valiantly fighting trio as the other two lost to the madness and lunged at him. He just had to shift his body to the side and behead the leader to end it all. With the death of the leader the last had no chance at winning and died only seconds afterwards.

Then he finally had the leisure again to look at the battle again.down the road a big group of disciples had formed and held up nearly half of the original forces. Elders and teachers were all over the place and fought against small groups of enemies.

Then he looked at the dungeon and saw with horror as about 50 that had snuck by while he battled and just entered the dungeon.

Anxiously he chased them inside only to see them slaughtered by Maria. She weaved between them, dodging blows at impossibly narrow margins and every one of her moves struck a vital spot, killing the enemies instantly.

Her mind was a very powerful tool in  a fight as she could heighten her senses so much that she had a perfect overview over the battle and an inhuman reaction time. Back in the day she was also the main fighting force in their little trio. He would often do reconnaissance and build shelters, while Ralph was the one to control the battlefield with his gravity affinity.

The death of one of his only two friends had hit him almost as hard as it had hit her, although he would never admit that to anyone but her. The sect might be very unified on the surface, but  the competition for any rank was very fierce and every underhanded method that didn't harm the sect overall was used.

The dying scream of the last invader ripped him out of his musings. Since the dungeon was apparently safe he had to get back outside and check the situation again.

Once outside he noticed that the situation had changed dramatically. The flood of had shrunk considerably and now that the disciples had time to organize themselves they had the absolute advantage over the crazed enemies.

That was the one big downside of this kind of potion. As soon as you can't roll over the enemy and need to strategize and work together everything would fall apart.

Now that the were as good as defeated he quickly joined the battle again to prevent any further casualties.

Half an hour later the last drew his last breath and silence began to once again reign in the newly built camp. Once the disciples had caught their breath and the adrenaline had worn off many of them began to throw up, sob or search for their friends if they had been separated.

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In the following week the atmosphere in the camp was very subdued and spent cleaning up the remnants of the battle. The corpses were thrown on a pile and burnt, while the corpses of the sect disciples were preserved with Torian's nature magic and made ready for the transport back to their families along with a reasonable sum of money as compensation.

Torian had the unthankful job of counting their losses while also coming up with an explanation for the attack. Both the disciples and the needed something plausible to hear and so had brainstormed with all the present elders and teachers to find it. In the end he came up with 178 dead disciples and 4 dead teachers, most of them from outside the walls who were ambushed in their sleep and didn't get a proper warning.

Thankfully the weren't too far gone when they were first attacking and so the corpses were mostly intact and not hacked into small pieces or partly eaten like he had seen before. Admittedly they also didn't have the time for that since their main objective was apparently to do as much damage as possible and so the corpses were spared.

The only reason for an attack he could come up with was that the had somehow concluded that there was ha dungeon here and that they would have to move quickly, so they had sent many of the older or sick to do as much damage as possible to ensure they could migrate away. This theory was also supported by the fact that if the were really attacking them to annihilate them, they would have sent four to five times as much fighters.

Many people would underestimate the intelligence of the and think of them as just another slightly more intelligent beast, but that was what those people often cost their lives. Goblins could get even older then humans at the same stage of cultivation and the oldest of them had seen so many fights and had interacted so many times with other races that they were exceedingly cunning and merciless, making them foes that were very hard to deal with.

The disciples could be divided into three types these days. The ones mourning while doing nothing, the ones mourning and training fiercely to become stronger and the apathetic that either didn't care about the dead or were already numbed by many battles and bloodshed. They just carried on with their lives as if nothing had happened.

This was the situation the protector that carried the ancestors found when he arrived. He instantly took command of  the elders residing here and went on a punitive mission to the nearby clan, but by the time they arrived there was no one to be found in their village. In his rage he then completely trashed the place to vent and also set a sign for anyone who would dare to attack the again.

When they returned he also scheduled a preemptive attack on the , that was also in the vicinity of the dungeon, for two days after the caravan's arrival.

In this attack only elders and teachers would participate to prevent unnecessary deaths.

Once he had settled down for a bit he also had a long talk with all the elders and the former elder Maria to get a firsthand report about the general situation of the camp and the dungeon. Later on he also wanted a personal conversation with the dungeon and Maria as the mediator.