Land of riches unspoiled, the verdant soil stretching far into the horizon. Twisted spires of shining crystal and seas of rubies. Such wonders to found in lands unconquered by the children of Gods.

In my youth, I traveled the land resplendent, known to those in this land as the Uncivilized Continent. Many and more were my troubles, yet still I carried on, buoyed as I was by the promise of the undiscovered beyond each horizon. Seldom was I disappointed.

Uncontained by the machinations of and hubris of mankind, the true vision of nature shone forth in all its radiance. Within fields thick with vibrant grass frolicked the children of Abraxas, at harmony with themselves. Ideology and dogma hold no sway in these lands, strength being the only truth and only justice.

Such savage simplicity may seem shocking to those back home. Yet, in this realm, there is no need for war. No purpose for lies or intrigue; should a disagreement appear, the matter was soon settled by a death.

In my old age, I now know my time to be short. Despite the strength of soul I have fostered over my lifetime of turmoil, the grim spectre of death can be but delayed. I believe I shall return to this great land of my youth soon, and I've no plans to return. This will be the last you hear of me. Thank you.

-Letter to Cithlar discovered in his home, signed The Great Warrior Vagus

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After standing in thought for a moment after the departure of Leader Ghul, Prince Cain finally made his way towards the dungeon entrance. Nearby, his colleagues followed closely. The group proceeded in silence for some time.

"Magnus... do you think father predicted this outcome?" Prince Cain understood the ruthless nature of his father. For the King, any action that benefited the nation at large was justified. The carnage around him, however, gave him pause. While it didn't seem outside the realm of possibility that the King might allow many city guardsmen to die for the purpose of propaganda, this seemed excessive. Sloppy, even.

It was already widely speculated among the population that the dungeon was closed by the order of the royal family, due to how unusual of a choice it was and the fact that the First Prince was arriving. The scale of the damage here was too great to be forgotten, and even the most ignorant civilian would be able to put two and two together.

Magnus smacked his lips and scrunched up his face in thought. A rarity for the Great Magician to need to think before answering, thought Cain.

"No, something's wrong. This is not how it was supposed to happen..." Magnus' eyes began flickering rapidly in different directions as he paused in speech. Cain recognized this; a mnemonic device the Great Magician used when formulating a theory. He wasn't sure of the exact details, but it seemed to involve creating some sort of image using his magic to help organize his thoughts.

After a while, Magnus spoke again. "There are methods... to accelerate the germination of a dungeon. Cause them to produce much more nasties than usual. Of course, a bigger than usual wave would make your legend all the greater, but if I were to weight the relative value of your legacy against the economic significance of the city of Geltheas, and the risk of rumors..."

The indistinct voice of Sibilia floated into Prince Cain's ears, her form unseen. "Could this be a conspiracy by a foreign nation? Perhaps they took advantage of us arriving here, looking to both destroy Gletheas and lay the blame on the crown. Two useful goals accomplished with one act of espionage."

"But what nation? We have peaceful relations with all our neighbors." Prince Cain shook his head. While there were still many state secrets to which he was still kept in the dark, he was still being groomed to be the next king. He would definitely be informed of something like a cold war with a foreign nation. "Couldn't this instead be the plot of a demon? Or just some unfortunately timed natural phenomenon?"

"Or even the plotting of some lone madman," added Magnus. "Abyss, it could even just be another of the Great Enchanter's experiments gone wrong. He was always rather careless with exercising his power."

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"In my homeland," spoke up Shin in an uncertain tone, "there was... scholar, I think you say. She was a great expert on magic of moving. Portals. She had an idea for new kind. City was destroyed." Shin looked around at the battlefield, appearing unmoved by the death. "Country thought it was a plot of the neighbor. Great war started. Many deaths. At the end, we found it was just the scholar. Her mistake alone."

"Let's not jump to conclusions for now. I believe there's something else going on here, but we need more evidence to work with. We can't let ourselves arrive at the wrong conclusion. And, as painful as it is to consider, we can't ignore the possibility this was all part of the King's plan."

The group proceeded in silence the rest of the way to the dungeon entrance.

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Our fight being cut short was very convenient, thought Mud. The golem was certain it had lost that fight, having been split in half and nearly dying from Shin's attack. The fight had been rather one-sided, Mud and Ego both having their attacks blocked by some unseen force. Now at least they would have time to form a strategy.

Currently, Mud stood behind the row of soldiers that held back the waves of caterpillars. Floating above, and cloaked in arcs of electricity, a female human in a purple robe was picking off the higher tier magical beasts with precisely aimed bolts of electricity.

"Alright, our goal is to kill every living creature inside of this dungeon. Keep your own safety as your top priority. Do not descend to a depth beyond what you're able to handle. We'll be spreading out to cover more ground, so form groups."

Three individuals soon arrived at Mud's side. As expected, Novus and Jabrax were the first two. Less expected was Cob.

"Why are you here", asked Mud.

"What?" Cob placed his hands on his chest and acted offended. "Didn't you say I'm your friend now? Obviously we should work together." Looking off to the side, he flexed slightly. "Besides, I felt kind of bad for your team just being rookies. I've been delving for a while, so I can help you out." 

"What he means," commented Jabrax dryly, "is that nobody else will let him join their group."

"Nonsense! I could join any team I want." Cob's eyes drifted slowly over the surrounding crowd of delvers. Mud noticed that Cob's drinking buddies from the association were grouped with the bear Ursala and the strange jellyfish-like magical beast from the tournament. At some point, a runner had retrieved those few who were still hanging around the Association building instead of watching the tournament.

"Sure you could." Jabrax squinted at the uncomfortably squirming Cob.

"Excuse me..." Novus spoke up cautiously. "What kind of formation are we going to be using? Like what sort of tactics should we use?"

Before Mud could reply, Ghul called out over the crowd, which was now divided into small groups. "Alright, all of you with area attacks that can help clear out the hallway without wasting too many resources come forward."

Following the order, Mud slid forwards to the front, along with a few mages that Mud didn't recognize, as well as the fire magic user from the association. Thagi eyed Jabrax for a moment, as she stood back waiting with the crowd, but decided not to call out to her. Instead, he turned towards the surrounding group.

"Alright, try to kill as many as you can, but be absolutely certain not to injure allies, and don't waste too much mana or spirit. Got that?" During the part about injuring allies, the Leader's gaze was fixed on the fire mana user, who avoided his gaze.

A chorus of agreement came from the gathered mages. A moment later, the assault began.

Waves of fire, fogs of poison, and arcs of lightning split through the green mass. From Mud, a barely visible yellow mist spread outward; household magic tainted with the concept of a home free from pests.

Since they were now inside the Domain of the city Gletheas instead of the Domain of the dungeon, the spell Kill Pest was highly effective. Giant Caterpillar struck by the magic quickly began spasming and died. Corpse Worms enveloped flailed wildly, becoming ineffective in combat, although they were not killed outright. Other, larger beasts showed no apparent effect, and ignored the mist entirely.

An overwhelming flood of experience notifications appeared before Mud. The vast majority showed zero experience, but occasionally the golem would gain as few as one or as much as a dozen experience; partial credit from killing higher-tiered beasts. Although it had no visible effect, the mist at least counted enough to give some small credit.

Before long, the group was making steady progress forward, marching over a thick carpet of beast corpses. Those few that survived the onslaught of area attacks were quickly picked off by precision strikes from the more powerful fighters present.

Progress was swift, and the group soon arrived at the stairwell down into the dungeon. The stone spiral staircase was in ruins, crushed into debris. Considering the size of the Worm of the Tower corpse Mud had seen outside, it must have needed to destroy the stairs in order to reach the surface.

"Well, I could just jump but... do any of you magic types have a solution for this one?" Thagi turned towards the surrounding adventures.