Just as I took care of the centipede, I got bored fast, as what I saw was a carry frenzy of people slaughtering the monsters on the third floor without touching the first and second floors at all, and every loot they gathered was immediately brought out, so not even a fight between groups was happening, and instead of swords, people were bringing pickaxes with them into the dungeon.
Shrugging as they did not try to kill me I did not care, as this would result in more fights between themselves, as the loot in the dungeon would become rarer, and more infighting meant more people would betray their teammates for the money they could gain.
And like what I guessed happened, people started fighting against each other once it turned out the loot on the Floor dwindled with their constant harvesting of it. The monsters respawn only when all humans die or leave the dungeon, but based on the monster's strength, it will need some time to respawn, with the Cyclops needing the most time, as it takes 6 hours for one to respawn.
The gems, on the other hand, will not respawn with the arrival of new humans but need a long time of mana nourishing. This process is what I speeded up last time, so there can be many gems, but now that I no longer speed it up resulted in fewer gems being created and fewer and fewer gems are in it, so the infight became even crazier.
Not caring about it, as the time approached for me to enter this ball.
I prepared myself for it as I did not trim my clothes, as I would arrive there with my pajama clothes, never mind, I always wear them even in my sleep. (pajama = pajama)
With no change in my clothes from my white shirt and black pants, a portal appeared in front of my room.
Do I need to bring any gifts with me? Oh well, they should have said it before inviting me.
As I stepped inside the portal, the world changed around me as if I was traveling in a high-speed train, and soon it stopped, and I arrived in a field full of weeds.
No one greeted me or said where I should go, but soon other demons arrived shortly after me.
I saw many of the same realms as me arriving, but others too, and they each brought a servant with themselves.
Why bring a servant with you in the first place?
I could ponder their stupidity. You don’t need to eat as the dungeon mana nourishes you.
Just as I thought the ones who hosted this party had forgotten about us, the area around us changed to a medieval dining room.
Each table had one chair with it, but there were several ones with many chairs with it and extremely fancy plating. I even found my name on a table that was made the farthest from all other tables, which had a single chair for me only.
I sat down as I observed the other demons as they sat down too.
Some looked similar to humans but had bat wings with purple skin, others were jelly-like creatures with eyes in their bodies, and others were like golems with red cracks all around their bodies.
I observed that the table with more chairs was prepared for the people who brought their servants with them, and they looked strong as I occasionally felt their aura leaking.
How can I tell a person's strength by their aura? Each demon has a skill called the Demonic aura, and this aura gets stronger each time you cross a major realm from Lesser Demon to Common Demon.
Lesser Demons have no rights in anything, not as common Demons have, but common Demons were at least treated as demons, while Lesser Demons were treated like garbage on the roadside that you can kick anytime.
From what I heard from the occasional chatting, I realized other demons did not see each other's information like a system, so it is likely only for me, as I could see some of their skills and stats, but those stronger than me, like Greater Demons, who I see sitting in the middle, only have ??? in their panel.
No demon came to my table as I was a lesser demon, and I saw other lesser demons going to high-ranking demon's tables to please them at any cost.
How do I know if I can’t feel their aura, which one is high-ranking?
There are patterns on their table clothing, with mine being a chicken head while the Common Demons had a cow, the high-ranking one’s lamb, and there was one table empty with a goat head.
What a childish design, I must say.
Just then I felt a gaze on me when I thought about it from somewhere. Do they read minds? Not likely, more likely they felt me looking down on their taste.
Soon bells rang, and many demons returned to their tables from the stairs that were in front of the tables and chairs that were seated in such a way that everyone could see the staircase no matter what happened.
Soon creatures in different shapes and looks appeared, all holding silver plates with food on them.
Looking at the food, it looked back at me as they served the food to me, but I did not start eating as other demons did not start either.
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Soon I could hear high heels hitting the ground as a woman of otherworldly beauty descended it.
I mean otherworldly, as I can never imagine such a hideous creation, it even made me feel what gave birth to such a creature.
Its face was made up of countless tentacles, each with an eye, and connected to a single torso, but her skin was made up of countless human nails.
Her clothes were at least normal as they were made out of human skin with eyeballs dangling from it.
I could only sigh at why I even came here, as I could see the suckering gazes of demons here as they were ready any second to please the woman who descended the stairs.
Soon a high-pitched voice came from the woman that sounded like nails were dragged on a chalk table. My ears were about to bleed from her sound.
Other demons were mesmerized by this voice, but I was not, rather, I hope it ends as fast as possible.
“On behalf of the owner of the Dungeon of Desire, I welcome you all.” Said the woman who turned out to be just a dungeon monster.
“Many of you are new here, as at least half of the demons here are ones born in the last 3 years.” Said as she stopped and looked towards the Lesser Demons area.
“This ball was held every year, but 4 years ago the previous owner who held this ball sadly died by those insects, and our Dungeon Lord took on the responsibility of holding this ball.” Said the woman, the disappointment in her voice was obvious, as she likely had feelings towards that demon lord who was killed by the humans.
“Well, let’s not remember the sad past but look forward to the present as we brought you a great feast, and later some other elite demons will appear in this banquet as we got notices from Hell.” Said the woman as she bowed, then went back up the stairs, and other demons started eating, but not everyone ate.
Like me, I can see the food blinking at me. I might be crazy, but not so crazy as to eat such food.
Shaking my head from the thoughts of eating it, I looked around the hall, and I saw some other demons not eating, but they were all lesser demons, as the demons from common and above even if forced ate the food presented on their tables.
Soon this farce was over, and the woman came down after all the plates were taken away, and I got an angry glance from the one bringing my food away as if I wasted some divine food. I would rather eat junk food than this, as I tasted it, and it tasted like charcoal.
Who can even eat such a thing? No wonder people suffered even eating it.
I thought maybe the taste was better than the look, and oh boy, how wrong I was.
This also made my mood much worse as I could hardly wait to go back and see people screaming in agony or betraying each other and having desperate looks.
“I thank everyone who attended our banquet.” With a bow, the woman paused what she wanted to continue, and once risen and finished bowing, she said.
“Everyone must be curious about what Hell told us, and sadly it is not as great news as Hell decided it is not worth having so many Dungeon Lords here, and their numbers have to be trimmed down. We first eliminated those who did not wish to come here as they were uncooperative with us.”
The woman said this without hesitation as different creatures' heads rolled on the ground.
“Secondly we will take out those who did not show any respect towards higher-ranked demons.”
Soon many demon heads exploded who all tried to please higher-ranking demons beforehand, and even common demon heads exploded. Looking around, I saw the hall full of blood the higher-ranking demons were shocked as they did not expect even common demons to die, I bet even they did not expect it at all.
Looking at the dead demons, I can see many who did not eat the food that was served to them, and I guess that is also a form of respect that you must eat the food that was served to you.
“With the trash cleaned, we can start our real banquet.” As she said it, we got teleported to another place, and not like the medieval theme, this was more luxurious, like a modern hall from Earth.
There was no ceiling, rather, it was the starry sky that illuminated the hall.
In the middle, the ground was raised much higher. I can see 4 other figures at one table as they talk with each other and do not even cast a glance towards us.
Soon I felt an aura descend on us as it was forcing us to kneel no matter who it was. I could see even the people at the table of the center kneeling as they crushed the table with what they ate, and I could see a person coming in, and behind him was a steward.
The people at the table did not even glance as they did not show any furious expression but rather said.
“We pay respect to his highness.” They said in unison and with a feverish look of zealously as they looked toward the man who came in.
You can see he was a demon as he had purple skin and bat wings, but unlike the ones who were common and lesser demons, he had several horns on his head, each being in different colors.
I was surprised to hear his highness. From what I know, demons can’t have offspring from each other, so they need to have other creatures as their partners, but then those people became outcasts from both groups, as no one wanted to acknowledge them as part of their race.
So not only must he be half demon, but his parent might be extremely strong considering how these elite demons are kneeling, and I, too, but I can feel it was not from him but the gem around his neck.
That gave off an aura that forced us to kneel.
“Did you all clean up the useless trash?” Said the young man as he looked at the Elite Demons.
One elite demon looked like a golem, and unlike the ones down there who had red cracks, this one had blue cracks all around his body and a human face with blue gems as his eyes.
“I cleaned them up already, your Highness, according to your instructions.” Said as he awaited his reward for doing such a great feat, and other elite demons only cast envious glances at him.
“Good work. I will reward you later, but now we have more important things to do.” With that, he said he manifested a chair out of thin air and sat down facing all of us and not releasing his aura that forced all of us to kneel.
I wanted to hit his face as he wasted my time with such a farce, but I couldn’t move at all.
Who cares if he is a prince of a high-ranking demon? I can live forever, and even if he imprisoned me for a long time, it is nothing compared to being imprisoned in a room for 88 years and not even hearing the sound of other people screaming. At least at the place, I would be imprisoned, I could hear their screams.
“With you all here, let me tell you what Hell planned to conquer this world after an all-too-long time passed with no progress forward.” Said the young man with an unhappy expression of being sent here.
“Hell wants to fasten up the corruption of this world, so from now on all dungeons limits on how many people can enter it will be lifted, so you all have to prepare yourselves.” The man said this without blinking, but many people hearing this felt a chill going down their backs.
What stopped many humans from conquering new dungeons instantly and gave dungeons a chance to grow was the limited number of people entering the dungeon.
I can sign in relief as even if the numbers do go up, they most likely won’t attempt to clear my dungeon, as the Floor Guardians can still lock down floors so no one can come in to reinforce it, and the second Floor Guardian is perfect for this job to stop humans from using large numbers, as having more people will likely result in more people infected and strengthening the already strong Boss to another level entirely.
But clearly, he did not stop at this as he said more shocking news.