Drenvar POV: (IK if you don’t like it, but bear with it as it drives the plot forward.)
A week has passed since, and I prepared myself for the live interview, as I requested it this way so my plan could move more smoothly. Not only that, I also brought some people from the raiding party who had connections to higher places, and their identities are extremely sensitive.
They participated in this raid to get the title, as they never fought and were always in the backlines enjoying the show in front of them.
Soon I walked up with my former teammates to the podium with the host and started talking about our experience of the dungeon.
“May I ask you, Drenvar, why did this situation happened and what was the reason you called off the raid?” Asked the host, as many people were curious as not much news was shared with the public around the raid, only it was a failure.
“I… I felt if we continued this raid we would suffer even more losses, and it was not worth it as many people died, and we didn’t even see the Fourth Floor Boss at all.” I remember the faces of all the people who died, and I even showed in my voice the regret and guilt I felt towards them.
“Of course, this jeopardized my future, as I might not be a raid leader anymore, which is a great regret and relief.” I continued with this after a short pause.
“Great relief of giving up such a great position?” The showmaster was surprised, as many people would kill for this position no matter what.
“Of course, relief, as I don’t have to see the people under me die because of my poor leadership.” I could only look down and express my embarrassment and hope I gained the sympathy of the people.
“I tried very hard to be a good leader and watch out for threats, but there were people who obstructed me.” I did not say it but looked at the two other people with a glance, many people saw this, and the two of them too.
They did not want to speak up as this would confirm them, so they tried to be quiet, but I used my skill on one of them, which was the crying mask.
Of course, but if everyone feels sympathy with me, right, then why would they flare up at me? If I don’t need them to believe me, I just flare up their emotion of sympathy, which makes them confused inside and makes their emotional outburst easier.
“What do you mean we obstructed you? This is a blatant conspiracy against us! You had full authority in the raid.” He flared up, and his other teammate was shocked that he fell for it.
“Of course, you obstructed me by calling your people over to protect you, and the defensive line was always at risk of breaking.” I could only get up and look at him with an angry expression as I pointed at him.
My skill effect did not disappear completely as he was angry, and all I need is for him to be angry all the time.
“Of course, I need protection. I am the sole heir of the Golden Dragon Guild.” He did not realize what he said was live and many people saw it, but it did not last long as the show was terminated.
Soon I was escorted out and got scolded for what I did and got fired from my guild, but do I care? No, why?
My goal was to plant the seed of doubt in the people as they got outraged at the guild first.
This will not bring any social difference at first glance but will set off the first domino of the inevitable results.
Small steps at first.
It did not take long for this to spread far and wide as the Golden Dragon Guild's public image worsened, and they are trying to do everything to keep up their mask at all costs.
Just as I was walking on the street with the look of a person who lost everything, a swarm of people surrounded me. I was surprised by them.
“Mr. Drenvar, is that true? You got fired from your guild?” Asked one of the reporters who was the first one to come here, and others listened and did not speak so they could get some interesting stories.
I did not speak for a few seconds but nodded slightly. Soon cameras flashed and recorded my nod.
Soon many questions bombarded me, but I answered them all with a look of frustration building up on my face as everyone could see I was angered.
I pointed at one of the reporters.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“You can ask me the last question, as I am not in a good mood anymore, as I got fired and need to find a new job, and I don’t even know where I can live at all,” I said with a hoarse voice as my eyes got bloodshot.
“Mr. Drenvar, why do you think they fired you?” Said the reporter I pointed at.
“They fired me not because they wanted to but beacuse they were forced to, as other guilds did not like my goal at all.” With this sentence, I clearly showed a hint of tears as I left the reporters.
Hearing this vague answer, they could spin this how they want. The empire did not care about the news as long as they did not criticize the empire.
Soon articles popped up about how the big guilds would rather see people suffering than clear dungeons, and the one who got the most attacks was the Golden Dragon Guild, as they openly admitted this.
The Golden Dragon Guild was forced into raiding the mutated dungeon, aka the Dungeon of Terror.
They had to conquer this dungeon no matter the cost, as they could not fire the chairman's son.
So they had to put the chairman's son in the raid to show everyone he had a big heart but was just impulsive and was a greenhorn. Those people were explicitly hired, and other guilds were also informed about these bodyguards.
The hot potato landed in the Golden Dragon Guild's hands. If they give up on the dungeon raid, they will be forever marked as a guild that doesn’t care about the people.
This would make it harder for them to recruit new members as the majority of their people were commoners.
Not only do they get marked, but the other guilds will be under pressure to never let such a dungeon prosper.
Just as this all happened, another news shocked the people.
The area infected by the dungeon expanded to double its previous size, from 7 meters to 14 meters.
This put the Golden Dragon Guild in a position where the more they delayed, the worse the situation got, as the empire too started paying attention after all. Never had something like this happened, and it must be stopped.
If the empire were to intervene, it would be catastrophic for the Guilds.
But the Empire gets priority before the guild, so why not solve this whole matter when raiding dungeons? It is a farce put up by the empire, as it has no interest in using its soldiers, and the majority of the people it uses are criminals sentenced to life or freelancers.
But once it intervenes, it would take people from the guilds directly, and they cannot refuse it, otherwise, destruction would be their end.
Even if they had to pay a heavy price, they had to conquer this dungeon, otherwise, they would be dead, and worse, the guilds would lose their power in the empire, as their words are already weak, and the empire's military would be much stronger than them. If not for the current emperor being merciful and caring about people's opinions, they would long be brought down.
This would be a great excuse for the military to make a move before the emperor gives his words so they can gain the greatest benefit.
So the Golden Dragon Guild, being pressured by other guilds, was forced to commence the raid in a week.
***
As I was playing with the centipede, I felt many people coming into the dungeon after a full week of almost no one coming into the dungeon.
Soon I saw them have the same symbol on the body, a dragon head made out of gold.
Man, such an expensive suit would go for a lot in my previous life, but money no longer mattered to me as I could manifest all kinds of rare gems with a wave of my hand.
I saw them moving together like the previous raid party, and I felt bored, but once someone was injured, they would go to the back lines to get treated.
They mowed this floor extremely quickly as all of them reached the maximum level, and I felt they could reach the Fourth Floor Boss easily as they had intel about the previous raid fighters' experience.
Still, I was not scared, from the looks of it, they were not prepared at all for an ocean floor, as they did not bring any equipment good for hunting down monsters in the water or diving equipment.
The second floor, after knowing the weakness of the monsters and realizing there were parasites, quickly became hell on earth as everything was burned to the ground, and even the strong blizzard couldn’t calm down the raging fires.
They started with around 460 people and have around 400 combat-ready people.
Experience changes how they attack dungeons.
Now they know the Dungeon Floor Guardians' weakness, and with a clear strength difference, they roll them easily.
The third floor this time did not get them as many casualties as they learned their lesson by having the tanks stop the Floor Guardian and the mages bombarding it.
Still, they paid a painful price as the Guardian, using its wings, flew over the tanks when it got irritated by the mage's constant attack, resulting in a massacre among the mages.
They had around 280 people combat-ready for the next floor, but instead of head charging into the next floor, they waited for reinforcements.
With that, they departed to the Fourth Floor.
The Fourth Floor soon became a battlefield between the skeletons and the humans. The humans built their base around the staircase leading to a big hill of skeleton remains. Once in a while, one or two skeletons slipped through the net, resulting in unforeseen consequences.
Like a much bigger skeleton bursting out from the pile of bones and charging into the crowd of people.
Looking at the situation, I have doubts they can conquer the Floor at all.
Soon they had no choice but to retreat and wait for everyone to recover and call for additional reinforcements, but I could see dark clouds rising on top of people's heads, and the leaders of these guys also started getting more and more demonic as they barely cared about their people and more about their possession.
I don’t know what happened, but a fight broke out between the people who came in, as they instead of joining with these guys had a fight. This suddenly spiraled out of control, and the reinforcement of around 120 people fought with the worn-down people who fought in the dungeon for hours.
Well, I don’t need to say who won in the end, as you can guess it.
I saw the leaders being tied up if they were alive and being extremely crazy while the people under them were stripped of their weapons as all of them were escorted out of the dungeon.
Such a crazy turn of events. Not knowing why this happened, as before they were pretty cooperative, being meat shields in the past raids.
But I did not know what crazy events this led to and how much chaos followed after this.