Corruption of the dungeon: 40%

Holy light was surrounding me, comforting me.

‘Why did you abandon us?’

The voices in my head caused by that damned orb were still there but they were getting weaker with each passing second.

I was sitting cross-legged surrounded by 3 healers who were pouring their [Holy Healing Light] into me. I felt the darkness of corruption within my body… breathe in, grab hold of that darkness… breathe out. I coughed… a dark smoke came out of my mouth.

Corruption of the dungeon: 37%

As the corruption cleared, it started getting easier to clear it as well. I could think… I ignored the memories and visions that tried to swim into focus.

Rox was keeping me updated on the battle. Things were not perfect, but we were definitely winning. Levine’s team had been pulled into attacking the golem… I say attacking, the 200 fastest were responsible for distracting it by running around it while striking. It was too slow to attack them properly but any attack would give them in one hit so they were running around furiously. It was simply to stall the golem from wrecking the lines we had.

Max’s team was firmly defending against the wraiths and shadowspawn. The continuous light of holy magic shone throughout the troop as it was needed to fend off the wraiths. Which was troublesome because they would falter once the mana ran out. Thus the holy attribute hares and other summons were taking doing a rotation, taking turns. This unfortunately meant that the speed at which the wraiths were being destroyed was minimal.

Corruption of the dungeon: 35%

I could feel a rising heat within my body. As if it was starting to recognize the foreign intrusion and had started to fight against it.

Corruption of the dungeon: 33%

By now the golem had finally reached the defensive line which… was a disaster. A single strike broke through the ranks, killing 2 defenders and sending those around them tumbling into the air. Max started moving the defenders out of range in an organized retreat.

The Rank D army from our side was still busy tying down the trolls, yet at the same time, they tied us down as well.

Eva and Starla were really showing their worth as they were responsible for more than half the casualties inflicted upon both wraith and shadowspawn.

Corruption of the dungeon: 31%

With the tactical retreat, the shadowspawn managed to find a gap and charged into our ranks. They killed off more than 3 dozen troops only losing a dozen of their own.

Corruption of the dungeon: 30%

Too bad the corruption wasn’t an injury that could be healed with my regeneration skill. Perhaps when it evolves further it’ll also work for something like this… an attack on the soul.

The voices were quiet now. I could feel my body coming back under control… I breathed deeply. I could feel the holy light around me. I breathed in as much holy mana around me as I could then pushed it everywhere throughout my body. Then using my connection I sent it into the corruption in the dungeon crystal.

Corruption of the dungeon: 25%

Black smoke started to leak out from my body. My body was finally starting to reject such an awful poison to it. The dungeon crystal too started to rumble and shine with light. The light started piercing the into the darkness of corruption around me.

Corruption of the dungeon: 12%

The voices… I would hear them again soon enough, but not these corrupted poisonous voices, but the true voices of my friends.

It was funny, out of the special summons I had summoned out, almost all of them were creatures… all the humans seemed to be locked away till after the creatures were summoned. Perhaps one of the Gods idea of a joke. That wasn’t to say there weren’t any. There was a bandit team following Levine around and a group or swordsman following Tolk. There were even a dozen mages with Eva and Starla.

It had turned out that we were in the beastman continent, hence why all the adventurers we had seen till now were all beastfolk or birdfolk… or a lizardfolk like this shadowmancer attacking our dungeon. So this would actually be the first time humans were summoned to this part of the world in quite a while.

Corruption of the dungeon: 1%

Full clearance of corruption impossible until Shadowmancer and Dungeon Master ‘Tarkis’ is defeated and all his monsters expelled from your dungeon crystal.

I could focus again. I opened my eyes, gazing out at the battle field. It was a strange sight… the floor was uneven, make of blue crystal like material, yet it was sharp like a cut gem. The sky was filled with motes of light that was the mana that was being used in the battle shooting and floating in the sky.

The golem had reached the defensive line again… This time Max showed off his brilliant leadership as well as how much he has progressed as a fighter. He got the defensive line to part, although one such fighter wasn’t fast enough and got smashed from the golem’s fist. But when that fist descended Max led a 10 of his squirrel troops running, scampering up the arm of that massive construct. This confused the golem and it passed before carrying on with its previous order. This allowed Max and his team to start attacking the golem’s head.

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Levine’s team had started to try and attack the shadowmancer himself, splitting the agility team into several smaller mobile groups that continually attack the flanks.

The shadowmancer’s weakness was starting to show. Weakness number 4: he is alone, no smart subordinates, while I have a great team ready to adapt at their own discretion.

He is probably in the same position as me, out of mana to summon more troops to the battle. Except I summon better quality troops. Weakness number 2: Relies on the system. Yes he relied too much on simple numbers from the system, but one Rank E is not worth another Rank E. There are differences between them. Thus although our army make up was similar, hell he had an edge with that damn golem of his, he lost out due to the edge I had with my better same class Rankers.

Mistakes in his judgement were starting to show through. Instead of drawing his defensive shadowspawn together and sending the wraiths after Levine to harass him, he brought in a few of the Rank D trolls to defend his flank. I guess he felt threatened enough to bring his strongest troops back to defend him. Although unfortunately he still sent his golem forward.

That is the wrong move though… now the trolls which had stalemated my own Rank D troop was starting to be pushed back. All it would take was for a single one to fall and it would be like a domino effect.

Max’s attacks had confused the golem, he kept some of the squirrels in front of the golem’s head to block its sight. With the slowness of its attacks and the reduced accuracy, the rest of the troops could easily outmaneuver it.

The shadowmancer may have outranked us, but he couldn’t use the power properly, didn’t optimize the strength of his subordinates. And how could he? They were all puppets under control of his shadows. His advantage was lost when he lost his numbers advantage.

My only fear was if he still had more of those explosive orbs. He had used hundreds already, some outside the dungeon crystal’s battlefield and even more inside using them to strengthen his troop and to summon the golem.

The golem inside the dungeon battlefield was even larger than the one that had beaten the First Floor Boss Room trio.

I stood up. The troops responsible for defending me looked at me.

‘I think it’s time I went to go greet this fucker, don’t you guys agree?’

Even though these were new summons, they seemed to understand the stakes for this fight. I didn’t make eye contact with the dozen humans standing with the group… I wasn’t ready for that yet. That could come after the fight.

‘I invoke the power of the contract.

All contractees, lend me your power.’

A Rank C mage. I will test your power.

The power of [Contract] has been invoked.

The power flows between contractor and contractee.

7989 current contractees can be found

Calculating stats

Highest contractee Rank is Rank D

Stats overflow - stat increase will be capped

Empowering to the limit of Rank D class – total stats raised to 250

Your agility has increased by 50

Your strength has increased by 50

Your intelligence has increased by 50

Your magic power has increased by 50

Your stamina has increased by 50

This effect will last for 24 hours or until this skill is cancelled

Cooldown will be for 72 hours

I felt the power of everyone coursing through me.

‘Everyone! 500 of you, go help take down that golem! The others follow me! We’re heading straight for the shadowmancer!’

As we charged, Part of Max’s group linked up with us. The shadowmancer seemed to have changed to a defensive tactic, only using wraiths to attack with sneaking attacks. This meant his casualties went down and his counterattacks were effective, whittling away at our numbers. However, the change in tactic meant we now controlled the battlefield.

The 500 strong group rushed towards the golem and I left them under Max’s command who was still attacking the golem while scrambling across the body. It had appeared the shadowmancer didn’t know how to save the golem so had given it orders to attack regardless of those attacking it. But that reduced its effectiveness by a large margin. It wasn’t a threat right now, dealing with it using agility was the right way but its high defense meant we couldn’t destroy it either.

We ran around the defending shadowspawn.

‘Tolk, launch an attack from the other side, we’ll go in for a pincer attack.’

‘Eva, aim your magic attacks on the two sides we’re about to be charging towards, afterwards, help Max neutralize the golem.’

‘Levine, start attacking the flank again, strip off as much of the shadowmancer’s protection as you can.’

‘Rox, take charge of Max’s defensive line and keep the wraiths occupied!’

Things were coming to a head.

The sudden changes in all of my army caught the shadowmancer by surprise. He hurriedly tried to move his defenses in responses to Levine’s actions, then noticed the impending pincer attack so tried to retreat while moving his defenses to respond to that as well.

Weakness number 1: he prepares well, but can’t adapt to things outside his expectations.

He couldn’t adapt to our movements, couldn’t move his troops as fast as I moved ours.

So with the sound of metal striking and the hum of skills, Tolk’s team and my group both crashed into the sides of the defending shadowspawn.

The shadowspawn had two major advantages when fighting, they didn’t fear death, nor did they feel pain being puppets. They were slightly weakened physically but gained magical defenses from the shadows. Their weakness was they needed to be commanded. And thus the skills of the one commanding them were paramount.

As my team bit into the side of the defending shadowspawn, the shadowmancer caught a glimpse of me headed in his direction. His eyes widen in shock. He didn’t expect me to be able to heal from the corruption. A novice dungeon with powerful holy healing spells? Not likely without specializing in it.  Weakness number 2: underestimates his enemy. I don’t think things would have carried on going our way if once the mana on our side’s magic team

Of course he didn’t remain still, bringing forth even more of those blasted orbs. I don’t know what he was going to summon.

By now my group had pierced into the side while the shadowmancer was performing some new skill. I smiled grimly, with his focus now on my approach his army had lost some effectiveness in control. I was separated from him by 2 rows of shadowspawn and a troll…

‘Charge! Heavy hitters, break the defense line ahead of us! Fire skills on the troll, burn it!’

I knew it was not a good gamble but I wanted to reach the shadowmancer before he finished his lengthy spell.

It was in vain, fuck! He was summoning another one of those golems! This one looked like the one that he used to attack the boss trio from the first floor. It was weaker than the one occupied by Max’s team but it was not to be taken lightly.

Our group had blasted the defense lines and that left us to deal with the troll. This troll was dangerous, it wasn’t as strong as the golem, nor were its defenses as stellar, its rank was lower as well… but it was faster, and that made a world of difference.

I made a decision… And ordered the team with me.

’Those on the left, attack the troll! Those on the right, prepare to distract that golem. Everyone in the middle, follow me! We’re charging towards the shadowmancer!’

It was a rush, we charged into the depths. It was do or die, if our momentum fell, we would be surrounded and crushed without our allies being able to come rescue us. But ee had to take that chance. The shadowmancer was having difficulty summoning the golem. I smiled grimly, his mana was draining fast.

And then…

I was through. I stood facing the lizardman mage before me as I ran towards him, sword ready to slash.

I heard a growl as he had to halt his summon as he made a motion in the air and a staff appeared in his hands with a burst of darkness. Atop that staff was a black orb that seemed to draw in the light around it.

He lifted the staff in my direction. I felt a moment of crisis as I dove to the side. A bolt of dark energy shot from the staff hitting one of my group as well as one of the shadowspawn fighting behind me. Filthy bastard, he used all his creatures and summons like tools.

I needed to get closer to him. Only 2 fighters had made it with me close enough to threaten the shadowmancer. I signaled and all 3 of us charged from 3 different directions.

I was waiting for a chance.

He was a Rank C, but I had a feeling he wasn’t a stat ranker. His battle powers revolved around those orbs he carries in a seemingly infinite amount.

But a mage in close quarters with a melee fighter is in trouble unless his reaction time is good.

I wasn’t classed as a melee fighter… but he didn’t know that.

Know thy enemy shadowmancer! Know thy enemy!

One of my group reached him from behind on the right, swinging a shortsword with a dark red light of a skill on its surface. In response the shadowmancer struck his staff on the ground a briefly a ball of shadow appeared around him. Once the sword struck, the ball disappeared but the swordsman was blown away by the recoil. I narrowed my eyes at this.

The second fighter held an axe. He lept into the air striking down as hard as he could, again the orb of darkness surrounded the shadowmancer…

This time I waited. I held a dagger in my hand. As soon as the axe hit the orb, the axeman was blown away… and I struck! I threw the dagger as fast as I could.

It flew through the air. The shadowmancer frantically raised his staff to try and deflect it.

There was a time latency between skill uses! And it probably used a decent amount of mana.

I had one more dagger.

This time I got close enough to strike out, so I whipped my sword in an overhand arc. He wasn’t good at melee fighting being a mage…

The orb of darkness left around him as my sword struck but…

I had let go of the blade. The recoil sent it flying far away. Too far away for me to reach it if this didn’t work.

‘You… you… bastard…’

My face was close to his. As I stared at him, I watched his eyes lose the spark of life, slowly fade from the world of the living.

The sound of fighting slowly stopped as the controller of the army died. In his chest was my dagger, plunged right into his heart.

I sat down. Only now did I notice how tired and painful I felt. I looked across my body. I had a cut alongside my ribs from a goblin shadowspawn. My left arm had the remains of frost on it, looking a little bitten… from some skill I don’t even remember. Cuts and tears all over me.

I breathed out deeply. We… had won!