Merlin arrived at the dungeon entrance with Wolfram in tow, soon the rest of the University members on this mission showed up quickly followed by Wolfram's generals and Elite soldiers.

Noting the missing member's Merlins mood became noticeably darker, Archmage Jacob along with a few of his loyal followers were missing. Ahri found her master and hurried over "whats happening" she softly inquired, loud enough that only Merlin could hear her speak.

He sighed then spoke to both Wolfram and Ahri "Archmage Jacobs has betrayed us, he is trying to take the dungeon core" causing Ahri to gasp in surprise before Wolfram added "he is likely working with the adventurer guild master that was sent to take over this area, I've found him missing when I searched for him earlier and I already have my men searching for him".

Ahri thought for a moment and tried to speak but nothing came out, observing his student's difficulty Merlin continued "The new adventurer guild master was sent by one of the Grand Dutchies. The adventurer guild does not partake in politics on the surface, but they are smart enough not to send people from different countries to oversee others guilds, the Nobles are always looking for a reason to meddle with the adventurer guild... sigh"

Ahri nodded in understanding the studied her master's eyes, Merlin seemed to understand and replied: "we are going to surround the entrance that's all". Wolfram didn't understand the girl's silent conversation interjected "Then what, won't they teleport out of the dungeon once they take the core", Merlin revealed a cold smile that sent chills down everyone that saw it and replied "That ungrateful brat never finished a book in all his life, he thought with the little amount of talent he had he could be arrogant".

His student was not phased by Merlins outburst and crossed her brows trying to convey her confusion. Merlin chuckled "did you know that you can't teleport inside a dungeon, or at least its a terrible idea to try. Did you also know that even after the dungeon dies or is removed the area is still protected against teleportation, That's something you read at the end of the book." revealing his wicked smile once more.

Meanwhile, Lucifer was observing the people entering the dungeon, he immediately noticed that almost everyone that entered had much larger mana signatures than normal. The adventurers would walk around the dungeon exploring, but Lucifer noticed that these people seemed to have difficulty traversing his dungeon, they slipped often and fell for simple traps on the second floor, he even found a group that was lost.

When Lucifer heard the bells he thought to himself "it's already started" while grinning to himself and thinking that it was a great idea to have a city built on top of the dungeon instead of claiming the land, the humans have already alerted him to a threat.

He flew into Salenias room only to find her in the middle of changing, without missing a beat he said "enemy's, lots of them, high leveled, good luck" before flying off again to prepare a few nasty surprises for these people.

Lucifer arrived at his destination, a small dark room above the first floor completely full to the brim with an unknown liquid, the room had several fire red gems that gave off a magical glow embedded into the walls, thousands of tunnels the size of a finger connected the room to small openings covered by meshes of leaves all over the dungeon.

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With a nasty grin he activated the gems embedded into the walls, immediately the gems gave off a stifling heat, the liquid started to simmer and release a gaseous substance to the sound of diabolical laughter.

One group was moving through the dungeon, as they stomped through the underbrush someone said "this is easy I don't know why adventurers die in places like this", another replied "I don't know maybe they get eaten by spiders" sarcastically, causing the first man to glare at him while the rest of the group laughed.

In the group there was a former adventurer who felt something was not right, he quietly spoke "something is not right, it's too quiet", his senses were screaming danger at him, the others simply laughed, "we have been in wars I don't think some boar is going to kill us haha".

After pushing past a layer of foliage they spotted a group of men in adventurer gear in battle formation facing them, The leader yelled "this is our spot go find fortune somewhere else", behind the group laid a dead creature with fur dark as night, blood pooled under the creature with some already congealed.

The first group looked at the adventurers then at each other and laughed then bellowed "It's quite dark here brother" while smiling. The leader of the other group looked confused for a moment but remained silent and said a simple spell to boost himself.

They waited for several moments for an answer, then suddenly pulled out crossbows that were already loaded and fired at the party's mage.

The mage didn't even have time to react before his barrier was broken by the siege crossbows, his body then was riddled with bolts tearing him apart before he could scream. seeing this the party leader roared then charged into combat, arrows flew towards the attackers between the time it took to reload the cross-bolts, the arrows deflected off the superior armor but, the archer was an experienced marksman and managed to score several hits in unarmored sections, dropping 2 men.

Now the group was no longer carefree as they watched 2 of their companions fall, they raised their crossbows and let off one last volley then drew their swords, the bolts were deflected by the party leader this time when he was prepared, only 1 managed to clip his allies side, but only managed to slow him down a step.

Melee combat ensued with the occasional arrow flying from a random brush, the party did not last long against the other group, with superior armor and more experience fighting humans the first group had the overwhelming advantage, a lucky arrow managed to kill several members before only the leader remained standing.

Breathing heavily the leader growled at his enemies as blood flowed out of his wounds, the archer long since left leaving him alone, unwilling to die like this he roared "Fucking soldiers take your wars elsewhere motherfuckers, you'll regret pushing adventurers this far", he then reached into his pocket and sprinted unguarded towards the group of men.

Before the group realised what was happening the man injected all of his mana into a gem in his pocket and crushed it with his hand, as the cracks in the mana gem crew it's instability reached critical levels, just as he reached the group the gem critically failed and released all of its energy at once, causing a massive mana explosion, the closest members simply evaporated the ones slightly father away were thrown across the dungeon floor slamming into trees and rocks with broken limbs and burst lungs. 

The only survivor was the man who chased after the archer, he walked to his injured comrades or the only ones he could find and couldn't do anything for them, potions could only heal so much and he was not a cleric.

Similar scenes played themselves all over the dungeon to Lucifers delight, he watched them killing each other and thought "hmm... they are getting rid of any witnesses or people who would fish in troubled waters. quite the vicious bunch, I like them" while he searched for the leaders of this attack. It did not take long because there was a group with huge mana signatures moving leasurly though the first floor.