A shabby figure in a black robe walked through the streets of Durkan, its every sensory stimulus channeled back to Toby, who was hanging around the figure's neck, as he was unable to distance himself from his acolytes further than two hundred meters.

He had escaped by throwing himself out of the window wrapped in a pillow, launched by his trusted acolytes. His first destination was a public library, he should learn what he needed and leave the city. Although Durkan had been recently heavily damaged, the security was too tight here for his liking and he would not be unnoticed for long.

His grand plans with drought and more were perfect, but he was no longer sure if he had enough luck to pull off something like that, considering his recent experience with bears. If the beast had not been too hungry and had actually chewed him . .

"No, I need something more realistic, something I can pull off." Toby knew saving rats and creatures of that sort would be useless. The way experience worked ensured that it was not possible to hoard experience points from small fry, if the level difference was too big, the yield was zero. "I need to save multiple creatures of resonable level to get something out of it."

Thinking about it this way, the idea with the drougth was not that helpful, were high level creatures dying because of thirst? Toby doubted that.

Could it be that he was actually pretty stupid in the end? No way! He was the hero elderly and little kittens looked up to!

The libraries were downright boring. No great restricted areas with secret techniques and spells, just simple shelves with books and that was it. Soon, he made a small pile for himself and brought it to one of the tables.

"Famous Dungeons"

"How To Became a Filthy Rich Adventurer Overnight?"

"Guide to Dungeoneering for Beginners"

"Adventurers, a Dead Occupation?"

"The Most Profitable Dungeons in The World."

"Terrible Dungeons"

Surprisingly, he had completely forgotten to be interested in what he was about to find out, the role dungeons and adventurers had in this world.

Dungeons were what he had expected them to be and popped around with no apparent reason, Toby immediately remembered a certain person with a lot of work and half-white-half-black hair. There were many types of dungeons and for common folk it boiled down to three types. First were the dungeons where monsters with precious loot were, those were quickly snatched and controlled by powerful players like the Magic Guild or empires, adventurers could forget about entering those. The poor dungeons were being milked gradually without being destroyed, or sometimes even fed if a dungeon's loot was precious enough.

Toby felt shiver ran down his crystalline spine. Enslaving dungeons was still slavery!

The second type were the dungeons that were not profitable enough to monopolize, those were the ones adventurers aimed for if they wanted something stable. Destroying these dungeons was frowned upon as well, as they provided the desperate few an opportunity to get the bits and pieces of loot that empires and other big players left. To monopolize them meant more negative public image from bullying the weak than profit for the big players.

The third type were dungeons that were dangerous for some reason and not profitable enough to offset the risk. Army was usually the one taking out these kind of places.

The one dungeon every adventurer wanted to find was the first one that was yet to be occupied. A part of Toby was sad that the inner fantasy fan in him had not found any kind of an adventurer's guild, the dungeon milking process being supervised by army most of the times and ordinary adventurers were closer to the people during the gold rush than anything else, some cowardly, some more brave and equipped for the job.

"I am probably not the first kind, but how to go about saving the fools?" Toby immediately gave up messing with any kind of army, he had to somehow support the fools attacking the second kind of dungeons.

"There is a lot to read about." Toby had a headache when he saw all the books and realized how many he should read.

He did what he could given his limited time, but before dark he made another spectacular pillow-paradrop to reach the ground level of the city and left it afterwards, armed with a map of many dungeons in the vicinity.

It was a shame he had been unable to track down the person on the painting, but there was nothing he could do about it considering Lara and Quin had no clue about him. It warmed him a little that the big old Durkan was still standing and his two former companions were somehow alive. He might integrate the city into his future empire, Toby did an imitation of a classic evil laugh, scaring a few local small birds.

However, Toby was happy to be out of the city, his acolytes were spectacularly inconspicuous and he had been frozen in fear of being found out half the time he was inside. It was a miracle he had not been caught.

"The most frequented dungeon by newbies should be The Wicked Garden, with the most common monster being a satyr." Toby shifted his mode of travel to his usual underground pace that had worked out oh so perfectly the last time he had been using it, but he still believed in its viability.

The dungeon was in the vicinity of the elven forest and Toby wondered how Faeldin was doing, probably not so great.

* * * *

Faeldin stared at the mural and felt eyes on his back.

It had to be them! The time was drawing near.

He checked the plan again in his head, there had to be no mistakes. He had even let his only relative he had to flee with that filthy demon. Yes, his double agent informed Tertius Decimus Allenheim and ensured the mage followed her, even a group of Mistglaives was after them to ensure the demon would not kill her. Still, to go to such lengths . .

He could not even properly inform anyone of the situation to make sure the damned trees were kept in the dark.

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He bit hard thinking of the despicable demonic trees and how he had trusted them at first! Yet, he was no fool and could see that they were canstantly trying to sabotage him and prevent him from strengthening the steal holding back the demon lords. During all those years of his life, he had come to know them without even hearing them once and began to yearn for the moment he would burn their cursed wood to ashes! The demonwood trees that were more demons than elves and worse, who chose to betray them in hopes of shrinking their duty away, selling them all to the very devils they ought to shield them from to gain profit.

He was disgusted, but it would not be long before everything would come to a close. Only a few preparations and Faeldin would be making his final move.

Finally, after all those years!

* * * *

Toby's acolyte and hereby Toby through his eyes were watching a clearing in a forest. He was at the outskirts of the elven forest and there was a dark portal with its edges shining with green light, a few people pacing back and forth in front of it. He remembered there were ordinary dungeons and spatial dungeons that had their own dimension, both types having their own advantages and downsides. In contrary to him, this dungeon seemed to be a spatial one. He would know more in time, as Toby had not yet digested all the books he had borrowed from the library.

"Hey, you!" One of the people suddenly called to him.

"They saw me!" Toby had not expected the homeless-looking people to be this sharp. He was about to ran away when he heard the man again.

"We need a spell caster, are you one?" The man shouted, probably judging him to be a mage based on the acolyte's attire.

"Yes." The acolyte responded and began walking closer to them. Toby had a degree of control over his minions, but it was far from perfect. He could speak for the acolyte as he hung around his neck, but it looked creepy to see the acolyre speaking without his lips moving at all.

But the fools might have mistaken it as a sign that he was a veteran mage and was boasting with his ability.

"What magic do you sepcialize in?" The man spoke again, probably the leader. Looking closer, his clothes was dirty and old, but looked very functional and well-made. He seemed to be a swordsman of some kind, having a longsword strapped to his belt. His face looked ordinary, unshaved with long brown hair.

"Summoning." Toby replied, because he naturally could not do a thing right now except of cooking up some skeleton warriors.

"Fine, more fodder to scout ahead is always good. I am Bran Wilcliff, a swordmaster." The guy shook the acolyte's hand. Something crunched, but the acolyte's face was serious and unmoved like a stone, so Bran paid it no heed.

"My poor acolyte! What a brute!" Toby complained invardly, his acolytes were really too squishy.

"Wait! I want to test out his summon, there is no more room for any freeloaders." Another similarly looking man stepped forth, flashing his eyes in the direction of a man with a rapier who just ignored him.

"Is this an all men party, are we going in as five men? Are they gay or something?" Toby was startled, this was a very unusual fantasy setting, where every time at least one girl was present. "Oh, I know, she is certainly hiding her secret identity!"

"Sure." Toby began producing his skeleton warrior. Luckily, the process seemed to look like a usual summoning, not rising the party's suspicion.

"I will test this bag of bones of yours!" The man from before who others called Percy attacked the [Skeleton Warrior], their weapon clashing with a loud clang. After a while, Percy's attitude changed a little, as the skeleton began to press on him more and more.

"Enough, you pass. This is enough! Stop the thing!" Percy began to panic a little to Toby's immense enjoyment, but he did not want to overdo it and commanded the skeleton to stop its attacks.

Toby estimated the fight would have probably been his minion's win if the match continued. After all, the warrior was not the most basic unit, but an advanced skeleton and this dungeon was not a difficult one. He had not expected to meet dangerous people here, he would not have dared to come here otherwise.

"You have some skills there, we can set out now." The leader commanded and the party moved, the man with a rapier with a wide smile on his face.

The party slowly ventured through the portal, they seemed to be made up from three swordsmen, one necromancer and one swordwoman who was currently hiding her secret identity!

Not Looking around much, Toby immediately summoned four skeleton warriors, the action which took him full two minutes. It felt awkward, like sitting on a toilet waiting for something to appear only to feel a tinge of happiness over something fairly unsurprising thereafter.

Now he had to only wait for the right moment to save the day, earning some hefty chunk of experience.

His heroic friends have not waited for some reason, leaving him far back in the entrance tunnel. They probably wanted to earn some merit after they had seen his minions.

Toby was not in a hurry, looking around the place. Truly, The Wicked Garden had a garden-like atmosphere, flowers and bushes of all heights and colors almost suffocating him with their abumdance. It was not like a sunny garden one would have imagined, it was rather dark with luminescent flowers of different kinds and colors all around, all the vegetation puzzling together a picture of deep rainforest undergrowth where no light reached all day long.

Toby moved forward like a moving fortress, his four warriors surrounding him on all sides. Accidentally, their steps synchronized and the sound of dead marching echoed through the narrow cave.

* * * *

"Hurry! He is right behind!" Percy panicked and the faces of the four gentlemen were not looking calm at all. "He can summon four of them, he is definitely PK!"

"He should not be a party killer, we do not look wealthy, why would he target us?" Bran tried to regain some control over the situation, but the spooky environment was not helping.

That moment, the sound of synchronized steps of the dead reached them, the sound bouncing off the walls of the cave, multiplying the steps until it gave an illusion of an army.

"Just for the fun of it! Have you seen his face? He is like a dead man himself! Crazy weirdo!" Percy was unconvinced and continued forward in a hurry, the others were unsure whether to let him run ahead, or to follow him. As the result, the party sped up and lost some of its cohesion and awareness, not noticing the trouble brewing.

* * * *

"Is this a speedrun or what?!" Toby tried to catch up, but the party ahead of him kept increasing their speed.

"Is this even safe to go this fast?" Toby wondered while the acolyte was jogging through the overgrowth. The party might have been regulars, doing speedruns in this dungeons, but the sudden shriek convinced Toby to think otherwise, it was definitely Percy.

"No! I am late! There is some saving to do!" Toby urged the acolyte to run faster and faster. The acolyte eager to obey his master tried to do even more than he was able to and tripped over a boulder when trying to jump over, the acolyte's run ending in multiple rolls on the ground, where he stayed sprawled with a broken leg.

The acolytes were really too squishy.

But he could not be interpersonated by a skeleton!

Toby heard more screams from far ahead.

"Screw it, I need that experience!!" Toby commanded one of the skeleton warriors to pick him up and the four dashed forward, while he was summoning the fifth warrior on the move.

He had to save at least some of them!

* * * *

"IIiiiiiiiiiaaaa" The inhuman squeak belonged to Percy, who while running ahead of everyone had had the honour to meet an extra sticky, giant spider web. A single monstrous spider appeared right away, turning the man totally rabid as he was screaming and flailing, making himself even more entangled. His three companions managed to arrive in time and kept the spider at bay, the one with red hair and a spear was particularly effective, harassing the spider with the spear's steel tip, threatening to hurt its numerous eyes.

Meanwhile Percy found a way to free himself, he stripped naked, leaving his clothes entangled in the web, cutting off his long hair right after.

The fight was in a stalemate, the situation changing only after Percy was able to move freely again, but for some reason, he was not doing much, just staring into the darkness from where they had come.

In the next second, five skeletons burst out of the bushes, their movements perfectly in tune with each other and Percy started to scream again.

* * * *

When Toby saw the situation, he knew immediately that Percy was not the one with the secret identity.

He was happy to know it was not him.

Most unfortunate was that the situation did not look like the party was in need of a saviour any longer and all Toby could do was to vent his rage on the monstrous spider. Ignoring the panicking party, he commanded the four skeletons to recklessly assault the beast. The spider looked dangerous, but it was outnumbered and skeletons were a bad match for it, as most of its attacks were penetrating and coated with poison, not speaking about spider's legs that were its inherent weakness once its opponent attacked with abandon.

[You have gained experience +100 , stolen through conquest from The Wicked Garden]

Toby and his minions stood frozen in place by the mindblowing line, ignoring the group of humans that were retreating fast for some reason, losing their resolve to continue with their adventure.

Toby could not care less, as the one line appearing briefly in his status changed everything!

He immediately returned to the description of his bonus abilities, to the crucial part and read it carefully.

You do not like killing, you care for lives of even little kittens. You won't receive any experience for killing, but you now receive experience for saving lives of all creatures.

"Why is. .. it is not killing when they are not alive! The creatures have been summoned the same way my warriors have been!"

With that one line, Toby's age of dungeon conquest began!