Chapter 300 – News Spreading.

‘There they go.’

A large group of people pushed towards the dungeon entrance as if there had never been a tier 3 monster there. Roland was looking at the people pushing each other out of the way in an almost frantic frenzy. Arthur and Aurdhan ran out of excuses to make the people wait. There was also the problem of many adventurers running out of money along with people in the city. No one could afford to let the dungeon sit there without adventurers in it. The whole city depended on the materials coming from it.

‘At least they won’t allow everyone to enter into the lower levels, for now, this will keep the city afloat and give us more time. But it won’t take long for people to find out…’

His gaze was drawn to a dwarf that he remembered. It was Wedamir the party member that he encountered along with Armand during the Lich crisis. He was the one that probably spilled the beans about the hidden mining area. Together with him, he could see many other dwarves, one, in particular, was the Enchantsmith belonging to the union. If he was there, then they were probably attempting to find the hidden entrance. Considering that Roland found the entrance as a Runesmith, bringing an Enchantsmith along wasn’t a bad idea.

‘I’m not sure about Enchantsmith… he shouldn’t be able to get through he runes but the class isn’t that much different, if he can actually see the traces of the runes will be enough for them to figure it out.’

While the dwarf there would probably not be able to open up the runic passages, he might be able to pinpoint where they were. Afterward, it would be as simple as bringing a proper runesmith over to do the work for them. It wouldn’t be strange for them to have already called for backup from their union headquarters branch. One such existed in the main city on this large volcanic island.

‘They might even have other means of getting in there that I’m not aware of… I can’t rule out that possibility.’

Roland turned away from the swarm of people entering the dungeon as he had just come out of it a few hours ago. The day that he had to give up the mine was something he had come to terms with. His plan was to turn it over to the authorities after reaching tier 3 but he wasn’t that far off now. There was still some time left for his grind, before the announcement was made official he had some more time.

‘Things are going to get bothersome from now on but I need to continue, it will become a lot harder after other tier 3 adventurers come to the city.’

At the time the most danger found in the dungeon were the tier 3 skeletons. However, without being able to pass through the opening he created, killing them was rather easy. This would change after people capable of slaying them started arriving in the city. The monsters inside the dungeon were easy to predict, this wasn’t the same for actual people who could stab him in the back.

When they formed a group of tier 3 adventurers the danger became very real. At the time being, he was a big fish in a small pond but soon things might change. Before this city was overrun by these powerful individuals he needed to become one of them, it was something required for his own survival. It wasn’t strange for people to vanish from dungeons, it was quite common. He had first-hand experience with this as he had left the fencer to be absorbed by the dungeon all those years ago. It was the perfect spot to clear out old grudges.

‘Just six more levels, I really hope that last skill is worth it…’

One of the reasons he was waiting to max out his tier 2 Runic Engineer class was to get the last skill. At the moment he had actually gotten some handy class-specific skills, some were better than others, the region skill, for instance, was quite handy and did point him toward one specific battle path. If he could control multiple machines from a range, he might as well create some minions to aid him in battle.

‘Even the salvage skill isn’t that bad, it even works on rusted and mangled items, just need to level it up to not lose so many materials. If I could get down to the lower levels it would be faster but…’

At this point in time, Roland had a more complete map of the dungeon. There weren’t that many levels to discover when going up. Just like he had theorized there was no connection to the outside world. There were only four floors leading up from the one he started from and the top one was a lot smaller than the rest.

“So this confirms it then?”

“Yes, the dungeon is probably expanding upwards and perhaps with some time will create a pathway but how long that will take is anyone’s guess.”

“This is good…”

Roland nodded as he found himself back in Arthur’s office. They were discussing the situation in the dungeon and he was delivering the maps he created to confirm the adventurer’s claim. Thanks to them placing his sensors all over the place he was now able to monitor everything that was happening in there, as long as he was in range. This he hoped to alleviate with time and more sensors.

“That is true, it’s deep underground and is competing with the Albrook dungeon for space but this also means that there is a new possibility to this dungeon equation.”

“Another possibility than it being connected to the super dungeon?”

“Yes.”

Both Roland and Arthur had gone through literature concerning dungeons. Usually, a new baby dungeon just like the Albrook one would connect to the outside before being discovered. It came equipped with pre-built floors and everything but sometimes they could also expand further.

In this case, it seemed that this dungeon was expanding upwards. More floors were being built and if it continued to go up it could have a similar structure to the Albrook one. What they could have encountered was an incomplete dungeon that was still in the process of growing. The harder monsters were closer to its core and end while the weaker ones would spread to the upper floors.

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“In both cases, this isn’t bad news, at least it will take some time until it can expand upwards or it might never actually do it, we need to focus on exploring the lower floors but regretfully our friends need to return.”

“Yes, their weapons weren’t looking that great after two weeks, those monsters at the lower floors aren’t a joke.”

After the party of five reached a dead end on the upper floors they quickly began going down. The monster levels started to increase and more of them began to appear. They could only partially explore the floor below the initial one as the monsters there were close to level hundred seventy. Further down the enemies started traveling in small groups and could probably reach close to level one hundred eighty.

“Yes but, with those levels, we won’t have trouble in attracting aspiring young veterans of the trade!”

“I guess if you look at it that way…”

“That will be all unless you wish to discuss something else?”

“No, I already handed Mary the package, I’m sure your people can handle it.”

“There shouldn’t be a problem with the first ten floors, it might take some more time on the lower one. But be sure to have enough ‘products’ to carry out your little scheme by then. If it works it could earn us quite the sum.”

“Don’t worry, it won’t be a problem.”