They spent most of the morning and afternoon clearing out the crafter’s district, they still hadn’t gone through it all but they had the metal they needed for the totem so they headed back.
Erik took out the Totem blueprint and placed it down. It projected itself over the cleared area.
Rugrat altered the orders of the undead as they started to gather the materials that the half section as dumping out and that the skeletons had put to the side, starting to build the totem formation. The undead knights would cut the materials to size and shape with their weapons, others would move the materials and place them down, undead mages would use their spells to fuse the building materials together.
“I think that’s about it,” Erik said as they were watching the undead building the totem in record speed.
“’Bout time we headed back,” Rugrat said looking at the sky as it was darkening.
“Bring the cart with us, let’s head back,” Erik said to the half section of soldiers with them.
***
Erik, Rugrat, and Glosil were at one of the fire pits they’d made, eating their dinner as Yui appeared, he pulled off his helmet and sat down in a chair.
“Tiger Platoon’s all back, safe and sound,” Yui reported as he pulled out a map, the others put their food down and grabbed their own maps.
“How did it go?” Erik asked.
“This place is massive. I had my people spread out in an extended line and we moved through the buildings. Skipped those that didn’t look structurally sound and marked them down. We collected storage items and left them in the piles that the undead made. We should be able to cover the inner city in three days, get to the outer city a bit later.”
“Concentrate on scouting the area, grabbing easy loot and storage items. Mark down locations with traps. Once we have a complete map of the place, return to the places with a lot of loot but wasn’t easy to get in the first pass, then the places with traps. Don’t rush it, take time and get it all,” Rugrat said.
Yui nodded as they had all tapped their maps on his to get his information, then he put it away.
“Still, our people are a little jumpy around the undead but it should get better with time.” Yui reported.
“We can hope,” Glosil nodded.
Chapter: Roll Call
Three days ago, they had arrived in Vuzgal, the totem had been erected but there were mana fluctuations happening throughout it as it changed internally and externally. Alarm formations were added to the roads up to ten kilometers out. The inner city had been scouted except for the buildings that looked unsafe and were leveled by the skeletons. Half of the outer city had been scouted as well.
The morning sun lit up the city but within the castle it was gloomy, no one was out on patrol and there were only a few people watching the defenses.
Those that were free filed into a room with rubble that had been put into rows. At the front, there stood three crossbows pointing down, each holding dog tags of the fallen.
The company fell in, all but a few keeping guard.
Rugrat stood up to the side as everyone filed in. He started roll call.
Men and women stood at attention as they were called.
“Private Strosic.” Rugrat’s voice rolled through the otherwise perfectly silent capital. That loneliness and loss was brought back to the surface as some people shook; others looked higher, trying to force the tears in their eyes back to where they came from. “Private Jan Strosic.”
Still there was no answer, and they knew that he would never answer roll call again.
That pain and emptiness of loss settled in the stomach of everyone there.
Roll call continued before another name was left unanswered.
“Sergeant Dong, Sergeant Dong Ju.”
“Corporal Sabina, Corporal Helena Sabina.”
Roll call fell silent.
People started to move up. They saluted the three crossbows; tears might be running down their cheeks but they saluted. They took a knee in front of them, a personal item or something of the deceased at the bottom of the crossbow. They only had a few seconds before they stood back up and saluted again before turning away.
As they left the room, some just couldn’t hold it back again, crying openly but still they didn’t make a sound. This was not their day, it was their friends’ day, and they wouldn’t make a noise to take away from their day.
Finally, it was Erik and Rugrat’s turn. They walked up and saluted the three crossbows, taking off their shades, revealing their red eyes.
Dong Ju was a solid sergeant; he looked after his people and made sure to pay attention to everything and anything. He was firm with his people but always there as a fatherly presence. Rugrat had found out that he was thinking about proposing to his long-term girlfriend. Corporal Watson had been a quiet type, a hunter and a tracker who had become a sharpshooter and come into his own. Corporal Qin Da loved to ride with her trained beast. Now both of them would rest together.
They were only in their early twenties, people with a future—none of them would have a chance to have children, to see more of life.
Thinking of the people that they were, the lives that they didn’t get to live, weighed on Erik and Rugrat. They had trained them, led them, and given them the mission. That weight was not easy to bear.
It wasn’t the first time that they had lost people but it never got easier. Neither of them hoped that it ever would.
***
People headed out to search the Capital again and to see to their tasks as Rugrat, Erik and Glosil met up in the ad-hoc command center.
“Were you able to find any cornerstones?” Erik asked.
“I believe that there were several. We added in Earth grade cornerstones and switched out the Mortal Grade cornerstones,” Glosil responded as he took out a sheet, checking its contents before passing it to Erik. “This is the basic inventory of all the items recovered.”
“Good. Then we can set up that Mana gathering system to reduce the outflow.” Erik passed it to Rugrat.
Glosil nodded and Rugrat passed back the inventory.
“Tomorrow, Rugrat and I will head out with the special teams to open up the dungeon. Once we understand the floors we’ll open them up to the Alvan Army sections to increase their levels as well. The battlefield dungeon is useful but there is only one beast to fight at a time and the terrain, while varied, is still limited.” Erik announced.
Glosil was reminded that although Erik and Rugrat had been into other dungeons, the members of the army had only been into Alva Dungeon and the battlefield dungeon. This would offer them more practical practice and with more beasts to kill, they could level up faster. They would be forced to use new tactics and it would make for good training.
“Understood,” Glosil said.
The capital was massive, it had housed nearly one million people when it fell. Their leftover wealth and items were now Alva’s loot.
Chapter: Into the Dungeon’s Maw
The sun was just rising as the Special Teams moved through the city, with Erik and Rugrat leading them past the working skeletons and the streets they were clearing of debris.
Thousands of undead had been destroyed since they were revived, but there were still thousands left. They were all high-powered creatures, allowing them to use large-scale spells or throw sections of buildings and walls that were as big as a cart with ease.
The assembly phase of the totem was complete, the materials had been placed down as the power of the ten realms slowly altered them. Changing it from a pile of precious materials into a true ten realms totem.
The skeletons were clearing out the debris and tearing down buildings that the Dragon and Tiger Platoons didn’t feel were structurally sound. With the skeleton’s abilities it took a matter of seconds and then they started to sift through the building’s remains, organizing the different materials and valuables.
Nothing was wasted or left out, broken rocks could be fused together to create bricks, twist
ed metal could be melted back into ingots. The Alvans didn’t want to waste anything.
For the first time in centuries, the lizard men and human skeletons worked beside one another instead of fighting. They put the capital back together as they mended the damage they had done in the wars. Mage skeletons used spells to put the walls back together as war beasts carried stone and debris.
The people of Alva passed the skeletons with their weapons ready but unneeded as they moved toward the large gate that stood to the south. There were four gates in a row and the section of wall here was built to defend against the valley beyond their walls.
The gates had been sealed shut some time ago. They sent up beasts over the walls with lines, secured them to the wall, and started climbing.
Erik looked out over the wall into the valley. It was much clearer than it had been yesterday. Even with the Mana stored in the different creatures, the dungeon core in the capital was starting to cleanse the mist around the valley.
There was a dead area of the valley, close to the former capital’s walls but it was recovering quickly. The rest of the valley beyond the battlefield was untouched. Just seeing the green grasses and the trees made the Alvan soldiers relax a bit after leaving the broken city, swarming with undead that had so recently tried to kill them.
They rappelled down the wall into the valley.
Roska used her Dungeon Sense but wasn’t able to locate the dungeon.
They pushed on into the valley. Mounted on their panthers, they made good speed.
Most creatures they encountered were startled by them and ran off, while others moved in closer. The scouts took them out if they seemed aggressive and stored their bodies as they kept on moving.
They rotated using their Dungeon Sense as they went.
“I’ve got something!” Storbon said after they had been traveling for an hour. He marked the point and shared it with everyone.
They continued through the valley, fording small rivers that ran toward them from the direction of Storbon’s marker.creating a natural irrigation system through the valley that ran into the Vuzgal water system.
They came over a rise and slowed to a halt.
“Well, I think we’ve found it,” Rugrat stated.
There was a massive tree that looked like a weeping willow. It stood at the end of the valley, with two streams dropping down in waterfalls from the mountains around it.
The water trickled down to meet at the base of the massive weeping willow before diverting once again and spreading out into the rest of the valley like roots, forming pools or disappearing into the undergrowth to create creeks.
“Must be fifty meters tall,” Tully said.
“Well, let’s go and see what’s underneath,” Erik said.
They moved forward once again.
The water covered a large area but was no deeper than a puddle. The tree rested on a sandbar forming an island.
They parted the branches that drooped down, sweeping against the ground and water. It was darker inside but not impossible to see as light still came in from above.
They looked around as Rugrat pointed at the roots.“I think I see an entrance at the base of the tree.”
They all moved closer, checking the area but focusing on the roots.
The tree had roots like a mangrove, rising out of the ground and supporting the massive tree above. They looked all jumbled together when viewed from the side. The roots parted in the middle, making an entrance that led down underneath the tree.
“Let’s have a look,” Erik said.
As they moved to the entrance they saw a set of stairs that led down, like a large open mouth. It wasn’t completely dark as they could see a doorway all the way at the bottom of the stairs.
“Dungeon, if I’ve ever seen one.” Rugrat picked up a stone and tossed it at the opening.
A formation activated as a barrier of water flashed into existence, shredding the stone before the barrier disappeared.
Rugrat took out the blue, rune-covered rock he had found in the Emperor’s ring and tossed it.
The water wall appeared again but it surrounded the pebble, holding it momentarily before the water wall dropped down and a formation carved into the ground was revealed.
Rugrat tossed another rock at the entrance and this time it wasn’t shredded. “Well, magical marbles—looks like we’re in,” Rugrat said. “Duck!”
Rugrat dropped to the ground, as did everyone else.
The tree that had looked as if it was on its last legs was rapidly revitalized, growing taller and stronger. Its leaves covered in fresh blossoms, filling the air with sweet smells. A wave of Mana emanated from the dungeon entrance, spreading out over the valley before dissipating. The Mana that had been bottled up in the dungeon calmed down after having been released.
The Mana was highly purified, causing plants to turn into high-level alchemical ingredients and beasts to undergo breakthroughs simply from the Mana’s passage. The beasts of the Alvan army were the closest; some of them directly increased their levels and abilities. Others surged to the next bottleneck to increase their level.
“Well, I think that just sent out one big Mana signal,” Niemm sighed.
“Crap.” Rugrat got up and ran to the entrance as he tossed down some Mana gathering formation plates.
“Place Mana gathering formations around the tree!” Rugrat yelled.
“Team One assist, Team Two watch the perimeter!” Erik yelled.
Everyone worked quickly as the Mana was contained.
Rugrat then went around, moving the Mana gathering formations so that they drew in the most pure Mana to the cornerstones that had been placed in the middle of the formations.
“Not as good as the Mana storing formations in Vuzgal, but if we can get to the dungeon core we can put one around here directly,” Rugrat said.
“Why is there so much Mana and why is it so pure?” Niemm asked.
“The capital has Mana gathering formations to increase the Mana artificially, though they don’t work perfectly so Mana continues to pile up and be released at different times. This dungeon was sealed off and there are no Mana gathering formations around. So the dungeon core never stopped refining the Mana in it. Similar to what happened in the capital, different ways,” Rugrat explained.
“How do you know that?” Niemm asked.
“A mix of going to different dungeons, a sprinkling of magical knowledge and my own senses. This mana feels almost stale, it’s so pure because it has been purified again and again of any type of attribute. So probably got trapped in there for a long time to get to its current state.”
“Team Two up front, followed by Rugrat, Team One and myself, will clear room by room. After each room consolidate before moving ahead! Anyone not clear?” Erik asked, looking around. There were no questions as everyone turned serious.
“Gong Jin up front,” Roska said as she got her people organized into two five man teams.
They sorted themselves out with Gong Jin going first down the stairs, her rifle up and searching for targets.
***
Roska had her repeater ready, following right behind Gong Jin. Her spells were more powerful but the repeater only required the strength of her finger to fire.
Casting a spell, on the other hand, would take from her Mana reserves.
==========
You have entered the dungeon: Bala Dungeon
==========
==========
Quest: Re-open Bala Dungeon
==========
Remove the barrier around Bala Dungeon (Completed)
Clear Bala Dungeon at least once
==========
Rewards:
55,000,000 EXP
Bonus
==========
Roska cleared her vision with a thought as they continued down the stairs. There was light but it was dim, making it hard to see.
“Use night vision,” She whispered.
Roska used a night vision spell, al
lowing her to see as if it were daytime. The others all cast their own night vision spells as well.
The stairs were made of compacted dirt and had water traveling down either side, trickling into the dungeon.
She reached the end of the stairs. Seeing a wall to her right, she turned left into the room. “Wall right, turn left!”
Creatures let out noises at her sudden arrival.
Roska pushed into the room, firing at anything that moved. She was hit with a web that tangled up her repeater.
“Stoppage!” she yelled. Spiders hung from the ceiling and there were large rat-like creatures on the ground.
Roska dismissed her repeater and took out her staff. A magical circle appeared and floated in front of her, shooting out icicles. Other soldiers flowed in behind her, their weapons firing and cutting down the spiders above and rats below.
Tully was hit in the face with webbing but was pulled back by Davos, who took her position and fired freely on the creatures.
Gong Jin let out a yell. His body glowed white with a self-buff as he drew the attention of the creatures, reducing the pressure on the rest of the special team.
The creatures were easily defeated, merely tens of bolts having been fired but noises came from an archway across and to the right from where they stood.
“Jin, Simms, Davos—cover that right entrance. Shoot anything that comes through. Xi, Imani, Han—with me.” Roska ordered as she advanced as the rest of the group entered the room behind her. Yang Zan helped Tully to remove the webbing, which had left her panting from the lack of air.
Roska advanced toward the archway. A bipedal creature that looked like a mini T-Rex, without arms or a head, appeared.
The group opened up on it as it released a cloud of acid from small holes in its body. Xi was hit with a concentrated dose in the leg and went down screaming.
Han Wu fired his self-made blunderbuss at the acid spewing creature. The shrapnel peppered the creature and it backed up, clearly in pain as its skin and body burned from the poisoned metal.
The Fourth Realm (The Ten Realms Book 4) Page 21