Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

"Guild leader of the savannah Beast guild… please be at ease, I didn't come here with any evil motive. I just want to learn more about what young master Marcus meant by what he said back in the meeting".

Manuel Baskerville raised his hand to show that he meant no harm.

"What Marcus said back in the meeting?" Although Brutus had a warlike temperament and was extremely wild, he was no fool. He could more or less guess why the guild master of Baskerville guild was here for.

Seeing that Brutus didn't bar him from saying anything, Manuel shifted his attention to Marcus.

"Back during the meeting, you said something about my son having a fallout with the phantom light guild. Can you please tell me about that in more detail?".

Marcus finally understood why the guild master of the Baskerville guild was here. He wanted to know more about what had happened to his son and the tertiary team of his guild that had seemingly disappeared.

If one dies in a dungeon, their body gets absorbed inside it. The dungeon is like a living entity, the rate of decomposition is a hundred times faster than the outside world. That is to say, if a body is left as it is, it would slowly break down and disappear, becoming the nourishment of the dungeon.

By the time, the primary teams arrived at the mysterious ruins, it was already too late. Only a handful of bodies could be recovered from that mysterious ruins. Out of the four thousand people that dived inside the pit, only about one eighth of them managed to come out alive.

Some were retrieved as a cold lifeless corpse while the rest had disappeared, absorbed by the dungeon and became its nourishment. 𝒇𝘳ℯℯ𝚠𝙚𝑏𝗻𝑜ѵ𝑒𝙡.co𝑚

The guild that Manuel was the leader of, couldn't even find a single corpse of any of their members that had dived inside. Given this fact, it was only natural that Manuel wanted more details about what had happened back there. After all, amongst the geniuses that had disappeared there, was also his son.

Marcus looked at his father who nodded after contemplating for a while. Thus Marcus recited the entire story from the beginning.

It was not a topic that he liked talking about much as it was a devastating defeat for them and he had lost quite a lot of brothers in there. However, the man in front of him was very desperate to know what had happened of his son, thus Marcus had no choice but to recount everything once again.

The 34th floor, the pit, the mysterious ruins and the seven doors. How they were led to believe that they can tackle it and how it had gone all downfall from there.

Manuel paid more attention when the part came when the tertiary teams started falling apart after discovering the mysterious ruins. The phantom light guild's taunts and the criticisms that were directed towards the Baskerville guild. ƒ𝐫𝒆𝐞w𝗲𝚋𝗻૦𝘷e𝙡.c𝑜𝙢

The Phantom Light guild and the Baskerville Guild were two big guilds from the southern region of the kingdom, their members knew each other very well and had often met during quests. Because of that, the two guilds decided to work together and send their tertiary teams as one unit to compete with the others.

Who would have thought that their alliance would end up falling apart like that? the two guilds went their separate ways right before exploring the mysterious ruins.

"Ah, when I say clash, I only meant it as a verbal argument. In any case, after that I didn't see Bastille even until the end. The Baskerville guild too didn't arrive at the chamber" Marcus recounted.

"I see thank you for the information young master of the savannah beast guild" the guild leader of the Baskerville guild thanked Marcus and promptly turned around to leave. The man's steps were urgent and faster when they left.

"What was all that about?" Marcus was a little confused as to why the guild master of the Baskerville was in such a hurry to leave right after hearing the story.

"It doesn't concern our guild, you don't need to brood over it, Marcus. Let's go inside, the guild members of our savannah beast guild will assemble here in a few hours. Tell them all you know about the monsters, their skills and weaknesses. We cannot afford to make the same mistake again. Everybody in our guild needs to know what we are up against".

Brutus slipped into the tent not bothering about the other party. "Right" his son Marcus nodded and also entered the tent.

Time passed by swiftly and soon half a day was over. On the orders of the grey haired man, the members of the twenty guilds assembled near the middle of the 34th floor where the stairs to the next floor was.

Led by their own guild masters, these people stood organisedly and in formation. In the front was the primary teams of each guild fully decked out in their armours and gears. Behind them stood the secondary team ready to aid the primary teams at any moment.

The tertiary teams were left back at the camp to guard the supplies and the wounded. They had already done their part by carving a way to this floor so they were given a rest. Besides that, the tertiary team comprised of mostly weak and newbie adventurers would only be a dead weight from this point on.

Thus it was decided that they would be better if they stayed here. Plus a lot of them still needed time to heal from the injuries they sustained.

"It looks like everybody has assembled" The grey haried man who stood at the forefront of the primary teams along with the guild masters, commented. His eyes looked at the primary unit of this expedition army as he nodded his head.

The primary unit comprising of the primary teams of the top twenty guilds of the kingdom, was decked out in the best gears and armours out of everyone, even their levels and aura were different than all the others. They were no doubt the cream of the corpse, the best of the best you can find in the entire kingdom of Ellesmere. Although comparing them with the adventurers from the mainland would be a little too much, they were still satisfactory.

The primary unit comprised of around 4,000 people, aout 200 people from each guild. It was led by expedition leader Brutus Sarge and the various guild leaders were there to support him.

The secondary unit was led by Karina and the vice guild masters of the various guilds. Their objective was to stay a floor behind and back the primary team.

"Alright, expedition leader Brutus I leave leading the unit to you. I will be in the backlines providing assistance" the grey haired man didn't wait for anyone, after leaving his words behind, he disappeared into the crowd.

Even with the perception of these guild leaders, they had difficulty spotting him.

"Tch, so he intends to just work us like slaves huh" a brawny man with tanned skin and sea blue hair spat in a low voice. He was Layton Streax, the guild master of the Six River's Streax.

After losing his entire tertiary team in the mysterious ruins, he was in quite a sour mood. It was not only him, tension could be seen on the faces of quite a few guild leaders.

Half a day wasn't enough to make them forget about the massive losses their guild had suffered. If not because of the reward that was promised to them, they would have already fallen out.

Brutus looked at these people and sighed. It was a hassle to lead them; however, he had to do it since he couldn't leave the fate of his guild in the hands of some other people.

"Everyone ready your weapons, we are about to dive deeper inside the dungeon. Let's conquer it once and for all to see"...

SHIINGG… Brutus unsheathed his sword and raised it high up. His thundering voice rang out across the space, raising the spirits of everyone around him.

[Roar of Courage] the various guild leader who felt their blood boil from that shout, immediately recognised the skill that was used. One of the rare skills of the class [Chief Beast Garder]. The skill allows you to instantly manipulate and raise the spirits of your streak.

With Brutus' roar, the primary and the secondary unit all followed his command and started marching organisedly. The top twenty guilds were finally starting to move.

The Blaze wolves and the pyrodactyl was just the beginning, the deeper floor had many more mutated monsters waiting for them. The traps were more trickier and the floors were filled with unknowns.

Up until the 34th floor, they have been able to rely on the transmission orb to navigate the floors. This allowed them to clear the floors faster since they already knew the way. However, from the 34th floor onwards it was a brand new territory that wasn't recorded in the transmission orb.

They had to clear each and every path and search the whole floor to find the entrance to the next floor. Their speed was bound to be a lot slower than before; nonetheless, with the primary unit leading the charge, it was just a matter of time until they reached the next floor.

The mutated monsters may be something that these people had never encountered before; however, in front of their experience and level, they were no different than cannon fodder.

Just like that, the expedition army descended one floor after the other. Facing the unknown, the traps and attacks of the monsters would sometime catch them off guard and there would be some injuries.

However, it was only just minor wounds and nothing too serious. It was quickly healed by downing a potion or two.