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Chapter 246 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground”
🕑 Added 2024-11-12 16:26:41 +0000 UTCPov Carl
Caspian was sitting beside me in a room that was a bit too dark. There was a murmur of low conversation, but this wasn’t a normal situation. This sort of thing had never happened before. Currently, in this room, there were the clan leaders and some of their members from 12 different clans, including ours. Caspian seemed a bit worried, but I could understand why he would be.
“This room seems a bit dark; can someone please fix that?” I didn’t shout this; I asked it in a conversational tone. After all, everyone here was platinum rank—and not just platinum, but the very best in our home, in this dungeon.
Just a moment later, a brilliant white light appeared near the center of the room and floated upwards, dimming as it moved. When it finally reached near the ceiling, it was illuminating the room, giving it almost a perfect amount of light for this historic meeting.
“I guess the time for waiting is over,” said the leader of the Black Boars clan. He waited for a moment, but none of us spoke up, so he continued.
“To our knowledge, our 12 clans are the only ones who have been given this opportunity. It is not an easy opportunity; it will bring with it much danger. We know little about how the outside world works, and that is the main reason for at least my clan’s hesitation. Otherwise, we would have already taken up this opportunity.”
“I find your dedication lacking. My clan would have already taken the opportunity if it didn’t have a timer before we could accept it. This is our home, this is where we will die, bury our own, and if needed, protect it to the last.”
“Yet even if your conviction leaves me disappointed, I understand and sympathize with your point of view of not having enough information about our soon-to-be enemy. Is there anyone here who knows more?” The leader of the Fire Fists spoke up—one of the smaller clans but wholly consisting of incredibly tough fighters.
I looked around to see if anyone had answered, but even Caspian didn’t know much. The others started to speak up, sharing what they knew, but this was just a knowledge check—I didn’t expect to hear anything new.
Basically, all we knew was what the rumors said, but who knows if they were true or not? If it weren’t for those people constantly leaking secrets, we wouldn’t have any idea whatsoever about the true rulers of this world.
I looked inside and quickly pulled up the notification we all got from ETG. The quest necklace has never been used for such direct communication, but I guess there’s always a first time. It was an opportunity that seemed like a fantasy: to be able to fight as many platinum-ranked monsters as we wished, to continue advancing as fast as possible to get to diamond rank. It just didn’t feel real.
What made it real was the next part—the warning that if we left this dungeon, the other diamond ranks would hunt us down and kill us. He did mention that they might possibly recruit us, but if they wanted such control, I didn’t think they would want someone like us running around. The more significant part was the contract to protect ETG from the outside diamond ranks.
Underneath, at the very bottom of this notification, was a timer that still showed about 3 days. When that was over, apparently, we could go and sign the contract to get access to this new area where we could train and kill monsters until we collapsed from exhaustion, and then do it all over again when we recovered enough. Just before I focused back on the outside, all of our quest necklaces pinged with a kind of noise we hadn’t heard before.
Once again, I dived in and looked to see what notification we got. Instead, I saw a new section named ‘History.’ Quickly, I selected it to see that most of the options were grayed out, meaning that I couldn’t open them. There was one that was not grayed out, named ‘The Brief History of the World.’ As I opened it up and started to read, I could feel my face go pale.
The rumors never mentioned this sort of cycle that this world went through whenever a dungeon reached the limit of this world. This brief history that didn’t seem so brief as I continued to read. It also explained the power structure that had developed over the millenniums.
“What idiots, their desire to keep power has made them weak. Yet they are still so divided. While it’s not said specifically in this brief history of the world, ETG is obviously a fortress dungeon; most likely, he holds many more secrets.”
Sentiments like that were shared by different people, and we quickly started to discuss the information we got. I wondered if it was bad that we trusted the quest necklace and ETG so fully that we never questioned: what if he was lying to us?
Perhaps in the end, it didn’t matter. We were already in this dungeon, already primed to become diamond ranks. Even if this dungeon was destroyed and we had to leave, that’s assuming they would ever let us leave.
If the rumors were true and the knowledge we just learned, I had no doubt in my mind that they would simply declare that ETG went mad and the entire population of this dungeon was lost—just so they wouldn’t have rogue elements who could possibly become strong enough to fight back.
What happened to my easy life? When I just got out of the orphanage and came here to get stronger. Now, I have so many children and grandchildren, an entire clan that depends on me and looks to me for strength and stability. There were no existential questions or having to possibly take sides in a conflict that could decide the future of this world. Yet, those times are over.
“ETG has given us all an opportunity to seek what we desire most. For some, it might be strength; for others, it might be the excitement of battles or the discovery of treasure. Maybe you’ve always sought family and now not only found one but created it.”
“Perhaps only one of those describes you. I know that for me, all of those describe who I am right now. I think I would have taken up this opportunity even if I didn’t know what I was up against. But even now that I know the strength we must oppose, for some reason, I feel more alive than ever. My clan will take this deal and bind our future to this dungeon, to ETG, even more than we already have.”
My words brought silence to the room. I hadn’t stood up before, but now I did. I had gotten used to such strong people looking at me; it was weird to see that they looked to me for strength, even if we were not on the best of terms before this notification appeared.
"This dungeon is so much more than we see. It’s one of my clan’s biggest secrets," Caspian touched my side, and I looked back at him. He looked worried, but I just gave him a small smile.
"There is more to discover in this dungeon than you would ever believe. If you accept that contract—which I believe every one of us will, otherwise we would have never gotten it in the first place—you will find out the true magnificence and power of this dungeon. While it might be a hard fight, I am certain it will not be an impossible one."
I looked back at Caspian once again. He wasn’t that worried now and understood what I meant to do. He got up, and we started to walk out of the building towards the gateway that wasn’t far off. Before we left the room, I looked back. "I’ll see you all at the signing of the contract," and with that, we left.
It was a brief trip to the gateway, which we took straight to our hideout. Immediately, we were hit with the noise of a busy market. This hideout, to our knowledge, was one of the biggest but it was our second one.
It wasn’t the size of a hub station—nowhere close to it—but it also wasn’t as small as the way stations. It was big enough to have farming and to support a small city of nearly 2,000 people, all of whom were clan members.
We have come far, though still nothing compared to the guilds, where even a small-sized guild could easily have 5,000 members. Not to mention the bigger guilds or the three main ones that basically everyone was a part of, including me. It has been a while since I last tried to set a record, and I guess I never will again. At least a few of my children seem to have taken up the challenge, even if I wish they wouldn’t put themselves in too much danger.
"It is time to inform everyone. The council has been waiting; let’s go and tell them what happened at the meeting and the information we learned, in case they haven’t received the update to the quest necklace like we did. We can then announce everything to the rest of the clan." Caspian immediately nodded and resumed the walk towards the castle that served as our headquarters.
Comments
Zarik0
Thinking about the future and how civ and sociey and system will appear into the dungeon with how you will have 'Hideout' everywhere make me grinning Really become like a multiverse ecosystem so complex and vast and with 'unknow' part with mini 'world'/realm all connected by the gateway system As time will pass we will get more and more of them with entire civ and society forming out of it at some points (and forgotting entire group/place of it) can easely become like a entire galaxy/multiverse of 'world' becoming so vast and etc that civ and etc forming into it become unaware to others civ and had no contact and so 'evolve' and build each other differently as time pass and in different direction And so good possibility you have some Era of Exploration or etc Adventurer group appear once in a while for each of these civ who explore all these 'mini world' and search to get access to more Honestly before it happen ETG going for a 'floor'/playroom/world like that can be interesting to build, tons of 'enclosed' space with different connection and etc with gateway and/or etc that need to be discovered/searched Some cyclique change (happening by whatever) into the web of connection of all these space can be bonker too :P And so exploration, travel and trade and etc appear and they have things like Constellation Map of this 'galaxy' these group of mini realm formed (with some 'road' between different space are more stable or etc (timing/alway connected/safe zone or etc) like concept of hyperlane in Star War :) ETG can play with so many things if you think about it a bit and create more that just world but same system/ecosystem as a galaxy of world or etc can create and so what can form into it (civ and etc)
brennon Petersen
Tftc!
