Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Blamenco explained with a heavy heart. One could see from his expression and his tone how desperate of a situation the Serene Palace Merchant Guild was after Cynthia's disappearance.

It could be said that the situation of the merchant guild was no different than the sinking ship. With the captain missing and several crewmates either switching ships or escape through lifeboats, he was amongst the few people loyal enough to still try and save the ship from sinking.

Cynthia looked at his old retainer, she could imagine what kind of hardship he had to go through. Meeting her today had rekindled the hope in him.

Nevertheless, it was a pity that she was unable to respond to his wishes. Things have changed drastically since then, it was not like before when she could give her all into managing the guild.

Right now, she was bound by a contract and no longer had as much free will as before.

"Stand up Blamenco, we will talk about this later. Right now, I'm here for a different reason. I have already clarified you about the situation through a letter, have you completed all the preparations?".

"Your Highness does not need to worry, I have completed everything as per your instructions"

Blamenco felt that something was different about the princess; however, he did not question her decision and proceeded to show everybody inside. The store was nothing like what it was used to before.

There was not even a single item remaining inside the building to be sold or auctioned as everything had been looted by the criminals.

"As Her Highness instructed, I have used the Presence Isolation Scroll on the whole building. Your presence cannot be sensed by anyone outside the building. However, if you step out, the effect will wear off. Additionally, the Presence Isolation scroll will only work for three hours, after that, the effect will naturally wear off. If you are going to make a move, you need to do it during this window of time. Is it alright your highness?"…

"Un, you did a good job Blamenco?"

Cytnhia praised her butler's preparedness. In this short period of time not only did he prepare a cavalcade of carriages with loyal people to sneak them in, he even got his hands on the Presence Isolation scroll, an item that very rarely appeared even in the capital. His preparation could be said to be perfect.

"That's great, now all we have to do is wait for the chance and strike them when the enemy is completely disorganised" Blake stated looking out of the window.

"The town looks all normal and silent. Will there really be an opportunity to strike them?"

It was no surprise that the young adventurers thought that after all, nobody was briefed about when and how the opportunity would arrive. All they were told about was to put their all when the moment came and strike down the enemy when they were distracted.

While the adventurers that newly joined them were anxiously discussing about the plan, people like Blake and Wyot who had been the part of the team since the beginning, were calmly assessing the situation.

They did not doubt even for a second that Cynthia's plan would fail.

"What did 'He' say? Is it going to start soon"

Sensing the rising tension amongst the newcomers, Cynthia approached Annette and her gang and asked.

The success and failure of this mission depended on the 'move' from 'that' guy. The plan was devised based on the fact that 'he' would make the first move. As such, she was waiting for that very moment.

"You don't need to worry Your Highness. I just received a message from my sister, the plan is already underway. Master said that he also sent an additional help. I wonder who it is? He didn't even tell me" Annette explained with a smile "Just wait a little it would start soon… oh it already started".

As soon as she said that, the ground beneath them started shaking.

At first, it seemed like a small tremor but as seconds went by, the tremors intensified causing the whole place to shake fiercely.

"What is going on? Why is the building shaking? Is it going to collapse?"…

"Idiot, it's not the building, look outside the whole town is trembling, it's an earthquake"

Surprised at the sudden turn of events, one of the adventurers pointed at the town outside the town. Just like he had said, it was not the building that was shaking, but it was the entire town.

People were scurrying out of their houses and running all over the town in mass panic.

"What's going on? Why is there a sudden earthquake"…

"What should we do? The hostages are kept in the underground cellars. If the earthquake gets any more intense, the walls and grounds might collapse on them"…

"What should we do leader?".

Just as the adventurers were starting to panic, a stern shout brought them back to their senses.

"What are you all acting like headless chickens for? Getting frightened over some earthquake and you still call yourselves adventurers? Get a grip of yourself, in a few moments from now, we are going on a battle against our arch enemies. Before that, don't loosen up".

Blake's commanding shout woke the adventurers up. That's right, this was just an earthquake, what was there to be afraid of? Haven't they experienced much more dangerous and difficult situations before?

The adventurers quickly came to their right mind and composed themselves. Shortly afterwards, the intense shaking of the ground also stopped.

When it all seemed like it was just a natural calamity, an event that surpassed all their imagination, occurred. The curtain raises for the true calamity. ROAARRRRR…

Piercing roars came from one corner of the town followed by streams of people running and screaming away.

What was going on?

"That roar just now, it sounded like it came from monsters" Being the adventurers they were, the thing that they were most knowledgeable about was monsters.

Without even needing to see the creature with their own eyes, they could already somewhat tell what species and race they were with just by their howls.

"What the… look out, the roars were really from monsters" With one person's emphasising it out, the rest of the adventurers also turned to look outside.

"It's true, the monsters are running havoc in the centre of the town"…

"They are Stromwolves, Warring Mandrills, Battle Bears, Fire Eater Rats, Killer Worker Bees and even Blazehounds among them. There are so many, where did they come from? Did they attack the town?"…

"Idiot, the town is guarded by walls and sentry towers all around. If there was a monster outbreak from the forest, the sentries would have alerted the town. The fact that they did not, means that the monsters appeared from inside" Wyot walked towards Blake and asked, "What do you think?"

"It's just like you have said, it is unlikely that it is a monster outbreak. They are running amok everywhere; however, if you notice properly, they are mainly coming from the east side of the town where the tower is".

"You mean they are pouring out of the dungeon? It couldn't be…" Wyot instantly caught the meaning behind Blake's words.

"That's right, it is a Dungeon Overflow" Right as he said that, Blake's eyes could help be drawn towards Cynthia who seemed to be the least bit surprised out of all.

Did she know that this was going to happen? No, in the first place, the diversion that she was talking about, was it the Dungeon Overflow? If so then how did she know about it? Who are those people next to her? What was their identity?

Unwittingly, Blake found his eyes turn towards the people next to her and accidentally meet the eyes of Annette.

At that very instant, a bone pricing chill ran down his spine. He felt as if those eyes weren't watching him, but his soul. He felt like a tiny insignificant thing in front of a huge mysterious force.

Hurriedly, he broke eye contact and only then did this mysterious feeling disappear.

"Blake, are you alright? Your face looks pale?" Frida asked in concern.

"Huff.. huff… I'm alright, it was nothing" the former hurriedly changed the topic and declared in a loud crisp "Everyone get ready this is the chance we are waiting for. The whole city is in uproar with the outbreak of monsters right now. Their guard and security have no doubt become lax. This is our opportunity, while our enemy is dividing their forces to counter the monster we will attack the underground cellars at the same time and save all the hostages".

"Are we going to ignore the monsters?" A few adventurers asked.

Having fought some of these monsters before in the dungeon, they knew full well how strong and dangerous they were. If they were not dealt with properly, then the whole town would be trampled over by the monsters.

"At this moment we do not have the liberty or the manpower to deal with both the criminal organisations and the monsters at the same time. Our numbers are already very low compared to our enemies, we cannot spread ourselves thin anymore"

"We will stick with the plan we made as for the monsters, we will leave them to our enemies. Besides, I have a feeling that the tower town won't be destroyed"

With Blake saying so much, there was no longer any doubt remaining inside the adventurers. They straightened their gears and got ready for battle.

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