[Kasimir’s point of view]

 

The world was at my feet!

Everyone, no matter their bloodline, was below me!

Even within the Despino Royal Family, I was the greatest!

Born to a prophecy that foretold my greatness, I was destined to be the chosen one to make the Domeris Republic the strongest country out there! And in time, return it to its former glory as the Despino Empire! If not for the wretched war we lost thousands of years ago, we would have still lived on the laurels of the success of our forefathers! This cursed republic was the only black stain on the proud Negvar Elf species, but with me at its helm, it would soon change! I would make sure to show those wretched Vesporans and Zebrazilians that they should never have messed with us Domerians!

While I was lost in my thoughts, my Tuuri kicked the ground. I looked down and noticed that he was agitated. Aquillis never acted like this even in the presence of powerful monsters, so what could have frightened him? Looking in front of me, I saw two soldiers struggling to open the doors leading to the inner parts of this floor.

“Hmph! What’s the hold up?” I demanded an answer.

“We don’t know, your Highness.” another soldier replied.

While I was about to give out my next command, I heard her, the voice who ruled over this place, the Dungeon.

“I order ALL of my Slaves... Kill everyone around you. Target the weak, cripple the strong! Do NOT STOP even if you are injured and are about to die! If you have to die, die fighting, taking out at least one more person with you!” her voice was cold, cutting like a knife into flesh.

“What nonsense is she...” my words were cut short as Aquillis got up on his back legs.

NEIGH!!!

His scream was sharp, but looking down, I noticed a sharp blade stabbed into his chest.

Anger overwhelmed me.

“WHO DARES?!” I called out but then, before my eyes, blood and limbs were tossed around like the fruits in a basket I kicked in anger.

“GYA!!!” screams of death were all around me.

The Slaves of the Dungeon, all of them, were dashing in all directions cutting down my soldiers left and right. With a crazed look in their eyes, they continued to murder everyone in their path. They did not care for their own safety or life and even dared to bite at royalties. I saw my younger sister getting pierced in the chest. Her life going out as she looked at me and then fell on the ground. Even if she was a worthless woman who would end up being married off to a noble family to stabilize the political power of my reign, she was not someone a noble or anyone else should have dared to harm!

“Kill the SLAVES!” I ordered as I raised my sword up.

“GAAAH!” at the same time one of them rushed at me.

It was the one who stabbed Aquillis. I lowered my sword and cut him in half. His blood spilled on the floor, while my Tuuri, followed after. His life fading away as the blood from his wound continued to flow. It was unfortunate, he was a loyal beast, but my healing potions were precious in a dangerous dungeon. I had a feeling that this Ritual of Suppression was not going to be an easy one.

Three hours... This was how long it took us to kill all the Slaves. They were strong, almost as powerful as a Supreme, but they were no match for my sword. The others helped, here and there...

Because these crazy bastards attacked without warning, we ended up suffering casualties in the thousands. They unleashed their most destructive spells and lashed at everyone like rabid dogs. Someone around the rank of a Deputy Commander of at least 1 Star could hold on against a few attacks from them, but the Field Leaders, Officers, and Soldiers were all helpless against them no matter how many Stars they had. They were the ones who died first. This did not mean that there were no casualties among the higher up. My younger sister and two other princes also died to their blades. Being the 5th or 6th in line for the throne was the same as being just another noble with no land to your name. They had to survive on their own, failure meant death.

Aquillis did not make it. The loyal Tuuri had served me well. Now, I had to use another one who was far beneath my valiant steed. It would have to make do until we reached the core. The journey there would take around a week at most, for the sake of appearances. There was a big party waiting for me in two weeks, and I had promised to take my fiancé out on a tour of my newly built garden three weeks from now. A delay of even a single day was not acceptable under any circumstance. But, I have to say, that this play the Dungeon was putting on was getting more and more interesting. The soldiers were already believing that we were dealing with an evil force bent on destroying us. It was perfect!

Then I heard one of my deputies bringing over an unsettling report.

“Your Highness, the way back... the stairs leading to the upper floor are gone!”

“Hm, it is nothing more than a mere trick! We shall descend and make haste! Once we return, that path will be there!” I declared and then thought Still... no one told me that the path would be blocked and the Slaves would attack. Was this planned by my father as a way to replace them?

Little did I know that this was just the beginning. I should have paid more attention to these signs...

 

Three days later

[Davovan’s point of view]

 

When the top brass said to old Davovan that I had to get my sword and rush to help some young prince do his Ritual of Submission, I thought they were mad! I was old and retired! Why in the name of all that was holy and blessed should I, Davovan, a former top ranked Mercenary and a grandpa forglore by now, would even say yes to such a suicidal mission? Well... having a no-good son and an even more stupid than a fish walking on land grandson-in-law put the entire family in debt as a result of their gambling addiction ended up being quite a convincing reason.

After smacking those two runts in the head a few times, I was forced to gather my old equipment and head off to war. Those idiots were now forbidden from touching the family’s money and only their spouses had the right to do so. As for their gambling addiction... I just prayed it was going to go away on its own. If not... I signed an agreement with the Guild of Assassins to cut off their necks if they did so. It was going to sadden me if I were to be greeted with two new graves in my family’s graveyard, however, there were enough grandsons to continue our legacy.

Now, as I was resting with my back against the cold wall, my armor broken in several places, my sword’s blade chipped, and my dagger destroyed, I felt that I was not going to leave this place anytime too soon.

In front of me were the bodies of over 100 brave soldiers and mercenaries who were pushed into this room to clear it. The only survivors of this massacre were me and a handful of mercenaries. Maybe we were 20 in total, maybe less? The Crown Prince of the nelves sent us here to our death... It was supposed to be an easy quest, that has been repeated since ancient times, yet... I was now doubting the truth behind those declarations.

Maybe the last Ritual of Suppression and the one before it and so one were easy, however, this was anything but easy!

After the Slaves went mad and we had to cut them down, we did not even have time to recover our breath, the walls moved, the whole floor shook, and a new path opened up for us. The thing was... none of the adventurers knew the right path. Every turn was different, every trap was new and deadly, every monster was ten times stronger than the ones from before. There were no wild dayuks or other creatures we encountered even on the surface... No... these things were different.

There were beasts with three arms and two tails, mutated dayuks with two horns and three eyes, spiders that were more terrifying than any monster we encountered. The traps were ingenious and terrifying. In all of my life, I have never seen or heard of such things. There were traps that were triggered by sound, by light, and some even by movement. One unfortunate bastard ended up crushed into a bloody paste after he jumped over a pressured trap, thinking that he landed on a safe spot. What was worse was that the traps regenerated faster than we knew. As soon as we passed by a one that was already deactivated, by the time the 2 million heads army passed through, it was already recharged and triggered at least three times. Destroying them was the only way to go about it... for now.

In these three days since we got trapped here, all that we did was to spread out and explore this first floor out of the 700 that were to come... So far, there were thousands of casualties... in an area that was supposed to be so easy that beginner adventurers could complete it with their eyes closed. There were rumors that this army was a complete overkill, however, right now, I was beginning to doubt if we would even reach the bottom floor at this rate...

Would I even see my grandsons? I wondered as I closed my eyes to rest for a moment.

 

Four weeks later

[Davovan’s point of view]

 

In front of me... was a sea of lifeless corpses... The monster at the back, a Minotaur with three horns, was growling menacingly. Spears and arrows were sticking out of his body, desperate attempts from foolish young’uns at killing him.

I lost my right arm thirty floors ago... My armor was now a patched-up work from monster remains. This blasted dungeon did not even give us any drops! There were no treasure chests and no rewards for defeating a Boss Monster. All that we got was more time to live...

“GRAAAH!” the Mino growled and rushed at me.

I exhaled and gripped the hilt of my sword, a weapon I took from a goblinoid because my previous one broke on the first week.

Jumping to the side, I let the monster crush into the wall. The debris bounced off my Magic Armor. I was close to him. I had to be in order to aim for his neck.

With a single crushing blow, my sword separated his head from his body. The monster’s blood gushed out like a fountain, soaking the walls with the flowers of death.

I stood there for a moment to take in the sight and then fell on my knees... I was tired... so tired...

If I close my eyes for a moment now... maybe I will have the energy to continue... I thought as I felt myself being embraced by a dream... a long one...

 

[Kasimir’s point of view]

 

This was insane! I was already late for everything! All of my plans were now up in smoke!

How could this have happened?! HOW?! HOW?!

This entire operation was a mess! First the Slaves attacked us, then the entire dungeon was reconfigured! Even my father’s map did not help at all! As for the artifacts that called Yandrea to me, I could not use them... If I did everyone would know that this whole thing was a ploy meant to bring me laurels that would grant me the approval of the commoners and lower nobles!

This was already the fourth week and we had yet to reach the Dead Floors! We were on the 247th floor of the Endless Labyrinth. This thing really deserved its name. The paths were twisted, the walls moved and shifted from time to time, getting us lost or trapped with a bunch of monsters. Just yesterday I stumbled upon one lost group with just a handful of survivors among them. Apparently the old man kneeling by the boss was the one who killed that thing. A mercenary with the power of a Royal Knight.

The army had lost more than 100000 soldiers. While we still had plenty of resources, we never expected to encounter such difficulty in combat. The armors of my men were all in tattered and now there was no way to distinguish between the soldiers, mercenaries and adventurers because everyone was using armors and weapons made from the parts of the monsters. It was disgusting, but I understood the necessity of it. Luckily for me, I still had three spare armors besides this one and more than enough weapons.

“Your Highness, our scout has returned!” announced with a bowed head Jevim Pyrtone, the Commander directly under me.

“Report.” I told him.

“Understood!” he lifted his head up and stood straight with his hand at his chest. “The path to the next floor has been found, however, it goes through an area of poison. It is recommended that we have antidotes ready to use. Emperor Ranked and above won’t have a problem with it.”

“So, it will affect only our soldiers, the vast majority of them. Do we have enough antidotes?” I asked casually as I was pondering the number of deaths.

“No, your Highness. I suggest we spread out our healers and have them use [Detoxify] as much as they can until they all pass.”

“Do that then. The Emperors and above shall head there first.”

My orders sounded as if I had my army’s safety in mind, but the truth was that my Commander had to interpret each one of them in a way that would bring me the most benefit. This was the hidden role of those who held this title in the army. The same went for Temirsan Palas Korot, the Vespora Commander, and Bimis Harak, the Zebrazil Commander. Their duty was only to serve as their own Royal’s right-hand man.

This was also a test for them to see if they could indeed be gifted or not with the role of a General once we returned to the surface.

Still, when exactly were we going to return?

 

Two months later

[Kasimir’s point of view]

 

Crossing through the Dead Floors felt like an eternal damnation... We have been fighting in this forsaken dungeon for three months now...

I thought that the Endless Labyrinth was going to be a problem, however, no one expected the hell that awaited us in that place!

Indeed, the most unexpected thing happened...

I thought the open space we found on the first floor of the Dead Floors was meant to give us a moment to recover our strength. It was large enough to set up a camp, and it was the perfect place to raise the morale of the army. However, not even a few hours after we did so... the path leading up vanished. Not even ten minutes later, a monster wave rushed at us. All the monsters that we had not killed on the upper floors were sent after us here.

From the weakest of the slimes to the monstrous Minotaurs and other types of slithering and crawling creatures. They all came rushing in as if they had been waiting for us... Yes, this was an ambush.

They stomped on our camping tents, on our food, and on our supplies. They killed the weak and tired. They pushed back the strong. Swords clashed with their tusks and weapons. Magic was cast at them by the dozens, but it felt like we barely made a dent.

The onslaught lasted a total of 2 days and 9 hours. Only then did we have a moment to recover... My army of 1912686 strong was now reduced to a band of badly equipped and barely standing of a little over 1400000. We still held numerical advantage, but as we got deeper, the monsters would become stronger and stronger to the point where fighting against them with even a single group of Master Ranked soldiers would be considered lunacy.

I read the reports about this dungeon. They were all saying that it went down in difficulty in the past years, that it was easier to conquer and go deeper and deeper. I should have suspected something was wrong back then!

This, however, was only the beginning of the hell that awaited us in the next 100 floors. There were traps we had never seen before. There were floors filled with poison, others had acid dripping from the ceiling, while through others there were powerful winds blowing through, pushing everyone who lost their grip into spiked walls. There was also a strange form of optical illusion created by the position of the walls themselves, fooling a lot of us into thinking that we were either walking in circles or were taking a new path when in fact we were going back on the same path. Our sense of direction was completely messed up. To add to this, the monsters were diverse, but the skeleton soldiers and mages were the least of our concern. They were the weakest ones, however, there were those who could summon more monsters, others who were immune to any of our attacks, and there were some of them who could cast powerful illusions.

Not everyone in this army was a veteran. As for their loyalty, it was doubtful at best. If not for the paths going back vanishing like that, more than half of these rotten bastards would have already fled back to the surface. Honestly, I was tempted as well, but if I did that, the reputation of the Royal Family would hit rock bottom and the relationships with our neighboring countries would sour. That incident with that Slave some time ago caused our trading with the Vespora Kingdom to go down and even the citizens became worried that a new war might start soon.

Unfortunately, in the event that we really lost control of Yandrea or our Ritual of Suppression resulted in failure, a new continental war was a guarantee. The only question was who was going to attack first and who was going to be the last one to survive. This was why this army did not have that many Supreme Ranked here... Most of them were on the surface, waiting patiently for the outcome of this trial.

Considering how long it took us to reach this point... was there a chance that up there, the war had already started? Tch! These commoners had no idea that this event was the ONLY thing keeping our countries from going to war with each other! NO, it was better to say that without our strict control over Yandrea, the economy in all three countries would crash! After all, for some reason or another, my stupid ancestors decided to destroy all the Dungeons as well as their creation point all over the continent... Right now, Yandrea was the only Dungeon left on this continent.

This, however, did not give her the RIGHT to act so arrogantly towards me! Once I reached the Core World, I was going to make sure to punish her properly and then, everyone was going to see just how great and powerful this prince was!

 

Three months later

[Castio’s point of view]

 

It has been 7 whole months since we came to this wretched place! I have seen more death than I ever did in all of my life as a mercenary! Not even half of my troop survived the hellish nightmare that awaited us throughout all these floors.

While we were happy that we could fight to our fullest in the Endless Labyrinth, when exchanging information with the adventurers who joined this foolish expedition, we learned a horrible truth. What we were seeing now was a dungeon that was at least ten times more difficult than the previous one. They were completely lost as all the paths were changed, new traps were added, even the monsters were different from what they encountered so far.

Initially, I thought he was exaggerating, but with every floor that we went down, we were beginning to understand that he was not joking with us. At this point, there was no difference between them and mercenaries. Nobody in this damn army had any idea what to expect on the lower floors.

By the time we reached the Dead Floors, nobody believed the old guides we bought in Koin. We spent a good coin for it too. Now we got swindled out of our money and out of lives.

A month ago... when we were running through the Golem Paradise... I saw my best friend die, eaten by a golem creatures that nobody ever heard of before. It was running around like a Dayuk, on four legs, but had the head of a dragon, and the tail of snake. It was fast and agile. It was also over 20 meters tall and over 100 meters long. It was a giant the likes of which I had never seen. It stomped us, ate us, crushed us, toyed with us. By the time the Prince and his merry bunch finished it off, more than 100000 men died.

No, it was ridiculous to think that anyone other than them could win against it. The problem was... that there was one such beast on every cursed floor of this Golem Paradise.

If this was the most frightening one... well, not really. There were those that acted like assassins, approaching us from behind, silently killing one of us and then pulling back, corpse and all. We lost thousands of good men to these stealth predators. I never even got to kill one, but apparently the Prince secured several kills. That was a Supreme for ya... a whole other league.

As for me, I completely lost it when we reached the Endless Spire. That place was not normal at all! It defied all logic! How could something like that be built?! How could it pull you to the side from one side to another. If you fell off it, only a pool of lava and hellish metal spikes were waiting for you down there. It was something sinister!

I felt afraid, and I was not the only one. Besides this unnatural architecture, there were all manner of flying monsters here, some more powerful and terrifying than others. I could tell that once we went past this floor, even Emperor ranks would feel like their life was in danger with every step they took. As for the rest of us, we were only bait at best.

I wanted to run away from here, and so I did. With my mates and a few others who were thinking the same, we packed our things and were ready to desert.

Unfortunately, there was no such thing as running away here... The Commander of the Crown Prince caught wind of our attempt... He caught all of us, gathered us in the middle of the army and stood trial in front of his Highness.

“Any last words?” he asked me.

I smiled and replied “You brought us to Hell, but you can’t take us out. We will all rot here... And it will be your fault!”

Those were my last words and saying them felt... satisfying.