As the zombies began to stop reaching the front of the storms, the mages began to relax. Karl’s team had everything under control, and they could finally catch their breath and begin to get their bearings.
The sudden and intense attack had caught them by surprise, turning their seemingly genius camping spot into an inescapable trap.
“Prince Karl, High Priestess, do you think you could spare me a moment for a debriefing? What in the Dragon’s name is going on around here?” Prince Corbin called as he retreated from the line.
Tessa gestured for Lotus to continue cooking as she got to her feet, and Karl retreated from his spot on the far side of the line.
“You missed all the fun stuff, Spellblade.” Karl laughed.
“There was a dungeon opening a few hundred kilometres west of here, and it stabilized.
First it turned into an absolute shitshow of a fight with every nomadic tribe in the region, as well as the combat capable residents of the nearest cities, and then for the last few days there have been anomaly level Monster Spawns in the wilderness.
The first few were just insane monsters, but this one was a bit different.
None of them seem to be related to the dungeon itself, as the monsters there are slime monsters that mimic the appearance of the members attempting to clear it.
Minimum ten person entry, with a low Commander Rank power level.” He finished.
“And how, pray tell, might you have discovered all this information in the last few days, while under attack by monster spawns?” Prince Corbin asked.
“Because the dungeon opened about three days before the monster spawns began, and I saw it stabilize with my own eyes.
We were having a polite and genteel parlay with the Yellow Tusk Orcs at the time, and they were vigorously enthused to see such a serendipitous happenstance.”
Tessa burst out laughing while Prince Corbin rubbed his temples.
“Setting aside the part about a polite and genteel chat with Orcs, you do understand that using big words doesn’t make it more likely I will believe that you’re not lying to me, right?
My guess is that whatever you were up to before it appeared is directly responsible for the appearance of a stabilized Commander Rank dungeon here in the Newbon Empire.
From what I hear, you’ve been missing from the lines for quite some time. You were on a mission and simply vanished. Now you’re here with your whole group of lucky charms and a Void Badger.” Corbin replied.
“Winged Void Badger to be precise. And she’s part of our team. Her name is Cara, and she enjoys holding small creatures and booping dragons on the nose.” Karl agreed.
Corbin determined that the only way forward was to simply pretend that Karl didn’t exist and go to the Dragon Cleric for answers. Anything else was too hard on his sanity.
The Spellblade turned to Tessa with his polite business smile in place. “Where might your next planned stop be? Your team is a long way behind enemy lines.”
Tessa gathered herself and stopped laughing so she could answer. “We’re headed for Clifnal, where we plan to get back on the road, and then head east to the Beastkin Nation.
It was either that or go back into the Divine Beast Nation and go through the wilderness to the border.”
“Who sent you? The Bureau and the Prime Minster himself said that we were the only team in the region.” He asked.
“We arrived with the assistance of the Bronze Dragon Orthos from a negotiation location within the Divine Beast Nation. The trip was authorized by the Archbishop himself, I have the letter here.” She explained.
She handed him the paper, and Corbin frowned as he read through it.
“Well, that is unexpected. But if I might ask, what secret mission were you on in the Divine Beast Nation? Something to do with the Void Badger?”
Karl smirked as Tessa frowned, trying to decide where to start explaining.
“Not exactly. Karl was relocated by an anomaly, and when he exited, he was in the Divine Beast Nation and already had Cara. There was some concern that the Beast Gods would be unwilling to return him to the Golden Dragon Nation, and the rest of us were sent to ensure that the contract we signed with the Red Dragon, that demands we not leave a party member behind, was not broken.
So, that’s where we were when this anomaly was discovered, and we enlisted their assistance to arrive on the West Coast. We have been posing as merchants since then, making our way across the country at the speed of a merchant wagon.”
Prince Corbin sighed. “That’s actually brilliant. With the Naga, you can pretend to be a proper group of locals. Our plan was to pose as a nomadic Spellblade Clan while we investigated.
Nobody expected us to get close enough to see the dungeon firsthand, so we would be reporting back whatever we heard.
How many powerful dungeon Champions were there when you arrived?”
Tessa shook her head. “We were on location when the anomaly opened. It was just us and the Orcs, and then we left as the first challengers arrived. We’re on good terms with the Nomadic Orc Tribes, and we didn’t want to fight them for control when our half of the job was already done.”
“To see if the anomaly stabilized?” Corbin asked.
“To ensure that it stabilized. Which we did from the inside before anyone realized what was going on. The Beast Gods have a theory that having the stabilized anomaly here will help keep trespassers out of their nation.
It’s close enough to the coast that every other nation can just sail in to Lutonade and make it to the dungeon in a day.
It’s easier to sail into the port and go down the road than it is to try to sneak in across the Divine Beast Nation or from the eastern border.” Tessa explained.
The Spellblade took out his map and looked at the various options.
“That seems like a logical option. Can you show me where the Dungeon should be?” He asked.
“It is right there. If you’re going to continue that way, it was spawning Copper Drakes and Sand Yeti among the farms in this region. Oakhamping is a disaster, don’t bother trying to enter, as you’ll probably have to fight your way out.
South of there, Halsearing is preparing for a siege, or massive traffic, as it is within a half day’s walk of the dungeon.
The roads were crammed with farm traffic, but everyone is paranoid about running into the Nomadic Tribes.”
Tessa gestured at the map as she explained, as his map was even worse than the one that they had hand copied.
Corbin was adding details as Tessa explained them, along with notes on what monsters to expect in the area. Both the spawn and the local farmers.
“This could be more difficult than I thought. Unlike your group with the Monster Man, we’re going to be bringing a whole Sect of young humans through. That will make it pretty obvious to anyone we see that we’re headed for the Dungeon.”
Tessa frowned. “Do you still need to get to the dungeon? If we go back with you, we can give them all the details that you would get.”
Corbin tapped the map as he considered it. “Let me think about that for a bit. Having you here is an unexpected twist that wasn’t in the predicted scenarios.”
