The underground dungeon hadn’t changed a bit since Logan’s last visit. Tall ceilings, flat floors and walls, and an ever-present sense of dread that came with sections of silence that were only broken up by the chatter of the inhabitants. The random rooms filled with bandits who had teleported here accidentally were replaced with monsters of varying types and powers.

  However, Logan couldn’t help but think that something was unnerving about Cassius. The leader of this raid had more years on him, at least in adventuring, than Logan, and he had also cleared enough dungeons to get the title of Raid Leader Cass. His physical power didn’t just paint him as stronger—it was a wholly different level of strength. It was like he had crafted himself for this.

  Every fight the team of Logan, Marcus, Amalia, and Cassius got into, Cassius was the first to move, the first to strike, and the last to lose any form of preparedness for a continuation. The way he handled himself, it was almost like Logan’s trio was just tagging along, which they kind of were, outside of Logan and Marcus’s previous experience with the layout of the area.

  Power, speed, knowledge—Cassius was seemingly unmatched in any quality, as far as adventurers were concerned. Was this the height Logan was going to reach in the next few months, too? Logan wasn’t insecure in his own powers; he had his own field to fill, but he worried about the possibility of his foes being as strong or stronger than Cassius was. This gap wasn’t comforting to think of.

  With a wide swathe of his blade, Cassius stood tall again as he surveyed the large room the “party” cleared. Flicking the blood from his shortsword, which wasn’t his artefact weapon as he saved that for stronger foes, Cassius spoke up, “Hold here for a moment. I’m going to talk with the other teams.”

  “Got ya”, Logan affirmed as he clicked his fingers to use Echo Radar to search for threats.

  Marcus approached his friend with a huff to start his complaint, “It feels almost pointless, us being here.”

  “‘Almost’, yeah. With the underground not having changed, they could have just gone on our word.”

  “At least we can look out for his flanks”, Amalia added as she pointed at Cassius.

  Logan sighed, knowing some of the same turmoil Cassius was probably dealing with in his head. “He’s following his mantra close, of overpreparedness. But, it seems it’s rooted in a fear of losing others under his command”, he said before sighing again, “I can relate.”

  “He’s carrying a lot on his shoulders, as many raid leaders do. Though, if he were to fall, I’d say a good few others would follow. Over-reliance on the strong will lead the weak to stay as they are”, Marcus thought aloud before his face flinched, “Sorry. Projecting a bit there.”

  Logan clapped Marcus’s shoulder, “You’re fine. We’ve all gotten stronger from when we started.”

  Amalia looked at Logan for a while, thinking to herself, “Is that how Logan thinks too?”

  “He had a rather bad time at a mobile dungeon last year and probably a whole load more before that. I can see it in his eyes. He looks at us, and it looks like he is imagining us as someone we’re not.

  Cassius flipped closed his commwatch. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the eyes he felt burning a hole in the back of his head. He let out a quiet breath and turned to face his allies. His gaze was sharp and determined as if still searching for confrontation. It wasn’t a look of kindness, it was of caution.

  “The other teams haven’t come across anything aberrant. No undead to speak of, so the hope they’re all in the boss room still lives”, Cassius informed before clearing his throat to also address the elephant in the room, “Why’re you all looking at me like you’re trying to uncover an age-old secret in a library? Is my face so easy to read?”

  The trio didn’t respond for a second, stretching the silence to an uncomfortable length, ready to snap. Cassius crossed his arms after sheathing his sword.

  “We’re in a place of danger. Any sign of lenience can lead to disaster. We’ve a couple of rooms to clear before the Madamra Rampart, after which we will link up with the other teams to attack the boss within. Talking with the other leaders, our resources are still high. The gamble of time versus assets is a constant thought. Proper escape routes and rallying backup routes. Who might fail to dodge an attack? Who could deal with it? Three hands' worth of details to consider. This is the job of the raid leader”, Cassius explained before sighing.

  “We’re all past rank 20, so I don’t think I need to reiterate what I see when I look at all of us. We’re forged in battle, paid danger coin. I see people who trust me to lead them, we’ve fought off monsters that are made right here or invade from the demon realms”, Cassius began to speak with further intensity, “and I don’t think it’s going to stop. There are always dangers. New challenges. We need to cut these things off at their source so they can no longer spread.”

  “Eradicating the dungeons?” Logan asked.

  “Yes. Remove the dungeons, remove the heads of the organisations. Otherwise, we’re just using buckets to empty a pond at the end of a river from the ocean. Eradicate all opposition”, Cassius spoke before looking at the next open door, “Or we’ll be doing this ‘till it kills us.”

  Logan nodded. “I understand your frustration. But you can rely on us a bit more.”

  Cassius looked at Logan, “I know. No doubt you’ll be needed in the boss room.”

  “I was meaning to ask. How’d you learn to eradicate dungeons?”

  Cassius smirked, “A constant question when I go to cities. I—”

  Cassius was interrupted by the commwatch making a ringing noise, bringing both Logan and Amalia’s minds back to Earth. Flipping the cover off, Cassius looked at the gem inside as words appeared across it.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “The others have caught up. Let’s get to the door, then circle around.”

  “Guess I won’t get answered just yet”, Logan accepted in his head.

  It didn’t take the team too long to reach the door that was their first destination. Just as before, the door was inlaid with golden carvings that depicted a large monstrous head, something of an amalgamation of orc and ogre, with four sets of fangs. Though unlike the normal technique to open it, Cassius moved to the side of the door and placed a hand on the wall adjacent to the frame.

  Lightning sparks emanated from the rock and started to flow around the leader’s arm, waves of energy entwining with his being. Rotating his arm, Cassius had the static abruptly stop, leaving only the purple lines of spellforce to flow around his arm. Pulling back, the magic dispersed. Cassius flicked the minor portions off his limb as he walked back to the party.

  “What was that?” Logan asked, bemused.

  “I was testing to see if the boss room had any alterations placed on it. It would seem so. In the past two months, it lines up close to the time of the tournament. With everyone’s attention drawn to the capital, I guess this place was invaded and tampered with.”

  “Do you think it’s the same people who summoned that skeleton lord? Or is there no real way to tell?”

  Cassius shrugged, “Many things could have occurred, but no one else has altered the boss room since then, only the same one.”

  Marcus then stepped forward, “Wait, what are you saying? People, not monsters, can change dungeons? They can choose what’s behind a Madamra Rampart?”

  Amalia looked between the pair, a confused look across her face.

  “Sadly, though incredibly rare, yes. I’ve encountered a few dungeons and boss rooms that weren’t as described in reports”, Cassius explained as he raised his hand to look at it, “This is a skill I learnt from an artefact from another dungeon.”

  “I’ve yet to find an artefact tome”, Logan admitted.

  Cassius nodded, “It was only my third in all of my dungeons. Regardless, it seems a large force, or a smaller, more powerful one, has taken this dungeon under their wing. There is the Call to War skill that can command legions of monsters, so filling a place like this isn’t hard for a skilled person.”

  Logan then added, “They would need at least four increases to that skill to control the varied monsters in here, though.”

  “Goblinoids, spirit beasts, and demons… I do not think ‘demon’ is an applicable category for Call to War since it’s more of an additional species type. As for the undead, there are many spells and some skills that can create and control them. Four is a good number to go with”, Cassius nodded at Logan. “Call to War is rare, so our foe might be stronger than previously thought.”

  Cassius crossed his arms and took on a pensive look, prompting Logan to ask, “Are you worried about the team we’ve assembled?”

  Cassius shook his head, “No. I am concerned this may have some connection to the goblin invasion last year.”

  “What?”

  “I thought it was strange. The goblins were far too organised and appeared without warning. The hero goblin also threw the whole fight into a new league of disarray. A spellcaster could be strong enough to portal an army like that, they could also maintain a dungeon of this size with ease”, Cassius explained as he furrowed his brow, staring at the rampart.

  Logan had sweat drip down his brow. “Shit. Is he close to uncovering the below PCs? Is my disguise coming to a close? I already had a thought of the below PCs conspiring against me, so their being behind both the invasion and the skeleton lord could be correct. That would in turn mean the quest to take on the invasion was a player versus player event of sorts”, Logan thought to himself.

  “Is that the lead you’ve been following lately?” Marcus asked.

  “Yes. I’d say a quarter of the dungeons I have eradicated were because of this shadow organisation. I’m just hoping this is the culmination”, Cassius sighed, “Let’s continue our loop and meet up with the others.”

  As the team continued in their usual formation, Logan was trying his hardest to hide his fear and worry from Cassius. Marcus kept staring at Logan’s back, knowing a bit more than the leader, and that Logan was going through something right now. Amalia, on the other hand, seemed a lot more calm about the whole thing, mostly due to not interacting with most of the previous events, but also, she was confident in her companions.

  Several more rooms passed by in the blink of an eye, with the team “taking five” every so often to account for skill cooldowns and to lessen their fatigue from overusing skills and spells. Logan spent most of his time near the back of the fights, using Telekinesis to close doors to stop retreating monsters or to break up parties that would flank Cassius and Marcus.

  Amalia’s main job was to use Come Forth to put the rooms into chaos, the monsters attempting to target her at the far back and then falling prey to Cassius’s mostly uninterrupted attacks. It was very efficient. So much so that the vanguard team was able to reach the final chamber at the back that only had another door leading in a forked direction that they had come from.

  “Damn. No treasure hoard room. But, at least there were no devour rooms”, Cassius cursed.

  “Since this was a natural dungeon, was there a chance of either?” Logan asked.

  “The changes may have made one. At least we can say not many other people have come here if we’ve yet to see any remains.”

  Walking back, albeit in a slightly different direction, the party moved through other rooms and corridors until they met up with one of the teams of seven. While Cassius only showed minor signs of fatigue, the other team had all put in valued efforts to clear the dungeon, as displayed by their more haggard stances.

  “We’ll take the left path to link up with team 2. Intel team and reserve team have reported no abnormalities so far, so we’re good to clear as much as possible”, Cassius explained to the other team’s leader, a commwatch in hand after communicating with another team.

  “A lot of resources were used up today, so if we are to attack the boss, we’ll need to dip into potion reserves”, the leader replied.

  “Gauntlet is footing the bill for a lot of this; without any treasure, we’re going to rely on components to make up any price gaps.”

  “No undead so far means that the boss most likely has followers.”

  “No doubt. How’re the Devouts?”

  Logan walked back to Marcus as the conversation continued. “I can see his motto at work here. A lot of the side rooms were easy for these teams. Overprepared indeed.”

  Marcus nodded. “A normal raid team would have casualties, but with Cassius in the lead, it seems we’ve got none so far.”

  “Trial and error saw him here, though. He’ll more than likely keep some out of the boss room. I’d want to be there to witness anything… appropriate for my eyes.”

  “Worried the cultists are down here, too?”

  “If they were, I would have thought they would interrupt our clearing of the underground. No. It might just be the lord and whatever it can make.”

  “We just have to hope the teleportation can be tracked from here”, Marcus sighed.

  Amalia then approached the two and informed them, “We’re heading on now.”

  “Got it.”

  --- *** ---