Chapter 7.13 - March Towards Glory

Many in Haven were hard at work during the Spring. The Sirens were busy doing things not acknowledged or sanctioned by Haven. The parasite outreach team was busy bringing its 'miracle cure' to those who were in need. And the Chimaeras were most likely not idle either.

But the group that had put in the most effort was Serin's Dungeon Raid Team. In preparation for their Spring attempt at Sarween's Public Raid Dungeon there were several things Serin and the group had done to prepare.

First, Serin had leveled up his [Gate] spell so he could cast without losing consciousness. This way they would be able to leave immediately after their run at the public dungeon, or exit the dungeon if needed. Or, if someone carried Serin, both.

A locational beacon was run to where they would be teleporting to inside the bounds of the Sarween Technocracy. 'One must make an entrance' Serin mused.

Serin's dungeon raid team had practiced together extensively. This practice wasn't 'support Serin as he takes you as far down as he can' but instead it was learning to work as a set of teams. The group started in the training dungeon. When they learned to work as a team, they moved to the regular dungeon.

And a week before they planned to try for the raid dungeon, they had finally reached level 60 of the capital dungeon. Level 60 in Serin's preferred route was a frozen waste guarded by a literal army. The size of the floor was massive, allowing for Serin's group to move, attack, and hide. The enemy had orc and ogre knights, goblin riders, and wyverns. Had Serin not already faced such a threat with Narissa's first invasion attempt, he would have been worried. Instead he was prepared.

Serin was prepared. Now was the time to see if his planning paid off. He sent a private letter to the current leader of Sarween to request entrance for a team to the public raid dungeon.

***

Sybal, de facto leader of the Sarween Council, was excited. There had been several foreign teams from the northern kingdom. All of which were all KIA. Sybal did not care. The way the contract was written was '20% of materials physically retrieved from the dungeon, as determined and chosen by Sarween'. Sybal was aware that a weakened team coming out of the public raid dungeon would not be able to put up a fight, so the contract was written to protect the adventurers from the moment they entered Sarween Territory until the moment they left.

Sybal had several hunter-killer teams prepared in case one of the groups had survived to kill and recoup the remaining 80% of goods. But no team had gotten that far.

Still. Every single person that purchased a pass into the raid dungeon paid up front 50k credits. Even if Sybal didn't have a chance to betray the adventurers, he still won in the end.

But now the message he received had him excited.

[Haven requests purchase of 20 passes into the public raid dungeon. 1 million credits]

Sybal smiled. This was an openly state sponsored team. The other teams might have come from the northern kingdoms, but they paid upon arrival, and registered as independent teams.

This team was good. Sybal would need to prepare a larger force on his borders to waylay the team upon exiting Sarween territory.

Sybal accepted the agreement, and a calendar of available dates for entry appeared. Since the passes had no expiration, it was more a formality for planning purposes.

Then as Serin reviewed the calendar, he blanched. The group selected today. As Sybal had made a temporary office outside the entrance to the Public Raid dungeon, he felt the flash disturbance of Mana, yelling and screaming, then a knock on his office door.

Sybal opened to see 20 people in armor of various kill teams and specialties of Haven, each toting a special auto cart. Sybal's reports identified some as 'Archangels' and 'Witchdoctors'. But most he had never heard of. Then there was one that he knew to fear. It was the devil mask of the 'Subjugator', he was with another who was positively identified as 'Jericho' who was confirmed over level 100, as he had completed his limit break and was a known war criminal in the Northern Kingdoms.

This group emanated power. And they each dragged a cart. There were no porters.

"We have an appointment to enter the dungeon today." was the Subjugator's only words. A screen appeared in front of Sybal.

['The Subjugator' agrees to pay 1,000,000 credits to The Raid Dungeon Overseer for 20 passes into the raid dungeon. All contract terms and conditions apply.]

Sybal knew better than to stall and agreed.

He only hoped he had the force available to get his choice of taxed goods when the group exited the dungeon.

***

It seemed as they mapped and moved, Serin realized that the public raid dungeon was separated into sections, and as they moved towards the center the enemy grew stronger. With the information collected, Serin determined there was the Outskirts of the city, The Outer Districts, the Inner City, and the Castle, standing taller than any other buildings and looking completely foreign in its architecture. For this reason, to maximize their profits and better hide their plan, Serin's team started by just completing a full circle on the outskirts of the city.

Serin and his team were not quiet as they went, as once they were out of sight of the group they wanted to call all of the enemies in.

Since he had not brought any skilled Delvers on this excursion, Serin brought out Tali, his wind familiar.

It had been a while since she was summoned in a combat environment. Most of the time Serin let her simply flitter about. Sometimes he asked Avea to hide small magical items and weak runestones around the city for her to find.

Her existence would be invaluable. Tali was also jealous, as Ignis, Serin's Tegu familiar, was usually tasked with the important task of guarding Serin's personal garden from the intrusive bug or rodent.

Now she flew overhead, her years of practice had her evolve from the small songbird to the slightly larger falcon. Her job was not to engage in combat but simply look for treasures.

And Tali was an expert in her job.

It seemed that there were rules to this public raid dungeon, just as there were to the Capital Dungeon. There was no max number of enemies, but the limit to enter was 20 participants at a time. After the 20th, an invisible field stopped all entry.

And enemies did not respawn. Instead, they stayed dead. According to the dungeon, when either the entire surviving raiding team left the boundary of the dungeon, or they all died, the dungeon would reset, allowing more participants.

So Serin's goal was devastation. Killing them all. Maximum reward. Serin knew that the Sarween technocracy knew of the rewards given out in the outskirts of the city, so if they were the only rewards seen then the best rewards could be hidden from the technocracy.

In the outskirts, it was mostly roaming bands of large lizards, mammals, and bugs similar to what Serin could find in Terra, but they were larger, more violent, and covered in claws and/or poison. It only took two days for his team to round the entire city, and upon reaching the gates, Serin's team took a rest and refit period. These autocarts were specially designed for this time, and folded out large light aluminum plating. It would not stop serious magic but it would be enough to slow down advancing melee forces. Especially since it was magically reinforced against kinetic damage.

Serin's team took a 12 hour rest period, broken into 3 shifts, this way everyone had 8 hours to refit and get sleep.

***

Upon entering the gate, Serin was sure he was the outsider. He knew from the maps and the scouting runs by Tali, his wind spirit falcon, that the raid dungeon was divided into rings of denser structures.

The Outskirts is what Serin's team had just completed. Upon entering the gate, Serin and his team had entered the Outer city, a less dense ring that was made up of residential districts and divided into sections that were even visible from above. It seemed that each section of this middle ring was controlled by a different monster faction.

Heading deeper into the public raid dungeon there was the inner city, which was dense buildings that were multiple stories tall. Some still standing, but most in ruin. The ones still standing looked like they were occupied by some intelligence force.

At the very center, where reports used to be of large government complex, there was now a massive castle, visible from where they currently stood. Serin could make out the forms of dragons and wyverns flying around. Aggressively territorial creatures flying in the same area meant they were not independent. They were tamed by someone, or something.

This castle was the goal.

***

It took four days to conquer the outer city. It was not terribly difficult as the creatures were all weaker, but the outer city was controlled by 27 'tribes' of monsters. Each with their own fighting styles, architecture, and loot.

But more importantly, they all seemed to produce members that functioned as a part of a larger city ecosystem. And as he fought Serin felt the smallest tinge of regret. This dungeon was setup to be a functioning ecosystem, and they were coming in to wreck it. He might have regretted his decision, but there was no point. Should Serin wipe the entirety of the city from the map, upon exiting, it would be replenished. Any damage undone. The cycle of life would be left undisturbed. And with that, Serin worked.

He did start to notice that the various materials and treasures he found in each of the 27 tribes somehow related to their function in the city. Magical crafting tools of various rarity were found in the tribes of Goblins, Hobgoblins, Trolls, Ogres, and Kobolds, as they made up the supposed 'workforce' of the city. In the district housing the Direwolves, Serin found enchanted Saddles and animal handling equipment.

Minimal effort was used to effectively eradicate all of the inhabitants of every tribe. Reducing the magic and material usage was paramount on this mission. And After each tribe was eradicated and the area looted, it was poisoned, burned, or blown up. Sometimes all three.

As Serin's Team continued around the Outer City ring, they encountered weirder and weirder tribes of creatures, but after a bit of investigation (and sometimes mind lances to divine information) Serin found what each creature was used for. The Mercaris, centair-like creatures with the head of a lion, Serin knew were the outer city sentries and patrol, because he ran into them several times roaming the outer city. Magical spears, lances, and shields were their treasure.

Serin also noticed that each district controlled by a different tribe, besides having creature specific dwellings, also mutated to be an appropriate biome. Creatures named 'Corpse Farmers' used the corpses of humans and other bipeds as plant beds for strange fruit and flowers. A race of scouts called Avieds were the reason Serin's group didn't bother trying to hide their presence, as these creatures let everything in a 500 meter radius where they were. Serin was glad to wipe them out. Loud birds annoyed him.

There was also another bog, this one with a toady swamp people called Viccars that were running slug farms. Salted and burned.

Every district was different. And they all had to perish. Serin did not want to have to worry about enemies if he had to expeditiously retreat and the enemy cast [dimensional lock]

And as they continued, there were were a few monsters that Serin's people did not kill. There were a few peaceful monsters. Specifically, there were Darts, which were small half meter tall biped lizards that seemed almost to be farmed by other monsters. Serin was happy to find these creatures, as he found out the explosive bolos and bombs dropped on him by the flying Locids were made with the high nitrate excrement of these lizards. Although dangerous, he was sure that Shurik would make him come back if he left without collecting these creatures.

The other peaceful creatures had their regions well guarded by other monsters. Like they knew the value and importance of keeping it secure. There were the Dawl, small flying sprites that seemed content on growing what looked like small groves of flowers and fruit trees, except upon closer inspection Serin realized they were growing Mana Crystals. One of nature's most valuable resources grown out of the ground by an absentminded defenseless slow flying sprite.

It made sense that the Dawl were guarded by Malics, Centepede parasites driving braindead humans, Mytisans, floating orbs with bodies of poisonous mist, and Garders, Giant hulking 4 armed blind behemoths. It didn't matter. Serin Caged the Dawl with plants and they seemed ok with this situation. He was reminded by the lackadaisical work of the Content.

The only other peaceful monster was the Quarn. Serin might not have noticed them if the Juni the Lancer Gole on his team hadn't picked up on their brainwaves. They had just killed the Harpies and Lycans (large bipedal wolves) that were in the forest and were about to burn it to the ground when they realized there was a third race of woodlike stick insects that spent their time using magic to rapidly grow the forest, and eating excess fruit that fell to the ground. Serin saw as there were cut down sections of a tree, and this creature went and regrew the missing tree limbs as if it was never injured.

Put into cages and into the carts they went.

But other than these three monsters, there was no quarter given to the monsters of the outer cities. Whether it was the aquatic Octopodes boiled out of their shallow waters where they waited to drag in unsuspecting adventurers, or the bone collectors purged with fire along with their masses of monster bones, or the small mole like couriers the Speckled Runners and Meckles gassed out of their underground burrows.

There was no mercy.

These were monsters. And other than the three peaceful races there were only two things uniformly found among these groups. The first was a flag of concentric red rings hanging in each tribal chief's home, and the second was among the piles of various 'treasure' each district had, there were piles of human bones, marked and cut into plates, which Serin surmised was a form of currency between the monsters.

So it did not matter if it was the Giant ant builders called Farnians or the Stone and metal golems called Fulians digging rock out of the dirt. They would be killed. The shock troop Orcs sent would not stop them. And the only pause given was when they found the 'city's equivalent to a ghetto, which was a pit of deformed creatures of every race, either slowly dying, or eating the slowly dying.

Serin brought them peace.

And after 4 days of pure slaughter, they were back to the main road into the city proper.

***

As Serin and his team came full circle they marched towards the gatehouse that separated the outer city and the inner city. It was blocked by a knight in all black and red.

"Only those who have been recognized by all of the tribe leaders of the outer city may enter the inner city. Although only death awaits you there, interlopers."

Serin recognized a few things. This monster had spoken, meaning it was intelligent and could communicate. It wore plate armor that looked capable of stopping most melee weapons and probably most non-Haven rifles. It was feminine, and its raspy, smoky voice was alluring. It had also drawn a greatsword, standing in the way of his progress.

Serin retrieved a bloody sack from his cart and tossed it at the feet of the knight. Out rolled several of the heads of the 27 tribe chieftains and wardens he had collected, as he was planning to take back for study at Haven. "Does this count?"

The knight stood shocked. She readied her blade. "I see you are here for conquest, dread lord. Then even if I cannot stop you, I can still buy my brothers time!" The female knight fired off a flare into the sky. War horns sounded. Dozens more flares went up.

Serin was not amused. "You will pay for this later." he said as Serin walked up holstering his rifle. The knight ran at him at blinding speed, Serin simply cast [stasis] overpowered with magical essence. The knight was instantly locked in a prison of amber.

Serin smiled, "Now join the others." Serin then added the encasement in his [inventory].

Normally, living things could not enter the [inventory] space. Anything entering would not be admitted. However, a special fact about the [stasis] spell he learned from Ref. It turned the property of anything trapped within into a non-living object. And since Serin overpowered the spell, it would only end with his death or with his negating the effect.

"Now just to find a male."

This was what Serin's inventory was full of. Breeding pairs of monsters and the three peaceful caged groups.

"They will be prepared for us, so let us rest here outside the gate. If we are going to have to fight our way through, might as well do it on a night of good rest."

***

Inside the city walls it was evident that there was a large difference between the monsters of the inner city and those of the outer city.

Serin's adventuring team was therefore divided into its 'clover' formation, or four teams of five, and just as they practiced for months in the training dungeon and lower levels of the capital dungeon.

Each team was built with one dedicated Melee, two constructs, and specialists that determined their team's function.

Serin's team included Juni the Lancer as well as Olma as their melee. Their two constructs as well as Olma acted as defense as Serin's team. This was because their team was used for large long range target acquisition and damage. Juni could use her lancer skills to locate targets, and relay this information to Serin who could then send overpowered spells to destroy large entrenched enemies.

Jericho's Team included Ferrah, the Demis that carried the magneta scattergun and Mikael the Guardian Gole. Paired with their two constructs this was a melee focused team able to tank large amounts of troops.

Edel and Mast worked together with two changelings to protect Sakina. Their team specialized in producing dozens of swarms of lethal insects from [stasis] pods in Sakina's [inventory].

Liza the Demis healer led their main support team. With Sasha the Mechanist Gole and Flick the Skygge Nightmask they were hard pressed for melee, so instead they had practiced fighting while using prototype flightpacks. Being able to shoot and heal on the move allowed them to quickly reinforce the other teams when needed.

Setup in these teams, it was still a struggle. Their battlefield was a city. The buildings that were rubble were often trapped to cause falling rocks or had enemies in hides. The buildings that were still standing were in themselves mini dungeons, as the teams would have to move floor by floor to clear them of enemies.

And it seems they had reached the next tier of the dungeon city's caste system. While there were members of the servant monsters from 27 tribes of the outer regions performing duties like collecting dead bodies and moving small boxes, the majority was made up of just one type of monster, which had many varieties. That was the Daemon.

The first they encountered were Lesser Daemons, which were human sized with red speckled yellow skin and small black horns. Their eyes were sold black with yellow irises. Their weapons, however well designed, were not up to par as swords and non magical arrows were not able to breach the raid teams magical armor nor their physical armor. Paired with the strength of a higher than average human, they were no match for the raid teams. Whether it was falling beneath the might of Jericho's team or being peppered with rounds from Liza's flying team they would fall. If they tried to retreat or shelter behind cover they were met with Sakina's devouring swarms and should they make it to a bunker or behind a stone door, they were hit with magical artillery. Serin and Juni had practiced using their magics together to curve [fireball] spells using Juni's [psychokinesis]

But regardless of this as they continued to move and kill, the ranks of the Lesser Daemons began to be filled interspersed with regular Daemons. These wore thicker armor with metal plates and their yellow skin was more striped by red. Their horns were just a bit bigger, but some had them filed down to fit inside their helmets.

While lesser daemons fell like cannon fodder to the raid team, regular Daemons lasted a bit longer. They might evade a few rounds from Liza's team or parry a few melee strikes or maybe spray Sakina's swarms with fire. But they still fell.

It continued on like this. Fight armies of daemons to a fortified building. Damage fortifications with telepathically curved fireballs or lobbed explosives. Clear building. Loot. Fight to the next fortified building.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

It was a slow process, and had they had to maintain constant control of their carts it would have been a nightmare. Thankfully there was a set of micro-homunculi that were brought in via [inventory] and assembled in place. They had minimal function and worked to simply follow their assigned cart driver and lock down when the driver went somewhere it could not follow.

But other than this there was a level of monotony to the combat that was only broken up by a few instances. Serin's raid teams were fluid, and each and every building fell to their onslaught. Soon they arrived at the a few special buildings in the inner city

The first was the colosseum. When they made it there, they realized that the monsters had corralled the few surviving humans of Sarween and had put them in death matches against monsters. It had been many months since the city had fallen, yet here they were, broken and bloodied survivors. 'Maybe an extra reward for the first to get this far in the dungeon?' Serin thought.

There were twenty survivors. They were plated humans, as Serin made sure to check. Most of them belonged to powerful or prestigious families in their listed affiliation which made sense, as the private training in combat was the only thing that allowed them to survive for so long.

They saw the group, and when Jericho removed his helmet to show his face, a few of them wept. "Please. Help us. We have connections and have millions of credits to our family name. If you take us out of here, we will ensure you are well compensated."

Serin smiled, "Sarween has demanded 20% tribute from our expedition into this ruined city. Can you cover that cost?"

They nodded. Serin continued. "Good. Then I will put you in a protective magic called [stasis] and you will be secured with the cargo." Before they could question it, the spell was cast and they were loaded into the carts, one per cart.

The other two places of note that were found were the Bazaar and the Furnaces. The Bazaar seemed to be a marketplace of goods, most of which Serin recognized from the outer city districts. It was a treasure trove of raw materials.

Almost everything was taken. There were even strange machines and tapestries with strange depictions. These were taken too. The only things not taken from this place were the human body parts for sale. It almost looked like a butcher's stall. Except it was only human meat for sale. Olma let him know that it smelled different. Bad.

Serin would have taken it but to Olma it smelled putrid. "There is better human to be found outside the dungeon."

Then there was the furnace. It was a region devoted to metalcraft and it was running constantly. After killing all the workers and retrieving all of the rare metal supplies, this was the only place that the raid team didn't bother incinerating. They simply removed the giant magical fuel source, which they packed as well. Sasha, the mechanist gole, informed them that should this forge ever stop running, it will break on its own.

Even though it was only 10% the size of the outer city, the inner city took just as long to clear. And after another four days of fighting, there was nothing left alive inside the outer city or the inner city. Or the outskirts. Buildings were torched or gassed. It was what Serin called the "Scorched Earth" Policy.

Serin looked at his team. They were tired. Some had even received wounds that they just didn't have the time to fully heal.

"We take a 2 day break. Heal your wounds. Repair your equipment. We will enjoy a good meal. Because afterwards, we march towards the castle."

During their break as they set up for recovery, Jericho came to Serin, "I wanted to ask you, why go through the effort of completely destroying everything on site? When we leave the dungeon it will all reappear, right?"

Serin smiled, "I am pretty sure it will. But more importantly, it is good practice. We may one day have to have to one day fight such an enemy in such a manner. I hope that day never comes, but should it come, I want our best soldiers to have practice. It makes this gruesome task easier."

***

As the raid team moved forward, ever wary of their position, they were yet again met with a black knight.

"I see you have made it this far, dread lord. No matter. I will not stop you. But you will still fall."

Serin looked as the fighter saluted him. "Any relation to the black armored knight at the gate at the first gate we passed?"

The fighter stiffened. "That is my mate."

"Perfect!" Serin cried, then locked the fighter in [stasis].

***

Inside the castle, there were no lesser daemons or regular daemons. Instead they were met with greater daemons. Their skin was red with speckles of black. And although their number was much fewer, they were much stronger.

Their melee skills were better than Serin's, but not as good as one of each team's dedicated melee fighters. Their armor could withstand normal rounds fired from the constructs' rifles and they dampened the blow of a bolter, but they could not withstand point blank slugs from a scattergun.

Serin did not want to start burning through his ammunition. Although he had two spare backpacks of ammo, he had no idea what else lay ahead.

Although the castle was 10% the size of the inner city, and 1% the size of the inner and outer city, it was dozens of floors. Each with a different layout. Serin estimated there were 15 floors, at least that is what it looked like from the outside. And once he got inside the vaulted ceilings gave the impression it might be even fewer.

He was wrong.

There were over 20.

Serin was not expecting a dungeon crawl. Inside of a dungeon. Each floor seemed to have a dias in the middle as well. Serin surmised that it allowed those with the power to do so to go to any level of the castle. He did not have any way to activate it however.

So again the monotony was reached. Most floors of the large castle were similar. And as Serin climbed, other than the enemies slowly getting stronger, the only thing of note were a few specialty rooms to appear.

There was one floor that was like a laboratory, except it was studying humans. Serin recognized some of the sigils as ones Jan had drawn. Serin took the stacks of books, lab notes, and had rubbings done of all the ritual circles. Everything

There was one level that was a library. Most of the entire book was in another language, which would burn mana to read, and Serin could not speed read, which he had learned was not worth it. It would have to be hand copied into common. Regardless, Serin had the books taken.

He realized his personal [inventory] of *mostly* creatures in [stasis] had him pushing the limit of available size. He did a check and every team member as over 50% on their personal storage. Some were over 75% and two were capped, meaning if they tried to store anything else, other items would start popping out.

They were running out of space for loot.

***

Not many of the next few rooms were of note. It wasn't until the last three rooms of the towering castle that anything happened of note.

The first room they entered was a chapel. The walls were adorned with strange drawings and markings. There hanging on the wall was a large pictogram and the text, which [comprehend languages] translated, said 'All hail the great khan'.

Serin wanted to take a closer look, but there was a small issue.

12 of the black nights. Serin had time to view them. They were Arch Daemons.

'So i have captured a breeding pair of these arch daemons…' Serin mused.

"This place is not for the non-believers!" and with that, 4 of the arch daemons broke off and started burning the tapestries, pictorgrams, and artwork on the wall the remaining 8 drew weapons and marched towards Serin.

"Do you really think 8 of you can take on 20 of us?" Jericho asked. The raid team readied its weapons.

"We do not. But you will not have time to study these holy words."

Serin then saw it. Behind the art of the tapestry were faint words. Now being engulfed in flame.

"Juni make a record!" Juni's eyes flashed and she stood still. Serin knew lancers could make a perfect memory in the highest detail. The issue is it took their concentration and they were useless doing anything else.

Now to just hope she gets enough images to reconstruct what was here.

***

Arch daemons were no joke. Each one took on two fighters at once, parrying melee fighters and shielding or dodging ranged attacks. The weaker unpowered magics like [slow] or [fear] they shook off. They continued to hold their own, and Serin worried what would happen if the remaining four returned.

He did not want to find out. Serin decided to overpower a [slow] spell and cast it at Jericho's enemy. This one stuck and his speed reduced by roughly 20%. Not as much as it should have with as much essence as Serin through at it, but enough for Jericho to deliver several fatal blows followed by beheading the target.

From there it was a cascade effect, with a target going from defending two to one to having to defend 3 to one.

Then 4 to one.

Then 6 to one.

Each time the target fell faster and faster. In the few minutes it took for the four arch daemons to destroy the holy imagery, their 8 brethren had fallen.

The four remaining drew their weapons and charged into certain death.

***

Serin had the raid team rest up and refit before heading to the next level. There was no rush. They would eventually leave this place. They had killed everything living behind them so there was no chance of being snuck up on.

It was a good thing this was decided. On the next level Serin assumed this was the boss monster. It stood a good meter taller than any other of the daemons. Behind it was a throne and a somewhat hidden staircase up.

"I stand alone it seems against you interlopers. Dread lord, know that you stand in front of Maxiel, Arch Daemon of the Morat Knightdom. You were a fool to invade my lands, and are a fool to stand before me. I will defend this node to the death, and you shall not gain access to the stem. I am mighty and I am proud. You do not have the power to overcome my greatness..."

"Too much talking."

Serin was tired of this dungeon. His armor was smelly and he hadn't had a home cooked meal in the better part of two weeks. So while this boss started his long winded speech, Serin had prepared an overpowered icicle. Serin was not good at defeating hordes like Jericho, or healing masses like Liza, or spiking minds like Juni. But he did have his niche. And that was to send a massive amount of force at a single target. Serin's hardened icicle fired faster than the eye could see.

And like so many boss monsters before, Maxiel's head turned into mist as blood and flesh.

"Divines, that never gets old."

The others were not surprised. They all looked tired. The dungeon was controlled chaos, and this had been a draining exercise for all those involved.

"Collect anything worth value. I call dibs on his fancy chair." Serin referred to the golden throne of the Arch Daemon Knight.

With that they ascended to the last stair. It was the final room. Even after a sweep of the area, there was no other place to go. The room was full of discs of precious metal, a king's horde of jewels. An entire treasure chest full of rune stones. Several large casks filled with cut gemstones. It was a wildly opulent treasure room. Books of spells. Magical artifacts. Ebonywood and adamantine blocks. Dragon bone and magical cores.

It truly was worth the 1 million credits paid to an enemy state and over 4 million credits invested in materials, training, and labor.

Serin estimated the value of this room in the hundreds of millions of credits. But more importantly, he knew the extent of what this dungeon would give him. No stone was left unturned. No building unraided. No being alive.

***

"Remember the handout on the value of equipment. We can always get more iron and aluminum from our own dungeon. It's not as easy for gemstones and magical artifacts." Serin and Jericho were overseeing the reallocation of materials.

It was then that he noticed a blinking notice on the dungeon raid page of his system.

[Completion of the Daemon Knightdom city node - 100%]

[Replay available from dungeon access node]

[Knightdoms remaining - 19/20]

[Access to the Daemon Barony node - unlocked]

[Access via dungeon access node]

Serin had no idea what any of this meant. He would have to fiddle with it some other time.

With that, and every single raid team member at capacity, the additional gold was dragged down to the waiting autocarts.

Serin had ensured that every cart was relatively identical. This was so when they paid their tax, it made it seem like Serin only had interest in certain goods. The carts had precious metals, magical weapons of 'common' variety, and the corpses of dozens of creatures. The arch daemons were not included.

With that Serin's team set out to leave the dungeon, weapons at the ready for one final confrontation.

***

Serin and his team were met with an entire army belonging to the Sarween Technocracy. Those soldiers cloest to Serin's Team looked rigged to detonate some type of charge.

Sybal stood in front of them, "It looks like you returned after all. Did you finish your expedition?"

Serin already had his answers prepared. "We have no more room in our carts so we returned. Over 20% of the space was to ensure the safe return of your compatriots from inside the dungeon. They are all alive and unharmed."

Sybal froze. The soldiers around him murmured.

Sybal's orders were fairly clear. Take 20% of the goods from these people, and when they left the safety area provided by the contract, take the rest. By any means necessary.

But these people had just rescued their own people at their own expense.The conflict on the faces of these soldiers was evident.

They had played dirty, and Sybal was locked into position. He had to show the army around him, made up of common folk of the Sarween Technocracy, that 'people come first' as they had been spouting in their PR campaigns.

And to do that, Sybal would have to take their 'rescued hostages' as this team's payment for work. Sybal looked at the carts. There was gold. And dead monsters. He remembered a report reading that exotic animal species were worth more than gold to changelings. It made sense. He just thought there would be a better look for this team being gone for as long as a normal team took to get to the city gates. He did not see the corpse of the supposed 'black knight' that guarded the gate and had stopped other teams. Maybe she was unbeatable.

Sybal smiled. "Fair enough. Subjugator, in return for the retrieval of our hostages, we will waive the 20% materials tax."

Serin nodded and released the Sarween subjects from their stasis. They were shocked by the juxtaposition of their new situation, but they wept tears of happiness. They were no longer in the raid dungeon.

Sybal then smiled. He would still get what was due.

"Now, Subjugator, please follow these men as they escort you outside our territory."

"No need."

A [gate] opened in front of the subjugator, wide enough for just one person and an autocart.

Sybal stood shocked. He had been outplayed. They were under contract protection by Sarween until they left Sarween Territory. And that was clearly on the other side of the gate, where Sybal could see were dozens of armed guards standing by and teams pulling the groups through.

Sybal watched as they all exited through the gate. The last through was the subjugator. He nodded at Sybal. "Until next time."

***

Serin had planned very well their escape. Serin had created a large isolated underground facility for their escape plan, and it had gone off better than imagined. The large space already had areas sectioned off for the various goods: Crafting Materials, Knowledge, Magical equipment and implements, corpses, live animals, livestock, and other.

Each person was instructed to offload everything, and then they were each given five tags and told 'tag any 5 items they wanted. No questions asked.'

100 items lost was a small price to pay. That rule rang true for Serin as well. He looked at the five tags that would be his personal take from this dungeon run.

He smiled.

***