Dungeon Diver CH580 (Patreon)

The memories of the entire month of surveillance over the Crimson City come rushing back to me.

Just after my main body left for the exams, another order of materials was picked up by my double in Vice City.

All of the new apartments, grocery stores, businesses, streets, and installations to the outer city that I witnessed through the eyes of Maria and Abby become far clearer to me.

The trade routes that stretch out of Sector 2 now connect to many villages in Sectors 3 and 1, and the construction is still in progress to wrap all the way around the Dark Continent to reach Sector 4.

To fill the new grocery stores, the Sector 3 trade deals have progressed nicely. Fresh fruits, vegetables, and livestock are being transported from the various farming towns.

Now instead of sending body doubles to the 8 Great Regions to import food, over 80% of the produce can be purchased from the source.

The remaining necessities are still sourced from Solara and Vice City’s bulk supermarkets.

As the roads are being built off far into the Dark Continent, more and more people are visiting the town, and dozens of people are forming links of loyalty every day to enter the inner city to gain access to the dungeons as well as find jobs to live a better life than out in the poverty of the smaller villages.

One of my doubles has been hard at work farming element stones from the 39th floor, imbuing them with mythic-grade plunderer, and collapsing rogue dungeons far away from villages all throughout the entire continent.

Hundreds more luminite fragments have been farmed and placed into a containment case thanks to Bri, and they’re kept in storage beneath the guildhall.

Using the farmed mana, the Labyrinth grows at a steady rate.

With a double working on building up its floors as its sole task 24/7, the number of floors begins to rise very quickly.

In just a week, my double manages to grow the labyrinth up to 40 floors.

Instead of only having one monster per floor like the setup in Vice City, my labyrinth is programmed differently. There is only a boss room at the top; all of the other floors spawn monsters regularly like normal dungeons.

This means once the floors above 40 are created, full training areas with double-ranked-up creatures begin to spawn in one after another.

The following week brings the labyrinth up to floor 50, and my doubles find a clear difference in patterns on these new floors.

After the 40th floor, the level of monsters rises at a much faster rate than the floors below.

The 41st is full of double-ranked-up Elite Ice Golems all between level 1075 and 1110, while in the 42nd, there are massive winged bat-like creatures that fly high above black mountains ranging from level 1200 to 1240.

Every floor that follows above this follows the same pattern, rising by roughly 100 levels.

The 50th floor has monsters that surpass level 2000, and as the memories of all these events rush through my mind, I come to the logical conclusion that for my own level to reach what it has, the floors must have hit 60 or higher by the end of the month.

Each time more mana is added to the labyrinth, some floors tend to spawn mutants and the levels fluctuate slightly, but each time the next floor is added they settle down and come back to a stable state.

The specific body double that I’m watching now takes a different shift, but it does communicate with one of my doubles that helps train the army of recruits.

They all begin training in the Labyrinth under close supervision. No one other than close allies and members of the Crimson Army are permitted to enter the Labyrinth, and a body double must be present at all times.

While none of them can increase the MCP at rapid rates without my absorption skill, they do have enough prior training and power to face off against some of these high-level monsters. No creatures in the labyrinth have soul energy or Qi; they’re just plain mana manifestations.

By the end of the third week of my leave to go to the exams, everyone in the army has trained up to levels 1300-1500 and have become even more formidable warriors.

I catch a few glimpses of Fisher, Lydia, Abby, and Maria all training in the Labyrinth as well every time I come back to check on the town; however, I don’t see exactly how much they’ve progressed just yet in their long months of Qi training. This is because this body double has been out on a very specific alternate mission for a bulk of the memories I receive in the following weeks.

It heads off, deep into Sector 3 where the dungeon break happened when I made my initial dealings with the head farmer.

Using this point of access, my double spreads out to locate every single dungeon in the entire sector, looking for new skills and unique monsters to gain powers from.

There are a few found here, but the bulk of the 10 new mythic-grade skills come from my next week of explorations in the Talton Region’s jungle.

Thanks to the leader graciously allowing me to see one of their dungeons, I have an access point to their region and use stealth to explore their entire dungeon network out there as well.

There is one final bit of good news that my double witnesses once I make it back to the Crimson City again after this mission.

I do my weekly check-in on Lith and Monk in Valor City.

Over the last three weeks, they have begun their methods of Qi rejuvenation on all of the past Valor City Arena fighters that were inflicted by the curse of the Lich King.

Just like Monk’s master, every single one of them starts to have small bursts of energy throughout the day that increase in length after every session.

With my main body’s leave from the city, the extra Qi pills that I was using to build the Soul Energy barrier around the Crimson City are all put to great use; many of the fighters are able to get out of their beds and walk about like normal for almost an hour a day now.

Even if they’re all full of energy now, their status screens are still completely wiped clean.

My main body is the only one capable of extracting skill orbs because it is a function of mixing my mythic-grade absorption perk with soul energy.

The plan is to give them the option of joining the Crimson Army once they’re healed, and offer them elemental skills once they’re ready.

However, long-term exposure to large quantities of Qi during their treatments administered by Monk has awakened their pathways to use this energy as well.

Many of the fighters practice cultivating and channeling their Qi in their limited time while they’re awake. These are elite fighters from all over the Dark Continent after all; it’s not like they’re going to give up their aspirations to become strong warriors just because of a single defeat like this.

At this point, as my double makes it back to the Crimson City to take another week-long shift of surveillance after a successful mission of skill farming this past week; I come back to see a sight I wasn’t exactly expecting.

I watch through the memories of my double as it walks out from the bunker below the guildhall, greeting all of the new staff working to buy, sell, and keep track of resources farmed from the canyon of dungeons.

The order quantities from the Great Regions and Dark Continent Sectors have skyrocketed, but thankfully, so has the population of links of loyalty in the city. The population just recently passed 1000.

With this in mind, every day is usually a cheerful one in the city, but once I walk outside of the guildhall into the streets beneath the Crimson Dome, I instantly feel an ominous aura ripple through the air.

It feels as if gravity waves are permeating through the atmosphere from a single point.

My enemy detection skill does a scan of my surroundings, and my urgency on the matter increases when I sense dozens of skilled fighters above level 900 outside the dome in a very symmetrical battle formation.

Occasionally, there are some interesting and strong hunters that stop by, but their readings rarely pass level 500. None have ever been this high, and the fact that they’re all element users with identical armor and weapons can’t be a coincidence either.

An organization is here, and I need to figure out why…

I fly up to the top of the dome to near the source of the odd energy, and one of my other doubles waves me down to point out the problem.

There are two figures also floating in the air outside of the Crimson City’s protection barrier.

The instant I see them, I scan their stats as well, and can hardly believe the ratings I’m seeing.

They are definitely the leaders of whatever group has shown up.

One of them is a level 2759 wind magic user, and the other is even stronger at level 2840 with a fire magic skill on his status.

Their gear percentage buffs are astronomically high, similar to my own, and they both have a very odd red light rippling out from their eyes and chest.

Looking back at my memories now, I can tell this is the power of a red divine core glowing in both of their chests, however to my body double; the undetectable red light that glows around their whole being is a total mystery to me.

The status buff of [The Sun God’s Curse Mark] is present on both of their status screens too, so my assumption in the moment is that it is another soul energy ability I’m incapable of seeing in this lesser form that my body doubles have only being able to sense mana-based skills.

Whatever the case is, I go into full alert mode and instruct the other double via telepathy to go to Valor City to bring all of our available fighting power here immediately.

It disappears in a flash of white light using a transport crystal to bring itself to the Galeheart tower and to go find Abby and Maria cultivating in the Qi mines.

My perspective stays behind and stares the two men down that float in the sky above the barrier.

I’m certain in my current form I’d stand no chance, so I just speak up to stall.

“State your business. Who are you, and why have you come to the Crimson City?”

As these words leave my lips, my gaze lands on the logo that rests on both of their shoulders. Even so, the reply out of the fire user still makes my eyes widen and my heart skip a beat.

“We’re here to take back control of this continent. We knew there was a new force growing after the disappearance of many Sector Leaders, and a new figurehead of the Dark Continent’s underground trade business, but we can only tolerate so much. You should have kept your head down and not stuck your hand in places it doesn’t belong. Your assistance for certain applicants in the B-Class Exams has tipped the perceived power balance in an unfavorable manner…”

Both of the men above me raise a single hand in the air, then point it toward me.

Waves of red light start to glow in their fists, and what feels like heavy gravity waves starts to flow out of them through the barrier even though they haven’t even sent out an attack.

At the same moment, two flashes of green and blue light come from far below me in the Crimson City.

The men that stand above the barrier speak up again as the flashes of light approach.

“We are A-Class hunters representing the 8 Great Region’s branch of the Association. We do not need to do this the hard way. Surrender ownership of your city to us now, and we do not have to kill you all to set a precedent for what happens when a rogue force interferes with Association matters.”