Chapter 80: New Dungeon

When the government said warehouse, they didn't mean a single warehouse. They meant a warehouse district near the ports. Once again, James, who was merely an ignorant civilian, didn't know such things.

“Hm… this district was not taken by a single dungeon.” James read the paper handed to him by an official. A group of twenty soldiers in military uniform stood at attention.

“Yes. We would love for you to conquer the whole region—especially the ports. This district was taken by three dungeons, but the other two are medium in difficulty.”

James wondered why the government went to such lengths for a warehouse, wondering if there was something precious inside. He was wrong. There was nothing that valuable; the volume of the goods inside was what made it valuable. A warehouse district could store millions or even billions of dollars in goods.

“So, where is the dungeon I’m supposed to conquer?”

“Right this way, sir. According to survivors from the guild, this is the dungeon you were assigned to.” The official said. When James put his hand on it, a translucent wall appeared and a blue screen appeared before him.

[Dungeon name: CF1752
Dungeon level: Novice
Survivor: 0/10
Would you like to enter? y/n]

“Well, it says it can accept ten. So, choose nine people among you, soldiers,” James said.

“Yes sir!” the soldiers said, saluting. After further discussion, they chose nine people among themselves.

“Are you ready?”

“Sir! Requesting permission to borrow weapons, sir!”

“Hm… Alright. You can have my crossbow, lightning sword, lightning axe, and spear. Please remember that you will obtain some form of weapon given by the system. Don’t throw that away,” James said. He felt a little apprehensive lending his weapons to them, but it would hurt his conscience later if they died because he was being thrifty.

“I wonder if I’m being too soft on them… Well, Ryan will have to be satisfied with the dungeon core, leather armor, and the gems…” James thought. He then touched the translucent wall once again. The soldiers touched his shoulders and crowded beside him. As he said accept, white light burst out from the dungeon and teleported them all to a white room.

“Whoa!” Soldier One broke his character of being the stoic soldier as he pondered the white room. Several soldiers also looked around, scanning for threats. Except for the obvious loading bar that hung on the wall, there was nothing here.

“I call this room a loading screen. After this is the real deal,” James said. He then pondered about these guys' mentality. “What did Silas or your superior tell you?”

“They said we are to follow your orders, sir!”

“I don't care about formalities. Just stay safe and kill monsters. Understand?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I will not give you orders all the time. So, think for yourself.”

“Yes, sir. We will stay autonomous until further orders.” James nodded. When the loading bar was completed, another blinding light rained upon them and teleported them toward a desert.

“Finally! No more talking with weird-ass AI,” James said as he enjoyed the liberating feeling of the desert. The last dungeon was disastrous. All the floors were connected to each other, and he had to choose a side between purple monsters or orcs.

Here, he only needed to kill—

[A portal has been spawned.]

“What’s that? Oh. It’s the system,” one of the soldiers said. True to his words, a portal indeed appeared. James tilted his head. Why would the system spawn a portal when he hadn’t even cleared the floor yet?

“Hm? Careful now. This thing did something new,” James said.

“What do you mean?” one of the soldiers asked.

“None of my previous dungeon raids spawned a portal before we finished it.”

“Take caution, prepare your weapons. Those that received weapons from the boss will put their weapons from the system into his raptor,” the soldiers commanded. There had been successful raids now; information from Anderson and Sanders was disseminated to these soldiers, and they were more prepared than previous ones.

[This dungeon has 10 floors. All of them except the ninth and tenth floors are connected. Blue arrow means a portal for going up the floor, while the yellow arrow means a portal for going down the floor.]

James looked at the arrow on top of his vision, and it was pointing right at the portal. The portal soon glowed blue, a stark difference from the usual golden color it normally had.

Then, something unexpected happened. The portal hummed and pulsed. From within, a scaly hand reached out. The soldiers all jumped away from the portal as a monster came out from it.

James gawked as he saw the portal spawn a monster right before his eyes. The lizard sported an axe and a shield in its hands. James was not the smartest tool in the shed, but he did learn. Sometimes, though, he learned the wrong lesson. This lizard was unlike the orcs in the previous dungeon—it was hostile.

The lizard screeched as it swung its axe. James was already too experienced to be surprised by surprise attacks. Before his brain had processed what happened, he had already swung his Nirvok shield and parried the blow.

James lit himself aflame as he drew the halberd from his back. The monster blocked the blow with its axe. After a fire blast hit its face, it rolled on the floor. James was about to swing down his halberd, finishing the job. But he remembered the leeches behind him.

“What are you guys doing! Kill it!” James shouted.

“Yes sir!” The soldiers did it after looking at each other in confusion. They crowded the immobilized lizardman and swung and stabbed their weapons at it. James winced at how their weapons merely scratched the lizardman's tough hide, but eventually, it collapsed.

The lizard couldn’t do anything but wail and screech as enormous pain assaulted its mind when James secretly cast his mind magic on it. Soon, it died from blood loss.

[You have killed a lizardman. You have obtained 1 coin.]

“Do this on your own next time.” James scowled at the reward the system gave him.

“Yes sir.”

“Anyone get any unique skills and status from the kill?” James asked. Moments later, a soldier raised their hand.

“Yes sir! I got Recording Eyes, sir! It says the system will record everything I see, sir.”

“Damn.” James sighed. He wondered whether he was not cut out for it.

“Sir, shouldn’t we go to the next floor?”

“After we have explored this place,” James said. His goal was not only to finish this dungeon as fast as possible, but to loot the dungeon. He could certainly use the loot for the next dungeon. And he didn’t believe the dungeon would let him off easily if he took such a shortcut.

The desert was vast. Thanks to the arrow provided by the system, James was not afraid of getting lost. But when he found another blue portal, he was stupefied. The portal was guarded by four lizardmen with spears.

“System. What’s the meaning of this? This portal is different from your arrow!”

[There are multiple portals in this dungeon.]

“But they all lead to the second floor, right?”

[That is correct.]

James had talked with the system long enough to know that it hid something. He also knew that he couldn’t probe deeper and had to stay cautious for this lack of information. James then prepared to throw his halberd, only for the system to interrupt him.

[Boomerang skill can’t be activated while using a halberd. Boomerang can only be used with a short axe.]

“Well, that’s a bummer. Hey, give me one of those axes. I will kill one of them, you guys try to kill the others.” James reached out his hand to some innocent soldiers, asking for their axe that they received from the system. Using his skill, he threw it at the lizardman.

The golden meteor struck the lizard right on its belly. As the lizardman went down, the others screeched and charged toward James. The soldiers spread out with their weapons—a lightning sword and axe took the frontline.

James didn’t forbid them. He merely watched. James was not responsible for their lives. If they died, they died. This is the dungeon. Even James, who was over level 50, didn’t feel safe here. Even when his stats kept rising, he felt the dungeon’s level rise with it.

James also had suspicions over the word novice dungeon. There are levels in this world. Why would the system simply mark them as novice? Why didn’t the system mark them with levels?

That means the system didn’t judge the dungeon based on levels, but other factors of difficulty.

“I have to meet with Andrew and ask him what he sees in the medium dungeon…” James said.

“AAHH!!!” One of the soldiers was thrown away as a lizardman swung its spear. James felt his heart run cold, fearing a human life was just lost. However, there were no weapon skills, and James also saw the soldier block the strike with his sword.

James then reached out for his new bow on his back. He still had his crossbow, but he wanted to try something new. He wondered how his skill would react with a longbow.

After buying the ammo worth 50 coins a dozen, he used one of them and then aimed his sights at one of the lizardmen. The soldiers did well; they managed to occupy the lizardmen. Their movements were coordinated. Each lizardman was handled by three soldiers, and they took turns interrupting and attacking it.

Nevertheless, the soldiers’ attacks did nothing to the lizardmen. Even the lightning sword and axe did nothing to them.

James then shot the lizardman. A golden meteor shot out from his bow and went toward one of the lizardmen’s legs. It fell down immediately as blood spurted out from the stump on its leg like a fountain. Seeing the chance, the soldiers barraged it with their weapons.

James drew his bow again, aiming at another lizard. This time, he didn’t use any skill. James had never learned any archery, but his arrow still found its mark. Unlike before, where the lizardman's leg was blown off like it was hit by a cannon, this time, the arrow stabbed into its torso.

That lizard fell on its back from the knockback of the arrow. It clutched its stomach, and blood continued to bleed out from it. Using magic, he then fired ice arrows at the last lizardman. The soldiers hacked away at the helpless lizards, finally killing it.

“Kill it! Kill it!” the soldiers rallied.

[You have earned 3 coins. You have 1553 coins left.]

Even when the lizards stayed motionless, the soldiers needed to hack at their necks twice to deliver a fatal blow. James frowned at how the difficulty of the dungeon seemed to increase.

Was it just him? If so, how did Kouki and Andrew’s team manage to finish a dungeon? James had been hogging all the experience, and he barely matched the monsters.

Such questions lingered within James’ mind as he gathered the soldiers.