New Earth- The Dungeon Of Madness

It could only mean one thing. The dungeon raid was a success!

This was further confirmed by the system logs. As he checked his notifications, Five noticed that he had received quite a few system prompts in his sleep but the most important one was:

[System prompt: One of your monsters have conquered the "Bugging Dungeon". Half of the DP owned by the defeated dungeon master have been transferred to you. Please bring the defeated dungeon core to the Core of Madness for further rewards.]

This was an excellent piece of news! His army was proving to be more effective than ever. Based on the amount of DP he obtained, Five estimated the dungeon to be an average one.

"There is a chance that they might be able to conquer a second dungeon before the end of the auction. Conquering three dungeons is just wishful thinking but two is definitely possible. Budding Dungeon... I wonder what kind of dungeon it was."

...

A few hours earlier, the sky was pouring over the Prairie Dog Tribe. As winter was coming, it was within the expectations of the elders that the weather would start to degrade. It would start raining more often and soon, it might even start snowing.

However, tonight"s weather was quite abnormal. It suddenly started raining heavily, severely reducing the visibility of the guards. Fortunately, the night had long fallen on the Prairie Dog Tribe"s village. They were not inconvenienced by the rain but they still hoped that the weather would improve by the morning.

The elders and the guards did not think much of the heavy rain. Sometimes, Mother Nature could be capricious. As simple mortals, they could only suffer in silence.

A few kilometers away from the village, a large group of beasts was resting in preparation for the raid. They were tired after having had to run for almost 8 hours and were grateful for the long break they had.

Harriet was also lying down on the gra.s.sy plains. Her eyes were closed but she was still on alert. The group had already been waiting there for more than 3 hours but there was still no sign of the Undead Army.

She hoped that nothing wrong happened to the Undead Monsters. According to the plan, the beasts would have a little over 3 hours to rest comfortably before raiding the dungeon. On the other hand, the Undead Army would not get any time to rest. This was the advantage of the undead; they did not need to sleep or rest.

For the past three hours, Harriet had been constantly using her magic, blowing all the clouds around toward the Prairie Dog Tribe"s village and the dungeon. Harriet did not know how the Prairie Dog tribe would react if a large army suddenly appeared on their territory or if their precious dungeon was raided. They had invested a lot in this raid and could not allow it to fail. As a result, the harpy queen decided to cause the heavy rainfall around the region to reduce the barbarians" awareness.

Naturally, she kept the patch of land, where she and the beasts were resting, dry. "Are your subordinates rested? We should soon begin. Dreidus and the Undead should not be very far."

"Yes. We are all ready... What will happen if the Undead army does not turn up?" hesitantly asked Dreidus.

"Then it will be just us raiding the dungeon," bluntly answered Harriet. She could see that the Beast Kings were reluctant to raid the dungeon. Having already tried conquering Five"s dungeon in the past, they were already aware of the power a dungeon could hide. They definitely did not want to experience the same thing.

"If only the Cobra King was here, we could have used him to scout the dungeon," commented Harriet. The entrance of the dungeon was not very far from their location. It was effectively a ma.s.sive hole in the middle of the plain. At the entrance, there was a huge spiral staircase going down into the darkness.

Harriet nervously bit her nails as she stared in the distance. Time was tight. She knew they needed to start the raid soon if they wanted to meet the schedule. Ideally, she wanted to get rid of all the three other dungeons in the region to allow Five to monopolize the area. The problem was that they only had a two-day period to act. At most, they would be able to take down two dungeons before the dungeon masters would be able to return. At the moment, the dungeons were at their weakest; they needed to act quickly.

At that moment, Harriet noticed some movement in the distance. She immediately deployed her wings to have a look. A faint smile appeared on her beautiful face as she approached the group. "Dreidus. You are a little late."

"Sorry about that. You did not take into consideration the terrain in your planning. But we are here now. Have you scouted the dungeon?" asked Dreidus as he saw the harpy queen.

"I briefly sent in an air current. According to what I"ve heard, the dungeon should be filled with insects... I am afraid the beasts are not going to be very effective in this battle. We will have to rely mostly on your undead."

...

Soon, the raid started. The Undead Monsters did not need to rest. Harriet quickly once again controlled the wind and pushed away the clouds above the dungeon. She did not want the rain to affect the raid in any way.

"Let"s begin!" Dreidus raised his hand and the skeletons immediately started rushing into the dungeon through the staircase. Harriet calmly waited next to Dreidus.

Using [Dead Mind], Dreidus could directly communicate with the Undead Monsters. The skeletons poured into the dungeon. There were no lights in the dungeon; the dungeon walls were not made of any luminescent materials like Five"s dungeon. However, it did not hinder the skeletons in the slightest. All the Undead Monsters would usually live in a pitch black environment.

"The first floor... Some tunnels... The monsters are level 4 Gra.s.shoppers." As soon as the first skeletons encountered the monsters, Dreidus directly mentioned it aloud. He was directly connected to all the Undead and knew exactly what was happening in his army.

"The second floor. There are Giant Ants ranging from level 6 to 8 but no signs of an Ant Queen."

"The third floor. I see Termites up to level 10 but again, no Termite King."

Each time the skeletons were making progress, Dreidus would faithfully report it to Harriet. "This should be the limit of the skeletons. It is time for the Wraiths and the Dead Knights to go in."

Harriet quietly listened to Dreidus. She was not worried about the lack of boss monsters. Everything was going as she expected. The Boss Monsters were probably all grouped together by now and would be the final defense line of the dungeon core.

"The fourth floor. Level 12 Praying Mantises."

"The fifth floor. Level 14 Spiders. There are several types of different colors."

"The sixth floor. Level 16 Giant Centipedes and Level 17 Web-spinners. It should be time for us to start sending our elites; the Death Knights should only be able to go through one or two more floors."

"The seventh floor. It is the first floor that is not just a bunch of tunnels. It looks like a small forest. Level 19 Snakeflies, Level 20 Crickets, and Level 21 Stick insects. I also see a few other races from the lower floors."

So far, the raid had been going smoothly. The Undead Monster had no problem making their way through the floors. The skeletons sacrificed themselves, soaking all the damage dealt by the insects while the wraiths and Death Knights could continue to attack safely. 200 Skeletons have already perished from the fight but compared to the number of dead insects, it was nothing.

The Undead still held the level advantage but as they reached the eighth floor, the Level 23 Black Beetles were able to stand their ground against the Death Knights. The Black Beetles were giant black armored insects that used long spears as weapons.

Fortunately, the Death Knights swiftly received the reinforcement of the Zombeasts and the Bonemares and were able to maintain their push.

"It should be time for us to go in, don"t you think? The final floors should not be very far," said Harriet as she listened to Dreidus" report.

"Yes but I don"t think you will like this dungeon very much. The tunnels are quite narrow. There is no s.p.a.ce to fly at all. I will suggest getting the beasts to start moving. It does not look like they will be required for this battle but we have lost a significant number of skeletons. It would be wise to get the beast in position for raiding the Snake Rat Tribe"s dungeon, don"t you think?" said Dreidus.

"I agree. The environment here is not adapted at all for the beasts but it should be fine for the dungeon that uses the spatial crack as an entrance. It does not look like an underground dungeon." Harriet turned toward the three Beast Kings who had been quietly waiting for the orders.

"You should start moving North East toward the Snake Rat Tribe. We will join you midway as soon as we finish here," ordered Harriet. She could tell it would be pointless to ask the beasts to rush into the insect dungeon.

Having already informed the Beast Kings, Harriet and Dreidus entered the dungeon. Behind them, the liches wordlessly entered the dungeon as they all summoned their own skeletons.

Meanwhile, the Zombeasts pushed the Black Beetles away as they stormed onto the ninth floor. They felt the wet mud under their feet and immediately, a loud buzzing resonated through the floor. Countless Level 25 Blood Sucking Mosquitoes and Level 26 Dragon Flies rose from the mud and plants. The ninth floor was a giant swamp.

The Zombeasts charged forward but were stung by countless Mosquitoes. Although they did not have any blood, the Zombeasts lost a significant amount of HP as they went through the cloud of mosquitoes. Killing those insects was very troublesome. Not only were they fast, but they were also relatively tiny. For the large Zombeasts and Death Knights who could only use physical attacks, it was a nightmare to actually hit them. It was even worse for the Bonemares who were filled with holes.

The Undead Army was completely blocked by the new insects. The swamp boosted the insects" dexterity, allowing them to easily dodge the attacks. Twenty Zombeasts and Ten Death Knights fell to the Blood Sucking Mosquitoes before Harriet and Dreidus finally arrived at the swamp.

"If only we had the appropriate materials... I might have been able to turn all these insects into a powerful Plaguebearer," commented Dreidus as he looked at the insects. He did not waste any time and raised his hands. At the same time, all the liches started casting their spells. The Magic casters were the best suited to deal with those insects with their AoE spells.

Harriet did not act yet. She carefully observed her surroundings for any signs of Boss Monsters. She needed to conserve her strength to deal with them.

The army proceeded to the tenth floor. Harriet stopped at the entrance of the tenth floor. In front of her, was a room full of mist. She squinted her eyes but failed to see any creatures inside. However, as she was focusing on the room, she suddenly felt an itch on her arms. Her legs quickly followed and soon, she also felt it on her neck.

She turned her gaze toward her arms and notice several tiny creatures stuck onto her. "Lice?"

The harpy queen frowned. The lice were weak and only dealt a total of 1 damage to her per second but this amount would quickly acc.u.mulate. Furthermore, her mana was also dropping at the same rate. She also saw the Undead being affected by the lice. They could not feel anything but their HP was still dropping.

"Stay here. Let me deal with this floor and the lice at the same time," said Harriet. She flew into the misty room before activating her skill: [Eye of the Storm]

The powerful wind current started to circulate in the room. The Undead monsters were safe at the entrance and Harriet would remain unharmed as long as she stood in the eye. However, they would still feel the wind current blowing over them. The lice were unable to resist the pull of the wind and detached themselves from Harriet"s skin.

The storm ravaged the entire floor, dissipating the mist that had been blocking their view. When the storm finally stopped, Harriet found herself surrounded by corpses of Level 28 Demon b.u.t.terfly. She was not even aware of their presence but ended up killing them before they could cause any harm. The Demon b.u.t.terflies were tiny demons with a similar appearance to imps. The major difference was that they were purple in color and had large b.u.t.terfly wings on their back.

Dreidus and the Undead Monsters quickly caught up with Harriet. They did not even spare a glance at the dead Demon b.u.t.terflies and went straight to the eleventh floor.

There, the final line of defense of the Bugging Dungeon was waiting for them.