Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

After all, it took hard work, learning, talent and great support to become one… that is to say, not just anyone can become a mage. Unlike classes like warriors or assassins that one could get by simply training their bodies, mage was a class that needed guidance from a young age to achieve.

One needed a teacher and talent to guide their stats and efforts in a way that was suited for becoming a magician. Of course, it was not like it was a rare class or something, just that it was a little harder to get than the other two classes.

The number of mages that Mountmend had, was not even one tenth of the total number of its adventurers. Yet so many of them were currently gathered in one place, sitting in the lobby of the city lord's mansion.

Not to mention all of them belonged to the same faction by looking at the badge that was on their chest. An insignia of a torch like staff was on the badge. One didn't need to think twice to know which guild or organisation this insignia belonged to.

Inside the main hall of the mansion— placed on top of a long rectangular table, were two teacups releasing hot smoke.

There were two individuals sitting opposite each other, one was a nobleman with an ash grey hair and a well trimmed moustache. His clothes weren't overly extravagant but were enough to give him a dignified appearance.

The man was the mayor of the city of Mountmend, Alfred Eude Bergest.

"Looking at this flourishing city, one wouldn't be able to associate it with the term remote backwater city. Perhaps in a few more years, it would even out scale the main cities of those duchies".

The woman seated opposite Alfred commented. Her eyes were looking outside the window, observing the people and the scenery around. The woman had long curly brown hair that fell onto her waist, light blue eyes that gazed at the world with profound meaning and an alluring figure.

She wore a skirt that displayed her smooth shapely legs filled with endless charms, a leather corset that tightly clung to her tempting curves and a long black robe that gave her an exalted appearance.

On top of her head, she wore a purple pointy head and a staff embedded with five core stones silently floated beside her.

"Haha, surely Miss Katrina jests. The city of Mountmend is only a small city located at the remote north-western corner of the kingdom, how can it compare to those duchies" Alfred replied respectfully.

The woman facing him was not just anybody, she commanded absolute respect from her subordinates and her valour and achievements were something that everybody in the kingdom was aware of.

One of the big shots of the capital, leader of one of the top five guilds and the only woman in the kingdom that could stand toe to toe with the strongest people in this kingdom, Karina Lowell.

The mage guild she leads, is comprised entirely of girls whose talent could shock the entire kingdom. The guild leader of that guild was currently seated opposite Alfred, elegantly sipping on her tea from her tea cup.

"Hnn~ is that so? Well, it's a pity. Anyways, I noticed a few demi-humans in your city while on my way here. where did they come from?" those light blue eyes that seemed like the representation of mana itself were cast towards Alfred.

The mayor of the city coughed once before explaining—"I'm sure you already know but the guild that was the governing authority of a neighbouring city, had a fallout with the Sea god's trident branch guild that was located in my city not long back".

"In fear of retaliation from one of the top five guilds of the kingdom, they deserted the city at the first chance. Well given the nature of the Sea god's trident guild, they did not take this lying down and sent a part of their unit to exact revenge".

"However, the upper echelons of that perpetrator guild had already run away leaving behind some small time lackeys. One could imagine what would happen to a city if all of its governing authorities disappeared overnight".

"Mass riots broke out, the people that were oppressed, the people that were discontent, all hell broke loose. What was worse, the people of the city of Morgress who were taken advantage of by a corrupted and inapt guild had a lot of frustration built up".

"Insurgencies occurred everywhere and destruction spread. Before the situation escalated any further, the army from duke Redcrest's castle arrived to calm the situation down and to suppress the mobs. Many investigations were done bringing the heinous and atrocious activities of that perpetrator guild to light".

"Anyways, after a discussion, it was decided that I would manage the city as a part of my territory. The demi-humans that you see here were brought over from that city. They were enslaved and mistreated there so I thought it was better for me to bring them here".

"I see… so that was the case" Karina's eyes were a little surprised after hearing the whole truth. Given her wide network and connections, she had more or less dug inside this incident.

Alfred looked a little hesitant before asking the question that was on his mind.

"May I ask why Miss Karina has come to this distant remote region?"

"Hm? You are a smart man Alfred, I believe you already have some clue as to why we are here?" Karina smiled pursing her lips.

'So my suspicions were indeed right' Alfred thought internally. With that many high levelled adventurers and rows of air engines docked outside their city, it wasn't very difficult to predict their objective.

However, what he didn't understand was why so many big guilds sent their top adventurers just to conquer a single low ranking dungeon.

There were more than ten different badges of renowned and big guilds that he had seen on the chest of the adventurers that had entered the city. Somewhere even from distant regions far from here; nevertheless they too were roped in this.

This kind of powerful mobilisation was enough to even tackle a [C] tier dungeon.

"It seems that you are aware of it, then I won't beat around the bush. Our target is the dungeon that is located in the Ghastly winding Forest. We are the advanced party that was sent here by the air engines, the rest of them are waiting in the capital".

Karina explained, her eyes turned serious as she took out a scroll from her space ring and handed it to

Alfred. The latter took the scroll and read it only to be masked by surprise the next second.

"The seal is definitely authentic, I can't believe even they are on the move" Alfred sighed and passed the scroll back. He then closed his eyes and finally came to a decision.

"Since that is the case, I have no authority to deny you all the access to it, the stamp of the royal family of Ellesmere is also in there along with many others. As such please use the teleport gate as you want; however, since it hasn't been maintained for many years after it was first laid out, it may cause some problems starting. But seeing that Miss Karina was amongst the advanced party that was sent here, I guess they had already predicted this".

"Un, don't worry about that, even if the teleport gate is non-operational, my guild can fix it".

A few yards of distance behind the city lord's mansion was a big plaza. In the middle of the plaza, was a circular construct placed between four big pillars. The entire thing was crafted with a peculiar white stone and numerous mysterious runes were carved into it.

Since the teleport gate was not in use for hundreds of years, algae had accumulated around the construct over the time.

A couple of people from the magician guild could be seen cleaning the place with their magic and tinkering with the construct.

"May I ask why all of the top five guilds are collaborating together and putting so much effort to conquer a single low ranking dungeon? You guys even pulled the other big guilds from the other regions of the kingdom. What's in it for all of you?".

Alfred who was observing the adventurers from a distance, asked. This was the first time in history that all of the top five guilds of the kingdom were working together.

The letter also had stamps of other various big guilds of the kingdom. Such a big mobilisation of people and strength just for a single dungeon seemed like an overkill. The cost easily surpassed the profit.

Even if the coalition of these many guilds succeeded in conquering the dungeon and ringing the shattered core out, it would still not make up for the cost. Given this fact, it was only just natural for him to ask that question.

"Naturally, we have our own motives behind all of this…" Karina, standing beside him, spoke a few words but didn't explain further.

She got busy repairing the teleport gate and after an entire half a day of maintenance, the construct hummed as if alive. Loads of mana crystals of grade [1] and a few grade [2] were taken out from the space ring and inserted into the power core of the teleport gate.

Soon after eating ten tonnes of mana crystals, a dark blue light started slowly appearing from the circular construct. The blue light slowly started spinning faster and faster and before long some spatial rift started appearing within that blue light.

"Alright, the teleport gate is fully operational and working, you guys can send your people over now" Karina who was involved in repairing the teleport gate, spoke.