"I will scout ahead once more to see what else I can find," Raquel promised, already unfastening her apron and heading to the changing room. Yeah, she certainly wasn't going to scout in that waitress uniform. "I'll keep you updated as best as I can."
"Take a few spirit beasts with you if you think they will help," I suggested. "My Round Owlets, for example, might be able to scout further ahead, and the Phantom Stumps and Ghost Pumpkins have their own ghostly ways of being stealthy."
"Certainly," Raquel replied with a nod. "I'll requisition a reconnaissance force from the available spirit beasts before I go."
"Thanks. Hopefully they will benefit from the scouting experience."
Everyone had their own role, and it wasn't combat or fighting all the time. That was another thing that pissed me off whenever I read cultivation stories and the comments on them. Everyone who couldn't fight was deemed as "trash" or useless, and commenters – particularly the edgy existences beyond the fourth dimension – would ridicule them for being weak.
But life wasn't always about fighting. Everyone had their own strengths and weaknesses. Not everyone was a soldier or could fight. Just because I had spirit beasts who weren't good at fighting didn't mean they were automatically useless or a burden, and I should get rid of them. To maintain a dungeon like mine, I needed everyone with their own specialized set of skills and abilities. I couldn't run the place with soldiers alone. The Collector Crabs and Construction Crabs were vital to expanding my dungeon, building new segments, rooms and structures, and ensuring we had a steady income. If I listened to the edgelords from beyond the fourth dimension and got rid of them because they were "weak" or couldn't fight, I wouldn't have a dungeon, and I wouldn't be able to get a steady income of spirit stones from the lodes we found here.
Raquel too. I was aware of commenters from beyond the fourth dimension telling me to kick her out of my dungeon and screaming at me for entertaining her or listening to her even though they thought she had nothing to offer. Some even called me a simp, which made no sense, considering I had never felt attracted to her at all. Seriously, these comments pissed me off.
Now, it turned out that Raquel could contribute greatly with her scouting capabilities. Having learned that the Mystic Demon Sect had gotten a dungeon and was amassing an army to raid other dungeons and perhaps eventually the surface world, I could begin preparations of my own. And now Raquel would find out where the dungeon was for me, something that only she could do because the Merchants weren't allowed to sell the locations of dungeons to other dungeon masters. That was the one saving grace during the time when we had a war against the Flood Dragon Dungeon. Otherwise, the Flood Dragons would have found us sooner.
Eventually, they tracked us down with their own scouting parties. With Raquel being hired as a scout in my dungeon, I could now do the same thing. Fortunately, I doubted the Mystic Demon Sect knew about me or my dungeon, and even if they did, they would probably dismiss us as insignificant. Or so I hoped.
"If the Merchants visit your dungeon, I will be sure to inform you immediately, my lord," Long Wang offered. "I believe you wish to purchase information from them."
"Yeah, thanks. I'll be relying on you then."
"Oh, and before I go, here's another piece of information that might be of interest to you, Master." Raquel paused before she left the bar. She had just emerged from the changing room and was now dressed in a black cloak that blended well with her dark ebony skin. Her white hair was concealed by a hood, but otherwise she looked like she would be camouflaged in the shadows of the subterranean tunnels of the Celestial Labyrinth.
"What's up?"
"Just a couple of levels above your dungeon, there has been sightings of rare a spirit beast." She nodded at Sylvie. "Just like your contracted fairy spirits, they are humanoid, but they are more bestial. Feral, even. But they are very powerful."
"You mean like the were species?" Sylvie asked, realizing what Raquel was talking about. The elf nodded.
"That's right." Raquel nodded with a sly smile. "And there's one particular sighting that might catch your interest. A weretiger has been spotted in the area a couple of levels above here. There has been a scramble among other dungeon masters to capture her, but she has evaded their efforts thus far."
"A weretiger?"
"Yeah. I thought you might be interested since I heard from Silvia and Long Wang that you're looking for a werecat. But I believe a weretiger will be a far superior alternative."
"Huh? I'm not looking for a werecat." I shot Long Wang a glare, but the dragon butler simply shrugged nonchalantly.
"We need to complete the whole Beast Tamer party," he said. "Lady Silvia and I are agreed on that."
"Dude…just stop. We're not going to violate copyright infringements, okay?"
"It's just adding a cat girl to your dungeon. That's not copyrighted. It's not as if every other story isn't allowed to have female characters with cat ears in it just because Beast Tamer has it. Otherwise, you would already be in trouble, my lord." He shot a meaningful look at Sylvie, who squirmed uncomfortably. Then he waved at Raquel. "And not just with Beast Tamer, you'll get into trouble for ripping off Dungeon Odyssey too."
I winced, knowing how accurate his remarks were. With a sigh, I nodded resignedly.
"Fine. I'll go check it out. I don't really think we need a weretiger for our dungeon specifically, but no harm seeing what's going on up there."
"Excellent. I'll be heading elsewhere to find the location of the Mystic Demon Sect and their Mystic Demon Dungeon, as well as gather intelligence on them." Raquel nodded and did a mock salute. "I'll see you later, Master."
She went to the fields to recruit a few spirit beasts for her scouting mission, and she greeted Jun Hai on the way out as he returned to the bar with Silvia in tow.
"Big bro! I heard you're planning to head out soon? To catch a cat girl?"
"NO!" I threw my hands up. What was it with everybody and their obsession with cat girls? Yeah, sure, a girl with cat ears might look cute and all, but I had no reason to go out of my way to find one. I wasn't that big a fan of Beast Tamer or girls with cat ears! The only thing I liked about the anime was the character designs and the ending song with the cute character plushies. It was Love and Moon, which was sung by Kohno Marika.
On the other hand…
"I do intend to explore the levels around my dungeon, though. You want to come along?"
"Sure!"
"All right, we'll have to prepare for an expedition. Long Wang, my brother and I will be returning to the surface to get some supplies, so I'll leave this place to you."
"We want to come along too!" Silvia raised her hand. I nodded.
"Yeah, I was about to ask you and your sister."
"I will follow you wherever you go," Sylvie said. "I also think it's a good idea to map out the place around us."
"We've already mapped out the surrounding areas to about a hundred-kilometer radius extending from our dungeon," I reminded her. "Thanks to the Collector Crabs, Phantom Stumps and Ghost Pumpkins who went out. I also had the Little Anglers and Lantern Fishes map out the surrounding sea that stretches for about a hundred kilometers from the undersea entrance to the Deep Sea Palace as well. They're now accompanied by the Sea Horses as they conduct their usual patrols."
"You really have everything prepared, huh?" Sylvie was impressed.
"Long Wang handled most of it, though. Thanks."
"It's nothing, my lord. But you were the one who did all the planning, scheduling of shifts and gave the commands. I simply implemented what you already had in mind."
"Anyway, I'll see you guys later."
It didn't take too long for us to prepare. Jun Hai and I decided to wait until the weekend because we couldn't afford to miss any more classes. We already took quite a lot of time off, and since this was the Celestial Labyrinth, which the public had no knowledge of, we couldn't exactly use the "mission" excuse this time. While we were allowed to take leave of absence whenever we went on a mission, it had to be an official, legitimate mission.
Quite frankly, this was more of a side thing. Nobody was even supposed to know about the existence of the Celestial Labyrinth. That was why I was surprised when Ardena alluded to it in the hospital. I hoped they didn't find it.
But if the demonic sects had already discovered the existence of the Celestial Labyrinth and even claimed dungeons of their own here…then it was inevitable before Hua Xia found about it.
"I guess it makes sense geographically," I murmured to myself as I ran the calculations. I had stumbled upon the entrance to the Deep Sea Palace, which was part of a dungeon in the Celestial Labyrinth, in the seas just off Xia Hai. For some reason, Atlantis was located near Xia Hai, which made no sense now that I thought about it.
Perhaps the Atlanteans had developed the technology to transport the entirety of their kingdom from Europe to the gulf of China. Myria didn't know anything about it when I asked her, which made sense, considering that the translocation probably happened millennia ago.
But the fact that my Deep Sea Palace was located quite some distance from the shores of Xia Hai meant that the interconnected Celestial Labyrinth that included it probably stretched out across the mantle beneath Hua Xia. It was no wonder they were running into entrances to the Celestial Labyrinth in Hua Xia and not some other place.
"Interesting…"
Given Korea's proximity to Hua Xia, I wouldn't be surprised if they found entrances to the Celestial Labyrinth there too. Korea was known for having lots and lots of dungeons, after all. Then again, in all those Korean web novels and manhwas, the dungeons were spread throughout the whole world, not just Korea alone.
The weekend came by before I knew it, and Jun Hai and I informed our parents that we would be away on a trip for a couple of days. Maybe more, considering that we planned to leave on Friday night. Dad and mom already had some idea of what we were going to do, and they didn't object. And so, we teleported back to Deep Sea Palace, along with Sylvie and Silvia.
"Everybody ready?" I asked. They nodded.
"We'll be waiting here, my lord," Long Wang said, already waiting for us in the main hall when we arrived. "I'll hold the fort and look after the place while you map out the levels above. But don't hesitate to summon me or anyone else here if you need to."
"Oh, I will," I assured him with a smile. "You guys are my greatest assets. I can't fight without your help."
"You underestimate yourself too much, my lord. You're already pretty strong, even without us fighting by your side."
"Thanks for the confidence in me."
We then waved goodbye and set off. Since we already knew the surrounding area because of my scouting parties of Collector Crabs and other smaller spirit beasts, we weren't worried. There were a few wild spirit beasts that lurked around, but they tended to be hunted by my guys, who would bring them back as food or something.
That also meant that we knew a route that would take us up to the level above us. There was a winding corridor that tapered into a relatively narrow pathway, and despite the subterranean environment, there was bioluminescent light shining from all sorts of glowing moss or spirit stones embedded deep into the rock. Thanks to that, our journey wasn't conducted in total darkness.
I paused when I caught sight of a flurry of shadows scuttling away in the opposite direction. Since they weren't bothering us, I didn't bother to pursue them.
"I think they're afraid of you, big bro," Jun Hai said with a chuckle. I raised my eyebrow, and he sighed. "You're an Earth ranked cultivator, remember? The qi you're emanating is quite intimidating to creatures who aren't as powerful as you."
"That's correct." Sylvie nodded. "If I didn't know who you are, I would be wary and try my best to avoid you."
"You're already peak Mystic rank, though." I pointed out. Both Sylvie and Silvia had managed to climb to peak Mystic rank when I attained beginner Earth rank. Myria, too, had managed to break through to peak Mystic rank shortly after the war in Yggdrasil and the battle at the Scandinavian sea. "You have nothing to be afraid of."
"There's still quite a huge difference between us."
"Big sis wants to be strong enough to support you, big bro!" Silvia said cheerfully. "That's why she thinks she isn't powerful enough!"
"Don't worry about it," I assured them by patting them on their heads. They both appeared to enjoy getting their hair ruffled, which was a stark contrast to Jun Hai. Maybe because he was a guy or perhaps because he was at that age, but if I tried that stunt with him, he would smack my hand away and glare at me. "You guys are already supporting me a lot."
Jun Hai cleared his throat. "So what can we expect to find up in the next level?"
"I don't know. My spirit beasts haven't scouted that far ahead. I told them not to take unnecessary risks, and I don't think we needed to explore the upper levels before."
"So everything we're doing in this expedition is for the cat girl, eh?" Jun Hai chuckled. I sighed.
"No. Well, I won't pretend that I'm not curious as to what's the deal with the weretiger is about, but I suspect we might actually run into demonic cultivators up there. It can't be a coincidence that there are people trying to capture a weretiger at the same time as when the Mystic Demon Sect is trying to amass an army."
"Good point." Jun Hai nodded. "But what will you do if the Mystic Demon Sect really is involved with this weretiger?"
"Isn't it obvious?" I grinned. "I plan to deny them a potentially powerful recruit."