Millis City, about one month after Jordan's departure.
Construction of the Empire was going great. The nine cities had been completely divided. Main roads and some facilities had been completed. Now the major things left were the city walls and other important buildings. The plans Jordan and the rulers had made were being followed meticulously.
Duke Klaus, who had been using his connection with the Merchant Guild to continue trade, was meeting with his contact in the Guild who has been helping him by providing all sorts of goods.
The person had just arrived in Millis to deliver more goods for the Duke.
"Welcome Ronnie!" Klaus said as he approached a woman who was giving out orders to some labourers who were moving the goods she and her troupe had just arrived with.
"Klaus!" She exclaimed after turning around to see who called out to her. She walked towards him and the hugged each other. "I brought what you asked."
"I can see it. Thanks Ronnie."
"C'mon Klaus. You know you don't need to thank me. Anyway, I was able to get most off what you asked for, they were easy to get. But, metal ores are really hard to find nowadays."
"Really? Why's that?" Klaus asked.
"Well! From what I heard, you guys aren't the only ones buying up all the metal ores."
"What? What do you mean? Is Margrave buying them all up?"
"No, no." She said shaking her head. "It's not Margrave. It's Salvador!" Ronnie announced.
"Salvador?!"
"Yeah! That's what I heard at least. And you know my information source is always legit." She said proudly.
Ronnie was one of the five Master Merchants. The highest rank of the Merchant Guild whose authority was only second to the Merchants Guildmaster.
"What would Salvador want with all that metal?" Klaus asked.
"Honestly,…" Ronnie replied. "We don't know. But, the rumour is that they are preparing for something."
"Preparing? For what?"
"Not a clue. But I think it might have something to do with the rumour that has been going around the Five Guilds."
Klaus squinted his eyes and asked. "What rumour?"
"Haven't you heard?" Ronnie said. "The rumour about the great change. Remember? The prophecy that was left by the Great Diviner all those years ago."
"Oh!!" Klaus exclaimed. "That prophecy."
"Yeah. That prophecy."
"Huh. I thought everyone had forgotten about it. It was a long time ago after all."
Ronnie nodded. "I know. But, I don't know why. About a month ago, the rumour started to spread to every guild and nation."
"A month ago?" Klaus said. Wasn't that around the time Emperor Jordan left for the dungeon? Or rather. When Prince Jordan arrived to the Northern Region? Klaus thought.
"Anyway," Ronnie continued. "I'll see what I can do about the metal ore. We will probably put a quest in the adventurers guild, and maybe the engineers guild too."
"Alright Ronnie. Thanks as always."
"Are you kidding Klaus. You are by far my best customer. Call on me any time. But I don't know how much longer I can keep this from the guild."
"It's okay. When they find out, it won't matter anymore."
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In the forty-third floor of the dungeon, an adventuring party of nine rushed into a room panting heavily as one would when being chased. They got into the room and stopped running. Some of them fell to the ground while the others crouched.
The room was without landform. It was just a rocky, cold room with normal lighting from the walls.
"This room looks okay!" A female giant by the name of Estrid said. She was the first to enter the room.
"Are you sure? This isn't a safe room." Tracy, a human, complained. It was obvious she was anxious and exhausted.
"We don't have time to get to a safe room." The leader of the party, Kiera, a human, said. "The next safe room is too far. We won't make it if we go now." Every single one of them was tired and short of breath. They had just defeated a group of beasts that attacked them in the previous room.
The nine of them were on a salvaging mission. The team was made up of five adventurers and three engineers.
First, the adventurers. Their leader was Kiera, a B ranked Knight. Then Estrid, their B ranked Vanguard and a giant. Tracy, a human and their whiny B ranked healer. Stella, a female elf who is their B ranked Assassin. Then Olga. She was also a giant and their B ranked Paladin-in-training. Paladin was a special job class of the adventurers guild, for adventurers who are trained as both Knights and Magicians. Olga was also Estrid's niece.
The five of them were accompanied by Zara, an elder dwarf and B rank Technician In the Engineers Guild. Timely, a metal dwarf and a B ranked Smith. Toby, a wood dwarf and B ranked builder.
They were on a mission from the Salvador Federation. The mission was assigned to them by one of the highest ranking nobles of the nation. Or at least that was what they were told.
The mission actually came from the Kings of Salvador and the Royal court. They were also the ones who had been buying up all the metal ore they could get their hands on. But after a while, the supply started to run thin. So they decided to send some adventurers and engineers to the dungeon to get the materials right from the source.
They eventually decided on a B rank adventuring party, the New Knights, who had recently made a name for themselves in the guild. They felt sending someone of a higher rank for a mission like this would raise suspicion, so they went with B ranked adventurers.
Knowing that adventurers were not great at mining since they could barely distinguish pure metal ores from normal ones, they chose three B ranked engineers from the guild to accompany the adventurers.
The mission should initially be for engineers, but. Engineers were not trained in combat and could not venture into the guild without protection.
To make the mission even less suspicious, the mission asked the adventurers to get as many raw materials as they could get, but the main resources should be the metal ore.
The nine of them have been in the dungeon for only a week and have only just begun getting the material they were requested to bring.
"Don't relax too much." Kiera said to her companions. "This is still the dungeon. Every room is teeming with powerful beast. Especially the demon floors."
"You hear that guys?" Zara said to the Dwarves. "Don't lose your heads yet. We have a long way to go."
Timely and Toby were more exhausted than the rest of the party. They weren't warriors. Sure they could hold their own when it was a one on one far fight. But this was the dungeon. They had to fight a horde of powerful beasts charging at them from every possible angle. This, was something they weren't used to.
"Those rhinos really came from nowhere huh."
"It was my fault." Estrid confessed. "I didn't notice them in time. As a vanguard, I failed my party."
"No Estrid!" Kiara countered. "It's not your fault. We were all on alert and didn't notice them. And, it's also the first time I have seen them attack in those numbers."
"They were indeed unusually much," Stella added. "so don't beat your self up too much Estrid."
"Noo!!!" Tracy cried out. Everyone turned to her.
"What's wrong?" Kiera asked.
Then Tracy pointed to a doorway on the other side of the room. "Sabretooth panthers." She said trembling.
They all turned around to look, then they saw them. Sabretooth panthers entering the room. The panthers walked slowly, fangs bare, claws sharp, until nine of them entered the room growling and snarling.
*Sabretooth Panthers*
Skills: Quick dodge. Quick step.
Attributes: Tough black skin. Sharp claws. Yellow eyes.
Size: 5 feet tall
Age: Decal Millennial (six 32,000 and three 35,000 years)
"Hhaa!" Kiera exhaled loudly. "No rest for the wicked they say." She said as she drew her broadsword and rested it on her shoulder. "Up everyone! Draw your weapons. Stay together, don't let them separate you, that's what they like to do." She turned to Toby and Timely then glared at them. "I am talking to you guys."
The ones who were seated stood up and drew their weapons to face the beasts. The panthers continued to walk towards the adventurers slowly until the adventurers had all stood up and takes out their weapons, then they stopped.
Estrid moved closer first. Hey job class made her responsible for her party's defence. She held her large hammer with her right hand, dragging it behind her as she walked forward. Her hammer was three feet long and weighed more than five hundred kilos.
"Olga, left." Kiera ordered. "I'll handle the right."
Then the first panther attacked. It was fast. It ran towards Estrid, then three followed behind it. As it got close, it jumped up into the air then opened its mouth.
Estrid stomped her left foot forward and swung heavy hammer as hard as she could through the air.
WHAM. The hammer struck the panther's skull and crushed it. The force of the swing threw the panther across the room until it crashed on a wall. That was it's end.
Kiera and Olga moved swiftly behind Estrid, and charged at the panthers that followed. Kiera blocked the path of one of the panthers catching it off guard. She swung her sword at its neck but missed. It dodged her blade.
She quickly pulled a dagger from a pouch on her thigh and threw it at the panther. It struck the beast on its neck, then it fell down, bled out and died.
They all moved quickly evading the beasts as they attacked and killing them with only one fatal blow to prevent them from exhausting themselves more than the already had. After a while, the managed to kill all nine panthers without anyone of them getting seriously injured.
Only Kiera and Olga had suffered little injuries from the fight which Tracy had quickly healed after. As Kiera pulled her sword from the torso of the last panther, Tracy and the dwarves crushed to the ground. They were already more exhausted from the previous fight and now they couldn't even move they way they wanted.
"That's all of them." Kiera mentioned. She stood close to the doorway the panthers used to come in as she looked around the room checking if her friends were alright. They were all tired, even Olga and Estrid, giants who had more stamina than most the rest of them. They had been fighting nonstop since the they entered this floor days ago. "Tracy was right," Kiera admitted. "we can't stay here. This is proof. Once we gather the bodies of the panthers, let's head to th—"
"Behind you!!" Zara shouted at Kiera as she spotted a pair of yellow eyes in the darkness of the doorway behind her. But it was too late.
There was one more panther, the last one. At came through the doorway, it ran fast across the room heading towards Kiera. She turned back to face the panther that had already leapt up at her, lunging at her neck.
Is this is the end? She thought as she sharp fangs of the panther were only a few inches from her neck. In that small instant as the beast closed in on her neck, something happened…
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#Grey#
#Current Status#
Race: Monster
Specie: Brown Wolf
Sex: Male
Age: 20
Eye colour: Red
Hair colour: Brown
Realm: Final Innate Realm
Sins: Sloth.
Elements: Wind, Earth, Water
Intrinsic Skills: Perfect Perception. Steel claw. Self regeneration. Wind control.
Rare Skills: Assassin, Quick step,
Ultimate Skills: Intangibility
Titles: Brown Wolf. Slothful wolf.
Magic: Elemental.
Grey, a brown wolf with amazing ability of being an assassin. He is the son of one of the Elders of the Wolf Clan.
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PS: I updated a cover photo for my novel yesterday. But I want to say this. It is NOT my art. I took it from Pinterest. If you are the owner and you want me to bring it down, I will effortlessly oblige.
Thank you.