In a damp room of the forty-fifth floor of the dungeon, an intense battle, unlike any we had fought, had just taken place. The beasts of this floor were more powerful and dangerous than any of the upper floors.
As I placed my right foot on the neck of a fire bull to remove my spear that was lodged deep in its skull, Jade came towards me.
"Jordan, it's time!" She said.
Then I turned to face her. She was looking at me with a smile on her lips. She was excited. They all were. I took my time to scan their smiling faces.
Then I smiled and said. "Okay. We leave the dungeon today."
It was finally three months. We had gone deeper into the dungeon than we had originally planned. Thanks to that, we were able to exceed our quota for all the materials we mined and gathered in the dungeon. Now we could go home and prepare for the coming war.
As we were about to retrieve our prizes, the beasts we had just killed, "Roaarrrr!!!" we heard a loud roar emanate from a few rooms deeper into the dungeon. It was unusual for a beast to scream that loud, unless... it was not an ordinary beast.
Activate Rare Skill: Perfect Sight [A Class]
Effect: Enables Jordan to use the All-seeing eyes to see long distances.
I decided to use one of my rare skills merged with my All-seeing eyes to look far into the room where the sound came from. "Oh!" I exclaimed the moment I saw what it was. "We need to leave this floor. Now!" I said to my party.
"What is it?" Nick asked. "What did you see?"
"Two Divine Beasts. And powerful ones too. We need to leave now!" We rushed out of the room and headed for the upper floors of the dungeon immediately. The danger we would have faced had we stayed was something I was afraid of.
There was this particular saying my elder brother used to always say after he defeated me in our duels. 'No matter how strong you become,... always remember that there is always someone stronger.'
And that was the situation we were in right now. Ever since we had arrived in the dungeon, we had been defeating every beast we had faced. But this was different. Fighting young beast of the Demon Realm was different from fighting Divine beasts. Even the young ones.
I have been told about Divine Beasts before. They were very competitive beasts, that always clashed with one another to improve their hierarchy and become stronger.
But, whenever these clashes happened, whole rooms and floors are known to always be nearly destroyed. And anything or anyone caught in the crossfire of those clashes mostly never survived, unless they were more powerful than the beasts.
That was why from the seventy-first floors, only adventurers who are more powerful than normal are granted entry. And we are still C rank adventurers. We can't push our luck.
This was why we had to leave the forty-fifth floor. Because now, that floor will become a war zone. And only the most powerful would survive.
*
*
It was finally spring.
The snow had dissipated and with it, the cold air. The warm sun was finally shinning down, plants had began to grow and forests turned back into their beautiful green.
In the Mistletoe Forest, a normally quiet forest a few kilometres beyond the Grey gates of the Grey City, something was happening.
Figures were approaching the Grey gates from three different directions. The East, West and South. The figures were the nine adventurers who had been sent to the other five nations to use the adventurers guild to spy on the kingdoms. The three months were up.
After three months of spying, they were returning to the Northern Empire. Their mission was completed. The nine of them rendezvoused in the middle of the forest. As soon as they had all arrived, they headed north, towards the Grey gate.
*
*
Back in the Margrave Empire.
The Margrave Military was almost done with their preparations for the war, but. War, was business. A business that had to be done correctly, and in the right order.
For any successful business, public sentiments was a priority. And for war, it was no different. Wars were expensive, and they were only worthwhile if the gains were more than the losses. And for large scale wars like this one, a nation must a legitimate reason to give it's people in other o put public sentiments on their side.
So when victory is achieved, no one will care about what was lost in order to gain the victory.
War taxes. For a government to fund a war, they need the public to be willing to pay taxes. This was one of the reason why the declaration of war was important.
*
And now, the Emperor of Margrave has called a public gathering. A gathering that was open to all, both nobles and commoners, where the Emperor himself would attend and address the whole Empire. The gathering was to take place at the largest city plaza in Titan, at noon.
Few minutes before noon, had already filled the plaza. Nobles and commoners alike.
There was a large building that stood opposite the plaza. The Emperor was to make his address from the balcony on the second floor of the building. Royal guards were stationed all around the build and the plaza.
In a room on the second floor of that building, the Emperor, his sons, Supreme General Varrion and a few of the Emperor's elite Royal guards were present. The guards stood by the doors and windows of the room while the rest sat down discussing.
Then, General Mace, the head of the Royal guards, entered the room. "My king!" He said then bowed. "It is time!"
As Emperor Tristan took to his feet, his guards, who had been standing still, moved to follow him. The princes and Varrion followed the Emperor and his guards as they headed out to a hallway that led to the balcony.
Tristan walked down the hallway and onto the balcony. Then he looked down at the plaza and saw the crowd that had gathered to hear his address. As he looked down, the horde of people in the plaza began cheering at their Emperor.
Tristan stood in the middle of the balcony, Tyler and Varrion to his right, Theo and Mace to his left. He raised his hand up like he was about to wave, but the crowd understood his gesture and immediately, the cheer stopped and the crowd fell silent.
"People of Margrave!" Tristan said loudly. "I am sure you are all aware of the current situation of the continent! The North has been unified! But, we still do not know when, or how! All we know, is that this new nation was formed in the wrong way. This nation of monsters was formed through the breaching of the unwritten rules set down by the Old Kings in the Summit of Kings!"
"Honestly, if that was the only problem, Margrave would not have any reason to interfere. But the monsters have erred! When they erected their walls, they made one mistake that would be their undoing."
"For years, Minora and Margrave have lived peacefully. Even as they lived and farmed on our borders, we did not complain! But now, when they built their walls, they encroached on our lands! Stealing part of the territory of Margrave."
"For the past few months, many rumours have been spreading around the realms about a prophecy. I can not tell you all for certain that the prophecy is real or not. But I can promise you all that I will not let any disaster befall this Empire. I will not allow any Monster to take our lands and get away with it."
Tristan inhaled and exhaled loudly, then he announced. "So! The Empire of Margrave will go to war!!"
At first the crowd remained silent. But as the Emperor's announcement dawned on them, many people in the crowd gasped in surprise and some remained quiet.
Tristan continued. "The Empire has decided to go to war to reclaim it stolen lands, to defend it people, and to reclaim its honour."
Slowly, the crowd began cheering at their Emperor's announcement. The news began as a shock to them but the more they thought about it, the more it began to sound like an actually good plan of action.
"We will strike at the north before they can have a chance to strike at us!" Tristan added. "Before the monsters can steal more from us, we will reclaim what is ours! Long live the Empire!"
The moment Tristan finished talking, the crowd began to chant after him. "Long live the Empire! Long live the Empire!"
As Tristan watched the crowd of people below him chanting, he couldn't help but let a smile escape his lips.
*
*
After Ace pushed the two large Adamantium gates of the dungeon opened, we finally, after three months, saw the sun. We came out to the grassy area outside the cave and began to bask in the sunlight.
Our little adventure was finally over. It was the to return home. But to do that, we had to go to the guild. Luckily it was still morning. We had plenty time.
"So guys, where should we go first?" I asked my party members. "We could just go to the guild and return to Novaland. Or, we could stay in the blue lake city a while."
"I think we should just get to the city before we decide." Jade said.
"Good plan." Nick added.
"Okay! Blue lake city next."