'About a hundred died still managed to die, huh?'
Rey sighed as he stared at the aftermath of the battle, feeling the eeriness in the air around him.
The dead bodies of the Adventurers lay strewn on the ground, most of their faces depicting the debilitating fear or shock they faced as they died.
Some had their bodies butchered, others simply died due to a lot of blunt force. A lot of it was also compounded by the Miasma Poisoning.
Despite all the measures taken, though, it seemed casualties was inevitable.
'Nothing I can do about that, I guess.' Rey shrugged, glancing to his comrades behind him.
Most of them had relieved expressions on their faces. Who could blame them?
'Logically speaking, this is the best case scenario that could have come about...'
Having only a hundred die was a far better outcome than the thousands who would have been otherwise slaughtered by the barrage of arrows and the overwhelming numbers of the enemy.
Even the fodder, as long as they were lucky, were able to somehow survive despite most being incredibly useless in the battle.
Back to the issue of the corpses, a bunch of Magic Users were already casting Fire Magic on the corpses, as instructed by the Guildmaster.
They had to burn the corpses to reduce the risk of their comrades transforming to Undead due to exposure to Miasma or some unknown Spell.
'Let's focus on other matters for now…' Rey closed his eyes and sighed a little. 'We should be fine.'
*********
"As you can clearly see, this Dungeon is incredibly dangerous and not for the weak at all. The strong have no time to worry about you, and the weak have no choice but to die."
Right there and then, Guildmaster Richard spelled out the true nature of the Dungeon to the Adventurers who stood before him.
It was a wonder how his voice managed to reach so far away despite him being aged, and the space being so large. Nevertheless, his voice traveled into the ear of every single man and woman in the room.
"Adventurers less than Veteran Rank are advised to turn back here and return. Only death awaits if you go on."
Everyone could see for themselves that the Grand Calamity Class Dungeon was no joke, and so they no longer had to take the Guildmaster's words for it.
They could clearly see how their lives were at risk.
'Even for us strong Adventurers, it's still quite difficult.'
Richard could only imagine how the entire battle would have gone if their total number was even less than they were at the moment.
'If we only account Veterans and higher, we'd only be a few thousand at best.'
About three-four thousand.
No… they would most likely be less.
'The weaker Adventurers definitely had their uses in the just-concluded battle. A lot of them were useless, but they still managed to defeat one or two Skeletons, and hold the fort until we were done on our end.'
What would have happened if they weren't present? The heat would have been greater, no doubt.
'How exactly does this Dungeon operate? The Undead army from earlier… would it have spawned differently if we were fewer in number?'
Richard didn't know. And as long as he couldn't say anything for certain, he had to go with what he currently understood about the Dungeon and arrive at a conclusion.
'The possibility is high that there would be even more casualties as we go forward, but… I'm reluctant to let the weak ones go now.'
What if they encountered yet another horde as they advanced? Perhaps an even bigger army than the one they just faced.
It would be crazy to face them with only a little over two thousand members.
'At the very least… no, I shouldn't think like that.' Richard shook his head and sighed.
'The upper areas should be crawling with far stronger Monsters, so even if there's an army, they won't be able to keep up.'
The Adventurers would just end up dying for nothing.
"The door is right behind you! Please depart now while you still can!"
Despite Richard saying this, the Adventurers remained standing. A bunch of them showed hesitation, but for the most part, none of them seemed willing to move.
'Ahh… I see now.' Richard thought to himself as he stared at the crowd.
The fear in their eyes were inadequate. The tremors from their bodies were insufficient. The wounds that had been inflicted were minimal.
'These people… they still want to continue despite everything!'
The experience just now frightened them a little, sure, but it did nothing to quell the resolve they had before entering the Dungeon.
'It looks like my plan failed.' Richard smiled wryly, turning in the direction of the prime reason why things ended up this way.
'Jet and Lux, especially the latter. Their existence grants these people confidence.'
Despite him saying that the strong wouldn't protect the weak, it was no lie that Lux shielded everyone from harm during the fight. She blocked tens of thousands of arrows for their sake.
Those barrages would have been very difficult to deal with, and it would have led to at least a couple of thousand Adventurers dying.
The fact that she could protect them then meant they were counting on her to do the same again.
'As for Jet, the fact that he could handle so many Monsters at once, and at such a sheer scale, shows how they ought to be safe from incredibly powerful enemies if those appear.'
Jet and Lux could always take care of the overwhelming dangers while they worked their way up and reap as many benefits as they could.
A number of them would still die, but for the lucky ones, they would end up being incredibly rich and more powerful.
That, to the weak ones, was more than enough reason to keep going.
'What a problem.' Richard frowned a little.
'Thanks to their lives being spared, they have become willing to throw it all away again.'