Chapter 305 (1/2)
A set of large doors were opened and a man dressed in a colorful tunic walked through them. He had his head lowered and quickly dropped down to one knee. Silence filled the room only when he heard the order did he reply.
”Speak.”
”Yes my King, we have news concerning the dungeon.”
”Mmm, how far have they gotten? Don't tell me that they weren't able to even get to the 10th floor?”
”No my King, actually…”
The man that came with the news stopped himself before speaking out as if scared to utter the next sentence.
”Get on with it!”
A malicious magical aura filled the room and brought the man down to both his knees.
”T-they completed the dungeon all the way to the 99th level and the heroes managed to find all of the holy weapons!”
The man was quick to reply and felt the weight be removed the moment he finished the sentence. He managed to peek up and noticed that the King had an unusual facial expression. Most of the time he looked mad and grumpy but this time around he seemed to be confused.
”It's only been two weeks, how is this possible. The heroes of old were said to have spent many months before being able to complete it.”
”W-well my king… actually…”
”What is it now!”
The king smashed his hand into his large chair which made people flinch.
”They had apparently reached the 98th level within a week…”
The messenger painted a picture for the king. From what they knew the spirit that belonged to Beatrice was helping the youths gain levels at an increased pace. He would disable monsters for them and they would only deliver finishing blows.
The dungeon was a magical place built by an old sage from days past. No one really knew how it worked but it activated when the heroes arrived. The creatures inside would somehow miraculously regenerate themselves after a while and give the heroes power after they were slain.
This place was used to get the heroes up in strength to face the demon lords. It was there to put them on a somewhat equal footing or so said the legends.
Due to Leigong's involvement what should have been a tiresome process of combat changed to a small expedition. The man reported that this spirit bulldozed through the lower levels not even giving the heroes a chance to level up. Only at about the middle level did he start letting them perform attacks.
Unbeknownst to the king and his aides, Zhang Dong was just performing a basic power leveling tactic. There didn't seem to be any restrictions so he chose the strongest monsters available for the heroes to kill.
This was just basic mathematics. Why let the heroes fight monsters that gave 10 experience at a time when he could just let them deliver a critical blow to one that gave 1000 experience points. Holding them down didn't seem to work against him, it was as if the system didn't see his involvement as anything out of the ordinary.
The dungeon would end after the last boss was defeated so after arriving at the 98th floor he took the chance to level the kids up as far as they could. Only after the monsters started giving meager rewards did they move up to the final boss.
”It seems that the last floor was actually completed by the heroes without the spirit's involvement…”
The king had retainers keeping an eye on everything happening in the dungeon. They did allow Beatrice and Isabella to participate thanks to their spirit. The king wanted to keep an eye on them and there was nothing better than examining how the spirit does against the dungeon monsters.
He had no way of knowing that they would finish it in about two weeks. The people that he sent inside weren't even able to send consistent reports. Everything was happening too fast as the whole hero party steamrolled through the monsters inside the dungeon.
The magical devices that they had to communicate with the outside were apparently also not working correctly. There was always static and it was hard to make out anything. Also due to the fast pace, there wasn't that much time to make a proper report. Even less when the scary Lightning Emperor was looking over their shoulders.
”So they managed to complete the secret dungeon?”
”Yes, my Liege!”
The man replied after being finished with the report. The dungeon went down and the party had food to last them for a month but no one expected for something like this to happen. The king thought that he would have half a year to slowly work on the heroes.
When they were weak and gullible it was the perfect time to place a seed of doubt in them. He was afraid that if they got too powerful they could turn against him. This was also why he was using his offsprings for courting.
He hoped that they would control the people from the other world through their emotions. The king even encouraged his kids to have s.e.x.u.a.l relations as a baby would tie the heroes to the royal family. Only with strong bonds like those would he be able to relax.
”It's that blasted spirit isn't it? No… could it be…”
Before continuing with his train of thought the king waved his hand to indicate that the messenger was allowed to leave. The man just bowed and quickly removed himself from the throne room glad that he could finally go rest.
”Bernard.”
”Yes, your Majesty?”