"Salute!"

A loud shout resonated through the guard's camp. All the soldiers were neatly aligned with their back straight and a hand on their heart; a few guards were still sweating. In front of them, the captain of this camp was nervously looking at the approaching officer in the distance.

The camp had just been performing their usual duties; their main role was to guard the entrance of the city's dungeon but they also needed to keep up with their training. Fortunately, they had some level of independence and as such, the garrison stationed there became used to training at their own rhythm; in other words, they used to slack off a lot.

However, a few minutes ago, a few men spotted the arrival of a high ranked officer in the distance. That could only mean one thing: surprise inspection!

The camp immediately went into panic but fortunately, the captain stepped up and got the camp together. In less than 1 minute, every guard looked like they were seriously patrolling or training in the training area.

After a few minutes when the officer arrived, he was delighted to find everything in order. He discussed for a few minutes with the captain in charge before rallying everyone for a quick inspection.

All the guards were nervous but fortunately, the officer was not too picky. He did not actually come here for an inspection, he just happened to need to go to the dungeon and decided to make a small detour to look at the camp.

"Are you alone sir? Would you like some refreshments?" politely asked the captain who was trying his best to bootlick the officer.

"The group that came with me is already inside the dungeon, I need to join them soon but since you ask so politely, I cannot refuse" answered the officer while observing the guards in front of him.

"Naturally! This way sir" said the captain while slightly moving to the side, bowing.

The officer slowly walked towards the captain's tent but suddenly, he felt a sense of crisis. He did not know what it was precisely, but after countless battles on the battlefield, he knew that his gut feeling was always right. Whenever he felt like that, something was going to happen. Fortunately, the feeling was not extreme, that meant that the danger was not enough to kill him but could injure him in some ways.

The officer carefully looked at the guards since he thought that maybe, one of them was an a.s.sa.s.sin sent to kill him. However, when he turned his head to look, he saw that the guards were no longer properly saluting, instead, most of them seemed distracted and were looking upwards.

The officer was naturally angered, he thought about how the guards changed their postures as soon as he was no longer looking at them. He was about to say something when suddenly,

"Booommm!" "Booommm!" "Booommm!"

3 loud explosions occurred behind him. The shock of the explosion naturally hit the officer right in the face, forcing him to roll backward and raise his hands to protect him.

A few seconds later, when he looked at the source of the explosion, there was a large crater where he was previously standing to inspect the guards. While he was lucky to have walked a few meters towards the captain's tent, the guards that were standing close to his previous location were not that lucky.

Although they were not dead, all these guards took the direct hit from the explosions and were severely injured. Many were bleeding and even those that were standing far from the explosion had their face covered with dust and dirt.

Behind the officer, the captain also recovered from the shock, "What was that? Is it a monster wave!? Grab your weapons and be careful!"

However, the officer frowned and retorted, "Shut up! Everyone, follow me! We need to go to the dungeon now! I am the Colonel Gaydon under the authority of the general, I request all of you to go to the dungeon now!"

"Wait! Colonel! Just what is happening, we need to find the cause of this explosion, we..."

"Shut up idiot! We need to go to the dungeon now! The general's son is in there accompanied by some adventurers from a group called the Gem Family! Do you really think I would waste my time and come here to inspect you! This explosion is clear! The general's son might be in danger, will you bear responsibility for making us lose our time here! Hurry up men, follow me!"

...

Inside the dungeon, Five quietly followed behind Harriet. He was thinking about whether or not his plan would work but now that it had already started, there were no going back. He already dropped two third of the gunpowder he manufactured previously above the guard's camp and was now left with only one third.

He was satisfied that all the old tricks he had to learn to use his weapons behind his back were still useful. Without looking when he stood up, his hands moved quickly, lighting up the wick connected to his gunpowder before throwing down the container.

When he was following behind Harriet, he was anxiously monitoring his DP or those he had in the Pseudo Dungeon Core. He roughly estimated the time required for the gunpowder to reach the guard camp and explode. While walking, he counted down but even 10 seconds after he had reached zero, no change happened in his DP.

"I probably failed... Well I'll do without the guards" said Five to himself.

Quickly, the two entered Kroff's Throne room. Many monsters that Five had never seen were gathered there. It seemed that all the elites of Kroff had come and even some less important monsters came.

"Thank you for all responding quickly! It looks like everyone is here!" said a tall figure who was hiding its features under a dark cape. Many monsters responded and quickly went silent to observe the situation. A hologram was being projected showing what was happening in the internal part of the dungeon.

Five was already well aware of this and so, he preferred to observe the gathered monsters instead. There seemed to be 7 monsters at the same authority level as Harriet. It was a simple deduction Five made by looking at how there would be one or two monsters from the same race that were standing behind a slightly different monster.

While observing the monsters, his eyes naturally fell onto the lonely dungeon core that was resting on a pedestal in front of the empty throne. Five's eyes flashed with a cold light for a moment before turning back to its usual dull appearance. Fortunately, none of the monsters noticed that as they were all focused on the situation happening on the screen.

The players were easily slaughtering the Corrupted Servants and even the other monsters that were coming. In fact, many players already leveled up several times and were at level 15. What was interesting was that the players not only had to fight the monsters but they also fought between themselves. Not only because there was currently 3 important players factions in the secret room but also because of the strong compet.i.tion that existed within their own guild.

But despite fighting on several fronts, the players kept pus.h.i.+ng back the monsters, especially the group of players that were protected by a group of powerful NPCs. The monster's side also reacted and many monsters from the floors were trying to come to stop the players but that was in vain.

In the throne's room, one of the monsters looking like a frogman spoke: "The situation is really alarming! At this rate, we better intervene ourselves, they are only level 15 anyway, we can easily deal with them!"

Another monster stepped up to second its friend but at the same time, the monster draped with the cape spoke: "You think I silently watched as this was happening, I naturally dispatched several monsters from the middle floors! They should be more than enough to deal with them, in fact, they should arrive within the next 30 seconds. If we act ourselves, won't that be equivalent to using a cannonball to kill a fly?"

"mmm"

The monsters grunted for a second but watched to see how the situation would unfold. They were naturally not happy to see their home being attacked but since Mehlroth said he already took measures, they would just wait and see. What he said was right, if they were to act, it would be an overkill!

30 seconds later, as Mehlroth said, many monsters arrived at the corridors and directly intercepted the players. These monsters were powerful ranging from level 20 to 30 and could easily kill a player in less than 2 hits.

Even the NPCs that were there could not easily get rid of these monsters. The players were slowly being repressed. However, this situation did not last long.

On the screen, all the monsters frowned as they saw the arrival of the player's reinforcement. Several guards flooded the corridor and charged at the monsters but the important detail was that the leading NPC was a powerful Colonel at level 53.

"Oh dear, I've created such a mess"