Chapter 60: Five Days, Counting Down

Zion stared at the timer floating beside his status.

[Founding Grace Remaining: 5 days, 7 hours, 18 minutes]

Five days.

He had known the number was getting lower, obviously.

The timer had been counting down since the moment he woke up inside the dungeon, and during the first few days he had checked it often enough that the numbers had almost burned themselves into his skull.

Still, seeing only five days remaining felt different.

Zion leaned back against the throne. He had been distracted lately.

Between unlocking the Dungeon Network, scrolling through hundreds of forum posts, meeting BoneCollector, joining the Bone Zone, and trying to figure out what his Ossuary Knight wanted from him, several days had passed without Zion buying much of anything.

Apparently, his adventurers had not taken the same break.

He opened his status again.

[Current Essence: 19,684]

Zion stared at it. "Oh, well that’s a pleasant surprise."

Almost twenty thousand. For a moment, the timer stopped bothering him.

Twenty thousand essence was easily the largest amount he had ever possessed. Not long ago, spending a few hundred had been enough to make him second-guess every decision. Now he could afford things he used to scroll past without even opening.

Then his eyes moved back toward the timer. The twenty thousand suddenly didn’t feel like as much as it had initially.

Floor 4 alone would cost two thousand essence just to unlock, and Floor 5 would cost four thousand. Six thousand essence would disappear before he placed a single monster.

Then he still needed terrain, structures, loot, bosses, and whatever traps or additional mechanics he decided to use.

Floor 3 already cost considerably more to build than Floor 2. And that was with nearly every trap purchased during a forty-percent sale.

Zion rested his skull against one hand. "Twenty thousand really isn’t that much."

He didn’t like saying that, especially considering how long it had taken him to reach his first thousand.

The deeper the dungeon became, the more expensive everything seemed to get. If that continued, whatever came after Floor 5 was probably going to make twenty thousand look like nothing.

At least there was one positive. No one had reached him yet.

Since Gareth’s party left, two other groups had successfully defeated the Tidepool Basilisk. Both had taken one look at the newly opened staircase afterward and decided they were finished for the day.

One party had barely enough mana left to walk comfortably, while the other spent most of the trip back complaining about the sulfur.

Zion understood though he still thought they could have at least looked. Mara had looked. She got crushed immediately, but that was beside the point.

He sighed and shifted his attention toward the active instances. Most of the dungeon had been quiet overnight, but apparently morning had arrived outside because new parties were beginning to enter in groups.

The number of active Floor 1 instances climbed quickly but Zion moved between them without much interest.

A group of obvious beginners had stopped near the entrance to discuss which sheep looked easiest. Another party was already heading toward the creek, while someone else had brought a spear long enough that Zion wondered how they planned to use it inside Floor 2.

Then another instance opened. Zion almost moved past it but the black robes caught his attention. Three hooded figures stepped into the pasture, and after a moment Zion recognized them.

"Oh. It’s those guys."

They had visited during the rush caused by Lilith’s bracelet. At the time, Zion had been too busy watching the ridiculous number of parties entering to pay much attention to any one group for very long.

Now he watched them properly.

All three wore dark clothing beneath their robes, with very little exposed armor. Their weapons were small too, just simple silver daggers. Every one of them carried at least two.

He still couldn’t decide what they actually were. Thieves seemed likely or possibly assassins.

Maybe some kind of cult?

The robes were not helping. Whatever they were, they knew what they were doing.

The first sheep barely noticed them. One of the figures approached from behind while the animal grazed near a fence. A hand moved once, and the sheep vanished.

No charge. No noise. Nothing. Even the other two continued walking as if it hadn’t happened.

Zion sat a little straighter. The next sheep disappeared almost as quickly.

What was interesting was that none of the nearby flock reacted, even though several sheep were well within range. Pack Mentality never activated.

He frowned and shifted his attention closer. Usually, the sheep became significantly more dangerous once one of them started fighting. Their calls and movement attracted others nearby, turning what looked like a simple encounter into several animals attacking at once.

These people were killing them before any of that could happen.

"That’s annoying."

The party continued across the pasture without breaking formation.

They rarely spoke and barely even looked around. One person moved ahead while the other two kept enough distance to approach from different angles, but they never separated far enough to lose sight of one another. Even their footsteps seemed oddly quiet.

Zion watched them all the way to the barn. The Horned Ram noticed them immediately. It scraped one hoof against the ground and lowered its head.

One of the hooded figures stepped forward alone while the other two disappeared toward the sides of the barn.

The ram snorted and lowered its head, but the figure standing in front of it still did not draw their dagger.

Zion frowned. "What are you doing? Are you trying to die?"

The Horned Ram charged, its hooves tearing across the barn floor as it lowered its horns directly toward the figure’s chest. The figure still did not move, even as the distance between them disappeared.

Then, just before impact, the hooded figure stepped sideways while the other two suddenly jumped into view.

Zion barely saw where they came from. One appeared beside the ram’s shoulder while the other came in from behind, and three silver flashes crossed its body almost together. One struck beneath the foreleg, another across the throat, and the last near its ribs.

The Horned Ram stumbled. Its momentum carried it another two steps before its legs collapsed beneath it and its body vanished into white smoke.

Zion stared at the empty space for a moment. "I guess they had a plan this whole time."

The figure who had stood in front of the charge calmly sheathed their dagger as the three of them moved toward the reward chest.

They’re pretty good.

There was no celebration and barely any discussion. One opened the chest, removed the reward, tucked it beneath their robe, and then all three headed toward Floor 2.

Zion immediately followed them down into the sulfur caves. For the first time since entering the dungeon, one of them finally spoke. The voice sounded annoyed.

"Gross."

They had barely made it halfway down the stairs. "Why does this dungeon have to have sulfur? I’d much rather have taken that brothel mission."

Another figure let out a long sigh. "It’s exactly because it was a brothel mission that we couldn’t take it."

"What’s that supposed to mean?"

"You would have ruined everything the moment you saw a busty woman."

The third person laughed. Zion did too.

"That’s fair."

Then, without warning, Lilith appeared in his mind. Long black hair, pale skin, ice-blue eyes, and a black dress fitted tightly around—

He shook his head. "No. This is not the time for that. Breathe."

His skull suddenly felt much warmer as he pushed the image away and focused very intently on the three hooded adventurers instead.

The party started tying cloth around their faces as they entered the sulfur caves. Zion followed closely now.

He was curious if Floor 2 would slow them like it had with the other melee parties.

All three of them used daggers, which had worked extremely well against the sheep and the Horned Ram, but Floor 2 was different. The Lesser Acid Slimes resisted piercing attacks heavily, and even slashing attacks were less effective than usual.

A slime clung silently to the ceiling ahead. Zion leaned forward on his throne.

"Let’s see what you can do to my slimes."