Chapter Ninety-Three

"Go ahead and look at the map," Balaegon spoke as he folded his arms. He was standing alongside Edward as the two of them faced the table from the side. Brandon had been thrown atop the dusty bed while Aelor stood only a few feet away, "Tell me what you see."

Edward nodded and looked away from the chieftain. Then, his eyes scanned over the various figures and marked hallways before him. Edward immediately noticed the stark difference in troop numbers. The clan of skeleton soldiers only had enough troops for one figure while the skeleton champions had enough for ten.

"You're severely outnumbered," Edward said. Balaegon nodded, then stepped forward.

"You're right. That's our biggest problem, right now. Somehow— we're not quite sure yet— their troop numbers have drastically increased over the years," Balaegon spoke. He leaned against the table one more, then removed three of the purple figures, "Two decades ago, they had this many. Two decades before that, they had this many," He removed another three, causing the number of purple figures to drop down to four. Compared to the previous number of figures, the difference in troops was better. But with four figures remaining, the skeleton soldiers were still outnumbered.

"We haven't managed to find out why," Aelor added from the side, "But we have a few theories."

"The most popular is that they've been gifted with a summoner monster. Summoners are rare but powerful. With one of those at their side, the champions don't have to wait until the dungeon gives them more monsters— they can simply create more on their own," Balaegon nodded, "We also think they've stopped trying to take the eighth floor back— which increases their numbers even more as they can turn troops away from the eighth floor. By this point, they outnumber us ten to one."

"With five hundred troops, that number is— as you can imagine— insane," Aelor sighed, "If we had waited another two decades they would've overrun us completely."

"Wait, wait, wait-" Edward stammered. He pointed his finger in the direction he came in with wide eyes, "You're saying right now, they have a total of… 5,000 troops? There are 5,000 skeleton champions out there? Right now?"

'The amount of XP is going to be insane!' Edward thought to himself.

"Well, yes," Aelor shrugged, "Don't worry, though. The floor size is massive. It'll take us weeks to reach the other end of the dungeon floor."

"It's that big?" Edward gasped, "If that's the case, how are we going to find the others? If we take too long, they'll be dead by the time we find them!"

"You won't have to worry about that," Balaegon told him, "We have a few mages that can help us. One knows some tracking spells while another can teleport at long distances. Once we've managed to find your friends— which won't take long— we'll be able to teleport directly to their location."

Edward sighed in relief before looking back at the map. A moment of silence passed before he spoke again, "So the priority should be to find this summoner, yes? How fast will the champions respawn after I kill them?"

"They won't. Not for a while, at least," Aelor told him, "The dungeon doesn't allow a monster population to pass a certain threshold— not directly, at least. Because their strongest warrior is the floor boss, they'll only be allowed to have a little under two thousand. Up until they reach that point, none of them will respawn."

"If they're allowed to have two thousand, what exactly do you want me to do?" Edward asked, confused. As far as he could tell, ending the problem with two thousand enemies remaining wouldn't actually solve anything. Balaegon smiled as his reaction, as if capable of reading his thoughts.

Then, with a calm voice, the chieftain spoke, "You only have two targets. Kill the summoner first, then kill the floor boss. The title will be given to me— at which point we'll be able to fight back. Their max of two thousand will change to five hundred."

"And your numbers will rise to two thousand?" Edward assumed. The chieftain and Aelor nodded. Edward sighed and looked back at the map, "First, though, we'll have to get my friends back. Where are your mages?"

Balaegon and Aelor smiled as they looked at each other. A moment later though, Brandon suddenly logged back in and sat up from the bed.

"Hmm? What's going on?"

—

"Tracking magic is decently simple," A short skeleton with a thick robe spoke, "I only need one thing: An object that the target has touched within the last week. It doesn't even matter if it's a person, so long as you have it with you."

Edward looked at Brandon and smiled. A moment later Brandon pulled out a small object. The object wasn't very long nor was it heavy. It was shaped in the style of a kitchen knife, though it was too old to even be considered for use. The handle was chipped and rotten while the blade was covered in dried blood.

︽

Bloodied Knife

+12% Intimidation

︾

"Will this work?" Edward asked as Brandon held the knife for the skeleton mage to see.

"Yes, it will. Who are we tracking today?" The mage asked as he took the knife from Brandon's grasp. As soon as it touched the skeleton's bony fingers, the knife began to glow bright green— as if it was covered in radioactive material.

"Three people. First, A man named Markus," Edward told him. Brandon pulled out another object— a small glass eye, "As well as a woman named Leila."

"Thank god they wanted to try the items out," Brandon chuckled as he handed the eye to the mage. Just as it had happened with the knife, a bright green glow quickly surrounded the glass eye. The two objects hovered in front of Edward and began to spin— reminding him of the movement of a solar system. Then Edward stepped forward.

'Might as well tell them. He won't be summoned if I don't,'

"The final person is a dragon named Ikarus."