Chapter 138: [BONUS] - Heading for the Surface!

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There was a hidden room on the 20th floor, a place no one had explored yet.

Lyd ran back as quickly as he could.

'No, I need to hold it in. I have to look serious!'

The plan had changed so suddenly that Lyd could barely contain his excitement. He felt a broad grin tugging at his mouth, so he pressed his lips together and forced his expression into something serious.

He rushed into camp and saw everyone already gathered.

"Lyd, why are you back so soon?" asked Fear, a Harpy born on the same floor as the Siren, though from a different race.

"Everyone, grab your weapons." Lyd swept his gaze over his brethren. "Ray, Gros, and Fels have been taken hostage. August—the Captain of the Hestia Familia—is dragging them to the upper floors. We're going after them."

Lyd's voice turned grim as he reached for his weapons and began fastening his armor. Like most Lizardmen, he handled both with the ease of a seasoned warrior.

His call to action worked right away.

"What? Gros was taken?"

Ranye, an Arachne from Gros's group, sprang into action.

She didn't hesitate—Gros had been captured, so she was determined to rescue him. Her group quickly followed her example and retrieved their gear.

More than forty Xenos filled the camp, and all of them armed themselves, ready to head out.

Only Fear looked at Lyd with clear doubt. She noticed the obvious problem: if Ray, Gros, and even Fels had all been captured, their group had no chance against August in a direct fight.

Then she saw Lyd wink at her.

So he had a plan. She didn't know what it was, but she trusted it was about keeping them safe. That was enough—no need to ask questions. Just go along with it.

The whole group picked up their weapons and started moving toward the upper floors.

The Xenos took their secret paths to avoid the usual monsters and quickly made it to the 18th floor.

...

"MONSTERS!"

Adventurers in Rivira shouted in alarm as dozens of armed creatures rushed out of the tunnels. Moments later, the panic changed.

"Wait, they're heading toward the 17th floor!"

An archer with sharp eyes saw Lyd's group turning quickly toward the upper levels, and the whole town erupted. A monster horde heading up was never good news.

But Lyd and the Xenos didn't want to fight the Adventurers. They just wanted to meet up with August, so they rushed past Rivira before anyone could stop them.

—•——•——•——•——•——•—

While Lyd was gone, August's group moved slowly on purpose. By the time they reached the 16th floor, a huge battle had started.

"Why are there so many of them?" Gros swung his claws, forced into the fray. "What is going on with you?"

He stared at the thick crowd of mindless Minotaurs and Liger Fangs coming at them. Monsters from the 17th floor were rushing up in wave after wave, way more than usual.

"The Dungeon's animosity," Fels explained, firing magic missiles from the flank. "August carries a unique aggro mark. Whenever he enters the Dungeon, every monster in the vicinity targets him with extreme prejudice. That's why the Xenos rescued from the Ikelos Familia were ambushed on the 19th floor. They were forced up to the surface."

That was why the Siren's group never made it safely to the 20th floor to meet up with Lyd.

"Still, this is ridiculous!" Gros punched a Minotaur and sent it flying. There had to be more than a hundred monsters.

"This is nothing compared to when we first came down." The Siren flew by, cutting through the horde with her wings. "And this is just the respawn wave after Lord August already cleared the floor."

"Are you serious?"

Gros realized she wasn't exaggerating. If this was just the cleanup, the main wave must have been overwhelming.

"When Lord August tried to escort us down to you, the numbers were much worse," the Siren recalled helplessly. "The entire 19th floor spawned tens of thousands of monsters to stop us. We had no choice but to run."

She had been terrified that day. Even when hunted by her own kind, she had never seen such a huge swarm. If August hadn't been so strong, they would have died then and there.

"So that's what happened," Gros muttered.

He remembered the chaos from a few days before. The 19th floor had gone wild, attracting monsters nonstop. He had tried to scout it himself but was forced back by the number of enemies. He hadn't known his friends were trapped in the middle of it.

Now he saw the Dungeon's hostility for himself, and the sheer number of monsters was intimidating.

But when he looked at August, he saw someone treating the horde as if it were nothing. No panic—just calm, steady fighting.

It was clear this human wasn't going to hold back against regular monsters just because the Xenos were there.

'I guess that's a good thing,' Gros thought, feeling a grim respect. Holding back to spare monsters and risking your own life was just foolish.

After they cleared the monsters on the 16th floor, they moved upward together, staying close.

"GROS! GROS!"

A voice resounded throughout the floor of the Dungeon.

"Ranye." Gros turned to the tunnel entrance and saw the whole Xenos group rushing in.

What was going on?

'LYD, YOU IDIOT!' Gros thought angrily.

What was that Lizardman thinking? Did he realize how dangerous it was to bring everyone up here?

"Gros!"

Ranye hurried forward, then stopped suddenly. She stared at Gros, confused. He didn't look like a hostage at all—he was walking casually at the front. This wasn't what Lyd had said.

The rest of the Xenos noticed the difference too.

"Lyd, you lied..." Ranye started to complain.

"He wasn't lying," August cut in. "I am holding you all hostage. So keep your mouths shut and follow me."

He narrowed his eyes and studied the Arachne. This type was rare, usually appearing only on the deep floors, never above the 20th. He hadn't expected to see one here. He pointed his rifle at Ranye, the red laser sight fixed between her eyes.

The Xenos, who had just begun to feel tricked by Lyd's lie, froze. Maybe he hadn't lied after all. This really did look like a hostage situation.

"Keep moving," August ordered, motioning to the rest of the group.

"Gros, what..." Ranye wasn't stupid. She knew this was a trap, but it didn't feel like one, and the contradiction was making her head spin. Where had things gone wrong?

"He plans to hijack us to the surface," Gros said flatly, leading the way.

The Xenos from his group stared at him. Going to the surface was a dream for some, but also felt like jumping into the unknown. No one knew what would happen once they stepped outside.

"Gros, are you crazy?" Ranye hissed. She had rushed up here to save her friends, not to get marched onto the surface.

She turned to the Sage. "FELS!!"

"Take it up with August," Fels replied calmly. "We are being coerced to the surface against our will."

He didn't explain further. The three leaders and the Siren understood the plan, and since they were going along with it, the rest of the Xenos just had to follow. Fels had made sure they had a good alibi: they were being kidnapped. If anything went wrong, August would take all the blame.

"You..." Ranye looked around the group.

The confusion faded, replaced by an odd acceptance. Lyd walked next to Fels, and seeing him go along, the rest of the Xenos followed. Deep down, they all wanted to leave the Dungeon and see the sun. Even if it meant going as "hostages," they couldn't pass up the chance.

"What is going on in your head?" Ranye demanded, clearly frustrated. She couldn't understand how this human thought.

Who would ever decide to hijack a monster group and march it into the city?

"..." August didn't answer. He just motioned for her to keep moving, and the other Xenos followed.

"Let's go," Ray said, more gently. "This might not be so bad for us. Our friends are already up there. They tried to come down, but the 19th floor went wild and trapped them on the surface. Are you really going to refuse to see them?"

Rescuing their lost kin was the Xenos' top priority.

"Ugh." Ranye fell silent and gave in, her spider legs clacking against the stone as she joined the march.

A strange yet clear agreement spread over the group.

As the armed monsters moved up through the upper floors, the Adventurers they passed panicked and rushed toward the surface.

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Meanwhile, at the Adventurer's Guild, Misha Flott and Eina Tulle were posting notices on the quest board when a mob of Adventurers burst through the doors.

"EMERGENCY! WE HAVE A MASSIVE EMERGENCY!"

The Adventurers were clearly terrified.

"What happened?" The Guild advisors rushed over.

"MOBILIZE THE RAID TEAMS! HURRY!"

"MIDDLE-TIER AND DEEP-TIER MONSTERS ARE BREACHING THE UPPER FLOORS!"

"They're marching straight toward the surface! They're completely ignoring us and just heading up!"

"There's a Gargoyle-type and everything!"

"Understood. We are dispatching the emergency summons now."

The Guild jumped into action, and the Loki and Ganesha Familias were quickly called in. Dozens of powerful monsters, including rare ones like a Gargoyle and an Arachne, marching together was a huge threat. The whole city was thrown into chaos.

Adventurers were supposed to hunt monsters. That was how things worked. So why did it now feel like the monsters were bringing the fight to the surface?

August's group didn't care about the panic they were causing. The Xenos just kept climbing.

As for the Adventurers who tried to get close and play hero, August raised his rifle and put a bullet into the wall right in front of them.

"Stay out of my way. Take one step closer, and I'll kill you."

He shouted the threat for everyone to hear.

"..." The Adventurers, initially thrilled at the idea of a raid, suddenly froze. None dared to confront August—

By the time the Loki and Ganesha Familias assembled at the entrance on the first floor, a new report hit before they had even stepped inside.

"Emergency! It's August! The Captain of the Hestia Familia! He's inside the monster horde!" a fleeing Adventurer screamed.

The Loki and Ganesha leaders stopped in their tracks. They knew August had gone into the Dungeon that morning with just one Xenos. Why was he coming back with a whole group?

What was he trying to pull?

The members of the Loki Familia turned to Finn Deimne.

Finn bit his thumb, a strong sense of foreboding washing over him.

"This just escalated into a massive headache..."

He had a hunch. The unspoken consensus among the Gods was to pressure August into returning the surface Xenos to the Dungeon. Instead, August had marched down and grabbed the rest of them. Nobody had predicted this scenario.

"Is he actively rebelling against the Will of the Gods?" Gareth Landrock muttered, voicing the truth underneath it all.

August was throwing out the quiet compromise everyone had agreed to, just because it made him angry.

"Would he really go that far?" Riveria Ljos Alf stared at the border between the surface and the first floor in disbelief.

Was he really going to do this? In all her years as a High Elf, she had never seen a human act this recklessly. He was ignoring all of Orario's rules and pulling everyone into his chaos. If he pulled it off, the political mess would be huge.

"August... what kind of person are you?"

For the first time, Finn felt he couldn't read the man at all. August truly had the nerve to execute a plan like this.

"THEY'RE HERE!" someone in the crowd shouted.

Every eye locked onto the gateway leading down to the first floor. A horde of monsters stepped out of the shadows.

But they weren't brandishing weapons in a feral rage. They emerged with their hands raised in a clear gesture of surrender.

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