One thing that Jacob has done, which Sir Maximilian considers the pinnacle of strategy, is not simply mining the ore.
Jacob soon enough communicated to him that he knew the Cultists were trying to get him.
It’s not a big mystery that the Cultists of Apocalypse, in Jacob’s understanding, might have a way to track their movements and have the monsters converge on their positions. And Jacob believed that the only reason they hadn’t made their move before the barrier closed was that they wanted to reap as many lives at once as possible.
The most devious part of this plan, however, was to let the Cultists believe he was simply trying to avoid them when, in reality, he was luring them into a trap.
With the Cultists growing more and more frustrated, and Jacob being able to track the overall position of Nightmares thanks to his own Primordial Magic—something that not even Sir Maximilian could really explain—the Cultists would eventually get frustrated enough to create an invincible horde.
Yet, that’s exactly what Jacob wanted.
Jacob had a spell that could balance the scale once again.
He had planned to sever the control the Cultists could exert on the Nightmares, meaning that the monsters could not be controlled and pooled together once again.
And while this might seem the greatest achievement even on its own, he had done so while accumulating equipment and weapons—and therefore the full, blind loyalty of all the Knights and Adventurers.
Those men and women are now ready to jump into the depths of hell for Jacob after he gifted them the equivalent of a family heirloom in terms of armor and weapons. Oh, and he even started gifting out Runic Notation for True Diamond Skills when some of the people who had already gotten their equipment started slacking!
“Scary kid,” Sir Maximilian mutters.
And now, with all these people armed to the teeth and with dozens of levels acquired in their best Skills since they last faced the Nightmares, Jacob has created new teams.
Currently, he’s in the same arena Sir Maximilian used to give the news that they were trapped in Ashenmere. But this time, people are not scared and uneasy. No, they look like crazed, mad, greedy scavengers.
All clad in resplendent blue armor that is worth a literal fortune.
“The Cultists have lost control of the Nightmares!” Jacob says, raising his sword to the sky.
Quite dramatic, Sir Maximilian thinks. He’s currently standing about ten feet behind Jacob, ready to intervene if anything were to go wrong with this.
Yet, he doesn’t think anyone is not liking this.
The crowd cheers at Jacob, now with all the Knights covered from head to toe in True Diamond equipment that would make them the elite of the elite, in terms of, well, equipment, anywhere in the world.
Jacob also gifted Sir Maximilian enough Imperium Rank ore to craft a full set of Imperium Rank armor. And, just like the True Diamond Ore, this is what the troops have called ‘Rafnov’s Quality.’
Ores are judged by a whole host of factors going from the very basic bronze and silver ores that are mostly judged on purity and mana content, to several other parameters like Mana Conductivity.
And when it comes to ores generated by the curse Rafnov inflicted upon Primordial Gods… all the parameters are through the roof. No Blacksmith present can find anything lacking in these ores. That most likely means that both the True Diamond and Imperium ores are effectively the highest grade you’ll ever come across in your entire life.
So, the crowd is cheering so much because Jacob Cloud gave them the equivalent of the heirloom from one of the most powerful families in the world.
Actually, even if these are not fully enchanted yet, these are probably much, much better when it comes to raw quality.
Such pure ore can be manipulated easily even by a rather amateurish blacksmith. And Ashenmere just happens to have some of the best Blacksmiths in the entire region because of the proximity of their mine and so many others.
“Now that the Cultists don’t control the Dungeon anymore, we’ll be able to clean it all up, room by room, corridor by corridor, and they can do nothing to stop us!” Jacob shouts over the crowd, with the Knights going into a frenzy, unsheathing their swords, axes, all their weapons and thrusting them against the sky. “We’ll start right now! We have three Dungeons marked and Teams Two through Four will enter one of them each to start cleaning them up!”
Sir Maximilian is almost scared by the thirst for battle his Knights are showing, but says nothing. With the equipment they’re all donning, not even a Nightmare Lancer of Apocalypse would be able to one-shot one of his men. With the Shields, who all have some manner of Skill that empowers their armor, there’s no way they’re going to suffer any casualties from now on.
And so, Jacob has Augusta Leesing, the Dark Champion, open three Dark Doors and have the groups each enter one of them in a long column of about one hundred people each.
Jacob then tells the rest of the crowd to rest at the inn outside the mine, and that the rest of the expeditions will be launched from there through Dark Doors. Augusta will be escorted with the help of the Champions and Dark Champions to scout new locations while the groups will apparently rotate to clear the Primordial Dungeon of Apocalypse as fast as they can.
Incredible, Sir Maximilian thinks to himself, shaking his head. It’s incredible what he’s accomplished in such a short span of time. Those groups can probably steamroll whatever Dungeon they enter now thanks to the armor, to the stronger Skills that they leveled up thanks to his Runic Notation, and to the blind faith they put in him.
Sir Maximilian has to admit that even he, a veteran with the respect of the strongest Knights here, has never benefitted from such blind loyalty as the one Jacob generated by freely outfitting all the fighters here and saving the lives of countless civilians.
I shall speak of Jacob Cloud to the Headmaster. Not even that man probably grasped what he’s dealing with.
Day Five After the Cultists Lost Control of the Dungeon
Jacob waits at the inn, the same inn where countless Knights had tried turning upon him when they accused him and the Dark Champions of ‘stealing’ kills because of their Rainbow Skills.
Through relentless pressure on the Dungeon, and driving Augusta almost mad through sleep deprivation, the expedition has cleared an insane one hundred fifty-seven Intermediate Ground Ruins.
Now, with Augusta taking her first night of sleep while the team that has been relentlessly driving through the Intermediate Grounds is resting and toasting, Jacob is in a side room.
He had the inn expanded even more from what Sir Maximilian planned for it.
It has now become inn, barracks, and war room.
Something about the Ashenvale estate bothers him—he’s not sure whether it’s Helena Ashenvale, who keeps seeking him out during her breaks from Dungeon diving, or the fact that the previous Lady of the place tried to sacrifice Helena and Thalric to trigger an apocalyptic massacre in the city.
Probably both.
Helena with a slight lead on the apocalyptic massacre, though.
“The Nightmares are much scarcer than before from the reports,” Nimirea says, looking up from some papers.
Sir Maximilian and his Scribe, Janus, still manage the bulk of the paperwork—they’re much more efficient than Jacob at it. But Jacob still requests copies of many reports on top of meeting with Sir Maximilian daily for summaries from the man.
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“It’s been happening since day one. There were slightly less, most likely, even in the first dives.”
“Do you think the Cultists were moving the monsters around?” Nimirea asks.
Baal, who’s sitting on a couch, the only other person in the room beside the two, comments, “they weren’t tracking the exact number of Nightmare encounters before. Sir Maximilian said the Teams refused to tally all of them up. They only agreed to it because of Jacob. The Team leaders reported that there are less Nightmares, but without hard numbers it’s hard to say whether it was just an impression at first. So, it might be that the total only changed after we started slaughtering them en masse.”
Jacob ponders what Baal just said.
It’s true. There’s a chance that them killing so many Nightmares at once actually put real strain upon the Dungeon. But then…
“I still don’t understand why the Cultists haven’t made their move,” Jacob says. “Let’s assume we’re actually draining the Dungeon. Where are the Cultists? I’ve severed their control, but they’re still, most likely, the strongest people here. Why wouldn’t they try to ambush our ranks and kill our Knights? Wouldn’t that make for stronger Nightmares that they could then sic upon us?”
Nimirea and Baal look at each other, but they’re both at a loss for words. It’s true that the Cultists have completely disappeared since Jacob rescinded their control over the Dungeon.
“We haven’t sighted a Juggernaut in three days,” Jacob adds. “We met a few during the first three days, but now nothing. The Nightmares seem to get stronger, to increase in numbers despite the fact that they come from a finite reservoir. So… where are they?”
Day Ten After the Cultists Lost Control of the Dungeon
Jacob leads Team Six through one of the Intermediate Ground Ruins.
In order to make sure that they’ll be ready to tackle whatever the Dungeon is going to throw at them at the Advanced Grounds, they’re going through hordes of all kinds of monsters, without having met one Nightmare so far.
The first is a Soldier that they just met in a corridor, alone.
“Leave it to me!” Zibrek shouts and all across the corridor appears a green halo. Moments later, Zibrek, with her massive rifle, appears right behind the Soldier, with the muzzle of her gun at the back of the thing’s neck.
With a deafening explosion, Zibrek deflagrates the Nightmare Soldier of Apocalypse’s upper torso.
“Great job!” Zorathul, the gold-scaled Dragonkin, says.
That’s Zibrek’s new Imperium Skill.
Just like everybody else, she has now leveled it up beyond level eighty thanks to the mix of Jacob’s guidance and Sabrina’s Gate of Heaven Rainbow Skill.
And just like everybody else, she has crossed to Diamond Rank, jumping in power, and reaching the Dark Champions’ previous level—actually, surpassing it, even.
All the Champions and Dark Champions have reached Diamond Rank in Level and are now roughly equally strong.
The Dark Champions are not extremely happy about this, since it means their future plans to kill their nemeses have gotten harder, but they did, despite trying to hide it, share their joy.
Everyone here trained together.
Despite knowing they’ll one day fight each other once again, the shared enemy has united them.
The shared enemy and, well, Jacob.
Unfortunately, Jacob is not only the glue that made this possible, but… the only person who has yet to get an Imperium Rank Skill.
It takes a few more hours for them to find the exit to this Intermediate Ground Ruin. Then, when they send Nimirea to fetch Augusta at the previous spawn point to bring her here, Baal gets close to Jacob.
“Are you sure you don’t want to absorb the Imperium Skill you bought?”
Jacob takes out a big chunky Skill Crystal from his Interspatial Ring.
[Infernal Torture - Imperium Rank (Offensive)]
It’s an Infernal Skill that he managed to find through the black market that formed in Ashenmere after all the merchants arrived here. It’s a Royal-grade Infernal Skill whose appearance surprised Jacob given how hard it had been to find anything like this.
Infernal Torture creates blades through the air, in a similar manner to Baal’s Blood Magic, and would help Jacob attack the enemy from all angles in order to inflict more wounds.
“I have a gut feeling,” Jacob says. “It’s telling me to wait. I want to jump to Diamond Rank, but I’m not sure this should be my foundation.”
Jacob puts back the Skill and Baal, looking at the red sand around them, says nothing more.
Jacob walks away from the group for a moment to think.
They have cleared more than four hundred Intermediate Grounds—a feat that Sir Maximilian called unthinkable.
Apparently, in all other Primordial Dungeons, after killing so many Nightmares and clearing up all the Intermediate Grounds, the Advanced Grounds would manifest by themselves.
Sir Maximilian also said that there would be signs once you started getting closer to the Advanced Grounds, that every Intermediate Ground Ruin cleared drained the Primordial Dungeon of more and more energy. You could feel it in the air—the place would get calmer, the sands less violent.
But the red sandstorm that Jacob saw in front of him had not changed one bit since they started clearing the ruins.
“Jacob.” Nimirea’s voice comes from behind him.
He turns to find Augusta at her side.
“She’s already mapped the entrance to another Ruin. I suggest we—“
“Let’s go back,” Jacob says, clicking his tongue. “We have to change our plans.”
Jacob looks around an inn full of smiling Knights who idolize him.
“You’re the real Knight Commander, Cloud!” a man bellows from the back, half a leg of roast in one hand. “Forget Sir Maximilian — no offense, sir!”
“Make me your wife, Cloud!” a woman with a half-empty mug shouts. “Or my daughter — she’s about your age, and she’s even prettier than me!”
“He’s saved more of us than the Headmaster ever did!”
“Cloud is the only reason any of us are still breathing!”
“To Cloud!” someone roars, raising a mug. The cry is taken up at every table — “To Cloud!” — and then again, louder.
Jacob raises both hands and waits. The room settles slowly — not all at once, but in waves, the loudest tables quieting first, then the rest. The True Diamond innkeeper takes the chance to wipe down a counter that has not been wiped in three days. Sir Maximilian, leaning against the far wall, says nothing and pretends to read a paper he is not actually reading.
“The Primordial Dungeon—this Original Primordial Dungeon—doesn’t seem to work like the rest of them. We’ll enter Rafnov’s Bounty now since I suspect that clearing more ruins is not getting us anywhere close to our objective.”
The Knights seem to falter for a moment in their enthusiasm. Jacob is essentially saying that all their work so far might have been for nothing.
“The Nightmares are not endless, so fret not, we still made the Dungeon bleed. But we have to eviscerate it now! Rafnov’s Bounty, however, is full of Nightmares. I suspect we’ll have to start killing them by the hundreds in order to force the Dungeon to show us the Advanced Grounds.”
The Knights react very positively to the thought of ‘eviscerating the Dungeon.’
“We’ll make adjustments and rotations, but this time, only one Team at a time will enter. I’ll personally come with all of you each time since the Dungeon might throw us some curveball. Plus, I want my share of rare Skill Crystals and more ore!”
The Knights erupt laughing and start banging their mugs on tables, shattering several of them to the dismay of the True Diamond Rank innkeeper who took over the place.
With the Dark Champions and the Champions all at Diamond Rank—except him—Jacob successfully leads everyone from the back, using the Primordial Grimoire to guide the attacks of the casters and the overall formation of the fighters.
They have been fighting groups of various sizes since they entered Rafnov’s Bounty thanks to his Rafnov’s Compass.
I have to talk to Liuthkrav, Jacob thinks as the group of Nightmares finally capitulates. We can’t keep naming everything after Rafnov. I respect him as my master, and I understand Liuthkrav’s motives, but we need a better naming convention.
They just faced their largest group yet.
This is the second day of fighting and they just killed a group made of thirty Nightmare Soldiers of Apocalypse, forty Nightmare Lancers of Apocalypse, sixty Nightmare Archers of Apocalypse and five Nightmare Juggernauts of Apocalypse.
In Rafnov’s Bounty, apparently, against what Jacob knew of the Primordial Dungeons, the Nightmares drop Skill Crystals. He has been distributing them among his men and the members of Team Six, the Champions and the Dark Champions.
He decided to enter Rafnov’s Bounty with two hundred men total, including the ever-present Helena Ashenvale, who as it turns out, is the strongest fighter they have. There’s no one, even among the Champions and Dark Champions, who even comes close.
If only she wasn’t so…
“So, are we doing this all day?” Helena Ashenvale says. “Did you find a sign of something or are you intent on doing nothing?”
Many Knights give her the stink eye, but no one has the courage to actually speak up to her given her very violent tendencies.
“We’ll see. Let’s finish our rounds in this ruin and then we’ll check if the sands are—“
“Monster! One Lancer!” Someone shouts from the front and Jacob turns, surprised.
Nightmares cluster together here because of the Mana density and for some reason they never wander around alone.
“There’s something wrong with it!” Someone else shouts and Jacob elbows people until he reaches the front and sees the ambling Nightmare Lancer of Apocalypse slowly stumbling forward toward them.
Lancers are known for switching from slow to fast movements—that’s their whole gimmick. Yet, there’s something off about the movements of this one Lancer compared to the rest.
But the most worrying thing is a coating of…
“That’s Mithril on his body!” Jacob shouts. “Shield!”
One of the Shields lunges forward and readies their True Diamond Shield, Rafnov’s Quality.
Jacob immediately recognizes the guy.
Then, when he tries to check the monster’s level…
[??? - ??]
Let’s see what we’re dealing with.
Jacob frowns and activates the Primordial Grimoire immediately.
[Analysis… Impossible to Analyze.]
Yet, keeping the Grimoire active, Jacob immediately sees the trajectory of the monster’s attack.
“Lodvig, careful!” Jacob shouts. “Your side!”
But the Shield can barely register Jacob’s words when the Lancer feints an attack, drawing him forward, and then moves so fast, faster than any other Lancer they’ve faced to this point, and appears at his side.
By the time Lodvig sees the Lancer again, his neck has been pierced—then his chestpiece removed with cutting motions of the lance at the straps of the True Diamond armor.
In a motion that makes no sense, the monster brings the lance to its featureless face. The heart disappears in it as if it were a pool of dense white water.
Jacob is about to bark orders when something twists on the featureless visage of the thing.
Suddenly, the white splits and a crooked mouth appears. It’s full of teeth. Not monstrous teeth.
They’re normal human teeth in a crooked, uncanny mouth.
Two thin lips form on the white surface of the monster’s head, and they twist into a smile.