On the sixth floor of the dungeon, a griffon is found standing on the black floor. His time grinding in the dungeon is up, and he has decided to see the surface for himself.

(So you will pretend to be a monster and wipe out the humans at the entrance?)

(That’s right. By doing so, they could just assume that an unusually powerful monster took out the Great Sorceress and wiped out the hero’s group. Since dungeon outflow is a natural phenomenon, I’ll use that to my advantage.)

(That’s why you ask me to gather and restrain them.)

Behind the griffon are a numerous amount of monsters, numbered up to a hundred, immobilized by Claire’s crowd control magic. Each has a magic circle beneath that conjures glowing golden chains that render them unable to move.

Naturally, there are humans settling at the entrance of the dungeon anticipating the hero’s return. Azrael cannot just pass the entrance as a human since that would make them suspicious of him. For that reason, he will come out as a monster along with the others.

There are lesser dragons, drakes and wyverns, griffons, giant bug monsters, ogres, cockatrices, basilisks, and other ferocious monsters bound with supreme-tier arcane magic, Grand Binding Chains. It is an area-of-effect version of the high-tier magic, Binding Chains.

Those selections of monsters are deliberately chosen to fit the five meter wide stairs of this dungeon. Anything bigger than those would make them suspect that the outflow was not natural.

(You know that I can teleport anywhere I have visited, but for some reason, you keep insisting on coming out through the entrance. Killing them won’t give you a significant gain, so can I ask you why?)

(Sigh. All right, I’ll tell you. I am actually planning on keeping this dungeon for myself.)

(You want to keep this dungeon?)

(Yes. This place is the perfect place to power up. Infinite monsters spawn here, and so do the magic cores I always crave. Why would I let go of a place like this?)

(I see. I understand it now. But this place’s location has been compromised. Not only the kingdom, but the empire must have known it as well. Like you, they also want this dungeon for themselves.)

The Siafran Empire has been prepping for its war against the Kingdom of Roheazul. The plan was conceptualized as far as a decade ago after the empire’s drastic economic and military improvement that was initiated by the first emperor of the Manndier dynasty, the current imperial family of the empire.

They are almost fully prepared for war, but they lack the countermeasures against the hero and the Great Sorceress. Setting the obstacles aside, the empire does not know when and how to start the war.

It was until they heard the discovery of a new dungeon that they instigated a plan to capitalize on the Great Sorceress’s lax nature and curiosity to set an assassination plot on her. On top of that, the kingdom sent the hero to investigate.

Without the presence of the two, the empire has never been so eager to declare a war at any moment. The empire has deployed a few people at the dungeon to stall the hero time in case he comes back.

According to the initial investigation, the dungeon is reported to be at least five floors deep. Once they have successfully retaken the kingdom, the empire will be making good use of the dungeon. Its massive size would bring fortune to the empire.

Since the dungeon is located in the northern region of the kingdom, Claire expects that the empire would not march here so soon. If Azrael were trying to keep the dungeon, Claire wonders how Azrael would be able to deal with the imperial force.

(Before getting into that matter, I would like to confirm something with you.)

(What do you want me to confirm, Azrael?)

(When you break down this world’s geopolitics, there was one nation that piqued my interest. You said that in the far east, there is an archipelago called the Floating Kingdom of Laevern.)

(Wait! Don’t tell me—!)

(Making that nation hover in the air must be a work of magic or something similar. I want you to scan your Gramarye and find the magic spell or spells that could make it possible.)

(Even if the spell existed, the required mana to lift up the sheer size of this dungeon would be stupendously large. Mana depletion is a lot worse than physical exhaustion, and it could be fatal.)

Claire expresses her concerns about the dangers of using that amount of mana in a short time. Even she admits that a floating landmass containing a dungeon this size is not possible for her.

From what Claire has heard regarding the Floating Kingdom of Laevern, the floating islands were said to be the work of forgotten magic. The tale has it that making an island hover in the air costs the lives of dozens to hundreds of mages through ritual casting.

She cannot let Azrael exhaust himself to death since she would face the same faith as him.

(Doesn’t matter. All I need to know is whether it is possible or not. Leave the heavy work to me. Can you have faith in me a little?)

(Hmph. If you say so, then I have to do my job. Don’t blame me if you collapse from mana depletion.)

(That’s settled then. Let’s unleash these monsters to the surface.)

◆◇◆◇◆◇

In the middle of the forest, there is a cleared patch of land with a black pyramid at its center. The pyramid is surrounded by man-made structures, which are usually log cabins, tents, and stables for the settler’s mounts.

The residents of this settlement, which is mostly temporary, are primarily composed of people more inclined to combat, like knights, adventurers, and mercenaries. Though there are some noncombatants like merchants, clerics, and cooks to accommodate everyone’s daily needs.

They numbered a few hundred, and their average strength is above average adventurers, which are someone who possesses an orange magic core. Overall, their combined strength is decently comparable to a Knight’s Order in the Kingdom of Roheazul. They are a force to be reckoned with.

With the appearance of a new dungeon, which is reportedly to be a large kind, the Kingdom of Roheazul, alongside the Adventurer’s Association, deployed their men to check on it. Other than the intention of capturing it, they were there to help regulate the dungeon in order to prevent a dungeon outflow.

It has been over a week since the discovery of the dungeon and a day after the expedition of the hero’s party. No one was allowed to explore the dungeon for commercial use until yesterday.

Currently, over a hundred adventurers have been coming back and forth from the dungeon, harvesting raw materials from monsters. Until the dungeon is fully assessed, the adventurers are only allowed to go as deep as the third floor.

"Woohoo! We got a big haul today!" One adventurer excitedly exclaims. "I never thought that we would be able to harvest shells of evil centipedes on the second floor!"

"Yeah! They usually appear on the middle floors in the dungeon in the royal capital," one of his companions affirms. "We even got these pelts from redfur monkeys."

"Man, I hope Sir Hero will conquer this dungeon as soon as possible so that we can hunt on the lower floors."

"Ruuunn!!!"

As the party is happily celebrating their bountiful harvest, a loud scream suddenly disrupts the settlement. When they try to look for the source, they find themselves looking at the entrance of the dungeon, where an exhausted adventurer is catching his heavy breaths.

"Hey, what are you shouting about?" A knight asks.

"M-monsters..."

"What? I don’t get you."

The voice of the adventurer is shaking, and the knight barely understands his words.

"A wave of powerful monsters is rushing to the surface!! It’s a dungeon outflow!!!"

"What?!"

Screech!

Whoosh.

Not long after the adventurer delivers the bad news, a sharp and piercing sound reaches their ears. A second later, a powerful gust of wind billows the hair and garments of the people nearby the entrance as if something fast just passed by.

Before they could pinpoint what it is, another adventurer comes out of the dungeon, and he seems to be chased by something.

"H-help!!! Guh—!"

"!!!"

Suddenly, the man is pinned down on the ground by a half-hawk and half-lion monster. It is a griffin. The monster then moves its head and bites the adventurer’s head before it rips it out from his body, swallowing it whole.

"Ahh...! A griffin!!"

"How did a high-ranking monster get to the surface?!"

The appearance of the powerful monster forces the knights, adventurers, and mercenaries alike into a fighting stance. However, as they think it is alone, a few griffins come out of the dungeon and soar into the air before the flying monsters fly in a circle above the vicinity near the pyramid.

"There are so many of them! How the hell can we handle this?!" An adventurer yells.

"It doesn’t matter how powerful they are if we can outnumber them!" A knight puts up some encouragement. "Prepare to attack and kill these monsters immediately!"

"Ha!!"

With courage, the battle between humans and monsters commences. As the warriors engage in a battle with the griffins, another kind of threat emerges from the dungeon—the fire lesser dragons.

"Dragons?!"

"What the— I didn’t sign for this!"

The moment the lesser dragons come out from the entrance, the dragons begin attacking the humans using their fire breath and fireball attacks. The camp immediately turns into chaos, and their battle formations break in seconds.

Others desperately try to fight back despite their poor cooperation and low morale. The others try to flee, but they are quickly clutched by the griffins before eating them in the air.

To put more salt in the wound, more varieties of monsters come out of the dungeon. Drakes, wyverns, giant humanoids, mega-mantises, and many others. The rise of enemy numbers truly takes away the remaining hope of the fighters.

Along with the monstrous growls and cries, screams of agony and terror resonate in the settlement. Dead bodies of humans and monsters alike continue to drop on the ground, painting the soil red. Later reports claimed that only a handful managed to survive out of hundreds of men and women.

On that day, the event known as the Tontheo Forest Massacre takes place on the kingdom’s soil.