《The Plant Dungeon》 Chapter 1 CHAPTER 1 I hand the receptionist at the desk the quest slip. I¡¯ll do this one.¡± I tell her She looks at it and says, ¡± All right let¡¯s see. Class B subjugation request of a plant demon in the Dark Forest. As an A rank adventurer you can takes this by yourself although it is unadvised. Your lifestone is in order so you¡¯re good to go. on completion, you will receive a life extension potion which will boost your lifespan by fifty years. Increased by your cultivation level as well. have a nice day sir. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª- As a rank A adventurer I was quite proud of my self for becoming one at the meager age of forty. Most people had to reach at least the age of seventy to make rank A. Although my father did give me a helping hand. most families have their own cultivation technique. My father had found one in a castle during his adventuring days, but couldn¡¯t use it so he taught it to me. That really shows how much he loved me. As instead of selling the technique for a fortune, he gave it to me instead. The technique is rather unique as instead of condensing more qi into your core, you pull it in and use it to convert your core to a crystal. This produces way better results than condensing your core. This made me much stronger than someone at my level would normally be. The only disadvantage with the technique is that you can¡¯t put your qi outside of your body.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª- As I arrive at the Dark Forest I can tell something is wrong. There is total silence in the forest, not even the trees make no noise in the breeze. As I stepped into the forest and immediately Felt it, a stiffing pressure making me want to hide and be quiet. As I walk deeper into the forest I start to see signs of corruption. Plants that have started to be twisted in dark and evil looking plants. Even further in the forest, the plants start to attack me. Right as the sun starts to set is when I see it, a massiveplant demon. I immediately lunge at it with my spear striking it through its core. As my spear struck its core, my spear was destroyed as qi rushed into it. I look amazed as my spear on chippedthe demons core. I look on amazed that me spear did so little damage to it. ¡°Muhahahaha¡± laughs the demon. ¡± You thought your puny weapon could hurt me. Fool.¡± I feel vine wrap around my arms. I try to yank my arms out but, to my horror, they hold. I try to speak but a tangle of vines wrap around my mouth stopping me. ¡± Hmmm what to do to you.¡± The demon says. I feel a soulscan go over me. ¡°Your core is crystallized! This is perfect it will teach you your lesson¡± Then I notice that its core is leaking. It will die in minutes. All I have to do is outlast it. The demon walks over to me. ¡°I know what I will do to you now. I¡¯ll turn you into a new body for me.¡± It tells me. I feel plants start to consume my body and enter my core. As a last act of desperation, I set my right arm on fire, freeing it, and hit the demons core as hard as I can. The core shatters as I hit it, releasing a huge amount qi. As this happens my eyes closed for the last time. Chapter 2 ( I was going to describe what it would be like to be in a plant body but I found it to be impossible so I just wrote this instead.) I wake up with a strange looking man crouching next to me. He is dressed in all white. I ask him, ¡°Am I dead?¡± HE responds ¡°Yes and no, when the core exploded it released a ton of demonic energy. That, combined with you having a crystallized core and the vines trying to worm their way into it, has turned you into a dungeon. A plant dungeon, to be more specific.¡± I am so shocked by this that it takes me a while to digest it. When I¡¯m finished being shocked I was, ¡± Who are you?¡± He responds, ¡°I am from the next dimension up from yours. My clan has a tradition where we come down and help souls in need at our coming of age. You especially need help as a non-natural dungeon.¡± ¡°Why is that?¡± I ask. ¡°Well, do to dungeons being isolated and unable/unwilling help each other and form societies, god gave options to guide them in developing their dungeons in certain ways. Although some decide to do it their own way without help. But because you are a non-natural dungeon you don¡¯t have access to those options. Thus I have come down to help you. Before you ask here are your options:Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.
    1. Standard Dungeon, your typical dungeon with floors full of rooms and a boss at the end of each floor. Monsters will also drop loot instead of having harvestable bodies and the is a higher amount of qi here than normal. May evolve into floating island or mine. Different options could appear if criteria are met.
    2. Labyrinth Dungeon, wide and spread out many don¡¯t realize these are dungeons. This is due to the monsters not dropping loot or disappearing when they die. The only boss is your body which you will have to develop over time. There is a huge amount of qi in labyrinth dungeons. This attracts monsters that you didn¡¯t create. Many cultivators will also come to cultivate. When this happens you siphon off a bit to boost your own cultivation. May evolve into floating continent. Different options could appear if criteria are met.
¡°Why are there so few options? Seems like there would be more ways to do it, considering all the different ways to cultivate normally.¡± He responds, ¡°Dungeon cultivating requires much more complex patterns than normal. These two patterns can be changed to become other things, but these are the only ones simple enough to start with. Any other questions?¡± I answer, ¡°How do I do the labyrinth technique?¡± In response to that he reached his hand out to my head and I felt a rush of knowledge enter my head. I reached out to my surroundings and began cultivating. I looped the qi around my body in spirals and swirls until it reached my core again. I asked him, ¡°How long do I need to maintain the pattern until it solidifies?¡± ¡°Just a moment long¡­¡­..¡± My senses fade out as he answered me. Chapter 3 I woke up slowly. I can feel the qi circulating throughout my body. ¡°Why did I pass out?¡± I ask him. He responds, ¡°When dungeon¡¯s cores pass from one stage to the next there are huge changes compared to normal.¡± ¡°What do you mean stages? ¡± Oh yes I forgot, lower dimensions don¡¯t know these. Your core has various stages it can go through. In dimensions like yours, the difference is too small to be noticed, but in higher dimensions, it is very noticeable.¡± He answers me. I asked him, ¡°Are there names for the stages? You keep talking about going up and down in dimensions what do you mean?¡± He answers me, ¡°The stage¡¯s names are, Worm, Bird, Eagle, Lion, Mountain, Conquerer, and finally AscendantAnd no I won¡¯t tell you the differences between the stages you have to find that out yourself. To answer your second question, when you reach the Ascendant stage you are able to travel to the dimension above yours and to any below yours.¡± Having finished asking questions, for now, I tried to use my qi somehow but couldn¡¯t. ¡°Inject it into the ground,¡± he tells me. I do so. Suddenly I can feel the ground as if it were part of my own body. I keep doing this and the effect spreads out. After a few minutes, I start to feel faint and stop. I ask him a question, ¡°How will I get monsters?¡± He responds, ¡°For a few years you will just have the monsters attracted by your high manna area, but after you get big enough you will be able to make your own. I would suggest cultivating until yo reach the next stage so you can continually expand without stopping. Although the more land you have the faster you will be able to generate qi/ store more qi. It¡¯s your choice on how to do it.¡±Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. **A FEW WEEKS LATER** I wake up from breaking through to the Bird stage. As soon as I am awake enough, I start injecting qi into the ground. About 5 weeks after that I reach a mile in diameter. After this, my dungeon starts to slow down its expansion. at this point, I feel a small addition to my natural cultivation. I look at where the feeling is coming from and see that my first monster has wandered into my labyrinth. I look over at where the monster is and see a little vine twisting its way into my labyrinth. ¡°Well, this is a little disappointing,¡± I say ¡°but yet it makes sense. You are still a tiny labyrinth.¡± He said appearing out of nowhere. ¡°How¡¯d you just appear like that? I ask. He answers, ¡°I was monitoring you and teleported when I heard you talk.¡± ¡°How did you teleport?¡± I ask. ¡°All things will be learned in their time.¡± After saying that he disappears. Whatever, Now what can I do with you?I look back over at the vine worm. I try injecting some of my qi into it. As I do that, it stars to grow longer and thicker. Cool, I think to my self. After a while, I go back to cultivating. **5 MONTHS LATER** I wake up from breaking into the Eagle stage. My diameter has reached 1.5 miles and has started to expand into the ground and sky instead of just a few feet off of the ground. This has slowed down my expansion rate even more. Several more vine worms and a new monster that looks like a flower but will bite your node and is covered with poisonous thorns. By this point, there is a noticeable difference in the level of qi in my labyrinth and outside of it, although the difference is still pretty small. Do to how large the Dark Forest is, it will probably be a long time until any humans stumbled upon my labyrinth. As I was a cultivator before I was used to long periods of doing nothing other than cultivating. Even with that, I am amazed that I¡¯m not bored(I always want to spell it bord and almost misspelled it in my name.)out of my mind. Maybe as a dungeon you can¡¯t get bored? No clue. Chapter 4 **5 YEARS LATER** I wake up from breaking into the Lion stage. Over the last few years, a few more vines wandered into my labyrinth. No other monsters, which was disappointing. My dungeon now extends 3 miles in diameter, 500 feet into the air, and 100 feet into the ground. As I am waking up I realized something that shocked me. I HAVE NO BODY. I mean seriously, how did I miss this? It¡¯s been five and a half years! He suddenly appears again. ¡°Finally reached the Lion stage did you?¡± He asks/states. ¡°Yes, how did you know? I answer. ¡°I felt you gain self-awareness, dungeons don¡¯t have that until they reach the Lion rank. You can make your body by calling a vine worm over to you and injecting qi into until it¡¯s significantly bigger than you.¡± He tells me. I call one over to me and inject qi into it until it is bigger than me. Then, suddenly, it eats me. It eats me! In its stomach, I can feel it dissolving my core. In a kind of panicked reaction, I shove all of the qi I have in me out. This causes a reaction in it turning its intestines into a tunnel able to move my core throughout its body. It rapidly develops muscle that allows it/me to writhe around quickly and grows to a little over thirty yards long and one yard thick. Small flexible poison filled spikes grow out of my skin while it hardens, and large feelers grow out too. My front grows a maw of teeth that look like they could eat bulders.(they can) Then a final change happens, my core grows little vines in it that can extend outward. As the changes stop I feel my self passing out again. All I can think while this happens is. Man dungeons pass out a lotThis novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. When I wake up I see him in front of me but am too groggy to say anything. He says to me, ¡°Before you get mad if I had told you what would happen you would have died. Before this, you were not experienced in shoving qi out of your body. If you had known of the danger beforehand, you would not have shoved the qi out in shock.¡± I respond, ¡± Well fine I guess but please don¡¯t do it again.¡± ¡°Ok I won¡¯t,¡± He tells me. So I ask him, ¡± What class of monster am I?¡± He answers, ¡± You are class B monster. Although your ability to attack is relatively low, you are very tough and can severely damage structure getting you the class B ranking.¡± After we finish talking I start moving around a bit to get used to moving and dive into and out of the ground. As I travel around I notice something interesting, the vine worms have started to mutate from the form getting bigger or longer or growing thorns. Then, I notice something awesome. There is a new monster in my dungeon. It is a flower that excretes and knockout gas and will keep you out until you die. Or someone moves you, or it rains. The gas is pretty hydrophilic. At this point, I head back to the center of my dungeon. Once there I settle down and start to cultivate. . Chapter 5 **13 YEARS LATER** I haven¡¯t broken into the Mountain stage yet, but I am now 15 miles in diameter, 700 feet up into the air and 300 into the ground. A group of about 3000 people show up in my dungeon so I listen to what they are saying. ¡°Mama, why did we leave our home?¡± ¡°We left the city because an army marched on it so we evacuated it sweety.¡± A few feet away to men are talking. ¡°If only we were cultivators so we could defend our city.¡± Says one to another. ¡°If we were it wouldn¡¯t be there anyway, the King called away all of the cultivators for his army. After listening to a few more conversations it¡¯s pretty obvious that these people are war refugees that have come into The Dark Forest. They get to a spot about a mile from the center of the forest and set up camp there.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. **5 YEARS LATER** They have farms set up now and a town is beginning to appear where they are. Plenty of children too. Their population has grown to nearly 6000 too, although most of them are children. **4 YEARS LATER** Recently they have been struggling to fight off the animals. Even though they aren¡¯t monsters, they are taking quite a toll on the people. None of them are cultivators which is hurting them. I wonder what would happen if I inject qi into them. Yes, I think I¡¯ll do that. ** 5 MonthsLater** Hm... since I started injecting qi into them, there have been a few changes. The only outwardly noticeable change is that their ears have started to develop points. Inside of them, however, is where the real change is happening. They have just barely started to cultivate naturally, without any knowledge of it. Their qi too has a natural affinity with nature. They don''t seem to have noticed the changes, however. I think this is due to how their souls are changing with their bodies, similarto the way I didn''t notice my lack of a body until I reached the Lion stage. But that''sjust a hypothesis. I don''t think I can call them Humans anymore though. I need to think of a name for my accidentalcreations. Hm... I think I''ve got it! I will call them Elves. Chapter 6 **Unknown Amount of Time** It''s getting harder and harder to keep track of time. The only marker I have for it now is that two generations have passed since I started injecting qi into the elves. They have made significant progress in the years since then. They have grown to about 7000 people. I think their transformation is complete. Their ears are completely pointed now, and they are all tall, skinny, and blond. The changes seem to be due to their strong nature affinity. I am no expert, however, so I can''t be sure. The affinity seems to be having an effect on how they live. They seem to be drawn to plants and are able to grow them rather easily. Many have herb gardens in front of their houses that have turned into medicinal herbs. Speaking of houses, they only build with wood now. The wood seems to get stronger the longer they are around it too. Their natural cultivating has increased leaps and bounds as well. They break through the levels of cultivation so fast that they are no longer aging after they reach adulthood. They reach the Lion stage relatively quickly, but after that their cultivation slows down drastically. They have been able to handle the animals, along with the few new monsters that have shown up recently. Time will tell if they can handle the monsters that will come as I advance further.Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. **A Short Time Later** Finally! I''m waking up from breaking into the mountain stage. I guess it wouldn''t have taken so long if I hadn''t made the elves, but hindsight''s 20/20. I look around and see a mountain has risen in the center of the dark forest. It''s about two miles in height, and six miles in diameter. It looks kind of weird though, ''cause there are no plants growing on it. My qi seems to be most concentrated at the tip, so I move my worm body there. The ground up here is covered in snow, but it doesn''t bother me. I doubt much else could live up here though. I look to where the I last saw the elves. Fortunately, they were just far enough away from the center of the forest to not have their city destroyed by the mountain. **Another Generation is Born** The Elves seem to have realized that the longer they use wooden things, the stronger the object gets. They now keep large amounts of wooden weapons in the houses, so that their families will have strong weapons for generations to come. They are also building their houses on the side of the mountain. They have flattened a large section of its base so they can build there. There also is what seems to be an expedition of Humans to reach the mountain. At their current pace, they will reach the mountain in about a week. I am a little concerned they might fight with the Elves but I think they could handle themselves. Chapter 7 Jack leads his group towards the new mountain. The adventurers guild had been planning to send an expedition into the Dark Forest for a few years now. But some hunters had reported seeing humanoids in the forest, but they were all dismissed as crazies and attention seekers. That was until Jack, the guild leader''s son, had reported seeing one. Then they finally decided to send in an investigative team. "Let''s stop here for the night," Jack announces. "We will probably reach the mountain tomorrow. We will make our camp there, then do an in-depth search of the forest." The group had had a rough time making it into the forest. The closer they got to the mountain, the worse the monsters were. The most dangerous part, however, was that most of the monsters relied on stealth, meaning they have to be constantly on guard.If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. As they are setting up their camp, one of the guards hears a branch snap. He spins around and, seeing something hitting the ground, throws his spear at it. What turns out to be an elf, immediately starts screaming in pain. The other elves, which were hidden up in the trees, immediately kill the adventurer with arrows. Unfortunately for them Jack specializes in wide area of effect attacks and hurls a fireball up. The fireball explodes creating a ring of fire. A few of the elves have time to jump down in time to survive, and start to shoot at all of the adventurers. As they start to flee from the elves, Jack is shot down. A few of the faster adventures manage to escape the elves and run towards the edge of the forest, hoping they will live to tell the guildmaster what happened. Chapter 8 Well, that didn''t go well. I was hoping that things would go peacefully between them. I guess I should have expected that to happen. It would have been nice for them to trade and stuff, but I''d guess from the way that went there''s no way that''s going to happen. *** Dylan''s primary job when working as an adventurer was as a scout/messenger. He had never really liked it, but he was pretty glad he had spent so much time running now. He only stopped once while running, and then he just drank a bunch. This is it. He thought I''m never doing another job with a risk of combat. After he goes a few miles past the edge of the forest. He sees a caravan heading down the road. Finally, I''m saved. He thinks. Of course, he didn''t know he''d been safe ever since he was out of range of the forest, but he didn''t really need to know that. *** The capitalcityof the AerethEmpire is named Vard. It is known as a center of commerce throughout the land. It also contains the adventurer''s guild headquarters. The guild master, namedJorhat Aumrtiz, is a very unhappy man. This has only beenmade worse by the recentadvents in the dark forest.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. "What do you mean he died!?" roarsJorhat as he slams his fist against the table, cracking it. "I''m sorry sir, but we just got word in from our guildhall near there," Says his cowering assistant. "And the survivor says it was humanoids that killed them! Blast it all! I shouldn''t have let my son go on that dang quest of his." "Well, sir, It does seem he was right. There do appearto be humanoidcreatures in the forest. Ones smart enough to make weapons at that," says the assistant, hoping it will calm down the guild master. "They will die! We''ll kill them all. Send out a message to all the halls. We''ll march on the forest in a month''s time," Says Jorhat, who is even more irate. "Yes sir," says his assistant, scurrying out of the room as fast as he can. *** The elves named their one city kingdomFloresta. It is lead by the Elven King Jon. He sits on his might wooden throne, waiting for a report from the scouting team he sent to the human exploration group. A messager bursts through the big double doors leading to the throne room. He does a rushed bow then says, "Sir, the team spying on the humans was attacked by them. They tried to hunt them all down afterword, but one got away. "How many did we lose?" says the king. "We lost five, what will we do about the one who got away?" replies the messager. "Call back all of our groups, we will prepareour defenses in case they come back in force to attack us," Announces the king. Chapter 9 The town of Yrgl lies a few miles from the edge of the dark forest. It is a small town but has received a massive influx of adventurers. They have been expanding while they wait for some of the more powerful adventures. Their guild master pulled out all the stops in preparing for this upcoming war. The adventures spend the whole time they''re not asleep working on expanding the town. They have built all the necessary buildings for Yrgl to become a booming town. They are also building heavily enchanted walls around the planned border of the town in order to defend it in the case of a siege. While Guild master Jorhat does not necessarily expect the fight to last long, he is preparing, just in case.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. *** I try not to look too closely at what the elves are doing. I want it to be a surprise when they fight. I hope they make it though, it would be quite the same if they lost. I think they''ll win though. The adventurers have never faced an enemy who can turn the world itself against you, after all. Whatever they do, it will be pretty impressive. Chapter 10 The day has finally come. The adventurers are marching on the elves. They set out from the fort and start marching into the forest. They''re marching in an eight-person thick line. As they march in, they destroy everything in between them and the mountain. Now, I don''t normally do anything to manipulate my dungeon, but I''m pretty mad at the adventurers. I send out a command to the animals and monsters and make them move towards the adventurer army. After I do this all the creatures within about 10 miles of the adventurers pause what they''re doing, then start moving toward the adventurers as fast as they can. The closest ones reach the army within seconds. **** Man, this will be easy. I don''t know what actually killed the guild master''s son, but I dought it has people. The idiots on the last expedition were probably just not paying attention and got ambushed by some strong beast, and the survivor was just lying to save his own skin. Well, whatever, We''re all being paid well for the venture. Suddenly, I a bunch of beasts jump out at us from the woods. They''re pretty easy to kill so the outer guards just dispatch them with quick attacks. More and more monsters start coming out of the woods around us. Fortunately, we at the front are pretty high-level cultivators, so whenever the guys closer to the woods start to get overrun, we just perform a few techniques to push back the beasts again. Suddenly I hear a roar and a massive beast charges out of the forest. It''s like a twisted amalgamation of plant and animal. The monster must be at least class A just from its size and strength. Within a second dozens of strong attacks hit it, but they just splash on its skin. suddenly a massive spear of light pierces the monster straight through. I look over where it came from and I see James Percius, THE James Percius, he''s a class SS adventurer famous for purging undead and demons.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Suddenly, the tree next to me opens up, revealing a toothy maw within, and takes a bight out of the guy next to me. I start releasing fire, making to set the tree, and all the trees I can reach on fire. This reveals a horrifying number of the trees to be monsters, as they start screaming in pain once on fire. After about fifteen more minutes of fending off the monsters, they stop appearing out of the woods. A message is passed up the line to clear the area around us and to flatten the ground so we can make camp here overnight. ***** While the battle was going on, I received a surge of qi. "What was that?" I ask. He appears out of nowhere saying, "You got a surge of qi because someone died during the attack." "But people have died to the monsters before, and I never got any qi. Why now?" I ask. He answers, "It''s because you commanded the monsters to attack them. Please don''t ask why that is, I have no idea." "Oh, ok then... Hey, are you ever going to tell me your name?" I ask him. "Nope! You''ll have to reach the ascendant level of cultivation if you want to find out. He replies. As suddenly as he appeared, he disappears. I look back at the battle and see its wrapping up. While there weren''t really many powerful monsters near them, I was kinda hoping they would be more than one death out of the attack. Well, this should at the very least slow them down a bit. They are moving pretty fast, having made it one-fifth of the way in. I''m starting to get concerned about the elves now though. If they have many more people like the guy who killed my plant behemoth with ease then I can''t imagine there''s much the elves will be able to do. I guess time will tell. Chapter 11 The adventurers reached the mountain but fortunately missed the elve''s city by about forty-five degrees. They''re setting up a semi-permanent base to use until they find the elves. They sent out scouts, so it won''t be long until the elve''s city is found. At the speed they marched through the forest, it will take about an hour to an hour and a half for the army to get there. ****** "Guild Master, we found a city on the side of the mountain about an hour from here," reports a scout to the adventurer guild master. "Have my adventurers prepare, we will march on the city tomorrow morning," he commands. ******* We are set up in an assault formation near the city. We are waiting for the signal to attack. I see a green flare shoot up into the sky. That''s the signal. I work with the other guys in my squad, powering up the formation we are in. After a few seconds of charging a mass of purple destructive energy shoots out from it. It flies alongside shots from other formations into the city''s wall. The shots impact, blowing an approximately twenty-foot wide chunk of the wall open each. A red flare then shoots up into the sky, and the whole army runs forward crying, "CHARGE!" ******** I watch in concern as the adventurers charge towards the elven city. As they reach the halfway point, formations show up as they start to activate. They show up on the wall, even in parts where it has been blown away. As I watch, the wall suddenly starts to regrow, the broken parts reforming within seconds. Once the wall has finished regrowing, new inscriptions start to glow.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. Once the new inscriptions have activated, plants begin to grow out of the ground and attack the adventurers. This quickly stops their charge, as they have to stop and burn away the plants. Soon people start leading a slow charge at the elves again, heading towards the city. The adventurers in the back launch explosive and burning attacks against the wall, keeping chunks of it down at all times. With the wall broken, a new problem shows up for the elves. The inscriptions creating the attacking plants are only functional when the wall is whole. Although the plants that are already there will keep attacking. This means the elves will have to start using their people to defend. Or, at least it would if I hadn''t amassed a large portion of the monsters from the forest to attack the adventurers in the case of the elve''s defenses failing. I direct the monsters to attack one of the weaker points on the adventurer line. They quickly carve their way into the adventurers but suffer massive losses as they are bombarded with large area of effect attacks. They are then quickly crushed by the adventurers remaining nearby. A black flare is then shot off by one of the adventurers. When the adventurers see this, they start to form a huge formation using over half their forces. As they charge it, a large ball of the same destructive energy as before is formed above them. The elves, seeing this, choose this moment to attack hoping to disrupt the formation. They charge over the wall and engage the adventurers defending the formation. Some elves also stand up on the wall and shoot arrows and the adventurers. They are unfortunately unable to disrupt the formation, but they do manage to significantly weaken it. As the sphere shoots up and starts to come down, all the adventurers run away. When the sphere hits the city, even in its weakened state, about a sixth of it is still taken out by it. Chapter 12 Well, that battle was both a positive and a negative. On one hand, I got enough qi that I broke into the Conquerer stage, and I am now receiving a lot of qi from the elves and humans within my dungeon. The negative, of course, being the number of people that died in the fighting. I look at the elven city, and see that the majority of the remaining elves are gathered around a makeshift stage where their king is delivering a speech. *************** "It is time for retribution! The humans march against us, and for what? For fighting back against them! That''s why they march against us! And when their attack looks like it will fail what do they do!? They try to kill us all, attempting to wipe our very city off the face of Earth! And so today I call on all who are willing to march with me upon the humans and their city outside the forest!" As the king finishes his speech, the crowd cheers and follow the king out into the forest. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. When the elves arrive at the adventurer''s camp, they use small formations to force the ground and the trees to attack the adventurers. Several of the adventurers try to fight back with fire, and earth manipulation of there own. In the end, however, too many of the adventurers were caught by surprise. They fell before the elve''s onslaught within minutes of fighting, the remaining forces were routed. They ran as fast as they could down the path they had made on their way into the forest. The elves chased the adventurers, but were unable to catch them all. The elve''s stop at the edge of the forest, upon seeing the fortress built by the adventurers, having decided to create some siege preparations before they attack them. The adventurers quickly contact the kings of the surrounding nations, asking them for aid and warning them of the threat posed by the elves.