The trap worked! The golem fell right into our ambush. Lydia and Shao attacked together while Terra and Celeste restrained it. Add Miki’s confusion, and the golem finally went down before it could find a way to escape. I let out a breath of relief.

It was an entire day of work, and it had finally come to a conclusion. Mind you, the wealth accumulated would be enough to fund a small kingdom for a week, so it was by no means small. I absorbed all of the orichalcum before the dungeon could suck it back up. Dungeons usually took a long time to do that, but this particular dungeon liked to mess with me. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s rate of absorption was very high.

The six of us collapsed, breathing hard as we rested from the grueling day of fighting this monster. Even when it came to levels, we hadn’t made much progress today. That wasn’t to say the girls hadn’t evolved tremendously over the week. We all had fought the high-level mobs of this dungeon and had every fight increased by 5 or more.

Lydia’s Advanced Swordsman was at 10. That’s right, she reached 50 Swordsman and her job had reached the next tier. Scout was currently at 43. I wondered what she would get when it hit 50. Miki’s Spiritualist also hit 50, and she unlocked the job Psionic. That was now at 5. Her Intermediate Magician was also 14. Celeste’s Master Wind Magician reached 30, and her Magic Singer reached 26. Terra’s Earth Manipulator was at 60, her Mineral Appraiser reached 25, and Naturalist reached 10. Finally, Shao’s Shadow Knight was at 43, and her Pugilist was at 33. As for me, White Mage reached 40, True Hero reached 20, True Dungeon Diver Reached 36, and Slave Master reached 38.

Simply put, our party had once again made substantial gains and growth. Our rate of growth was truly abnormal.

While feeling somewhat proud of my party, the group of us sauntered off to the safe room. However, the second we walked in, the girls drew their swords and the smirk on my face dissipated. There was an old man standing in the middle of the room. He was wearing a knight’s outfit. He was one of Lord Reign’s men.

“Deek Deekson, I presume?” He asked.

While stroking my sword, I eyed him suspiciously. “And who are you?

There was only one of him. That should have put me at ease, but it actually made me more wary. He was an elderly man, and appeared frail, but that didn’t mean much. He was on the 25th floor. That meant that the man couldn’t be simple. In fact, he almost assuredly was a powerful knight in his own right. I had heard about stronger knights. If you could say an average knight was around level 40-50, then an elite knight would be in the 70’s. Even six on one, it might not be a fight we could handle safely.

“Do not worry…” he eyed my sword disdainfully, “I’m merely here to pass on a message from my Lord. I was a bit doubtful that you were still in this dungeon. You certainly have been taking your time.”

“What message?” I demanded.

The man pulled out a letter and then handed it to me. Then, he walked over to the kiosk and put his hand on it.

“Hey! You’re leaving?”

“I’ve done my duty. I’m retired. I’m too old for this kind of drama. I only did this upon Lord Reign’s begging. I’m the only man he knew who had made it this low in the dungeon. Now that the message has been passed, I’ll be leaving.”

With that, he disappeared, using the kiosk to leave back to the first floor, presumably. As for me, I cautiously opened the letter, making sure to use Remove Curse and Poison just in case. There was a letter, and I began to read it. As my eyes moved across the page, my expression grew darker and darker.

“Master, what is it?” Lydia asked for all the girls, who had anxious looks on their faces.

I finished the letter, and then lowered, it, a look of murder on my face. “We’re heading to the surface.”

“What’s going on?” Terra asked.

“Lord Reign doesn’t know it, but he just declared war.”

“What will we do?” Miki glanced down at the letter in my hand.

“We’ll bring him a war. I had hoped to finish this dungeon first, but now that is impossible.” My hand tightened, crumpling the page in my grasp. “It’s time to end that bastard’s reign!