Chương 74: Chapter 73: Back to Rockspring

Owen hovered above the core pedestal, watching Greer and the other two leave on the screen before him, and could not help laughing.

"Now the bearded guy should finally be able to smile again, right?" But when he remembered Gern thanking him with reddened eyes, Owen's laughter slowly faded. The azure glow across his surface dimmed along with it. Those bastards did not just kill humans whenever they pleased. They even used underhanded methods like this to force people into doing their dirty work.

"That's way too far! Sooner or later, I'm sweeping every last one of you straight into the trash." For now, the most urgent task was finishing the paladins' backstories as quickly as possible. Once Greer and the others came back tomorrow, he could have Lorian bring the squad out to meet them. As soon as they finalized the plan, they would set off for Rockspring Town and eliminate the threat before the Rockspring core had time to make another move.

"Ugh... I wonder if I can still make it in time." Owen did not have many requirements when it came to the paladins' appearances. He simply used the random generation function and picked out a few faces that looked good enough. As for their personalities, of course they had to be as reliable as possible.

"They're our representatives out in the field, after all!" Owen gave two pleased hums.

"If they go outside and cause trouble and that ponytailed guy comes knocking because he's pissed off, I'm finished." First came the captain. He wielded a longsword and a massive kite shield nearly 1. 6 meters tall. He could use divine arts to enchant his sword and increase its offensive power, while his own body was exceptionally tough, allowing him to remain at the front of the party for extended periods and hold the line for everyone behind him.

"Hmm... for the captain, I think a more serious personality would work better. Strict with his subordinates, but kind and approachable with ordinary people..." Owen muttered as he checked options in the personality traits field.

"But he can't be too rigid either... All right. Let's make him disciplined and particular about following rules." For the second Gold-rank paladin, Owen had a melee cleric build in mind: someone who could fight, take hits, and support the party with a variety of divine arts.

"Speaking of which, there really are a lot of divine arts in this system... Pretty much every type you could ask for." Owen kept scrolling down the list. The total number of divine arts was nowhere near as ridiculous as the number of ordinary skills, but there was still almost everything imaginable: protection, offense, enhancement, recovery, and more. However, he soon noticed the same strange note attached to every single divine art. [Deity Unresponsive: Divine Art potency reduced by 50%. Divine Power may be infused to restore full potency.] Owen stared at the line, his entire core going still.

"What does that even mean? If an actual god responds, divine arts get stronger? Where am I supposed to find a god to endorse me?"

"And what exactly happens if I infuse Divine Power? Does it get used up in one shot, or do I just infuse a divine art once and every NPC who can use it gets the benefit?" Owen glanced at the pitiful nine points of Divine Power in his reserves and quickly abandoned the idea of experimenting right away. So far, the only confirmed way of obtaining Divine Power was by extracting it from a Corrupted Surveillance Core. But it was not as though he could get as many of those things as he wanted.

And wasn't that ridiculously inconvenient?

"If the system went out of its way to list Divine Power as a resource, there have to be other ways to get it, right?" As soon as he said that, another question occurred to Owen. What if this Divine Power belonged to someone? There might really be some evil god backing those demon cores. At the thought, Owen instinctively shrank a little closer toward the center of the pedestal.

"I absorbed the Divine Power from that eyeball. What if the evil god behind Rockspring Dungeon follows the trail here and comes to squash me flat?" No. Owen suddenly remembered that Aurican had once said something that might be related to this. He hurriedly opened the system memo and soon found the entry he had marked [Pending Confirmation]. A god left behind His divine authority, but no longer answers His followers. A flicker of light ran across the azure hexagonal core.

"Maybe those demon cores got hold of part of the authority some god left behind. That could be how they made that eyeball, or even forced Gern into a contract." But rather than answering his questions, the theory only made everything more complicated. Gods. Divine Power. Divine arts. Dungeon cores... There seemed to be some connection between all of them that Owen still could not understand. And dungeons themselves had plenty of things that made no sense. Take the NPCs, for example.

Owen normally only gave them basic personalities and abilities when creating them, yet in practice, they had long since grown far beyond those initial settings. It almost felt as if something invisible was sustaining them somehow, making them more and more like real people.

"Could it be because I use Soul Energy to create them?" Maybe "Soul Energy" was not just a name. Perhaps it really contained some kind of special power.

"Haha. I didn't think much of it at first, but now that I really stop and think about it, dungeons use Soul Energy for everything. Isn't this stuff a little too versatile?" It could build terrain and structures, generate monsters, create NPCs, and even conjure all kinds of rewards out of nothing. It was practically miraculous. Unfortunately, Owen still had far too little information to support any of these guesses. He gave his core a little shake and decided to toss the questions aside for now.

"If I keep dragging this out, am I even going to finish planning the paladins before tomorrow morning? Don't tell me Old Guildmaster and Ponytailed Guy are going to show up while I'm still working, and I'll have to make the merchant stall them somehow." His trust rating would take a massive hit! After confirming that there were no problems with the two Gold-rank paladins, Owen quickly added four Silver-rank paladins based on the party's needs. Their role would be to support the two higher-ranked members.

He did not bother giving each of them an elaborate backstory, but when it came to the most important part, their personalities, Owen did not dare cut corners. Once everything was set, Owen gave a satisfied hum.

"That should do it! Once Greer and the others come in tomorrow morning and we settle the plan, this squad can head out and take down Rockspring Dungeon!" Owen bobbed his core up and down happily, then suddenly froze. Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

"Oh, right. I haven't actually generated them yet." He had nearly called it a night after finishing nothing but the character templates. Owen hurriedly generated all six paladins one by one inside the ruined church. Once everyone had appeared, Owen opened the expenditure record and took a look. His entire core instantly went rigid.

To make sure this expedition squad could handle all kinds of situations, he had given the six of them plenty of abilities, and naturally, their generation costs had climbed right along with them. They still did not come close to Cassandre's nearly ten-thousand-point price tag, but each of the two Gold-rank paladins leading the squad had cost twice as much as Basque. Even the remaining four Silver-rank paladins had cost more than two thousand Soul Energy each.

"More than twenty thousand Soul Energy... just gone like that..." Spending that much Soul Energy in one shot hurt, especially when none of it was being invested directly into the dungeon itself. Still, all of this was necessary if they wanted to take down Rockspring Dungeon. Once Owen reminded himself of that, he finally felt a little better.

"I can't wait to see their faces when they see these reinforcements tomorrow morning. Hopefully they come early so everyone can head out sooner." Cheerful laughter echoed through the Core Chamber. ◆ ◆ ◆ Early the next morning, before the sky had fully brightened, Gern had put on all his gear and was waiting outside the Guild cabin. The door had not even opened yet. Gern scratched the back of his head helplessly and looked around. Only a handful of adventurers in the camp had finished gearing up.

Most were still asleep inside their cabins or tents.

"Too early?" Gern gave two dry laughs and simply sat down on the wooden bench outside the Guild. Once they finished discussing the plan today, he intended to immediately lead the reinforcements sent by the dungeon back toward Rockspring Town, traveling day and night as much as possible. After all, how could people who had come out of a dungeon possibly know the way? Gern leaned back against the bench and looked up at the gradually brightening sky.

"Come to think of it, this really is unbelievable..." His eyes slowly lost focus, and his voice dropped.

"Never thought I'd see the day I'd be working with a dungeon." The moment he had left the dungeon last night, he had stood in front of the portal and cursed Rockspring Dungeon at the top of his lungs. The nastier the insult, the better. The louder, the better. He kept going until every adventurer nearby had turned to stare. Only then did he stop, his face burning with embarrassment. He had certainly felt awkward afterward.

After all, he had been standing right outside Blackstone Dungeon while screaming abuse at another dungeon. It almost sounded as though he had been insulting every dungeon in existence right to Blackstone's face. And Blackstone had only just rescued him from that nightmare. Even someone as rough around the edges as Gern could not help feeling a little ashamed. As for Harry and the others, Gern had no intention of bringing them back with him this time.

He would let those youngsters stay safely in Blackstone and properly explore the dungeon they had been dreaming about.

"I really hope we can settle this soon..." Just then, the wooden door behind him opened, and a Guild clerk walked outside. The man froze for a moment when he saw Gern sitting on the bench. Then, as if remembering something, he smiled and walked over.

"You must be Mr. Gern. The Guildmaster told us you could go inside and wait for him once you arrived. He's currently organizing the information that's going to be made public."

"Public information?" Seeing the confusion on Gern's face, the clerk maintained his polite smile.

"Yes. To make it easier for adventurers to tackle Blackstone Dungeon, the Guild regularly compiles and releases the latest findings from ongoing exploration." Gern frowned slightly.

"Wouldn't Blackstone Dungeon get cleared in no time if you do that? What in the world is Greer thinking?"

"You must be joking." The clerk could not help laughing.

"At the rate Blackstone Dungeon changes, by the time the latest information is compiled, the inside will probably have changed all over again." He glanced at Gern.

"You haven't actually challenged Blackstone Dungeon properly yet, have you? Once you go in yourself someday, you'll understand."

"Of course. One of these days, I'm definitely going to challenge it myself." After briefly saying goodbye to the Guild clerk, Gern entered the cabin and headed in the direction the man had indicated. He had barely reached the Guildmaster's office when he heard faint voices discussing something inside. Gern raised a hand and knocked twice firmly on the wooden door, then pushed it open. Behind the desk, Greer was speaking with Elias and another Guild clerk. When he saw Gern come in, he looked up.

"Gern? You're here this early?" Greer rose from his seat and lightly patted the clerk on the shoulder.

"That's enough for today. This information can be released. We'll deal with the rest after I get back." Then he walked over to Gern and looked him up and down.

"Looks like you got some decent rest. But why not sleep a little longer? You only finally got some relief yesterday. Don't wear yourself down again." Gern shook his head.

"It's not time to rest yet. As long as Rockspring Town isn't safe, I can't let myself relax." At the very least, he needed to get those reinforcements back to Rockspring Town before he could truly breathe easy. Seeing how firm Gern was about it, Greer did not press the issue. Instead, he turned toward Elias, who was still sitting nearby.

"Let's go, Eli. The sooner we get into the dungeon, the sooner we can get this handled."

"Coming, Master." Elias neatly arranged the documents in his hands, passed them to the Guild clerk beside him, then braced a hand against his lower back as he stood and slowly walked over to Greer.

"Master, at your age, how can you still sit behind a desk that long? Doesn't your back hurt?" Greer pushed open the door and led the other two outside. At the question, he glanced back with a mysterious smile.

"I know a miracle cure for fatigue."

"Please tell me." Greer did not answer immediately. Only after they had left the Guild cabin did he tilt his chin toward Blackstone Dungeon. Gern secretly glanced sideways to see Elias's reaction. Sure enough, the normally composed Elias had his mouth slightly open as he stared blankly at Greer.

"Master, could you please stop treating death like some kind of miracle cure?"

"Haha. And you're supposed to be the young one. I got used to it faster than you did." Greer patted him on the arm.

"Want to give it a try? You might end up liking the feeling too." Maybe it was Gern's imagination, but for one brief instant, Elias actually seemed tempted. After that little diversion, the three stopped wasting time and quickened their pace toward the dungeon entrance. Gern was still holding an azure orb. The traveling merchant Owen had given it back to him before Gern left the dungeon last night, so he could return for the discussion this morning.

"What a convenient and friendly dungeon." After watching Greer and Elias step through the portal one after another, Gern paused briefly at the entrance and could not help sighing in admiration. Then he followed them inside. By the time he steadied himself in the church resting room, Greer and Elias had reached the door. Gern hurried a few steps to catch up. Once they left the resting room, they saw several members of the clergy tending to the refugees inside the church.

A short distance away, the traveling merchant Owen was speaking quietly with an elderly man. Owen soon noticed the three of them. He said something to the old man beside him, then raised a hand and waved.

"Hey! I was starting to wonder when you'd get here." Owen spread his hands.

"This is Bishop Lorian." A few dried medicine stains marked the cuffs of Lorian's sleeves. When Owen introduced him, the bishop first gave the three a gentle nod, then glanced back toward the refugees being cared for nearby. Greer offered a brief greeting, then immediately asked,"Forgive me, but the situation is urgent. Where are the reinforcements?" Bishop Lorian nodded.

"I'll go wake them. Please wait here for a moment." Watching Lorian walk away, Gern remembered what the traveling merchant Owen had said yesterday. The bishop would be returning to the church with the reinforcements. From the look of things, they had probably only made it back sometime last night. If so, the journey back must have taken a fair bit out of them. Would they really have the strength to travel several more days with him all the way to Rockspring Town?

And now they were being woken up in the middle of their rest. Would that make them angry? If a conflict really broke out, could the entire arrangement fall apart before it even began? While Gern's thoughts grew more and more uneasy, Bishop Lorian returned with the reinforcements. Yet the moment Gern saw them, all of his worries vanished. The six paladins following behind Bishop Lorian were fully equipped, and not one of them showed the slightest sign of having just been dragged out of bed.

At the front walked a tall, broad middle-aged man. His expression was stern. A massive kite shield nearly 1. 6 meters tall was strapped diagonally across his back, while a longsword hung at his waist. Beside him was another paladin with short, light-brown hair. Beneath her armor, the white robes of the clergy were still visible, and a short-handled warhammer hung at her hip. The remaining four followed quietly behind them, backs straight and posture disciplined, without the slightest hint of laziness.

Did these people look like they had traveled through the night and then been dragged out of bed? They were prepared and could leave at any moment. Bishop Lorian stepped to the side and said,"This squad knows the general situation at Rockspring Dungeon. Mr. Gern, I'll leave the route and the finer details to you on the journey." The leading paladin stepped forward.

"You are Mr. Gern, I presume?" His voice was deep and steady. Although his expression remained stern, there was not the slightest trace of arrogance in his tone.

"Bishop Lorian has briefed us on the mission. As long as you can lead us to Rockspring Dungeon, you may leave the rest to us." Gern looked at the enormous kite shield behind the man, almost as tall as he was, and could not help swallowing.

"You only got back last night, right? Are you sure you don't need a little more rest?"

"We have rested enough." The leading paladin answered without the slightest hesitation.

"Rockspring Town remains in danger. There is no reason to delay any longer." The female paladin beside him also gave Gern a small nod.

"The journey will take several days. We'll have opportunities to rest along the way. There's no need for you to worry." Gern opened his mouth, but in the end said nothing. With a squad like this accompanying him back, even if Rockspring Dungeon still had other tricks hidden away, how much trouble could it really cause? The tension that had kept his body rigid all night finally eased somewhat.

"At a normal pace, it takes nearly five days to reach Rockspring Town from here." He tilted his head toward the resting room.

"If all of you are ready, we can leave right now." The leading paladin gave a short nod.

"Lead the way." Gern turned toward Greer and Elias. Greer waved to him.

"Be careful on the road. Don't try to tough it out if something goes wrong. Just make sure everyone gets back safely."

"Don't worry." Gern grinned.

"The next time I come back, I should be bringing good news that we've torn Rockspring Dungeon down." With that, he sincerely thanked Bishop Lorian and the traveling merchant Owen once more before turning toward the church resting room. The six paladins immediately followed. As Gern stepped through the portal inside the resting room, the cool morning air brushed against his face. Gern stood outside the dungeon entrance and looked down the road stretching into the distance, slowly letting out a breath.

Only a few days ago, he had fled Rockspring Dungeon in miserable shape with four young adventurers. Now he was going back with an entire squad of paladins. Gern turned and watched the six paladins emerge from the portal one after another.

"Well then, everyone." He adjusted the pack on his back and broke into a grin.

"Rockspring Town is still waiting for us. Let's go."