Therina followed Styx's instructions to begin engaging the adventurers in sneak attack along with the dungeon monsters.

The Second Step ranker was a surprise to Styx and was clearly the most dangerous individual. Therina's first task was not to kill him however, but to help the monsters eliminate the weaker party members first and isolate him.

After the first conflict and two deaths, the adventurer party proceeded much more cautiously, exploring the giant maze-like passages one step at a time.

Unwilling to give them peace for too long, Styx had several miners drop in from above on them. It was a targeted ambush while their attention was on the surroundings but not above themselves.

Four miners dropped down at once, one on top of the front Novice Shieldbearer and three on the Healer Initiate. The healer was heavily guarded in the center of the party and this was a tactic which would only work once as they won't be as negligent afterwards.

The miners had very sharp pincers for digging, but the adventurers had tough bodies as well. The healer was more physically vulnerable than the melee classes and the three miners quickly pierced through his body with their pincers, one penetrating through his chest, puncturing a lung and cutting through the wall of his heart.

[

Feradono (Healer Initiate <Lv. 13>) slain by Miner!

+ 59 exp

]

The healer barely had time to cry in pain before life left his body and he dropped to the ground with blood trickling out of his mouth.

The Novice Shieldbearer deflected the pincer as it collided with his bracer. The miner simply couldn't cut through the metal armor.

"Bastards!" The vanguard Apprentice Swordsman cursed and cut in two the three miners who killed the healer, while the shieldbearer crushed the one which attacked him under his shield like squishing a bug.

[

Miner <Lv. 2> slain by Human!

+ 3 exp

Miner <Lv. 2> slain by Human!

+ 3 exp

Miner <Lv. 3> slain by Human!

+ 5 exp

Miner <Lv. 2> slain by Human!

+ 3 exp

]

Human and insect blood intermixed on the bridge as a horde containing the remaining seven forest goblins and two forest assassins charged at the party. There were also three stonerats at the front of the procession to tank any blows, although the Hunter could kill them in one arrow each.

"Defensive formation! Keep an eye above us!" Kalvin the Hunter cried out as he drew his bow with multiple arrows knocked in preparation of using multishot, an archery subskill.

Kalvin launched multiple arrows and then more in quickly succession. The stone rats could take two arrows before dying, and they served as a meatshield to allow the rest of the monsters to reach the party.

The Apprentice Earth Mage was still low levelled and didn't have high level skills yet, so her magic wasn't very potent but it still posed some danger as stone arrows rained down toward the monsters. The Novice Shieldbearer and Apprentice Swordswoman in the vanguard tanked most of the damage, the swordswoman gradually taking damage.

The shieldbearer was the best defender and tanked as much damage as he could, but there were too many projectiles chaotically flying through the air between the two forces. The remaining vanguard swordsman and swordswoman fought hard and were quickly killing the monsters, but the severed some deep wounds and needed to staunch their bleeding or it would quickly endanger them.

[

Stonerat <Lv. 5> slain by Human!

+ 7 exp

Stonerat <Lv. 5> slain by Human!

+ 7 exp

Stonerat <Lv. 6> slain by Human!

+ 9 expForest Goblin <Lv. 2> slain by Human!

+ 3 exp

Forest Goblin <Lv. 2> slain by Human!

+ 3 exp

Forest Goblin <Lv. 2> slain by Human!

+ 3 exp

Forest Goblin <Lv. 2> slain by Human!

+ 3 exp

Forest Assassin <Lv. 7> slain by Human!

+ 13 exp

]

Therina was hidden nearby in preparation of this moment. Styx had dismantled a weak poison gas trap and given her the poison canister from it. She quickly stepped out from her hiding place and threw the canister at the party. Whist it was still in the air, she then flicked her wrist and launch a throwing knife to shatter the container of the poisonous gas.

"It's that elf!"

"Be careful! Poison!"

"Quickly kill her, she must be the dungeon lord!"

Several of the party members shouted upon seeing the beautiful elf woman, but didn't forget about the monsters attacking them.

Kalvin drew his bow into a full moon and aimed at Therina, his mana pouring into the arrowhead under the armor piercer subskill. Therina knew she wouldn't be able to evade it once the Second Step hunter locked her in his sight, Styx had also informed her as such.

She pulled out her manasteel longsword and reinforced it with her mana.

The arrow broke the sound barrier as it punched a large hole through the poison gas where it penetrated. Therina braced her sword with two hands and intercepted the arrow. It sounded like a thunderbolt striking a tree as the arrows left a deep gauge in the reinforced mana steel before successfully being deflected and piercing into the wall in the distance.

Therina also slid back several feet from the blunt force of the arrow and even felt like her arms were fractured. She controlled her mana network to speed up recovery as she charged at the adventurers while trying to prevent the Hunter from having a clear line of sight to fire more arrows.

She could easily expel the weak poison due to her training with her mana network, but the adventurer's didn't have Styx's abnormal ability to help them train in this.

With all their open wounds, the poison gas causes the areas to grow inflamed and discolored as it directly penetrated into their bloodstream, even more from what they breathed in.

The adventurers tried to fall back and avoid the poison gas of course, but Styx controlled all his shroom gnomes and half the remaining miners to adopt human wave tactics and keep them trapped while the treant spirits, the strongest monsters in the dungeon, released a deadly stream of arrows at the party.

The first to fall was the Novice Shieldbearer who was overwhelmed by numbers after using a taunt skill to forcefully attract the monsters' attention onto himself. Then both the remaining frontline defender and two vanguards died under the treant spirits' arrows.

[

Jax (Novice Shieldbearer <Lv. 14>) slain by Treant Spirit!

+ 63 exp

Amarice (Apprentice Swordswoman <Lv. 17>) slain by Forest Assassin!

+ 87 exp

Luther (Apprentice Swordsman <Lv. 11>) slain by Treant Spirit!

+ 42 exp

Erika (Apprentice Swordswoman <Lv. 19>) slain by Treant Spirit!

+ 101 exp

]

The Apprentice Earth Mage was under the protection of the Second Step ranker and remained mostly safe, although Therina did manage to hit her in the stomach with a throwing knife.Styx's monsters also suffered devastating losses, all the shroom gnomes dying and only one forest goblin surviving. The Hunter even killed three of the treant spirits, leaving only two still alive.

Poisoned and seeing how unfavourable the situation was, he quickly decided to retreat. The earth mage was woozy from the poison and could no longer cast magic properly, so he grabbed her by the waist and used a movement skill to quickly travel back toward the entrance.

Styx wanted to release the spear traps on him again, but the Hunter passed through the entrance tunnel in a single burst in which all he saw was a shadow before the adventurer was gone from the dungeon.

"Hahahaha, that was FANTASTIC!" Styx maniacally shouted in everyone's head as he observed the pile of dead bodies and streams of monster and human blood forming trickling trails along the bridge.

Arrows and throwing projectiles littered the ground, even more sticking out of the corpses of humans and monsters alike. The blue tinted flame of the crude lanterns burning mana infused animal fat had become eerie as they caused shadows to flicker and move while also reflecting light off the gloss of the blood.

"Should I go after them?" Therina asked while disregarding all the bodies.

"No, they have already left and to chase after them would be disadvantageous."

"But they know I am here, and assumed I am the dungeon lord. If they report that…"

"Why would they do that? They won't tell anyone, but they certainly want to kill you irregardless."

"Dispicable humans," Therena cursed under her breath in disgust, even breaking the beautiful façade on her face as she spat on one of the nearby corpses. "They will be back with more people."

"I am quite looking forward to it." Styx's voice could only be described as incredibly excited.

"Why are you so excited? This is incredibly dangerous."

Therina couldn't help but worry. She had already lost one home, and this was the place she was saved and didn't want to lose it too. She would die before she allowed the humans to capture or destroy Styx.

"Therina, what do you think the purpose of a dungeon is?"

"To kill humans? To be a training ground?"

"Why is that a question? No, the purpose of a dungeon is to lure in adventurers with dreams of fame and fortune, then to crush those dreams as you squeeze the life out of their corpses."

Therina felt there was something wrong with his explanation, and he seemed a little too heavily invested on this idea of what a dungeon was, but she didn't refute him. She was feeling frustrated and in a vulnerable position, which she hated.

"But they will be back soon, and all the monsters are dead."

"Worry not, we should have at least a week. There are also more elves~"

"They will be more prepared next time! If you are a dungeon, then you should have killed every last one of those vile humans!" Therina's anxiety and anger finally got the better of her as she shouted at Styx. "I can lure more people here, but leaving it up to the enemy to make the next move is disastrous! What will I do if you die!?"

Her emotions were so intense Styx even felt them through the piece of him inside of her.

"Thea… you are not very smart."

This only served to enrage the elf even further, but before she could react, he simply stated.

"Why do you think I would leave the initiative to the invaders?"

"Because… you want them to come attack?"

"You are considering the question from the wrong angle. Let me ask it in a different way… For what reason do you assume I am leaving the initiative to them?"

"Ah! Are you saying that you're not? But how? Are we going to attack them?"

"There are many moves one can make on the chessboard of life. All you have to do is move as your are told."

"Aren't you at least going to tell me what you are planning?"

"No."

Therina felt her anger dissipating into the wind and replaced with exhaustion. Talking with Styx could sometimes be incredibly tiring for her, as his train of thought simply wasn't elvish, human or any other form of reasoning that she could understand most of the time.

~~~~~

The dark elves were currently still hiding in the deeper room where Styx was growing food and mutated plants designed to be able to grow without sunlight. They were afraid when the dungeon was under attack, but at the same time somewhat hopeful.

If Styx was to be captured or killed, Therina would undoubtably be killed as well, and they would be free to this cave system and be able to create their own town in it. They also worried that if he was defeated, the humans would kill or capture them, which was by far the most likely scenario.

Styx was completely oblivious to this train of thought from his new 'minions', but even if he did know, he would not have cared.

"Well, at the end of the day, the weak are eaten by the strong. Therefore, we need to increase our forces again!"

Therina's ears flushed red as she responded, "You seem a little bit too excited about making new monsters."

"Aren't you?"

Therina was caught off guard by his straightforwardness and didn't know how to respond. At the very least, she couldn't completely deny his claim.