Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

On the fourth floor of the dungeons, Rain heard that the skeletons appearing in different sections of the floor possessed unique attributes, each similar to the distinct environments of their respective areas. These variations made it clear that the dungeon was intentionally designed to challenge intruders in a diverse range of settings.

On the hot floors, the adversaries were unlike their counterparts on the other floors. They were imbued with the power of fire, turning them into skeleton mages who could conjure and fire scorching fireballs at intruders.

On the cold floors, a different type of skeleton emerged. These skeleton archers were armed with bows and arrows, but their ammunition was not ordinary. The arrows they fired were imbued with frigid energy, creating a chilling and deadly effect as they struck their targets.

In the ordinary sections of the fourth floor, the skeletons bore shields and swords, but they were made of earth, emphasizing the versatility of the dungeon's design. The earthbound skeletons presented a more balanced and traditional challenge, testing the intruders' combat skills and strategic thinking without the elemental hazards of fire or ice.

"It would be nice if the system had something like elemental resistance, but we can only rely on magic items for this," Rain thought. "Still, it will be good to train the warriors in all kinds of harsh weather."

So far, three squads were enough to clean the dungeons daily, but the numbers of spawned monsters increased daily. On the first week, the dungeons spawned around fifteen hundred skeletons daily, and now, around the sixth week, the number was closer to two thousand already… at the same time, the mana levels in their area were increasing…

Rain was going to the dungeons now and then to help when the squads changed. It was a good change of pace and a chance to gain experience easily, but the skills that he wanted to level up couldn't level up in dungeons.

"I take it that you have given up on exploring the southern ocean at this point," Terra suddenly said when she saw the Seara sleeping on a chair with her eight months pregnancy belly.

"I failed to come up with any real to make sure that things would be fine here," Rain said while rubbing his eyes. "Still, it is fine. The enemies probably won't do any moves until something happens to the dungeon. They might be involved in their next steps as well."

"In that case, we need to talk about something else," Terra said. "Artisia came to me with an interesting idea and I think it might be worth checking."

"... Why do I feel like some crazy idea is approaching my ears?" Rain asked after he raised his left eyebrow.

"It isn't crazy. Do you remember that time when we stopped working together while you were working on the capital?" Terra asked. "That time that you saw us escorting some of the magical people. It is similar to that. Artisia thinks that a bunch of people from the country might not be supporting this conflict and she said that we might get some allies if we help them escape."

"If they haven't been killed until now for not supporting the war, I can easily imagine that the enemies did that in order to let some of their underlings stay in those groups and eventually infiltrate our side," Rain said.

"Well, I considered that myself, I just wondered if you would think that it would be worth the risk helping those who don't want to support those crazy plans," Terra shrugged her shoulders.

Rain stopped to think for a moment, the more allies the better… Besides, Artisia herself would be able to ask questions to those people and see if someone had infiltrated them in order to join his rise and target him, his family or his friends when he drops his guard.

"I guess we can do that…" Rain said after thinking for a short while. "The question is: how much time will we need to do that? Does she have any idea where we can find those guys?"

"Should I call her to explain her guesses?" Terra asked.

"... Sure," Rain said.

At that point in time, Rain was treating all his underlings the same way. Although some of them had been his enemies once and others had been part of the king's blade when they waged war against the magic people, they proved their worth already. Even Artisia was being treated as such, even though talking with her was as unnerving as ever, for different reasons now.

"Yes, master?" Artisia asked.

"Are you picking a fight with me?" Rain asked. "I told you not to call me that."

"My most sincerest apologies," Artisia said while bowing her head deeply and then bending her knee.

"I am not a king either… " Rain said while rubbing his eyes. "Explain what you think about the proposal that you gave Terra."

"Yes, I believe that we would benefit a lot from rescuing those who refused to follow the orders of the new magic council," Artisia said. "Some of us were killed when we sided with Josar, but only because our losses would be minimal. They should know that killing a large group of people indiscriminately would cause issues in the long run.

So, they should have Branded us as traitors in order to justify killing us, and that should have calmed down most of the population. Killing more people might result in a civil war, and after losing ten thousand soldiers in the last conflict, they certainly would try to save their forces."

"I suppose that makes sense," Rain said while rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "What else?"

"Most people still will be in their tribes' locations, but most of them probably will also be close to the capital in order to avoid those night massacres by the unknown enemies," Artisia said. "Freeing those people will be hard, but they should have people that are locked in the capital that can convince some civilians to help us and join our side.

Freeing those prisoners will be the real hard job."