Before I started the conversation with Anne, I called Leah over. Cory had said there was enough mana running through the dungeon for another wave of ants. I had planned to level myself up, but any further attacks from outside would be wasted at this rate.

“Leah, gather up some of the fighters. You’ll be up against a wave of ants, but there won’t be as many this time.”

“How are you managing this?” She looked up at the red crystal, who floated around near the ceiling. “You’ve persuaded a dungeon heart to help you… that should be impossible. Who are you?”

“I’m here to help you. I have a feeling that we’ll need as much strength as we can muster if we want to break out of here. Got fight the first wave, and be careful. We’ll be going through again together later, and the difficulty will scale up a fair bit, so do your best.”

“Sure.” Leah shook her head and turned back to the other former bandits. She was a good second-in-command. She knew the right time to question, and when it was best to back off. I followed Anne into a distant corner and settled down beside her.

“Is Claire awake?” She glanced at the orb on my shoulder.

“Yeah, she is.”

“Good, that makes this easier.” Anne let out a breath before she stared at me. “I don’t know who you are, but if Claire trusts you, I’ll just have to follow along.”

“Thanks.”

“You know we came from the Holy Kingdom, right? Claire was one of the two candidates for the next head of the church. When she decided to leave, I helped her and followed along to keep her safe.”

“Yeah, she told me that, but she didn’t mention about being a candidate.”

‘It’s not important. I gave up that up when I left.’ Claire spoke up. Anne couldn’t hear her, so she carried on regardless.

“I was their guardian, or one of them at least. The church wasn’t ready to give up on Claire entirely, so I persuaded them to let me keep an eye on her.” Anne glanced at the orb on my shoulder. “If you wanted a brief explanation of what happened after that, I’d have to say that I saved her from herself.”

‘I don’t…’

“She’s probably trying to disagree, but it is true. She throws herself forward to help others, and usually gets into sticky situations that would be impossible to escape. I usually managed to get her out of them without directly interfering, but then Clive hit me with that cursed crystal.”

“Oh.” I wanted to say more, but I couldn’t find the words. After so long looking after her ward, she had failed to protect her. It wasn’t like it was her fault, but I knew myself how difficult her situation would be to handle.

I felt the same, especially after Claire had sacrificed herself for me.

“But that’s where the bandit king comes in. At first, I had an agreement with him. He had people watch over Claire when I wasn’t available, and in return, I helped him with a few missions.” Anne grimaced as she looked over to the man in question. “Back then, I had a similar opinion of him to the one you hold now, so I can understand your thoughts.”

The bandit king mumbled in his sleep before he turned over, as though he could feel the fact we were talking about him. Anne ignored that as she continued.

“But after I dealt with him, I saw his other side. Any deals he makes, he keeps. He was taught throughout his life that those with power were to be respected. He believes that, but he also believes they have a responsibility to those below them.”

“Ah.” I nodded. that explained why he had saved me. At that point, he probably saw me as one of his followers. That fact irritated me a little, but I couldn’t hold it against him. “The village leader said something similar, but that doesn’t explain why he didn’t care about the attack on the town.”

“Well, he can be an idiot. Clive has threatened the town in the past, but he never moved against them. He assumed that this was similar and that he would never attack them directly.” Anne took a deep breath. “He wouldn’t do that, so he can’t see why Clive would. What would be the point, as he said.”

“So he thought when we said they had attacked the town, he thought it wasn’t a full-on battle? How can the leader of a bunch of bandits be so naive?”

“Its just how he is. I didn’t tell him before, or we would have never got him to leave before taught Clive a lesson. Clive has more followers than I had imagined behind him, never mind the cult.”

“For an entire year? How could he go so long without finding out?”

“Because of me.” Anne let out a deep breath before she continued. “Before I fell into a coma, I asked him to stay quiet. I thought I would be able to fight off the crystal if I was given enough time…”

“So he stayed in his room… because you asked him to?” Instead of anger, all I could feel was a rising doubt as I stared at Anne. “Really? He stayed silent because you asked him to?”

“Yes. He trusted me when I said I had a plan.” She nodded with a sigh before she glanced at the slumbering man. “I had asked for the Holy Kingdom to send some help, so even if I failed they should have saved me before anything could happen. He thought they were keeping an eye on Clive for me.”

‘She asked them for help… and they didn’t come…’

“My message must have been waylaid on the way, but I need to find out the how and the why of it.” Her eyes burned as she looked back at me. “He trusted me, and I trusted them. Someone failed us... someone failed Claire.”

“OK. I get it.” I pushed myself up and turned to look at the bandit king. He wasn’t a nice man, or an intelligent one, but he was fair. I remembered the look of shock on his face when he heard that the attack had lead to casualties for the town.

Claire had remained silent after Anne’s revelation, so I didn’t try to interrupt her thoughts. As I stood up, Leah returned with the others. Several of them were battered and bruised, but they hadn’t lost a single member. She walked over to me with a grin.

“I levelled up thanks to that.” She held a fist out towards me. “I’ll catch up to you soon, Captain.”

“I doubt it.” I shook my head and bumped my fist against hers. “Get those who have passed their first advancement and bring them to me. I have a present for you.”

Leah turned and shouted at those who had followed her into the dungeon spawn room. Many villagers even stepped forward when she added the advancement test as a stipulation. Whilst these people hadn’t joined the bandits, that didn’t mean they had no combat skills of their own.

In total, they numbered seventy-four.

Forty former bandits, thirty-three villagers, and the villager leader himself. they lined up in front of me in a ragged formation, muttering amongst themselves as they waited for whatever my plan was.

“Break yourselves up into groups. First, split yourselves by your classes; Warriors, Adventurers, Practitioners and Supporters.”

A higher percentage of the villagers were Adventurers, which did make sense. Most people chose that class for its adaptability, along with the lower requirements on equipment. After that came Warriors, then Practitioners. There weren’t any Supporters at all, a fact which I tried to ignore.

Their attributes were split between the first six, though the number of Holy attributed people was on the low side. Most of those with Holy or the Elemental attribute had chosen practitioner, whilst the rest were equally split between the rest of the classes, with only a few using the rarer attributes. Their levels were between ten and twenty-five, with Leah being the highest and the village leader being the lowest.

Strength isn’t the main factor when deciding a leader.

“Right… these numbers are actually perfect.” I grinned to myself as I checked through my inventory. “Here, pick what you need. You’ll have to give them back after we’ve left.”

Before they could ask what I meant, I summoned out the first group of weapons. I grouped them by type as I dropped them in front of the shocked crowd. Most of the weapons were at the beginner rank, whilst a good number sat at intermediate. None of them were advanced, but even I didn’t have a weapon of that rank yet.

“Where… how…” Leah stepped forward an pulled a sword from the pile. Her eyes, as usually, were sharp. She had chosen one of the four intermediate swords I had in my possession. The others were rapiers, and wouldn’t match her style of fighting, but this was a standard short-sword. “Rook, are you sure we can take these?”

“It’s fine.” I waved off her shock. “If we don’t gain strength, we’ll have no chances to escape. These are just a temporary measure to make up for your lacking equipment.”

“If he says we can take them, then it would be rude to refuse. Leah, you take that one.” The village leader stepped past her and picked up a staff. He was one of Holy attribute practitioners. Even though his level was only at twelve, his class and attribute combination made him vital to my plans.

Leah frowned for a moment before she waved the others forward. the bandits took their share first, followed by the villagers. the intermediate weapons were shared between the more skilled members, whilst the rest were armed with beginner weaponry.

Despite the disappointing name, the rank was actually not too bad. Most used basic weapons, and most of those weapons were on the low end of even that spectrum. After the group had armed themselves, I moved onto the armour.

Luckily, I still hadn’t broken down the basic armour. Most of them had to use a collection of mostly basic pieces with the occasional basic rank to make up the set. I only had one intermediate piece, which was a plate mail chestplate which I gave to Leah directly. She tried to refuse, but the others forced her into accepting it.

“Does anyone have the taunt ability?” I glanced over my troops, but my query was met with stony silence. Leah broke it after several seconds with an awkward cough.

“Captain, taunt is an extremely rare ability. Only the most skilled Warriors can control their mana enough to attract monsters to them.”

“Oh.” I gave Claire a glance. She had lost her Warrior skills at the moment of her death, but hearing about how difficult it was to use the Taunt ability left me speechless. She must have worked herself to the bone to acquire and master it.

And I bet she did it because she wanted to ‘protect’ people. She really does go too far sometimes…

Now that my ragtag force had been armed and armoured, the next step of my plan could take place. Cory confirmed that the barrage on the entrance had continued, so there was enough for another spawn wave. The dungeon used to have a capacity of twenty-five, but it would be able to manage a group of seventy-five at a push.

Basically, the capacity was enough for the three fights, with a pool on the side for emergencies. If we utilised it correctly, we could have one spawn room fight with seventy-five of us.

The only issue was that the number of spawned enemies would escalate to an insane degree, but that was fine. We had a good number of Practitioners, and I still had a few tricks in reserve.

Before we moved through into the spawn room, I confirmed a few things with Cory. The spawn rooms would reset after each fight, so making a trap-room to farm experience wasn’t possible. The enemies would always spawn at the far side of the room, and it was impossible to pass by the half-way point or launch any ranged attacks until at least the first wave had spawned.

This wasn’t a rule for my dungeon, but a rule for all dungeons. I knew that this world was virtual, but such attention to detail annoyed me. If those above really wanted the people here to grow strong, why did they cut off easy routes?

But I had a plan. My multiple battles with the ants had prepared me for this fight, more so than any other enemy. After explaining my plan to the collected people, we practised a few formations before we moved into the spawn room.

After the last person had entered, the door closed behind us. My mana had recovered to full, and I had planned out my ability usage in advance. I could use my buffs for double their cost on a group, but the upper limit for that was well defined. Every additional person it affected over the cap of twenty would rob me of another few points of mana.

So I split the groups up in my mind like a proper raid leader. Warriors, twenty-nine. Adventurers, twenty-seven. Practitioners, eighteen. Supporters… One.

If I didn’t use the buffs on myself, that would lower the cost significantly. the only issue was that their collective critical chance would be so low that any increases I gave to it wouldn’t make much difference. Strengthen wouldn’t do much to help the Practitioners… The benefits would never meet up to the cost.

‘Most Supporters don’t have this many buffs.’ Claire spoke as I considered my options, as though she wanted to distract herself from what she had just heard. ‘Just focus on yourself, and you’ll do fine.’

Cory had said she would be allowed in as long as she didn’t help in the fight. Anne had stayed behind with the others, along with the bandit king. They had both passed level twenty-five, so they wouldn’t gain anything from this fight even if they could join.

A huge curtain of light covered the far end of the room. The forces under my command shifted uncomfortably, but they stopped as I stepped out in front of the group.

“This is a battle to prove ourselves! If we can’t fight a bunch of ants, how can we even think about fighting our way out of here!” I drew my staff and pointed at the summoned creatures who were still appearing. “Warriors, front and centre. Adventurers, by their sides. Practitioners, ready!”

My plan is pretty good, but it all depends on Leah. If she doesn’t keep them under control whilst I do my part, this will all fall apart. I glanced at my second-in-command, who gave me a grim smile. She knew the weakness of the plan as well as I did.

But if we didn’t do this, we’d never leave. This setup would never happen again, so we couldn’t throw away such a perfect time to gain experience.

“Hold!” I yelled out my command… and ran towards the ants.