Pov Pixie Leader

  My spell preparations crumbled around me—there was no saving it now. But I just couldn’t take my eyes off that core, which was starting to shine ever brighter. “That clever little bastard…”

  It was not going to take everything from me. I’ve worked for 4,000 years on this plan, modifying the original one made by my forebearers so long ago. Yet this singular individual, this singular mockery of life, thinks that it will be allowed to destroy everything my species has worked for over millennia.

  “Change of plans. I cannot wait so long that I would be certain I could get into the same room as the core. Gather all our strongest—we will just have to fight our way to the core, then.”

  Immediately, my advisors and my honor guard moved. Some stayed behind. I liked and hated it, but I needed someone to challenge my views. At least that’s what this dungeon has taught me, and I thank it for that—but it doesn’t change the fact that it needs to die.

  “Your Highness, is this a wise move? Our absence will be noted by the other great powers, and I’m afraid they will not like this.”

  It was true, but what could we do? These defenses are too well-built. And how does it have so many creatures? It has too many secrets. The lower ranks of us are really incompetent—how did they not see all of this? Well, at least their stupidity is useful. It allows us to get away with a lot of things.

  “Tell them we are launching a strike attack that will cost us greatly. Tell them that they should still aim for the entrance but not push themselves too hard. That should appease them.”

  Yet something about that felt wrong.

  “No, tell them we are launching a strike attack at the heart of the dungeon. If it costs us dearly—which is true, because this dungeon has way too much of everything—tell them they need to draw out as much of the dungeon’s forces as possible. It would make it so that we face less resistance, and it would mean they would lose more.”

  This should put us in a better position. Minutes, then hours, ticked by, and finally, a little over 2,000 diamond ranks were around me, packed in as tight as possible. Most of us Pixies were not in our original form, as the mass loss due to our small size didn’t correlate well with fighting capability. The shape-changing rings allowed them to be whatever they wanted when they reached diamond rank, and there were some truly weird body shapes, but most were still the standard humanoid shape.

  I do not know exactly what skill this dungeon has that allows it to keep such control over its territory, but I am strong enough that when it sleeps during a breakthrough, I can get through it. My original plan was to work on the spell until it was so refined that I could actually teleport to the core, but I wasn’t certain I could do it in two weeks, and right now, I can’t take that chance.

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  The way it was able to change its core room into a floor was a magnificent defensive tool, and no matter how much I hated it for ruining my plans, I had to respect all that it had done. A magnificent existence—unfortunately, like many before it, it must die for us to achieve the grand plan.

  That the spell is innate to us, given by one of the dungeon’s wishes. It was a small add-on, barely worth mentioning, but it has changed us from being a slave race to a dominant race, and with the next wish, everyone would be below us forever.

  Pulling on the innate spell all Pixies possessed, I activated many skills and powered the spell with my own soul, changing some of its parameters. Unfortunately, I couldn’t bring all of us, and even now, some of us were protecting us from the long-range attacks those monsters and creatures were still launching against us. I wonder if they knew what I was doing. If they did, we would have a more difficult fight, but without the dungeon being conscious, we shouldn’t be facing hordes of monsters.

  It took me an hour of painstaking spell crafting, but finally, I triggered it. Our scenery changed—an entrance room barely big enough to contain us now surrounded us.

  “Everyone, give it your all! We need to get to the core as fast as possible!”

  Everyone moved immediately. Teams rushed into the entrance of the core floor, and while we didn't know much about it, we did know some things.

  "Half of the honor guard will start rotating, using their beam spells. I want us cutting through this dungeon as fast as possible, and all of you know your target—it’s literally shining right in front of us!"

  It didn't take us long to understand that there were monster spawners here, so the fighting would be constant. Fortunately, they were only platinum rank, although eventually, they would start to tire my forces.

  We were constantly getting information about what was happening in the outside world, thanks to a few specialized communication individuals. Not even this dungeon’s methods of blocking signals worked against them. That's why twins have always fascinated me—if they work together, they can accomplish things no one thought possible.

  One of my advisors came close and whispered to me, "We have lost contact with another one of the pursuers."

  He immediately left afterward, knowing that I wouldn’t want to see him even if he wasn’t at fault.

  Another failure. It couldn't be this dungeon. At first, they just burned those containers with that terrible weapon, but now, all of a sudden, our pursuers just go missing. It makes no sense.

  We need that container—it’s perfect. The one thing we were missing to enact the grand plan in a way that wouldn’t force us to kill half of our own population. And if we did that, we would probably need to kill another half, and it would be a terrible setback. No, we needed that, and we needed it yesterday.

  I had stayed in the same location, waiting for everyone else to advance, looking like a proper leader. Another lie, but I had gotten used to lying long ago so that I could take my species to new heights.

  The truth was, this spell took way more out of me than I expected. It was going to take longer for me to recover than I wanted, but hopefully, we would be far enough in by then that I could finish this fight.

  We were taking longer than I liked. Those damned creatures of this dungeon were damn terrifying. But we were already in the labyrinth and cutting through it fast enough that I was certain we were going to make it to the core. Then, like always, someone had to ruin everything.

  “Your Highness, we’re getting reports that the Beasts are attacking our main dungeon. They also seem to have pulled back from attacking this dungeon. They have betrayed us all!”

  My leg started to shake a bit. “Those damn dogs just don’t know how to take orders.”

  In my mind, I went through every possibility, every force at our disposal, but we just couldn’t stop them—not right now. Those dungeons, especially that one, were going to be our lifeboat. They were going to help bring life back to this planet after that undead plague turned everyone, and we could finally use that spell to cleanse the entire surface and start over. Building all the races and animals to our liking so that we would always be their masters. It would be built into their very being, but they just had to continue to struggle.

  “We will deal with them later. Everything can be rebuilt. Their dungeons can be taken over. We need to finish this dungeon now. We need it dead, and we need the pieces of that core. Be ready to collect every single seed—this dungeon’s knowledge is too dangerous to get out.”

  None of them will stop the grand plan. We will be the ones at the very top, and we will stay that way forever, never again will we be slaves.