Chapter 212: A Dumb Plan That Worked
The panic that hit Adrian’s chest when he heard those words, was suffocating.
He instantly threw himself backward into his dungeon portal. The moment he was inside, he thought back to Aria’s previous location.
He teleported straight to her.
He materialized on a thick branch right next to her. He didn’t say a word. He just grabbed her by the shoulder and hauled her backward through the open portal.
And he did it right on time. Not a second too soon, not a second too late.
Because the exact second they disappeared, the muddy ground below that tree exploded. Massive, razor sharp stone pillars shot out of the dirt violently. They converged instantly on the exact spot where Aria had just been standing.
But luckily, Adrian had successfully pulled her into the safety of his dungeon room.
The portal closed behind them, and Adrian just stood there breathing heavily. He slowly turned his head and stared down at his daughter.
Aria looked back up at him. And for the first time in a very long time, the cold, calculative genius looked genuinely guilty.
"I am sorry Papa." Aria said softly. "I just got scared. I got really scared when you left."
Adrian heard her sweet, trembling voice. But the burning anger inside his chest did not dissipate at all. He did not buy the cute act right now. She had completely ignored his orders and nearly gotten herself killed.
So he didn’t say a word. He just turned around and stared at the plain looking stone wall.
Aria stood frozen in the middle of the room. The silence was suffocating to her.
She actually wanted him to yell. She wanted him to turn around and scream at her for being an idiot.
Because getting scolded meant things were normal. It meant he still cared.
But he just kept his back turned to her.
Aria felt a massive lump form in her throat and after a few seconds, her small hands began to shake slightly.
’He hates me now.’ Aria thought, panicking completely. ’He actually hates me now. I pushed it too far... I ruined it. Everything was going well and I messed it all up...’
Her chest squeezed. She stared at his back, praying and hoping that he would just turn around and look at her.
But he kept pacing across the room, immersed in his own thoughts.
Adrian wasn’t doing this just to punish her, though. He was simply racking his brain trying to figure a way out of this current mess.
’I cannot fight them head on.’ Adrian thought quickly. ’Their magic is way too strong and they easily counter everything that I’ve prepared. So the only way to deal some damage to them is to get that elf first.’
He kept pacing.
’No.’ Adrian corrected himself. ’I cannot beat the high elves, but I should at least be able to stop this entire monster wave problem. I will be hitting two birds with one stone if I just take over this dungeon.’
Taking over the dungeon core meant all the monsters outside would instantly fall under his direct control. It would end the siege on the wall immediately.
But there was one massive issue with this plan.
He did not actually know the location of the hidden dungeon entrance.
’I need to take it over.’ Adrian thought. ’But I have no idea where the dungeon is hidden. If I take it under my control, I can just stop the elf. As for the high elf and the human, I don’t really know how they got here, but doing this will at least stop all of the issues that Draven is dealing with. I can just command the monsters to stop, retreat after that, join up with the others, and then plan how to deal with the other three safely. Two if Sigrid has taken care of that werewolf guy.’
He stopped pacing since he had finally formulated a plan.
He opened a portal and teleported back outside into the rain.
But this time, he teleported just a few meters away from where the high elves and the elf girl were standing.
He instantly caught their attention.
"Come fight me, you ugly son of a bitch!" Adrian yelled loudly.
Then he immediately turned around and started running away through the trees. He purposely acted like he was in a rush, looking around and acting like there was a hidden ally running alongside him.
"Find the dungeon no matter what!" He shouted it at the top of his lungs as he looked towards the trees beside him.
He made sure he sounded exactly like a guy barking a frantic order to a scout standing right beside him.
The high elves and the short elf girl heard every single word clearly.
The short elf girl stopped. She looked up at the tall high elves and hesitated for a second.
"You two follow me back to the dungeon." the elf girl snapped.
She spun around and sprinted in the opposite direction in. The two high elves just shared a look before chasing after her.
Adrian kept running through the trees, but he watched them leave through the corner of his eyes. And it made him frown.
’Wait.’ Adrian thought to himself in confusion. ’Why is she taking both of them with her? Shouldn’t she be at least leaving one of the high elves behind to follow me around and try to kill me? Why is she taking both of them to guard the entrance?’
He ran for a little while longer just to be safe. But once he saw that they really were not following him, he stopped running.
He opened a portal and stepped back into his dungeon.
Once he was back inside the dungeon room, he used the system screen to track their movements. He just followed them around with his invisible "camera" which they couldn’t sense at all.
While he watched them run through the forest, he glanced at his system screen.
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