Chapter 564 Lacertilia II
Dungeon Breaks were a constant risk that all Dungeon cities always had, regardless of whether they had just one dungeon or as many as eight like Lacertilia did.
They usually happened when the glorified monster traps that were dungeons temporarily broke down due to excessive energy concentration, most often caused by overcrowding of monsters within them.
But a dungeon city like Lacertilia which had high levels of adventurer traffic hardly experienced this since adventurers ended up culling the monster numbers frequently.
Even so, the possibility was still there, so the city had measures in place to handle them in the event of them occurring.
First off, there were no organizations or buildings that involved normal civilians within a 5-kilometre radius of each dungeon and the main city.
Only permitted Merchants and Adventurer guild staff were allowed within this range, known as the Buffer Zone. There were a few other exceptions but they were not worth mentioning now.
So, in the event of a dungeon break like this, the monsters had quite a distance to cross before they could reach the main city.
That space could also be used by the city's forces to mount their defences to block the monsters who would inevitably sense the cluster of humanoid presences that was the main city and come after them.
Dungeons prevented monsters from being able to go out, and when they finally got the chance through the break, they ravenously attacked anything within their reach.
Stronger monsters could also take control of the weaker mindless ones who were 'high' from the energy surge and launch controlled attacks on the nearest settlements of mankind.
They also tried to break the other dungeons so as to increase their numbers too.
But in the current situation, these didn't happen as this Dungeon Break, having triggered by Artemisia years ago was a bit different from naturally occurring ones.
For starters, Artemisia had used mass thought guidance on the monsters, so their instinct of attacking the nearest dungeons to break them too was completely removed.
She didn't do anything to reduce the numbers though, the number of monsters storming out was just as many as they were in a slightly abnormal Dungeon Break.
If there was any silver lining in her triggering it, then it was that it was gonna be a lot less disastrous than what Kethryllia and Maude were planning on doing.
As the dungeon that broke was one called the 'Lair of the Lizard Lord', then one could only expect reptilian-type monsters from it.
Both land-based and air-type species—and not just Lizardmen.
Didn't change the fact that the lizardmen accounted for more than 60% of the tens of thousands of monsters from the dungeon's 100 floors.
And as these monsters charged out, Lacertilia's adventurers moved to combat them with alacrity.
The city's defence forces took action, the law enforcement agencies began evacuating civilians and other non-combatants to designated shelters.
However, considering the city's 30 million plus population, that was gonna take a while—notwithstanding that they moved with the knowledge that full evacuations were impossible.
The Lair of the Lizard Lord was a dungeon with a Level limit of 500, meaning its strongest monsters were around that level too.
Lacertilia had SS and SSS rank adventurers and combatants on similar levels of strength so they could handle the situation in due time.
A Team of Peak S rankers was even being formed to go to the depths of the dungeon and deal with the boss to end the break too.
So everyone believed that things were going to calm down soon enough.
And that would have been the case.
Unless, of course, the Demonic Hand had something to say about that.
◇ ◇ ◇
"…I beg your fucking pardon?"
Kethryllia could not believe her ears after her subordinate's message came through.
What were the odds that the dungeon that just happened to break was the 'Lair of the Lizard Lord' that the Demonic Hand had planned to use for their plans?
This was something that even shocked Artemisa who triggered the break, as by her calculations, the break was supposed to happen in three days, not now.
The plan was for Evan to already be in Lacertilia by the time it happened, after all.
However, at this time, Evan was still saving the train engineer who had nearly fallen out of the train moving at 250 km/hr.
Anyway, Kethryllia and Maude had initially assumed that it was another dungeon that had broken, but then the Seventh Division Senior Member's bombshell message came in.
The Seventh Finger quickly got up and moved towards the edge of the rooftop café, holding her other palm above her eyes and activating a Farsight spell to zoom into the direction of the dungeon from afar and see the situation.
"Did we have anyone in the dungeon?"
[Yes. About a dozen squads were in there.]
"Fuck…
god damn it, I'm on my way."
Kethryllia cut the connection and took a deep breath to calm herself, but from her furrowed brows, it was obvious her annoyance was still evident.
A quick glance around and she found something to vent on, slamming her fist right into a nearby table and pulverising it to nothing but dust and wood splinters.
She then took another deep breath before calling out to Maude and together they blitzed over to their base—the headquarters of one of the multinational corporations in Lacertilia.
The moment she got up to the floor where only Demonic Hand Members were permitted, the eyes of dozens of Senior Members turned towards her, with a whole lot of them exuding auras at least on the level of A-rank adventurers.
"Where are the transfers from the Sixth Division?"
""Here, Lady Seventh.""
"Contact Seith, and relay the situation. NOW."
She began dishing out orders with that as she walked all the way to her office where her contracted demon was, before turning around and facing those present, her expression darkening by the second.
"Maude?"
"Over Here."
The Ninth Finger walked in, having changed her outfit to something more combat-suited. She and Kethryllia shared a glance and Maude instantly figured out what Kethryllia planned to do.
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