Chapter 405: 405 - Tamers War - Side Quest

Chapter 405: Chapter 405 – Tamers War – Side Quest

Hagen observed his group as they descended through the natural tunnel that marked the fastest mapped entrance to the abyss depths.

Thirty of Yino’s best soldiers accompanied him on this critical mission, almost all Gold rank, a force that represented nearly 25 percent of the highest-ranking power in the entire kingdom.

It was a massive investment of human resources for Yino, which only had a little over 100 tamers of Gold rank or higher compared to Yano’s 500… but the mission’s importance completely justified it.

Each elite soldier was an invaluable asset that couldn’t be wasted.

Each of these soldiers represented years of training, enormous resource investment, and families who would mourn if they didn’t return. The responsibility was staggering.

But they were strong people, really hard to kill…

‘Who would think they’d leave me in charge of 24 Gold Rank soldiers and 6 Silver 3…? Though now, if I think of them as people impossible to be hurt by Bronze ranks… the numerical difference in high ranks compared to Yano is brutal,’ Hagen reflected while adjusting his equipment straps.

‘The rich get richer and the poor get poorer on that side, eh? Yano has around 10,000 high-level tamers, Silver 3 or higher, against our 5,000 Silver 3 or higher… And in Gold ranks it gets worse, they’re five to one against us. Our city is much more “fair,” eh? Hahaha.’

Even Hagen couldn’t accept that the more “balanced” distribution was fairer when the reasons behind it were what they were…

Yino’s only real advantage lay in the middle ranks, approximately 250,000 Silver 1 soldiers, almost five times more than Yano.

A Silver could already do some damage to a Gold of the same micro-rank, which was why Yino aimed for numbers and military flexibility… Plus those numbers were worth double with abyssal energy.

‘Without abyssal energy we’d be throwing our mid-rank people to the slaughter house by the dozens… Those 200 Gold 2 or higher rank from Yano are monsters.’

Yino only had thirty-something of those…

That’s why the mission to eliminate the “enemy of abyssal energy” was so important and required so many important nobles and high-level soldiers. And for a mission requiring deep infiltration and combat against Gold-level threats, the numerous mid-rank soldiers of Yino would only be food for the beasts.

The irony wasn’t lost on him that they were descending into the abyss to protect the very corruption that had made this descent until that dangerous deep necessary in the first place.

“Sergeant Dax,” Hagen called to the veteran marching beside him, “depth report.”

Dax consulted the measurement crystal he carried on his belt, a device that glowed with soft blue light as it registered the increasing pressure and energy density of their descent.

“We just passed the Silver 1 mark, ‘Leader Hagen’. Silver depth established.” The sergeant gave an exaggerated salute and chuckled.

Hagen nodded, laughing to himself as well. With soldiers and nobles of his same level and some even superior, Hagen was more of a guide than a “military leader” for the squadron.

The dynamic was unusual but necessary. These weren’t subordinates in the traditional sense, they were peers and in some cases superiors who happened to need his expertise for this particular mission.

For soldiers of their ranks, passing Silver depth had been trivial.

The abyssal creatures in those upper layers presented no real threat to Gold tamers, and most of his group hadn’t even needed to activate their beasts to eliminate the beasts that had crossed their path.

“Creatures from the depths don’t vary much between Bronze and Silver depth,” he explained to the few group members who lacked experience in abyssal expeditions. “They’re just evolutions of the same creatures from above… The real dangers begin at Gold.”

As if to demonstrate his point, a group of major deep assassins emerged from a nearby crevice, their segmented shells gleaming with embedded core incrustations collected from previous victims.

The creatures were impressive specimens, each the size of a carriage, with chitinous armor that gleamed with an oily iridescence and multiple sensory appendages that twitched as they analyzed the approaching group.

The soldiers didn’t even bother to summon their beasts. The creatures sniffed them briefly from a distance with their multiple sensitive hairs, recognized the high-level energy that all carried, and retreated ‘peacefully.’ Very quickly…

“It’s when we reach Gold that species have problematic evolutions and variations,” Hagen continued while guiding the group toward a tunnel that descended more steeply. “Evolutions that could slow our procession or even make it dangerous.”

The descent toward Gold 1 confirmed his words. The tunnel walls began showing more complex crystalline formations, the yellow veins of living mineral became orange, and the energy in the air thickened noticeably.

The change was dramatic enough that even the less experienced members of the group could feel it, a pressure in their chests, a heaviness in the air that made each breath slightly more laborious.

But for their elite group, it remained quite manageable.

“Minor contact at two o’clock,” reported Lieutenant Korr, pointing toward a side chamber where something large moved in the shadows.

Hagen studied the creature briefly… a Gold 1 Mana Devourer, approximately the size of a house, with jaws that could crush the group’s best shields and scales. The creature’s bulk was impressive, its hide scarred from countless battles with other deep dwellers.

Dangerous in frontal confrontations, but slow, not a real threat to his group.

“Ignore it,” he ordered. “Maintain close formation and continue.”

The Devourer crawled toward them slowly and watched them pass with calculating intelligence, but didn’t use its abilities, had no urgency to crawl faster, nor made any aggressive movements.

Deep beasts were opportunistic predators, not suicidal. They recognized when they were outnumbered and outpowered.

The creature’s behavior was actually reassuring for many of them; it demonstrated that the ecosystem down here followed logical patterns of risk assessment, even if those patterns operated on scales of power that surface dwellers rarely encountered.

Gold 2 presented the first real problems.

“Halt,” Hagen ordered when they reached a wider chamber, his senses alerting him to something ‘incorrectly familiar’. “Defensive exploration. There’s something here I don’t like.”

The group deployed in semicircular formation, beasts partially manifested in their bodies and ready for combat. Hagen’s experience in the depths had saved countless lives over the years… when he sensed something wrong, it usually was.

The attack came from above.

A Gold 2 Shadow Mimic materialized directly over Soldier Rex, one of the few Silver 3 in the group. Its spectral claws extended toward the soldier’s throat with speed that defied perception.

The creature was horrifying, a writhing mass of darkness that seemed to absorb light, with appendages that shifted between solid and liquid at will. Its very presence made the air colder and the shadows deeper.

“REX!” shouted Sergeant Thorne, but it was too late for direct intervention.

Instinct and training saved Rex’s life. He threw himself aside at the last second, the spectral claws barely scratching his shoulder instead of decapitating him. But the Shadow Mimic was persistent, immediately reorienting for a second attack.

The creature’s adaptability was what made it so dangerous, it could learn from failed attacks and adjust its strategy within seconds.

“These are persistent, let’s kill it together!” Hagen roared, his Abyssal Scorpion manifesting as defensive armor. “Surround it now!”

What followed was a demonstration of why thirty elite soldiers were worth more than hundreds of lower ranks.

A Gold 2 noble launched chains of abyssal energy from his Mineral Vine, temporarily immobilizing the creature. The energy constructs wrapped around the Shadow Mimic like glowing purple rope, each chain pulsing with corrupted power.

Another Gold 1 noble took advantage of the opening for a direct attack with his Spectral Saber, the ethereal claws finding weak points in the creature’s constantly shifting form.

But it was Hagen who provided the decisive blow. His long gorilla arm, combined with his Griffin’s claws, the abyssal energy concentrated the fusion in an even more flexible combination technique, pierced through the Mimic’s carapace with brutal force, destroying the vital internal organs.

The combination of three different abyssal energies created a resonance effect that the creature couldn’t adapt to quickly enough.

The creature collapsed, its limbs moving in spasms as life abandoned it.

“Idiot!” Hagen turned toward Rex, his voice loaded with genuine fury. “I told you defensive exploration, not to stay behind the group enjoying the view! What part of that didn’t you understand?!”

Rex, still trembling from adrenaline from his near-death encounter, stammered an apology.

“Sir, I thought I had identified all threats in the area, I…”

“You thought!” Hagen interrupted him. “In the abyssal depths, thinking gets you killed! You know and act, or you die! There’s no middle ground!”

The harshness of his words was necessary. In this environment, a single moment of overconfidence or complacency could doom the entire expedition.

Sergeant Dax approached, his expression grim.

“Leader, the soldier is young. First deep expedition…”

“Exactly why he should have followed orders to the letter!” Hagen breathed deeply, forcing himself to calm down. “Rex, listen to me well. On the surface, individual initiative is valuable. Down here, it kills you and kills everyone with you. Next time you ignore a safety protocol, I leave you here. Understood?”

“Understood, leader.”

“Good. Collect useful materials from the Mimic and continue. And Rex… you stay near the center of formation until we reach our destination.”

The descent toward Gold 3 was more cautious, each group member now fully aware that even elite soldiers could die if they lowered their guard.

“The energy is changing,” observed Captain Thorne as they descended through a spiral tunnel that seemed to have been carved by something massive. “It feels… more suffocating.”

Hagen nodded. Gold 3 marked the point where the depths transitioned from simply dangerous to genuinely hostile. The creatures here had been exposed to enormous energy concentrations and long lives with intense battles to achieve evolution that had transformed them in very efficient ways.

At this level, all creatures would be of higher rank than any soldier in the group.

The tunnel itself told a story, the walls bore marks of claws and acids, scars from battles between creatures so powerful they could reshape the environment with their conflicts.

“Maximum priority to stealth,” he ordered in a low voice. “From here on, we assume everything we encounter can kill us.”

Hagen had taught them how to advance in sync with the rhythm of the walls, to reduce their mana signature, and to cover themselves with substances that would hide their presence.

They advanced with extreme caution, each step calculated to minimize noise. The crystalline formations on the walls had grown to become complex structures that pulsed with their own orange-golden light, creating patterns of shadows and lights that made visibility difficult.

The formations were beautiful in their own way, like abstract art, but their beauty was as dangerous as it was mesmerizing.

It was Lieutenant Korr who saved them from disaster.

His Spectral Saber, with senses that transcended the physical, detected the massive presence below before any other group member.

“Halt,” Korr whispered, his voice barely audible. “Massive presence. Something… very large.”

Hagen pushed his enhanced senses further, extending his perception forward. What he found made him break out in cold sweat.

A presence radiating Gold 3 power, possibly superior. Something so massive that its mere existence distorted the abyssal energy in the area. And it was directly in their planned route.

‘A Deep Leviathan Worm,’ he identified with growing alarm. ‘Or something worse.’

Like it ? Give it a power stone！

┻━┻ ︵ヽ(`Д´)ﾉ︵ ┻━┻ – It’s free and you help me a lot

Have some idea about my story? Comment it and let me know.

Thank you so much for reading!

(∿°○°)∿ ︵ ︵ ︵ ︵ ︵ ǝʌol