Prologue

It happened suddenly on an otherwise-normal spring day. Every dungeon core within Haku’s faction launched challenges to Dungeon Battles. Their target? All the same dungeon: Core 10’s.

“All units, advance,” Haku signaled, and so all the dungeons invaded Core 10’s dungeon at once. Several Cores were assigned to branch dungeons instead, but attacking those would still put a burden on Core 10, which stood to benefit Haku. It would also allow her to prevent him from escaping through Dummy Cores, ensuring she could finish him off for good. Under normal circumstances, she would leave it at weakening him, so one of the Heroes she was raising could land the final blow and grow stronger, but as she was dealing with a First Lot Core, she intended to destroy him herself.

Core 10’s Main Dungeon, which she was invading with the bulk of her forces, was a traditional underground labyrinth. The entrance was disguised as a cave in a small hill of dirt, and advancing a bit farther inside would lead to the cave giving way to smooth stone walls and a cobblestone floor. The monsters that appeared were of various species, but the majority were undead, to reflect Core 10 being an undead-type Core.

“Good grief, what a troublesome opponent,” Haku said, sighing as she looked at her map. To be undead was to be sturdy, in general. And any monsters you sent would be turned against you upon dying. Core 10 was not a First Lot and Top Ranker for nothing—his dungeon was deadly.

Haku, for the purposes of better commanding her entire army, was not in her Master Room; she was camped in front of the entrance to Core 10’s dungeon and was giving orders to each of the Cores under her command. Under normal circumstances, a Dungeon Battle would entail connecting dungeons via portals, but due to the number of invaders, Core 10 was simply being swarmed; the area above had already been conquered and was safe.

Haku checked the front lines via her map while sitting on a one-person sofa.