Gacha Kingdom Building

This eventually led us to an abandoned settlement where there were no people around at all. While they had walls set up, due to having no personnel to watch them, monsters had already infiltrated the place.

It was a strange sight...

normally, even Earth's most abandoned settlements will have a few people scattered around looking for easy kills, and from what I could see, other worlds usually have settlements way more developed than Earth's as after centuries or millennia, people eventually settle inside the dungeon and even create their own culture, separate from that of the country they originally came from.

Even calling them settlements at that point is an understatement, they are pretty much cities inside the dungeon, but while rare on the upper floors, they are definitely way more common than a completely abandoned settlement like this one.

In size, it was definitely not among the biggest, but it had a few houses and a hotel. alongside a few stores and even a bar. If not for the destruction the monsters caused, it seemed like a prospering place.

As far as we theorized, there could have been two explanations. Firstly, a factor inside the dungeon caused their downfall. It's possible for example that they ended up being overrun by monsters.

That was a bit unlikely since the monsters around here aren't extraordinarily strong, most having the [Lord] rank, and a settlement of this size shouldn't have any problems dealing with hundreds of those.

This led to the second possibility, that a factor outside of the dungeon was responsible. In this case, it might've been dangerous to take a look through their gate but with everyone's curiosity piqued and Elizabeth being with us, I couldn't find a reason to not take a peek, after all, I was also interested.

Everything became incredibly clear once we stepped foot outside of the dungeon.

Normally, dungeons exist around cities... or well, cities are constructed around dungeons.

Even though it's dangerous, having several people close by and ready to tackle a dungeon to prevent it from rampaging is the safest way to deal with it. And as a dungeon provides a variety of different resources depending on the floor you're on... it just ends up being convenient to be around one if you can guarantee that it won't rampage.

This wasn't the case for this one though... when we left the gate we found ourselves on an open field, south to us there was a forest with gigantic trees that looked like they were trying to defy the sky, in our north and east, two different cities.

With the dungeon gate right in the middle of these three, we saw a war taking place.

The forest itself was attacking the cities, new trees coming forth, trying to change the very scenery while a rain of arrows and magic came from it, whoever was doing that, kept perfectly hidden.

As for the cities, two armies marched against the forest, using a lot of fire magic to push it back.

A sight that seemed to have excited at least one of us.

Claire: "Please?"

Miwen: "We are not going to get involved."

To be fair, even though I wanted nothing to do with it, by the very nature of a battle we ended up involved anyway.

It's not like the arrows shot and the magic fired were going to simply avoid us. In a chaotic place like this, we were as much a target as everything else.

Well, we did have a good way of defending ourselves though... the multi-barrier that Elizabeth was casting.

Miwen: "...How many of those can you keep up?"

Elizabeth: "If I forego casting any other magic... twelve. I don't believe it's necessary to do so though, you saw for yourself how strong each one is, right?"

Yeah... not to mention she can regenerate them and her own body too... I know very well how troublesome this girl can be.

I'm sure am glad to have her on our side though...

Anna: "...Miwen... isn't that guy familiar?"

There was only one discernible figure in the forest, a dumbass who seemed to have broken a perfectly good formation and strategy only to take a look at its results.

Anna: "...That wouldn't happen to be the same elf from last time, right?"

Miwen: "...Right. You know what, Claire? I suddenly had a change of heart."

Claire: "Really?"

Miwen: "Yep, go nuts."

For a while now, I feel like this girl has been itching to burn down something extra big. The kingdom's forest was her primary target, even more so after it was rebuilt thanks to the Merchant and the Demon Queen's showoff.

As such, it's completely acceptable to have her select a less problematic target.

While there was a lot of fire magic being shot at the forest, the moment she finished the longest chant I had ever seen her use, all of the other magic around looked like small matches, their light barely coming close to the sun-like fire ball standing above our heads.

Miwen: "I should've brought the sunglasses..."

As soon as that thing was fired, the grass on the ground caught on fire, and when it hit the forest, instead of exploding, it simply kept going, until it had burned a large chunk.

The forest still stood though, and new trees started sprawling forth with way more speed than before in order to cover all of the elves that got exposed.

Claire: "They are way more resistant than I thought..."

She's also less than half the level she was the last time she burned a forest, but it's clear that the forest itself is also not a normal one. I'm absolutely sure that the attack she just used would have cleared the entire kingdom.

Elizabeth: "That's interesting... I wonder how long they can keep going?"

Claire: "I wanna go again. Recharge!"

...I really like the strategy the elves were going for. It's incredibly smart to use the advantageous terrain this way.

It provides both an immediate threat and a layer of protection. Tiring both mentally and magically the enemies, which should lead to a safe victory, and I'd say it was doing so up to a certain point as these two armies don't seem to belong to the same country due to their different banners and armor, meaning that they were probably in a coalition against the elves.

Really, the only problem with their strategy is that the pyromaniacs could take that as a challenge.

Miwen: "...You have until we finish lunch, after that, we are getting out..."

As if it was the most normal thing to do, I headed inside the kingdom to grab the food we had prepared earlier, and we had a most joyful picnic in the middle of this battlefield while the two kept giving hell to the elves.

I did get a bit jealous when the two armies started cheering them on and using even stronger magic in a senseless competition... perhaps all fire mages are proud idiots.

As we were about to finish with our lunch, Claire and Elizabeth stopped their attacks for a while to join in... which allowed me to play a bit too.

Of course, I focused my efforts on the place where Anna had seen that elf prior.

Noticing what I was doing, Ellie hid her face away in sheer shame.

Miwen: "Recharge!"

Elizabeth: "Yeah... yeah..."

Even though I got the same level of fire magic as Claire, hers was still a lot stronger, but I also got my share of cheers, so I ended up pretty happy.

It would've been better if I had managed to burn that idiot even if a little bit, but seeing as we didn't earn any experience here, it's obvious that we didn't cause any casualty either.

I think the reason for that was Claire's first attack. The elves must've retreated and taken defensive positions after that one.

The biggest indication of that was the amount of magic they were using to attack us. It had diminished quite a lot, so much so that Elizabeth had no trouble protecting us at all when in the beginning she had to keep quite a few barriers up, which didn't allow her to use too much magic to attack.

A bit before Elizabeth and Claire finished, the forest, or the elves inside it, seemed to have reached their limit. Since it wasn't regenerating anymore, there was no fun to be had, so we headed back to the dungeon.

Claire: "Maybe we should come back tomorrow?"

Miwen: "I'll think about it if you help with cleaning today."

Of course, that ended up never happening, but we still decided to make this place our resting spot every single time during our exploration of the ninth floor. It simply provided the best entertainment, and the thought of that idiot getting burned made me and the other girls quite happy.

More importantly, today, we managed to get 3 more levels in the dungeon after our raid ended.