Chapter 186 - 185

[Quest Complete 80/80 Elves Rescued] quest resets at 00:00.

It's a Daily Quest? No wonder the ones trying to rescue their kin from the dungeons when they first formed gave up. Cain hasn't even heard of repeatable quests in this world. 

[Quest Reward Calculating] 

[Item Obtained: Royal Guard Cloak] hooded cloak with the insignia of the Royal Guard. Decreases chance of detection by 30 percent. 

Not bad, for someone trying to blend into a crowd. Cain doesn't do it often, but the cloak might still come in very handy. In fact, he could have used it today. 

The rescued Elves are waving a cheerful goodbye to him as he heads for the exit, and Cain briefly wonders what might happen if he brought some out. The Spider Princess Aramia they were awarded from a Quest left successfully, though to others who didn't do the Quest, the dungeon is unchanged. Most likely, they would reset at the end of the day like the Ogres attacking Sunnybrook did. 

No harm in trying though. 

"Tell them we know of a safer location, and see if they will follow us." Cain tells Nila, who repeats his message in Elvish. 

The group thinks it over a while, then decides to come with him, following the Companions through the Exit before Cain leaves, closing the dungeon instance, having carefully counted that all 80 Elves left. 

"If you go straight north for about 2 days on foot, you will reach the ocean from here." Cain informs them, relayed by Nila in Elvish. They don't speak any common, so maybe the concept of mixed species cities only began after the war, and wasn't something interrupted by the war. 

They thank him profusely, then head out, wanting to get some distance in before it gets too dark. In the dungeon it was a new moon night, hard to navigate in even with their superior night sight. 

Thinking of mixed species cities though, he should have someone deal with that Incubus he tied up in the beach house. A quick message to Arial informs the Dragons of the situation, and Cain decides to leave the rest to the officials. 

"Hey, the dungeon changed." Laura points out, looking at the collection of portals. 

She's right, the green one is no longer green, instead it looks like a regular dungeon portal. 

"Let's do that again, see what happens." Vala suggests, and Cain thinks it over for a moment. He can't see any harm in it, it will just start a new instance anyhow. 

They enter cautiously, unsure what to expect. 

[Daily Quest: Rescue the Elves] 80/80 surviving. 

Everything seems identical to the last time they were here, but the Quest reset early. Possibly because of the change in the dungeon? 

"Head to the same locations again. The ambush worked well, but let me know if things have changed." Cain says. 

He has kept only one Oath Breaker merged for now and the others all blink out before rapidly reappearing.

"It has changed. The Elves are no longer building a defensive positron, instead they're spread through the area, captured by humans. The army is no longer one long column, but has spread into groups to capture the Elves."

Well that's unexpected. Dungeons change between instances, but never before had Cain seen the general design change. It's like this is a different scenario entirely. 

"Change of plans. Split into groups. Companion twins take a Kone Clone and an Oath Breaker with you and go rescue Elves. I'll take the extra with me and hunt any larger groups of forces." Cain decides, having everyone spread out with a large group of Snapping Turtle Kin plus their Bonded Forces and the Oath Breaker. 

The Demon can safely grab the Elves, then teleport away a short distance to safety. The combined force should be enough to deal with whatever they find. 

"Large group ahead boss." An Oath Breaker informs him, indicating a Lamia that is pointing in a specific direction. 

"Excellent. Tell me if anything else is strange in here."

They're not exactly stealthy, but the army forces haven't even sent out scouts. Cain stops his group just behind a wind blown ridge line, shocked at their ineptitude. 

"We've captured the Elven forces Milord. Give the soldiers three days to break them and they'll be perfect slaves for the market." A nasal voice gloats.

No wonder they're not on Guard they think they've already won. Cain signals his forces forward, activating Cloud Dancing to leap high into the air, impaling the Commander with his spear from the collarbone to the thigh and pinning him to the ground. 

Spear temporarily stuck, Cain grabs another Scimitar from the Guild Bank, a random one that Dimnys created, and gets to work on the surrounding officers, who are all still in shock at the brutal death of their leader. The Oath Breaker uses his multiple arms to dismember the advisor in a bloody shower, breaking the remaining officers from their stupor and causing a round of horrified shrieks to sound through the camp. 

But the summons are already on them, the Lamia sneaking close through the sand without being noticed, and the Wrath Bringers charging silently into sight. Cain thinks it might be fun to mess with the slave traders, but there's hardly time. They're falling much too quickly to plan anything, caught off guard when they thought there was nothing to be afraid of. 

A horn sounds from a number of other locations and Cain can see the last of the officers have lost all hope, simply dropping their weapons and waiting to die. 

"That horn signal, I know it. It's the signal for an attack by a Beast clan army. The final tone indicates company sized, and the horns came from four different directions." The Oath Breaker merged with Cain informs him. 

So all the others have engaged then. 

"Oath Breakers, grab as many Elves as you can and bring them back here. I've got the largest force still, so they should be safe with us. We'll see how many we can recover before they start killing the hostages to prevent them from being taken." Though they might not kill them. Depending on the reputation of the Beasts they might leave them to suffer. 

The Oath Breakers disappear on their new mission and Cain moves out to look for more groups to take down. It's not a hard task, many are already headed their way, not realizing the fight is over and their Commanders are dead. 

"Forces, large circle formation, make ourselves as big of a target as we can. It will draw more enemies in and give us somewhere safe to put the hostages in the middle." Cain instructs his summons, causing the Wrath Bringers and the Snapping Turtles that are with him to spread out. 

They're still not drawing enough attention though. Something bigger is needed, so Cain swaps the Wrath Bringers for Epic Granite Elementals. Standing nearly ten meters tall, there is absolutely zero chance that the forces of the human army can miss these things.

There might not be a many of them as the Wrath Bringers, since they're not demons that Cain can triple the numbers of, but with the new skill to double the base number, he's still got a very respectable 16 gigantic Granite Elementals, that seem to be taking zero damage from the soldiers attacking them. 

This is way too good to keep to himself.

"Granite Elementals, find a group of humans to yourself and go stomp all over them." 

They seem almost happy with the order, their sweeping fist attacks becoming stomping strides that shake the ground, like kids jumping in a mud puddle. The humans are distinctly less impressed than he is though, and are rallying a force to attack him. 

"We've found the Beast Army Commander. Elite forces to me." Someone is shouting, and the humans are gathering into a cohesive force again. 

Cain orders his troops forward, Turtles first and then Lamia, who can easily be mistaken for a number of snake type Beastkin species instead of demons. The rest surround him in a loose circle, making it look like he needs protection from enemy attack. The more obvious of a target he is, the better. 

The Oath Breakers have taken his earlier command literally, and have brought a majority of the Elves to the location Cain's army was in earlier. For their part, the hostages look confused and terrified, as Cain forgot to mention untying them, so they're all still in chains, and attached to various posts and racks.

Nemu has almost finished with her group though, and is very close, so Cain instructs her to go protect them when she's finished, knowing the Felian has at least a bit more sympathy in her than the demons. 

The assembled remains of the human forces have charged Cain's summons now, locking them into close combat, under the assumption that they've got the upper hand.

One strange thing Cain has noticed about this instance is that everything in the instance is the same level. Himself, his summons, every human, every Elf. The system has set the difficulty to match his group, as it does in some other scaling dungeons. 

He's not sure how low or high it will scale, but he now knows that level 147 is a possibility, as he's leveled up again. The quest completion after the last instance gave a rather significant amount of experience. 

The Granite Elementals have become a beacon to the forces of Cain's Companions, the troops moving in quickly, overwhelming and slaughtering the forces locked down by the nearly indestructible stone monsters. Then the Golems look for another group and the Companion led forces move to another Granite Elemental. 

"All 80 Elves are here now Master." Cain hears Nemu in his head.

"Good, stay there and help them, keep them safe. Everyone else, wipe out the remaining targets."

It's a one sided slaughter, but that's the way Cain likes his dungeons. 

[Quest Complete: Reward Processing] 

[Bonus Experience Exceeds Maximum Due to Skill] 

[Quest Reward Received] 

[Book of Eternal Solace Denied] Puppet Master Exclusive. Return one target to life within ten minutes of their Death. Target becomes a loyal [Supporter] until released by the Puppet Master. Maximum 1 Active Target. 

That's either awesome, or incredibly cruel. Entirely depending on how upset they are about becoming a Summoned Being bound to the one who killed them. 

Though technically, Cain could use that to make a fallen friend into an extra Summon too, couldn't he? The description just says target.. Hopefully he doesn't have to find out.