Even the warning Bella let out in a loud voice was not enough to wake up Mathias.
He was sleeping soundly, recuperating from the stress of the last few days, and oblivious to whatever was going on.
However, even Nial who had heard her could not understand how this could happen.
For a second he thought it was a cruel joke or he was probably hallucinating. But the shock and fear on Bella's face told him that it was anything but a nightmare.
In a smooth move, the Control of the Ancient Monarch manual disappeared in his spatial ring, while Nial shot up from the bed.
In a second, he appeared in front of Bella, and handed her the spatial ring she had given him not too long ago.
As if they had decided it already, Bella accepted the ring with one hand and returned the runic armaments that the Old Medic took with her while leaving.
Without bothering about the runic armaments, Nial put them on and went straight to the crucial point.
"Calm down, and tell me what exactly is going on!"
Like them, Bella was extremely tired due to the pressure and strain of the last few days, only for another incident to happen, keeping her fully awake.
Thus, it must be something very important.
"To put it simply, the meeting took way longer than expected because they tried messaging the Guardians.
There was no response from them, which led to the assumption of their presumed death.
Only shortly after the radar that is configured to perceive the fluctuations of dungeons went haywire, it showed that more than 50 dungeons on the nameless island were about to break out!
And that only includes the dungeon portals in the radar's range!
Miranda, or whatever her name is, came over in the middle of the meeting saying that she will take care of the dungeon breakouts and the stronger beasts.
When she said that, everyone was astonished but also visibly relieved because everyone was already discussing whether they should weaken the defenses of the military camp to save the other participants.
Either way, the old woman left, leaving behind the runic armaments, telling me to return them to you, and to ask you to survive.
It looks like she sensed that something was going on, but that's enough of this topic…
We have to act quickly!! After the old woman left, the radar went still for a short time, only to act up again a few minutes ago… more than 30 dungeons in the deeper parts of the cave are breaking out!!"
While trying to keep his calm, Nial could barely prevent his expression from turning into a hideous grimace.
A dungeon breakout was always considered to be dangerous.
However, there was a big difference between a dungeon breakout for temporary and permanent dungeons.
While temporary dungeon portals would close once every single beast within had been released to the outside, permanent dungeon portals wouldn't close and would allow more and more beasts to emerge from the dungeon.
And they would stay wide open until the boss of the respective dungeons had been killed, sealing the dungeon portal once again.
"How strong are the dungeon portals? Will the military be enough to take care of everything?"
Nial knew that the news about the death of all Guardians was extremely worrisome.
But given the current situation, the dungeon breakout of 30 dungeons in the deeper parts of the cave was more important.
All the traces of sleep had been wiped away from his eyes and now Nial's mind was rattling with the possible outcomes of this devastating occurrence.
Yet, the moment he saw that Bella shook her head, Nial was unable to prevent the hideous grimace from appearing on his face again.
"Junades said that three dungeon portals belong to a unique type of dungeon each that never broke out before.
They're permanent ones but the dungeon bosses within them have only been defeated a few times…and always by one of the strongest listed Originals of mankind.
And…the old woman is not there right now…so the higher authorities of the military will have to focus on killing the dungeon bosses of the three unique permanent dungeons, otherwise, the newly spawning monsters will destroy the military base within moments!"
Nial's frown would have deepened if that would have been possible.
Right now he was simply glad that his body had been healed by the Old Medic.
This gave him, at the least, the opportunity to try fighting.
"Have we been told to run away, or to fight?" He thus simply asked while trying to figure out what the Military wanted from them.
Just when Nial asked this, Mathias woke up.
He yawned and stretched his body in the bed as if he was a cat.
"What is going on?"
Mathias' voice was sleepy and tired. He was still not fully awake and was just rubbing his eyes while stifling another yawn.
As such, only when Bella gave him a brief report about the current situation did he shoot up from the bed, fear clearly visible in his eyes.
Yet, before Mathias could suggest that they should flee, Bella decided to answer Nial's question.
"We have been given our first mission… In the current situation, leaving the camp is too dangerous. Nobody can tell what dangers await us on the nameless island right now.
As such, our first mission is both to survive and to fight!"
Under normal circumstances, such a mission would sound too risky, but Nial could only nod his head.
He knew that the situation that unfolded in front of them was everything but normal.
Nobody could reassure their safety right now which meant that they were on their own.
Perceiving the bitter truth of mankind's state, Nial bit his lower lip, while continuing to listen to Bella's next words.
"The cave branches out into several cavern halls, and tunnels.
Because we are one of the first Originals, we've been told to join a few younger Soldiers to enter the cavern halls where Rookie ranked dungeons have manifested."
Apparently, the allocation of caves had been done in accordance to the rank of the Originals.
This was quite interesting under normal circumstances, as dungeon portals couldn't be moved.
In the end, this meant that the dungeon portals in the caves must have materialized in a specific order, allowing mankind to classify the dungeon portals according to the rank of Originals and send them to fight, to begin with.
Nial would have loved to get to know more about this…but now was not the time to do it.
Right now, he was only glad that they wouldn't have to face more Prym-ranked beasts, or worse, even stronger beasts.
After all, they would be torn apart in an instant without even being able to retaliate.
"And how many Rookie rank dungeons are undergoing a breakout right now?" Nial thus asked calmly.
Even if the situation was shocking, his mind was relatively calm and almost unbothered.
However, Nial knew that this was owing to the Odyssey seed, and the influence the seed had on his emotions.
As such, it bothered him that he was not feeling much in the given situation.
This was something that Bella sensed faintly. She understood that something other than the extremely high dangers in their immediate surroundings bothered him immensely.
Nevertheless, she had no time to bother about the things that annoyed Nial, hence she quickly revealed the information she knew.
"As I already said, three permanent dungeons have powerful bosses that cannot be easily defeated. However the ordinary beasts within have been killed, and they won't spawn for a short period of time. Other than that, there are slightly more than 20 dungeons in the range of the Rookie rank that will or have already broken out!
The rest are the dungeons inhabiting beasts on par with or stronger than the Lesser Titan youngling!"
The information shocked Mathias tremendously as he visualized being forced to fight against the beast tide of tens of thousand beasts that were bound to emerge from 20 Rookie ranked dungeons!
His expression paled, and he didn't even want to leave the barracks anymore.
He imagined himself hiding somewhere and praying to just any kind of God who would provide a better chance of survival.
Yet, when he looked at Bella and Nial, he couldn't help but feel a bit bothered.
Bella's face was drained of all color, but her expression was firm, giving him the impression that she was ready to fight.
On the other hand, Nial's hideous grimace had disappeared, revealing a calm young man, whose corners of his lips curled upwards.
"That's great!" Nial suddenly blurted out, astonishing both Bella, who was fully awake, as well as Mathias, whose tiredness was almost fully washed away.
"How the hell is this great, Nial?! Are you still asleep?" Mathias shouted out in a panicked voice.
Mathias just wanted to run away, leave everything behind, and ignore the fact that he came to the Teradan military camp to overcome the trauma of his past life, to become stronger, and live a life he could be proud of.
Even if he was still tired, it was obvious that 20 dungeon breakouts were more than what their small team of three, and a few younger soldiers could handle.
As such, Mathias felt like shouting even more at his friend, saying that he was insane, and possibly even curse at him.
But Nial's unruffled body language and calm expressions in face of the dangers they would have to face in a short while prevented Mathias from saying anything.
"Well, with more than 20 dungeon breakouts for Rookie ranked dungeons, the remaining dungeon breakouts will be of higher-ranked dungeons.
Isn't it obvious that it's better for us if more low-ranked dungeons break out than higher-ranked ones?"
Nial expected that both Bella and Mathias would understand the reason behind his subtle smile.
After all, it was much better to face tens of thousand weak beasts rather than being stampeded by the same number of powerful beasts.
Even a single powerful beast in the possession of a single Origin ring would be strong enough to kill them as long as Nial didn't make use of the Odyssey seed's dark energy currents!
And the Odyssey seed was something Nial wanted to avoid making use of, right now, by all means.
He feared losing control over his own body, and he would seek its help only if there was no other way of rescuing him.
That was under the condition that he could freely control the Odyssey seed.
But that was, unfortunately, not the case, at all.
Thus, instead of being bothered about the possibilities of facing tens of thousands of beasts ranging from the 1st to the 10th Origin rank, Nial had other problems.
Neither of them had the faintest idea of just how dangerous the following hours were bound to become.
Yet, even before any of them was able to prepare themselves for anything, Captain Clara emerged in the doorframe of the still open door.
"Is everyone ready? We have to set out now, otherwise, Lieutenant Junades and the others won't be able to leave the first defensive line to tackle the Giganodes!"
Nial's body shook the moment he heard the word 'Giganodes.'
A distant memory flashed through his mind, and it was as if the Odyssey seed was trying to speak to him once again.
However, Nial actively ignored it, and set his focus on the situation ahead.
Little did he know that the Odyssey seed was not trying to take charge over his mind and body right now.
Instead, it wanted to give him a warning about the things that occurred on the nameless island, and the entire planet.
After all, the Odyssey seed was fully aware of what kind of existence the Giganodes served!
**
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