Level 90 was the most normal yet weirdest thing Damian had seen so far in this dungeon.

"A.. dead city?" Veltrax murmured.

That was exactly what it was. In the last five kilometers of the 40-kilometer-long floor was a city safe behind a giant wall. It was bustling with people. Well.. monsters, but they were relatives to the pigmen Damian had saved and brought back to this dungeon.

The walls and streets of the city were heavily guarded by pigmen soldiers clad in impressive dark metal armor. It was the same metal Damian had seen back on the pigmen world; the slave chains of Alex and Maelor were made of this thing.

Over 50 second rankers, 25 transcendents, and one tyrannical hero king—A fourth ranker.

Not to mention hundreds of thousands of first-rankers pigmen foot soldiers.

Ash-gray pigmen with eerie blue eyes. An existence made by mixing the civilized pigmen and the black pigmen army turned by the demon lord.

Damian could sense the titan pigmen king seated on his throne inside the dark giant palace at the end of the city. Some 400-plus meters of muscles and condensed mana. There was something ominous and familiar deep within the palace as well.

The sword of Heiryul with the god-killer spell on it.

Safe to assume the fourth ranker pigmen was a replica of Heiryul, the hero king. The story of whom was told in this very same dungeon's earlier floors. The sword here was the important thing. Most likely, it's the dungeon's way of giving the challengers a strategic tool to face the Sun God.

Without the god-killer sword, facing the pigmen Sun God would be suicidal.

Plus, it was a true relic.

The relics dungeon rewards to the challengers for completing hidden tasks were the most common ones, but there was also another kind of dungeon relic.

Actually, the name dungeon relic's origin was associated with weapons or tools that the dungeon provided indirectly. Like the giant sword in this dungeon's level 25, or that Blazur armored lizard Damian had his people farm. The best ones, however, were the runic equipment and weapons used by insanely powerful boss monsters.

And those were commonly known by the name True Relics.

It was a rare thing for boss monsters to have a weapon or armor made by an intelligent civilization. Even rarer were the cases in which a person managed to get it. Because if the weapons and equipment were made by an intelligent civilization, the boss using those things was also a crazy-powerful legend of that civilization.

Power and intelligence were a dangerous combination.

The sword on level 25 was a weak showpiece that broke in just one attack. This was the real deal. A weapon like this could shape kingdoms.

"They don't look so dead to me," Sam added.

"They know about us. The whole city is fortified, and several transcendents are guarding the wall." Sulthar stated.

"It's a head-on war," Lucian added.

"Something strange is in that palace; it reeks of the same energy as that damned sword," Sulthar said.

"It is that thing," Damian confirmed. "A true relic. It's an opportunity the dungeon gives to challengers before facing a god."

"If it is that bastard's sword.." Sulthar's eyes widened.

"Yes," Damian said, "Our enemy has to be the hero king of pigmen, Heiryul."

"They are waiting for us," Sam said. "An entire army."

Fighting was no issue. But these monsters looked awfully calm and were working together like a real civilized city of aliens. Fighting first rankers at level 90 felt just.. cruel. A whole city to protect one key point. They seemed like normal beings, but the second he tried going closer to the key point, they would become bloodthirsty and will try to stop him at all costs.

Even the emperor rank boss monster Damian had in the sanctum building, producing non-stop liquid mana for them, hundreds of kilometers away from its original dungeon.. still cared only about protecting the key point.

The dungeon floor on which the key point was accessed by trick, without defeating and killing the monsters, they went bat-shit crazy and hunted for any pathfinder that entered the floor with renewed vengeance.

The key point was everything to them, or at least they believed as such.

"We should get one too then.." Damian said.

"What?" Sam asked.

"An army,"

Ten minutes later, facing the giant wall of the massive city were all ten of Damian's party members, and behind them were 25 thousand second-ranker pigmen warriors clad in steel armor.

Twenty-five thousand facing a stronghold with hundreds of thousands inside would normally be suicidal, but in the battle of monsters and magic, numbers weren't everything. If Damian wanted to make this floor full of lava and steam like the level 80 boss floor, it wouldn't even take full five minutes.

The army and show of power were just something he wanted to try. An experiment. To see what this small civilization would do.

Were even the intelligent ones truly gone? Or was there some semblance of survival instincts still remaining in them?

Chances were low that they would value anything other than the key point more, but maybe, just maybe, there could be an exception.

Damian looked towards the king of pigmen settlement, and Heather, they understood. The three of them walked forward, keeping the rest of the army behind. There were steel spear-throwing devices on the high wall, and from the looks of it, etched with runic spells and laden with mana stones.

Level 90 was just like floor 85, where they fought against a Sulthar look-alike. Same cold gray, empty land filled with occasional monster spawning from the dark corners. None were present near the boss though. Making it the most comfortable boss fight since earlier levels.

Damian created an air step big enough to lift both the king and Heather, floating slowly towards the top of the wall.

"I understand your aim, Gaiz le Kasha." The king of pigmen said, "But these are monsters. Everything inside a dungeon is corrupted. Whatever you gain, you pay for it with your own blood."

"Chief is right," Heather agreed. "The only option is to fight and get through. However odd they may look or behave, monsters do not see reason."

Damian nodded. He knew that already. There was not a single child or non-fighting civilian in the entire city. It was a stronghold through and through. Ruled by a warrior king.

Several arrows, fire, and ice spells flew in their direction. A simple golden barrier stopped all of it. Damian landed the air step on the wide wall and remained standing there. The pigmen warriors kept attacking his barrier with fire, ice, and those pink psychic energy attacks.

For the giant transcendent pigmen attacks, he had to put up multiple barriers and wormholes at times, but relatively, they were just standing bored and waiting for the main guy to show up.

When the titan pigmen emerged from the black palace holding an abyssal black sword, both pigmen transcendents on his side stared at the gray mountain with wide eyes. Damian heard them murmur..

"Morakai Shen Toruun.."

"Noxeth Morakai.."

Damian didn't know many words of the pigmen language, but these he knew—The Stone-Throned Lord and The Lord Emperor. In the little translation, the pigmen settlement had managed to do from the murals of the giant stone temple, these titles were often used in those.

The whole temple was dedicated to the figure currently walking towards them.

The city walls were over a hundred meters tall. Yet for the gray titan pigmen clad in black armor holding an enormous dark sword, it was only high enough to reach its knees.

This was the guy who defeated a god and chained him to rot in an eternal prison.

From the appearance, Heiryul looked like an older and taller version of the transcendent pigmen leaders. Same long canine teeth, bulbous nose, and large eyes. Just these eyes were neither red, black, cyan, nor green irises, but dark blue flame slits. The amount of mana in the monster was like an ocean in itself. Rivaling even the ridiculous manapool of Sulthar and probably even surpassing that.

But unlike Sulthat in his drago form, Heiryul was not leaking mana uncontrollably. The hero king's presence was acknowledged by all pigmen warriors, cheering and shouting excitedly. The mana leakage was not uncomfortable for any of them. The beloved king could exert that level of control.

The titan gray pigmen clad in meters-thick black armor looked down on the three of them standing on the wall.

The two pigmen beside him tried to talk with the thing in their own language, but no reply came. Clearly, the language was not understood. But Heiryul had not attacked them either, giving Damian hope.

Damian unsheathed his own sacrium sword and pointed at the pigmen army outside the city walls, then pointed at the gray pigmen warriors of the city, and then shook his head. In the end, pointing at himself with the sacrium sword and the titan pigmen hero king.

The meaning was clear—Let's fight one-on-one. You against me.

From the gasps and angry shouts of the gray pigmen beside them, it was clear the intelligent pigmen had understood the meaning clearly.

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