Chapter 421: Cover Up

"Yes, don’t worry, we’ve already had all of them sign NDAs, so it shouldn’t be a problem," Remarked Lachlan."Cool, thanks for helping cover it up," I responded gratefully.

"No need to thank me. She did save all their lives, after all."

"Yeah...but this is definitely cause for concern, a Critical Level Monster appearing in a Mid Level Dungeon. Have there been any other reports of Dungeons with unexpectedly powerful Monsters appearing?" I inquired warily.

"Not yet, but...there are a few Dungeons currently being raided that appeared around the same time as this one did. I’ve alerted the HUC and the other Sanctuaries, to prepare themselves for Dungeons that could turn out to be more difficult than anticipated."

"I see. Are there any ongoing raids that are taking longer than they should?" I asked him.

"It’s still a bit too early to tell yet, but give it another couple of hours or so, and that will be the case with some of them. We’ll monitor the situation closely and keep you posted.

If anything goes especially wrong, we may need to call on you and your Guild to handle it," He remarked, sounding pretty stressed and weary.

"Sure, I’ll be ready to deploy at a moment’s notice, if it comes to it," I nodded, before letting out a quiet sigh as he hung up.

It was the 29th of December, 2170, and I was currently at home. Yesterday, Cleo had her final Practical Training exam, and ended up revealing her powers to her party and the Hunters escorting them, to defeat a Cull Crocodile.

On the one hand, she took down a Critical Level Monster all by herself, and did so mostly unscathed. At her current level, she’s definitely weaker than a Cull Crocodile, so it’s pretty encouraging to see that she’s capable of punching above her weight like this.

But on the other hand, a Critical Level Monster showing up in a Mid Level Dungeon is serious cause for concern. Are the Dungeons going back to being highly unpredictable and intense again?

I suppose we’ll find out soon enough.

The way the Dungeons seal up the Boss Room when parties enter is a major problem, it makes retreat all but impossible if the party ends up trapped with a Monster too powerful for them to handle.

A party with a K-Ranked or Ace Detector would be able to avoid entering any Boss Rooms they aren’t capable of clearing, since Detectors of that level can detect the Threat Level of the Dungeon Bosses.

But Detectors ranked K or above are pretty rare, there certainly aren’t enough of them for every raid.

Cleo contacted me immediately after exiting the Dungeon, she was pretty frantic and panicked.

I then called Lachlan and informed him of the situation, he reached out to the Hunters escorting the students and asked them to keep quiet about it, along with asking the other students to do the same.

And to make sure they’d comply, he had each of them sign NDAs, so she shouldn’t have to worry about being outed anytime soon.

She graduates in two days, after which she’ll be promptly assigned to the Sinners Guild. There are four other students with Ace Potential, they’ll be evenly divided between the Diva Guild and Demonsbane Guild.

I then brought up my I-Watch display and opened social media, scrolling through some posts.

Doesn’t look like there are any trending topics relating to the Dungeons...I hope that means yesterday’s student raid was a one-off anomaly.

But who am I kidding, that’s almost definitely not the case. The Demon Lord’s forces must have replenished sufficiently enough that he’s ready to start launching more intense Dungeons.

With Superbia and Ira added to my forces, we’re better prepared, but in all likelihood, the Hunters are probably going to end up stretched pretty thin before long, like how things were over a year ago.

<Maybe you should head to the Guild, help train the other members and get some training of your own in too>

Yeah, that’s a good idea.

We’ve got a decent amount of firepower now, but there’s still plenty of room for improvement.

Luxuria, Invidia and Superbia are already there, training the others. Aria headed to the Guild about an hour ago too.

I told her I might drop by a bit later, since I was feeling kinda lazy, after spending the last few days training pretty intensely.

But, well, I don’t exactly have anything better to do right now, so I suppose I might as well try to be more productive.

I may have reached my ceiling as far as power goes, but I can still sharpen and refine my skills and technique.

Or, at the very least, maintain my current level.

If nothing else, I have to avoid getting rusty. But the Dungeons don’t provide enough of a challenge in that aspect.

Sparring against Aria and Ira, and also Acedia sometimes, is the most effective way I have to keep myself sharp. It’d be ideal if I could spar against the other X-Aces from time to time, but that isn’t really realistic with how busy each of them are.

As far as Monsters go, anything below Calamity Level isn’t a real threat to me anymore, unless there are literally thousands of them.

The best way for me to improve is to fight against forces that are around my level or stronger. But, as far as I know, the only one stronger than me when I’m at full power is the Demon Lord.

And he’s miles above me in terms of power, so I need to get stronger. I definitely don’t stand a chance against him alone, but I don’t intend on fighting him alone.

I’ve got Aria by my side, I know I can count on her to have my back. Ira and Acedia are pretty powerful too, though Acedia has a lot of room for improvement when it comes to skill and combat sense.

There’s also the other X-Aces, at least a few of them should be strong enough to pose a threat to the Demon Lord.

As for Cleo, hm...she’s still got a long way to go before she’s strong enough to face the Demon Lord. She’s gotten a head start, but it’s only going to get tougher from here...