Chapter 84 Self-destruct is super effective

Twenty feet from the blast sight was bare; the explosion pushed everything in that range away, it dug a few inches into the dirt, and the only thing that remained now was a puddle of blood and the golem, which was already making its way to its feet. After that, the corpses that were in range of the explosion formed a ring around the explosion, and everyone in that area was dead.

Passed that was another thin layer of blood; those in this range were screaming as they burned from the acid. Passed that was where I was, blood splattered in lesser clumps, those hit were still on their feet but were in worse shape than I, who blocked the spray from striking me. The explosion melted through the treeline, and some of the blood even reached my closest farm plot.

My breath hitched as I looked for my wives, hoping to see them standing outside the range, but I couldn’t spot any of them from my cursory glance. Delilah was standing far enough away that she completely avoided it, and the three others made their way out of the treeline as they similarly looked for me. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw all of them were fine.

Tems yelled out. “Oh no, your arm!” I was too happy to see them okay, I could only smile as I told them. “It’s not that bad, can someone go get the salve to try and use on these people?” The slight tinge of pain only made me more aware of how lucky I was compared to those close to me who had many welts all over their body.

Now that I knew they were safe, I looked at the damage from the fighting. Most of the mounted knights were slain; if they weren’t, their horses fled, sometimes with the rider. I could see ten horse corpses, perhaps fourteen knights, ten of the mercenaries, and twenty dead adventurers from holding out until the two other forces showed up to fight.

The lizardmen's corpses were piled higher than I. I could see hundreds, but after the explosion, it would be hard to count the exact amount. It would be close to a thousand after everything was said and done. I felt sick as the smell finally hit me. The blood sludge was not only caustic but smelled like a rotting, burning corpse. It was possibly full of diseases, which could be another thing to worry about after the fight.

Everyone looked on in disbelief at what had just happened. This might be the first time in decades that a dungeon break happened, and overwhelming forces were here to stop it before it could ramp up to a worse outcome. We still had to go destroy the corrupted core, but the stronger knights and mercenaries could deal with it… Now that I looked, though, most were heavily injured from the explosion.

Around half the troops had died, and perhaps one out of every five men was unscathed while everyone else was covered in welts or burn scars from the explosion. It was clear who had higher endurance, because it was the difference between a wound that was already scarring over or having their skin melted through as they continuously screamed in pain.

It appeared the explosion sent out slightly less acidic blood; the injuries were bad but not debilitating for most outside the initial explosion range. Marcus and most of the adventurers were already outside of the blast range after the additional forces showed up. He was making his way from my home after taking an unconscious Berry inside.

She didn’t fall unconscious from status recalibration but from mana exhaustion. The reason the adventurers could outlast the initial lizardmen was entirely because of her keeping everyone in the fight. Dozens more adventurers would have been dead if she weren’t around. Even I had to get in on the healing near the end of the fighting just because I was the only one left who could.

My hands still shook from how out of energy I was, and I needed to rest before even thinking about anything else. With the death of the boss outside the corrupted dungeon, it would take at least a week or two for it to regenerate. We’d have to wipe it out by then, and a squad was already being formed for those who wished to push into the dungeons to destroy the corrupted one.

I waited for the group to leave. Someone was going to have to destroy the core, and it wasn’t… What is Silk, Tems, and Sophia doing? No… We don’t have to be the ones to do it; we’ve already done enough. Stopping the corrupted dungeon should be left to the stronger adventurers. I knew they were going to go; there was no convincing them not to… So I could only buy us time.

“Wait… Most of my wives are still unconscious. Let’s wait for them to wake up before we make our way there.” I breathed out a sigh of relief while the group was still getting put together, which was going to take an hour or so, so Leaf was the only one who might not be awake when we went to leave, but she’d quickly catch up after someone explained what happened.

The first thing I needed to do… I was going to have sex. Restoring my health, mana, and stamina by having sex was such a cheat code, and since it would restore my wives as well, I could refresh the ones who fought near the end and might be missing a good chunk of stamina. I went to head to my house, but couldn’t help but notice the much more well-dressed man glaring daggers at me.

I ignored him for now. I hadn’t seen anyone else, but once I mentioned my wives, he focused on me. He must have been jealous of how many I have. One quickie with each of my conscious wives later, everyone else was up. All of my wives decided to go, and Leaf became conscious just before we’d have had to leave. Besides my wives and me, the mayor and another adventurer were the only locals heading to destroy the core.

Only six knights were heading with us: four of the mercenaries, the man who didn’t like me, and another singular knight who showed up after the boss was slain. We were underprepared for destroying it, but if we took long enough, we’d get more help. The merchants who showed up all fled. I could tell some of the men wanted to talk to me, but thankfully, the mission came first.

We’d have to trudge through several destroyed dungeon areas, possibly fighting berserk monsters from their cores being destroyed. Head through untamed wilderness, possible traps and pitfalls no one had seen for decades, all to fight a dungeon that would be constantly spitting out more troops to fight us along the way.

It wasn’t going to be an easy mission. But all of us were much stronger than before; the status recalibration had shot up my stats even further, and all of my wives managed to unlock their uncommon class after they woke up. They were only getting a fraction of the experience once they fell unconscious, but the sheer number and level of the monsters we slew were enough for everyone with a common class to reach max again.

Now… I looked at my stats again after all that fighting, and it was hard not to hold back a smile as I got to choose the first level twenty-five skill for my uncommon class.