Chapter 41

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.

Dungeon Factory, 2nd Floor.

"You know, you really should consider finding a better way to run experiments."

Alexandra blinked, and looked to the side at Emilia.

"What do you mean?"

The vampire girl sighed.

"As much as I like the hands-on aspect of it, we could do with a bit more...security. Also the adventurers are getting terrified when we run them in the daytime, since they have such a tendency to be....rather lively."

"It's not my fault some of my prototypes fail!"

Alexandra crossed her arms...and endured about 5 seconds under Emilia's dubious look before sighing.

"Okay, maybe I should spend a bit more time preparing the ground first. Still, failures are inevitable. What do you want me to do about it?"

"Well, a new testing chamber would be nice. And not just the new one next to the new Core Room. Firstly, because no sane dungeon should have a testing chamber for highly dangerous device next to their core. And lastly, because it's far too small for the tests you're running now. I mean, that's why we're here in the first place, correct?"

"Well...Yeah, I guess. Plus it had handy targets."

'Handy targets' in this case being the ruins of the 2nd floor's main room, who she had steadily blown to bits to test the different charges she had come up with. Halfway through the process Emilia had to stop her from bashing her head against the wall as she realized that out of all the things she'd forgotten to make, she hadn't made a mining blasting charge. A mistake she had promptly corrected by creating the most simple of said charges: a good old stick of (sort of) dynamite. Which she would have to test as well. Well, she'd tested it on buildings, but she wanted to know how it would perform on ores. Particularly iron ore, given how small the quantities of other metals she produced were. Not that she truly expected it to be worth it anyway, those explosives were good but they were far too pricy to make mining charges worth it for now.

"Well, I suppose we'll have to make some handy targets for that area as well. In any case, this isn't very safe...And while I trust my spells, I'd rather have some extra protection. Especially given the scale of...'liveliness' of the current experiments."

"Ah. Right."

Apparently the most recent test - a really expensive test - had spooked the vampire girl. It had involved copious amounts of explosive charges. The crate kind. Although her justification for doing so was in case a storage site explosion occurred, it was actually to build a last resort bomb. The kind that would turn most of her core hallway/end of the floor area into a crater. Well, soon-to-be-filled spherical hole in the rock, but still. She wasn't even sure she'd fooled Emilia this time. The vampire girl was getting better and better at reading her, especially when her more...protective tendency came to the forefront. Maybe it was because Emilia herself was the target of so much of that protectiveness.

In any case fair was fair. Given the fact that she was making a mining charge, the kind used to blast holes through fortress walls, caution was more than justified. It's just that it didn't strike her as especially dangerous. After all, she'd helped redesign the X16 'Trebuchet' EFSN (well, Arcadia Systems, but its sale was restricted to the EFSN) ship to ship missile to fit the Dawnstar-class super-battleships, and it sported a good old 300 megaton fusion bomb as its standard warhead. Compared to that the explosives weren't even a firecracker, they were sparks. And that wasn't counting her involvement in project Ragnarok, however theoretical (or at least she really, really hoped the planet-killer weapon program was purely for theoretical analysis as advertised) the devices she'd designed there were.

"Well, that should be more than doable. I'll get on it as soon as we're done here."

Emilia cleared her throat, and gave her notebook a pointed look.

"And the most pressing items on top of the list are dealt with of course." Hastily corrected the Earth-born.

The vampire girl beamed, and Alexandra smiled back. One more bullet dodged. Her advisor was getting better and better at keeping her focused on projects until they were completed. And while she was a bit...miffed she didn't get to play with some of her new toys, Alexandra had to admit that she was indeed getting some stuff done instead of leaving half finished prototypes lying everywhere.

Of course she'd never admit it out loud, but still.

*****

"So, what now?" Said Pyn as she sat down next to her girlfriend.

Allya sighed, and leaned back into her chair.

"Now? We relax as much as we can, and try to keep everything from falling apart." She shrugged at the elf's questioning look. "It's not like we can do that much right now. No one is trying to kill us anymore, and until the next convoy arrives we're just building up the town however we can. I suppose there will be a fair bit of noise once the ship arrives with it's first cargo of dungeon loot, especially on the golem parts, but that's outside our control."

"Right." The elf chuckled. "You know they're going to scramble over each other to get here? The merchants, I mean. Hell, everyone for that matter!"

"Because they weren't already?" Said Allya, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Point taken. Still, once regular convoys start..."

"Things will start moving faster, I know." Allya shrugged. "What we're seeing right now is nothing compared to that. Most of the ships that have visited us just happened to be in the vicinity for one reason or another when they got the word, and their captains dropped everything to pounce on the opportunity. Hell, outside of the Alberta none of them are even made for wasteland travel! Granted, the Sakura is a warship, but still."

"Yeah. Think the trade routes will shift?"

Allya laughed.

"With a dungeon as a mid-way stop? Hell yes they'll shift!" She waved her hand. "Oh, the air routes that went through the east, through Gorromar, will remain. They're one of the only two sources of industrial goods on the continent after all. At least on a large scale. Plus the Eternia Crystallis dungeon anchors the southern end of that route as well. But most ships will jump on the new route. If it was only a question of a new dungeon, they'd do it anyway, as the crossing is actually shorter this way, and the extra mana -and shipping, with all the infrastructure efforts and pro-trade measures that implies- would make it even more worthwhile. But with the kind of loot Crystal is dolling out? We'll be under siege. Actually." Allya straightened, and met Pyn's gaze. "I'd like you to seriously consider building an airship docking tower."

Pyn opened her mouth, then closed it, then opened it again.

"Are you sure? Not even Darthar has one!"

An airship docking tower was a massive construction, usually only undertaken by major trade hubs, or military airbases. It originated from the Eris Empire, where someone had noted that airfields were scarcely the safest way to land airships, or the fastest, and had realized that the newly built skyscrapers were high enough that they interfered with airship cruising altitudes sometimes. So he'd decided to mix the two, and had built a massive skyscraper covered in docking facilities to house airships. It had proven an instant success, especially with landing pads and some safety shields and charms to prevent a single airship having a problem and taking out several others. The fact that it kept airships safely away from thieves and saboteurs was scarcely a small advantage either, given how...vigorous merchantile rivalries between trading houses or even corporations could get nowadays. Especially in nations where the proper 'gifts' could be given to the authority to make sure some of the more problematic evidence never came to light.

"If they haven't started drawing plans for one -if Elkaryos hasn't that is-, it won't be long until they do. The advantages of just having the ships dock and depart faster would be enormous, but truth be told I'm more worried about the safety risks." Allya winced. "Landing an airship is hardly the safest of things in ideal conditions. In the middle of a hostile wasteland, with the wind we've been getting, and potential damage from wasteland monsters? It could turn into a disaster really, really fast. In fact I'm surprised we haven't had at least a single collision yet."

"Probably because we haven't had a true wasteland monster attack yet."

"Fair enough."

One more perplexing thing had been how wasteland creatures had avoided the dungeon town like the plague. She'd known there was a lower chance of those kind of monsters setting up shops next to Old World ruins, but this was beyond her expectations. They had, in total, 3 different incidents, 1 with a sand spirit, and 2 from sand harpies, and every time a single shot from the guard posts had been enough to send the monsters packing. Then again, the caravans made for much easier targets than a fortified settlement, so maybe that explained a lot. But still.

Allya sighed, and got up.

"In any case, that doesn't mean there isn't stuff to do. Foremost among them is getting this town up and running." She gestured for Pyn to follow her as she made her way to the exit. "And that includes checking on our shop keepers. How about you and I go check on our friendly 'firegecko'?"

Pyn laughed.

"And totally not sample his inventory you mean?"

"Well, we do have to check the quality of his products..."

The elf rolled her eyes.

"I see how it is...."

"Do you disagree with my logic?" Asked Allya innocently.

"...No. Come on, let's go. I heard he got a new shipment of drinks with the convoy. Maybe he'll have more of that Ostrarchian frontier brandy you're so fond of."

*****

Alexandra scratched her head as she looked at the mechanism.

"You know, it sounded a bit better -and simpler- in my head when I thought about it."

"I mean, it does work." Said Emilia.

"Yes, but..." Alexandra shrugged. "It kind of looks silly. Especially when it updates."

They were currently standing in one of the ruins containing a part of the password to enter the water temple. As they had a discussed, Alexandra had decided to implement the daily changing password by making each password wall section into a double sided plaque she could just spin around. Since the password was in 8 parts, that gave them 256 possibilities. Not quite 'a unique password for every day of the year', but still more than enough for their purposes. She hadn't linked it to the loot generation just yet, but that would come after they were sure it was working.

"Well, adventurers aren't supposed to see them update. And even if some of the more...stupid examples of the kind try to dismantle them to get at the treasure obviously hidden behind it -after all, all dungeons have loot hidden behind every piece of decorations, everyone knows that!-, you have...comprehensive counter measures in place."

Alexandra winced at Emilia's biting, sarcastic tone. Several adventurers now had decided to try to take the light sconces, or search for loot inside of them, and it had ended up...poorly for them. Very poorly. Some of them were of a high enough level to survive it, but they'd been in very bad shape by the end of it, and, well...It hadn't been pleasant to see a few iron ranked adventurers die while choking on their own blood, but she needed to hammer the message through so the 'old guard' would tell the new guys to stay the hell away from the lights. A message which they had apparently gotten, thank the Gods.

Then there had been a particularly...adventurous party, that had decided to dismantle the altar. Now, Alexandra wasn't one for sentimentalism usually, but that had irked her. Said team had backed off when she had told them to through a newly arrived golem, but just in case she had incorporated some security measures to prevent anymore vandalism. Which mostly involved a new golem reserve force in the old core hallway, which had the dual duty of protecting the resurrection orb, and making sure no one tried to destroy the altar again. Of course, it had let her build up even more forces without Emilia raising an eyebrow, but for once that had been a secondary concern. An important one, sure, but a secondary concern nonetheless.

So she'd designed the password plaques with some security measures as well. It wasn't so much because she cared about the plaques themselves, as they were made out of wrought iron, and she produced so much of the stuff she didn't even know what to do with it, but if a group of adventurers destroyed the plaques they might prevent other groups from entering the water temple and the planned 3rd floor. In fact, they might destroy said plaques to sell the password, or even keep the 3rd floor all to themselves, especially given some of the features her and Emilia had talked about implementing there. That, however, was completely unacceptable, and as such she'd liberally seeded the back of the cavity the plaques rotated in with her shiny new explosives. It was wasteful of course, but she wanted to put them somewhere. That, combined with literally covering them in her claymore 'musket balls' meant that anyone that tried to mess with the plaques would gain a deep and thorough understanding of lasagnas by virtue of being turned into some.

Hopefully that should prove enough deterrence that only a few groups will try it before everyone catches on.

"Fair points. Very fair points." Alexandra looked to her side. "So, we install the rest, then next up is the password input itself, correct?"

Emilia quickly pulled out her notebook, and checked, before nodding.

"Yep."

"Well, that should be fairly easy."

"You'll also have to make the drawbridge work."

"That...might prove considerably harder." Said Alexandra as she started walking towards the exit, Emilia in tow. They had decided to equip the water temple with a drawbridge, to make crossing the moat easier. It was, right now, just a giant slab of wrought iron, eerily reminescent of a blastdoor, with a bunch of chains of the same material pooled on top of it, stored away safely into the logistic hub. Getting it down would be interesting. Getting it working properly....even more so.

"Ever the one for understatements Alex."

"Hey! That's my line!"

Emilia giggled, and Alexandra shook her head as they emerged from the underground ruin. She stretched and sighed. It looked like this was going to be a good day. Well, night, since they were doing this while the adventurers weren't delving.

*****

Today really, really sucks, thought colonel Orzal Vek as he stepped through the door. He was back in the same meeting room he had been in a few weeks ago, with the same men and women sitting down behind the same damned table. And he still didn't have a chair.

He stopped in front of the table, and waited patiently.

After a good minute, the person at the center of the table, senator Charles Veumen finally deigned to close his file and acknowledge his presence.

"Well, colonel. It looks like your men have failed."

Orzal nearly gritted his teeth, but decades of experience as an officer in a sometimes very political post allowed him to retain his neutral air. And however...annoying the statement may be, especially with the ridiculous mission his men were assigned, it was also true. The reports they had gotten from the courier ship that had come back from the dungeon were perfectly clear on that point at least. He still didn't know remotely as much as he wanted to...but according to official Asarian sources, the 'unknown saboteurs' had been wiped out by the 'Kingdom's gallant defenders', and the dungeon core safeguarded. Which was pretty much a total mission failure, no matter the fact that the expedition director had been assassinated, to the eyes of his present company, no matter how much they professed that the main goal hadn't been to steal the dungeon core.

"They have indeed senator."

"Care to explain why?"

"Because they were sent in blind, with no information whatsoever, against an enemy which outnumbered them several times over, possessed air support and was extremely motivated in keeping a hold of the area, senator."

The senator froze. The entire table froze. They had obviously been expecting him to break down into excuses, and immediately offer one of his officers -preferably a junior one- as a sacrificial scapegoat for them to lay all of the blame on. They clearly hadn't been ready for an actual summary of the facts...especially not one which was true, and not...suitably adjusted for their consumption. Which essentially meant distorted to fit their prejudices and say what they wanted to hear. To be fair, Orzal would have given them a report like that in a heartbeat if it wasn't for the fact that it would probably end up with them ordering him to undertake an even stupider operation, which would eventually end up in the end of his career....or his discreet retirement by cyanide. If he was lucky. Additionally, for all of his faults, he was loyal to his men, and there was no way he was throwing them under the bus like that. At least not to flatter some fat cat's ego.

Careful Orzal, that 'fat cat' is still your boss...even if unofficially, and he still could have you transferred to the Far Reach border, or have you relegated to logistics for the rest of your life with a single order if he wished, he thought to himself.

The silence lasted for several seconds, until the senator leaned forward, and spoke very, very softly.

"Are you implying that we were...unwise in ordering this operation, colonel?"

Orzal carefully didn't look away as he choose his words with exquisite care.

"Of course not senator...But I would be remiss in my duties if I didn't point out those facts. The operation's basic assumptions and objectives were perfectly logical, but we must keep in mind that however valuable its goal or sound its logic, it still had difficulties to overcome to be successful...and in this case we must keep said difficulties in mind so we may overcome them if we choose to try again."

The senator sat back at Orzal's reasonable, measured tone, and the colonel thought he saw a flicker of respect in the man's eyes. It could have just been his imagination however.

"A...good point colonel. An excellent one in fact. Thank you." And to Orzal's -and apparently every other person in the room's- surprise, the senator bowed his head.

"It is my pleasure to serve, senator." Simply answered Orzal.

Charles smiled. Said smile didn't reach his eyes, but at least it indicated some modicum of favor.

"Indeed it is colonel. Which is why I, and my colleagues of course, would like to call upon you to serve us again."

He paused, and after a few seconds, Orzal obediently rose to the bait.

"In what way senator?"

"Well, I was given to understand that the army had recently hired mercenary companies to keep the borders secure while we build up our...commerce protection presence in Erakis, yes?"

If by 'commerce protection presence' he meant 'stupidly trying to covertly amass an invasion force', then yes. Not that he was going to tell them that. It was obvious they were behind the buildup...and that they had no idea how impossible to truly hide such a build up would be. It was the same kind of 'military genius' that had overlooked the slight fact that there were highly territorial, very attached to the people on their lands, fucking dragons in the Far Reach. A fact that had come to bite the Elkis Republican Army in the ass so hard there had barely been an army left when it was over.

"That is correct sir."

"Very good. Then, in that case, could you find one of the mercenary companies that were...rejected, and hire them? The largest one would be the best. With the utmost discretion of course."

Orzal's stomach sank.

Oh dear Gods, they can't possibly be thinking they can get away with this, he thought to himself.

Stealing a dungeon core with a deniable asset? Doable. They'd have to sacrifice that asset, and step very lightly for a while -as well as generously bribe some UDC members-, but it was possible. Actually sending in a military force, however mercenary it was? They would start a war. Because there was no way in hell they could hold out the area against the Kingdom, not with simple mercenaries, and the UDC could not let that slide, no matter how generous their 'gifts'.

"May I enquire as to their purpose, senator?"

"Well, as you said yourself, they were outnumbered, outgunned, and didn't have air superiority. We might not be able to completely solve all of those problems...but I think we can do a fair bit in alleviating them, at the very least, for our next attempt."