Chapter 42

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.

Dungeon Factory, Logistic Hub Alpha.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!"

Emilia plugged her ears and opened her mouth, just like Alexandra had taught her, before wincing as the room shook around her, and she felt more than heard the thump of the shockwave hitting her ward of protection.

She waited for a second, her back still to the blast shield Alexandra had brought in for extra safety, before turning around and looking over it's side.

"Well....It looks like it worked."

"Yep!"

Alexandra smiled. At long last a mining blasting charge! She rubbed her hands together as she contemplated the pile of loose ore, which a scant few seconds ago had been a solid wall of minerals. That was going to speed up her operations enormously! Oh, it was expensive as all hell, but she was pretty sure it would be worth it in the end. Especially if she managed to find a way to make those explosives without having to create them dungeon mode all the time...

"Now that this is done, we can expand the forge, without having to use so much space -and so many golems- for raw material collection!" She said as she gestured at the handful of golems picking up the bits and pieces of ore with wrought iron shovels, and piling them into carts. She hadn't finished designing proper minecarts yet, with the accompanying rails, well, not ones that her forges could produce at any rate, but she was getting close, and once that was done efficiency would go up once again! She hadn't realized it at first, but her golems most definitely had a mana upkeep...and individually, that upkeep was low, but the total was more than impressive, and steadily mounting nonetheless. "That should allow us to speed things up nicely!"

Emilia smiled wrily.

"Well, we're going to need it. If only to replace the chains."

Alexandra winced. The tests for the drawbridge had...not gone smoothly. The drawbridge piece itself was fine -it was just a giant slab of wrought iron, how in hell would someone even mess that up?-, but the windlass and chains...hadn't fared so well. They'd had to remanufacture each one several times due to varying issues, including one spectacular failure where they'd decided to test a self-powered windlass, and they had missed a bad rune, which had resulted in a pretty spectacular explosion. After that they'd decided to take a pause, first because they didn't have enough wrought iron in stockpile to replace all the pieces they'd lost, and next because Alexandra had been about to start biting the schematics in frustration.

"Fair enough. But we should have more than enough capacity after this, even if we continue having....issues that demand regular replacement." She looked as the golems finished picking up the loose ore, and then began preparations to start blasting another wall of ore. "Let's watch another few tests, then switch to making more forges. I'd like to upgrade them too but..." She looked at Emilia, and smiled as the vampire girl deadpanned. "I had guessed you would prefer to remain focused on a single issue when possible. I've already put in the work order for the new windlass and chains." She winced. "Honestly I never expected to have our supply system so strained from the outset."

Emilia nodded as they looked at the golems starting to dig holes in the mineral-rich wall with hand cranked drills, then stepping back and letting their fellow install the explosive sticks, and lay down the detonator wires. The normal operations of the dungeon were starting to exact a massive toll on her capabilities. And that was even with her whole supply and logistics network, which already simplified things greatly. The cost in mana to constantly replace golems, their upkeep, plus any repairs from collateral damage, resurrection costs, ect, were starting to pile up, and taking a good portion of her mana income. Fortunately she was getting her weapons and armor for cheap thanks to her forges, but even that was getting strained, especially for the need to replace the armor plates for the spider tank.

As she'd feared, the boss had proven mighty...up until the adventurers had started devising tactics to take it out. It usually boiled down to spamming fire or electric spells, plus trying to jam the joints of it's legs with swords, but by now even steel ranked teams could take it out, albeit usually with a few fatalities. She'd tried to bring the spider tank back in for recycling, but it was just too big to transport back without it propelling itself, and she had no idea of how to repair it, especially since the adventurers usually dug into it, and took the most valuable electronics inside of it. So for now she'd been forced to consume it every time it was vanquished.

"Well, at least you have it better than a lot of other dungeons." Said Emilia as she pulled out one of her innumerable notebooks, and briefly wrote down something. "They're forced to pay the full price in mana of their equipment. That's why a lot of dungeons go for monsters or such, because they can recycle them by serving the dead ones as food to the others, and they don't have to fear adventurers just taking most of the body. Well, most of the time. In fact most adventurers just take the skin and the claws, teeth, and a few organs as alchemical ingredients, which is perfect for recycling by eating."

"Ew." Alexandra frowned. "Wouldn't that be extremely dangerous? I mean on Earth we learned the hard way that feeding an animal it's own kind if a very, very bad idea, especially when it comes to disease spread."

Emilia shrugged.

"Not really, no. Thanks to general disease resistance due to essence, and healing magic, there are usually very few plagues around. And even then, why would the core care? Absorb the afflicted monsters, and be done with it. Hell, it might even transmit to adventurers, additional win in their books."

"Right." Alexandra looked at the wall as the golems stepped back from the charges, and awaited her approval to continue. "Alright, better get back behind the blast shield vampy. And cast your ward of protection again. Firing in 15! 14!"

*****

Allya sighed as she looked at the paperwork.

She liked Crystal. She really did. The dungeon core was a fantastic source of income, and made the area habitable to begin with. The problem was that said dungeon core was also being a royal pain in the ass to manage.

First, she had changed the first floor boss without warning anyone, prompting a small panic in the adventurers guild, and a delve by the assault guild. Then a cataclysmic explosion had almost scared the living hell out of a group adventurers. And now adventuring teams in the first floor were reporting hearing regular, muffled detonations in some areas, but they couldn't quite locate the source.

She rubbed her eyes. It wasn't like the dungeon had to give any accounts to her or anything, but a warning would be nice. She probably should go talk to her once more, maybe establish-

The door flap opened without warning, and the baroness looked up sharply as Éclair stepped through.

"Milady. The communication relay is online. You...well, you have a lot of incoming calls."

Allya nearly smashed her head into her desk.

Fuck my life.

*****

"Well, things appear to be picking up." Said Alexandra as she looked to the side at the screen displaying what was happening outside the dungeon. People were running everywhere, and a crowd was coalescing around a newly erected tent. "Doesn't look like panic though. That's good."

"Yep. It looks like excitement." Emilia giggled. "Maybe it's new bar." The vampire girl shrugged as Alexandra rose an eyebrow. "I mean, they are adventurers."

"Even so, I doubt they'd get this excited over just alcohol. Or more of it for that matter, because I'm pretty sure they already have a bar in there." Not that it was that hard to divine or locate, since that particular tent was alight long into the night, and past a certain hour the people exiting it weren't walking straight most of the time.

"Fair. Well, I guess they'll tell us if it's very important."

"Indeed. Now." Alexandra stepped back from the windlass she had been examining. "It should be fine. Ready to test it out?"

"Yeah!"

A few minutes later, and a lot of rolling -Alexandra had just decided to create a giant ramp to get the massive wrought iron drawbridge down, with 'logs' rolling under it to move it smoothly, like ancient egyptians moves stones- on the part of the windlasses, they arrived at the drawbridge. It took a good 15 minutes to get everything installed again, even with a good 60 or so golems requisitioned for the task, but they did it in the end. Alexandra had also allowed CQ to exit her boss room, and watch with them as they began the test again.

"Alright. Starting drawbridge rise test number 6...now!"

Alexandra winced as a great rattling of chains filled the air, then slowly, ponderously, the bridge began to rise. She knew that at the moment three dozen golems were straining in the bridge house to raise it, putting their strengths into the massive windlasses to slowly wrap the chains and raise the bridge. She watched, and waited for a good 15 seconds after the bridge went fully up before nodding.

"Engage the pins!"

Golems moved, and gigantic bars of irons were jammed through the windlasses and into the walls of the water temple, locking them in place.

Alexandra once again waited for 15 seconds, then sighed in relief.

"Well. That worked." She smiled as Emilia nodded, and CQ clapped, evidently sensing the accomplishment, and celebrating it in her own exhuberant way. She patted the boss' head, before blinking and freezing as she jumped into dungeon mode, both Emilia and CQ looking at her in puzzlement.

"Is everything alright?"

Alexandra shook her head as she reentered her body.

"Yes and no. We have visitors."

*****

"So, in summary?" Asked Allya as she sat down at the table. For once everyone was looking as harried as she was, which was either a very good or a very bad thing. That or they were just tired, it was the middle of the night after all.

Her council was currently assembled, with herself, Pyn, Anders, Melia, Willard and Ellyana around the table. Eismi, Ellyana's twin, was the only one missing, detained on urgent business. Melia cleared her throat and spoke first.

"Well, on my end things have been...interesting. We are being showered with offers and permit requests from a variety of companies. Most are pretty reasonable, but there are a few that seem fishy, and some are outright robbery." She shook her head. "Some of the big companies out there seem eager to make a bridgehead here, and I have received...less than veiled threats from some of them."

Allya frowned.

"Towards you personally, or the city as a whole?"

"Me, mostly. A few were more general. I've already relayed them to Elkaryos." Melia smiled, and Allya almost shivered. It wasn't a nice smile, at all. "The Syndicate and the Merchants guild protect their own, and don't take threats like this kindly. I'm sure it'll get resolved very soon." Melia's smile died, and she looked at the small pile of notes in front of her. "I've also started receiving offers. Most of them are from merchantile concerns and trade houses that already had a member in the expedition, and they pertain to infrastructure development, in exchange for preferential rights for land grants."

Allya nodded, acting like she hadn't orchestrated it by originally making the offer to Melia and asking her to spread it around to the other merchants.

"Those are interesting proposals. Relay them to my desk, I'll read through them."

"Yes milady. Lastly, and that's the most interesting one, I've received some...back channel communications."

"From who?" Asked Pyn.

"Well....Several sources. Some were just other members of the merchants guild asking if Elkaryos wished to establish a monopoly or if they were free to invest, but I laid their concerns to rest immediately. Others however....well, I have received some offers from other members of the Syndicate, some...less than legal ones. I refused them obviously," She hastily added. "but I thought you would like to know."

Allya nodded.

"You thought right. Anything else?"

"Well...yes. I also received some messages from friends in the Tark Hegemony, that do close business with the government there." She paused for a second, although whether for dramatic effect or to let everyone digest her statement Allya couldn't tell. "The Hegemony would like to send a state sponsored expedition here, in order to establish formal, direct trade discussions with the Principality."

Allya leaned back into her chair.

"That is...interesting. Have they set a deadline?"

"No, but they would like to get our answer as fast as it would be convenient."

Which is diplomatic speak for 'ASAP', mused Allya.

She looked around the table. Pyn nodded after a second of hesitation, followed by Anders, Melia, Willard looked conflicted but nodded nonetheless, and Ellyana nodded as well. It wasn't a formal vote really, but that wasn't the council's purpose. They were there to give her their opinion, not decide the course of action through democracy. Although the result wasn't exactly surprising, as Melia would acquiesce anything she believed would be profitable, Anders was from the Far Reach, whose greatest ally was the Hegemony, and the Hegemony was also on very friendly terms with New Raleigh, as it openly was a haven for escaped slaves. Which probably explained Willard's troubled look and Ellyana's immediate approval.

"Well, tell them that we accept, and we will be awaiting their arrival with impatience."

Melia nodded, and quickly jotted down a few more notes on her papers.

"And that's it for me. There's a lot more of course, but most of it is minutae."

"Just make sure to discuss any transfer of land or infrastructure project with Pyn."

"Of course."

"Next?"

Anders cleared his throat, and leaned forward. The mountaineer looked as tough as ever, but there was definitely a lighter edge to him now. Probably because, like everyone else, he had rushed in to the new communication tent, and reunited with his loved ones, albeit through voice only.

"The security situation remains stable. We are starting to get increased sightings of wasteland monsters, but nothing beyond what we can manage just yet. Still, in anticipation of possible bandit activity, and more dangerous creatures moving in, I have taken the liberty of asking master Elkaryos for the possibility of recruiting reinforcements for the guard. I've also gotten some...interesting offers from some of the clans of my homeland. With your permission, I would like to explore those further." He smiled. "My compatriots might not be very familiar with this environment, but they can adapt quickly, and we have our fair supply of veterans."

Allya chuckled. Saying that the mountaineers wouldn't be very familiar with a scorching wasteland was one hell of an understatement. Her mirth died as she considered the last part of his sentence. The Far Reach had a lot of veterans because of the Republic's invasion 15 years ago...and the constant raids the clans had been launching from their mountains ever since. Recruiting them or forging relations with them would surely piss of the Republic...but then again so would establishing trader relations with the Hegemony. And even without the intelligence she'd gotten from Neptunite, she was pretty sure the Republic would attack sooner than later anyway. Cultivating friendly relationships, and even outright alliances, with their enemies was probably in their best interest, even if it did provoke the Republic to move faster and attack sooner.

A quick look around the table showed that no one disapproved, and Allya nodded.

"Very well, you have my benediction to do so. Make sure to also sound out master Elkaryos for the possibility of acquiring an airship for the guard. Not on loan, but a proper acquisition."

Everyone looked at her, surprised, except for Pyn, who she had discussed the issue with beforehand.

"Milady, that would be-" Started Melia.

"Very expensive, I know." Allya shrugged. "But we'll need one eventually, if only to patrol the area beyond the city's boundaries. A small one will suffice." She winced. "Hell, even an Asarian 'monster hunter' will do."

Everyone around the table chuckled at her bitter comment. The Asarian Kingdom operated a number of airships they had dubbed 'monster hunters'. Their sole purpose was to hunt around for dangerous monsters and eliminate them. In truth however, they were little better than flying sloops with a ballista and a balloon. Now that on it's own wouldn't be worth the amount of mockery they usually got, but the Kingdom considered them as full warships, and counted them in it's number of hulls for it's skyfleet. A such, they were, at least on paper, full on warships. The fact that the rest of the royal skyfleet was made up of imported, second hand dilapidated ships, with even a few being old ships from the Saphire Kingdom, over a millenia old and flying still by the grace of the Gods and the unending labour of the skyfleet's mages and artificers, made that mockery even more pointed.

"As you wish milady." Simply said Anders.

"Good."

Pyn cleared her throat, and Allya nodded, letting her speak.

"As for my side, the aqueduct is back to full capacity, as you have no doubt already heard. We have also begun digging a new well, for redundance's sake. In addition, the foundations for the first quarter of the city have been laid down, and we are ready to begin construction of hard, stone buildings."

Allya smiled broadly at her girlfriend, exactly like she would have done if they hadn't already precisely discussed what they would say at the meeting before it even began.

"That's excellent news!"

Pyn nodded, smiling.

"Thank you. Still, despite all the manpower we have, and the geomancers that arrived with the convoy, we're still short on, well, everything. I'd like to contact master Elkaryos and request more manpower, as well as look into recruiting more geomancers, maybe even put out a call for bids for construction companies." She shrugged. "With your permission, I'll get to that after reading Melia's offers for infrastructure."

Allya nodded. A brief look around the table showed no disagreements.

"Of course. You have my full approval. Anything else?"

Willard shrugged.

"Not on my end, I am still awaiting an answer from my uncle."

Allya gazed at Ellyana, who shrugged, although given her collection of potential hazardous, brightly colored potions, the effect was far more impressive than Willard. Not counting her cleavage and light clothing, but that didn't have as much of an effect on Allya as it would have prior to meeting Pyn.

"Same. We're still setting up shop. Although Eismi should be by tomorrow to install your communication crystals."

The baroness nodded in thanks, with the rest of the council. Communication crystals were expensive as hell, but Elkaryos had made sure that a good supply was set aside for whoever Allya deemed worthy of them, which was pretty much her council and herself. It would smooth out their operations considerably, and avoid having them have to cordon off an area of the communication tent to conduct their business. Plus their tablets would be able to connect through the crystals, and allow them to exchange data and files far more easily. Since said crystals were the immobile variants however, it was necessary for an enchanter to set them up if they didn't want them to take weeks to recalibrate on their own, hence why Eismi was necessary.

"Excellent. Well, in that case the council dismissed." She nodded at Pyn. "If you'll join me in my office, we have much to discuss."

Everyone exchanged knowing looks, and Allya hid a smile. The advantage of her girlfriend being in essence her first councilor was that she could meet privately with her with everyone assuming that they very much weren't going to be discussing business. Not that their meetings didn't have a tendency to get...interesting towards the end, but they usually did try to confine their private time to the bedroom, if only to avoid scattering the carefully organized paperwork on her desk everywhere.

The other councilors filtered out of the room, and Allya nodded towards the door, with Pyn nodded and following her into her office. They had much to discuss, without the rest of the council's prying ears to spy on them.

*****

"That's...unexpected." Simply said Alexandra as the two guests approached the entrance.

"What? The fact that the leader of the assault guild is asking for a private meeting, or the fox beastkin?"

Alexandra smiled. Was that a hint of jealousy she heard in the vampire girl's tone? Apparently she didn't really like how the Earth-born had reacted to seeing the woman with fox ears and a fox tail. Which was essentially 'that's so cuuuuute!'. It wasn't especially novel for her, after all she had met plenty of people back on Earth who undertook genetic modifications, surgery or outright cybernetic augmentations to get animal characteristics, although thankfully most restrained themselves to some animal ears and tails. But she still found it very cute, especially since she loved cats and foxes as pets.

"The beastkin of course!" She said teasingly, before laughing as Emilia jabbed her in the side with her elbow. She didn't feel anything of course, as she was covered in armor, but it was the thought that counted. "Alright, alright!" Her tone went back to serious. "It's the fact that the assault guild leader is coming...and that said beastkin is cybernetically augmented."

Emilia blinked, and looked at the screen.

"Augmented? Are you sure?"

Alexandra nodded. Over the years she had become very good at discerning most cybernetic implants at a glance. First because it told you a lot when you were working in Fleet Logistics about how comfortable someone was with working with an AI, which was very important when your primary supplier was an AI led corporation. Next because on Vesta cybernetics were a good measuring stick for how wealthy and dangerous someone was. Now, she'd have been surprised to see cybernetics in the first place, but a few discussions with Emilia had brought up the subject, and apparently magitech had let the good people of Alcheryos make decent augments for millenia, if you knew a good enough artificer. And weren't afraid of the considerable price tag. This planet, and it's strange mix of medieval and high technology just kept being full of surprises it seemed.

"I'm sure. Right arm and right eye."

Emilia looked closer, and then nodded.

"Ah, I see it now. That's...odd."

"Indeed. Well." Alexandra gestured, and the entrance gate swung open, despite it being the middle of the night. "Let's see what this about."