Chapter 46

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.

City of Rebirth, administration tent.

"Well, at least our dungeon core friend is helping keeping things interesting." Said Allya sarcastically as she read the report in front of her. An area of the dungeon, the mysterious water structure, had just been opened for the first time, and adventurers were rushing to explore it.

Pyn shrugged, which as always had an impressive effect on her chest, drawing a few glances from Allya, which of course made the insufferable elf smirk.

"Well, she doesn't have to report anything to us. But hey, at least she's growing, that's always good."

"Fair enough." Allya sighed, and rubbed her face. "I guess I'm just...a bit twitchy at the lack of control, or even head's up."

"Well, unless you want to formally ask her..."

"Not right now. Later...Maybe. But we have to focus on one thing at a time. By the way, how are the houses going?"

"Walls are up, we'll be doing the roofs soon. We've also started working on the keep, so we don't have to continue doing the city's administration in a tent. Houses should start becoming livable in a few days, although they'll be barren of anything but sinks, toilets and showers."

"Eh, most adventurers have brought sleeping bags, and there is a furniture merchant in the convoy Elkaryos sent with the royal envoy. That man is going to become rich." She chuckled. "We should probably put some orders in before everyone does."

"Already done."

Allya rose an eyebrow in surprise, and Pyn smiled smugly at her.

"You're not the only one that can anticipate things you know. And I've ordered a bunch of...miscellaneous furniture on top of everything else."

Allya's expression went from curious to alarmed in an instant, and Pyn started laughing at her girlfriend's horrified expression.

"No shopping, you promise, right?"

"Well, not for furniture. Reminds me, we were supposed to visit the caravan outside, right?"

"Right. I had completely forgot."

"I hadn't, but figured you wanted to let them stew a bit."

Allya smiled.

"Thank you for at least believing I didn't fuck up. Well, in that case, I can clear my afternoon, what about you?"

"My teams can carry on for the day without me. Want to go right now?"

"Might as well."

"Well, in that case..." Pyn rose up, smiling, and grabbed Allya's hand. The baroness had a second to realize that Pyn was probably going to drag her around every stall like this, before Pyn began tugging, and they made their way to their room to change.

*****

Alexandra winced as the thumper fired, and the paladin went flying. The news of the newly opened water temple seemed to have sent the guild into a bit of a frenzy on the surface, as the schedule had been redrawn in light of the new discovery, to avoid a small riot by the high ranked adventurers. Honestly she had expected them to just clear the schedule and send in the assault guild, but they seemed to be staying on the sideline for now, although Alexandra couldn't figure out why. Maybe they'd outsourced the mapping a bit, or were trying to recruit higher ranked adventurers, given that the highest rank she had seen them so far was copper, and it was pretty clear it wasn't high enough to get through the temple.

In any case, the silver party was back, and, well....they weren't doing so hot now.

To be fair, as soon as she had seen them head in she had immediately produced a few thumpers and distributed them throughout the water temple. It wasn't being vindictive, just...an appreciation of their skill and power. And if it happened to send the annoying, punning paladin ('punladin' Emilia had called him) straight to the resurrection room, well, that was just a happy side effect.

The paladin crumpled to the ground, after hitting the wall, and Alexandra almost huffed in annoyance as he started trying to get up again. What did it take to kill this guy?

A few seconds later the battle ended as their mage simply ran out of patience, and started simply throwing golems at each other, like a jedi on steroids from those old star wars movies. At nigh-supersonic speeds.

Needless to say, the golems weren't exactly designed to withstand hits from cannonballs the size of a person, and were wiped out in short order.

The mage staggered, and nearly collapsed, clearly having the wind knocked out of him, and he was probably the better off one. Every member of the party was wounded to some degree, and the paladin had to be dragged upright, and even then it was fairly clear he at least had several bones broken.

They concerted quickly, and decided to pull back, and Alexandra sighed and reintegrated her body.

"Well, they're leaving."

Emilia shrugged.

"That's rather unsurprising. They've gotten their asses kicked after all."

"Well, yes, but that was more because they didn't know what to expect than anything else."

"Fair enough."

Alexandra sighed, and looked at the screen bitterly. She knew her best chance to take out a party of such a high rank, at least compared to the other adventuring parties, was to get them in one of those not yet documented encounters. It was almost frightening how easy it became for adventurers to take out her golems and bosses when they documented their every move. Even steel ranked parties could take out the spider tank without fatalities now, and some had started poking their noses into the 2nd floor. Fortunately she changed the position of the replacement bouncing betty every time one went off, so they couldn't rely on pre-made maps, and most of those parties didn't have rogues or rangers good enough to spot all of the mines. Which meant that they usually got someone blown up, and then promptly retreated to the surface.

Alexandra sighed again, and glanced at Emilia.

"So, what's next on the list?"

Emilia pulled out her notebook and opened it at the right page with the smooth efficiency that only extensive practice could give you, quickly read a few lines, and looked back up.

"Challenges and quests?" She said in a curious and questioning tone.

Alexandra smiled.

"Oh, now this is going to be fun."

*****

"Hello misses, how may I help you?"

Allya shook her head as Pyn leaned on the counter, smiling widely, and the merchant almost flinched, his face suddenly slightly worried as he registered the almost predatory air in the elf's movements. Poor bastard, over the last few days Pyn had becoming better and better at negotiating things, and she had dealt with far, far tougher people than the clothes merchant.

She looked around, and almost chuckled as no one even gave her a second look. Pyn might have had some good basic ideas on how to disguise their identities, but Allya was...no, had been an assassin. She knew how even relatively simple changes could make a well known person into a total stranger. The first step had been to change out of their usual adventuring outfits into lighter, more common versions -her spare had also been heat and cold proofed, much to Pyn's annoyance-, then a few quick dyes for their hair, some change in hairstyles, and a few accessories, like a hat for her and some flashy bracelets for Pyn, and bam, they looked like well off, but relatively low ranked adventurers, reinforced by their guild medallions which still displayed their old steel rank. They weren't wearing their noble medallions of course.

Then she looked to the side at Éclair, and had to stop herself from laughing. When their bodyguard had made it clear that she was coming with them, they'd had to work on making her as hard to recognize as possible, and in her case it had been surprisingly easy. Dyeing her hair black, having her change into regular adventuring clothes, and switching her signature gunblade for a less conspicuous shortsword had done the trick. Oh, and have her stop glaring at everyone that got within 10 meters of them, and stop scowling all the time. She looked relaxed now, and quite beautiful. In fact, Allya was fairly sure she wasn't gathering any second glances because everyone that was inclined to was firmly focused on Éclair instead.

"Sold!"

Allya blinked, and looked back to the stall, where Pyn was smiling broadly as she exchanged some mana stones and coins for a package of clothes with the merchant. He didn't look as traumatized as the last one, but he definitely looked slightly shaken by Pyn's aggressive negotiating style, and Allya had to stop herself from laughing. No one expected the cute, clueless elf to fleece you after all.

Pyn quickly shoved the package into her dimensional pouch, and winked at Allya, who simply shook her head, smiling.

"So, what's next?" The baroness asked her girlfriend.

"Well, we've done lingerie, potions, clothing, now we should check out enchanted trinkets and weapons."

Allya nodded, coloring slightly at her mention of lingerie. Pyn had to physically drag her into the shop (which fortunately was a rather well secured tent), and Éclair had flatly refused to enter, opting to stay at a nearby stall for them. Why was there even such a shop in a merchant caravan? Never mind, she was fairly sure she didn't want to know. In any case, Pyn had been...an enthusiastic buyer to say the least, buying a multitude of items for her and Allya, even going so far as looking into some of the more...niche outfits. She'd also taken the merchant's business card, and asked them if they wanted to stay in the dungeon town. Given some of the stuff she'd seen her girlfriend pick out, Allya wasn't sure if she should be encouraging it or try to chase the merchant away.

"Alright. Trinkets first then."

"Sure!"

They took a few minutes to navigate the merchant encampment -it felt like a miniature version of the Great Bazaar-, and arrived at a fairly crowded shop for magical trinkets and general utility items. Adventurers were clustered at the counter or nearby, discussing items, prices, and arguing loudly over the relative benefits compared to some of the dungeon's golems and traps. Allya smiled, that, if nothing else, was a vivid reminder that they were in a dungeon town. And that she owned it. Well, Pyn and her owned it.

They quickly made their way through the clusters of adventurers, and stopped at the counter to look at the wares. Every item was carefully labeled, and there even was several enchanted tablets embedded into the counter with a list of available items, with complete descriptions and prices.

Allya was so busy looking into the list -particularly relating to protection talismans and invisibility- that she almost jumped up when someone tapped her on the shoulder. She forced herself to turn around at a normal speed, instead of whirling around, daggers in hand, and looked at the adventurer that had tapped on her shoulder, with Éclair trying her best not to glare holes into the poor girl's head.

An adventurer that she very much recognized actually, once she took the time to look her over.

"Dominique?" She said, slightly surprised.

The guild attendant opened her mouth, and Allya grabbed her hand, squeezing it to prevent her from speaking.

"It's good to see you! Hold on, let's find somewhere quieter to talk."

She quickly turned around towards Pyn, who simply nodded, having been disturbed by Allya turning around, and they stepped away from the stall. Allya frowned, then picked up a quiet looking bar/restaurant -it was hard to tell from a distance-, and made a beeline for it. They all sat around a table in the shade of the tent, and Allya looked around. The place really was deserted, there wasn't even a barkeep that she could see.

She turned towards Dominique, and smiled wrily.

"Hey."

"Hello." The guild attendant looked at them. "I assume you're here incognito? That's the only explanation I can think of."

"Well, yes. Wait, how did you recognize us?"

Dominique smiled and tapped an earring she had on her right ear, which looked quite ornate now that Allya looked at it.

"Guild attendant remember? I've been given an enchanted object that lets me read guild medallions without having to use a slate. When I saw your names I instantly knew something was out of place. I mean, what are the odds there's another pair of dagger loving human and stacked elf named Allya and Pyn in the city, right?"

Allya winced. She hadn't gone as crazy with daggers as she usually did, but she had still taken six with her, just in case.

"Fair enough."

"Well..." Said Dominique in the awkward silence. "I'm not going to ask you why you girls are...well, like this obviously. So what were you looking for? I've been through the shops once, maybe I can give you a hand."

Allya was about to reject the proposition, when she suddenly stopped and thought about it. A 4 person ground would be enough to form a standard adventuring party, and they were pretty balanced if she thought about it. Ranger, rogue, a caster and a paladin, with Dominique being the caster and Éclair the paladin. They would look even less suspicious if they brought her aboard.

"Sure, why not?" Allya gestured toward Pyn. "She's the one doing the list of stuff we need, you can talk about it with her."

Dominique nodded, and Pyn leaned forward, bombarding her with questions, and suddenly Allya had a sinking feeling. If Dominique knew the shops...

She had made a horrible mistake, hadn't she?

*****

"Are you sure this will work?"

Alexandra looked to the side at Emilia, and shrugged.

"I think it will. But I guess we'll see."

They both looked back at the screen, where a group of adventurers was excitedly reading the screens in the entrance hall. Until now they'd been displaying basic stuff, number of parties and adventurers in the dungeon, floor by floor, that kind of thing. Now, however, it displayed something significantly different.

A quest board.

Needless to say, it seemed to have grabbed the adventurers' attention. Particularly when the rewards were so...generous. For now there were only 3 quests, one for clearing the first challenge room, another for using the shrine of war and then defeating the spider tank -since few people used it and it was sort of pissing Alexandra off-, and the last one for a unique encounter in a ruin in the second floor, consisting of an old Palace Guard Mk2 'officer' visiting the ruins, with its escort. The quests signaled that there was no guarantee that another party would not complete them, so if they wanted them done they'd better rush. That part was to encourage them to be...less cautious than usual, even if they were the first party of the day. Alexandra had also set some new quests to appear every 3 hours, with a maximum of 6 quests displayed at any one time, to avoid overloading the adventurers for now. Quests would automatically reset at midnight, to keep things fresh.

The adventurers continued talking and arguing, then....turned around and exited the dungeon. Alexandra stared at the screen for several seconds, not believing what she just saw, before her mind reasserted itself. Of course they would make a beeline for the exit, they were probably going to talk to the assault guild representative parked permanently near the entrance.

"They...left?" Said Emilia, surprised.

"Yep. Probably going to report it to the guild. Then they'll come back. Or sell their spot to another party."

"I don't think the guild would allow that."

"Neither do I, but you never know."

They waited a few minutes, then, at long last, the party re-entered her influence, with Artok in tow. There was a lot of talking and gesticulating when they arrived at the quest board, then Artok nodded, transferred a pouch of what Alexandra assumed was mana crystals, and left. Looking particularly happy with themselves, the adventurers congratulated each other, and then re-read the quests, their mage quickly writing them down, before heading into the first room.

Alexandra looked away from the screen -nothing was going to happen for a while, most likely-, and looked at Emilia.

"So, now that this is in place, we watch how they do, and then go back to the workshop?"

Emilia nodded, then stopped, and Alexandra winced as she pulled out her notebook.

"Uh-uh. The workshop you say. Are you suggesting that because the next item on the list is 'decorate the water temple'?"

Alexandra tried her best smile.

"Noooo?"

Emilia just deadpanned at her, and Alexandra sighed.

"Okay, maybe. Pretty please?" Then she played her trump card. "We're likely to be interrupted once other parties try the new quests, especially if this one doesn't complete them all, do you really want us to be interrupted while doing the design?"

The vampire girl frowned thoughtfully.

"Okay, fair enough. But we'll do it tomorrow!"

Alexandra nodded. It wasn't much, but a day of respite was a day of respite. Besides, she was almost done on some of her new runed weapon prototypes.

"Of course!"

*****

Alexandra's eyebrow rose as the adventuring party erupted in cheers.

"Well they seem happy."

Emilia finished chewing her potato slice before answering.

"That's because the reward is very generous. A scroll of lightning arcs, which might I remind you is a mass spell, as well as a bracelet of power beam? Plus the potions and ingredients? That's very good. Albeit a bit...unimaginative."

Alexandra winced.

"It was simpler to use the rewards of the chest. Besides nobody has seen the contents yet, everyone uses lightning spells to successfully clear the spider golems."

"Maybe make it a quest then, so people figure it out?"

"That's...an excellent idea actually."

TO-DO LIST UPDATED

"Hey, look, they're arguing whether to go to the water temple or not."

Alexandra looked back to the screen, and nodded as some of the adventurers pointed at the drawbridge and argued. Unfortunately their party leader didn't let the victories and loot get to his head, and firmly refused to go. Damned rangers, always too level headed. The party turned around, and headed back towards the entrance to the floor, and the elevator there.

"Well, that worked out pretty well in terms of garnering attention."

"But poorly in terms of benefits for us." Said Emilia, which was fair, since not a single member of their party had died.

Alexandra shrugged.

"That was fairly predictable. They were copper ranked, and we saw them delve a couple of time. It's when lower ranking teams arrive that we'll start to get people overestimate their chances of winning. Sort of like carnival games, but deadlier."

Emilia giggled, and Alexandra made a note that the vampire girl hadn't asked what carnival games were. Which meant there probably was an equivalent on this world. Which...wasn't surprising, it was a very old concept, and people would always try to sort of scam other people. She idly wondered if they had plushies as prizes as well, before shaking her head.

"Alright, to the workshop then!" She smiled. "We're nearly done with those staffs, and I'd really like to see how they fare once deployed."

Emilia smiled.

"Same here. Oh, speaking of those staffs....We could add some engravings to...mask the runes."

Alexandra winced. She knew that Emilia was just trying to sugar coat some more aesthetic design but...the vampire girl wasn't wrong. They'd discovered the hard way that someone could neutralize a runed item by striking a rune on it, so trying to obfuscate them might be worth it. Plus, if it placated her advisor for a bit...

"Sure! But let's no go overboard."

"Of course!"