Chapter 65

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.

City of Rebirth.

Allya sighed as she sat behind her desk. The council session had been...even worse than she'd feared. Even with Melia's help it had been a freaking nightmare. Anders had looked like he'd been hit by thunder, and Willard had bordered on apoplexy. The only persons that had seemed truly okay with it had been Ellyana and Eismi, after the enchantress had asked if those pirates took prisoners for ransom...or slavery. According to Pyn they did not, and Allya fervently hoped that it was the case, because quite frankly she wasn't sure what the twin fox eared women would do if they did. For that matter she wasn't even sure what she, herself, would do. She had a pragmatic streak a kilometer wide, and she firmly believed that the end justified the means, but there still was some lines she'd hesitate to cross.

Someone knocked at her door, and Allya frowned as Valker poked his head in. She already never had enough time allocated to dealing with that damned paperwork, and she could really do without constant interruptions.

"Milady...Guildmaster Starvak and Guild Leader Artok want to see you, urgently."

Allya's frown deepened, and she nodded instantly.

"Of course, tell him I'll be there right away! And send someone to fetch Pyn please."

"Right away milady!"

The bodyguard closed the door as he went to carry out her orders, and the baroness sighed as she got up. Hopefully, it would turn out to be good news.

*****

"Iron ore veins? Alchemical ingredients?"

"Yes milady. The adventurers are formal, and those of my people versed into geology and alchemy tell me the chunks of ore and ingredients they brought back are genuine. And I had them repeat their claims under the power of a truth stone."

Allya slowly nodded. Usually these kind of measures would have been impolite in the extreme, but in that case....Most dungeons incorporated some ore deposits in their layout, but never this early...and never in the sheer quantity these adventurers described it! Not even getting started on the sheer variety of alchemical compounds that had just been discovered in the new chests!

"That is....amazing."

"And almost unprecedented." Completed Starvak, before smiling. "Although it would hardly be the first time that this dungeon has surprised us. You've seemed to have netted yourself quite the oddball dungeon core there, milady." Allya nodded, and the guildmaster leaned back into his seat. "Of course, I have asked the assault guild if they could mount an expedition to verify these claims, alongside the new quests, and a team is being put together as we speak. I believe this team would be more than capable of protecting one of your geomancer mages, and one of your alchemist, should you want to send them as well?"

Allya nodded. It wasn't that she didn't trust the guildmaster or his adventurers, but the geomancer mages she had on the payroll were professionals, specialists in not only constructing buildings but also digging mines and exploiting mineral deposits. They were bound to have a better idea of what they were looking at than any adventurer, and might find something that the adventurers would otherwise miss. Same for alchemists, although in this case the only person she had on hand was Ellyana.

"I very much would. Thank you, guildmaster."

"The pleasure is all mine baroness." The guildmaster chuckles. "If nothing else, any additional discoveries that they might make would help me as well as you."

Allya chuckled.

"True, true. In any case, these are...very interesting news. I think I will need to convene my council to discuss them at once." Which would also let her drop this little surprise on their heads and hopefully dilute their anger over the deal with the pirates. "If nothing else, this changes some of our long term plans considerably."

"Indeed. I've already received requests from some of the artisans, especially blacksmiths and alchemists, that regularly work with the guild to assess the quality and value of the ore and ingredients that the discoverers brought back. I'm afraid you will find yourself facing similar requests as well."

Allya hid a wince. It was going to be that mess with the runic artifacts all over again! Every damned merchant and enchanter had gone crazy when the first runed weapons had been retrieved from the new golems in the water temple.

"I see. Thank you for the warning, guildmaster." Allya sighed. "Well, I believe I should be going then. At least if nothing else, our dear Crystal is keeping our lives interesting!"

Starvak laughed out loud.

"Indeed she does! Indeed she does..."

*****

"Well, it looks like we made an impression."

"No kidding." Answered Emilia drily as they contemplated the slowly disappearing carnage.

After the news from the ore veins and new ingredients had broken out, it seemed to have driven the adventurers into something of a frenzy....and some of the new arrivals had decided that the best way to deal with it was to try to break into her dungeon, managing to overrun the guards at the entrance -somehow without killing anyone-, and let at least three dozen adventurers penetrate the entrance hall before the gates slammed shut.

They'd made it about halfway through the hall of valor before Alexandra triggered the claymore mines, as the Earth born made sure they were all firmly in the kill zone.

There wasn't even a single intact body left, and the few that had somehow survived the meat grinder had been unceremoniously dispatched by the golem task force she'd had swarm the room, straight from the forges and the warehouses. There were so many dead she had honestly been worried about their capacity to resurrect them all, until Emilia had reassured her that the orb of resurrection could handle it.

Thus, Alexandra had stripped every bit of usable gear she could from the adventurers, and then watched in morbid fascination as their bodies disappeared one by one like clockwork as the resurrection orb teleported them out and began bringing them back to life.

She would have preferred a cleaner death for them honestly, but she needed to make an example, and apart for a few exceptions it had been extremely quick. In fact she was a bit more upset about the equipment. The claymores were very effective, true, but they'd also shredded most of the loot she could have gotten from this incident. A point to keep in mind if the time came to use them again outside of an absolute emergency.

"Well, at least this answers the question of if they're interested in the ore deposits."

"Or the ingredients."

"Or the ingredients." Agreed the Earth-born. She still had a bit of trouble wrapping her head around a handful of herbs and roots being precious enough to kill over, but she'd gotten used to being a floating shard of crystal, so she was pretty sure it would pass. "And we got to test the defenses in a real combat scenario!"

"Yes, indeed. Although it seemed a bit....overkill?"

Alexandra shrugged.

"There is no overkill in protecting ourselves vampy. There is only 'open fire!' and 'out of ammo!'."

Emilia giggled, and Alexandra smiled, before looking over her shoulder at the small knot of people in the command center.

"What do you guys think?"

Sarah smiled.

"It seems like a good defense milady. And an excellent lessons to these bloodbags! What do you think El?"

Ella shrugged.

"An effective contraption milady, but it has it's weaknesses. Too low to the ground for example, flight would render them ineffective."

Alexandra opened her mouth, and closed it. The vampire maid had a very good point actually. She hadn't seen that many people with flight capabilities after the assessment team, but there was bound to be some teams capable of using it...and if anyone was likely to pack something like that, it would be the kind of assholes able to pack the same kind of illegal military hardware the last would-be core thieves had thrown at her.

"An excellent point, thank you!"

The vampire maid smiled, and bowed slightly, and Alexandra turned her towards her boss and....robot butler? She'd need to find Jared a job description sometime.

"It was awesome! Can I have some in my boss room?" Said CQ.

Alexandra shook her head slightly.

"I'm sorry, but no, it would ruin the challenge, and probably make it impossible for many to get to you."

"Awww...." CQ almost drooped, and Alexandra felt her heart positively melt.

"But I'm sure we'll find something equally powerful for your archmages in the future!" Quickly added Alexandra.

"Really? That would be awesome!"

Alexandra quickly nodded, ignoring Emilia's snicker, and subsequent 'ow' as she firmly elbowed her advisor.

"Of course."

The Earth born looked at Jared, but the golem remained impassive as ever, although he exhuded an impression of...satisfaction, although that was probably her imagination.

Probably.

"Alright, well, I'll call today successful, if nothing else this is one hell of a boon."

"And a good reminder for them to stick to the schedule." Said Emilia, causing Alexandra to nod. After all, her entire logistical infrastructure depended on that. "Besides, it might cause them to augment the first few escorts for the civilians!"

"Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of snapping up some of those groups?"

Emilia shrugged.

"At first, yes. But not only will it be more people generating mana, but it will also make them overconfident! After all, their first few expeditions will go on without a hitch thanks to that protection, and corporations being corporations..."

"They'll cut every expense they think they can get away with, and underestimate the adventurers they need."

"Yep!"

Alexandra nodded. That made sense, and the mana bonus would be a nice boost. Although to be fair mana wasn't a big worry anymore. It wasn't that she was swimming in the stuff, but she hadn't undertaken any major building project in a while, and after the massive costs of replacing her golem reserves she was finally accumulating a considerable stockpile, even with her creative accounting for her final defense fund. A fund which, given the stockpile and the dungeon's operating costs, was quickly getting colossal.

"Well, I suppose we'll see. Now, Ella, what happened during our latest batch of alchemical tests?" One of the nice things she'd been able to do now that she had two highly intelligent, very skilled and extremely bored vampires on her hand is that she had been able to delegate some of her experiments and almost double the speed at which she could do stuff. It wasn't perfect of course -and had required a bit of training to truly hammer in the scientific method into the maids' skulls- but it was very, very helpful.

The maid shrugged.

"The latest batch of poisons has come out alright milday. Quality isn't what I'd consider good, but I use them, I don't usually make them. Still, they should be more than useful for your purposes. As for the automation...." The maid's face contorted a bit, coming the closest to visible frustration that Alexandra had ever seen from the vampire maid. "It has...failed. Your golems follow instructions to the letter, but poisons like this demand a more...delicate touch. The low grade potions were successful, but of somewhat poor quality, even for mass produced ones."

Alexandra winced. She'd feared something like that honestly, her golems were good, but judging when something was done cooking, or finely manipulating chemicals was somewhat out of their intended functions.

"I'll see if I can come up with a more dexterous variant." And one with a bit more smarts.

Ella bowed.

"That would be most appreciated milady."

"Right." All the bowing and scraping made her uncomfortable, but the vampire maids just wouldn't take 'no' for an answer when it came to it. "And Sarah, is the next round of tests for the 3rd floor ready?"

The vampire maid smiled broadly. Which, if she had been anyone else, would have looked quite charming, but coming from an ex-spec ops psycopath was borderline terrifying. Alexandra hadn't learned that much on the maids' past, but she had done some digging, and the few bits she had managed to get from Emilia or the other Oswalds had been...terrifying, even from her. Honestly if she wasn't so sure they would sacrifice themselves in a heartbeat to save Emilia, she would have probably taken some pretty extreme measures to ensure they remained under control already.

"Oh it very much is. Would you like to see it?"

Alexandra looked to her side at Emilia, who enthusiastically nodded.

"Absolutely!"