Chapter 105

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.

Dungeon Factory, Primary Forge

"Damn, I feel stupid for not thinking of that before." Said Alexandra as she looked at the mining golems.

"Its hardly your fault. Sometimes stuff slip by you." Emilia grimaced. "Gods know it happens often enough to me! And I don't have everything going on you do."

That was as close as Emilia would come to alluding to their covert projects with the maids present, and Alexandra nodded.

Still…it stung a bit.

In front of her, one of the golems walked to a new section of ore, took the jackhammer off of its shoulder, and began drilling into the ore like an angry god, its mechanical body absorbing the vibrations of the machine without a single issue. How it hadn't occurred to her earlier to make something so essential, effective and yet so simple, she'd never know. It wasn't that much more complicated than animating the limbs of her golems, since she didn't need pneumatics if she could directly impart momentum onto the chisel parts, although that had required significant tweaks to her runes -some of which had gotten her fascinating insights into just why her pulser prototype had failed-, and it had multiplied the effectiveness of her mining operations. Plus, with her new steel production she could manufacture the chisels for dirt cheap, and magic gave the tool far more power than anything Earth had before the mid 21st century and the proper mastery of gauss weaponry and magnetic tools.

She'd even laid off using blasting charges for now, as the jackhammers had enough power that it was cheaper to simply use more of them than to weaken the ore with some good old explosives.

"Alright. Now, I believe we were heading towards the third floor?"

"Yep!" Emilia nodded towards Sarah, who smiled.

"You'll be delighted to see the new trap milady!" Said the maid. "And Ella has made considerable progress with the plants."

"Well, let's take a look then." Said Alexandra, before leading her small party into the nearby elevator.

It took them less than five minutes to reach the third floor. It was kind of interesting, her logistical network was evolving so fast you could definitely see which parts had been built when. Yes, she took the time to retrofit the older parts, but you could definitely see where the upgrades and security systems had been added rather than built in. Every small discovery she made while researching other things, like the optimization for kinesys runes for the jackhammer, were applied everywhere she could. The elevator moved noticeably faster and for less energy, to the point that there now were air vents to allow the air being pushed to leave, and her golems were moving ever so slightly faster now, with a small, but noticeable, increase in agility to boot.

As they stepped off the elevator, Alexandra took a deep breath. It was no ocean, but the smell of water permeated the air thanks to the constant waterfalls. It was also humid as hell, but she didn't really care, one of the perks of her new body.

Emilia and her maid very much did, but they both had enchanted clothing or spells to sidestep the issue. As a matter of fact, Emilia was outright surrounded by a forcefield holding the water at bay, allowing her to walk even in the middle of the rivers without issue.

"Still afraid of getting wet vampy?" Said Alexandra, grinning at her advisor.

"Only when it doesn't involve you honey." Answered Emilia with a seductive voice, causing her dungeon core to look at her in bewilderment and literally walk into a pillar.

The vampire girl laughed out loud, followed by some discreet chuckled from her maid as the Earth-born shook her head.

"Wha-What the fuck was that?"

"You're not the only one who can do some teasing Alex. Besides, you've been constantly harrowing me about this spell! I just want to stay clean."

"Well…yes. It was just quite funny."

"And so is your reaction every time I start teasing you about a more…physical relationship. Would you like me to do that constantly?"

To Alexandra's horror she wasn't sure how she should answer, before shaking her head.

"No, of course not. Fine, I'll lay it off."

"Excellent."

Alexandra watched as Emilia imperiously walked by, and exchanged a look with the maid, who simply shrugged. But she detected approval in the maid's gaze, and began following her advisor.

A minute later they were next to the new trap, one of the holding pools for water, which would become a pond surrounded by vegetation when the floor was finished, technically separate from the main river flowing down the step pyramid, but still having a small stream of water coming in and out, linking back into the main system.

"Alright, let's prepare the test." Alexandra snapped her finger -theatrical, but she was starting to acquire a flare for the dramatic now that she had so much power at her fingertips-, and half a dozen golems appeared out of thin air, dropping into the pool.

They landed smoothly, which made the Earth-born smile, remembering the stiff, dumb as rocks golems she had started out with. With months and months of spare time for programming, she was capable of making automata that had almost, if not quite, the range of movement and agility a baseline human would have. Of course she only put those programs into her more advanced golems in the adventurer parts, to keep her lower level encounters stocked with idiotic, easy to kill minions for the adventurers to profit and come back for more, but if she wanted to she could load the new programs in a few seconds and turn every standard golem into a martial artist capable to burying iron level adventurers.

"Hardly representative of flesh." Remarked Emilia.

"True. But I'm not going to tie steaks to their limbs. Besides, killing the adventurers isn't the point. Wards up?"

Emilia snapped open her grimoire, and before long forcefields formed around the small knot of vampires and golem bodyguards, the dungeon core having finally decided on a lighter security detail to accompany her advisor. Alexandra nodded, and gestured at the pool.

"Starting acid trap test number one…now."

There was a metallic click as she finished, nothing visibly happened.

But beneath the surface of the water, a dozen small holes opened, letting out a stream of deadly acid.

The golems' feet and lower legs -the water came up almost to their shins- began sizzling, and Alexandra ordered them to begin trashing.

They practically covered themselves in the acid water, almost looking like they were boiling. Alexandra waited for a few dozen seconds, then shut down the mechanism and absorbed all of the acid laden water.

"There." She looked at the golems, and smiled. They were definitely damaged, but perfectly functional. "And they're still active! Wonderful!"

"Humans might have a bit of a harder time."

"True, but they have essence and potions, not to mention enchanted gear, my golems to do not." Alexandra shrugged. "Low level groups would get massacred, but this is the third floor damn it, anyone who isn't silver isn't going to make it here."

"I suppose that's fair. But what's to stop them from just…skirting the pool once word gets out?"

"Simple. I'll leave some cobra golems at the bottom of the pool, camouflaged if at all possible. When the adventurers come in, their job will be to splash them with as much of it while moving."

"What if they just throw a lightning spell in?"

"The cobras are well shielded enough that they'll take a few seconds to be fried. Which will allow them to throw the acid around anyway." Alexandra shrugged. "Its not perfect, but it is the first trap and reward room, we don't need to start off with the ultra vicious stuff."

The Earth-born pointedly ignored Sarah's huff of disappointment, before stretching.

"Alright, that was a pretty simple test, but I say it was conclusive. The acid mix appears to be just right, my thanks to you and Ella, Sarah."

The maid beamed at the compliment, and Emilia cleared her throat.

"Speaking of Ella…"

"Yes, yes, I know, let's go visit her. I'm sure she hasn't vanished in a puff of smoke since you last saw her."

This time Alexandra did manage to dodge the book.

*****

"So, what do you think of our Gorromarian associates?" Said Allya as she sat down with a sigh on the council chair. She wasn't fragile or out of shape by any stretch of the imagination, but these last few days had taken it out of her.

"They're arrogant pains in the ass, which is made ten times worse by the fact that they clearly know better, at least in this case." Pyn grimaced as she took the mug of coffee waiting for her on the table. Their guards were becoming almost scary in predicting their nobles' habits, and they had ample time to learn their taste. Which in Pyn's case was coffee strong enough to almost float a horseshoe in. "But they're doing fantastic work. I don't…understand some of the stuff they're doing. I guess laying iron bars inside the walls to reinforce them makes sense, but I'm still doubtful this 'concrete' of theirs is worth the trouble."

"I believe it will be. It is, after all, just uniform stone on demand." Well, that was probably a gross oversimplification, but Allya was a noble, trained as the strange mix of military commander and politician of scions not expected to inherit, not a damned geomancer. "And as you said, they know what they're doing. Has their security been a problem?"

One of the big reasons they had decided to hire the Gorromarians in the end despite their high price compared to the other options was that they came with their own security detail and safety guarantees from the city state. Might not give the Republic's military pause, but saboteurs would be unlikely to want to tangle with Gorromarian soldiers, and besides that anything that could let her save her precious and stretched thin manpower was worth it.

"Well, they're not really subtle or caring about who they tell to fuck off, but they certainly are effective. Plus side of having a bunch of maniacs that only believe in the military is that when a pompous-merchant-son-of-whoever starts demanding stuff they tell them to fuck off or eat sand."

"Having trouble with high born?"

"Scions of merchant houses or representatives with a stick up their asses. They seem to think that as your companion I'm the person to come to when they want discreet business done. I don't know, they seem to think I whisper to you sweet words in bed and pull your strings or something. They're also…usually very insufferable about my 'luck' in marrying 'above my station'."

Allya's mug slammed on the table, and her eyes lit with hellfire.

"Oh really. Do reassure me, you didn't let that kind of talk slide did you?"

"Well, no, but before I could do anything about it Rogard intervened. You know how…direct he can be."

Allya smiled. She knew exactly how the withered bodyguard would react to something like that. One of the many reasons she loved the old elf.

"How many ribs did he break?"

"Actually, he just dislocated the bitch's jaw and challenged her to a duel for my honor. I hope you don't mind."

"Oh no, it's probably for the best. I assume she apologized and backed off?"

"After she downed a healing potion and regained the ability to speak, yes."

"Good."

Very good, in fact, because had it been Allya in this situation, she probably wouldn't have allowed that merchant to back off. And she didn't exactly have the greatest of records when it came to duels over her love.

"Are you okay?" Said Pyn, concern clear in her life as she looked at her girlfriend's grim face.

"Yes, I'm fine. Just…an old memory, that's all." Said Allya as she quickly brought up her mug and took a sip.

"Right…" Said the elf, doubt clear in her tone and on her face. But before the ranger could continue, the door to the council room opened, and Anders walked in.

"Ah, miladies! Apologies for the interruption, I know our meeting wasn't supposed to start for another hour, but I have news."

"Which are?"

"A company of mercenaries has arrived to offer their services!"

Ally and Pyn exchanged a look.

"Spontaneously?" Asked the baroness.

"Yes. Although to be fair, their leader seems to be known for her business sense. Apparently she saw the unfolding mess, and decided to come here instead of enrolling with the kingdom to guard the northern border."

"I see…" Allya shrugged. "Well, I suppose the least I can do is meet with their leader, if they came all this way." Not that she was in a position to refuse help. Crystal might be willing to help against the Republic, but she had internal enemies growing bolder with each passing day to deal with as well. "What's the leader's name? For that matter, what's the company's name?"

"She calls herself Assaria, ma'am. Commander of the Void Blades."