Chapter 22

Red Sands Desert, Contested Border Region.

Dungeon Factory, 1st Floor.

"This went well...mostly."

Emilia scoffed, and Alexandra looked at her, raising an eyebrow.

"For certain definitions of well, sure." The vampire girl shrugged under the Earth-born's inquisitive glare. "I mean, we did get some interesting stuff, but it really would have been nice to get the copper ranked mage. The steel ranked one was fine, but still..."

Alexandra chuckled.

"Can't help but want more?"

"Sort off, yeah."

The Earth-born smiled.

"Well, at least we did get some stuff out of it."

Emilia nodded in response.

"We'll have to sort through all of it. Although I'll admit the chips were nice. But I'm really hoping he had some runed or enchanted items." She frowned. "I get why the God of Fire specifically ordered us to limit the spells we could bring with us to a new dungeon to utility ones, and forbade us to teach you combat spells bar extreme circumstances, but it's still annoying as all hell." She huffed. "The things we could do if I was authorized to teach you blood magic!"

Alexandra nodded.

"I'm annoyed as well. But hey, at least I don't have to salivate over a bajillion offensive options." She winced. "Not that I'd mind a few more. Power beam is nice, but it has it's limits."

Emilia looked at the Earth-born, tilting her head.

"Don't you have the bracelet of leap as well? You know, from the one that tried to steal your core?"

Alexandra sighed.

"I do, but, well...let's put it this way, the golems don't have programming complex enough to handle it. It doesn't make them into leaping warriors, it turns them into cannonballs. They make a nice dent in what they hit, but still...cannonballs." She froze, and then smashed her fist into her open palm. "I KNOW!" She suddenly rushed out of the command center, and came back a few seconds later, holding her tiny spider golem prototype triumphantly. "I could use those!"

Emilia looked at the small spider golem, and nodded.

"Ah, I see. Use them as projectiles?"

Alexandra smiled.

"Precisely. Strap a bag of silica powder onto them, and bam, you've got leaping mines." She winced. "Reminds me of EuroFed mag-mines in a way. They were useful, but damn those things gave me the creeps. Always thought my IFF was going to fail, and I'd get blown up." She brightened up. "Still, I'm sure they'll do wonders!"

Emilia politely nodded, and pulled out an innocuous notebook, quickly noting down something, before putting it away. Alexandra had to hide a smile, she knew her advisor noted down terms she wanted to ask about....but later, to avoid distracting her dungeon core. Not that it was a problem with Alexandra, she knew she could get distracted easily, and she was perfectly willing to have the vampire girl manage her a bit.

"Sure. That should work." She then started tapping her fingers onto the table. "Now, about that loot?"

"Oh, right, sure!" Answered Alexandra, before plunging into dungeon mode. "Uh...Wow, that's diverse."

If anything, what she had just said was understatement. She whistled softly as the list of new materials scrolled by.

"How so?" Asked the vampire girl, tilting her head.

"Well, there's what I assume to be alchemical ingredients -that, or he really likes plants-, some new type of cloth that I don't recognize. A whole bunch of miscellaneous things, and- oh wow!"

"What? What is it?"

Alexandra grinned, and looked straight into her advisor's eyes.

"Spell scrolls."

Emilia returned her grin. Maybe it was time for a spellcasting golem. Not a 'true' one of course, since she didn't even begin to fathom how hard it would be to have them actually incant or mindcast. But she could do with a sorcerer wielding scrolls or a grimoire. Hell, she could even get some to CQ.

"Well, that opens some possibilities. I can definitely help with that. Where do you plan on putting some spellcasters though? Are you going to expand the floor."

Alexandra stopped, and thought for a few seconds.

Emilia's idea was tempting, but.

"No." She said as she shook her head. "I think the 1st floor is...fine for now. Maybe even a bit too difficult. I might have to tone it down. No, I think it's time to think...taller instead of wider."

Emilia's eyes widened, and she jumped up, suddenly excited.

"You mean a second floor?!?"

Alexandra took a step back.

"Y-Yes? Are you alright?"

Emilia grabbed her shoulders, and shook her.

"Am I alright? Alex I'm ecstatic! A new floor! Finally, we can do another whole theme! A better, more original design than just hallways and rooms, and then even more hallways and rooms! Plus, all dungeons count their status by the number of floor they have!"

To her credit, the last part really did sound like an afterthought, which was reassuring. The last thing Alexandra needed was for Emilia to start worrying about comparing her to other dungeons.

"What do you mean, a whole new theme?"

Emilia gave her a look that suddenly made Alexandra feel very small, despite having a good 20cm on her advisor. It also made her very, very cute.

"Are you telling me that you're planning on making it just like the first one? Just boring, dusty hallways?"

"W-Well-"

"Oh no you don't!" Emilia held up her finger under Alexandra's nose. "I'm not going to let you go down that rabbit hole! Each and every floor must have a theme! Both in challenges and esthetic! Preferably a new floor plan design philosophy, but I'll understand if you have to replicate some. But no just making more and more dusty hallways! That's for lazy, unimaginative dungeons that just sit there doing nothing for centuries on end!" She looked Alexandra straight in the eyes. "Are you one of those dungeons Alex?"

Alexandra firmly shook her head.

"No. No I'm not."

Emilia smiled, and took a step back.

"Good! Now, let's start thinking of a theme for the new floor. I was thinking something to do with water-"

Oh Gods no. Not an aesthetic design discussion, thought Alexandra. But it was too late, she'd agreed with her advisor...and Emilia was in full swing, there was no stopping her now without making her mad or sad, and Alexandra couldn't even decide which was the worst from her perspective, because she was sure she'd melt away and end up acquiescing either way.

This was going to be a long day.

*****

"Finally! You're here!"

Artok lifted his head, and smiled as he saw lady Aubétoile and lady Windwrath walking towards him. The baroness was hiding it well, but her worry was clear on her face for someone like him.

That or it was just wishful thinking.

The assault guild leader tried to bow as the nobles approached, and was unceremoniously stopped by the baroness grabbing his shoulder.

"To hell with the formalities! Gods, you look like shit! What happened?"

Artok winced.

"Well, you see-"

*****

"I see." Said Allya as she sat back into her chair.

Her office was sparsely furnished, but comfortable nevertheless. She didn't need the gilding and art treasures most nobles felt the need to put on display to boost their egos, and she hadn't acquired the sort of collections of memorabilia Starvak had. Then again, she hadn't lived a tenth as long as he had, nor had she reached adamantium rank before retiring. Maybe someday she'd have something approaching that, thanks to the dungeon. Someday.

She sighed.

"Well, at least it could have gone worse." Said Pyn.

Allya smiled. They'd both waited anxiously for the assault guild to emerge from the dungeon, acutely aware that their financial future might depend on their delves. The exit of the iron ranked members, with their massively burned wounded had been a huge blow to their confidence, and the more time went one, the more they feared they'd gotten wiped out, and would have to recuperate in whatever passed as a recovery area of the dungeon after being resurrected to leave.

Fortunately, that hadn't been the case. It had, however, not been that much better.

Like Pyn said, still could have been worse, Allya thought to herself.

"Indeed." She said, slowly shaking her head. "At least miss Elistria and miss Elahyl got through relatively unharmed." She nodded at the two adventurers standing in the corner of her office, due to the lack of room. "And you only took two fatalities overall. That's impressive, especially given some of the...incidents along the way."

She had to restrain a snarl as she remembered smelling the stench of burned flesh from the group of burned adventurers. She'd smelled that before, and it hadn't brought back pleasant memories. She hadn't earned her title of assassin for nothing, and incineration was a simple way to get rid of corpses. What had that mage been thinking?!? Whatever had gone through that idiot's head, he was most likely far past regretting it now. She'd been livid after hearing the story, after all she had to work with a pyromaniac mage she didn't trusted behind her back, namely Orokis, so the point hit particularly close to home. But that had been nothing compared to Starvak. She'd almost thought the guild master was going to rip apart the burnt mage with his bare hands. He hadn't -quite- kicked him out of the guild, but he'd simply told him that he could either attend a magic coven where they practiced spell combat discipline for a year...or give him his medallion. Needless to say, the mage had taken option 1.

"Thank you." Artok shifted a bit, wincing as the movement no doubt hurt given his injuries. "Still doesn't make it a royal pain in the ass. Sure, they're not dead, but resurrection isn't especially pleasant. And they lost about a fifth of their essence in the process. Still a better deal than being resurrected by a priest though, and at least they got to cultivate a bit before leaving."

Allya nodded. She'd been a bit surprised that the dungeon -Crystal, damn it, if she was going to live with the core as her primary source of income, she might as well call her by her name- had allowed the adventurers to cultivate for a bit before leaving. While it didn't account for all the essence they had lost, it had been a nice boost, and would definitely help them recover faster.

She had cultivated herself near the dungeon's entrance -a perk of her position being that the guards didn't even bat an eyebrow-, and she'd been pleasantly surprised at the slow, but veritable stream of mana she had managed to rein in. It wasn't anything like absorbing a mana crystal of course, but it was very nice, and it had helped her recharge her mana reserve. Pyn had accompanied her, and felt the same, although she got less due to her vastly inferior cultivation techniques. Allya made a mental note to teach her friend some of her own. It wouldn't do to have the poor ranger lag behind, besides, the wood elf was her ally wasn't she? And allies helped each other. Not to mention that she would personally very much like to avoid giving the ranger a reason to hate her, like, say, not sharing some cultivation methods.

"Well, at least that is something. I understand both of your companions were...looted?" She hid a wince at her own wording, but there was truly no other way to put it. "Before the dungeon resurrected them."

Artok chuckled.

"That's one way of putting it! The mage, uh, Bastien Riverfell if I remember well, got everything but his clothes taken. Sorior was a bit luckier, only took his potions, his charms and some of his blades. He's still pissed off though. They both are, to some extent, but they understand that it was the price to pay." He smiled. "Besides, Bastien's taking it pretty well. I think he did the math when he cultivated, and given the mana he has accumulated, I think we'll see him back inside in no time with his team." He winced. "As soon as his companions are out of the infirmary. Speaking of which, how are the wounded?"

"They're well along the road to recovery." Answered Pyn, to Allya's surprise, who rose an eyebrow, looking at her friend. "I went to visit when discussing building a more permanent healing facility." Answered the elf at the baroness' unspoken question, before turning back to Artok. "Some of them still can't move, but most can speak and are coherent. They still need rest however."

Artok nodded.

"I'm thankful to hear that. And the fire mage?"

Allya smiled, coldly.

"He is...under guard pending his departure." Which was a good way to say that there were soldiers standing watch 24/7 over him. Which was as much for his security as anything else, given the fact that the adventurers he had wounded had friends, who were pretty pissed off. "He will then be escorted once the first caravan arrives back to Darthar, and then to the ElvenDale coven. Hopefully he'll learn some...salutary lessons there."

The assault guild leader nodded.

"I hope so as well. In any case, that more or less concludes my preliminary report." He shrugged. "There are details, of course, and I'll prepare a thorough overview and map for guild dissemination, as well as my own rank recommendations for the different dungeon areas. I can give you a rough estimate though."

Allya gestured for him to elaborate, and the dwarf leaned forward.

"Alright. First, I'd say the rooms until the puzzle room are perfectly fine for clay ranks. Oh, some brazen morons and the ones with delusion of invincibility will get killed there from time to time, but a team of clay ranks should be able to handle that part. Afterwards...." He shrugged. "They could continue up to the 8th room, if they are well coordinated and cover each other's weaknesses well. That one I don't think anyone short of iron ranked will survive. Then, iron ranked can survive until the safe zone, as long as they avoid the challenge room, and mind the traps. It won't be a stroll through the park, but the ones that actually pay attention should be able to make it. They'll be beat up as all hell, but they'll make it. The challenge room...Yeah, I wouldn't recommend for someone below copper. A steel ranked team could make it, but they'll probably lose someone. Several someones actually. And there are no rewards besides the golems, so it isn't actually worth it."

Allya nodded. They had discussed at length the fact that the dungeon didn't have any rewards besides the golems and their components themselves. That would be fine for now -said components were very expensive-, but as the price dropped as they became widely available, people would stop using challenge rooms, or might even stop farming the first floor if the core didn't had some valuables, hopefully hard to get and rare, to up the value. The baroness made a mental note to speak to Crystal about it.

"So, copper ranked challenge room." Continued Artok, oblivious to the noble's thoughts. "After the safe zone...steel ranked. A good team will survive easily if they cover each other. The worst ones might lose someone to an unexpected attack however. As for the boss....copper doesn't cut it. We very nearly got wiped out, and we're not that far from Silver. So I'd say Silver ranked, at least. Another copper party could do it, they'll just probably lose someone in the process."

"I see..."

Allya put her head on her fists, and thought. Dungeon floors and zones were designated by the lowest rank that, on average, could clear the area without taking fatalities. It wasn't uncommon for floor bosses to be a significant bump in difficulty, but rarely did they outright skip a damned rank from the previous rooms. Steel to Silver was one hell of a jump.

"Well, that is something to keep in mind I suppose." She sighed, and leaned back into her chair. "I'll ask Crystal if that's intended or not. But that's for later." She looked at the dwarf. "Thank you for the debriefing, Artok. That will be all. Got get some more rest, you really look like you need it."

"Thank you." Said the dwarf as he bowed, before leaving, followed by his teammates. He would have probably excused himself and bowed if Allya hadn't made it quite clear it wasn't necessary, especially in his wounded state.

Pyn waited a few seconds, then turned towards her friend.

"Well, not the greatest news, but far from the worst."

"Indeed." Answered the baroness as she picked up a sheet of paper on her desk, and read it again. She hadn't believed it when she'd first read it, but if it was true. "But I think we can agree that we aren't going to go poor anytime soon."

She met Pyn's gaze, and they both smiled.

The writing on the sheet was simple, it was a value estimate, and a buying order by an artificer that had accompanied the expedition.

The estimated value of the damaged golems was around 2.5 thousand mana in the regular market. The artificer had bought them at 1.5 thousand apiece, due to the varying levels of damage, and because of the trading risk involved. That was for the normal and close-quarters combat golems. The armored and armed ones, the artificer had been willing to go up to 1 750 mana, because of the lesser overall damage, and the armor plates and spears were worth a bit. They had gotten 15 of them. Then they had gotten 18 of the much tougher boss soldier golems, which had heavier armor and better, steel weapons, those the artificer had bought at 2 thousand apiece. Then came the ones in full plate armor, with lances and the bracelet of power beam. The artificer had flat out bought them at 3 000 apiece, plus 500 for the intact bracelet. Everyone knew the price was very low compared to what the artificer was likely to make, but she was taking a serious risk buying them right now, before knowing if people would actually buy the parts or repaired golems at a good price.

In total? That amounted to 257 thousands 750 mana. Almost a quarter of the dungeon bounty. That was insane. And the monumental part was? Allya had done some research on golems, and while their price would almost certainly go down, everyone needed golems. They were cheap, disposable labour, and in many countries where slavery wasn't allowed, they were the most profitable solution for grunt labour. Heck, in fact golems made slavery for heavy labour outright obsolete, the only problem was that you needed to maintain them, which took skilled artificers, that many of the nations practicing said slavery didn't have in great numbers. Like, say, the Asarian Kingdom.

In any case, just the taxes on that were enough to make her salivate at the mere thought. She'd decided to not tax exports, nor imports, at least for now, and probably ever. She needed her dungeon town to grow, and it wasn't like she had the forces to spare to check for routine tax evading contraband anyway. It was much easier to tax it directly at the source, the dungeon.

At 15%, she would have made almost 39 thousand mana for the delve. Of course, that was because the assault guild had brought back every golem they came across. Most parties wouldn't be able to pull that off, if only because of lack of the ridiculous spatial bags the adventurers guild had given Artok. On average, a dungeon delve like that would bring back from 48 to 90 thousand mana from the components that could be easily pulled out of the golems, depending on the price the merchant would be willing to put on it. At 15%, that was 7 thousand mana at a minimum for every full delve. Once again, it was unlikely, to say the least, that every party would clear the dungeon, but...it was only the first floor. Who knew what kind of insane profits they could pull off once the dungeon made more floors?

And thanks to Pyn, they could buy off most of Elkaryos' share to get as much of the net profits. They'd nearly run out of money by throwing the bounty and their economies into the investment, but it looked it was going to pay out, fast. A few delves on the side wouldn't hurt either.

It definitely looked like they'd hit the jackpot.

*****

I really hit the jackpot with that one, thought Neptunite as he chatted with the adventurers at his table, and looked to the side, where he could see the administration tent.

His new 'friend' had made introductions for him, neatly cutting off the problem of having to justify his presence, or having anyone ask on which ship he had ridden. Having been introduced by a familiar face had been enough. He'd bought the adventurer his drink, as promised, and had spent the entire night partying and collecting information. Right now they were happily chatting around breakfast, at a table that gave him a convenient overview of the main administration tent.

So far, he had a pretty good list of targets, as well as some fascinating information on the local leadership. Turned out the entire camp was more or less run by 4 people, the two nobles, the expedition director sent by Rapier Enterprises, and the guildmaster. Just the information of which corp had funded this was precious enough, but to know precisely the targets that held everything together? Priceless.

Of course, it had brought it's own...unpalatable realizations. There was no way they could kill guildmaster Starvak. He dearly hoped that Diamond wouldn't even try. The dwarf was adamantium ranked, he didn't even know if they had brought something with them that could inflict any kind of lasting harm, let alone incapacitate the guildmaster. The expedition planner and the nobles looked to be much easier targets. Hence why he was keeping the administration tent under surveillance.

He was nearly done with his recon. He'd spent a good portion of the morning discreetly observing the nobles and their guards. The guards were good, he had to admit, but not good enough. The nobles looked...strange. Very young, but they both moved like trained combatants, and the blonde one looked more like an assassin than a noble honestly. It was something to keep in mind.

He'd have to make his report eventually, but for now he wanted to get a better idea of their probably routes. He was pretty sure that after the first assassination was done, they would reinforce security rather massively. That means that their best shot to take out the 3 they could was in a single, simultaneous attack, and that required to know where they would be at any one time. Which could prove tricky without stealing their schedules or putting them under active surveillance.

Well, they had time. If worst came to worst, they had enough troops to shadow all three targets and attack them simultaneously. He took a sip of his coffee, and laughed at a joke the other adventurers made. The guards could prove tricky to handle, but by the time they actually started chasing, the kill teams would have retreated back into the wasteland. They'd then move on to the aqueduct, the stockpiles they had established to store the stuff offloaded from the ships, and if Diamond gave the go ahead, the dungeon core.

All in all, it looked like it was going to be a pretty smooth mission.