Chapter 68

I pack the body into my inventory and use magic to allow him to breathe. He should be able to survive a week in there if I periodically replace the air, or around 2 days if I don’t. That should be more than enough time for transport. It takes me roughly half an hour to casually walk to the library, which never closes so you can find people, particularly scholars, coming and going there at all hours.

When I got to the end of the rather uneventful trip I entered the door to the library and was greeted by the sight of oracle sitting at the counter.

“Follow me” oracle

With a silent nod I follow him to a lower level, much to my surprise as I was unaware that the library had lower levels.

“Why are you so surprised? We librarians have to live somewhere, and we rather like our privacy. The only way to get in here is to be invited, or become a librarian yourself. And even if you’re a librarian the only way to get into someone else’s room is to be invited.” Oracle

“How did you...” jack

I wasn’t able to finish that sentence as he cut me off.

“The look on your face says it all; I see that look almost every time I invite someone down here. Note that if you try to steal anything that the punishment is much worse that the library above, the dungeon lord that governs the library will capture and then torture you till you willingly sign a damned contract with it and become another one of its mindless defenders.” Oracle

Hearing that I subconsciously swallow, that is a horrible punishment.

“Anyway, I believe that you have a birthday present to deliver right? Follow me.” Oracle

He leads me into a room with nothing but a giant spell circle, one that I recognize, a teleportation circle.

“Why do you have something like this here?” jack

“As much as I’m sure you would be fascinated by the inner workings of the library, I am not going to go into them with you, as I am needed in about five minutes. Now, let’s get on with things shall we?” oracle

I step into the center of the portal and wait for oracle to finish his preparations.

“I am going to send you to the circle closest to your hometown, normally you would need someone on the other side to accept the teleport, but here we have a unique bypass.” Oracle

I do not get a chance to comment on that as I feel my body, mind, and soul being sucked away to a distant location, not an unfamiliar feeling, but also not a pleasant one. The first time I used one of these I vomited, which is pretty normal.

I awake what feels like a moment latter, but can’t be shorter than thirty seconds, feeling noxious. Roughly a minute latter my vision clears up and I see Cath, just standing there.

“I didn’t expect you to get back so quickly, although being able to teleport here likely helped. How did you manage that by the way, I thought that there had to be someone on this end to receive you.” Cath

“That can be bypassed if you know the right people.” Jack

“We will, we can discuss that latter. For now I have a report of our recent activities ready back at HQ.” Cath

“What are we waiting for then?” jack

“You, actually.” Cath

We head over to HQ, which turns out to be the ex mayor’s house. Who has actually been dead for months, I killed him and the rest of the government covered it up.

I am lead into the room I snuck into last time I was here, where I find Mathew, rose, and a number of other high ranking officers, along with several important members of the mafia, including the boss.

“Now that everyone is finally here I would like to formally start the meeting” Mathew

“Ahh, yes. The report of our recent activities.” Unnamed officer

“The integration of our two factions went astonishingly smoothly, there were very few complaints from anyone, I believe your display of power earlier was a great help.” Cath

“Good, good. And the dungeon subjugation?” jack

“We have conquered 85 of the dungeons; the total number known is around 300 and increasing every day. Most are small and weak, but it is difficult to find the core, making progress more difficult than we would like.” Unnamed officer #2

“And what have you done with the cores once you have removed them?” jack

“We have stored them in the treasury, which is guarded constantly by my best men.” Boss

“Good, although it would be better used if you used them to store mana for your mages, as they make excellent batteries. Only give them to mages you can trust though, as they are a very valuable resource.” Jack

“That isn’t all to report about the dungeons; a few of the dungeons, 7 so far, have offered to work with us in exchange for their lives and relative freedom. We have taken them up on this offer as we see no reason to turn down a source of resources that is not actively trying to kill us.” Unnamed officer

“So many? I’m surprised, dungeons tend to value their freedom only slightly less than their lives. The vast majority wouldn’t even consider something like that. From now on do not destroy any dungeon that has a particularly valuable resource in it, even in small quantities, unless absolutely necessary. How is the treasury doing?” jack

“We have roughly three hundred thousand jaers in liquid assets, and closer to the tens of millions in resources, dungeon diving is surprisingly lucrative.” Cath

“No, it’s just the scale that is lucrative; it is hard to get by as a small party in this business.” Jack

“That is everything major to report, there are a couple other minor things of interest to report. For example the immigration of several groups from your home town, the most prominent of which being a group calling themselves ‘the silver sisters’.” Mathew

“I am satisfied by your results. Although I have one more question, what is the current state of combat ready people?” jack

“Lower than I would like, but satisfactory given the circumstances. The total number of combat ready men and women is hovering around one thousand, with many more going through training programs to get them ready for combat.” Cath

“I want you to allow everyone who is ready for combat to sign up for optional training. You will pick the most promising among the volunteers and from them I will pick one hundred people to undergo this optional training. I will leave in two days with the selected people.” Jack

“That can be arranged, although the slackers will have to pick up the pace a little we shouldn’t have too many problems.” Unnamed officer # 2

“One last question for Mathew, how are your kids?” jack

“Good, they are doing good.” Mathew

End Chapter 68