Chapter 109

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.

Dungeon Factory, Workshop.

"Alright, first gen infiltrator prototype done." Said Alexandra as she dusted off her hands and looked at the camouflaged spider golem. "We just need to test it."

"I suppose testing against the mercs would be a bad idea."

"Very much so. Wouldn't want to tip them off."

"We could try the Gorromarians? I've seen you positively salivate at their equipment!"

"I did not!"

Emilia raised an eyebrow, and Alexandra crossed her arms, huffing.

"Alright, maybe a tiny itty bit."

The vampire girl's eyebrow rose even higher.

"Alright, fine!" Alexandra threw her arms up. "I'm slobbering all over it. I'm still struggling with rifling muskets and these guys have sub machine guns and semi automatic, magazine fed rifles! If I could get my hands on them it would propell my defensive capabilities massively. But…"

"But?"

Alexandra sighed.

"It's as true for us as it is for the town. Getting that kind of hardware would help them a lot. Those gorromarians are watching their gear like hawks. They're not expecting us to come in and take it, but they're sure as hell bracing for some idiots in the town to give it a shot. So that's not an option as well." Alexandra shrugs. "In any case, I'd like to do a full battery of 'indoor' tests, so to speak, pit those infiltrators against the golems in the dungeon, even the command center security. We'll get some measure of their efficiency, smooth out some kinks, and upgrade our infiltration counter measures."

"And while we do that we'll probably come up with a way to field test them for real?"

"Hopefully."

*****

"Milady! What are you doing here?" Said Eismi as she looked up from the item she had been inspecting.

Allya smiled as she entered the shop, Pyn and their bodyguards in tow. Unfortunately Dominique hadn't been able to join them, but the guild representative had assured her she'd find her own time to gear up.

"Hello Eismi! Well, I was going for a bit of a shopping trip, and happened to ask who had the best gear in town. Turns out, in terms of enchantments and artificer stuff, it was you. So I'm not here in any government capacity, but as a client."

"Oh? That's…unusual."

"True. But Pyn's gear and my own desperately needed an upgrade." Allya shrugged. "And since we just happen to be getting so much money from Crystal's dungeon that we literally can't spend it fast enough…"

"I see. Well, I'll be more than delighted to supply you with whatever you need." The fox eared cyborg winced. "Provided I have it or can make it of course. No offence milady but this is hardly a capital city either. The constant back and forth from airships is helping but sourcing materials and parts isn't exactly easy either."

"I am aware. Have you tried using some of the golem parts?"

"Of course! But they're pretty low grade. Very reliable and versatile, but low grade."

"That's not surprising, it seems to be Crystal's motto. So, specifically, I was looking for some wards upgrades, and new weaponry. Pyn and I have been using cloaks with integrated wards of protection for a while, but they are getting tattered, and more to the point they were fairly basic to begin with."

The artificer nodded.

"I can definitely understand that." She squinted, and her cybernetic eye flashed. "Mmmhhh. I believe I have some proper shield belts in the back. Sold most of them off to the silver ranked, but not many could afford them, even with the labyrinth or the reopening of the main dungeon. As for weapons." Eismi pressed a button underneath the counter, and one of the display cases' internal rack flipped, replacing an array of enchanted swords with weapons. Exotic ones.

Allya whistled softly. There were enhanced mechanical bows, the kind that combined enchantments and simple technology to fire arrows at greater velocity, semi automatic pistols, a bolt action rifle and…were those phase daggers?

"Where the hell did you get those?" Said the baroness as she tapped the glass above the weapons.

"Ah. Complicated story. Let's just say that a merchant was desperate to get rid of them, especially without Darthar's law enforcement being made aware of the transaction, and leave it at that."

"Are they Erisian?"

"Gorromarian, actually. As nearly as I can figure, anyway, those things have been customized to hell."

"Have you tested them?"

"My sister did. Or rather she played with them. A lot. She's not usually one for sharp weapons but she loved these things."

"Oh, in that case I'd rather not-"

"Relax, it was only for playing around. She's not going to use them in combat. She'd be more likely to cut herself than anything." Eismi pressed another button, and the glass on the display case opened. "Here, grab them, tell me what you think. I can adjust the grips but it…should…"

The fox eared woman trailed off as Allya grabbed the daggers, twirled them, then turned them on and executed a series of training attack and parries with the smoothness of long, loooong training.

"You've…already used one of these?" Asked the artificer.

"Oh yes. I used to have a pair of them back in the Empire." A present of Cassissa in fact, when the princess had noticed how much of an affinity her friend had with short blades. Allya's face darkened slightly as she remembered, but she kept her expression in check, although the slight twinge in the artificer's expression told her she hadn't fully succeeded. "These are different though. There's more weight to them."

"That's because they're not fully phased, unlike Erisian daggers." Eismi shrugged as Allya's eyebrow rose. "I know, I know, the point of a phase dagger is to have the blade phased out so it can bypass armor and shields. But there are arguments going both ways for whether the blade should be kept completely dematerialized unless triggered, or oscilating. With those you can parry for example, and can be thrown."

"But…?" Asked the baroness. Phase blades were effectively partially in reality and partially…somewhere else. The trick was that you could, with the press of a button, bring it back. That allowed you to materialize it through damn near anything, except some materials like adamantium, antimagic fields or heavily enchanted armor.

"But, well, it won't pierce mythril, or materials of similar strength. It'll still put a dent in them, but it won't bypass them. Might also have more trouble going through powerful wards, but then again with phase blades it's always a toss up. But against any mundane materials? Iron, steel, it'll go through them like they didn't exist."

Allya nodded.

"Excellent." She chuckled. "Not exactly worried about being attacked by mythril clad paladins right now." She nodded at Pyn. "Anything that strikes your fancy here?"

"Well…" Her girlfriend touched her bow on her back. "I've got this one for a long time, and I'm not sure if you have something better?"

Eismi's eye flashed again, and the artificer smiled.

"Oh I do. But it's in the back. If you'll give me a minute, I'll fetch it and the shield belts. I'll be right back!"

It took considerably more than a minute for the artificer to return, after some clattering and a healthy amount of muttered cursing.

"Sorry about that. I'd put the crate with the shield belts at the bottom of a pile and, well…" Eismi shrugged. "You get the idea." She put a couple of heavily decorated black metal belts on the counter, each studded with green cylinders at regular intervals, and the 'buckle' looking more like a metal brick than anything else. A metal brick positively vibrating with power. "Those are the shield belts. Not just wards, but proper, recharging energy shields. They won't take a hit as powerful as your wards could, but they'll keep recharging throughout the fight. More importantly, ward piercing projectiles will have a much harder time going through them."

Allya nodded as she touched one of the belts, and almost recoiled. It wasn't just an impression, the belt was vibrating slightly, although the Gods only know why it didn't rattle on the counter.

"Is it technological?"

"Magitech. The principles are technological, something based on Old World systems, but the machinery is mainly magical. So while the shield bubble itself won't be affected by antimagic…"

"The generator will."

"Effectively, and if the generator stops working the shield bubble will collapse in short order."

Allya nodded. That was a pretty important difference actually, it meant that while an antimagic projectile wouldn't shut down the shield, the projectile itself would have to punch through the bubble to actually hurt them. That might not matter, but it would probably necessitate a double tap to go through it, with the second shot a second or so later to let the shield collapse.

"And the bow?" Asked Pyn.

"And the bow is here." Said Eismi as she put down something on the counter.

Allya would have hesitated to call it a bow. It looked more like a mess of pulleys, mechanism, and…was that a barrel? It looked more like a partially dismantled arbalest that someone had tried to cross with a rifle.

"What the hell is that?" Asked the elf.

"That, my dear, is the latest in Tarkian archery tech. It has all the advantages of a mechanical bow, paired with enchantments and something they call a 'kinetic accelerator', the tube you see there. I'll concede, it will fire slower than your current bow, even more so since you'll have to get used to it, but, well…" The artificer shrugged. "Even for a middling archer, this will shoot an arrow at something approaching the speed of sound, with ward and armor piercing effects, not to mention some pretty nasty offensive augments."

"Ah. Can I try it out?"

"Be my guest!"

The elf gingerly picked up the bow, quickly inspecting and testing it. Allya looked at her girlfriend with a smile, before going back to the artificer.

"Where did you even get that? I thought the Hegemony was past archery."

"From the Omega Consortium actually, during an artificers conference in Asaria a few months back. Guess they knew that they'd have an easier time selling nobles bows than guns in such an unenlightened nation. And their military is past archery, mostly, although I'm told they still have some for their special forces. Don't ask me why, I don't know. But since their military is busy buying every scrap of available gunpowder for their expansion programs, there is a thriving market for alternatives. Besides, archery weapons in general are far less regulated than firearms."

"So its…"

"Officially? A survival weapon."

"To survive what, dragons?"

"No, the wasteland. Or a dungeon. Any place where whatever you're shooting at is going to be tough as nails and not interested in stopping."

Allya opened her mouth, then her eyes narrowed.

"Not interested in stopping…what kind of offensive augments does it have?"

"Oh, simple ones, mainly focusing on transmitting as much of the energy as possible through the flesh, a slight sonic pulse…"

Allya gritted her teeth.

"Yeah, I know the type. Eismi don't bullshit me, this isn't a fucking wasteland hunting bow, that's assassin gear."

"What can I tell you? Sometimes people are as dangerous as monsters." The artificer shrugged. "For what its worth it was sold to me as an anti monster weapon. Some of them can cast wards you know."

"I'm aware, fought some of them when the convoy first arrived." Which reminded her that there hadn't been a wasteland monster attack in weeks. Either they were massing again or they'd gotten the message that the squishy meatbags in the ruins had sharp teeth. Or maybe they'd just wiped the monsters out, that was also an option. "Well, it's not like we aren't going to need it against humans anyway. What do you think Pyn?"

"I feels…odd. Is there a shooting range somewhere I can try it out?" Answered the elf.

"There's some training grounds by the guild, I use them for that."

"The guild gave you authorization to use their training grounds?" Asked Allya, surprised.

"Technically they're open to anyone who cares enough to go there. But yes, they let me, and in exchange I give the assault guild first pick when I receive a new shipment."

"Ah, busy upgrading."

"Well, they're having trouble recruiting higher ranked adventurers for it, so they'd trying to get around the problem with better gear. Of course the issue is they'll just lose it if they die, and the guild doesn't want to hand Crystal anything too spicy just yet."

"Right." If she was honest, the guild's meddling in the affairs of the dungeon, and what could or could not be used on delves or given to Crystal was beginning to piss the baroness off. She couldn't afford to show it -the guild was the primary economic engine of the town and technically had the most firepower and combatants-, but it was beginning to grate on her. She was starting to understand why relations between the city government of every dungeon town and the guild were always so tense. "Well, let's go then." Allya flipped the daggers. "I'd like to give those a try as well, and I'm sure there should be some dummies we can cut to shreds for training."