Chapter 85 - Alliance (Patreon)

Note : Chapters 88, 89 and 90 have been written and added to the queue !

Chapter 85

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.

City of Rebirth.

"Hello Crystal!" Said Allya as CQ, possessed by Alexandra, stepped through the door to her office. She quickly got up, suppressing a nervous reflex to smooth out some imaginary wrinkles on her outfit. She was a baroness damn it, not some anxious schoolgirl meeting a senior student! "It's a pleasure to see you again!"

"The pleasure is all mine Allya." Said Alexandra. Not entirely truthfully, but not quite lying either. The Earth-born glanced at the chairs, and raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, of course, where are my manners? Please, take a seat."

Alexandra nodded in thanks and sat down, hiding a wince as she felt the slight feeling of rightness as CQ's body fit into the chair. As much as she was at ease in her avatar, she had to admit that CQ, with the boss' body modeled after her old one, at least in terms of proportions, was much more comfortable to be in in some ways. Although she was loath to deprive her daughter of her body and send her to 'sleep' as the boss put it, she needed her in this instance, if only to emphasize the importance of what she was here to discuss.

"Thank you. So, you no doubt have some questions as to why I have asked for an audience."

"For a meeting you mean. I'm hardly a queen. Nor are you a supplicant for that matter."

Alexandra smiled, and Allya relaxed slightly as she saw the genuine humor behind it.

"I suppose not, although I don't exactly have a lot of hands on experience where monarchs and nobles are concerned, I'm sure you'll understand." Which, as a matter of fact, was quite true. Virtually every monarch in Europe had died during the Terran Hegemony Wars, as virtually every capital had been nuked or virus bombed. Sometimes both, repeatedly. That tended to leave few survivors, and regardless the Federation had more or less absorbed all of the member states and whatever was left of their old royal systems reduced to ceremonial figureheads at best.

"Oh don't worry, I can fully believe that." Allya smiled back, before shaking her head. "Regardless, yes, I must admit that your request for a meeting raised a few eyebrows among my council, and did take me by surprise. I was under the impression that you would be quite busy rebuilding your dungeon."

"I am, but there are other concerns as well."

"Such as?"

"Mutual defense, for one."

Allya's eyes widened. She couldn't possibly mean-!

"I'm sorry, but…just to make sure I haven't misheard, you did say 'mutual defense', correct?"

"Yes, I did."

"I thought dungeons were supposed to keep themselves out of surface affairs?"

"That is a tradition, not a law, enforced by the UDC, and I suspect the adventurers guild to some degree or another." Alexandra smiled, and this time there wasn't the slightest hint of humor in it. "But my dear…compatriots in the UDC have declined to protect, or even help me." The latter wasn't true, thank the Gods, but the baroness didn't need to know that. "So I am left looking for, ah, alternative solutions."

"An alliance."

"Yes. A mutual defense pact. So far, every attack upon me bar one." Alexandra's gaze sharpened, but Allya simply held her ground, and she saw what looked like a hint of approval and respect in the dungeon core's eyes. "Have also been an attack upon your town in some way or another. Since the UDC is unwilling to intervene, I believe it would serve our interests to join forces and oppose our enemies as one, rather than separately."

Allya leaned back into her seat, speechless. She had little doubt that the dungeon's proposition was primarily to protect herself against another round of invaders, but still…the offer was huge. She shivered internally as she pictured what the dungeon's golem army could have done to the Scarlet Swords, if they had them by her side during the opening stages of the battle.

It would have been over in a matter of minutes. And that would have only been because it would have taken time for the tide of metal to overrun the mercenaries.

"This is…very generous. I think you'll excuse me if I wonder however, what the exact term of that pact would be."

"They're simple. If one of us is attacked militarily, it would be considered an attack against the both of us, and bind the other party to intervene. There would also be provisions for military deployments, and since the adventurers guild will no doubt be very suspicious of the deal -or any other deals that might happen under the hood-, allowances for external, neutral observers."

Allya nodded. She'd be worried about someone using this kind of treaty to slip the dungeon tech or resources in exchange for various advantages in Starvak's place as well. And at least it seemed like the guild master firmly had her back…for now at least.

"That is more than fair. What provisions for military deployments, exactly?"

"Well, going through my entrance would hardly be the most practical of solutions, particularly if adventurers are delving through my depths. As such, I am thinking of building a kind of military only access to the dungeon, an oversized ramp if you will, leading to, let's say a deployment center. The access would go both ways of course, to enable my forces to sortie and assist yours, or your own men to join my golems in battle if necessary."

"That seems like an excellent idea. Although given the, let's face it, stupidity some adventurers have displayed so far, notably with your floor elevators, it will need some serious security."

"Oh, I believe the security will be more than taken care of with a few guards of my own to watch out for sabotage. And if they breach the door, well…there is that 'deployment center' on the other side. I am sure they will find the experience less than pleasant, and I might simply forget to resurrect them." Alexandra winced. "Not that I could bring them back in the first place right now anyway."

"Speaking of which, will you…?"

"Get it back up? Yes. Already underway as a matter of fact. Which reminds me of something else I wanted to talk about. It recently struck me after thinking of the military access, that a single entrance, while no doubt practical for toll levying purposes, was hardly the most efficient for adventurer throughput. If you would bring up with the good guild master the possibility of multiple, let's say mini floors, made for a short delve time, oriented towards a specific adventurer rank in terms of challenge, and all being effectively separate from each other, and ask him if he would be interested, I would be much obliged."

"I will, but…you don't need our approval."

"I do not, but if we are going to be working together to some level, the least I can do is extend the courtesy, just like how I claimed the top of the mesa. Not that there is a mesa top anymore."

Allya grimly nodded. The cave in caused by the dungeon's destruction had demolished most of the mesa, but Crystal absorbing the rubble in order to be able to rebuild had just erased it's middle entirely. The mesa looked more like some kind of strange, very deep volcano than anything else nowadays.

"And I deeply appreciate the courtesy. I will bring it up with the guild master at the first opportunity. And as for the dungeon rebuild itself?"

"Well, so far I am thinking of creating a small section, the beginning of the first floor, and opening it back up to the adventurers. It will, yes, be short and not very challenging, but it will start to get business back on track for both of us. I will, however, have to close the dungeon for reconstruction some days, there's simply too much work to limit myself to the night time as I used to."

"That shouldn't be a problem. I'm sure most of the adventurers will understand, and those that don't won't dare go through the intendants. Or cross you, for that matter. Your display of…defiance has shaken quite a few of them."

"You mean the part where I blew my own dungeon to kingdom come rather than be captured?"

"Well…yes."

"Good. At least something good would have come out of this mess." Alexandra chuckled at Allya's expression. "As much as it may have seemed that I had profited from adventurers overextending themselves and messing with my dungeon, it was always a major annoyance. At least this way I won't have to deal with anymore riots."

"Hopefully." Allya winced as Alexandra rose an eyebrow. "I have received confirmation. Several massive land caravans are inbound, some of them will be here quite soon as a matter of fact. The influx of new, dumb adventurers we've seen to date? That was nothing. The ones that could afford the airships were smart and collected, relatively. Now we're going to get every idiot that could get a sword, pay the guild fee, and hitch a ride."

"Well, I assume wasteland caravan spots have significant price tags if nothing else."

Allya laughed.

"Normally? Yes, but with a new dungeon I'm ready to bet some bankers are distributing some usurious loans left and right, probably with the adventurer's equipment as a collateral. After all, if they put enough of a premium on it, they'll only need a third of the adventurers to pay it back to make it profitable."

"That's…insane."

"Welcome to the surface world Crystal. Everyone is out to line their own pocket. And given our dear Asarian Kingdom's oppression of the peasantry, becoming an adventurer is the only way to get out of the dirt for many. So believe me, you're about to see a lot of greedy idiots soon, and a fair bit of downtrodden people looking for a way out." Allya sighed. "At least if you're able to resurrect them we won't be filling the graveyards with their corpses."

"I hope not." Allya's mental antenna twitched at Crystal's tone. Did the dungeon core sound…horrified? More than that, there was an edge of fury down there as well. "Well, thank you for the head's up. Considering that, I think I'll start the preparations for the small sub dungeon floors as well. Those will enable me to absorb that many new adventurers, and avoid you some issues from frustrated people not managing to get a spot in the waiting list."

And, of course, get her a pile of mana and essence, but she didn't need to be so crass as to say it out loud, Allya was perfectly aware of it. Still, the fact that the dungeon core was willing to frame her motives into helping the town said a great deal about how serious she was about cooperation.

"That would probably be a good idea. If you need any assistance, you only need ask."

"Be carefully saying that, I might ask you to hand over all of the town." Said Alexandra jokingly, and Allya chuckled.

"If you wanted it, you had the forces to take it." The kingdom would have crushed her afterwards of course, but she could have done it. Hell, given how shaky the kingdom appeared to be, she might have even been able to make it stand up! At least long enough for the Republic to sweep in and take her out.

"True, but that would have been very un-neighbourly of me." Alexandra shook her head. "Anyway, I better get going. I have work to do, and so do you I believe."

"Indeed. Have a nice day, Crystal."

"Same to you Allya."

And with that, the dungeon left.

Allya stared at the door as it closed, and the soundproofing enchantment activated once more with a click, and sighed.

Well, this was…not at all what she had been expecting. In a good, if potentially very dangerous, way. She hadn't imagined in her wildest dreams that she could have the dungeon by her side to help defend the town! At least not against the Republic.

Well, maybe the war she saw coming on the horizon wasn't so hopeless after all.

END OF BOOK 3