Chapter 94 - Expedition (Patreon)

Chapter 94

Lavalands of Last Point, Tark Hegemony.

City of Tark.

"Admiral Mintz, sir!" Said a flag lieutenant as he saluted.

Rear admiral Spear Mintz, of the Tark Hegemony Sky Navy, saluted back, while contemplating once more why in all the hells he had gotten this mission, much less accepted it.

"At ease lieutenant. What is it?"

"Captain Marlow's compliments sir. The captain estimates that we should have finished loading the ship and be ready to depart within the hour, if that suits you."

"Tell the captain it suits me perfectly lieutenant."

"Aye aye sir." The lieutenant saluted once more, his fist striking his breastplate, before scampering off towards the knot of officers currently trying to keep a hold of the organized chaos of a ship preparing for departure.

Spear sighed as he looked at the vista before him. Usually the sight of so many men busying themselves with readying ships of war would have filled him with martial pride, but right now he couldn't escape a mounting sense of dread.

Not about his mission's ultimate objective. He fully understood how an expedition to the dungeon town of 'Rebirth' was valuable for the Hegemony on oh so many levels. First, because Tark had always supported its own military industry via generous exports, which in turned fueled the wheels of innovation that had enabled their survival against the vastly more populous and larger Republic, and if any place had money to spend and a dire need for defence it was a dungeon town ontop of a link dungeon, especially one caught between two nations at each other's throat. Second, any daggers they could slip into the Republic's back was always highly worthwhile on its own. Spear, like virtually every Hegemony citizen, was under no illusion that another war with the Republic would happen. The greedy bastards calling themselves 'senators' would never leave well enough alone. The difference was that he knew that this time the Hegemony wasn't going to sit around and let itself be invaded again.

Those whispers were quiet, even at the level of his exalted rank, but anyone with a working brain and a mind for logistics would realize that the Hegemony was building up for a full scale invasion of its own. Granted, its most elite forces were currently dispersed overseas, to secure some alliances and enforce the Hegemony's claim on some very precious natural resource deposits, but there was no mistaking the discrete change in strategy that was gradually taking place.

Which brought him to the third reason why this expedition was so important. If Rebirth managed to hold long enough, drag the Republic's resources into the quagmire of a prolonged across the wasteland conflict…the Hegemony would have its moment to strike. And this time, they wouldn't settle for leaving the nation that had cost them so many loved ones intact. It was high time that the Republic was broken like it so richly deserved, its fragments scattered to the winds, never to rise again.

The problems that he had with it was that he was a combat commander damn it! Give him a clear enemy and some airships and he'd crush them for his Hegemon. But leading a diplomatic and commercial expedition? He knew about as much about politics as he did about fishing! Which was to say, not much, if anything. Commerce he was much better at -the primary duty of a navy, airborne or waterborne was commerce protection after all, and he was a fairly accomplished logistician when all was said and done-, but not enough to lead an expedition!

He shook his head. He guessed he had been issued some advisors to help, but still…Although, given the way things were going, the hegemon might have sent him specifically because of his combat prowess. It wasn't outright stated in his orders, but he could read between the lines as well as any other officers, and nowhere was it encouraged for him to engage Republic forces attacking or harassing to the town…but nothing forbade him from it either. Nothing even discouraged it as a matter of fact!

Spear rubbed his chin pensively, before shrugging. That was a thought for later. Right now his job was pretty much to look assured and confident as his men finished their preparations for departure.

A shadow passed over him, and he looked up, smiling as the crane swung the steam powered battle tank into his cruiser's cargo hold. He might not be confident in his ability to conduct business dealings, but he was fairly sure he'd manage to sell his 'samples' to the dungeon town regardless, and he was going to enjoy every single second of the Republic's ass kicking when those 'samples' were deployed against them.

He sighed, and turned towards the nearest member of his personal guard detail.

"Corporal?"

"Sir?" Said the NCO as he saluted.

"Could you please warn the captain that I'm coming down onto the main deck to conduct an inspection? I'd like to have a few words with him and his men." He might not be able to do much right now, but he could spare a few words of encouragements…and a few minutes to let them stash away whatever contraband they were busy surreptiously loading amongst the official cargo. Soldiers were soldiers after all, and this time he was quite sure that 'unmarked cargo' would be of a more martial nature than usual. After all, as much as some of his men liked to make some extra mana, they liked sticking a knife into the Repulic's back far, far more. "I'll come down in, let's say…five minutes."

"Aye aye sir, right away!" The soldiers saluted once more, and walked off.

Spear smiled as he watched him go, before gazing pensively once again at the docks and the other ships of his squadron being loaded. There might only be a handful of vessels, with the cargo limitations inherent to airships, but he was sure the dungeon town would find every kilogram of their cargo worth its weight in gold. Or in Republic corpses. Far more, as a matter of fact, in terms of bodies of those scum, one could hope.

One could hope.

*****

"Okay, remind me never, ever to underestimate that dungeon again." Said Artok as he entered into Starvak's office.

"That bad?" Asked the guild master as he took a sip of his mug of coffee, before gesturing for the assault guild leader to take a seat, and then sitting down himself.

"However bad you think it was, worse. Much worse. Oh, not in terms of loot mind you, on the contrary it was very generous, but in viciousness? Either Crystal was holding back previously, or those kidnappings must have taught her hatred. Either way, the traps and golems are…wow."

"Well, you did come back in one piece."

Artok shrugged.

"More or less. But no one got out uninjured, and we were very careful, believe me. And even then Elistria is going to spend a week with the healers at least."

Starvak grimaced.

"I suppose that is more than fair. Well, what do you think of this 'labyrinth'?"

"I think it's a fantastic idea. Even if only the doors available to open randomly change it will already be a sizeable boon for the assault guild. However…well, we have both met the dungeon core, and seen her works. If she settled for 'simple', I've yet to see it!"

"So you expect something more?"

"Yes, although I'm not sure what. Either way, I'm positive that this more than fulfills her end of the deal, and then some. Which is very nice."

"Yes, having dungeon cores uphold their end of the bargain is always a joy. Especially when she could have argued for time due to her dungeon's destruction, and no one would have blamed her! Not that many would have known anyway."

"I think it's also a case of knocking out two birds with one stone." The assault guild leader shrugged as his fellow dwarf looked at him quizzically. "It's simple, really. The labyrinth is draining, but it's also fairly high level. She's basically taken care of getting higher ranked adventurers back into her depth and our deal at the same time!"

Starvak slowly nodded.

"Right. And at the same time I'm quite sure the fact that some idiots will go beyond the mapped areas and get themselves killed fighting blind has to have occurred to her."

"That too."

The guild master took another sip of his coffee, and shook his head.

"Well, it looks like our resident dungeon core will never cease to amaze. Alright, good work Artok, take some rest, you've earned it. One thing that you'll need to do however, if this maze does rearrange itself or something, is start expanding the assault guild."

"Already working on it."

"Excellent. Well then, I see that you have it well in hand then."

"One tries guild master, one tries."

*****

"Alright, I'd say we had a successful opening day, don't you think vampy?"

"I'm inclined to agree." Said Emilia as she nursed her cup of tea -or at least Alexandra was told it was tea, she rather doubted the people who named it that had ever tasted true tea!- "We didn't kill that many, but that's to be expected. After all." The vampire advisor smiled wolfishly. "The rooms were arranged in a balanced order today."

Alexandra reciprocated Emilia's smile.

"Yep. Can't wait to see what permutation we get…and with a bit of luck, some of the new traps will be close to the entrance."

"You love explosions far too much."

"Me? Love explosions? Nooo, I just enjoy the endless spectacle of lights from high powered fireworks, that's all."

Emilia rolled her eyes, but decided not to rise to the bait.

"Right, of course. You are such a model dungeon core after all!"

"Of course I am! I'm the picture of propriety and perfection!" Alexandra oofed as Emilia firmly elbowed her, and chuckled. "Alright, alright, I'm a naughty, explosion loving dungeon core! Satisfied?"

"For now…for now."

"More seriously though. I think the room randomizing is going to help a lot. You're right, the first 'configuration' was made almost like a regular floor." Alexandra grimaced. "I suppose I'm so used to making balanced challenges I just built it that way by default. My fault."

"It's fine. I can't fault you for keeping your job in mind."

"Right. Well, either way, it should help us net a few kills. Gods know we need them."

*****

"So, what do you think of our resident dungeon core's surprise?" Asked Pyn as Allya entered the bedroom.

"I think it was quite nice, actually." Said the baroness as she began changing out her ninja outfit. "I was afraid of another trap filled hellscape like her second floor's main area, but it appears to be quite the nice thing. Artok seemed positively quivering with excitement, and the higher ranked adventurers finally will have something to do other than complain."

"Speaking of higher ranked adventurers…when do you think we'll get to do a delve of our own?" Pyn stretched, and Allya tried her best to not look as if she was staring at her almost transparent nightgown clad girlfriend, and miserably failing given the glint in the elf's eyes. "I could use a change of pace. If I hear anymore complaints from some adventurers demanding a house right the hell now, and damn everyone else, I'm going to start cracking skulls."

"If some idiots are bothering you, it might be a good idea to crack some skulls regardless." Remarked the baroness as she took off her last article of clothing, and bent down, returning the favor and smirking as her girlfriend's eyes became almost magnetized to her behind. "You shouldn't waste your time with some assholes, and you need to have your authority respected."

"Oh don't worry, Valker has been taking care of the more…enthusiastic ones. Some of them think that because I'm a 'steel rank'." In truth they both qualified for copper rank, and possibly beyond what with all the essence they had accumulated during the battle. "They can push me around. They found out the hard way that my rank means nothing if I command the guard's loyalty."

"Well, at least that's good. But it didn't discourage the others?" Allya picked up her own nightgown, this one even more scandalous than her girlfriend's, and began putting it on, knowing the elf would be staring at her the whole time.

"Somewhat. But you know how entitled idiots are."

Allya snorted.

"Yeah, I do." She quickly looked over her clothing, before turning back towards Pyn. "How do I look? I think you were looking~."

"You look very good honey. Which is a shame."

"Why?"

"Because you're not going to spend a minute more in that gown!"

And with that her girlfriend grabbed her hands and dragged her to the bed, giggling.