Chapter 98 - The Arsenal of Dungeonhood (Patreon)

Chapter 98

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.

Dungeon Factory, Primary Forge.

Alexandra smiled in satisfaction as she lifted up the new musket, carefully shouldered it, and squeezed the trigger.

The trigger action wasn't a smooth as she could have wished. And it was odd to see a musket without a flintlock, a matchlock, or any visible ignition mechanism, but she saw the flash of magic as the fire rune inside triggered.

It wasn't as good as she wanted, of course. Its barrel was made out of steel, meaning that she could actually give it a rifling that would last longer, but she was still experimenting with rifling, and come to the conclusion that as precise as her golems were, she was going to need machine tools for this, at least for any mass production. And a lot of testing. She needed to find the best kind of rifling for her purposes, and that was going to take a while.

But what really interested her about the steel barrel was that the breech was strong enough that she could start on breech-loading guns. With iron that would be a recipe for disaster, at least for the iron she used, and she was already working on a break action rifle. Problem was, even with fire runes, she was having trouble detonating the ammunition. She'd already made some paper cartridges to expedite muzzle-loading for her golems, but ran into a few issues.

The first one was that Earth-style paper cartridges had effectively been handy ways to contain a full 'package' for a musket, back on old earth. The procedure was to bite off the top of the cartridges, opening the section filled with gunpowder and taking the small compartment with the bullet -or in her case, musket ball- in your mouth, then pouring in the powder, stuffing in the paper of the cartridge as a wad, then spitting out the ball to insert and ramming it all down.

Problem was, first and foremost her golems didn't have mouths. She'd considered adding it to them, but the prototypes managed to even creep out the maids, who weren't exactly faint of heart to begin with, not to mention Emilia. So she'd settled for alternative solutions, notably a small accessory on the side of the barrel, where the tip of the cartridge could be stuck and ripped off, keeping the ball handy once the rest of the process was done. It wasn't pretty, and making it so it didn't interfere with the ring bayonets had been interesting, while keeping it high enough, but it worked.

So she was having issues making a cartridge that could actually be loaded from the breech, not to mention engineering the gun itself. She was already planning for a bolt action rifle, but that was down the line, making a gun that could actually hinge open and quickly loaded was already going to be an interesting challenge in the short term.

"Having fun?"

Alexandra chuckled as she gazed at the musket, before setting it back down on the conveyor belt.

"Yes vampy, I'm having lots of fun." The Earth-born looked at her advisor and stuck her tongue out. "And you would too if you weren't too married to your spells!"

"Unlike you, I like controlling when the explosions happen."

"Oh really? Was the detonation of the influence stabilizers planned then?"

"I-Just-Shut up!"

Alexandra chuckled as the vampire girl crossed her arms and pouted, with Sarah behind her doing her best not to laugh -and failing miserably-, before looking back at the assembly lines around her.

Well, technically they weren't full assembly lines yet. The conveyor belts helped a lot, but each step wasn't perfectly in sync with the rest, and it was more a convenient way to get the different items to various workshop stations, but she was getting there, spreading out the tasks as she figured out which ones could be separated, and how to time them to synchronize in a beautiful harmony of production.

Only the line before her was working with steel for now, as her production was…limited, to say the least, but she was building blast and oxygen furnaces as fast as she could. They were far bulkier, and more energy intensive than the puddling furnaces she used for iron, but the discount she was getting on steel as a material alone was around 30%, and was getting closer to 50% for some of the more complex items, like the new claymore mines.

Even the efficiency of her iron production was climbing. It was around 30% for finished items, but that was huge to begin with. Granted, there was an infrastructure cost to it, but given the absurd quantities she needed for the frenetic pace of her steps and labyrinth, each assembly line paid itself back in three days, four at most.

Of course, the issue with the new weapons and their ammunition was that she couldn't make the gunpowder the 'normal' way, and had to rely on her dungeon powers for that, which was proving…prohibitively expensive, to say the least. At least she could afford far more of them than if she had to bury it in her budget like before the attack, but it still was far from optimal. So as much as she produced weapons, she was low on their ammo allocation, with the muskets and revolvers all coming with at most thirty rounds each, and some of the claymores and RPGs staying empty in crates, ready for her to fill them in the case of an emergency.

"Well, stability off your…magical projects aside, what's next on the list?"

Emilia pulled out her notebook, flipping through the pages with practiced ease.

"Uh. Howitzers. What's a howitzer? The name seems familiar…"

Alexandra's smile split her face.

"A howitzer is a…type of cannon my dear Emilia. A very, very important type of cannon. One that anyone who tangles with us will curse for eternity." Well, they'll curse them more once she manages to make a rifled gun, or actually make breech loading guns, but even a smoothbore muzzle loading howitzer would raise all kinds of hell. Field guns were powerful, but they required line of sight, and there was only so much you could do when the enemy could see and shoot back at you, not to mention concentrate your fire.

With iron barrels, it would have been suicide to make them, she'd deal more damage to her own forces than the enemy. But with reliable, strong steel barrels? Barrels that she could mass produce? Oh she was going to turn her enemies into mince meat! They wouldn't have the massed fire capabilities of her katyusha rockets, but they'd more than make up for it in sustained fire.

Provided she was able to make them, of course.

"Curse? Wait. I remember, the Eris Empire has them, don't they? They're…some kind of heavy artillery?"

"They're heavy, indirect fire artillery." Alexandra looked up at the ceiling. "And once we have enough steps to get high enough into the mesa, I'll have just the place to hide them."

*****

"Ah, forgemaster, it's a pleasure to see you again!" Said Allya as she rose from behind her desk.

"The pleasure is all mine, milady." Said the dwarf as he stepped inside the baroness' office, taking her offered hand and kissing it.

"Flatterer, as always." Allya chuckled, before gesturing at the chair in front of her desk, which the dwarf obediently sat down on. "So, what did you wish to talk about?"

"Well, quite simply, I have finished my assessment of the dungeon. Well, the currently available mineral resources within the dungeon."

"Ah. And?"

"And? And I'm going to need to expand my Consortium's planned operations here. Fast. I came here with the expectations of a few ore veins accessible behind a solid floor of dangerous monster. The so called 'iron step'…Not only low level adventurers can complete it, but entire rooms have their walls made out of minerals! Fast regenerating, too! I have already met with guild master Starvak in order to establish a framework for regular escort quests, and I am confident that with his approval -and help- I will be able to establish a throughput most forges would only dream of!"

"That good?"

"Milady, with all due respect, whatever you are imagining is probably inadequate."

Allya smiled mirthlessly.

"I was a noble of the Eris Empire's Core, forge master. I beg to differ."

The dwarf froze, before dipping his head in acknowledgment.

"Fair enough, milady. In which case you probably have an even better idea than anyone but me how huge this is. And how important it will be for your town." The forge master shrugged. "Oh, sure, as long as no coal ore veins appear in the dungeon, bringing in the coal -or coke- required for the foundries will be a bitch and a half. But it would be worth it."

"Why not export the ore?" She smiled at his stupefied look. "I'm not advocating for that, I am fully aware how industry is very important, and relying on raw resource extraction is a…subpar idea." After all, the way the Eris Empire kept its outer protectorates in line was through denying them any kind of industrial capacity, and only pillaging their natural resources. "Still, I am curious as to why you are not even considering it as an option."

"Simply put, because where would we export it to milady? The north? Sunrise feeds the entire Kingdom all of the ore it could ever need, transforming it into iron and steel had always been the bottleneck for the Asarians after all, and the Saphire Kingdom would die before buying Asarian goods. The south? Tark would certainly be interested, and so would the Republic's corporations…but the Republic is unlikely to remain a viable trading partner for very long. And without the Republic allowing convoys to go through, getting anything to Tark would be impossible, effectively, at least not without airships, and no one is going to transport iron ore through airships." The forge master shrugged. "Oh, I have no doubt we could sell some raw materials, but simply put you are in the middle of the wasteland, no matter how high grade it is, iron ore simply isn't going to be worth exporting for a wasteland crossing. The only country for who raw material extraction is the bottleneck is Tark, and as mentioned, they're on the other side of the Republic."

"But forged iron and steel would be worthwhile to transport?"

"Yes. Steel, especially. The Asarian Kingdom never has enough to go around."

"I see…but why would corporations set up shop here then?"

The dwarf held out his hand, and began counting each point by extending a finger.

"First, because this is a dungeon town. Even if there were no prospects for exportation, there will always be a huge demand for such materials here. The materials to make or repair the armor or weapons of adventurers have to come from somewhere after all. Furthermore, the sheer value of the dungeon loot here will guarantee a gargantuan amount of trade and caravans, which will make settling in, and exports, far easier. Second, the ore is currently incredibly easy to extract, and dungeon ore is always of the highest quality, which is very important. Purifying steel or iron is always a massive, time consuming and above all else costly part of the process, unless you want to settle for a subpar product."

The dwarf took a deep breath, and looked the baroness straight in the eyes.

"Third, and lastly, because most of the corporations who would be interested in settling here to exploit the ore and refine it would be from the Tark Hegemony or the Loris Empire. The Tarkians have never set up shop in the Asarian Kingdom because they would die before associating with slavers, and that would be a requirement due to Sunrise's quasi monopoly on raw ore. And while the Loris Empire doesn't have the same fanatical devotion against slavery that the Hegemony does, it doesn't mean that it wouldn't be a public relation disaster for any corporation caught making deals with slavers."

"I see…Well, it's a good thing then that I despise slavers as much as they do then!" She smiled mirthlessly, before clearing her throat. "So, will you be needing some more authorizations for your planned foundries for your consortium?"

"Indeed. I will take the detailed plans to your knight -Windwrath, was it?- as soon as they are ready. I will also, with your permission, start mining delves and stockpile materials in preparation for the opening of the foundries."

"You hardly need my permission for that, but I appreciate the courtesy. Of course, you have my blessings, forge master!" Allya chuckled. "And knowing Crystal, you'll have her blessings as well."

Especially as the dungeon was going to need every bit of mana she could get, especially given the fiery speeches and denunciations coming from the Republic. The scumbags that called themselves senators wouldn't be so bold if they weren't getting ready to pounce.

She just hoped her allies and her would be ready when they did.