The Fallen World : A Dungeon's Story

Chapter 140

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth

Dungeon Factory, Logistic Network Security Checkpoint Delta-1

“Ah, Baroness! There you are!”

Allya turned, quickly followed by most of her soldiers, as Alexandra walked into the room. She was piloting CQ’s body, her avatar waiting a few hallways away, but Emilia was accompanying her regardless.

None of the upgraded high-tech praetorian guards were escorting them, even out of sight, but there wasn’t really a need. She might have named the place a “security checkpoint,” but it was closer to a miniature fortress, including its own field artillery and minefield. The town’s guards could attack her…but she very much doubted they’d survive more than three seconds after doing so.

“Lady Crystal! Apologies for the delay, but your golems were adamant in preventing us from going further.” The baroness took a second to adjust her outfit, and Alexandra hid a smile. No matter which way you put it, there was no way you could make her assassin’s garb look remotely proper, so it was a bit of a wasted effort. Still, she appreciated the thought. “I have brought the troops I had on stand-by with me. We stand ready to assist in repelling this attack!”

“And I deeply appreciate both your quick response and the strength of it.” Which, despite the fact that she could have crushed said “response” in a heartbeat, was actually true. The baroness had put a sizeable portion of the town’s forces near the dungeon as a rapid response unit after all, although Alexandra was pragmatic enough to realize that they also doubled as a SWAT team for the…rather frequent riots and issues that sprung up at her entrances. “But it was, in this particular case, unnecessary. I have the situation under control.”

“Oh. Are you sure?”

Alexandra blinked as she brought up a data feed from Seraph, and smiled.

Those were some tough adventurers. But not “survive the attack of an entire battalion of golems with muskets” tough. Still, they were giving a rather good account of themselves. There was going to be a lot of scrap once this was done.

“Yes, I am quite sure. Whoever they are, they won’t make it out of there.”

“Speaking of, where is…there, exactly?”

“Ah, the accident is happening in the labyrinth. Don’t worry, containment measures have been brought online. The other steps will be unaffected and continue operating as normal. Er, once I lift the total lockdown that is.”

“That…would be good. I imagine people outside are worried.”

“When aren’t they? But you bring a good point. Give me a second.” Alexandra blinked as she sent the order, and frowned internally. Her other self better provide her with a damned good reason why she was using all of that processing power, because her sudden inability to multitask was becoming really grating, real quick. “There, lockdown lifted.”

As she finished her sentence, the alarms, which had been blaring in the distance, shut down.

“Thank you, Lady Crystal.”

“Please, having adventurers go through my depths—” that was a weird way of saying it, and she could sense Emilia holding back a snicker—“benefits me as well, Baroness.” Alexandra blinked. “Besides which, the point became moot.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“The last of the attackers has been neutralized. I’m going to resurrect and interrogate them.” Alexandra,—using CQ’s body,—bowed, gesturing at the door behind her. “Care to join me? Your soldiers can come too if they wish. I’m sure we’ll be able to find accommodations for them to cultivate.”

“Thank you, that would be much appreciated,” the baroness said, with only the slightest slip-up, showing a hint of fear in her expression. Alexandra concealed a wince. Damn, Emilia was right. The poor woman was terrified of her!

The soldiers, while still a bit wary, definitely perked up. The amount of mana one could cultivate was much greater the closer to the core you could get, which usually meant having to dive into the dungeon. Having that opportunity without the hardship involved, had to sound very good to them. After all, free money.

“Excellent! Then let us be on our way!”

*****

Allya swallowed audibly as they stepped into the room.

“And this…this is your secure resurrection room?”

Alexandra nodded.

“Yep! Like it?”

“It’s, uh…secure. Very secure.”

Alexandra chuckled. That it was. After the fight with the mythril adventurers of Team Crystalline, she’d realized that if she ever killed someone that powerful, and wanted to bring them back, she would have no way to contain them. True, they would be brought back weaker, but a weak mythril adventurer is still one hell of a killing machine. And her resurrection rooms were in tight, winding corridors linked to surface access elevators. It was utterly impossible to set up the kind of massed firepower that, at the time, had been her only means of taking out opponents of that level.

So she’d built this. Her “secure resurrection room.” Basically a reverse fort, with a big courtyard in the middle, and all the guns turned inwards. Originally, it had been staffed with scorpios and field guns, but now the walls were lined with Gatling guns, field guns, and rocket launchers. The ground was liberally sprinkled with claymore mines, and, well…

A large portion of ceiling was a giant kinetic trap, designed to drop a fifteen-meter-tall pillar of granite the size of the entire courtyard, the full length of the massive rock etched with shielding and fire enchantments to make it harder to deflect or survive. Parry this, you filthy casual.

And if push came to shove…

Well, it was in a secluded area of the dungeon for a reason. To get out you’d have to go through the testing area, where she pretty much had a small field army deployed at all times, and she’d set up one of her modular self-destructs. It would ruin the clay steps, but it would absolutely obliterate anyone who’d made it this far. She hoped. The more she learned about the truly powerful people on this world, the more she understood why the UDC had never taken on the adventurers guild, even at the height of the United Dungeon Wars.

Which is why she’d been looking at enhanced takedown options. Although she figured that beyond a certain point her best bet was going to be a tactical nuke. Or a fusion gun. And that’s why several hundred golems were busy tearing the base below her apart to find its ever-elusive damned fusion generators.

“It's definitely secure. And for good reason. Now please, stand back behind the line. It’s the limit of the wards protecting our box.”

Allya blinked, and carefully stepped back behind the line etched into the rock. Alexandra’s “interrogation box” wasn’t foolproof, but it would take some serious firepower to go through and harm the people behind it. She’d unleashed Emilia and Jared on it, and it had held up to the test. Its only weakness was anti-magic attacks, but she had failsafes for that. Namely big old blast shields. Negate the magic, and the runes holding them up would cut off. It wasn’t a very elegant solution, but if it saved Emilia from getting hurt, she’d take it.

“So…what now?” the baroness asked.

“Now? Now I bring them back.”

Alexandra gestured dramatically, and the orb of resurrection, a nigh exact duplicate of the first one she’d built, flashed with power.

And a handful of adventurers appeared, like clockwork, looking extremely dazed.

“What…where am I?” asked a paladin, who looked to be the leader of the party.

“In a highly secure location, beneath the dungeon you just attacked.”

“Attacked? What?” The young man blinked, and looked around. “We just…fell into a trap. Got golems arriving from everywhere. Right?”

“You almost triggered a damned war!” Allya snapped. “The dungeon went into emergency lockdown!”

“What?” The paladin locked eyes with Allya, and gasped. “Oh shit. You’re the baroness! You…You’re serious, aren’t you?”

“Of course I am!”

“I…we didn’t mean to…”

“Alright kid, calm down,” Alexandra said in a soothing tone, automatically switching into “I’m your benevolent CO” mode. She knew a soldier going into shock when she saw one. “Let’s start from the beginning, okay?”

“Alright, yeah, I, uh…we were fighting in the labyrinth, right? Found a room. Lots of them explodey spiders. Nasty buggers.” Alexandra smiled internally. Setting those things loose into the labyrinth had been Ella’s idea. The vampire maid really had a mean streak a kilometer wide. At least Alexandra hadn’t been willing to deploy the chemical weapons the maid had proposed. Didn’t want people wondering about what had happened to the smugglers after all! “And our mage, Lorienne.” He nodded towards the elven woman, who nodded back, clearly a bit dazed, but her senses were brought back into focus once she realized just what was lining the walls. “Well, she threw a spell. Big one. Gravity thingy. You know, throws stuff around?”

“Yes, I see—oh fuck.” Alexandra facepalmed.

“What is it?” Allya asked, looking faintly worried.

“They breached the labyrinth. Accidentally, mind you. But you guys…you guys basically ripped the walls and ceiling apart. Probably damaged the cranes too with the debris. And that triggered every security alarm in the sector, which brought the golem security teams on you.”

“Ah.” The adventurer blinked, and slowly nodded. “And then we took them out. Because obviously, it was just one more trick, right? Crap. I’m sorry miss, uh, milady.”

“It happens.” Alexandra sighed. “Probably something I should have foreseen actually. Given how vicious it got, and how fragile the boxes were, it was inevitable something like that would happen. Actually, now that I think about it, I’m amazed it hasn’t happened sooner.”

“Well, to be fair, most mages would hesitate before unleashing such destructive magic in a tight space. Friendly fire and all that,” Allya said, and the mage at least had the grace to look sheepish. “And boxes?”

“Yeah. The entire labyrinth is basically a giant field of boxes. With hooks on top. That’s how I rearrange them so easily.”

“That’s…”

“Clever, is the term you are looking for, I believe.” Alexandra sighed again. “And now I’m going to have to find a way to reinforce this stuff. Or remake the entire floor.”

“That might be problematic.” The baroness shrugged as Alexandra threw her a curious glance. “It’s the only place where the higher levels can truly go to. Yeah, there’s the water temple, but even silver ranks can make it now. The golds? The labyrinth is pretty much their only challenge. Besides, it’s a huge money earner, for them and the assault guild.”

“Speaking of which, how’s the dwarf guy? Uh, Artok, was it?”

“He’s doing fine. Got an upgrade to silver, and well on his way to gold.”

“I guess there’s a lot of that going around.”

“Oh yes. Some of the clay ranks that arrived in the first wave are getting into copper. The early ranks are mainly about equipment and field experience, but still.”

“Hadn’t really paid attention to that.” Alexandra idly wondered about what had happened to that idiotic clay rank she’d saved way back during the first assault guild delve, and shrugged it off. She’d done what she could for the kid. “What about you?”

“Well, I’m not really an adventurer anymore. I keep up with training, but I’m a bit too busy to do dungeon delves. Besides, I don’t really have a party. Well, I could assemble one.” She had Dominique and Pyn, and she could find a tank, or failing that she was sure one of her bodyguards would insist upon coming. That was a pretty good party. Although she’d really prefer to have a healer as well. “But once again, very busy.”

“Well, if you ever do make the time, hit me up. I can whip up something special for you. And I promise I won’t take any of your stuff if you fall.” Alexandra smiled. “It wouldn’t do to rob one of my allies after all!”

Allya smiled back, and Alexandra blinked internally. The smile felt weird. It felt…genuine. Dear Gods, was that woman just maintaining a facade the whole time? Creepy.

Also a bit of the pot calling the kettle black, but still.

“So…what about us?” the paladin asked.

“You’re not at fault here. Consider the ass-kicking you received—and the fact that I’ll be picking through your stuff—as your punishment for this mess. But, as an acknowledgment that it was more an accident than anything, I’ll have the remains of all the golems you took down shipped up when you decide to leave. You did kill them fair and square after all.” The paladin’s eyes went wide at that. Which was hardly surprising; they’d gutted that battalion. Of course, Alexandra wasn’t about to point out that she really didn’t care about the scrap. In fact it was more of a hindrance than anything, including the damaged weapons, since repairing them would cost more than building new ones, although she’d make sure to recover the ammunition and intact weaponry. “You’re also welcome to stay down here until nightfall, to recuperate and cultivate.”

The paladin got up and bowed, which given his dizziness was a bit of a precarious affair. “Stumbling into an approximation of a bow” would have been a better description.

“Thank you, milady, you are most generous.”

“Don’t mention it. Now, Baroness, would you care for a tour of the third floor? It is almost finished, and I would love your opinion on it!”