Chapter 66 - Hanging Gardens

Chapter 66

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.

Dungeon Factory, 3rd floor test ground.

"Alright!" Said Sarah as she stepped to the side, revealing what looked nothing more than a tiny step pyramid. Well, 'tiny' was a bit of an exageration, as it was still the size of a house, but it wasn't exactly the giant structures most people associated with such buildings. "This is the 'scaled model' lady Alexandra built for the experiments. I spent the last day or so applying the various enchantments lady Emilia and Ella have given me, and testing which ones would work best."

Everyone nodded as the maid paused, and Sarah smiled.

"So here is the result!" She snapped her fingers, and Alexandra almost recoiled as the pyramid lit up. Lines of codes started flashing everywhere, and a slow rumble filled the air as water began pouring from the ceiling onto the top of the pyramid, slowly descending each step in particular patterns, with a few areas left dry as waterfalls bypassed them. "Now, keep in mind that the enchantments on this model aren't particularly efficient, mainly because they're all made to scale very well and be effective with large volumes of water, not the puny ones here."

"Right." Said Alexandra as the canal leading out from the pyramid began to fill up. "What about the logistic network, and the tunnel system? And the flood features?"

"The logistic network has been adjusted to prevent flooding, and seems to work perfectly well." One of their earlier models had the...unfortunate problem of having the warehouse/staging area underneath the pyramid be completely flooded. "As for the tunnel system, it appears to be functioning just fine. Same for the flood features. Speaking of which, want a demonstration?"

Alexandra nodded.

"Very much so."

"Good. Starting the alarm..."

The strident hululating sound of an alarm -the same her dungeon's town used for alerts, incidentally-, resonated throughout the room, and a few seconds later, the water coming from the waterfall on the ceiling surged into a positive wall of water, and the entire pyramid slightly shook as water began flooding it. The tiny entrances to the pyramid itself either began to close, with varying speed depending on how far they were from the approaching flood, or the screens over them began flashing red. The closing doors all slammed shuts a second or so after the flood reached them, making sure a cinematic spray of water gushed into the room at the last second, and the flashing ones began vomiting water themselves.

Finally, after a minute or so the flood reached the bottom level, and began pouring into the canal, which was barely deep enough to accommodate that much water, and split right in front of the floor's exit, before ending in the giant chute leading to the reservoir feeding the entire apparatus. Chute which was cut off by a wrought iron grille, surrounded by the tiny identations simulating the claymores that would cover the real thing just to make sure some overly enthusiastic adventurer didn't get through.

"The alarm didn't give much warning for the sake of demonstration obviously, but yeah. Everything appears to be working just fine!"

"Excellent then." Alexandra smiled, and stretched. "All the enchantments on it can be made into runes, correct?" The vampire maid nodded, and the Earth-born smiled. "Perfect! I'll get started on building the 3rd floor itself then."

It wasn't going to be open for a while, but they were about ready to wrap up the second floor, and if nothing else she was anticipating some major difficulties with making the third floor operational. She was, after all, basically constructing giant hanging gardens....and a hidden hydroponic farm. Why go through the trouble of materializing ingredients when she could just grow them after all?

*****

"So, she has started implementing the ingredients?"

"Yep. All of them as far as I can tell." Said Ellyana as she sat on the counter, facing her twin sister.

"And are they....satisfactory?"

"Of course they are! Crystal's a dungeon, remember? It's just...troublesome to find the ones we need from the rest."

Eismi slowly nodded.

"It was necessary to dilute them, to avoid suspicion. Alright, I'll warn lord Rook that we should be available to supply our part. Looks like our gamble is going to pay off!"

"Yep." Ellyana stretched, making the potions strewn about her body rattle. "Well, I better go back to brewing. The other ingredients might have no impact on our mission, but the potions are still profitable as hell."

"They do have an impact, they're our cover after all."

"Right." Ellyana's fox ears twitched. "Say, sis, are you sure, you know....about not trying to at least feel out the baroness? She seems pretty set against slavery after all."

Eismi shook her head.

"No. Our orders are clear on that part. We are too close to our objective to risk jeopardizing it now." The cyborg twin sighed. "I'd love to, don't get me wrong, she seems nice enough, and she is Erisian....But the benefits she could offer the cause are far outweighed by the damage she could do if something were to leak."

"I know. It's just..." Ellyana looked through the window of their brand new shop, through to the street beyond, and the newly constructed dungeon town. Normally she'd have been a bit worried about conducting such a sensitive discussion like this, but fortunately Eismi managed to go over the whole building and soundproof it, as well as turn the windows into essentially screens showing curious onlookers a well stocked shop with the flick of a switch. The advantage of doing personal favors to the baroness like securing her palace (even though the baroness would balk at calling it that) was that you could get a lot of leeway for this kind of things. Besides, they were part of her council, they needed some privacy. "It's just that I can't help but think this is a mistake. Rebirth....There's something special about it."

"I know." Eismi picked up her tablet, idly typing on it. "There's a feeling in the air, of hopefulness and excitement. Most towns or cities would be crushed under the weight of the attacks this one has already taken, and be panicking over the possibility of a Republic invasion, but not here."

"Yeah. The people actually think they can win. Hell, I think we can win!"

Eismi smiled.

"Indeed. Speaking of which, how has the last war meeting gone?"

"Very interestingly. The iron deposits change things massively. There's no coal deposit, unfortunately, but that I think is mostly because Crystal doesn't have real coal. I'll see about diverting some her way, although with the damned guild checking everyone going inside it's going to be...interesting to explain."

Eismi nodded. The adventurers guild might not look like it, but they carefully controlled what came into the dungeons under their supervision. Right now they didn't have the infrastructure they usually had in place to do that as thoroughly as they no doubt wished, but the attendants at the entrance were equipped with portable 'scanners' imported straight from the Eris Empire, that at least gave them an idea if someone was bringing specific materials and ingredients into the dungeon. A handful of adventuring parties had already been politely, but firmly told to leave some of their stuff home before delving, notably a silver ranked party with one of their members sporting a malachite medallion, which had nearly given the attendant monitoring the entrance an aneurysm.

"Well, people do weird things, I'm sure you'll find a way."

"Oh you can count on it! But yeah, back on topic. The iron deposits have changed the outlook their majesties have on the city. You know the king has been trying to break through the monopoly Sunrise has on heavy industry? Especially without using their...methods." Ellyana's eyes hardened, alongside her twin's. Sunrise was the largest and most powerful duchy in the Asarian Kingdom...and built almost entirely upon the ruthless exploitation of slave labor. "And then bam, not only do they get a brand new dungeon town, but with a liberal noble to lord over it and infinite raw resources to boot? I'm amazed they haven't pounced on Allya yet!"

Eismi chuckled as she checked her tablet, before shutting it down.

"That would be most unseemly, but yeah. They're thinking of turning Rebirth into a model?"

"I think so." The alchemist shrugged, with the same glass clinking as always. "The baroness probably has a better idea, it's her job after all. Besides, Rebirth might be on the frontlines, but it also makes it a valuable jumping off point if they decide to attack the Republic. Combine that with the capacity to produce iron and steel in limitless quantities, and no need for pesky Sunrise consortiums? Yeah. We've received news that additional reinforcements are on the way, although they won't be there for a while. The Estogans have also announced that they'd like to send more of their own forces as well, in exchange for the permission for their own blacksmiths and foundries to settle in of course."

"Of course."

"I think Elkaryos is probably also planning some way to exploit this, but if he is Melia isn't telling anyone. Or anyone other than the baroness and her knight that is."

"That's....to be expected. This is a corporate dominion after all, although everyone seems to forget that."

Ellyana chuckled.

"That's because Allya irradiates authority. No one even thinks she technically doesn't fully own the area."

"She'll make a great leader...if she survives."

Ellyana's eyes darkened.

"Yeah...Well, I'll be back, brewing to do, poisons to make, you know how it is!"

"Sure, have fun sis!"

*****

"This is recon 1. We have a visual."

Captain Aubriana stopped, and lightly tapped the Erisian 'communicator' on her belt, before bringing it to her mouth.

"Excellent. What do you see?"

"A flying airship, in a patrol pattern. We can also see the mesas. Hold on, getting the optics out." The communicator faithfully retransmitted the rustling of cloth and sotto voce profanity as the soldiers put their tripod mounted telescope into place. "Alright. Confirmed, we have several structures on top of the mesas. Look like...guard posts. And...looks like the beginning of towers?"

Aubriana nodded, before belatedly realizing her men couldn't see her. She'd never get used to that Erisian 'technology'.

"Right, excellent work. Start looking for a place to hole up, we'll join you ASAP."

"Yes ma'am!"

Aubriana deactivated her communicator, and looked to her side to her lieutenant, who was waiting politely, alongside the rest of the unit, who had stopped as soon as she had.

"Alright, we're getting close people. I know we're in advance of those mercenaries, so try to keep a low profile. We'll be able to pass for scouts or flankers from the mercs only once they get there. Until they do it's better if we stay out of sight entirely. Pack up anything that can reflect light, watches, unpainted metal, whatever."

The soldiers around her nodded, and she turned to the small knot of mages.

"Are you ready for this?"

The leader of the mages nodded.

"It is a unique challenge, but I can assure you we are more than up for it. We will, however, need considerable preparation to enact the ritual."

"Right." She'd rather have launched their attack as soon as the mercenaries arrived and began making a nuisance of themselves, but she was fairly sure the mages' little trick was the only chance she had at victory to begin with. After all, the previous team had attacked an unprepared dungeon, and still gotten wiped out. She had an entire infantry platoon to work with, nearly 50 people all told, but she was now facing a dungeon that had to be ready for another attempt to kidnap it. Which meant that it was going to be a bloodbath, at the very least. "Well, tell me if you need anything."

"Of course."

Aubriana shook her head slightly at the lack of military courtesy, and looked around her at her group of soldiers, knowing each and every face...and knowing that in a few weeks most of them would be dead.

If not all of them.

The captain shook her head, before heading towards her quartermaster sergeant. Her job was to make sure as many of them came back to their families as possible, and she might have a few ideas to at least help with that. She hadn't exactly been given time to precisely make a tailored kit for this expedition, but on the flip side the colonel had pretty much let her take whatever she felt she might need from the armory, and that meant she had some pretty outlandish things that just might save their lives.