Chapter 207 - Forward Exploration

Two weeks later…

The clearing where the engineer had melted was now a bustling hub of activity, with armoured personnel swarming the area, sweeping the nearby lifeforms and decimating them enmasse, all in preparation for additional exploration. The cavern was not large enough to truly establish a forward operating base, so Kyle saw fit to make it more of a post of sort.

Sasha and Yona oversaw the logistics and construction of the exploration post, though they remained completely in the dark as to why this area had been chosen by Kyle to have any significant permanent installation, especially when it was hostile to life.

Instead, Kyle had Ollie and the designers under him create something akin to a water tank, while preparing a mechanical fan of sorts that could turn and convert energy into arcia using a Mechanical Arcia Energy Regenerator, something that he had designed in the past albeit with a loss in conversion.

Only Kyle and Ollie knew exactly why the clearing had melted the engineer, and how to properly exploit it.

“This is the hotspot. One of the rare radioactive spots, concentrated to eradicate any molecules and prevent it from even bonding together.” Kyle explained to Ollie, who was now well versed in Galactic Era ruins thanks to Kyle’s tutelage.

Yet it was not easy to exploit the radioactive hotspot – even normal metal would eventually be ionized, degrading into other compounds that would cause the tank to lose structural integrity. Ollie had to spend time deciphering what type of combination would be sufficient to ensure the tank’s success.

Interestingly enough, the monster that Mari had defeated possess the solution – it’s armor could survive hostile radiation effects, prompting both Kyle and Ollie to immediately exploit it. Kyle knew internally that the main shell was an alloy of Sturore, one of the exotic metals that he had obtained much earlier in the first Trial that he cleared with Feldon.

Using parts of the shell collected, an exosuit variant that was resistant to the radioactive effects were created as well, allowing for workers to construct the thermonuclear generator to power the forward operating base without the need for continuous extraction of arcia crystals. If Kyle found even more clearings such as this, the dungeon would slowly transform into a free energy mine of sorts, powering the rest of the world if he wanted to.

Yet Kyle was more focused on something far more important: the monster’s shell containing main traces of Sturore. Such a composition meant that Sturore was naturally occurring within the dungeon area, and may very well be exploited for bigger gains and denser armour.

If no vein existed, it meant that the monster had accumulated and grown its shell through continuous consumption of its surroundings, either through the moss of the algae. Kyle watched Ollie’s evidence in the form of lightcapturer film countless times, trying to figure out the grazing or feeding pattern of the monster.

Yet, the monster had no obvious witnessed signs of its usual grazing locations or how it reproduced or whether it shed any shells. Despite their two weeks incursion enmasse, Kyle and his soldiers had not found any hints that a similar monster or even a species like that monster existed, making the monster completely unique.

It only made Mari feel far worse, already feeling the pressure for having two of her members die along with one in critical condition back at Desham. She had thrown herself into more training scenarios voluntarily, trying to ensure that she would be able to act stronger and faster to protect those who she was in charge of.

Kyle did not truly blame her, despite whatever Mari felt. A unknown creature was always something that no one, not even a fully funded Galactic Era exploration crew, could prepare for, though he appreciated the push that it gave to Mari.

Funerals were held for the scout and the engineer, giving Kyle ample pathways to impress onto the soldiers just how important and dangerous exploring the Keru Forest Dungeon was.

Both training and manufacturing sped up rapidly with the news of the death and infection, as well as the funding and inception of the research facility, more and more experienced people joining up, either allured by the money or the fame that came with working for ADCON, who was now akin to a household name in Desham.

With this push, Operation Piledriver was now in full swing, with the entrance of the dungeon slowly being overtaken by the rumble of human machinery and countless workers swarming the floor, scanning for everything of worth.

It was to be a full exploitation project, where anything of value would be extracted from the dungeon, but not before being thoroughly researched for the chance of developing a controlled environment for future production.

In this aspect, Drake led the charge in the research, though he was obviously at odds with how Kyle was planning to either exploit or monetize everything living in the dungeon. “Those who try to exploit nature have always faltered – the forces of evolution and balances are too much for man to control.”

“That may have been the case before, but I have seen enough to know that given enough time, humans can be the masters of nature.” Kyle remarked, dismissing Drake’s concern.

Despite their differences, they both agreed on neutralizing any threat that the dungeon’s wildlife posed towards them. The coral cocoon that had sparked this entire rush was now well contained in a holding cell, lightcapturer cameras continuously relaying images to a lightthrower in the office of the research facility, Drake and Kyle observing the behaviour.

“Test #72: Presenting a spike to the coral cocoon from the front, twenty meter distance, single object.”

Within the sparkling white holding cell, a single mobile platform with a mounted spear moved forward under the power of arcia motors along a rail built into the floor, chugging forward as though the spear was about to strike the coral cocoon.

Before the spear could approach, the coral cocoon swiped away at the spear, its branches crushing into the mobile platform with impunity before the same coating of spores shot out from all of its crevices, coating anything nearby with it.

“The biofilm excreted is infectious, layered with the seeds of the coral cocoon that allows it to propagate.” Drake explained. “The villages of old originally used the biofilm as a soothing salve by scraping it off the walls and cooking it to high heat, which in turn prevented any infection growth from having roots in the humans themselves.”

“So this is an alternative to the Poair Leaves used in our health potions now?”

“Health potions currently do not reduce pain at all – it only restores health. Someone could suffer a wound, and while the wound would recover because of the potion, the phantom pain lingers behind. What this biofilm does is act as an anesthetic of sorts, a calming solution that soothes or reduces pain.” Drake continued, using his prior knowledge as village leader and also an amateur potion alchemist using Keru Forest ingredients.

It's a pain reliever, but not necessarily one that heals.  Kyle could already see its medicinal benefits, his wounded soldiers requiring such anasthetic to survive surgery and other complicated medical operations that wound inflict severe amount of pain.

The research facility was then tasked with two objectives: how to recurrently produce the biofilm on a large scale, and how to revert the assimilation process, if a coral cocoon were to dominate a human just like how they encrusted the three scouts.

While the researchers toiled away, Kyle himself was not idle either, working day in day out with Ollie and the contracted exosuit designers to ensure the best survival rate for his soldiers. It would not make sense for him, especially when the norm of Galactic Era exploration would be considered overkill in this day and age.

The final version of the exosuit was slowly coming into fruition, with additional modules such as water, communications, ammo and mobility all coming together into a single manueverable package. It was not anywhere near the lowest rung of Galactic Era exosuits, but Kyle consider it to be the best exosuit he could provide his soldiers enmasse at this time.

With no access to the usual space exotics that were known in his era, the exosuit was subpar in terms of performance, yet good enough to explore the dungeon. The ADCON contracted factories in Desham began to churn away, each exosuit undergoing a quality check before being assigned to a single soldier.

ADCON slowly upgraded their arsenal like this over the two weeks and subsequent month, with factories ramping up in production and new training drills provided to the soldiers to familiarize themselves with the new exosuit.

As with every adoption with a new system, the exosuit was met with a lot of complaints and nitpicks about its functionality and user experience, but was soon quelled over time with continuous improvements to the process as well as the design.

The two companies Kyle had merged together for the supply of rations had also finally arrived at a solution – small pill sized nutritional pods that could be launched right into the user’s mouth using a pressurized air tube powered by arcia energy.

With the flexibility of the tube, the user could push a malleable part of the helmet to inch the tube closer to their mouth, before using their teeth to hold the tube in place while pods entered freely into the mouth. The tube also doubled up as a water source for the user, both the nutritional pods and the water pods able to be reloaded along the back of the soldier in his exosuit, a systematic airlock in place to ensure no poison gas could enter.

Now that all the functionality was in place for the standardized exploration exosuits, Kyle began the operation proper, using the information that Ollie and his squad collected on the ecosystem to fuel the charge, the research’s facility list of wildlife to research continuously growing day by day.

Using the clearing as the center of temporary exploration, more and more scouts began to venture deeper into the dungeon, trawling through the expansive jungle that seem to spread indefinitely into the horizion. It was now painfully clear to Kyle the true size of the dungeon was not to be underestimated, akin to a whole new island or even continent to explore, with it’s own unique danger and habitats to explore.

Kyle wondered whether the Wardens were aware of his new operation to excavate the dungeon – this was the main reason why he paced himself instead of charging headlong into it. But with more than a month passing after his initial scouts penetrating the dungeon layer, Kyle was starting to think the Wardens had abandoned the dungeon for unknown reason.

Despite the establishment of the thermonuclear generator on the cavern, there was still a need to establish a proper forward operating base where the soldiers could stay temporarily for more than three months if necessary. It was to be a hub for all hunters, gatherers, and explorers to congregate and use as a launchpad into the dungeon.

The cavern was too small for that, so Kyle still had to find a proper place to set it up. The only place that he could seriously think of was the cavern where he had first found the Advanced Arcia Crystal, which was also where the Trial of the Prince was discovered.

Until he cleared the trial, the area would continuously spawn rock spiders to antagonize him repeatedly, so he needed to ensure the completion of the trial if he wanted to use the larger cavern as the permanent operating base.

As he and the soldiers stood right above the hole through which he originally escaped, all they could see was the broken rocky outcrop of arcia crystals, cleaved in half by his previous efforts with no rock spiders in sight. Yet they knew that the moment they dropped down, a horde of rock spiders would immediately begin to assault them.

“Nox, you have the front, ensure no rock spider gets through our formation. Sasha, bring up the rear, we’re going to keep the supply going in case this becomes a war of attrition. Yona, you have the communications, organize the soldiers accordingly.” Kyle briefed them quickly, just above the hole where they were preparing to enter.

“Do you know what is causing the surge of rock spiders, and how to stop it?” Nox asked.

Kyle recalled the long spikes that attempted to impale him when his mineral ant was flying out of the cavern for the very first time.

“I think I do. The main culprit is right under the surface.”

“Under the surface? But which part of the cavern?”

“I don’t think it’s any part. In fact, I think the main culprit is the cavern itself.”