Chapter 199 - ADCON Central

Two weeks later…

“Another mission?” Mari grumbled to herself as she strapped her boots in, gearing up to leave the palace. She used to enjoy her chances to leave the Culdao Peaks, but she was now weary of the repetitive nature.

It was always hovercraft here, drop, kill a few Violet Demons or Veiled Angels, and back off. Mari felt an adrenaline rush the first three times. Afterwards? She was as jaded as any other veteran, just going through the motions.

The enemies could hardly seriously fight against the elite squads and Mari, making Mari far more confident in her own strength. Yet through her daily training sessions with Kyle, she could sense she was a long way away from breaking free.

She did not even know if she genuinely wanted to break free. It was hard to deny that her friends lived a better life than she could ever unilaterally provide for them. And she herself could not bear to pry herself away from the luxurious treatment of the palace, its comfort accentuated by the long days of studying and training.

The arctech designer course was also completed, giving Mari a small taste of what a fun school life could be. She sighed, knowing she was returning to her sixteen-hour training days. Maybe I should’ve flunked the course; then, I could prolong my time with my friends.

“Mari, Kyle is expecting you at the assembly grounds,” Orisa spoke calmly, the hobgoblin queen standing quietly before Mari, who continued checking her equipment.

“Almost done… there.”

The sight outside the palace no longer fazed her, the beautiful ravine and slowly expanding industrialisation already engraved in her mind. What caught her eye was the sheer number of people assembled at the meeting point, where it seemed that close to fifteen hovercrafts had landed.

Hundreds of elite soldiers were packing equipment and ammunition into the hovercrafts while the ground crew serviced the replacement of arcia crystals and touched up the various engravings, the sound of etchers searing into metal sparking. Blades in the hovercraft engines and rations and other survival items in an emergency box were replaced. Supervisors hollered at workers, following checklists.

She quickly descended with Orisa, heading over to where Kyle was discussing with two strangers she had never seen before. One of the strangers, a lady wearing what seemed like an oriental dress, turned to face her, smiling gently. “I did not expect the expedition to have child soldiers.”

“Don’t underestimate her. She’s most likely stronger than any of you.” Kyle shot back, motioning to Mari for her to join him.

“A transcendent?”

“No, a mage. Treat her as a viper.”

Soon, a stealth hovercraft appeared into view, landing in the middle of the square as the strong air drafts buffeted all of them. The hovercraft’s cargo bay opened to reveal a shabby-looking man, clearly overworked from the dark eyebags that sagged, his eyes strained as though he hadn’t slept for a few days. With both fists pumping up in the air triumphantly, he yelled to the air: “I’M BACK BITCHES! YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

Feldon was about to continue his celebratory dance before he caught sight of Kyle glaring at him, quickly composing himself and coughing slightly, walking up to the trio. “Good to be back, sir.”

“Good job managing ADCON.” Kyle motioned with his head towards a wife full of tears, along with two utterly confused children, wondering why their mother was crying.

Feldon grinned as he ran over to his family. “I’m back, kids! Did you miss me?”

“Uhh… who are you? I don’t remember my dad looking like this!”

Feldon patted his face slightly, frowning. “Hmm… you mean I look more macho?”

“No, you look terrible.”

“You little f-“

While Feldon enjoyed a hearty reunion with his family, Kyle, Nox, Yona, and Mari headed off into a briefing room, where Sasha and a few veteran Seven Snakes members were also waiting. The scale of the operation took aback Mari, surprised that there were so many ‘bigshots’ gathered there. Wasn’t this supposed to be a simple mission?

She glanced around a bit more before suddenly noticing Ollie sitting at the back of the briefing room as well. Huh? What the hell is he doing here?

Kyle walked up to the front, activating a light thrower film that showed what seemed to be the interior of a massive tunnel network, with the camera flying back and forth and showcasing the various turns and corners and dead ends.

“Tomorrow will mark the beginning of a new phase for ADCON: Operation Piledriver. The Keru Forest Dungeon holds the technology and resources necessary for our military strength to reach the next level. To truly be unchallenged, we have to push the boundaries continuously. As such, the current level of exploitation of the dungeon is far from enough.”

Kyle clicked and swapped the film, showing the trial rooms that Feldon and Kyle were previously in. “That is the official objective. The true objective of this excavation is to figure out who built the dungeon. It is clearly of man-made design, and unfortunately, I don’t believe in gods or goddess or any divine being.”

Nothing was wrong with this objective – it was an age-old dream of the current human population to truly figure out the nature of the Galactic Era ruins. Kyle’s objective was not surprising nor different to any other explorer or adventurer who collected relics. Everyone had an innate desire to learn of the history of the ruins, but no one knew how it was built or operated.

Mari suddenly felt a rush of excitement. Her grandfather had long told her tales of his adventures in ruins such as this one, littered all over Versia. Sure, the Oracle Chamber was also one such ruin, but seeing it operational made it lose some of its charm. Now this is a mission I can get behind.

“The dungeon holds many dangers, and I do not know its true size and scale. Mapping of the tunnel network over the last two weeks has shown that the dungeon is enormous enough to hold a country if needed. There is a good possibility that the dungeon, once fully understood, could serve as a secondary base of operations.”

“Regardless, this effort will require a good chunk of soldiers and manpower. We will be entering from the same entrance as always in the Keru Forest and begin a full clean sweep of the dungeon, establish a forward operating base there, and solidify our transportation and escape routes. This operation will take close to three months or more by my estimates – even a year.”

“Nox will handle the organisation and management of the troops. Yona will handle logistics, information and transportation. Sasha will be in charge of the security and defence of the forward operating base. Mari will protect the arctech engineers that we need to break through certain parts of the dungeon. I will take point and clear the path that has been blocked. As for the remaining officers, you each have your designation on the piece of paper in front of you. All of you will report to either one of them. Understood? If you have any questions, ask now.”

One of the veteran Seven Snakes members raised his hand. “We’re going to need heavy machinery to break through the collapsed sections of the dungeon.”

“Not a problem. We have freshly graduated arctech designers who can handle it.” Kyle motioned to Mari, who was one of the top graduates of the crash course, having passed the exam. “She will protect Ollie, who is our best man for the job. We have facilities in Desham that can provide manufacturing services.”

The entire room turned to face Ollie, who simply nodded in response, unable to speak from the sheer intensity of their gazes. He was the ace of the course, having passed it with flying colours. His prototype of an improved arctech tower crane for his final course project was already adopted by the Golden Snakes Construction Company, proving his chops despite his young age.

Huh, so I have to protect him. Then what about my dungeon diving?! Mari never really paid much attention to him apart from the first day. They had worked together on a few projects but never got close enough to be anything more than acquaintances.

Another member asked a question: “What kind of enemies are we expecting to face apart from rock spiders or mineral ants?”

“We don’t know.” Nox took the question up. “The dungeon so far has yet to show any new enemies, but that’s because the rest of the dungeon has been blocked off. Once we dig through it, there’s no knowing what is on the other side. We have to be prepared for anything.”

As soon as the briefing concluded, the operation began in earnest. “I would have thought you would bring me along with you at the frontlines,” Mari remarked to Kyle as they exited the briefing room.

“Who says you’re not coming to the frontlines?”

“Huh? You said I was going to protect engineers!”

“And those engineers are coming to the frontlines too. You can’t break a wall without seeing it in person first. Also, this would serve as a good test of your capabilities as well. So far, you’ve been training to kill, but have yet to do a protection mission.”

Mari wanted to retort, but realised that Kyle, despite being a crime lord, does save his subordinates to the best of his ability. I can’t deny that he treats those under him with care.

While Mari’s view of Kyle softened slightly, Kyle was hardly thinking about any of them. The reason why he saved anybody was because of how much they were worth to him. All of his subordinates had been invested in – like hell he was going to let them die before his investment into them paid off. Time, equipment, and training was all an expense for Kyle, and he planned to get every single rakel and ounce of work back whenever he could. He couldn’t get rakles back from dead subordinates.

The hovercrafts took off one by one, staggering their departure over the next three days to avoid too much detection. Mari took a hovercraft with Ollie and the other arctech designers assigned to the expedition. Not all of them were graduated from the course – some much older than both Mari and Ollie. Already Mari could sense that they held disdain for Ollie, who had somehow been put as the head of the expedition’s engineering team, irking the older ones who had been in the industry for years. This is going to be a pain.

As they soared over the sky, Mari peeped out through the window, looking down at the rolling plains, the vast mountain ranges as well as the dense forest. Soon, they were long past the border of Raktor, entering the Keru Forest region.

Originally, Mari would have thought the Keru forest would be just like the Culdao Peaks, normal Euria Seeds trees littered everywhere. However, the trees were far more oppressive here, larger than she could imagine from the trees she had seen in Kregol and Raktor. Nearing their destination, Mari could get a glimpse of human habitation in the middle of the forest, stabbing through the trees like a dagger from the edge of the forest, where Desham was.

The Keru Forest Dungeon had changed rapidly over the months. Gone were the overgrown foliage and snaking tunnels that demarcated its location. Instead, the forestry and agricultural industries of Desham have already reached the exit of the dungeon from which Kyle and Feldon escaped from, a new town sprouting out.

Originally used as a training camp for new ADCON soldiers to hone their skills against rock spiders and ingrain tenacity, merchants, traders, adventurers, and everyone seeking a new fortune flocked to the dungeon, becoming one of the most popular Galactic Era ruins in Versia.

Not only did it serve as a potential visitor attraction, it also acted as a mining source for Intermediate Arcia Crystals. However, ADCON, as a whole, has yet to clear the Trial of Persistence, continuously following Kyle’s method of leaving and allowing the dungeon trial to reset.

This created an internal economic loop, where soldiers training in the camp would head into the town to spend their salaries, drinking and eating merrily from a hard day of intense battles. As such, the level of human development in the forest skyrocketed, and buildings appearing in the middle of the trees, akin to a forest city. It could very well be said to be an extension of Desham, only known to the locals as ‘ADCON Central’.

The hovercraft landed in a small clearing, the passengers disembarking and following a supervisor who showed them their lodgings. Mari hardly bothered with her simple room, quickly dumping her belongings and heading out to view the town that had sprouted out around the dungeon now.

Buildings seemed to harmonious with the surroundings, in part because of the aggressive growth of dazzling vibrant moss that seemed to change colour with the wind, creepers and vines snaking their way up concrete walls, their blooming flowers resplendent. The residents seemed to mimic the diversity of flora and fauna, each of them hailing from a different place, some even from other parts of the continent far beyond the borders of both the Yual and the Hwa Dynasty.

Mari marvelled at the old tall flanking trees that towered far above her and marked the border of the ‘street’ she was walking down. The forest exploitation had now resulted in a booming market, with all sorts of exotic herbs and plants being peddled here in the hopes of making it big. At the end of the ‘street’ of trees littered with stalls and customers was a large ADCON logo, marking the central administrative building in charge of all training and logistics.

The layout snaked with the meandering pathways of the surrounding woods, small metal makeshift bridges arching over brooks and streams with their underside slowly corroding. Ancient gigantic trees marked checkpoints, with wagons driving on marked roads lined with fallen logs, serving as barriers between the walkways and the motorway. The concentration of arcia energy in the air was far higher as well, a side effect of the dungeon’s high quantities of intermediate arcia crystals. Mari took a deep breath, the fresh arcia-infused air filling her lungs and rejuvenating her body slightly.

The somewhat mix of industrialisation and mystical nature blended into an anachronistic scene, the jarring juxtaposition somehow making it even more unique and intriguing to Mari. For a brief moment, she felt like she was an independent adventurer, free to roam all the lands.

Maybe following Kyle isn’t so bad after all.