I had quickly run into a serious problem with my ecosystem simulations I was unable to sustain them, at least not for as long as I would like. I set five of them and planned for them to run for ten thousand years. One minute, in reality, would equal to one year in simulation as stronger time dilation had ridiculous mana requirements. That meant I had to wait for almost a week for it to finish and I even reduced mushrooms lifespan to only a year hoping to get enough generations for significant mutations.
If my calculations were correct with the current mana drain I was able to sustain it for only three days assuming I did nothing else and actively focused on regenerating my mana. Which meant I had to either reduce the number of simulations to two or end them after only little more than 4 thousand years. I was debating which would be better when I got another vision.
I saw the interior of a large tent with luxurious pillows covering the entire floor, next to ornamental short table sat four people. Three of them I knew as they were Ordia, Kaeden and Maisoon. The fourth was wearing a simple robe and his fingers were stained with ink. His old face formed a scowl.
“Maisoon, you are mythic-ranked and have been here for how long? A week? You had enough time and power to create the simplest of buildings. Or did you actually managed to fracture your feeble mind so much that you forgot the little geomancy you managed to learn? Why do you insist on staying in this primitive tent?”
“Ordia, Kaiden, this charming old fellow is Nicolas l’Amy the imperial scribe I was telling you about. Nicolas I will allow you to mock myself but say another word about my ancestral home and I will kill you. This primitive tent, as you called it, houses entire magic of my tribe and only a fraction will be enough to end you where you stand.”
“You and customs of your people. I gave up on talking some sense into you over a thousand years ago.” – He looked at the other two present in the room and smiled – “Ms Freesnow nice to finally meet you, you are quite famous among researchers in capital. Mr Randallson it has been a while, I see you are adapting to your circumstances quite remarkably.”
“Pleasantries aside, did you managed to get it?” – Maisoon was behaving strangely, I was sure there was nothing that could make him impatient.
“No, I did something much better.” – With those words, he passed them a document with two elaborate seals. Even I was impressed with the calligraphy shown it must have taken hours to write this thing. – “Take a look for yourself.”
“This is a land grant officiated by both the Emperor and the Church. it gives exclusive rights to anything in roughly 10-kilometre radius to Arnar.” – Only Nicolas remained calm. – “How the hell you managed to do that?”
“Well if you read the whole thing you would know all three guilds was given temporary rights of representing Arnar in dealing with the outside world. Everyone at the capital is convinced that it is our ploy to make sure control over this dungeon remain in your hands. The Church went for that as they don’t want to bother with a dungeon in the middle of nowhere and if by accident you manage to grow it into something truly valuable they plan on waltzing in and bribing the dungeon to kick you out and name them its representative. If this was a normal dungeon their plan would succeed easily, you are sure this one won’t go for that? Or do you plan to get into its good graces by regularly showering it with gifts?”
“That won’t work. The Church would quickly outbid us. We actually are hoping he will be loyal and stick with us. Please don’t make that face, you haven’t met him. Plus there is a legendary psionic monster inside that makes Maisoon wary. The moment I or Ordia enter the dungeon he will know if we try to cheat him. Does that make him a noble?”
“Kaeden you spent more time in dungeons that the rest of us combined if you say that I am willing to trust you. As a matter of fact, yes he is the first dungeon to become a noble, a baron at that. Before you worry that the Emperor will be able to command it,” – Ordia look make the scribe correct himself quickly. – him to do anything, he will be the head of the independent barony similar to how elves are treated.”
“The tax?” – Ordia asked.
“They would never give that up. The proper dungeon is a gold mine and if we went through all the trouble of getting that paper then there was no way anyone would believe he wasn’t special. There will be 10% flat tax imposed on the barony and that will apply to all the goods taken out of dungeon as well.”
Hearing that Maisoon winced – “That is steep, isn’t 3% standard for a noble? The guilds have to pay 7% so it will be 17% before we even add the fee for using the dungeon. We are looking at 30-35% total and when you add the cost of supplies and equipment we will be the most expensive dungeon in the Empire. We will never get enough adventures!”
“Oh, Maisoon do you take me for an idiot? There is another document that you haven’t read yet” – Nicolas grinned openly and even started to laugh seeing their shocked faces.
“How is that possible?” – Ordia mumbled.
“This must be a forgery… No way had the Emperor agreed to that!” – Maisoon words prompted small sphere of light hitting him square in a chest and flinging him across the room. I hadn’t even seen Nicolas shooting it.
“Maisoon, you know that forging the Emperor’s seal is a death sentence and only if you are lucky. Think before you say anything.” – It took ten minutes of fervent apologies for the scribe to even consider sitting down. – “You know that I am friends with the Emperor, right? This is my retirement gift and the church doesn’t know about the second document or you would have already had a cathedral being built here.”
“In short, the barony is exempt from all other taxes and is allowed to set their own laws, regulations and taxes as long they are not contradictory to the Imperial Charter. We have even permission to set our own imperial order. Of course, if nobility ever got wind one of their class had to pay 10% tax we would have regular upraising. You know how those bastards fear precedence so his Imperial Majesty in his infinite wisdom promised to build, within five years, a class 7 teleportation platform for the barony, to pay its maintenance and operational cost with half of the fee going straight to our coffers. The fee can never be bigger that three-fourths of the average teleportation price across the entire Empire. Also, there will be a full contingent of the imperial guard stationed here responsible for the safety of both the platform and the Baron. He even put that as eternal pledge so no one can change that even the Emperor himself”
“The Church will shit themselves when they hear that. The nobles will make sure Arnar will never be stripped of any privilege. I never expected nobles to do anything for the guilds but you can always bet on them protecting their interests. How the hell Roseford family agree to have their land taken from them?”
“You know how they pissed the Emperor a few decades ago and now that they have trouble with Bonpries and Tirasse they agreed to cede their claims to anything east of Amm Steam in exchange for Imperial Guarantee. We will be surrounded by three counties now, and this will be only neutral ground for them.” – I was not sure what that was significant but seeing their reaction that was a good thing.
“Before you start overestimating my abilities please consider the implications. Firstly the Emperor gets back at Rosefords and no one can say anything as they were the one who requested that. Secondly, he will strengthen the guilds and weaken the local nobles because nobody believes this is anything but the guilds’ plot. Thirdly he places teleportation platform beyond the reach of any noble, by the way, five points of seven were already decided, and they will be Amber Duchy, Rose County, Silver County, Great Fall Barony and the Imperial city itself. Those are the most overpopulated areas with the highest amounts of complaint about an insufficient number of dungeons in the area. So he boosts the colonisation of the Expanse while reducing the number of complaints he needs to hear. He knows we wouldn’t go through all this trouble for ordinary dungeon so he is sure eventually all those disgruntled adventurers will make their way here. He just doesn’t realise how special Arnar is. As a bonus, he gets a trusted person to observe the situation locally.”
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“Wait you weren’t joking about retiring? You love your job!” – Maisoon shouts in disbelieve while Kaeden gets visibly nervous.
“You expected me to sit this one out? You know I always loved exploring the dungeons, I just got tired of them always trying to kill me. Plus there is a limit of how much imperial politics I can stomach. I look forward to not being stared down daily by Sovereigns. We both know I barely qualified for the job as only a demigod.”
“So you will be staying as…” – I wondered why Maisoon seemed to hate the idea. I was thrilled to have new quality food to visit my dungeon.
“So you weren’t notified? I pulled some strings and this will dungeon will not come under Roseford jurisdiction. You all are to become the new branch guild masters and I will be the head of local scribes’ guild. I wonder if I could check out Arnar’s dungeon, it has been years since I was in common rank dungeon and he already has four affinities.”
“Well, he will probably do his best to keep you inside permanently. He said I should visit often as my mana was tasty. He will go nuts over yours. There have been some changes since we last talked…” – Maisoon started explaining my new situation and the vision faded.
Ten minutes later I got visitors. Ordia collapsed on the floor panting, I haven’t expected the scribe to outpace her. Maisoon was right, I was going crazy over that man’s mana quality. I also found the way to finish the simulations, all I had to do was convince him to become my battery.
*I am Arnar, nice to meet you, Nicolas, you are a scribe, right? I will make you wonderful office inside the dungeon, I promise you will love it. So what colour of walls would you like?* - I felt Areth cringe. I should either tone down the enthusiasm or keep the conversation from her.
“You are only proposing that so you can syphon my mana?”
*No! Maybe?! Will you stay?* – Ok, Areth was right this was pathetic… but his mana was wonderful. I wanted more… I wanted it all. For a second I understood why dungeons wanted to kill the adventurers. I needed to get a grip. I had no way to kill an actual demigod and I would get more mana if I managed to convince him to visit regularly.
“You should know there are dungeons capable of turning humans into puppets. We don’t want even suspicion that you can do the same and no sane person will stay inside the dungeon for an extended period of time.” – He looked quickly at Kaeden. – “Maybe besides him, but I am unsure if he qualifies as sane. So why do you want me to stay so much?”
That was a dangerous question. I couldn’t tell them everything but I didn’t want them turning suspicious. - *I started a project requiring enormous amounts of mana and realised I can’t supply enough. But don’t worry it is totally safe and will allow me to make a better dungeon. No, really it fine, seriously.* - So… total failure at not making them suspicious. I needed to make Areth my spokesperson.
“Will it be enough if he visits you every day for two to three hours? That will explainable and I can come as well and actually exhaust my whole mana pool.” – When they looked at him with surprise he added – “What? We already decided to trust him and I am known as an eccentric. I can always say I am trying to convince dungeon to produce a psionic mushroom.”
*Thank you that will do. I will need you to keep that up for a week. By the way, what is your divine affinity?*
“That is a rude question, divine affinities are considered taboos and often even one’s spouse doesn’t know. But I guess you voluntarily told us yours so I can make an exception, I am a runic demigod.” – He pointed his finger at wall make a writing motion and produced a rune that exploded with light. – “It is a lesser divine affinity which is part of the language branch. I guess you don’t know that but there are countless divine affinities but most are just the offshoot of the major ones. It is important as I can cultivate by myself or enter the dungeon with matching affinity and my body will passively absorb it. Finding the one matching your affinity may be challenging so any of the same branch would be acceptable, little less effective but acceptable. The exception would be a dungeon with a major affinity of your branch or even better superior one, in my case that would be Order dungeon.”
“As with everything in this world, there are exceptions, one of which is Nature aligned dungeon that is just slightly worse than your superior affinity, as long as you don’t have a null affinity that is. Depending on the affinity level it may even produce better results. I, for example, have strong runic affinity so I have to visit dungeon with at least standard affinity. There is only fourteen greater affinity Order dungeon and current waiting time is four months to enter one. You know, I was in strong affinity Order dungeon two weeks ago and imagine my surprise when I found I get a bigger benefit from visiting you. That means you have at least greater affinity with nature and we need to get imperial guard here as soon as possible. So would you mind confirming my suspicions?”
Congratulations! You managed to royally fuck up and step into the deepest shit yet. I didn’t actually get a popup but it would have been appropriate… Long story short I needed protection and quickest way to get it was to cooperate with them. I no longer could afford to keep secrets for them, I guess we all had to hope the other party would prove loyal.
*I don’t have greater affinity with nature…*
“Please don’t lie I know what I feel, If this is going to work we have to trust each other. If it was you listening to our previous conversation, and yes I have noticed, then you know we are now all in the same boat.”
I was surprised but the other three defended me and told of Nicolas for not allowing me to finish.
*I don’t have greater affinity with nature, I have an absolute one.*
“I am getting the Emperor to deploy an entire company of the black guard here. Do you need anything before I release a one-tenth of my mana to help with your project?”
I quickly channelled all my mana into already ongoing simulations and set up five more. Then I remember golden Queen request.
*Don’t resist please.* - I gave him the non-transferable skill bestowal [A] usable every day and asked him to teach me the rune he used. He generously gave me knowledge of runic language and one hundred basic runes that could hold power. - *Ok, I am ready*
The mana he released was enough for me to refill my pool twelve times. I so wanted to become divine-ranked. Just before he left he stopped and directed a question to nothing in particular.
“Wait, he is Nature aligned dungeon, right? Does any of you know a reliable wood elves or druids?
“I am a friend to the Mysterious Silverbell Grove, they are a joint community of wood, silver and sun elves.” – Looks like our Ordia was connected as it amazed her companions.
“Very good, write them a letter telling them they have to establish an embassy here before the end of this week. Don’t tell them why. I will try to deal with the Druids.”
*Excuse me, I get an impression those factions are bad business so why invite them at all*
“We don’t have time. Kaeden, almost every major faction in the Empire hates you so you stay and explain it to Arnar, we need to go.” – Nicolas was such a charming fellow. Surprisingly no one protested which meant he was at least partially right. I wonder what Kaeden had done.
“Nicolas is sadly right. If we don’t inform them about your existence they will declare war on us. The good news is you don’t have to worry about the Church anymore, the bad is Druids are worse. The usually keep to themselves but if someone provokes their ire they go absolutely overboard. The last time they moved was one hundred and twenty years ago. The church, during one of their crusades, destroyed a third of a plant affiliated legendary dungeon. In response one of their High Archdruids destroyed the Imperial Cathedral and forced the Pope to run. We still got nice grove in the middle of the capital that no one dares to touch.”
*How much of the problem will they be?*
“The tree-huggers are always pain in the ass. You won’t have to worry about them, everyone else will. They will grow a fortress around you and organise pilgrimages to visit the fourth know Nature dungeon in existence.”
*They will be killing my mobs?! If they are that crazy then I won’t be able to regrow dungeon on time!*
“No, they will try to avoid combat and if they fail they will die so you will get stronger. Unless you manage to convince them to fight your mobs. And forget about normal adventures they will rarely have a chance to enter.”
*Kaeden, Maisoon owes me a favour right? Then please tell him I want him to convince druids to not commit suicide by dungeon and to allow the other adventurers.*
“He will love this.” – Kaeden grins threatened to split his face. Well, I wanted to see adventurers test and struggle against my designs. Those druids were freaky and I wanted as little to do with them as possible. – “You realise that wood elves will throw their entire younger generations to die inside your dungeon? Apparently, they get extra power and prestige if they survive Nature affiliated dungeon.
With those optimistic parting words, he left. I should have chosen Oblivion affinity.