Ray expected to be brought to a cave, or a room much like the one they had been in before. He was more than a little surprised when the Fairy brought him to a room with a well-maintained desk, chair, and enough room to fit several people nearby.
Sitting, he bounced up and down on the seat a few times. Turning to Nadia he said with no small amount of amusement, “This is possibly the most comfortable chair I have sat in. Derrick is going to be pissed, he worked hard to help design our furniture.”
Nadia flipped her hair to one side, “yeah but he isn’t a female. Our sense of comfort and style are unrivaled in the universe.”
Ray laughed, “Fair enough. Now, how do I take this call…” he muttered, leafing through menu options. After a few moments, he found what he was looking for. Tapping the communications request he waited for the call to be accepted. After nearly a full minute of waiting, he was beginning to think he had been stood up. That was until the call was answered.
The System screen widened in front of him, revealing the CEO of Mob Inc. But what he saw was far from what he was expecting.
A green man with medium-sized horns protruding from his forehead sat on the other side of the call. His ruby red eyes were partially obscured with dark sunglasses, while his well-tailored suit, white undershirt, and red tie that matched his eyes made up the rest of his professional ensemble. Everything was offset by a somewhat shaggy mane of dark brown hair styled in what Ray could only think that a modern punk rocker may wear.
He couldn’t help but grin.
“Hey there! You must be Mathias Mob. Did I say that right?” Raymond asked, grin remaining.
Matthias smiled back, “You got it in one. You must be Raymond I assume?” he responded, getting a nod in return. “Fantastic. I got your inquiry through the {BAZAAR}. I understand you have a fairly unique issue at hand regarding a dungeon?”
Ray wasn’t sure what a {BAZAAR} was, but he assumed it was something kind of like his Shop.
“Yes I am, but please call me Ray. And yeah. Yeah, we do,” the man replied, nodding, and launching into his explanation and request. “See, we have a shit load of undead here. Tons. With more spawning on the edges of our territory on a daily basis. It’s a constant tide that I probably won’t see the end of in my lifetime.”
Matthias nodded as if he had a full understanding of what that was like and could empathize.
“Mixed in are quite a few creatures and monsters, but nothing that we can capture or that would follow us into the dungeon,” Ray continued. “That means the dungeon is only limited to the base creature that it started with. In this case its…” he shuddered for a moment and shifted I his seat as an obviously painful past memory rolled through his mind, “Squirrels. They don’t give a lot of experience and fighting them only brings our folks up a little bit in ability. We need more, but we just can’t get anything.”
The CEO of Mob Inc leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers. Ray waited patiently for the man to reply. He watched as several expressions passed over his features before he leaned to one side and lounged off the armrest of his fancy chair.
“So, you wanted me to provide custom creatures to the dungeon, correct?” Matthias responded, a bit warily. “That is a bit of a losing proposition for me. I give you a single creature and the dungeon spawns an infinite number of them. I get a single sale, and you get everything you could possibly need for an expansion.”
Ray shrugged, “Yeah. But that’s what I need. What we need. You are the only one that offers custom creatures that I could find on the, uh, the {BAZAAR}. So I figured it wouldn’t hurt to ask if it was a possibility. Sounds like it isn’t though,” he said, annoyance crossing his features.
“Not how you proposed it, no,” Matthias responded, leaning forward.
“That’s not a no.”
Matthias chuckled, “No. No it’s not,” he replied. “There is an opportunity here for you to get more than what you are asking for, on a regular basis, and for me to make a profit. Something I need to do in order to both expand and survive to expand further.”
Ray nodded along, his expression changing from annoyance to cautious curiosity. “Ok. I’m hooked.” Nyx slapped the side of the chair with her paw, causing him to wince. “Fool. Ask him what a schedule for delivery would be or this could take eternity.”
“Fine. Sorry, I have others here listening and advising. I was told to ask what exactly a delivery schedule would look like. We are a tad desperate for a training ground.”
“It would be at least a month out,” The CEO admitted. “No longer than that, however, and you will need to talk with both your dungeon and its Fairy to make sure that my plan is acceptable to them. It would require some fairly invasive movements and allowances, at least at first.”
Ray stared at him, briefly making eye contact with a worried-looking Nadia before he asked, “Define ‘invasive’.”
“I want to set up a mob manufacturing facility within the dungeon,” Matthias said as Ray’s mouth opened in surprise. “I will manufacture the mobs at cost, and in return, the dungeon will pay me a percentage of the NEX it gains through interactions with delvers and the System. I was thinking something like fifteen percent. In return, it saves all of that energy and NEX and can focused entirely on expansion.”
Ray’s mouth remained open as he looked up at Nadia, seeing the stunned look on the Fairies face.
“If you do that we could lose control of Greg to a hostile power! An army right in our basement!” she cried out.
Ray closed his mouth, he hadn’t thought of it that way. “I know…” he trailed off.
“Are you breaking your agreement with us? Are you trying to enslave the dungeon and I?” asked Nadia, fury burning in her eyes. “Do you want to ruin this partnership?”
“No I don’t want that!” Ray said before pausing.
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Josephine cleared her throat, getting their attention. “I believe My Lord merely wants to ensure you gain as much as possible while expending as few resources as possible. Regardless, not sinking resources into creature creation is bound to benefit you in the long run. Immensely. There shouldn’t be a threat here, should there?”
Ray thought about it and saw both sides of the argument. “Maybe?” he said cautiously, but the Myrmidon wasn’t done yet.
“Aside from that, My Lord, what kind of training did you imagine would take place here?” she asked, genuinely curious. “Just delving, or perhaps something more specified?”
Ray nodded at the training bit and expanded, “I was thinking something like jiujitsu training. I…”
“What is this jutsu training?” Nyx asked, butting in.
“It's like folding clothes, only there’s someone still in the clothes and it isn’t consensual,” He explained.
Nyx nodded and chuffed, “It sounds devastating.”
“And erotic,” Rivea chimed in, grinning.
Ray stared at her, “No! Not anything… that could be fun,” he said thoughtfully as his mind dove into the gutter. He mentally forced those thoughts right out of his brain. “Enough,” he said, getting annoyed. “We can talk about this later.”
He turned back to Matthia, a harried sense of foreboding hanging over him. “I will chat with the dungeon and… it’s Fairy. This sounds too good to be true, but I have no idea what kind of resources we are talking about here,” he said tiredly. “Can you send me something that I can share with them? Some kind of example contract?”
“Absolutely. I drafted up terms before we spoke to make sure I had something on hand to give to you as an example of how the agreement may look,” Matthias said, sending the offer to Ray via the System. “Review that and let me know what you all think. If you have ideas or want a part of the contract changed just make the changes. I will review them in turn and we can all meet together to finalize it, if it’s something you want.”
“Got it. I will let you know what we decide. Thanks for taking the time to speak with us,” Ray said, annoyed and tired of these negotiations. Without meaning to the call, the screen cracked and was immediately disconnected. Blinking in surprise, he stared at the screen in shock as it dissolved. Apparently, he had accidentally broken it beyond function, causing it to vaporize back into wherever the System generated them from.
He hadn’t even tried to break the screen.
“Right, that was weird,” he said, somewhat bothered by the event.
“Do not worry My Lord. If there is anything I have learned in life, it is that people of power often lack manners. Terminating the call without warning was to be expected from such an individual. I believe you would refer to it as a ‘power play’,” Josephine said. This only verified that what had happened had only been visible to him.
“I do not like the idea of this… CEO having access to the dungeon,” Nadia said vehemently. “I certainly do not like the idea of him having access directly to Greg’s core. He seems to want to use the processing ability of the dungeon to further his own goals. This symbiotic relationship he recommends favors him heavily. Outside of the occasional new creature or item I do not see the benefit of such a deal.”
Ray tapped the desk as he thought, then his head shot up and locked eye contact with the Fairy. “I don’t think he did either,” he said suddenly, getting everyone's attention. “He is a CEO, right? His goal is profit, expansion, and survival. Not entirely unlike us. I don’t think he expected us to accept his deal outright, not without a few changes to it. He said so himself, he drafted up an example and expected us to forward any changes to him. So let's add some conditions. What would make this work for you Nadia?”
The Fairy looked thoughtful, cocking her head to one side as she did when she was listening to Greg the Dungeon speak. After a moment of listening she said, “My partner has some interesting ideas. To name a few, restrictions on where non-mobs that aren’t dungeon-controlled can go, how much we pay out to this CEO, and a defensive pact to name a few. We are also of the opinion that he should assist you as well Ray. Afterall, if you perish we are doomed to failure here and Greg will die.”
“Yeah, I appreciate that last part but I don’t think it will be needed,” Ray said. “I want a one-party deal with you and Mob Inc. directly and fully. Then I can work with you off that deal. This way my group and I can’t be dragged into any kind of conflict if the deal between you two goes south. It will also deepen our alliance with one another.”
“That is surprisingly well thought out Ray,” Nyx chuffed in surprise.
Josephine nodded. “Indeed, My Lord. That was quite that tactical summary on our next steps.”
Ray glared at them. “I am a fairly smart guy. It's just been non-stop fuckery since the Integration. I haven’t had time to stop and think more than a step or two ahead. That’s why I listen to all of you!”
Nyx chuffed in amusement and even Josephine cracked a rare smile. Nadia grinned as well, “Well said, regardless of where the thought process came from. The dungeon and I are both in agreement as well. We will act as the sole point of contact with Mr. CEO going forward. As you so aptly put, you can deal with us going forward.”
“Right. Now that this issue is put to rest, I think you should work on that contract and send it back to them,” Ray said with a grimace. “Before that, though, there is a significant issue we need to address.”
Seeing the dark look on his face Nadia couldn’t help but frown. “What is the issue?” she asked.
“If we can’t get more resources, and quickly, we are screwed. And I mean physical resources, like I mentioned earlier. Building materials and crafting materials primarily,” Ray explained as the Fairy nodded.
Thinking it over for a moment, Nadia waved a hand causing a drawn map of the area to appear on the desk. Taking out a very old looking stylus, she circled four spots in buildings surrounding the entrance of the dungeon.
“These spots can be torn down, building and all. They hold quite a few undead, however, and this fourth spot holds an Uncommon creature of some kind,” she said while tapping the southernmost building she had circled. “The first two hold large tanks of… diesel? Yes, that’s what I believe it is called. They hold tanks of diesel in their basements. The third is a construction site and has large amounts of processed steel, iron, and plastics. That last site, with the Uncommon creature? It has something rare. Very rare. I don’t know what it is, exactly, but it should help you a lot. If you can clear those four spots it should give you more than enough materials to work with for this next assault on your territory.”
Ray was ecstatic, “This is amazing! Thank you Nadia!” he gushed, causing the Fairy to preen a bit. “I have to ask though, how do you know all this? I thought Greg was only aware of what was inside of the dungeon itself?”
“Excursions,” she said simply. Seeing the blank look on everyone’s faces she sighed and explained. “We can send out small groups of creatures to scout the area. When we come close enough to a site our scouts can settle in and take a scan of that location. Here, we have been going from building to building. It takes forever to do it this way, but we have not had the resources to speed up the process. Not until now, that is.”
Josephine cocked her head slightly to one side, “Miss Nadia, would you happen to have the location of the Bandit bases in this area? Or the locations of other survivors?”
“The Bandit base absolutely. It’s a massive beacon on the furthest edge of the map. We haven’t run into anyone else though, the scouts don’t have that large of a range as of yet,” the Fairy said, drawing a large X on the furthest North-West corner of the map. “That’s the only settlement of theirs that we have found, but it is heavily fortified and has lots of people inside. So that’s probably their main base. At least, I hope it is. If they have a larger one you could be in trouble.”
“Let's try to avoid them for now and focus on the nearby buildings you have marked,” Ray said. “We need resources, not another source of fighting. We are spread too thin as it is.”
He stood up from the desk, determined. “Nadia, work on that contract. We can go over the terms when we get back and see if there are any thoughts on something you may have missed. Other than that, I think we should get going. Time is a wasting, and we don’t have much to waste at all.” The group headed for the hallway and the exit to the dungeon.
It was time to start clearing some buildings.