The questions and answers between myself and those I had saved from the Drake Guard continued for about an hour, with the townsfolk gradually filtering out after I had cleaned the corridor outside of what little residual radioactivity the Clockwork Knight had produced by firing its Proton Pile.
What I learned of the situation outside my dungeon only strengthened my resolve to achieve mobility as soon as I possibly could. The country of Regno, as it turned out, was under the control of an absolutely brutal dictatorship that brought to mind all the worst aspects of North Korea and an extortion-heavy mafia racket. Of the incredibly heavy taxes that were being levied, not a single coin's worth went towards projects that would make people's lives better as far as I could tell.
Further, absolutely anyone looking for new knowledge that could possibly be used against the regime was publicly executed in an incredibly brutal fashion, after having their vocal chords ripped out so they couldn't scream their forbidden knowledge to anyone as they died. Law enforcement meanwhile completely ignored crimes against average people, instead solely concerning themselves with discovering and destroying threats to the regime. War meanwhile was constant, as the Supreme Leader constantly fought with rivals who were just as bad for territory and taxation rights.
All of this would have been enough to make me want to forcibly bring this mess to a crashing halt on its own, but then there was the regime's policy on Dungeons. Namely that a contingent of the Drake Guard was to be stationed outside, and completely smash and plunder a dungeon every twelve hours to prevent them from becoming a threat and to send more treasure to the Supreme Leader's hoard. With that knowledge, my course of action was cemented.
Immediately, I began digging deeper and constructing more of my torso. One of the more important decisions I made during this period was that I would be housing my primary power plant in a 'backpack' unit partially embedded into my main hull. While it wouldn't be anywhere near the full output I would need in order to attain independent mobility, I had still taken the opportunity to stuff the 'backpack' with Proton Piles, which would speed my construction further.
The fact of the matter was that I needed better reactors, but I also couldn't afford to take my attention away from engineering my body further. Then I remembered that now I had minions other than Clockworks to work with, minions that were explicitly stated to be good with machinery. With all of two minutes work, I quickly adjusted the space in my right shoulder to contain a laboratory for tinkering with reactors, and splurged the remaining mana I'd gotten off the Drake Guard to summon ten Basic Gremlins.
Basic Gremlin: Gremlins that are just barely starting down the path of tinkering, Basic Gremlins have a lot of potential but are not yet truly proficient with most technical tasks. That said, they learn very quickly. Basic Gremlins can leave the dungeon for one hour before going feral.
As it turned out, Basic Gremlins looked an awful lot like the popular conception of fairies, which is to say tiny humanoids with insectile wings. There were some differences however; for one, Gremlin ears were large and triangular, jutting out from the sides of their heads. Second, they apparently either had very sensitive eyes or something, because every single Gremlin was wearing a pair of large steel-rimmed tinted goggles so dark that I was incredulous that they could see anything at all through them. Other equipment was greatly varied, but I also noticed that each Gremlin was equipped with both a Geiger Counter and a very conspicuous radiation dosimeter. Apparently my theme had something of an impact.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
As soon as I was done gawking at my first ever biological minions, I ordered them "There is a Proton Pile reactor in the other part of your lab, behind the radiation bulkhead. I want you to do your absolute best to improve on its maximum mana output per unit of volume, as I will need performance at least twenty times what it currently offers in order for what I have planned. As long as you follow proper radiation safety protocols, you have free reign."
As one, my squad of Gremlins saluted and replied "Yes sir, we will do our level best!" and got to work. Simultaneously, a notification popped up.
Room Specialization
Do you want to designate this room as an Engineering Lab?
Cost: 40 mana
Effects:
-Gremlin XP gain increased
-Allows Gremlins to conjure tools for usage without expending mana
-Components for experimental systems cost 10% of normal for conjuration, but cannot leave the Engineering Lab
-May allocate a specific mana budget to the Lab for its autonomous use
I had mana to burn, so I immediately hit 'yes' and allocated twenty mana per hour. With the vastly reduced costs associated with working in a Lab, that should allow the research team to go wild with their ideas.
Anyway, I had more construction that I would be needing to undertake in order to achieve my goals, so I got right to it. Next on the agenda, I needed more stuff between my core and the outside world. After all, that 'little' intrusion from the Drake Guard came far too close for comfort. As I dug, I cheerfully noted that my large number of floors meant I would be able to deploy a much larger proportion of floor bosses than normal.
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Honestly, Seth was amazed that he was still alive considering that he had just been conscripted by the Drake Guard and forced to enter what was apparently one of the deadliest Dungeons he'd ever heard of. Then again, the one close to home was the only Dungeon he'd ever seen firsthand, so it wasn't like he had much to compare against.
Still, one thing was very definitely on Seth's mind. Namely that he needed to tell his family what had happened, and they needed to move as soon as possible if they wanted to avoid the Supreme Leader's retribution. Fortunately for Seth, he knew exactly how to get home from here, and without needing to keep his sheep on track he would be able to make the trip a lot faster than he had previously.
A couple hours later, Seth arrived at the house he lived in with his family, knocking on the door as he said "Djain, it's me Seth."
The door swung open, as Djain looked Seth up and down, before asking "Seth, what happened? It's almost morning now, and you didn't head out all that long after sunset."
Seth replied honestly, saying "Karyll Scaleridge showed up and dragged me off to a dungeon that popped up along with about a hundred other people. Fortunately the dungeon noticed what was going on and managed to keep most of us safe, but Karyll and her entire contingent of Drake Guard are dead."
At this, Djain almost fell backwards, before she said "That means that the Supreme Leader will be coming here to end us all, won't it? What will we do?"
Seth frowned, before saying "It's a long shot, but I think we might need to go to the dungeon for help. I think we'll be needing that jar of beads my grandmother left to me as something to bargain with. Anyway, I'll get the flock ready to move if you wake the boys, and we should be ready to head out in not too long. But first, I need something to eat, seeing as I've been up all night and haven't eaten."