Chapter 191 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground”

Pov Ace

This meeting was starting to drag, and it was still just morning. At least this wasn't a bad meeting because we were trying to figure out how to spend our extra income. The building of so many extra towns and villages and their upkeep was really good for spending our coin, but nowadays most of them were finished and slowly starting to cost less in upkeep as they started to become more profitable.

Perhaps we should expand the shipbuilding once again, but the problem is we wouldn’t have enough customers if we kept expanding at the pace we were. Perhaps we should start building warships; those were a heck of a lot more expensive, and perhaps a standing fleet would be a good idea. Yet before I could speak out, the doors were pushed wide open and suddenly a group of people sprinted in.

"City Lord, there's a problem near the western edge. We are getting reports that are, well, a little hard to believe, but we have gotten evidence that they are true. One of the mountain passes that is not in use, well, Sir, a huge torrent of water is flowing down it like a river.”

“At first, everyone thought that it might be the dungeon's doing, but it isn’t; it's real water, and everyone's worried about the consequences. There are a few towns close that might be completely flooded."

It was hard not to show panic, but I was one of the only ones who seemed to remain calm. What is going on?

"Just remain calm and repeat after me. So it happened faster than expected?" Not knowing what to do, I accepted ETG's words and repeated them. "So it happened faster than expected?"

Absolutely everyone looked at me; some narrowed their eyes while others couldn’t really believe what I said.

"The dungeon building deeper and deeper has shaken some things loose, and it was already known to me that something like this could happen. It was expected to take another 20 years or more, but I guess the underwater river was under more pressure than we expected." I repeated the next thing ETG said to me.

"Explain this?" one of the counselors said.

"Oh, I already have all the data needed. This new river, and it will become a new river, will not affect any of our settlements. It is by design like this. We could have fought against it, but sometimes it's better to let nature have its way than fight against it."

Once again, I repeated what ETG said, and I guess I would agree if I didn’t think that it was his doing somehow. We were going to have words afterwards.

I felt his presence leave, which meant everything else was up to me. Kinda wish he would have given me more notice, but I guess it’s at least more interesting like this.

"Still, we should not take this lightly as things could change. Get our best calculators, environmental mages, earth mages, and water mages, and get them to the new river. We will make sure that nothing goes wrong and that the river stays on its current course."

No one moved. “Was I speaking to air or giving commands during a possible natural disaster?” Even before I finished speaking, some had already gotten up and started to move. I myself also got up.

"Let us move then. It also seems like we have found a new way to spend coin. I’m certain that the formation of a new river will bring plenty of opportunities to spend coin. Also, I had another idea on where we could spend coin, but that's for later. Let’s move."

We took an airship to the location, a small one made for traveling between the towns and villages of my nation. The water had reached the base of the mountain and was currently snaking its way further west. It was a magnificent sight, and the water volume was amazing.

We traveled up following the mountain pass to finally reach near one of the tips of a mountain. We saw a wonderful waterfall coming off one of its sides and flowing into what used to be a valley, but now was filled with water, making it a lake.

It was hard to imagine how much water there was here, but it was a deep and large valley only overflowing at one particular spot. It wasn't a waterfall per se, but quite a gentle decline which the water followed down the mountain.

Smarter people than me who were on this ship were giving us more information. The water volume was a bit troublesome, as the water mage classified it as an amount a large river would have.

This could cause quite a lot of damage, but we were already getting back information about where the river would be heading, and the news was good. "So there really isn’t anything to worry about?" one of my counselors said out loud to everyone.

"That seems to be true, but we should still be cautious. Water has a mind of its own, and like a herd of cattle, only one little stream could make the entire thing go in the wrong direction."

"You are correct; we should be vigilant," I said to that, and what followed were quite a nice few weeks. The river had long ago left my nation's land, but we were working with the few kingdoms it was expected to flow through.

They were at first quite mad, but when we confirmed that it would not do any damage to them and that they would have a large river connecting them to my nation with estimates indicating that riverboats could be used on it for trade, it was amazing how fast their mood changed.

I did get the chance to communicate with ETG, and it seems like it really was a real underground river that he diverted, but it came to me as a surprise that he wanted, like he put it, underwater adventurers to come and delve him.

After thinking about it a little bit, that mountain lake would really be a good location for one of their outposts. I also had some connections now to the delvers, one of the four powerhouses of the world that almost exclusively operate underwater.

ETG had hoped that eventually, they would discover this valley, and I guess that would be correct as they would be sending some representatives here soon, but they weren't really interested and would only be coming here because of the status of this being a free dungeon.

I think I can change their minds. It wouldn't be too much work to help ETG out a bit and make things a bit faster. He did mention something about water sections; hopefully, he has done quite a lot of them as I suspect they would be sending even gold-rank representatives to delve the dungeon so they can take his measure.

My other plan was also tentatively accepted. I still liked the faces they made when I started the meeting. "I want us to have the biggest airship navy in the world, and not by a small margin. I want the biggest, I want the strongest, and I want the most warships out of everyone in this world." That sentence made them listen.

We also had a military, a proper one, and it was quite expensive as we used the best equipment available to us. We didn't want to buy and rely on other nations, so we built everything needed to upkeep our nation's military ourselves, and it would be the same with our navy.

When the numbers were crunched, even I was surprised. For the first time in a really long time, we actually had to slow things down a bit as we wouldn't have the budget to do everything at once. Yet this was what we were looking for, and while it'll take a long time, it will be well worth it.

My minder, of course, didn’t like that we were militarizing so much, but he has been sitting in on every meeting, and when I asked him what else we should do with so much income, for the first time, I actually saw him hesitate. "I can see your dilemma," he finally said and then left. He hasn’t brought up the problem of militarization ever since. That was fine with me.

The beasts have been a little bit more troublesome as of late. It seems that they are worried about their secret being found. Someone in the dungeon has been spreading their secret, yet they don't know what to do, because it turns out one of their own kind was the one who was spreading it and who wasn't affiliated with them. It seems that he was also of a bloodline thought extinct, which complicated things for them even further.

I have been trying to smooth things over, but they're quite antsy. In all honesty, I do not see the reason why they are hiding themselves. It's not like they're actual beastkin, and while they used to be, the only thing left for them is their talents. I think a confrontation will happen soon, and I hope nothing bad will happen.