Chapter 200 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground”

Pov Ace

The dark ocean wasn’t what I was expecting. I expected a world of shadow, and while I guess it somewhat is that, you can't really see the shadows up close. It seems like the sun has no trouble piercing this shadow-like fog at least this high up.

We still had to fly entirely with instruments, but my ships had the best technology, which means that in a few minutes we should come out of this shadow fog and see the meeting spot for the most powerful forces in the world.

This will bring an end to our maiden voyage with the new warships that performed better than anyone expected. The ship I was currently on, The Strict Maiden, was our flagship and the biggest warship we had built.

It had four main masts, with smaller ones at the back and front for even more sails. I should perhaps study up on more ship terminology, but currently, my mind needs to be more on the meeting. Still, I just couldn’t stop admiring this ship.

The way it entered the trade routes was so casual, and the best part of this whole trip so far was that we actually ran into pirates. Perhaps it wasn't by accident or perhaps someone paid them because there were 60 ships, with what seemed to be almost 25 pirate crews, some of them incredibly well-known.

While we took some damage, we didn’t take a lot, and all of it could be fixed easily enough thanks to the ship being designed to be repaired quickly. "Nothing can be made impervious, so making it so we can fix it fast is paramount." Those were the words of the Admiral who was currently captaining this ship.

He was a bit of a short man but a brilliant tactician. It’s like he had been fighting his entire life on airships and commanding. His background is from a region heavy with piracy, so perhaps he actually did fight on a pirate crew. It didn't matter now because he dismantled those pirate ships with incredible efficiency.

Part of it is because of the new technology on the ship that will probably be widespread soon enough. The Admiral always supported funding for the research and development department, and while before I just thought of it as a coin sink, when they came up with the technology they were calling "skill engines," I was tempted to quadruple their budget. Unfortunately, they already had basically a limitless budget that they couldn’t even fully spend, and they did try to do that, so there was no point in raising the budget even more.

The main active propulsion and levitation still came from crystals, but the main mana sink always happened during battles when you needed to push the crystals beyond their safe limits so you could maneuver faster.

With skill engines, you didn’t need to push your crystals as they could give you incredible mobility in short bursts. They did require people to power them with their skills, but this ship could fit a lot of people. There were five decks under the main deck, two of those being for weaponry and shooting out of.

Normally, airships would have huge extensions from both sides that would hold the crystals, but during a fight, they were a critical weakness. While it took a lot of engineering, this problem was fixed with my warships.

Of course, every warship tried to eliminate that problem, and to a certain degree, every single one of them succeeded, but I believe our solution is almost perfect.

The smaller ships couldn’t eliminate that problem completely, as they weren’t big enough to fit everything inside of them. However, they did have extra shielding using skill engines to power them, which seems to make them strong enough, as none of them took too much damage during the pirate battle.

I kind of wanted to destroy a few of the pirate ships myself, but the Admiral asked me nicely not to interfere unless things got bad, as he wanted more experience for his sailors. Another battle when we returned would be quite excellent, but it was unlikely.

Wait, could I hire a lot of pirates myself and pay them so much that they would still try? Hmm, I should take this to the Admiral. But before I could walk away from the railing, the blackness that usually encompassed us started to peel away in the direction we were heading.

It didn't take long for the view in front of us to expand and show a huge island with a fancy-looking fortress in the middle, and on the open ground surrounding it, a lot of airships that looked incredibly expensive.

Pretty sure one of them was actually gilded. I wonder how poor they must be to still think gold shows wealth. It also seemed like we weren't the only ones to bring multiple ships, but I was pretty sure my flagship was the biggest. That brought a smile to my face.

Every airship's bottom was flatter, unlike their water counterparts. That was so they could actually land, but even on our ships, especially the flagship, we couldn't turn off the levitation crystals completely, as it would simply put too much of a strain on the whole ship structure if it needed to support itself fully. Technically, the ship should be able to survive that, but it would still lower its service life.

In the invitation, the arrival time had quite a big allowance for when you could come. While we could be here a month before and not be considered early, I purposely commanded the Admiral to take it a bit slower so we would only get to mingle about a week before the ball started. Although the ball itself would last approximately a month, it was going to be an annoying time.

After we landed, there was a group outside the ship waiting for us. Normally, I would descend with guards flanking us, but that was just for the public. Here, it was known that I’m a diamond rank, and that people like that didn’t need any guards unless you could get diamond ranks.

We weren’t the first to descend from the ship; it was our head butler. When he gave the signal, my wife and I descended with our suit and dress made out of materials that even a platinum rank would have trouble getting through.

That is real wealth—not gilded or diamond-covered, but clothing made out of materials that could make legendary items. What we were currently wearing and what we would wear in the future during this ball would cost more than some large kingdoms' yearly income. Thanks to expenditures like this, I can keep the economy running.

While some of the people at the back of the welcoming party didn’t recognize the wealth we were wearing, most did, and I think we just ascended their people-of-importance list by quite a lot.

The next week was pretty boring, as most of the time we interacted and talked with the less powerful people who were invited. Yet boring wasn’t bad—I kind of liked it. Unfortunately, it couldn't last long. So once again, I was dressed in a new suit, this time the best one I had, as the ball's first event started. The room was filled with diamond ranks, but there were still plenty of platinums like my wife.

I let my wife do most of the talking until we reached where seven other groups were. I instantly recognized the seven most prominent members, who were all running their own free dungeons as well. "Well, if it isn't the youngest one of us. Still not having reached floor 50. Didn’t think you would be brave enough to come here," one of the more brutish-looking ones said.

"Well, I need to spend my coin as I’m having trouble storing it. You see, there simply isn’t enough room, and I’m tired of building more vaults. I could lend you some if you like gold so much that you even wear it."

He tried to step towards me, but the people around him stopped him. Things calmed down a little after that, and I introduced my wife to every one of them, and in return, I was introduced to their significant others. Some of them had multiple ones. To cut the tension even more, I looked toward my wife with one eyebrow raised and got a slap on my shoulder in return.

Even the brutish fellow laughed at that. While it might be fun to think about every once in a while, my wife was the only one I was truly interested in, and I knew it was the same the other way around.

"So, are you going to tell us how it’s possible for your dungeon to be so big? The number of high gold rank monsters inside your dungeon is honestly ridiculous," a gentle-looking woman asked, who was nothing but gentle when dealing with anyone who made trouble in her dungeon.

That was a difficult question to answer, as I actually didn’t fully know, but I did get some answers from ETG for things I was certain were going to be asked.

"That's quite an easy answer: it's the nearly 10 million adventurers who are almost full-time living inside the dungeon. Now, it’s not easy to get over that initial hump of not having enough mana regeneration to bring in enough people who would want to actually live inside. But fortunately, inside that mountain, there’s quite a lot of mana crystal dust, so I didn’t have to worry much about mana in the early days."

There was a bit of silence after that as everyone processed my words. "So while you got lucky at the start, you should still be commended on your foresight. We all just did what the pixies do and didn’t allow permanent residents inside the dungeon. But obviously, that has been a mistake. Your dungeon is now a worldwide name, and from the rumours I’ve heard, it’s quite influential—one of the reasons this entire meeting was set up. Congratulations, you have changed the world," one of the other free dungeon leaders said.

After that, they all congratulated me, but I was still a bit confused. Fortunately, I didn’t get a bad feeling from this, so hopefully, it wouldn't be too bad. We were interrupted from talking further by the curtain at one end of the ballroom being opened, revealing four people. One of them was an old-looking pixie, another one looked like a shark in human form, another was a completely normal human, and the last one was a huge human-like bear.

The one who looked like a normal human started to speak. "It is good to see you all here. It has been a long journey, and it's been a while since we celebrated our achievements. This get-together is meant not only for us to remember the past but to forge bonds for the future. While in the end, we might be competitors, we are all still needed to keep civilization from falling."

"To start off this celebration, I would like to remind everyone that we have a new free dungeon and its leader, Ace. So, please, an applause for a dungeon that is changing the world by training so many new adventurers to help push back the monsters on the surface."

Everyone started applauding. Not everyone seemed pleased about it, but they still applauded. After about 30 seconds or so, the bear-looking individual held up one of its hands, showing the large claws there, which silenced everyone. He then spoke in a deep voice that resonated through my body.

"There are in fact so many new adventurers who are so well trained and who are training new adventurers wherever they go that it is changing the world as we know it.”

“During the last age, when platinum rank was the highest, there were individuals who stood above everyone else. Even diamond ranks would be jealous of them. We called them heroes, and because of them, we named the last age the Age of Heroes. So, in the same vein, the current age that was unnamed until now is now called the Age of Adventurers."

End of book 4