Chapter 104 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground”

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Ace was marveling at the sight below him. He was currently on a passenger airship flying above the cerulean sea. It was the most beautifully colored water Ace had ever seen, but currently, it stretched beyond the horizon. Just two hours ago, things, however, were a bit different.

They had been higher up, using the western trade wind to sail through the air a lot faster than normally possible. Back then, Ace could barely see his home continent towards the south and the Black Ocean to the north.

The Black Ocean was a terrifying place as there was basically no sunlight there, it was incredibly cold, and the constant storms would hinder any air or sea travel. It split the world almost in half, but fortunately, many large mountains that extended out of the ocean broke apart whatever phenomenon created the Black Ocean.

The Cerulean Sea was what was between the Black Ocean and the Elysarum Continent. There was very little sea travel possible in the Cerulean Sea because it was so calm that regular sailing ships would often be stuck for months in the same spot. Underneath the Elysarum Continent was the Sea of Endless Icebergs. That sea was quite rough, making travel through it quite difficult.

This split the world’s trade in half. Getting large amounts of merchandise from the western continents to the eastern was an incredibly expensive and dangerous undertaking. Most of the merchandise would be brought over the land of the Elysarum Continent, which was incredibly time-consuming.

When airships were invented, everyone expected the trade to become a lot easier between the West and East, but that wasn't the case as airships were very expensive to operate.

That was until airship technology advanced enough to survive the stronger winds higher up. No one knows the exact reason, but above the Cerulean Sea, the western trade wind, as it’s now called, moves from east to west.

It makes traveling a lot quicker and less expensive, and only moderately more dangerous. The biggest problem is getting out of the air current. You can only get out when the current is slow enough, but that only happens normally when you reach the other side of the Cerulean Sea.

There was one large exception, and that was a moderately large island chain in the middle of the Cerulean Sea. It had large mountains which helped slow down the trade wind, making it a perfect stop for airships to resupply.

Over time, this nation became the wealthiest in the world and is now a place for the rich and powerful to enjoy the best this world has to offer. The Cerulean Nation is also the host to the United Nations' main headquarters, along with other influential organizations.

Ace was currently heading there because one of the topics of this year's meeting was his own nation. He needed to get 50% of the other nations to agree to grant his nation probationary membership in the United Nations.

This would give him and his nation access to the global trade network and many other important features of the United Nations. If he could get 85% of the other nations to approve of his nation, he would gain full membership, but no one believed that would be possible at this moment.

There was one country that wanted that to happen: the Cerulean Nation itself and its current leader. The Cerulean Nation had long ago reached the end of its explosive expansion. It could only slowly grow and accumulate more power. The problem was that trading from the eastern continents to the west was made easy thanks to it, but the other way was a lot more difficult.

The trade wind that moved from the west to the east flew over the Elysarum Continent. Up until this point, the best way airships could resupply was to be near the Cerulean Sea and hope that they could get out of the trade wind near the coast, then slowly fly towards a large city, resupply, and then try to enter the trade wind once again.

Doing this was a lot more dangerous than using the trade wind that went over the Cerulean Nation, and many ships were lost every year.

That changed when the now-known Eternal City State opened its airship port. At first, it was only used by the surrounding nations whose airships didn’t enter the trade wind above. However, it wasn't long before it was discovered that the same phenomenon that happened around the Cerulean Nation's mountains happened there as well.

Because airships could now resupply, the trade between the West and East started to accelerate. Slowly, in the Western continents, cities were expanding near the places where it was easy to enter the Eastern trade wind.

The leader of the Cerulean nation knew that in the next 20 to 50 years, an explosion of trade would happen that would have a similar impact to what happened when the Western trade wind started to be exploited.

The leader of the Cerulean nation received news that the airship, bringing the leader of the Eternal City State, was approaching. She immediately sent her servants to offer an invitation to Ace to meet her.

The leader of this nation knew that if the Eternal City State rose, it would also lift up her nation even more, and her name would go into the history books as one of the leaders who was able to accomplish great things during her fifty-year term as leader.

She commanded her servants to get everything ready to receive their guests when the confirmation that Ace had accepted was delivered to her.

It was at this point that one of her most loyal servants spoke up. "My lady, should we not bring in more guards to intimidate the upstart even more? We should be able to scare him enough that he would limit the trade expansion of his city." The words made a crack appear in the perfect visage of the leader.

"How misguided are you? You have always had problems seeing further ahead and only focusing on what's in front of you. Think through this." The man was taken aback and was thoroughly chastised by her lady.

He was, however, quite clever when he focused on the correct things. Eventually, he said, "When they rise, we rise even further."

The leader showed a small smile to her servant. "Go and talk to the other nations' representatives. Tell them we are willing to give a minor favor to any nation that would vote in favor of the new nation, but be discreet."

It didn't take Ace long to enter the palace of the leader of the Cerulean Nation. As Ace entered, he saw what could be described as the most opulent yet tasteful throne room he had imagined or seen.

On the throne sat a petite and the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. He bowed in the customary way a nation's leader would if he was showing respect to another nation’s leader.

"Greetings, Ace, leader of the Eternal City State," a voice soft, melodious yet powerful, sounded out in the throne room.

"We have a lot to discuss, but beyond all this, I hope that from now on our two nations can forge a bond of friendship." As their conversation continued, other nations' representatives were scrambling from the news of a Cerulean Nation leader actually inviting someone into the throne room.

Things didn’t calm down over the course of the next week as many deals were being made and a lot of talk about the new nation was going around. There was however another faction who tried to get the vote to go the other way, but they were having less success as they couldn’t do it openly. The Dungeon Pixie Guild didn’t like what was happening.

When the time for the vote came, 412 of the 418 nations' representatives were in attendance. The speaker for today was quite amazed at the turnout. Still, during a lot of the voting, a large portion of the nations voted to abstain on many issues, which confused the speaker.

Why would they even turn up when not coming was the same as voting abstained? Things cleared up, however, when it was time to vote on the membership of a new nation.

The entire place exploded in conversation and movement. The representatives of each nation talked amongst themselves and sometimes even talked with other nations' representatives. There was one common expression amongst many of the representatives - they had small smiles on their faces.

The speaker was confident that 50% would be reached today, and when the voting started, all were looking at the large screen, wanting to see the percentages.

When the final numbers were revealed, silence took over the place. The vote had gotten 89% approval, which no one had expected. It didn’t take long for everyone to understand how it happened.

Ace had gone around and, in secret, promised many nations the same terms he gave to the nations who attacked him. Everyone expected this to be an incredible opportunity and something to be proud of achieving. When the information broke about this being the standard rate, many were angry but could only blame themselves for falling into this beginner trap.

Ace had achieved what he wanted, but he couldn't have done it without the help of the Cerulean Nation. Ace was still unsure about their nation's relationship, but one thing was clear: this was an excellent start. Not all were, however, happy about this, most of all the Dungeon Fairy representative who now had to give this news to the council.

It took the Dungeon Fairy Council a week to decide a response. They decided to put their best fixer onto the case of the eternal training ground. When the Dungeon Fairy was informed of the decision and received the information packet, he could only sigh in frustration.

He could see no easy solution, but he could still see a solution. "With the defenses and the Shadow Guilds, we must set up our own presence inside the dungeon. We must go there and slowly bring more resources and personnel into the dungeon. Get the enchanters to make shape-changing rings. We only have a few floors if we want to take control of this dungeon."

With those words, the people around him started to move and execute the orders they received. He had received a lot of funding, and he was going to make sure that if they didn't get the contract over the dungeon, they would destroy it before it reached the 25th floor. They could not afford another wild card and risk not being able to control the making.

End of Book 2