Chapter 108 Dungeon Core: “The Eternal Training Ground” (Patreon)

Pov Ace

I watched as the airship that carried my chosen representatives for my nation departed towards the United Nations. The United Nations required people to be present to vote on issues; otherwise, you abstained from any decision.

Initially, I wasn’t planning on playing an active role. However, our presence was required to fulfil some of the favors I gave out to secure the votes needed to claim full membership.

There was also the so-called friendship with the Cerulean nation. She had given me some good advice, and I guess I could see the way she thought.

If there's more trade towards the east thanks to this airship port, there will obviously be more trade towards the west as well, which will allow her to be one of the few rulers in recent times who could significantly expand the profits her nation makes.

The airship continued to accelerate away from us as fast as it could. The faster you enter the trade winds, the better chance you had to succeed without being pushed back out or, even worse, destroyed by the strong winds. I remember very well how it felt to enter the trade winds, so I continued to watch until I could see the ship starting to enter.

It almost looked like someone was pushing the ship, sometimes accelerating it to the near breaking point or just moving the airship in jerky motions as it got near the trade winds.

Airships can usually travel almost as fast as a bronze-ranked human. The airship finally properly entered the trade wind, and it looked like there wasn't any damage done. That was good news. Now, however, the airship moved close to the top speed of a bronze-ranked horse.

It was five times faster than what could be achieved without the help of the trade winds. No wonder every merchant would want to use it to travel the vast distance between the eastern and western continents.

Merchants also seem to be quite good at coordinating and trying to get permissions ahead of time. While the port would be open to anyone who wanted to use it, most merchants were quite worried about not being able to get quick access to the port so they could resupply or unload merchandise.

They were correct in their worries. We have had to create an entire governmental branch to deal with all of the requests and overall operation of the airport. It took them only a week to call an emergency meeting and point out that in five years, the sky would be filled with waiting airships.

That would be incredibly troublesome. Already, just after one and a half years from that meeting, there were already small lines forming of ships waiting to be serviced.

To fix that, we have already started to expand the current airship port to the left and right, but that will not be enough. Also, if it gets too long, transporting cargo would become troublesome. Because of that, we will be building a three-level airship port.

There will be a large section built above the current airship port and a smaller one below it for smaller vessels. That would be a lot of rock to remove, but when it is done, it will be the second-largest airship port in the world.

Repair was also brought up as some of the ships that had made it here had been damaged quite a bit. Currently, repair is part of the port, but we will be scaling that back.

In the future, it will only handle light work. More heavy repairs will be done in the airship land dock. We were already going to build one so we could start a new avenue of income by building airships, but now we will just be expanding it so it could also do repairs to many airships at the same time.

This venture was suggested to me by the cerulean leader. She brought up some good points about why it would be a good idea. Not only would it give a lot of skilled workers for us, that would perfectly know how to fix any damaged airships, which would make use of this port even better.

We also had access to a more mana-rich area thanks to the dungeon. While outside of the dungeon the mana wasn’t that dense, inside the hub stations, the mana density was good enough.

The current wood we could get from the hub stations was already suitable for making smaller vessels that could handle the trade wind, but I hoped the dungeon would agree to plant some more valuable trees, which could be used to even make warships.

I took one last look at the currently expanding airship port and land port before I started to climb down so I could enter the dungeon.

I took a gateway to the territory of my shadow guild. We lost a lot of territory because now there are a lot fewer soldiers down here, but we are still maintaining the best land we had so we could continue to train new recruits. From here, I traveled a bit, fighting through the monsters in the rooms to get to the most secluded area possible.

"Dungeon, I need to speak with you." There was a lot of waiting before it finally answered. "Yes," was all it said, but that was good enough.

"I have brought you a lot of plant seeds that are really special," I said while I took the backpack off and then dumped out all of the seeds for the different trees and a few plants that you can use to make really strong ropes. From my pocket, I also brought out two different crystals.

"I also want to give you these two crystals. All of these items are required to make airships. They are something that helps with the trade and so I can acquire more creatures and plants for your dungeon."

"I would like to ask for a favor that these plants and crystals be added to the hub stations and, if it would be possible, it would be incredibly useful if you could replenish the trees in the hub stations.”

“Also, if it's possible, I would like you to open two new entrances that only a select few could use. One would go under the creature market and the other underneath the land dock. This way, it would be a lot easier to get some of the larger creatures inside of the dungeon without alerting others."

I hoped that the dungeon would be capable and willing to help me. A never-ending supply of the basic materials needed to build and repair ships meant the trade would never end. The two crystals I brought are the primary crystals used for the levitation and propulsion of airships, and we require them in pretty large quantities.

If the dungeon can't produce them, we would need to import them, which would be costly. It took some time, but eventually, it answered.

"Annoying person." I winced at the beginning. Whenever it didn't say my name, it was a bad sign.

"It would not be difficult to add the secret entrances; you would just need to help me position them correctly. For the crystals, I guess I could add some veins to the hub stations, but I will only add a little bit. The rest, the adventurers would need to get as they delve. As for the plants and trees, the answer is no."

"What? Why?" I asked, not understanding why he would accept the other parts but not this.

"You are silly sometimes. Let me give you some advice. During the war, you were not able to produce the number one product your city makes: rations. Why? Because you couldn't access the large forest surrounding you. Why didn't you plant the berry bushes inside the hub stations? Likewise, why don’t you simply plant the trees and plants you're looking for in the hub stations?"

I was dumbfounded. Those words made so much sense. There's so much more land here with so much mana. How could we have all overlooked this? Then, however, the dungeon spoke up again.

"Also, why have you not exerted control over the towns and villages popping up inside the dungeon? Most of the time, they’re run by barely competent people. They are the lifeblood that connects the adventurers to your city. You should take better care with these resources.”

“Also, I have noticed huge lines for the upper floors. For the gift of so many wonderful new plants and the two new crystals, I will open up some more instances and here take some seeds so you can start planting."

The dungeon was making a lot of sense. Not just me, but everyone in the government had overlooked what was actually happening inside the dungeon. We had so much more land to control, and with it, we could grow everything we needed.

My mind was already working overtime to figure out what my next steps would need to be before my mind ground to a halt.

“Wait, no, don't open more instances? We are barely keeping the population under control, and the only reason we aren’t overwhelmed with new migrants was because everyone had heard, thanks to our efforts, that there were so many new adventurers that people would need to wait sometimes a week before they could delve.”

I continued to wait, but the dungeon didn’t answer. “Please don't do this to me, please don’t do that.” I continued to beg, but the only answer I got was silence.