Ren yawned
as he sat on a makeshift chair, watching the impatient Yan pace around in front
of him.
“Look,
Mercer is going to be fine. He did say he was going to train in the room for
longer, so don’t worry about him.” The two of them were in the same makeshift
camp outside the inner temple door, with a few townspeople hanging around.
The temple
hall was now fully lit by their mining lights, and the camp had become a sort
of permanent location. The townspeople were now fully aware of how important
the slovesa temple was, especially when many of their own had died for it. With
the ‘collection’ of weapons from the tribal humans’ dead warriors, they now had
amassed significant firepower.
However,
their lack of combat training was obvious, hence the decision by the expedition
and subsequently the town to send people to train against monsters in the first
room. It used to be the case that whichever group entered would have to kill
all monsters to exit, but the discovery of the interaction with the blue orb
that was abundant in the temple allowed them to exit any time.
They also
were stationed here in the event Ceres should return. Despite not having seen
him for a few months, the town never lost hope in their ‘hero’. Also, they had
continuous skirmishes with various groups of tribal humans attempting to break
into the temple, but they were much more prepared now, establishing a secure
path between the town and the temple.
“Ren, he’s
barely an adult! You should have let me go there in with him!”
“And you
have been for the last three months. When are you going to let him go? He’s his
own man now, let him deal with it.”
Yan stared
coldly at Ren who put his arms up in surrender, before stomping off towards the
inner doors. “Hey, where are you going?”
“I’m going
in to check on him! Don’t worry, he won’t mistake me for a monster.” Yan walked
up to the inner door, but she suddenly stopped in her tracks – the inner door
had opened before she even got there.
Out of the
inner door, a lone man in tattered shaman robes walked out with a half-detached
robotic arm and holding a staff in the other. “I’m… I’m free?”
Ren instantly
recognized who this man was. “Shit, it’s Paska!” Ren quickly jumped to his
feet, sounding an alarm through the camp.
The town
had long prepared for this, knowing that both Ceres and Paska had disappeared
into the temple. Seeing Paska exit before Ceres put a dampener on both Ren and
Yan’s hearts, but they steeled themselves before pulling out their weapons.
A dozen
soldiers quickly surrounded Paska, aiming their rifles at him. “Aren’t those my
weapons?” Paska squinted, trying to spot where were the warriors that he left
outside.
How long
has it been? For the last few months, he had been trapped near the ranking
monument, continuously unable to climb any higher in the ranks.
“Your
troops already lost more than half a year ago, surrender!” Ren ordered as he
aimed his rifle sights squarely at Paska’s chest.
Paska
smiled gently, crouching down to place his staff on the floor as he raised his
remaining arm in surrender. “Looks like I lost this time.”
“Glad you
know it. Don’t make any sudden movements or else my trigger finger might get
itchy thinking about all my friends you killed.” Ren motioned for two soldiers
to move up and cuff him.
“Haha,
after growing up in the underground for your whole live, you still care about
revenge and friendship? There’s no such thing in war!” Paska smirked, as the
symbol on his forehead began to glow brightly. The staff he laid down suddenly
came to life, breaking into three parts and immediately flying through the air
at high speed.
Ren and Yan
immediately shot, but one part of the staff spun rapidly, forming a defensive
shield that blocked the rifle shots. The other parts quickly hit the other
soldiers before they could react, knocking them unconscious due to the sheer
force or injuring their hands, rendering them unable to use their rifles.
In a quick
flash, only Ren and Yan were left standing, with the other soldiers knocked out
despite Paska standing there, grinning. Two parts of the staff became cuffs,
wrapping themselves around both their necks and restraining them down to the
ground. Paska slowly walked up to them, as the last part of the staff floated
gently behind him.
The cuffs
had a sort of pressure acting downwards on them and tightening their necks at
the same time, making it hard to breathe and straining their muscles.
“So, it’s
obvious you all want to plunder this temple, and it’s obvious you already dealt
with all my warriors. Don’t blame me for what I’m about to do.” Paska’s grin
became even wider, but it froze as the inner door suddenly opened again.
He quickly
turned, only to see Mercer exiting the inner door. Paska quickly shot the last
part of the staff at Mercer, planning to quickly capture him, but the staff was
suddenly grabbed by a hand before it hit Mercer’s neck. It was Ceres, the
humanoid monster.
Paska’s
face immediately paled, recalling the last fight they had as he quickly dashed
away, running with all his might.
The cuffs
let go of Ren and Yan, flying back to Paska while the third part of the staff
still remained with Ceres.
Through the
last five months, Paska had also been slightly aware of Ceres’s existence in
the temple. It was obvious that there was another individual other than him
climbing the rankings, and seeing Ceres go above him in ranking meant he had no
chance of defeating Ceres.
Ceres
reacted fast and tried to chase, but he did not expect Paska to run so quickly,
making him unable to catch up. Mercer was still shell-shocked as he witnessed a
staff almost hit him without him being able to react.
Seeing
Ceres’s quick reactions, Mercer’s admiration of Ceres became even higher than
ever before.
Instead of
chasing Paska any longer, Ceres decided to stay and help the soldiers who were injured.
Some of them suffered terrible wounds from the impact of the staff, causing
their entire forearm to be bruised heavily. He also needed to learn what
happened when he was inside the temple.
Mercer
panicked upon seeing Yan collapse on the floor, the bruising on her neck
apparent. “Quick, MEDIC!” He yelled as he rushed to her body, ignoring Ren who
was slowly getting up.
“Yea, right,
don’t worry about me or the others, I’ll be fine..” Ren grumbled as he used his
rifle to prop himself up, gingerly touching his neck. If it was not for the appearance
of Ceres, they might as well have lost their lives here. They were yet again
saved by him.
“Thank you,
Ceres.” Ren bowed with respect. Despite him originally not recognizing Ceres
when they first met, the news of what he had done for the town had awed him. Ceres
was undoubtedly a hero in his eyes.
“I didn’t
do anything, really..” Ceres nodded in return while a medical team rushed out of
hiding during the conflict, quickly treating the wounded. He stared at the now
dormant piece of staff that Paska had left behind, wondering about how it worked.
Now that he
had gone through the temple, he realized the nature of control was eerily
similar to how high-rank slovesa could manipulate foreign weapons to attack.
Was Paska a sort of hybrid, or was it an effect of his implants? “I’ll hold on
to this staff for further research.”
Ceres
focused on the current situation, talking with Ren about what had happened.
Ceres did not share the full details of what happened in the temple, as he knew
that an extremely strong slovesa named Goras was still inside. Despite Ceres’s
anger at Goras for dumping him out, he did not really want to fight the rank
one slovesa of the temple. “Most likely he’s at the top of the mythical class
already..”
“Oh right,
your friend is here too.” Ren motioned over his shoulder, pointing to one of
the makeshift tents, where a snoring Halyon could be seen sleeping with his
body sprawled over the tent.
“Ah yes, my
good ‘friend’,” Ceres smirked, surprised that Halyon did not run away. He
actually assumed that the former Keeper would have escaped immediately after he
disappeared into the temple. “Either his level of trust or level of fear is
extremely high of me. Speaking of fear, I could use him to run a few
experiments.”
It’s been
six months since he entered the temple, and the multitude of human emotions
gave new energy to Ceres’s body, making him feel a lot more alive than he was
in the temple.
Sure, he
had forcibly trained his body to absorb electromagnetic radiation, but the
energy conversion efficiency was not high.
His body
was like an omnivore with regards to energy now: emotions simply ranked the
highest in terms of ‘nutritional value’ and allowed him to exert more strength
in combat.
Yan too
finally recovered, helped up by Mercer. “Ceres, you’re finally back,” Yan said
weakly as a medic treated her neck. She was similar to Ren, in that she did not
know of Ceres’s help before they met in the first temple room. “Where did Paska
go?”
“Ran away
at the first sight of me. Even got his staff here.” Ceres waved the last part
of the staff.
“That’s not
good, he might be running to get more reinforcements.” Yan frowned.
Ceres
recalled the conversation he had with Yan and Misa in the labyrinth about a
potential backer behind Paska. They had never heard of a tribal human receiving
cybernetic implants as well, so seeing Paska as a cyborg was fairly surprising
to them.
Ceres was
not worried, however, as the recent transformation of his body had provided yet
another qualitative increase in strength. He had full confidence in his combat
skills now, but he needed some time to digest the changes fully, especially on
the topic of how he could invoke emotions.
Either way,
he would investigate the staff and see if he could trace any relationships. For
Paska to be able to control the staff as a cyborg, the staff itself must be
fairly advanced in itself. Ceres kept a tight hold on it in the event it
suddenly tried to free itself.
“No matter whom
he brings back, we can handle anything.”
***
In a large
industrial complex on the outskirts of Rockhold, a lone man stood in his
office, overseeing the assembly line of mining equipment. Thousands of workers
gathered along the line, working hard as the intense heat from nearby furnaces
caused sweat to coat their faces non-stop.
He swirled
a glass of sparkling water as he enjoyed the cool breeze of the conditioned
office. It’s already been a few years since he had been in this position, but
he still savoured every moment at the start of his workday like this.
[Manager
Olson, your daily report is ready]
A voice
sounded through his desk, prompting him to head to his chair and insert a
nerval cable into his neck, joining a virtual meeting room.
The
fidelity of the simulation was not high, but he was only using it for work
anyway. For more exciting and sensitive issues, he always had his personal
private VR pod to use.
As he
entered a blank white room, the walls were plastered with a single logo of the
company. It was Bee Strathon, one of the major mining conglomerates in the star
system, being among the raw few allowed to mine any part of Athen.
“Show me” he
ordered, as multiple graphs and visual videos popped up in front of him.
[Today is
Council Galactic Year 526.314, and here is the daily news.]
“Skip all
of that. What happened to the small mine that’s been hogging that area on the
outskirts? Outpost Kah-Yul?”
[After the
enforcers sent one Keeper, Kitana, to wipe out all of them, they just ‘verified’
that it had been used as a rebel supply system, just as planned.]
“I assume
you’ve erased all traces of yourselves.”
[Of course.
All low-level agents have had their memories selectively erased to prevent
further traces.]
“Good.”
Olson smirked. While he did not control the entirety of Bee Strathon here on
the planet Athen, he had full jurisdiction over a few areas, most notably large
swaths of areas outside of the city. He was not the only manager on the planet,
but they acted as quasi-independent sections, answering at the end of every year
about their performance indicators.
[There is a
video of the Keeper Kitana interrogating them. Would you like to view it now?]
“Save it,
I’ll view it during my lunch. It’s better that way.” Olson couldn’t wait to see
the faces of those who rejected his acquisition deal.
In his
view, Bee Strathon should be the only company monopolizing the entire planet.
Any small-medium mining groups had to succumb to him.
Alas, there
were a few entrenched mining groups formed by the colonists before Bee Strathon
obtained the right, so he could not wipe all of them out lest he angered the
local population and the Consortium.
However, it
did not stop him from using insidious means to target smaller fishes. It was
one of his key performance indicators after all.
[Updates
from other departments, Manager Yul has discovered a large field of exotic metals,
namely Sturore, currently estimated to be worth 40 years of supply based on
current market demand.]
“Damn it!”
Olson cursed. He was in control of the area around Rockhold, but they had
recently hit a slowdown of mining, unable to find new large mining veins worthy
of development. Sure, there were a few tiny veins here and there, but at the
scale of Bee Strathon, they would be stripped down in a single week.
Right now,
most of his workers and private security forces were tied up trying to exterminate
the local wildlife. The ‘mawsies’ was a notable enemy, and recent months had
shown a marked increase in activity.
Sure, they
were able to harvest the shell, but it was minuscule in comparison to an entire
vein of Sturore. Bee Strathon had better access to composite armour recipes
that integrated Sturore better, so it was fairly low-value for them.
The private
security forces were necessary, as criminal gangs and other departments
continuously tried to encroach on his territory. Olson had placed a lot of
emphasis on hiring ex-military soldiers, ensuring the best.
However, if
this increase in wildlife attacks continued, the other managers would step all
over him due to his security forces being tied up, and his budget would be
reduced.
“No, no way
I’m letting that happen!” Olson shook his head. “Fuck the other departments,
update me on our current progress. Have we cleared the new shaft yet?”
[Negative.
Current expected completion date is to be in two months. The wildlife is
fighting back tremendously, though thanks to help of the local tribal humans,
navigating the caves has become a lot more smoother.]
At least
something was going well. Olson was the backer of the tribal humans. He had
seen a golden opportunity to exchange minor worthless trinkets for localized
expertise. As much of a technological advantage Bee Strathon possessed, it was
not exactly like they could bring it weapons of mass destruction to wipe out
all sentient life underground.
Using the
knowledge accumulated by the tribal humans, great progress had already been
achieved. Without their help, Olson might still be smashing through unknown
caves and waking up an entire nest of mawsies.
That would
be unfortunate, not because of the multiple deaths of his workers and armed
forces, but because of the equipment that would be lost and damaged. More
importantly, his department’s insurance premium would skyrocket again, eating
into his budget.
Thus, as
far as exploration has gone in the past year, Olson had tried to utilize the
tribal humans as much as possible, using them as cannon fodder. If only he
could convert all of them into slave manpower to reduce his operating costs –
but the re-education school has yet to be approved by the higher-ups
officially.
Yet.
[Reports of
insubordination and general riots have reached an all time high due to the
stress in exploration. 34571 complaints on lack of increments in wages and
rising cost of living has been issued to the management, with 65% from workers having
more than a decade in service. Reports of suspected unionization are also on
the rise.]
“Replace
all of them, we don’t need broken parts. Make sure to word it such that they
can’t sue us.”
[Already
done sir.]
Olson
suddenly recalled a previous message from the leader before. “Wasn’t their
leader supposed to report back soon? Did they not have a lead on a potential
slovesa ruin? Something about a functional temple.”
[Interestingly
enough, sir, just as you mentioned it, he’s currently waiting outside the
complex.]
A video
feed of the security camera pulled up, showing Paska waving his arms at the
camera slowly.
Ren yawned
as he sat on a makeshift chair, watching the impatient Yan pace around in front
of him.
“Look,
Mercer is going to be fine. He did say he was going to train in the room for
longer, so don’t worry about him.” The two of them were in the same makeshift
camp outside the inner temple door, with a few townspeople hanging around.
The temple
hall was now fully lit by their mining lights, and the camp had become a sort
of permanent location. The townspeople were now fully aware of how important
the slovesa temple was, especially when many of their own had died for it. With
the ‘collection’ of weapons from the tribal humans’ dead warriors, they now had
amassed significant firepower.
However,
their lack of combat training was obvious, hence the decision by the expedition
and subsequently the town to send people to train against monsters in the first
room. It used to be the case that whichever group entered would have to kill
all monsters to exit, but the discovery of the interaction with the blue orb
that was abundant in the temple allowed them to exit any time.
They also
were stationed here in the event Ceres should return. Despite not having seen
him for a few months, the town never lost hope in their ‘hero’. Also, they had
continuous skirmishes with various groups of tribal humans attempting to break
into the temple, but they were much more prepared now, establishing a secure
path between the town and the temple.
“Ren, he’s
barely an adult! You should have let me go there in with him!”
“And you
have been for the last three months. When are you going to let him go? He’s his
own man now, let him deal with it.”
Yan stared
coldly at Ren who put his arms up in surrender, before stomping off towards the
inner doors. “Hey, where are you going?”
“I’m going
in to check on him! Don’t worry, he won’t mistake me for a monster.” Yan walked
up to the inner door, but she suddenly stopped in her tracks – the inner door
had opened before she even got there.
Out of the
inner door, a lone man in tattered shaman robes walked out with a half-detached
robotic arm and holding a staff in the other. “I’m… I’m free?”
Ren instantly
recognized who this man was. “Shit, it’s Paska!” Ren quickly jumped to his
feet, sounding an alarm through the camp.
The town
had long prepared for this, knowing that both Ceres and Paska had disappeared
into the temple. Seeing Paska exit before Ceres put a dampener on both Ren and
Yan’s hearts, but they steeled themselves before pulling out their weapons.
A dozen
soldiers quickly surrounded Paska, aiming their rifles at him. “Aren’t those my
weapons?” Paska squinted, trying to spot where were the warriors that he left
outside.
How long
has it been? For the last few months, he had been trapped near the ranking
monument, continuously unable to climb any higher in the ranks.
“Your
troops already lost more than half a year ago, surrender!” Ren ordered as he
aimed his rifle sights squarely at Paska’s chest.
Paska
smiled gently, crouching down to place his staff on the floor as he raised his
remaining arm in surrender. “Looks like I lost this time.”
“Glad you
know it. Don’t make any sudden movements or else my trigger finger might get
itchy thinking about all my friends you killed.” Ren motioned for two soldiers
to move up and cuff him.
“Haha,
after growing up in the underground for your whole live, you still care about
revenge and friendship? There’s no such thing in war!” Paska smirked, as the
symbol on his forehead began to glow brightly. The staff he laid down suddenly
came to life, breaking into three parts and immediately flying through the air
at high speed.
Ren and Yan
immediately shot, but one part of the staff spun rapidly, forming a defensive
shield that blocked the rifle shots. The other parts quickly hit the other
soldiers before they could react, knocking them unconscious due to the sheer
force or injuring their hands, rendering them unable to use their rifles.
In a quick
flash, only Ren and Yan were left standing, with the other soldiers knocked out
despite Paska standing there, grinning. Two parts of the staff became cuffs,
wrapping themselves around both their necks and restraining them down to the
ground. Paska slowly walked up to them, as the last part of the staff floated
gently behind him.
The cuffs
had a sort of pressure acting downwards on them and tightening their necks at
the same time, making it hard to breathe and straining their muscles.
“So, it’s
obvious you all want to plunder this temple, and it’s obvious you already dealt
with all my warriors. Don’t blame me for what I’m about to do.” Paska’s grin
became even wider, but it froze as the inner door suddenly opened again.
He quickly
turned, only to see Mercer exiting the inner door. Paska quickly shot the last
part of the staff at Mercer, planning to quickly capture him, but the staff was
suddenly grabbed by a hand before it hit Mercer’s neck. It was Ceres, the
humanoid monster.
Paska’s
face immediately paled, recalling the last fight they had as he quickly dashed
away, running with all his might.
The cuffs
let go of Ren and Yan, flying back to Paska while the third part of the staff
still remained with Ceres.
Through the
last five months, Paska had also been slightly aware of Ceres’s existence in
the temple. It was obvious that there was another individual other than him
climbing the rankings, and seeing Ceres go above him in ranking meant he had no
chance of defeating Ceres.
Ceres
reacted fast and tried to chase, but he did not expect Paska to run so quickly,
making him unable to catch up. Mercer was still shell-shocked as he witnessed a
staff almost hit him without him being able to react.
Seeing
Ceres’s quick reactions, Mercer’s admiration of Ceres became even higher than
ever before.
Instead of
chasing Paska any longer, Ceres decided to stay and help the soldiers who were injured.
Some of them suffered terrible wounds from the impact of the staff, causing
their entire forearm to be bruised heavily. He also needed to learn what
happened when he was inside the temple.
Mercer
panicked upon seeing Yan collapse on the floor, the bruising on her neck
apparent. “Quick, MEDIC!” He yelled as he rushed to her body, ignoring Ren who
was slowly getting up.
“Yea, right,
don’t worry about me or the others, I’ll be fine..” Ren grumbled as he used his
rifle to prop himself up, gingerly touching his neck. If it was not for the appearance
of Ceres, they might as well have lost their lives here. They were yet again
saved by him.
“Thank you,
Ceres.” Ren bowed with respect. Despite him originally not recognizing Ceres
when they first met, the news of what he had done for the town had awed him. Ceres
was undoubtedly a hero in his eyes.
“I didn’t
do anything, really..” Ceres nodded in return while a medical team rushed out of
hiding during the conflict, quickly treating the wounded. He stared at the now
dormant piece of staff that Paska had left behind, wondering about how it worked.
Now that he
had gone through the temple, he realized the nature of control was eerily
similar to how high-rank slovesa could manipulate foreign weapons to attack.
Was Paska a sort of hybrid, or was it an effect of his implants? “I’ll hold on
to this staff for further research.”
Ceres
focused on the current situation, talking with Ren about what had happened.
Ceres did not share the full details of what happened in the temple, as he knew
that an extremely strong slovesa named Goras was still inside. Despite Ceres’s
anger at Goras for dumping him out, he did not really want to fight the rank
one slovesa of the temple. “Most likely he’s at the top of the mythical class
already..”
“Oh right,
your friend is here too.” Ren motioned over his shoulder, pointing to one of
the makeshift tents, where a snoring Halyon could be seen sleeping with his
body sprawled over the tent.
“Ah yes, my
good ‘friend’,” Ceres smirked, surprised that Halyon did not run away. He
actually assumed that the former Keeper would have escaped immediately after he
disappeared into the temple. “Either his level of trust or level of fear is
extremely high of me. Speaking of fear, I could use him to run a few
experiments.”
It’s been
six months since he entered the temple, and the multitude of human emotions
gave new energy to Ceres’s body, making him feel a lot more alive than he was
in the temple.
Sure, he
had forcibly trained his body to absorb electromagnetic radiation, but the
energy conversion efficiency was not high.
His body
was like an omnivore with regards to energy now: emotions simply ranked the
highest in terms of ‘nutritional value’ and allowed him to exert more strength
in combat.
Yan too
finally recovered, helped up by Mercer. “Ceres, you’re finally back,” Yan said
weakly as a medic treated her neck. She was similar to Ren, in that she did not
know of Ceres’s help before they met in the first temple room. “Where did Paska
go?”
“Ran away
at the first sight of me. Even got his staff here.” Ceres waved the last part
of the staff.
“That’s not
good, he might be running to get more reinforcements.” Yan frowned.
Ceres
recalled the conversation he had with Yan and Misa in the labyrinth about a
potential backer behind Paska. They had never heard of a tribal human receiving
cybernetic implants as well, so seeing Paska as a cyborg was fairly surprising
to them.
Ceres was
not worried, however, as the recent transformation of his body had provided yet
another qualitative increase in strength. He had full confidence in his combat
skills now, but he needed some time to digest the changes fully, especially on
the topic of how he could invoke emotions.
Either way,
he would investigate the staff and see if he could trace any relationships. For
Paska to be able to control the staff as a cyborg, the staff itself must be
fairly advanced in itself. Ceres kept a tight hold on it in the event it
suddenly tried to free itself.
“No matter whom
he brings back, we can handle anything.”
***
In a large
industrial complex on the outskirts of Rockhold, a lone man stood in his
office, overseeing the assembly line of mining equipment. Thousands of workers
gathered along the line, working hard as the intense heat from nearby furnaces
caused sweat to coat their faces non-stop.
He swirled
a glass of sparkling water as he enjoyed the cool breeze of the conditioned
office. It’s already been a few years since he had been in this position, but
he still savoured every moment at the start of his workday like this.
[Manager
Olson, your daily report is ready]
A voice
sounded through his desk, prompting him to head to his chair and insert a
nerval cable into his neck, joining a virtual meeting room.
The
fidelity of the simulation was not high, but he was only using it for work
anyway. For more exciting and sensitive issues, he always had his personal
private VR pod to use.
As he
entered a blank white room, the walls were plastered with a single logo of the
company. It was Bee Strathon, one of the major mining conglomerates in the star
system, being among the raw few allowed to mine any part of Athen.
“Show me” he
ordered, as multiple graphs and visual videos popped up in front of him.
[Today is
Council Galactic Year 526.314, and here is the daily news.]
“Skip all
of that. What happened to the small mine that’s been hogging that area on the
outskirts? Outpost Kah-Yul?”
[After the
enforcers sent one Keeper, Kitana, to wipe out all of them, they just ‘verified’
that it had been used as a rebel supply system, just as planned.]
“I assume
you’ve erased all traces of yourselves.”
[Of course.
All low-level agents have had their memories selectively erased to prevent
further traces.]
“Good.”
Olson smirked. While he did not control the entirety of Bee Strathon here on
the planet Athen, he had full jurisdiction over a few areas, most notably large
swaths of areas outside of the city. He was not the only manager on the planet,
but they acted as quasi-independent sections, answering at the end of every year
about their performance indicators.
[There is a
video of the Keeper Kitana interrogating them. Would you like to view it now?]
“Save it,
I’ll view it during my lunch. It’s better that way.” Olson couldn’t wait to see
the faces of those who rejected his acquisition deal.
In his
view, Bee Strathon should be the only company monopolizing the entire planet.
Any small-medium mining groups had to succumb to him.
Alas, there
were a few entrenched mining groups formed by the colonists before Bee Strathon
obtained the right, so he could not wipe all of them out lest he angered the
local population and the Consortium.
However, it
did not stop him from using insidious means to target smaller fishes. It was
one of his key performance indicators after all.
[Updates
from other departments, Manager Yul has discovered a large field of exotic metals,
namely Sturore, currently estimated to be worth 40 years of supply based on
current market demand.]
“Damn it!”
Olson cursed. He was in control of the area around Rockhold, but they had
recently hit a slowdown of mining, unable to find new large mining veins worthy
of development. Sure, there were a few tiny veins here and there, but at the
scale of Bee Strathon, they would be stripped down in a single week.
Right now,
most of his workers and private security forces were tied up trying to exterminate
the local wildlife. The ‘mawsies’ was a notable enemy, and recent months had
shown a marked increase in activity.
Sure, they
were able to harvest the shell, but it was minuscule in comparison to an entire
vein of Sturore. Bee Strathon had better access to composite armour recipes
that integrated Sturore better, so it was fairly low-value for them.
The private
security forces were necessary, as criminal gangs and other departments
continuously tried to encroach on his territory. Olson had placed a lot of
emphasis on hiring ex-military soldiers, ensuring the best.
However, if
this increase in wildlife attacks continued, the other managers would step all
over him due to his security forces being tied up, and his budget would be
reduced.
“No, no way
I’m letting that happen!” Olson shook his head. “Fuck the other departments,
update me on our current progress. Have we cleared the new shaft yet?”
[Negative.
Current expected completion date is to be in two months. The wildlife is
fighting back tremendously, though thanks to help of the local tribal humans,
navigating the caves has become a lot more smoother.]
At least
something was going well. Olson was the backer of the tribal humans. He had
seen a golden opportunity to exchange minor worthless trinkets for localized
expertise. As much of a technological advantage Bee Strathon possessed, it was
not exactly like they could bring it weapons of mass destruction to wipe out
all sentient life underground.
Using the
knowledge accumulated by the tribal humans, great progress had already been
achieved. Without their help, Olson might still be smashing through unknown
caves and waking up an entire nest of mawsies.
That would
be unfortunate, not because of the multiple deaths of his workers and armed
forces, but because of the equipment that would be lost and damaged. More
importantly, his department’s insurance premium would skyrocket again, eating
into his budget.
Thus, as
far as exploration has gone in the past year, Olson had tried to utilize the
tribal humans as much as possible, using them as cannon fodder. If only he
could convert all of them into slave manpower to reduce his operating costs –
but the re-education school has yet to be approved by the higher-ups
officially.
Yet.
[Reports of
insubordination and general riots have reached an all time high due to the
stress in exploration. 34571 complaints on lack of increments in wages and
rising cost of living has been issued to the management, with 65% from workers having
more than a decade in service. Reports of suspected unionization are also on
the rise.]
“Replace
all of them, we don’t need broken parts. Make sure to word it such that they
can’t sue us.”
[Already
done sir.]
Olson
suddenly recalled a previous message from the leader before. “Wasn’t their
leader supposed to report back soon? Did they not have a lead on a potential
slovesa ruin? Something about a functional temple.”
[Interestingly
enough, sir, just as you mentioned it, he’s currently waiting outside the
complex.]
A video
feed of the security camera pulled up, showing Paska waving his arms at the
camera slowly.
