Chapter 65: 62 – One Step Closer

I claimed the dungeon core while Mitena was knocked out. It took over a day for the dragon to finally stir. Watching as she slowly shrank was an odd experience.

"Groewell…" She slowly opened her eyes, but when she tried to move, she groaned.

"Finally awake, Ms. Impatient? You couldn't have waited even a minute for me to lay out some furs?" I asked the dragon with both hands on my hips.

"Groewell…" she said as she looked away.

I sighed and took out a large water bowl and an ogre.

"Here. I'm just glad you stayed a size we could fly with, even if it's on the smaller end. At least now you can fit through the doors again."

She looked at the ogre, then back to me, and opened her mouth while staring at me.

"You're shitting me… Fine. Whatever."

I took out Seren and sliced the Ogre into dragon-bite-sized pieces. I lobbed a chunk into her mouth as she laid there pitifully. 

"You're pretty damn spoiled, you know that?"

"Groewell."

"Well, you look after Anastasia, so I guess this is fine."

She swallowed and opened her mouth again and I tossed another chunk in. During the past day that she was unconscious, I really thought about what Chaos said. 

My plans split into two initial directions. I could get lucky and take the easy road, finding a royal that wasn't a complete douchebag and support them as I assassinated their family and let them reform the humans. The other option was the one where I killed all those in power and caused mayhem. The first option was easy, and just needed someone to support who could be relied on. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be an option. 

That left the pandemonium plan, which I have been kicking around in my head for years. Now that the first split of the flowchart in my head was decided, I could focus on what was needed for it.

From what my plan originally was before I left for the dwarves, it has morphed quite a bit. This won't be easy, but I felt like it would work better.   

Over the next two days while Mitena shook off her shrinking pains, I began to work with Sara over the FCN on what was needed with the Midnight Special Forces. Her MSF soldiers have all been leveled to 55, with a couple bumping up into 56. Initially, that's where I wanted them, but I decided to just go all the way. I instructed Sara to have a fairy help them all get to level 59, the highest that dragonid fortress farming allows before EXP drops substantially. As they have been up to this point, those not in the dungeon are training diligently.

Part of their training curriculum is focused on stealth skills. Because everyone in the MSF is human, besides Sara, only a couple have decent talent in dark magic. This can be remedied with the shadow cloaks they all received. Their stealth skills have also been steadily rising in proficiency levels. We've also been having them train the heightened senses skill. This one can be done even in their down time by trying to do things like make out faint whispers, read from far away, or decipher a faint scent.

By the time Mitena was feeling well enough to fly home, Sara and I had a grasp of what else was needed for the first phase of the MSF training.

After looting the coins and items leftover from the dungeon, we exited to the outside. I closed up the entrance with a large rock, and began putting all of Mitena's tack on her.

"You ready to get home, Mitena?" I asked the dragon.

"Groewell!"

"I know how you feel. We've been away for quite a while, and I'm certain Anastasia missed you. I bet you're excited to finally talk to her."

"Groewell!"

"Alright, you're all set. I'll hop on and we can fly home."

Doing so, we began the journey home that afternoon. It took us a few hours longer to see the walls of Midnight with Mitena's smaller form. We also stopped for the night this time. Even so, by the early evening of the next day, we saw the city and Mitena sped up to reach the castle.

(Anastasia, Ailine, we're almost to the walls. We'll land out front,) I said over the Fairy Communication Network.

(Yay! We'll be right there!) Anastasia eagerly replied. 

Sure enough, as we approached the castle doors, they swung open and two recognizable figures came out. One in her dragon and mithril armor, and the other covered in a shadow cloak. 

We landed and the tiny girl in the shadow cloak launched herself at us, hugging me before I could even get out of the saddle.

"Mommy Lia! I missed you so much!" Anastasia said. She let go of me and squeezed Mitena. "And you too, Mitena! I missed you and am so happy you're back! Mommy Lia told me all about your skills, and I can't wait to hear you talk!"

As I dismounted, Ailine walked up. "Welcome home, Lia."

"Thanks, Ailine," I said as I hugged her. "How about we all go see Navi and have her add Mitena to the FCN?"

"Yes!" Anastasia shouted. "Let's go!"

With that decided, three vampires and a dragon walked down to Navi's lab. With Mitena sized similarly to Talon again, she was able to get through the doorways without issue. When we walked into the lab, Navi was there working on some enchantments.

Navi stopped and turned towards us as we came in. "Oh! If it isn't the vampire family! Welcome back, Mitena and Vamps. Wa'sup?"

"Thanks, Navi," I said. "We're here to add Mitena to the FCN so she can talk telepathically. Think you can hook her up?"

"Sure, sure." She flew over to Mitena. "Alright, let's add you… Done! Try it out!"

Mitena looked hesitant for a moment. (Hello? Can you hear me?)

By the look on the faces of the others, they all heard her as well. While Talon sounded almost parrot-like, Mitena sounded like a young girl around Anastasia's age. Nothing odd about her voice at all. 

"Mitenaaaaa!" Anastasia jumped and hugged the dragon around her neck as Mitena lowered it so that Anastasia could keep her feet on the ground. "That's so cool! It's so good to finally hear you!"

(I'm glad to finally talk to you, Anastasia. Do you wanna go play? We could go find Degare and Perrin and chase some more deer!)

"Yes!" The little girl turned to us. "Mommy Lia, Mommy Ailine! Can I go play with Mitena and the others?"

I chuckled, imagining their shenanigans. "That's fine with me. Be careful not to hurt others."

("Okay!") they both replied in unison before running out of the lab.

Ailine and I had our helmets unequipped and she gave me a quick kiss. "I'll go keep an eye on them, Lia."

I smiled at my wonderful wife. "Thanks, Ailine. I'm going to chat with Navi for a bit."

"See you later," she said as she left the room.

"What's up, Walrus?" Navi asked. 

"Not much," I replied. "Just wanting to check on how your work is going in person."

Navi twirled around in the air, fluttering her sundress. "It's good! First off, I got the duplicate rings for the teleportation platform enchanted. Made a handful for you. Your wifey and Sara already have theirs. Do you have any idea how nuts those were to copy? Making a magically enchanted key is one thing, but making a duplicate of one? It's like using a tiny fingernail file to scratch away at a key blank to make a copy by hand, only magically. The amount of precision these darn things needed was insane! It didn't help that I could only work on it when Ailine didn't need the original at night."

"Wow, Navi. That's awesome that you got it done, though."

"Yeah, you better appreciate it." She tossed me a little bag with the rings. "Don't you lose those. Anyway! I made some major progress with harnessing the power from a dungeon core. Right now I'm running some lights as a test, but it seems to be holding. Using the info from Chaos' letter, I was able to adjust the enchantment on the castle lights to tell it to draw from the core in the area instead of the divot with monster cores."

I raised a finger that she happily high-fived. "Damn good work, Navi. So, how can we use the cores for the tunnel? Are they outside of the proximity?"

"That's what I'm focusing on next. So, right now, think of the cores as an omnidirectional antenna. They're able to be hooked into from anywhere around them, with a weaker signal the farther away you are. What I'm working on right now is essentially making the antenna more directional. Since the tunnel is a straight line, and the core has a frack ton of power, in theory, I should be able to send that all the way here. Yeah, it'll lose some effectiveness at this long of a range, but it's strong enough to reach here."

"What about the draw?" I asked, since that came up before in the letter.

Navi smiled. "If we had a bunch of people farming dragonids all day? Yeah, it'd be too much and you would see less monsters spawn or doors not open. Drawing too much power will essentially shut down the stronger monsters and floors. However, since people will be primarily on weaker floors and we don't plan to over-farm the higher leveled monsters after it's open to the public, we should still be able to run the tunnel enchantments and even the castle enchantments without an issue. 

"It's weird. Watching the power levels at the core itself, that I can now hook into to check, it's like the floors don't even exist until the door to it is opened. Then, all at once, the power is used to create the floor and monsters. Ailine and Sara helped test it, and it's seriously some Schrödinger nonsense. This whole thing with the cores is like dealing with magical quantum mechanic malarkey. The more I work on it, the less sense it makes for why it works or doesn't work."

"Fuck, Navi. Thanks for working through all of that," I said, impressed at her ability to do anything with how complex even her brief description sounded.

"Yup! Until then, what new projects do you have? I know you always have something cooking."

I smirked. "You're right. Here's what I want made. Tell me if it's doable. So—"

I described the weapon that would be our public opener and that would plunge the entire Empire into mass confusion. 

"That… That's devious, Vamps…" Navi said, a bit stunned at my description.

"It is. Can it be done?" I asked.

"... Possibly… I'll need a lot of time, though. And a bigger area to work. Additionally, the amount of cores and other materials this would use… I'm not sure if dragonid cores would handle all of what you want. We might have to farm the dragon boss for quite a while to get enough to do what you want."

"I figured we might have to go back there someday. Might as well take the team and grind some levels."

"That would be good. Whew," Navi composed herself. "Okay! What else you got for me?"

I thought about all of the ideas I had in my head. "This one is something I thought of on the flight home. None of the old vampires knew physics concepts we learned on Earth, so it's no wonder I haven't heard of anything like it. You know how I want all of the MSF soldiers to have a shadow cloak? Well, how possible do you think it is to enchant some cloaks with light magic to make what's essentially an active visual camouflage by bending the light to what's around it?"

Navi stared at me for a few seconds and then launched at me and started drumming on my armored shoulder with her tiny fists. "Dang it! Why haven't we done this already! Argh! This is so frustrating! That might actually work with magic! Why haven't I thought of that! It's totally some Predator bull poop!"

I laughed at the fairy faking being angry. "Hahaha! I hear you. As for why, probably because we've never needed it. I can't use light magic without harming myself. Plus, whenever we've fought people, it was at night when the shadow cloak is more effective. Also, without my armor, I can't use something like an invisibility cloak without the potential of it harming me."

Navi let out a heavy sigh and hung her head with drooping shoulders. "Now that you have your armor, you should totally be able to wear this. We'll have to test if a vampire has the ability to activate a light enchantment since it technically isn't using light magic, but we can always power it with cores if need be. Most likely there will be some image warping with it activated, but out in the open, you'll be all but invisible. I'm so frustrated with myself."

"Don't be. We've never needed it. If possible, I want you to have Tsuki help you. As the only other fairy with light magic, you both should be able to learn to do it without the cloak, in theory, thereby making your bodies, wings and all, disappear."

"Sure. I'll have my baby learn to go invisible," Navi said. "What about where I'll work on your opening act? We'll need a lot of space and I doubt you want people seeing it and asking questions. You're still doing this whole thing under the radar, right?"

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I nodded. "If at all possible, yes. For an area, how about we carve out a large enough space around the Abyssal Dungeon door? It's still going to be a while until the tunnel reaches it, and having the extra space so people could park wagons or horses will be good."

"That's a good idea. Since everyone teleports to the core room right now, nobody ever exits the dungeon," Navi said. "Think you could carve that out while I work with Tsuki? If you could make a couple vents to swap the air there, that would also be good. It was a large enough area we haven't had any problems yet, but if I'm working in there, I'd hate to die a stupid death like not having air inside of there."

"Sure, I can do that," I said. "Any idea if you could make a teleportation pad from here in the lab to the dungeon cavern?"

"Hmm… I could, but it would probably take a couple days. Probably worth it in the long run. What else, Vamps?"

"That's about all I have for right now."

"Then get to it! I'll get Tsuki and work on our invisibility once I get the lab teleportation pad done. The amount of pranks we can pull if we get this invisibility thing down is astonishing!"

Fuck. I forgot about her disposition to doing shit like that. It's too late now. Sorry, Erald. I fucked up. 

After cursing myself, I went ahead and began working on one of the props for my plan. All of a sudden I feel like I have a good amount of work to get done. It's a good thing there isn't a time crunch and we can take our time to do shit right while also having some family time. 

This'll take a while to make, but when done, should help with what I'm thinking. What I'm making is a clear cylinder about six feet tall and with a diameter of two feet. The center will be hollow and filled with water. The walls will be thick glass with a diamond outside layer for protection. The cylinder will have a tungsten-alloy cap and base. 

The entire thing will slide into a giant slab of steel with a tungsten alloy coating so that what will be on display in the cylinder will be visible from both sides of the slab. The heavy ass cylinder will also hold the slab in place once it's magically tacked together. Above the cylinder on both sides of the giant tablet, I'll carve in some words to make this more dramatic. The reason I'm using the alloy and diamond, even though they suck to make, is because I need this entire thing to seem like it's too much for a human to make. Along with standing up to any abuse, those two materials will definitely make it stand out more than it already will. 

Three days later when Navi was done with the new teleportation platform, I wasn't even close to finishing. I also want to create a large stage for the prop to be displayed on. Maybe a few statues as well. Who knows. I have time to fiddle with it.

"Alright you warthog," Navi said. "Go ahead and bag the new platform. Let me know when you have it placed and I'll send a test goblin over. If it lives and has all of its limbs, go ahead and send it back just to make sure it's working both ways."

"Sure thing you gnat." I put my big-bag up to the platform and stored it. "See you soon."

I took my signet ring and made my way to the Tutorial Dungeon core room to use its platform to get to the Abyssal Dungeon. Ailine, Sara, and the fairies all have a copy of the ring to have full access to the Abyssal Dungeon, which has made their lives a little easier.

I entered the core room, teleported to the Abyssal Dungeon core room, then exited to the empty area around the dungeon entrance. I placed the new platform where the old one originally was. 

After taking a few steps back, I contacted the mad scientist. (Alright, Navi. I'm all set.)

(Goblin incoming!) she said.

The space above the platform seemed to wobble, and then all of a sudden a bound and gagged goblin appeared on the platform. 

(You know, Navi. I'm almost starting to feel bad for your test goblins…)

(Did Mr. Noballs LXIV make it?)

(I'm sending the damn thing back,) I said with a sigh. (At least put it out of its misery.)

(I'll think about it.)

I bent down next to the platform and placed a hand on the side of it. Channeling mana into it, I watched the goblin blink out of existence.

(He's back! It worked!) Navi exclaimed. (Your turn, Vamps! Come on, come on!)

Taking a steadying breath, I stepped onto the platform. At the very least, as long as I'm still alive, I'll heal. After channeling magic into the platform like the original, I suddenly appeared in the lab.

"Success!" Navi shouts and flies around me.

"Good work, Navi. You actually did it," I said.

"Of course I did! Was there ever any doubt?"

Yes, a little, I thought.

"Nope. None," I said.

"Good! Are you going to carve out the cavern now?" Navi asked.

"That's the plan." I shrugged. "Any idea how big you need it?"

Navi cupped her chin and hovered while laying back. "The thing you want made will be twenty-five meters in diameter for width, and twice that in length, I believe. So at least large enough for that."

"Sounds good," I said. "Can you make the air hole? Like Lala is doing, you fairies are small enough to magically drill upwards and fly inside of the hole you make."

"That's fair. Alright! Let's get to work!" she said and landed on my shoulder.

We teleported back to the entrance and spent a few days making the domed cavern. These weapons will take Navi a long time to make, so she's starting with what she says will be easier and making the invisibility cloaks with Tsuki. Meanwhile, I'll keep working on my prop. We made the cavern large enough that we can both work inside with plenty of room to spare. We'll just take one step forward at a time.

=====

POV - Anastasia

Mommy Lia has been home for a little over two months and is working hard on a secret project with Aunt Navi. 

Before they leave for work in the morning, Mommy Lia and Mommy Ailine always give me a hug and kiss. 

"Bye, Anastasia. We love you," Mommy Ailine said.

"Be good for Steph, and have fun at your Princess Party later today," Mommy Lia said.

"I will! Bye Mommy Ailine! Bye Mommy Lia!" I waved to them as they went off to work.

Once they're gone, I turned towards Mitena. "Are you ready? We'll have to convince the others today."

(Yup! Do your best, Anastasia! If anyone doesn't like your idea, I'll eat them!)

I giggled. "You're so silly, Mitena. Let's do this!"

When I left the room, Steph was waiting outside of the door.

"Good morning, Princess Anastasia," she said with a smile.

"Good morning, Steph!"

We spent the morning exploring the courtyard and playing, then it's finally time for the meeting!

When we walked into the castle, we went towards the room that we're having the Princess Party in. When I entered, everyone else was already here talking together. Perrin and Zahra were sitting at the table, while Lala, Tsuki, and Carmen were sitting on tiny stools at a tiny table that is on the normal table. 

"Hello, everyone!" I said as I walked over.

"Hello, Anastasia!" Perrin said.

"Thank you again for having us," Zahra said.

"Mhmm! It's always so much fun!" I said while taking my seat.

Steph took out a pot of hot tea from her bag and poured us each a cup before setting it down on an enchanted warming plate Aunt Navi made.

"Thank you Steph!" I said. "...Um, Steph? I have something secret I want to tell the others…"

She smiled kindly at me. "Understood, Princess. I'll take my leave. Just call if you need anything."

Perrin turned to her maid and bodyguard. "Else, Botill, could you please step out as well?"

""Yes, Princess,"" they both said with a bow and left with Steph.

Once gone, Tsuki asked, "What's up, Cuz? What's the big secret?"

I take a moment to gather my courage while the five of them all look at me. "Well, in a couple months, it's going to be the Fourth Annual Midnight Festival celebrating when the first group of people came to live here. I had an idea about what we can do for the festival, and I think it'll be more fun if we all do it together!"

"What's your idea, Anastasia?" Zahra asked.

"Well, First—" I explained my idea to them.

"That'll be fun!" Carmen said.

"That's a great idea," Lala said.

"I'll definitely help as well," Zahra said.

Perrin clapped her hands. "Me as well!"

Tsuki flew over and hugged my face. "You rock, Cuz!"

I giggled and patted Tsuki on the head. "Thanks, everyone. Let's do our best!"

"""Yes!"""

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