"We are finally here..."
The group of mercenaries finally arrived at the place described by Gabe's group...
It took them over 6 hours, and noon was almost upon them.
'It was way further than I had expected...'
"Set up camp underneath this rock thing! At least we won't have to care about rain that much"
"You fuckers can rest for a bit."
The "camp", if can call it even that, was a tent, made up of a large sheet of cloth over a tall pole... It could barely fit 2 people... Such tent was exclusive to Gahan himself, and was carried around by a couple men.
Most of the rest simply laid on the ground or over thin blankets they brought with them. Few people had the luxury of having storage artifacts, and no one in the group had the financial leeway of buying such a thing. In times of war, the group used to have one they used to carry emergency food and supplies. It had enough space for fitting 2 days’ worth of food and water for the whole 120 integrants of the maniple, if they rationed it enough by keeping food to a bare minimum... However, after the peace begun, Gahan was forced to sell the artifact for keeping the group together. The 10 platinum coins he got from it became slightly over 4 silver coins for each of the 120 members... It was enough to pay their wages for a couple of years, but the lack of military tension made more than half of them disband... In hindsight Gahan realized the money he got was far less then what the Artifact was worth, but the sale was necessary. The money was almost over by now... That's why he accepted the shady business with Arthur, The usurper. Gahan was a straightforward man and hated dealing with politics and those kinds of shady things... But the money was good, and necessary. He had no choice but to accept the contract. His job? To banish the remainders of the former royal court, including the former king's descent, as slaves, to the mines of Herklaw.
Herklaw was known as the slavery hub for the west of the continent, and also as the owner of the largest mining regions. And also, as one of the most Human Supremacist countries of today... As such, the fiscalization over the borders was massive since Kaimon had outlawed most types of slavery, and not only that, but there were also no bridges across the huge Dalton River in the area where it cuts between Kaimon and Herklaw . The only easy way to reach the main territory of Herklaw, avoiding the border patrols, from Kaimon, was a huge detour. Using the Usurper's influence, they smuggled themselves and delved deep through the Warmor Principality and around the whole Herklaw Mountain Range that divided the two countries. It was a dangerous journey, but with his group, going through the Gefahrvoll Forest and the Narrow Pass should be easy enough.
They had already covered more than two thirds of the distance to the Narrow Pass when the Princess escaped during the night.
The detour and trouble searching for her would delay them a couple days at least, but now she was trapped.
The exhausted men just tumbled like weeds, sleeping in the bare ground.
'They have sure grown weaker over these years...' Gahan thought at the sight.
'I better sleep a little though... I have a bad feeling about this place'
Gahan stared into the gaping mountain face, where the entrance to the cave was. He was very familiar with this region, being from Warmor... He had never heard of there being a cave here.
He turned around, entering his tent.
-----------------------
Gloria was indulging in the hug, happiness overflowed from her. Her gaze shifted from the ceiling back to the side she relaxed, finding a more comfortable position.
The new position also allowed her to have a glimpse at her monitors...
"Gun! You gotta go now!"
"What?! Why?!"
"They are here!"
"HUH?" I jumped up looking at the monitor behind me, following the direction of her gaze.
What I saw in the monitor surprised me.
There was a single tent plopped right in front of the cave entrance and more than a couple dozen men laid on the ground around it. There were at least 24 of them that I could count...
"Why did the alarms not go off?"
"They never got to the entrance of the dungeon itself... So, they are not considered invaders."
"How long have they been there?"
"How the heck am I supposed to know? I'm here with you!"
"Oh, right, sorry, I completely forgot you just operate the System..."
"Humpf!"
"Anyhow! How can you see that? I'm not even there..."
"Hah? Aren't you the dungeon core? You are supposed to have omniscience inside the dungeon!"
"Hold up! What?"
"Yeah, you know... That's one of the perks of the system... You can see anything anywhere inside the dungeon... Didn't you know?"
"No! I was always using that floating vision thing."
"Hmmm?? Oh, right, that must be the influence of your last life... You expect yourself to have a 1st person perspective or something. If you try, I think you can imagine seeing the dungeon like a Satellite, that'd make it easier for you to see everything."
"I can do that?!"
"Yeah, that's just how the "Vision" of the C.O.R.E. works... You can see however you want and from whichever angle You decide so long as you are inside the dungeon or looking into it."
"Oh, thank you... Sorry for having to leave, I'll be back as soon as I can."
Dematerialize.
While my body disappeared into particles, Gloria sat on the bed watching, me go.
"I'll be waiting for you..." She said before my body completely disappeared. Pointing at her pussy over her clothes.
I saw only black this time. I wasn't using either the wobbly view or my body... It felt like I was floating in darkness.
I better try out that thing she said... A satellite huh...? Let's try that one out...
Hold on... She never said I was limited to one perspective, right? Does that mean...
HOLY FUCKING SHIT THIS IS AMAZING!
I love the level of detail you give to seemingly random characters, it makes the world feel so much more real, like it actually exists for more reason than to house the MC
I'm very flattered my random rambling actually serves a purpose... I was afraid people would feel annoyed by such a roundabout writing.
@DarkGodEM Well, I am annoyed at how long they were getting to the cave. At first it felt like the scouts returned back to the main forces quickly, and Gahan's army will reach the dungeon in no time — but they travelled for what it felt like four days instead of two. Well, maybe that's a given, because all they did was marching and fending off the wolves.
Also, I'd appreciate if Gahan said not "You f*ckers can rest for a bit.", but something more like "It's been three days and a half. You f*ckers can rest for a bit.". That'll serve to explain to the reader how long were they travelling. At least, I forgot that.
As for the rambling and writing in a roundabout way — I f*cking love it! It's much better than "And so Gahan took his army and ran day and night to the dungeon the three scouts reported. It took them three days. There were a lot of dead wolves scattered in the forest, that was weird. But they decided to give it a go anyways. Then they camped before the dungeon and Gloria suddenly noticed that".
Bleargh. I feel I just violated this chapter. Sorry.
Anyway, I like it when the author describes the world and the characters living in it. Like how the mercenaries had one spacial storage artifact, but had to sell it. It also gave an insight at how rare these things are and how much money an average warrior needs to live throughout a couple of years. It was much better than traditional japanese "100 copper == 1 silver, 100 silver == 1 gold, 100 gold == 1 unobtanium. A loaf of bread costs 3 copper". Having it written in a such way just kills a joy. Your way is much better.
Naming all these countries is unimportant right now, but having them introduced early in a such lightweight manner is much better than handing them out of sleeve.
Also you pictured Gahan as a somewhat stupid, but caring mercenary leader. I don't want another [generic bandit A] coming into the dungeon and getting killed. Hell, it's the depiction of the second character that enters the dungeon, and that's important! Also probably the first character Gunther will kill and will feel disgusting after killing another human being (average mercenaries are not counted :D) and will have Mihara comforting him. Or maybe he'll survive and we'll meet him after a hundred chapters...
Having it written with so much details is the best! Thanks for the chapter!
@Xobotun To be honest the whole adventure so far has only lasted two days.
The point is making sure ppl understand they were already travelling for weeks and how long these few hours feel to them.
The narrative is progressing VERY slowly at a rate of 10 ch per day. However its very very early into the plot and every single leaf that falls matters quite a bit. And that elongates even short travels (like their 18h journey from the slave location to the cave) and makes it seem like a huge amount of time.
The point about him saying that, I will add a narrator comment in the chapter when I review the whole thing. These chapters are raw. Also, having him say how long it took would break the character because of the way he downplays the men all the time. You gotta humiliate those f*ckers even when lending them a hand.
There are far too many concepts to introduce and various POVs to explore in order to make the 2nd arc (Goblin King) feel natural and not some forced encounter like most crappy novels. And I've been having a pretty rough week with my back pain worsening. I only managed to get stronger meds today and it's still not perfect (I'm taking codeine rn). So, things should improve slightly now and maybe even increase the pace in which I finish the patreon advanced chapters.
@DarkGodEM It was only two days, huh? For me and them it felt like a neverending travel with no resources. You got it conveyed perfectly, then!
I like slowgoing novels, they are nice to read and you don't notice how the evening passes and it's already time to get ready for sleep. Not sure about writing, though. I want to try, but never manage to get enough time. Weirdly, I have more than enough time to read novels and write comments.
I hope your back will get better. It's more important to have a good health, both physical and mental, than to fulfil your daily rate of chapters. (Unless your mental health depends on it. :D) I'd like to give you some advice, but I am no doctor, so my words will do harm rather than any good. Besides, you know your circumstances better.
@Xobotun I agree with everything you said, you perfectly summarised what I intended to convey. Also, I hope @DarkGodEm gets better too. I know how much back pain hurts.