Serum

Dirk led Pandora to the place he found Exos. 

The two entered the warehouse, and sure enough, the dwarf was there. 

Surrounding him were all his various works and test subjects that proved his ideas. Pandora observed these as she approached. 

And likewise, Exos observed Pandora. It was hard to tell if he was nervous, but he stood there as stiff as a statue. 

“Exos? My name is Pandora. A pleasure to meet you.”

Pandora introduced herself, but that seemed to strike a nerve with Exos as his smile froze. 

“Wait, the Pandora? The one who created the train engine? Weren’t you in talks with the nobility?”

“I was, but those have ended. You’ll be the first to know that our deal has been finalized. But besides that, you seem to know a lot.”

“M-my father is Marquess Havalite.”

“You’re a noble kid?”

Dirk blurted out in surprise. Exos had told him that he was kicked out from his household, but he hadn’t said it was the household of a Marquess. 

Exos nodded. 

“My father, being as rich as he is, was the only reason I had enough money for my projects. Gathering magic crystals, hiring enchanters and forgemasters, and buying materials isn’t cheap. I have a total of six working products, and merely those have eaten away at my funds.”

“Truly amazing.”

Pandora mumbled as she walked over and saw one of the animals in a cage with a replaced limb. Shockingly, she even took out her Book of Life while observing it. 

She walked around for a while, checking out the liquids and papers with designs all over them. And when she came back to Exos, she grabbed his arm and raised it. 

“You’ve replaced your arm and leg?”

“Y-yes. I was a cripple, something that inspired me on this path in the first place, and also one of the reasons I was basically disowned. Dwarves don’t like those who aren’t strong, and especially not those who are weak runts.”

“Mm, I’ve heard something like that about dwarves.”

Pandora dropped Exos’ arm while smiling. Like that, she stared into his eyes, and Dirk could see him rapidly turn to putty. 

He was usually so prim and proper, but now he fidgeted with flushed face. 

Dirk sighed, and that seemed to catch Pandora’s attention as she turned away from the young scientist. 

“Well Exos, you’re surely ahead of your time. I understand what Dirk was talking to me about. So I have an idea.”

She strolled over and picked up a few sheets of paper on a nearby desk. 

“Come with me back to the Dark Kingdom. There, I’m going to personally sponsor your work. You’ll run experiments and figure out how to produce standardized products. We can support you with the best facilities and assistants. You’ll be allowed to thrive without the naive derision of those around you.”

She spoke sweet words of success, and Exos was taking them as expected. Now his flushed face was full of excitement and hope. 

But she wasn’t done.

“And, I personally know about technology that can change the way you work, advanced techniques that can bring your expertise to another level. If you become a craftsman under my wing, I’ll give you this knowledge. Dirk, show him the machine gun.”

“...Seriously?”

Dirk was confused at Pandora’s command. Although he saw the potential of Exos, he didn’t think that exposing the unique technology of Earth was such a smart idea.

She smiled. 

“Don’t worry. It’s not like he can copy the engineering. And you don’t need to fire it. I just want to show him.”

“Fine.”

“Strip it too.”

Dirk let out a breath before waving his hand. 

Then, a 50 caliber machine gun appeared in his arms. He placed it on a table while dropping the bipod. 

Then, his hands went to work with familiar reflexes. He flipped open the receiver before pushing tabs and disassembling all the myriads of components that were precisely interconnected. 

Exos watched with bulging eyes. 

“This is a firearm, an intricate tool built for the purpose of launching small projectiles at supersonic speeds. It uses no magic at all, strictly based in the physics of science and the complexities of chemistry. With just dust and metal, this machine unleashes devastation at 750 rounds per minute.”

*Click*

Having stripped it and put everything back together, Dirk closed the hatch with Pandora’s last word. 

Just from seeing its complexity, Exos knew that this wasn’t some trick. Nobody would go through the trouble of making something so impossibly intricate and purpose driven without it haing a function. 

Obviously the knowledge that went into constructing it wasn’t ordinary in the least. And now, Exos desperately wished he could see that machine be put into action to understand just what she was talking about. 

He looked at Pandora with shining eyes.

“I’m willing to go with you.”

“A smart choice. You have extraordinary talent, Exos. I’ll make sure you won’t be one of the many poor geniuses who waste away because the people around them can’t see the hidden gem that lies within you.”

“Thank you, Princess Pandora. Truly.”

Exos went down on one knee, as if swearing his fealty. And Pandora smiled in content, patting his shoulder only after several seconds. 

“Rise. In the coming days Dirk and I will be moving to the frontlines for some business of ours. You’ll follow us. That means you have today and tomorrow to pack everything you own.”

She tossed a pocket ring to him as she said that, which contained several hundred square meters worth of space. 

“Anything you can’t pack can be left here, and we’ll transport it back later. After all, the railway deal is now in effect. Your items here can be one of the first batches of supplies to be moved across it.”

“Of course. I’ll start packing right away.”

“When you’re done, use this seal to find me in the central palace. Until then.”

She handed him a seal with the mark of vampire royalty. 

And then, she and Dirk left, the excited dwarf wasting no second in preparing himself.

……

…

Over the next day and a half, Dirk continued to check their escape routes and finalize preparations. 

Exos also settled in the central palace, having fully committed to his decision. 

While it had been a golden opportunity that fell out of the sky, he didn’t want to make the mistake of doubting it and throwing the chance away. If he let his suspicions keep him from taking the risk, he would never get anywhere in life. Plus, there wasn’t much of a way to fake being the princess of the Dark Kingdom. 

Pandora was trustworthy purely because of her title. Plus, he knew he had valuable intelligence, and she seemed to see it. 

Exos would do everything he could to advance the field that he was pioneering. He would stop at nothing to ensure that it was revolutionary. 

But none of that would start until they returned to the Dark Kingdom. 

In the meantime, Pandora made plans to go to the front lines of the Haven’s battle with the monster hordes. 

According to some intelligence she received from the generous General Varmite, there were constant hordes of monsters being spewed out of the Dragon Lair of Earth that was located only a couple dozen miles away from the Haven. An entire city which had been founded right outside of that Lair had been long since annihilated, and now its ruins were the site of a bloody battlefield. 

The only way such a large scale and constant battle could be sustained was because those endless monster armies were now an incalculable source of income for the Haven. All the materials and mana crystals from every one of the tens of thousands of beasts were used in whatever way they could. There was no shortage of demand for monster parts since the dwarves were a race of artisans anyway. 

But it was still incredibly dangerous. Over the past few months, it had served as a trial by fire, a place that now forged the fiercest dwarven warriors. Even the magic academies within the Haven used the place as a live-fire training ground where nothing was off limits. 

Because after all, all the lesser dungeons had disappeared. Only the major dungeons remained, and all the weaker monsters were released around said dungeons. There was no safe way to train mages and warriors anymore. 

When the day finally came to leave for that very place, Pandora and Dirk grabbed Exos and headed out along with a fresh batch of recruits who would be stationed at the front lines. 

General Varmite was with them as a temporary escort. 

And before long, they arrived. 

The location was a natural barrier not far from the ruined dwarven city, a choke point created by the meeting of two mountain bases that served as the exclusive road to the ruined city. This was where a new fortress was erected in order to hold back the monster hordes. 

They called it the Rusted Bastion, a name given to it after the steel of the wall was blessed by the blood of its enemies and dried into a thick rust colored layer. It was said that this ‘rust’ made the wall stronger since the blood of monsters carried mana and filled the enchanted wall with power. 

Dirk, Pandora, and Exos were escorted to the fortress with General Varmite. 

Dirk scanned the whole place as they entered. 

It really was a menacing steel fortress. 

The gap between the two mountain bases wasn’t small. It was approximately 1.5 miles wide, and across that entire gap, the dwarves had built a steel wall about 50 meters tall and 130 meters thick. 

The bulk of the fortress was built within the massive wall, but there were three distinct castle-like structures in the center and out toward the ends. 

The center structure was where they entered from as they arrived, but even from behind the wall, Dirk could clearly see and feel the massive battles ongoing in front. 

The scale of this war was incomparable to that at the city he had saved. 

“Remember.”

General Varmite announced solemnly to everyone before entering. 

“In this place, even Tier 7 monsters aren’t rare. If you find yourself in a bad situation, its already to late. To survive here, you must be able to adapt on the fly! Even in the heat of battle, you must maintain total awareness of your surroundings! If you get caught up in the small battles, you will get swept away by the movement of the legions around you! And you’ll return as nothing more than a number on a weekly report. Do you understand?!”

“Yes, General!”

All the recruits straightened their backs and saluted. 

But Dirk, like General Varmite, knew that none of them truly understood the depth of those words. Not until they experienced it first hand would they realize how easily one could get swept away in a battlefield such as this. 

Everyone entered the castle, and from there the recruits were handed off to several officers already awaiting their arrival. 

And with that, General Varmite escorted the remaining three to the command center. 

The central castle was the headquarters of the entire fortress. Here, there was actually a Tier 8 and a Rank 8 general stationed. 

Two pillars of the Darven Haven, two of the most powerful people in the world, stationed at this one fortress to hold back the monsters. 

Their names were General Feller and General Umangot.

“General Varmite, glad you could visit us.”

The two generals were both men who carried a similar disposition. They were tall dwarves standing at nearly 8 feet tall and with giant muscular bodies that bulged even from beneath their full plate armor. 

One carried a massive mace on his back, no doubt the Rank 8, and the other carried a large grey crystal staff composed of the magic metal Geode, the Tier 8. 

Dirk was a bit overwhelmed by their height. They were even taller than King Greyscale. It seemed dwarves really did get taller with more power. 

And their skin was a hard steel grey, one that looked sheen and impenetrable. Along with their atrocious strength, Dirk found it difficult to remain standing in front of them. His neck tingled. 

But their presence wasn’t as horrible as King Greyscale. Obviously there was a key difference between them, one that made the King significantly more powerful than they. 

General Varmite shook the generals’ hands before introducing Pandora. 

General Umangot, the Tier 8, rubbed his bristled beard. 

“Ah, it’s the Princess. I’ve heard that you officially made a deal with Greyscale.”

“I have, General. And I have plans to make a railway to this fortress my first priority. Trust me when I say that an effective transportation system from here to the capital will make your lives far easier.”

“I believe it. You have my favor.”

The General nodded with a wide smile, obviously happy. 

The transportation of supplies and troops, while not strained, definitely brought difficulty on the maintenance of this fortress. But a railway would solve nearly all their issues. 

They could haul all their monster corpses with ease, free up more manpower, and develop a steady cycle of troops to keep the guards here fresh. It would secure the future of this entire stronghold. 

The General naturally liked Pandora’s priorities, even if only because it eliminated much of the work he had to deal with. 

At that moment, Pandora glanced to the General’s side. 

She saw General Feller, the Rank 8 with a massive mace, staring at Dirk. 

It almost seemed like the two were about to rip each other’s throats out with how palpable the aura between them was. Even General Varmite couldn’t help but watch curiously. 

General Feller narrowed his eyes. 

“You’re a curious one, aren’t you? Trying to kill me with those cursed eyes of yours?”

“...”

“Hmph, I’d say you’re puny with how small you are, but my gut says otherwise. Come, show me what makes you so sharp.”

“General Feller!”

Just as the general drew his mace, Pandora shouted. 

The general stopped, but he didn’t take his eyes off Dirk, who continued to stand there with statue-like stillness as if he didn’t even notice the threat. 

“Please refrain from fighting my consort. He’s only recently broken through to Rank 5. Is there any way he could possibly threaten you?”

“...”

The general was silent for a moment before putting away his mace. 

Pandora smiled. 

“Thank you. I’d like to get a look at the wall. General Varmite, do you mind escorting us there? After that we can find our quarters. I expect to stay here for some time.”

“...Sure.”

General Varmite slowly nodded before taking the three away. General Feller watched Dirk as he left. 

When the door to the command center finally closed, General Feller huffed and turned. General Umangot smiled. 

“You felt it too?”

“...I don’t like it. That boy is too sharp. And he’s a human, no less.”

“Mm. I actually felt my neck tingle. If he grows up properly, there’s no telling how powerful he’ll get.”

“I want to know who he is.”

General Feller scowled. 

“Contact one of our men in the Horizon Empire, and find out which monster birthed such a terrifying boy.”

“Really? Well, if you’re that curious. I have a friend at the academy there, a forgemaster. Surely such a talented human went through that academy. Maybe he knows something. I’ll contact him tonight.”

“Do so.”

With that, General Feller left, leaving General Umangot to chortle.