Chapter 135: It evolved

"Sir, if I may ask… How did you do it?"

Back in the car, I watched how the empty, fertile lands passed by the window. With barely any other civilian vehicles appearing on the street outside of the logistical trucks, the speed limits from the past no longer held any meaning. 

"It's simple. I made him refute and later chase us out. When I made the call to the head of the Baskar family, I just asked him to spread the news."

With my eyes still glued to the landscape on the other side of the glass, I could hardly be bothered to explain any further. 

"Sir? What news?"

Hearing the question, I could hardly believe what I heard. Putting off my facade of a thoughtful expert, I looked at the bodyguard of mine who was driving the car with disbelief written all over my face.

"Wait, you really don't know?"

Staring at him as if he was some kind of super-rare animal that was believed to be long gone from the face of the earth, I had to wait for a few moments while staring at him to actually believe that he was honestly asking the question.

"You saw what happened when the forward party brought the monsters outside. Given how this was nothing more but a show, we were perfectly prepared to stop those monsters. But did you ever thought about what would happen if there was no one to stop the monsters chasing after a retreating party? Did you think about the dungeons that were too remote for some major power with the backing of strong fighters to bother exploring it?"

Taking a short break to replenish the air in my lungs, I sighed deeply before announcing what should be common knowledge for anyone with brains.

"The problem that we decided to make use of is not a scam. It's something that's already happening all over the world. People just have yet to take proper notice of it."

With my head moving back to the scenery of the outside world, I continued to thirst for the natural beauty of the world. The beauty that soon would have a steep price for anyone daring to cast his or her eyes upon. 

"Wait, what? Wouldn't people take notice of something like this? I know that the population mostly moved out of the remote areas… But as soon as a first monster were to appear in public, it would be impossible for the news to be suppressed just like that!"

With the shocking truth behind my words shaking the man's emotional state, his hands momentarily lost control over the car's steering wheel. The entire vehicle shook gently when its directions wavered for a bit. Only thanks to his experience at driving did my bodyguard managed to wrestle the control over the vehicle before it would crash.

"Ugh…"

Even though the shaking took only a single moment, the momentary lapse in the concentration of my driver still made me see my entire flash through my eyes. For a moment, I was capable of believing that Jeff ordered my bodyguard to crash the car in hopes of ridding my influence from the faction!

"I'm sorry… It's just that… My family from the mother's side decided to ignore the trend and…"

Before the man could ever finish, I already knew what was bothering his mind.

"Don't worry too much about it. The scale of the problem has yet to grow to the point where local powers won't be able to solve it. While it's just my guess, I think the strength of the monsters in the dungeon grows with time. Even if the dungeon were to appear right beside their home, it will take a while before the monsters will grow strong enough to escape from the underground premises."

While that was just my conjecture from how weak the monsters in my dungeons were, I couldn't really tell the man about it. If he were to start worrying about his family like that, I had a feeling that ending up with the car crashed against some random tree wouldn't be that strange thing to occur.

"It's hard not to worry when you just told me that monsters are breaking out from the dungeons!"

Tightening his hold over the wheel, my bodyguard took a few breaths to calm himself down. As great as it was for the car to perfectly keep to the road this time, it was quite obvious that the man was still really worried.

"If you can't help but think about it, just make a stop and call them. It's not like we are in a hurry to get back to the new construction site. Rather than that, we are going there just to take a look at the situation."

Given how we already got permission from the town, the trucks full of the building materials and workers could finally prove to be useful. With the new construction area referring to the lands that my faction recently bought with the intention of establishing the Adventurer's guild there, I hoped to see at least the foundation on the verge of being finished.

Because once Jeff stopped suppressing the news of the dungeons, all hell was bound to break loose. Thinking about this, it was only a matter of time before other parties would start probing around my dungeon in hopes of snatching a few chips from the treasure it was for me.

"I… Thanks for the offer, but I need to get you back to the construction site safely. Who knows what lurks in the woods around."

While it would be a lie to say that the man was scared out of his wits, it would be fair to say that he started to respect the wilderness. 

Thinking about it, it seemed that with the appearance of magic, humanity experienced a sudden leap. Things that seemed impossible before suddenly become easy, things that were considered miracles in the past, now became commonplace. 

But in this world, there was a cost to everything. One couldn't grow wheat without sapping the nutrients from the ground. One couldn't go to the toilet without eating or drinking in the first place. 

And it seemed that those dungeons that started to pop up all over the place, were the price of the magic appearing in the world. With that in mind, how could one dare to disrespect the potential hardships connected to those places?

If the benefits of magic appearing on earth were so great that even someone with just a slight edge in terms of knowledge would aim to build an empire based on the magic stones alone, how could the price of it be so small?

It wasn't the first time when such a thought appeared in my mind. But whenever it returned to linger in my head, I couldn't help but worry that what those dungeons represented right now, was nothing but the prologue of the disaster they would turn into later on.

Ting-ting! 

The vibration in my pocket and the annoying sound of the legendary love poem of the greatest Rick of the Rolls announced that someone was trying to get in touch with me. Fishing out the phone from my pocket, I saw that for the very first time, an unknown number dialled.

"Yes? Who is it?"

Picking up the phone, I thought that some important figure reached out to me in regards to the recent stir that my faction created all over the country only to hear…

"Hello, dear sir. I'm calling you with great news! You were chosen amongst our many customers…"

Ending the call without even a shred of hesitation, I threw the phone back to the front of the car.

"Something happened?"

Noticing my strangely annoyed behaviour, my bodyguard cast a quick glance at me while asking.

"Nah, just another phone scam. There is no need to…"

Before I could finish my words, the familiar tune filled the car once again.

"Never gonna give you up, never gonna let…"

Reaching for the phone before the legendary poet of the times gone could finish the second verse of his widely-popular song, I saw the same number as before. Fighting off the initial urge to just block it, I pressed the green button before bringing my phone to my ear. 

"Sorry for before. I just couldn't help myself."

This time, instead of the trained voice of the scammer, a familiar one reached out to my ears from my phone's microphone.

"Pavlo? Why do you call me from another number?"

Even though only a few people in my entire faction had my number, Pavlo was still amongst the ranks of this elite group. As not only the heir to the Baskar's fortune but also the main IT specialist in the entire faction, he served as my direct attendant in all the matters that didn't require his father's direct involvement. 

"I'm sorry, my normal phone is gone. I had to use one of the ones left behind by our soldiers. And well, I wouldn't call you if it wasn't important…"

From the hesitation mixed with some other feeling in Pavlo's voice, I could tell that the situation was quite dire. For him to bear around the bush like that, something really huge had to happen.

"Stop stalling and just tell me what's going on."

This was the one fault of Pavlo's character that annoyed me to no end. With his contributions to the faction and even its creation in the first place, all he had to do to get me to do something, was to ask. There was absolutely no reason for him to waste the time of both of us by stalling like that.

"Erm… Well, could you hurry up and come back? The dungeon…"

After a moment of hesitation and the audible sound of the young man heavily swallowing his saliva, Pavlo finally finished.

Hearing his words, only one thought appeared in my head, instantly moving through my mind and spinal cord to propel the air in my lungs, forcing my voice to come out. 

"Speed up. The dungeon has evolved. We need to go back right now."