Chapter 95: Dunegons

"I will come right away. See you in a minute."

Ending the call without even a shred of hesitation, I grasped the bag with the shiny stones before rushing towards the doors. If the matter was even close to being as important as I instantly assumed it would, there wasn't even a single second that I could waste.

Storming back to the room I shared with Ayda I could see her surprised face once again. But even if the matter at hand wasn't as urgent as the matter with the stones, it didn't mean I could just sit tight and explain everything that was going on to her.

"Dear, do me a favour and bring those stones to Huskarl. Ask her to try if they could be properly carved to turn them into actual artefacts rather than simple magical stones. Will return as soon as I have even a second to do so."

Placing the bag gently on Ayda's table I was about to turn around and leave when I noticed the clueless and sad look on her face. And that was enough to stop me in my tracks. Lowering the hand that I already raised to pull the doors open, I placed it on Ayda's shoulder instead.

"There is a lot of urgent stuff going on in my homeworld. I will try to solve it as soon as possible and explain everything to you then. Would you mind bearing with me for a while?"

It was important for me to keep the track of what was my actual objective and what was just a mean to achieve it. To be quite honest, as long as I could secure the current lifestyle that I could lead on earth not only in my homeworld but also in Ayda's world, I would be perfectly satisfied with that. Not only because I didn't really have many expectations from my life, but mostly because I was perfectly aware of how becoming stronger and richer would only mean more trouble down the line.

"It's okay, I was just surprised a bit. Go and do your duties."

Smiling in response to my worried reaction to the expression that she wore previously, Ayda gently caressed the top of the hand that I held on her shoulder before lifting all five fingers of mine, one at a time. And I wasn't stupid enough to miss the meaning behind it.

"Thanks. Once again, I promise I will explain everything as soon as I will be done with it."

Ignoring her attempts to get me going already, I placed my hand on top of her head before rustling her hair for a bit. Sadly, that was all that I had the time for. Without any further hesitation or delay, I returned to my basement. With all the stones, even the one that failed to lit up that came out from Pavlo's hand, there was no need for me to be worried about them exploding. 

Rushing through the several sets of doors that secured my basement from any interruptions, I ran through the corridors of the newly built area of the mansion. Reaching the official part where most of the administrative jobs around the faction was planned to take place, I finally pressed on the knob of the doors leading to the open office that Pavlo called me to.

"You are finally here. What took you so long?"

The heads of everyone in the room instantly angled towards me, indicating how high my position was within the group. Even though I explicitly claimed that I wasn't interested in leading the entire faction outside of setting the general course for its growth, if my guess were to be right…

Shaking my head, I stopped thinking about the possibilities. There was absolutely no point in figuring out what Pavlo had in mind by claiming that dungeons have appeared all over the world if I could just get him to explain the phenomena to me right away.

"I had to halt some of the ongoing processes. One of them took me two weeks to prepare and start, so I hope this meeting is really as urgent as you put it to be on the phone."

Instead of explaining my behaviour to my subordinate, I went on the offensive instead. As silly as this clash of words was amongst my allies, I had a clue that there was no way to avoid petty infighting. Rather than wasting enormous amounts of effort and resources to fight this inevitability, it was easier to cope with it. That is, for as long as it didn't threaten any of my projects.

After all, once I could blind everyone with the endless amounts of wealth, there would be hardly anyone even capable of thinking about betrayal.

"It is. Take a look at those photos."

Not bothering to turn on the slide-show himself, Pavlo only gestured at one of the men working under him. Seeing this, I felt the urge to scold him a bit but ended up saying nothing. Given how I was openly using everyone for my own purposes, it would be highly hypocritical for me to bitch about someone else doing exactly the same.

Be it Pavlo or his employee to turn on the slide-show, it didn't matter. What was important, was that the photos that appeared on a huge screen hanging near the ceiling… Showcased exactly what my light-novel fueled mind pictured when hearing the word 'dungeon'.

"It's just this? Do we have any information about what's inside?"

Staring at what looked to be a hole in the ground, nothing more than an entrance to a usual cave if not for a dim, blueish glow around the hole, I could feel my jaws tensing up. Even though it was nothing but a simple picture, for now, the potential problems that this would cause if it was truly an entrance to the dungeon…

"Not from our own people. There are some news spreading online. Apparently, you can get some shiny stones out of it. Some of the stronger cultivators claim that they are willing to buy those stones in any quantity possible, with the price being relatively high for even a single piece. This is the main reason why I think of places like the one in the picture… Are actual dungeons."

Explaining his way of thinking, Pavlo turned silent, awaiting my reaction to his words.

"What's the location of the closest dungeon discovered?"

Ever since the apocalypse, the urbanisation process only accelerated. With the new way of life concentrating of the bigger towns, most of the farmlands got abandoned, leaving only the bare minimum required to feed the population. 

The influence of magic on the crops was most likely the main reason behind it. Within the span of a single year, people already proved that crops grew in magic-rich areas not only grew more abundant, but each respective piece seemed to grow bigger and more nutritious. This quickly lead to the decrease of the value of the lands devoid of magic energy, only accelerating the urbanisation process to a scale never seen before in the entire human history.

And right now, the effects of this process came to bite everyone's ass. Because from the map that appeared as the next picture on the screen, I could tell only one rule behind the dungeon's appearance.

All of the discovered ones seemed to appear only in places where once numerous population dwindled to nothingness!

"Tell me, do you by any chance…"

I stopped my question even before I could properly formulate it. After all, how could Pavlo obtain one of the stones he mentioned previously given how little time has passed ever since I had him carve a gem for me?

"Hehe…"

Instead of making a sad face or showing how he failed to met my expectations in any other way, Pavlo laughed for a moment before reaching to his pocket and pulling out a shiny stone. Placing it on the table, he pushed it with a jerk of his forefinger, sending it rolling towards me.

"I hope that I managed to exceed your expectations here. Unless I got terribly scammed, this seems to be one of the very few magical stones in circulation right now. I hope it will be of any use to you…"

Even though Pavlo managed to utter all the words required to complete a sentence, the sound of his voice as he ended it made it clear that he still stopped himself from saying something else.

And given how I could see my own emotions raging like a hellfire, I could pretty much tell that my face was responsible for cutting him short.

After all, this shiny stone looked exactly the same as the charged gems that I just transferred to Ayda's world!