24 Stepped on big toes
Zayne had separated the children and given them isolation punishment.
They are supposed to not talk to each other, and they are to sleep alone in their little beds alone while reflecting on what they did wrong. Tomorrow morning, Claire will take a test on reflections of their wrong doing.
Looking at their dimmed aura, she realized it's a surprisingly cruel punishment for the children.
They really had the time of their life staying together. Perhaps the old words of saying a mother and father are both needed for a happy family is true. No matter what, given she and Zayne are around, even Robin, who had only ever been a sensible and pensive child, breaks down in happy cackles at times.
Credence and Prudence, who only ever watched out for each other now fight like cats and dogs at times. Put one way, it is the good habits of the children breaking down, seen another way, they are finally being their real selves because this is their home.
Only, this apartment has become a little prison for them. No matter what sort of wilderness they go to within a ten mile radius, the chances of being found by humans and animals are high. Not a single location is as safe as the island she found.
It is said 'trust those you use, do not use those you doubt'.
Going by that principle, she will not avoid Caspian if he comes asking, at the same time, she will not go out of her way to let the children meet him. Currently, Caspian is on the taller island. She will negotiate with him to move to the other island, and probe his thoughts.
After all, she still hasn't kept up her end of the deal. If possible, she does not want to get on his bad side.
In the night, Claire fell asleep studying building principles of a house. From what she has seen, building in the, or around the sea is as hard it gets when building a house. She has to pay attention to typhoons, sea beasts and migratory birds and Tsunamis. Reading all the miscellaneous information available on the internet, as well as knowing first hand how disastrous a sea beast invasion is, she decided on a half and half approach.
She would just find the remnants of the light house - seems there was one before the apocalypse hit. Since she has not seen any building, the building must have fallen. However, the foundation should still be there. She would build a bamboo house atop these foundations. This will be the smaller house, which serves as a barracks, or it will have the simplicity of one.
The pot turtle shell she received from the exploding turtle, she will turn it into a ship, atop which she will build a raft house. The raft house will be on the other end of the smaller of the D islands, and the first one to be built.
After she planned her day, she felt quite satisfied, slept peacefully, not knowing man plans, god laughs.
In retrospect, it was so easy to see.
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While Claire and Zayne returned from the rat dungeon happily, the charred remains of Rat dungeon caused ripples in base 89, otherwise known as base N. While the countries collapsed, the sentiments of those countries remained in the bases that were formed. Democracies survived well in this case, with all the bases being not too bad, if not too good, and they cooperated with each other at an okay level.
However, the dictatorial and militaristic states split into bipolar bases, one arguing for democracy and fair distribution of resources, other militaristic, and trying to hog resources. The wide spread food yielding dungeons are under democratic or pro-democratic base of 90, and the key-mineral/crystal/skill producing dungeons are under militaristic 89 base.
The meat coming from the rats is the most reliable source of meat production in base 89. When such a key dungeon has become a blackened field, the government went mad with rage for Reapers.
On the second day, the hunters entered sharp at four, as soon as the dungeon reset.
" Sir ! The crops changed to Corn ! " The private exclaimed in surprise.
They cut them all down, leaving the roots in. Despite the corn stalks not amounting for much, they could still serve as fodder for the horses, or even plain heating when needed.
There is no rat tide this time around. However, the rats are plentiful, but they were killed all too soon before they could replicate. While ten of the elites settled in for fighting the rabid rats, another ten waited in the back cautiously, waiting for the reapers.
This was the distinguishing point between the type of boss they will face. There will be ten rabid rats when a gigantic mouse is the boss. There will be twelve, when there's an additional golden mouse. Sixteen when diamond mouse is around. Till now, base eighty nine never reaped a diamond mouse, and even golden mouse, they only did a handful of times, despite golden mouse spawning weekly.
Only, no Reapers arrived. The hunters finished the quest as they would every day. The party waiting in ambush waited for two more hours, before they left.
It is at this time one of the soldiers hung behind. He vanished for a single moment inside the dungeon, then, immediately he appeared where he was, before exiting the dungeon along with the rest.
Upon their exit, a small picketing force entered the dungeon, setting up a station to look after the dungeon. It is into such a place Claire arrived at.
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In a gigantic skyscraper in the middle of nowhere, the phone in a conference room rang.
There was no one to take the phone.
It kept ringing, and ringing … then all of a sudden, it went slack.
The pattern repeated, once. ..
Twice…
..
For the nth time, just as the phone was about to go silent, a pretty secretary ran into the room, and picked up the phone.
" May day 89 ! May day 89 ! "
" Understood ! " the secretary said with a cold voice, then she ran up the stairs, towards the top of the tower.
" Sir ! Urgent report. we lost our contacts in base 89. It seems there was a widespread clean up. "
The woman reported to a man with green eyes like swords, blond hair and golden skin. His hair gleamed platinum bland, his green eyes shimmered like emeralds, creating a strange harmony of a single hot spring in frosted lake like a naturally conflicting scenery.
His eyes flashed as he heard the report.
" Do a collar check, and see how many are alive. Activate the top most sleeper, ask for a situational report. If the base is on a lock down, tell them to assassinate top ten targets ensuring maximum success. We will not forget the sacrifices of our agents. We will see to it that their families are well looked after. " he said, with a twisted smile.
The words are nice, but being looked after here is by no means a good thing for those families.
If all the soldiers are dead in a family, then, the male children will be assessed and sent off to become hunters with a slave collar, and women will be the brood mares if they have good genes, or surrogate mothers when they do not make the cut. If they don't even make it to surrogate mothers, then the rest would be sold to brothels.
Wulin crown, which consisted of base six and base eight are the only two UBO certified bases in the country c , which owned more than a hundred bases between one to five hundred. That's how bad the humanitarian situation in C was. At the same time, its two crown jewels, six and eight are one of the best among all the bases certified by UBO. the government sat in base six and tried to pretend it still had the same hold on the country it did once upon a time.
However, the truth is, various guilds ruled different bases. Outwardly, they looked alright, but they have the most organized crime syndicates in the world, with Reapers, assassins, and even dungeon Heists.
Among them, the Wulin family was the one which was most invested in base eighty nine, given it is a manufacturing giant, and undead crystals are the fuel that drove their commercial success. As such, they are the biggest sponsors of the base eighty nine.
Now that the dog that they have raised was ever so eager to bite their own hand, they have to correct the bad habits early.
" Sir ! The situation report is here. " The pretty secretary ran into the room.
" Connect it. "
" Currently the rat dungeon is being patrolled by the local military with very heavy security. It is considered an attempt … " the agent was about to continue.
" Wait ! Rat dungeon ? " Raku Wulin asked, all of a sudden.
" forget other details. Do you know the dungeon clearing report of last week ? Tell me. " Raku ordered.
" that .. the dungeon was cleared with no casualties, day 1 - rat tide mobs, twelve rabid rats, giant rat , … day four - Rat tide, fourteen rabid rats, giant rat, day five, rat tide, sixteen rabid rats, giant rat., day six, blackened ashes found, today, the seventh, rats in the ground, ten rabid rats, giant boss… " the secretary read off blandly.
Raku stood up in shock and anger !
' Somebody stole our mirror eyes ' his inner chained demon spoke, blood dripping off every word.
