Ch 22 – They arrived

"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!