Chapter 11 Progress

-Five Months Later-

The city of Vale is vibrant. The people go about their day, the children play in the streets. The atmosphere is pleasant, but gossip and rumors spread about like wildfire.

"Hey did you hear about what happened on West Street?"

"Yeah, the local gang was destroyed".

"They were a pretty large gang, I wonder who did it?"

"Isn't it obvious, it's the Dark Knight that did it!"

"They're the only ones who have been targeting gangs these past few months. Honestly they've done more to clean up Vale than the police department".

As the gossip spreads, Mordred is in her new apartment that she recently bought. She is sitting on her couch reading the newspaper.

-THE DARK KNIGHT STRIKES AGAIN-

Reading the title of the heading on the newspaper shifted her mood.

"AAAAHHHH!!"

She ripped apart the newspaper.

"Who the hell chose this name?! Who do they think I am, Batman?!"

"I know I run around dressed completely in black and even use a black sword but couldn't they have come up with a different name?!"

As she vowed to find the one who gave her this name she received a call on her Scroll. Seeing the familiar name she calmed herself and picked up the Scroll.

"Hello?"

"Hello boss, how is your day?" The voice belonged to a middle aged man.

"Perfectly fine Slate"

Sensing some hostility in her voice he decided to change the subject. 

"I see, anyway the production facility has finished construction".

Mordred was shocked by this news.

"Really?! Didn't they say construction would finish in two more months".

"Indeed they did, but some changes in leadership in the company made them speed up their work".

"Did they cut corners?"

"As far as I can tell, no. Even the inspectors you hired who checked the place out before announcing its completion have found nothing".

Mordred pondered for a bit.

"Are you there now?"

"Yes, as well as the inspectors".

"Alright I'm heading over".

"Got it boss".

Mordred ended the call. She got up and put on her coat before leaving her apartment. She got into her car which was dust powered and made her way to the facility. Parking the car she got out and looked at the facility. An old warehouse that was converted to a factory. What does it make? Weapons and ammunition. Specifically guns modeled after her old AK-47, her pistol, and gunpowder bullets instead of Dust. She had plans to expand the number of products soon.

This would be the first of many production facilities. After all, she would need tons of weapons, equipment and resources to supply her future PMC. 

She got near the entrance where a man was waiting for her. The man was in his twenties, he had long dark hair tied into a low ponytail, dark gray eyes and a clean face. He wore jeans, white shirt and a black leather jacket.

This man was Slate, he worked as Mordred's assistant. How did they meet? Well one day during one of Mordred's nightly outings she made her way towards the next gang she would eliminate. At this point in time Mordred had built up a reputation of eliminating gangs with brute force, never using stealth. So when she inevitably showed up with her pitch black sword drawn, the entire gang came out and instead of fighting they dropped to their knees and into a dogeza, begging for mercy. 

Mordred decided to take them in since she would need manpower. The fact that these guys didn't commit any major crimes besides some petty thievery helped make her decision. Was she worried about a potential betrayal? Nope. For three reasons. 

One, they were cowards. The type of cowards that would throw themselves at a horde of grimm instead of facing Mordred's wrath. 

Two, they would benefit more from working under Mordred. Now they had jobs with stable income and didn't have to worry about rival gangs showing up and killing them. They had much better living conditions than before.

Three, they were too dumb to think of betrayal. 

"Slate, how is everything?"

"Perfect boss, the inspectors did another check of the building and all the equipment and have found no abnormalities".

Slate opened the double doors into the building. As they walked through the halls towards the main production area, Slate handed over a report that consisted of all the information about the building and everything inside it. 

She met with the inspectors and discussed their findings as well as personally inspecting the building herself. 

After two hours had passed and the inspectors left, Mordred turned to Slate. 

"When can I expect this place to be fully operational?"

Slate put his hand on his chin and thought of her question.

"Probably in a month or two. That should be the minimum amount of time needed for the operators you hired to train the rest of the guys on how to use the equipment as well as stocking up on the needed resources".

"I understand. What about that other thing I ordered you to do?"

Slate averted his eyes and scratched the back of his head.

"Well… ahh… The live fire public demonstration of our products went very well. Violet is writing a separate report about that".

"And?" Mordred pressured him to spill the rest.

"Ahhh… well… we couldn't get Pyrrha Nikos to advertise our products…"

As he said that, Mordred looked at him with an innocent smile, but that terrified him.

"How come?"

"We were beaten by another company…"

"Who?"

"...Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes…"

Mordred's mana burst flared up. Red lightning bursted around her.

"Couldn't you have scheduled for another day?" Mordred asked.

"Pyrrha stated that this would be her last advertisement work because she will be training to enroll in Beacon Academy!"

"Did we not offer enough?"

Slate began to sweat as he readied himself to say his next sentence. 

"...She stated that she chose the cereal because it tasted good despite being unhealthy…"

Complete silence.

"I see. Your excused Slate".

"B-Boss please don't break the building!"

"Don't worry. I know how to hold back".

…

As Slate quickly exited the building, all he could was maniacal laughter. Laughter that would give him nightmares tonight.

…

…

-Two months later-

Business was booming. 

Not Really but it was still doing well.

With things going well, she decided she should go explore another world for opportunities to get stronger. Her growth recently has stagnated. While she did start using the sword, her swordsmanship was nowhere near good, she relied too much on mana burst to give herself overwhelming speed and strength to overpower her opponents. 

Her magic didn't do any better. During the past seven months she has been studying the two magic books she purchased from the system shop, Elementary Magic and Magic Control. While she did make progress in learning to control her mana much better than before where she had almost zero control and even learned to cast a simple fireball and a ball of light that illuminates the surroundings, these were only the most basic things in the two books that were in the first few pages. 

Needless to say, she desperately needed a teacher and to find other ways to strengthen herself. Going to another world to search for a teacher as well as to possibly obtain more shop points from missions was her plan. She found many things in the shop that could help her including cultivation techniques that you read about in those cultivation stories. Though she didn't know if she should go down that path.

But she couldn't just leave without saying a word, so she told her subordinates she's going on a "business trip" to another kingdom. And they believed her, thinking that she was probably going to tear apart the criminal underworld in the next kingdom she visits. 

So she spent the next few days preparing to leave. The preparation was mainly just making sure the business wouldn't fall apart the second she left or that Slate would somehow fuck up. With everything ready, she departed.

…

…

In a secluded forest near Vale. Mordred walked into a clearing. 

"Ava, are there time differences between worlds?"

[Report: There is no need for worry. No matter what world you go to, or how many worlds you visit, the time passed will be the same. So if 24 hours pass here, then 24 hours will have passed in the other worlds]

"Really?! How does that work?"

[Would the host like a full explanation on how it works?]

After giving it some thought Mordred refused.

"No thanks, even if you explained I probably wouldn't understand, so let's just go!"

[Affirmative]

[Warning: World Travel initiating]

In the next second Mordred was gone in a burst of light.