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Chapter 269 part 2

Concluding that additional interaction would be toxic for Vite’s peace of mind, he decided to end the conversation to ease Vite’s nerves. He moved to the escort position specified beforehand for the transport team.

After waving farewell to Dreissen and the others, Jirgu and Vitte headed over to the middle-left spot of the transport team.

「To see you got that nervous, well, it was a rare sight.」

「Oh come on, don’t tease me like that. I get nervous around some people too, you know. Like in front of my sister, Lily for example.」

「I didn’t mean anything bad. I’m just happy to know that Vite has that kind of side to her too.」

「It’s not like I got flustered just to make you happy or anything.」

Seeing Vite pouting with her puffed-up cheeks, making her look even more childish for her age, Jirgu couldn’t help but laugh even though he felt a little bad about it.

During the journey of the transport team, they traveled along the black paved road, carved open by the hands of many, covered completely with black obsidian, trampled flat, and undergone special processing to prevent deterioration over time. This astonished Jirgu some of the other explorers seeing it for the first time. All that being said, no incident occurred.

Although there were attacks by the tower’s demons, whose activity in the area had been confirmed previously, the transport team reached the construction site without casualties.

During the escort of the transport team, the explorers were permitted to retrieve items from the defeated demons as time allowed. However, the priority was to escort the transport team to the construction site, so some of them were left behind, making Jirgu and the others feel it was a waste.

After several breaks, the transport team that had departed from Inraen in the early morning arrived at the construction site around the evening.

Inside the tower, the sunlight matched the external light because the ceiling of the first level emitted light in sync with the outside light. Therefore, this first level had no time difference between inside and outside.

At the construction site, most workers were magic creatures closely resembling humans, but within the tower, there were also some explorers who had distanced themselves from battles.

They had primarily finished installing underground water pipes, leveling the terrain, and smoothing out irregularities in the town. Now, they got to the house-building stage using pre-processed stones and timber prepared by the Dragon Succubus.

At the materials storage area at the back of the workspace, which was the transport squad’s delivery destination, the group split into those who would escort the return transport squad and those who would remain there to explore the vicinity.
Jirgu and the Dreissens belonged to the latter group. Dreissen’s group planned to venture further, while Jirgu’s group intended to hone their skills through local exploration.

With Inraen extended considerable hospitality to the explorers, those who joined the escort of the transport team received free lodging and meals in the workers’ living quarters, a benefit that Jirgu and Vite also benefited from.

As Vite sat on the hut window in one of the lodgings, looking outside at the construction site, she told Jirgu about the information she knew via Dragon Succubus’s connections.

Seeing Vite bathed in the orange glow of the setting sun as if she were aflame, Jirgu could think of nothing but that she would be unbelievably cute if she just stayed silent, and he was only listening to about half of what Vite said.

「This place is planned to become a town called Zexistar. It’s going to be a relay point connected to places like Lakuishi Valley, the Outtz Hill Country, the Zushim Wetlands, and many other places, so having a safe zone here is crucial.」

「Oh.」

「The climate, terrain, and demons are totally different depending on the location and labyrinth. If we can make sufficient preparations here beforehand when challenging those, it will allow the explorers to get better results.

By doing so, more and more people will come to this tower seeking fame and fortune, which will be super great for us Dragon Succubus, and for the Barony of Berne.

Explorers don’t have to cooperate with the Barony of Berne during emergencies, but the ancient relics and artifacts from other worlds they discover could still be useful. We want them to go ahead and thoroughly investigate!」

However, for Vite, who knew the relationship between Dreissen and the leadership of the Barony of Berne, it was clear that since they had every nook and corner of the tower firmly under their control, there was absolutely no need to borrow the hands of explorers when push came to shove.

The information she told Jirgu was kind of like a standard script made by the Dragon Succubus for the explorers.

Dreissen and his companions intentionally registered as explorers made a big spectacle. It was all about using the tower as a valuable resource by attracting attention and advertising.

The rewards they received from the Drag Succubus and the Barony of Berne were entirely in the Drag Succubus currency of Drass, and they would spend all of it in Inraen.

Hammer donated all of his earnings toward excavation and maintenance costs of Mairahl religion-related facilities within the tower. At the same time, Dowben bought land in Inearen and used the money to build temples to expand the lesser-known Chrono Maze religion.

In the case of Dreissen and Quinn, although it wasn’t really necessary for Dreissen, they intentionally placed orders for high-cost weaponry and exploration gear from external blacksmiths and workshops, drawing envy and jealousy from other explorers due to those lavish purchases.

Quinn wasn’t spending her money on anything specific, just impulsively and unrestrainedly throwing money into whatever caught her fancy, including food and art pieces. Her free-spending even became the stuff of rumor in Inearen.

These actions aimed to revitalize the flow of the economy by using nearly all currency that circulated exclusively within the tower and also served as an indicator that 「If you become a top-ranked explorer, this is the level of luxury you can also achieve」.

「If you want to preserve the name of your hometown for future generations, Jirgu, you’ll have to do things like discover unknown ruins or find materials that can become highly effective medicines for incurable diseases. It’s going to require efforts like that, you know?」

「Yeah.」

「Hey, are you seriously listening?」

Even Vite finally noticed that Zirg was clearly not listening seriously, and she got obviously angry as she pressed in closer.

「Yeah. Oh, s-sorry!」

From Jirgu’s perspective, Vite’s side profile, decorated with the sunset’s glow was so cute that he was enraptured looking at her. However, he was taken aback when Vite unexpectedly came too close, almost as if their noses were about to touch, leaving Jirgu more flustered than before.

“I-I was just thinking, just thinking…”

Jirgu was actually thinking that Vite was incredibly cute after all, but he couldn’t verbalize the contents of his thoughts.

While the boy and the girl were shortening the distance between them in their own way, Dreissen and his group had arrived at a certain location further west from Zexista.

This special facility, hidden in a closed space, remained off-limits to all other explorers without the presence of Dreissen’s team or the Dragon Succubus.

Dran, recognizing its usefulness in his preliminary investigation, had kept this facility hidden and intended to maintain its secrecy.

While the area surrounding the sealed facility bore the hues of dusk, the inside was an indigo sky dotted with twinkling stars.

There were practically no buildings that could be called 「facilities」. Floating in the center of a space so vast that the horizon could be seen were filled with countless glass balls of various sizes. Inside these balls was a substance that was neither smoke nor water, tinted in shades like black, purple, red, and yellow.

As dozens of the glass spheres flickered, the watery smoke-like substance began taking form, eventually shaping into something resembling a dragon, although they were terribly unattractive.

One dragon’s twisted limbs, extending in four directions, were covered in countless bumps, and countless thorns grew from its three tails of varying lengths. It was a Modoki with scales of black and red mottling.

Other Modokis, uniquely colored and unpleasantly shaped, sequentially took shape within the glass spheres, serving as incubators. They cracked the spheres into two and emerged one after another.

Unfazed with an unchanged expression despite being bathed in the roars shaking the atmosphere, there were someone speaking about the nature of the newborn dragon creatures.

It was Dreissen, Quinn, Hanma, Dowben, Liu Yuu, Vaje, Winchant, Klaubord, and Freala.

「It’s an ancient legend from long, long ago. Followers of some evil god created factories to spawn faux dragons for the purpose of mimicking primordial chaos. They packed various elements of the world into this chaos and gave it the form of faux dragons.

As a countermeasure against the Dragonkin, it’s a common tale. Almost all of the factories built on the surface had their functions halted or destroyed, but it seems like the facility entangled in this tower is still operational.」

The faux dragons, or artificial faux dragons to be more exact, had already been aware of their prey from the time they were in their glass spheres and fully ready for combat.

They were created to destroy the true Dragonkin born from the original dragon. Hence, facing real Dragonkin, they were programmed to use all their functions to fulfill their purpose.

At the same time, the true dragonkin will be extremely displeased and disgusted by the existence of those who exist to destroy them. It even stirred up greater hostility than facing someone possessing the traits to kill dragons.

「If you see the manufacturing process like this, you can’t help but get it, right?」

The one who spoke with a voice unable to suppress the oozing hostility was Liu Yuu. Not just her, but Vaje, Fleala, and Winchant were clearly intensifying their combat readiness, exuding an escalating hostility, and emitting a massive amount of magical power in response to their heightened emotions.
Someone like Quinn seemed to be harboring increased hostility toward them. However, in her case, the power gap between her and the false dragons was too vast for her to recognize them as enemies; she eyed them as if they were filthy trash.

It was the same thing to Dreissen. Perhaps only the birth of faux dragons matching the level of Lenia could change the attitude of these two.

「Liu Yuu might be an exception, but Vaje, Winchant, and the others will soon be fighting the faux dragons of the demon king’s army. I left this facility intact for you to gain real-world experience.

They are fully intent to kill us. If necessary, Quinn and I and the others will aid you, but first, you must handle them on your own.」

In preparation for the battle with the Demon King’s army’s faux dragons, which could start within a year, this facility was hidden from explorers and used to train the young dragonkin of the Mores Mountains. Dreissen used it for this purpose, seeing it as one of the uses for Caravis Tower beyond being a tourist resource.