Dragon Nest, Experiment, Class Change, Enhancement (2)
"Damn it."
We had reached Lindel, but I was in no state to rest comfortably. Whether it was a coincidence or not, the party members had gone out hunting, and I had my own crisis to deal with.
Of course I went straight to Team Leader Kim Miyoung.
I needed to know whether what I had seen with my own eyes was real. That nearly finished nest was so absurd I was ready to have my jaw fall clean off.
"Damn it!"
It had not been that long since we left Lindel. By common sense, it was impossible for a building to be almost complete in that span of time. Or rather, to be precise, not entirely impossible. This place did not run on the same background rules as Earth.
If you threw in a ridiculous amount of elite labor, the story changed.
Of course, hiring mages and craftsmen with real skill cost a fortune.
The beautiful structure before me, so exquisite it resembled a work of art, looked as though every artisan in existence had been dragged in and put to work.
There was no way only one or two people had been involved. If that were the case, the frame would never have been raised this far already.
Damn it!!!
To build the nest, they had hired not only Heroic-grade mages but blacksmiths and even masters from every corner of the production trades.
The labor costs alone must have been staggering.
Then there was the land purchase, and the reclamation work after that; of course the expenses would keep climbing.
The biggest problem was the material making up that nest.
From the start, I had even doubted whether Lindel had ever held that much mithril ore in the first place.
If they had imported the ore from other cities and lords, the transport costs alone would have been monstrous.
They had almost certainly used gryphons.
Just the base materials already implied an astronomical sum.
My own personal wealth was absurdly large, of course, but even if I threw every last coin I had at it, it would not come close to what had gone into that nest.
You could estimate the scale just by looking at it.
If the interior had been decorated too, then the real cost was probably twice that.
That insane woman. That insane woman!
I had managed to forget Park Deokgu and Kasugano Yuno from the Black World for a brief moment, but my nerves were even more frayed than that.
I yanked open the door to the administrative office, and Team Leader Kim Miyoung’s face appeared, startled.
"Vice Guild Master."
She clearly had something to say about this ridiculous situation.
Kim Miyoung was by no means stupid. She would never have agreed to pour money into building a nest like this without a fight. Which meant she had not been able to control the situation either. I had no choice but to speak first.
"Team Leader Kim Miyoung, that nest is..."
"I-I’m sorry, Vice Guild Master."
"I’ll need the full story."
"Yes. So..."
The explanation was surprisingly concise.
Apparently, right after Hyunsung and I left Lindel, Dialugia immediately commissioned the nest’s construction.
I had already told Team Leader Kim Miyoung that I was going to have a nest built, so naturally the work had started quickly.
"At first, I only followed the Vice Guild Master’s instructions and didn’t worry too much about the budget..."
"Then the budget kept growing?"
"Yes, that’s right."
The trouble began once Dialugia started interfering directly at the construction site.
Apparently dissatisfied with the progress, she kept issuing additional demands and insisting that the nest be completed exactly according to her own intentions.
Of course, there was no way that would happen as she wished.
The budget had limits, and by then they were already using not only my personal wealth but Blue’s assets as well.
At some point, Team Leader Kim Miyoung and several party members must have realized something was wrong and tried to stop Dialugia... but I doubted they had succeeded.
"We thought it couldn’t go on like that, so we cut off the funding stream in a hurry, but..."
"..."
"Well... Lady Dialugia started bringing in money herself."
"How?"
"She went to each guild, gave them her name, and borrowed money directly."
"No one could stop her, then."
"No. Strictly speaking, guilds can’t forcibly exercise any rights over Lady Dialugia. And since she can’t be physically restrained, the most we could do was pressure the other guilds not to issue bonds to her."
A good judgment, all things considered.
If they could not stop her from borrowing money, then the answer was to stop guilds from lending it to her.
"Of course, that plan didn’t go smoothly either. Once the guilds in Lindel refused to issue bonds to Lady Dialugia, she immediately realized we had done something behind the scenes... and then announced all across Lindel that she would sell her own skin and scales to humans."
"Did she actually sell them?!"
There was no way I was going to let her sell parts of her body without my permission.
It would have been better to spend money than to let another guild’s researchers get their hands on clues about her body.
I had no choice but to understand why the situation had become this bad.
"No... So in order to stop that, you had no choice but to allow borrowing from the other guilds."
"Yes, that’s right."
"Let me see how much this is."
Team Leader Kim Miyoung carefully pushed the documents toward me.
The more I checked, the more I wanted to clutch the back of my neck and collapse.
Rather than scolding Team Leader Kim Miyoung and the administrative staff, I had to admit they deserved praise.
They had clearly been tightening their belts and juggling funds as best they could.
Now that I looked, it seemed none of them had slept for days; the dark circles under their eyes had sunk all the way to their chins. The others looked no better. I could say with certainty those past few days had been hell for them too.
"You worked hard, Team Leader Kim Miyoung."
"No, not at all, Vice Guild Master. I’m the one who should apologize."
I could not blame the guild’s administrative team.
Strictly speaking, this was my fault.
Before I had even begun my research, I already felt drained for some reason. I had gone strangely quiet. It felt like I had been tossed into a mountain of debt in an instant.
Of course there was income too.
Potions were probably still being sold this very moment. But for every coin coming in, plenty were going out as well.
The black market beneath Castle Rock was still under construction, and several other business ventures were also only in the preparation stage.
It was a little bitter, but if Dialugia was involved, recovery was possible somehow.
Obviously, I had no choice but to go see Dialugia. First I needed to know what condition the nest was actually in.
I boarded White Pole and flew there at once, only to notice Jung Hayan watching me.
She looked as though she wanted to say she would come with me, but there was no way she could.
This was a family matter, plain and simple.
"Hayan."
"Yes, Oppa..."
"I’m starting the research first thing tomorrow, so get ready. We’ll probably be pulling all-nighters in the lab for a few days."
"Y-yes!"
For now, that was enough to keep Jung Hayan out of it. As I flew toward the nest, the massive, heavy dragon lair came into full view.
It does look impressive... Did they pour mana stones into this too?
A dragon nest inside the city.
Symbolically, it was not a bad idea, and just looking at it gave off an imposing sense of scale.
It seemed they had not only used mana stones but thrown in several artifacts as well.
Quietly stepping inside, I saw a lavish interior spread out before me.
Glowing pearls embedded in the ceiling cast a brilliant light, and there were objects around the place whose purpose I could not make out at all.
I was not a dragon, so I could not be certain, but each item probably had its use.
That was when a voice came from the side.
It was obvious who it was. I turned my head and saw her standing there in clothes, the large horns on her head still intact.
"You came back quickly."
"Where is Toltol-i?"
"She’s still asleep. More importantly, there is something I want to show you."
"You had this built fast..."
Of course I wanted nothing more than to scold her.
But when I looked at Dialugia, smiling continuously, I realized she truly liked this nest.
She looked happier than she had at any point since coming here.
Honestly, I would have made that same expression too. It looked beautiful enough for anyone to see at a glance.
She had even landscaped the place. There was a pond and trees inside a cave; what more needed to be said? No, pond and trees were almost the wrong words. Lake and forest would be more accurate.
"Human magic is truly astonishing."
Damn...
"I never imagined I could create this kind of environment inside a nest. Heh heh heh."
She looks incredibly happy...
She was on a completely different plane from me.
"Honestly, since I’m going to be living here with you, I wanted to discuss things more thoroughly, but you seemed to be busy... and Toltol-i needs a large nest, too."
"I-I wasn’t that busy, though you could have at least discussed it with me."
"No, I think I was a little sharp last time. I’ve come to understand, at least a little, how significant your position is in human society. There were many things I could not handle alone, but mentioning your name solved them. Even if only a little, building this nest helped me understand how humans live."
"I see..."
"I was able to understand why you could provide a safe nest. Ah, of course I would appreciate it if you did not go out too often... though Toltol-i is here, so I suppose it is fine. Anyway, thank you for your hard work."
To be honest, my mouth was twitching.
In front of me stood the person who had burned through everything I had earned. It would have been strange if my stomach did not ache.
But for now I could endure it. She had suddenly become kind after having been cold and prickly all the way up until we reached the capital.
This one is a treasure.
Dialugia was a treasure.
She was even beginning, bit by bit, to understand her own value.
I had been stripped of my fortune and dragged into debt, but if this nest was enough to win her favor, then it was not a bad trade.
After all, once the research got underway even a little, there would be plenty to gain. Money was only a side effect. I would end up making an astronomical fortune, and it was the key to my own class change and Park Deokgu’s enhancement.
Toltol-i’s quality of life will improve too.
Becoming closer through this sort of direction did not seem bad at all. The thought brought an odd smile to my lips.
"Ah. Come to think of it, you said there was something you wanted to show me?"
"Of course. A nest this large comes with many things you must know. You know nothing at all about dragons, do you?"
True enough, I knew nothing.
I figured I could probably get a rough sense of dragon ecology just by walking around the place.
As I wandered with her, there were certainly many things that surprised me.
"This is the food storage."
"Does it really need to be this big?"
"Toltol-i is only eating a little right now, but in three to five years she will steadily increase her nutrient intake. The purpose is to convert all nutrition into mana."
"Ahhh..."
"There are magical techniques among humans that prevent food from spoiling. Thanks to that, this should be a tremendous help."
"And this forest and lake...?"
"Yes. Toltol-i will learn hunting there."
"I see."
She had not spent money on useless things after all. Of course, every item Toltol-i used was top-of-the-line, but if I thought of it as a mother’s devotion, it was easy enough to nod along.
Though it still hurt.
"And this is the room where you’ll stay."
"Even this..."
"You are Toltol-i’s father. Naturally, I had to consider your sleep here as well, did I not? I still don’t know much about human ways of living, but I did my best with what I could."
I won’t be staying here very often, but...
I ought to at least thank her.
"Thank you for your consideration."
"What I truly wanted to show you is here."
"Pardon?"
After we passed through a room shaped almost like a dungeon, what came into view was a sprawling alchemy laboratory.
It was so large that even Dialugia in her true form could lie down there without issue.
Well...
"They said this was absolutely necessary. Honestly, I was reluctant, but didn’t you say you wanted to know about my body? That’s part of the condition for why I’m here in the first place. I don’t really know, but by human standards this seems to be a premium item. Please think of it as my gift to you for giving me this nest."
"A gift..."
The scale was quite large. It felt like a tremendous amount of gold had gone into it.
My stomach hurt just thinking money had been spent here too, but this was something I had to do anyway.
Dialugia must have instructed the contractor to build her an atelier.
I did not know much, so I had probably been overcharged a bit, but honestly, I could not help thinking her heart was admirable. That was when a single question suddenly stabbed into my mind.
Does the budget even add up?
According to the papers and my rough calculations, the budget only stretched as far as this cave. It should not have been enough to construct a workshop of this size.
"You needn’t worry. This really is a gift."
"The gold..."
"Ah. Kind humans lent it to me."
At least she had not sold off parts of her own body.
"We were able to complete this nest thanks to the great help we received from the guilds in Lindel, but to be honest, even that was not quite enough gold. In the end, a kind human offered to lend me money, so I asked those people for help as well."
For some reason, I had a bad feeling about this.
"The conditions were a little strict, but fortunately I met them..."
"What conditions?"
"Strangely enough, there seem to be humans who only offer loans to female forms. I do not know the details, but I happened upon something called 'Professional Female Loans for Players.' Since this is a gift, I thought it would be wrong to rely on the humans in your guild, so I went through a contract myself for the first time. I am not a human called a player, but it seems your name carries some sort of credit after all."
"What?"
"There is no need to be so happy. It is my sincerity in asking you to treat Toltol-i well in the future. Heh heh."
"That’s not what I mean. What did you say just now? Before the part about not wanting to rely on anyone..."
"You mean Professional Female Loans for Players? Was that your first time hearing of it?"
"You... you mad..."
"So you knew about it too. Ma... ma... what was it again? Ah! It was lent by a guild called Mi-ju-Love."
"You insane woman!"
I could not hold back the words I had been swallowing from the moment I saw this disgraceful sight, and shouted them out loud.