Chương 84: Chapter 81: Spawning Grounds and Secret Projects

A week or so after we started sending out the scout teams to discover where the zombie hordes were coming from, we finally got confirmation. The zombie hordes had been taking different routes through the city, but one of the scouts discerned a clear pattern to their movements. Despite cutting through entirely different neighborhoods, the hordes always moved in either a northern or eastern trajectory toward Novus. Armed with that knowledge, the scout teams started methodically working their way south and west.

Eventually, they came across the zombie spawning grounds. In retrospect, it really should have been the first place we checked. Where do people keep their dead? In the cemetery, of course. There was only one cemetery within the city limits. Right in the middle of the grounds sat a single, massive stone mausoleum, and its large double doors had been left wide open. The scouts witnessed zombie necromancers exiting the structure with fresh hordes in tow, directing them out into the town.

Our details would track the groups and dismantle them before they could reach Novus or uncover other survivors hiding out in the residential blocks. When the scouting first began, one team actually came across a horde that had just breached a home. The family inside had been killed and added to the monsters' ranks. Since then, the scouts made it a priority to inform every survivor they encountered about Novus, sending them back to our perimeter and greatly increasing our population.

People were absolutely desperate for safety, and although the world was no longer truly safe, a strong bastion was a hell of a lot better than nothing. Back in the primary building, the core team met in the conference room to hear the final intelligence report and discuss our options.

"So, what are you thinking?" Joe asked, leaning over the table.

"Is it a possible dungeon?"

"We're thinking it has to be," Tony responded.

"Hordes stream out of there every couple of days with their zombie leaders, and sometimes an undead brute joins the vanguard. It's a large building, but it's simply not massive enough to physically house that many monsters. They have to be coming from underground. Whether it's an official system dungeon or just an expansive cavern system beneath the floorboards, we need to get down there and clear out whatever is driving the spawns."

"Have we located a caster and a damage dealer to round out the team yet?" I asked, looking between Joe and Zack.

"Yes," Joe responded.

"We've selected a guardsman who is a relatively high-level elemental mage, and another who specializes as an earth mage. The elemental mage commands a much higher damage output with active earth, fire, lightning, and ice spells, while the earth mage offers stronger defensive utility alongside decent localized damage."

"Honestly," I replied, weighing the tactical options.

"Dealing with massive hordes of zombies, I'd rather favor the raw damage output and wide area-of-effect spells. What about a dedicated healer?"

"Actually," Joe smiled, "we have a paladin who explicitly requested to join our team. She functions as a solid combat healer like Johnny was, but she favors a sword over a spear."

"Oh yeah," I nodded as the face clicked in my mind.

"I've trained with her a couple of times during the weapon rotations. She's incredibly sharp. Doesn't she have access to some kind of holy strike ability?"

"Yeah," Joe responded.

"Though I haven't personally seen it in action yet."

"Well, I'm sure we'll get that opportunity very soon." Pete stepped forward from the back of the room, wiping his hands on his apron.

"I guess it's time to get your armor then."

"So they're completely finished?" I asked, an anxious smile breaking across my face.

"They are," Pete replied.

"They're sitting over in the artificer's workshop right now waiting to be picked up."

"What about the new mage and the paladin?" I asked, wanting to make sure everyone was protected.

"We have sufficient armor for them," Pete assured me.

"We managed to assemble five complete sets of armor out of the raw wyvern materials. Honestly, it feels a little ominous if you think about it—the dungeon team has exactly five slots, and you're heading right back into an active dungeon wearing the hide of a previous dungeon boss."

"Don't go jinxing us before we even walk out the door," I laughed, shaking my head.

"Let's gather up our new recruits and head over to the workshop." Walking across the campus toward the artificer shop, a real surge of excitement hit me. First, because I was finally receiving customized, high-tier armor, but also because I was eager to see exactly what Jace and Travis had been cooking up in their private workspace. Upon crossing the threshold, I was definitely not disappointed.

The entire interior was a maze of mechanical and presumably arcane projects, scattered across heavy workbenches and lining the walls. I was definitely going to have to speak to the boys about basic tidiness, though. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. One of the first things to catch my eye was an intricate mechanical skeleton suspended from a heavy iron stand next to a central workbench.

This, I assumed, was the specialized exoskeleton Jace had been attempting to manufacture. Taped to the wall directly above the bench were his master schematics for the project. In the detailed diagrams, I could see precise geometric glyphs drawn along the various structural pieces. Looking closer at the actual metal framework on the stand, I could see those exact same glyphs cleanly etched into the surface.

"Are these actual runes?" I asked, completely amazed.

"Yes, they are," Jace responded, puffing his chest out with obvious pride.

"After purchasing a few incredibly expensive spell tomes from the system interface to grant us the basic foundational skills, we spent hours studying the configurations. We've managed to successfully incorporate them into our mechanical builds. We've only started to scratch the surface of what rune smithing can actually do, and honestly, I don't think we'll ever completely master every variation. Even with everything we've managed to build, we've still only reached the low journeyman ranks.

Once we hit that milestone, the progression speed slowed way down."

"Don't get me wrong, though," Jace continued, pointing to a set of gears.

"Even at lower levels, we're able to achieve some absolutely crazy results."

"I can clearly see that," I replied, still reeling from the discovery.

"How come you guys didn't mention this was an option before now?"

"Because not everyone has the affinity to pull it off," Travis interjected, walking over from a side table.

"And honestly, we wanted to make sure we could actually deliver before we went around tooting our own horns."

"That's fair enough, I suppose," I replied.

"But I can't help but imagine how much progress an entire team of dedicated rune smiths could make for the walls."

"We already have a team," Travis explained, gesturing toward Jace and Henry.

"The three of us have all picked up various overlapping skills in the craft."

"Alright, alright, fair enough," I said, raising my hands in mock surrender.

"I'll leave your operational secrets alone for now. What exactly are you constructing on this bench, Travis?" I walked over to his primary workspace and looked down. Spread across a clean cloth was an AR-15 rifle, completely broken down into its individual components. Every single metallic surface was covered in finely etched, runes.

"Well," Travis began, his voice dropping into a serious tone.

"We're going to be running out of standard ammunition for the majority of our firearms, so I took it upon myself to find a practical remedy for the shortage."

"And did you find one?" I asked.

"I sure did," Travis said, a massive smile breaking across his face. He pointed over to a heavy rifle rack bolted to the wall, holding several assembled AR's securely in place. I recognized the rack immediately—it was one of the secure units we had salvaged from the police department weeks ago. I had been wondering where those went.

Gesturing down to the disassembled rifle on his desk, Travis explained, "I've successfully converted four of these units so far, and if things go smoothly, I'll have this final one finished by tomorrow morning."

"What exactly does the conversion do?" I asked, leaning closer to examine the receiver.

"Well… it fires projectiles," Travis deadpanned.

"Alright, smartass," I replied with a chuckle, nudging his shoulder.

"If we're completely out of gunpowder and casings, how exactly does an empty rifle help us?"

"Well, we can't reliably manufacture magical ammunition from scratch just yet," Travis explained, picking up a component.

"But we can use our own mana to power the integrated runes within the rifle chassis, specifically targeting the alignment along the barrel. When active, it projects solid slugs down the barrel at an extreme velocity. It basically converts a standard firearm into a functional magical railgun."

"Oh, no kidding?" I exclaimed, genuinely impressed.

"What are you using for the actual projectiles?" Travis picked up a small, solid cylindrical piece of metal from a nearby component tray. It looked roughly the same caliber as standard rifle ammunition, but slightly elongated.

"We lucked out because one of the survivors had a specialized smaller caliber adapter kit inside their personal gear," Travis explained.

"We modified the geometric design to feed these custom slugs, since a standard magazine won't chamber raw metal without a traditional cartridge casing. Using a blueprint from Jace's creation ability, we manufactured several custom two-hundred-round drum magazines that hold this specific size perfectly and lock right into the standard mag well. After that, it was a simple matter to smelt down scrap iron into enough raw slugs to fill about thirty of the drums.

Pete and his apprentices were an incredible help getting the casting done." I looked over at Pete, who simply caught my eye and flashed a quick thumbs-up with a grin.

"I assume you've put them through a live-fire test?"

"We absolutely did," Travis nodded, pointing toward the far corner of the shop where they had constructed a heavily reinforced, sand-backed testing lane.

"The projectiles leave the barrel at a significantly higher velocity and strike with far greater kinetic force, dealing vastly more structural damage than standard mundane ammunition."

"That is absolutely incredible," I said, looking around the room with a newfound appreciation for their privacy.

"You guys are doing some truly monumental work here." My eyes drifted toward the corner of the shop, landing on two large vehicle engines bolted to heavy mechanic stands.

"What's the story with those two over there?" Jace jumped back into the conversation, giving me a confident nod.

"We're tackling our fuel problem next. One of those is a traditional combustion motor, and the other is a heavy-duty electric model. We're currently attempting to map out a system that incorporates raw mana crystals as a direct power and fuel source. It's a tedious, incredibly delicate process, and we haven't completely cracked the formula yet. But we'll get there."