Chương 613: Limitless Path Chapter Six Hundred Thirty-Two

"Beth, no," Val said.

"Beth, yes," Beth replied, pointing at herself.

"Before we agree," Sera said, giving her wife a look and turning to Mortaine.

"Level five hundred is going to be pushing it for a lot of the team. We can get there if we have some time to work on this, but if this is something that needs done next week, we need to seriously consider it."

"Hmm, this is part of the project that I am working on with Laselle," he said.

"Something that I am sure you know at least a little about. Something that has to do with the Eternal Depths and certain theories…but I'll speak more on that later. As for these resources, we really need them within a year, though I suppose it isn't yet critical and we could wait a few more months. Definitely within two years at the very outside, and likely less time than that, if everything works according to our calculations."

"And these resources," Val said before Beth could once again say they agreed.

"What are they and how much do you need?"

"There's four interesting things that this specific dungeon drops, but we only need three of them," Mortaine explained, sitting back in his chair and sipping at a steaming drink in a mug. They were in the dining room of the manor and Beth had made drinks or gotten snacks before they started talking, though Mortaine had made his own drink appear.

"Anything you get apart from the three materials you can keep, of course, but we want as much of the materials as you can get."

"No hard requirement or minimum?" Val asked, trying to pin the feckless Exalted down a little better.

"Well, yes, there's a certain minimum," he said, thinking for a moment.

"The four items are a special type of mana crystal that is extremely hard to get anywhere else, and also a pain to make. It's orange with a dim red interior and shows up as a Fiery Origin Mana Crystal to skill usage. Secondly, a rare type of mithril known as Queen's Blessing sometimes drops from the dungeon. Third, there's a type of crystal that stores energy that sometimes drops from a clear that's also quite rare.

The fourth rare item is from the final boss; on a spiked run, the boss can drop a special beast core that contains solar and fusion mana that is extremely powerful, and extremely valuable."

"And which three items do you need?" Sera asked.

"The mana crystal, the energy storing crystal, and the special cores. The special mithril type, while interesting, isn't really something that I actively need, though I would buy it from you," Mortaine answered.

"That's alright. We've got our own connections," Beth demurred with a raised hand, dismissing the suggestion.

"And there's nobody else going to be competing for this dungeon?" Sera asked.

"Why would that be a problem?" Beth asked her wife with a raised brow.

"It's instanced; unless you're worried about people attacking us?"

"We're going to be spiking it," Sera said.

"That's going to affect the overall mana amount, right?"

"It's a little different in this case," Mortaine said.

"There are two factors, one being that the dungeon sits on a mana nexus of immense proportions. Spiking it will drain mana from the dungeon, certainly, but it has an enormous reservoir it can draw upon. The worst that would happen is you would need to take a little time to rest and wait for it to recharge."

"And the other factor?" Andrea followed up as Mortaine sipped his drink.

"The other factor is its level five hundred," he replied. Seeing the several confused expressions, he continued, "This is not as well known, but five hundred is an important milestone level in many respects. Blood Stars, some newly minted Ascended even have trouble fighting over level five hundred, though those are the ones destined to fade out before they even get out of the twenties in terms of rebirths.

One of the many factors that isn't discussed all that much for level five hundred is the change in dungeons, which mainly represents in how much mana they can store and use. The secondary effects of that are the dungeons are much larger, even than the Very Large types you have experienced in the three hundreds and at four hundred, with far more beasts within. Also, dungeon breaks that form into tides happen less often because the dungeon can store and manage more mana, though that's a separate issue.

"The primary effect, though, is just what I said; the mechanisms are too complicated for this explanation right now, but the dungeons store far more mana at one time than lower-level dungeons. Spiking a dungeon beyond level five hundred works essentially the same as any dungeon you've run before, with the spike working the same and the instance overcharging the same, but the normal spikes just don't make as big a dent in the mana pool the dungeon has stored as they would have.

If a dungeon below five hundred has a hundred mana, just for example, and a regular run takes two mana, while a spike takes ten, then a dungeon at or beyond five hundred has five thousand mana. The run of an instance, and the spike, would be the same numbers, but you are now dealing with a mana pool thirty, forty, or fifty times the size that you're used to."

"Okay, so, we're not running the dungeon out of mana any time soon," Sera said with a nod.

"Right, and I doubt you need to worry about running it out at all," Mortaine said.

"The dungeon has so much mana, and refreshes its mana fast enough, that you could do spiked runs continuously for months on end without fully draining its reserves."

"What about us doing spiked runs while others do runs? Or multiple groups doing spiked runs at once?" Val asked. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"Hmm, it's not really a big concern," Mortaine said, making a dismissive gesture with one hand.

"You'll find that, once most people get to Ascended, they really dislike doing dungeons, or the more traditional dungeons. Grinding away at the same dungeon for weeks at a time is quite boring and tedious to most people, and many Ascended prefer to get their levels and spend their time hunting high-level beasts, or killing the high level beasts and monsters they might encounter while hunting treasures or exploring new worlds.

A difficult, repetitive dungeon, which it sadly is, is just not likely to attract much, if any, attention from any powerful groups of Ascended. I would seriously doubt you'd see a single other group in your entire time at the place, though I would always be prepared for anything. Caution never hurts."

"You think we'll be the only ones tackling the dungeon?" Beth asked, giving Neph a nod as she wandered into the room.

"I think it's highly likely that other groups will avoid the dungeon," Mortaine replied.

"As I said, even for a level five hundred dungeon, it is considered difficult. There are much easier dungeons or instances that people could tackle, if dungeons were what they were seeking. On top of that, the rewards for a regular run are… mediocre, at best. The true value of the dungeon lies in spiking it to earn the enhanced rewards, which is another point against the dungeon in most people's eyes.

The fact that the dungeon is also very long, with tons of beasts inside it no matter how the instance randomizes, leads to even fewer people have any desire to get anywhere near it."

"We're not going to be in danger of an overrun staring then, are we?" Sera asked with some concern.

"If everybody hates this dungeon and always avoids it, then what are the chances that theres a tide starting even now?"

"Very unlikely," Mortaine said.

"The dungeon is in a rather odd place in the overall hierarchy; it's too tedious for most people to deal with, so you risk an overrun, yet it's too valuable to ignore, so many people hire teams to do at least a certain number of clears or get a certain amount of items, much like I am asking you now. It gets run enough, particularly spiked runs, that I've never heard of mana overflow and an overrun being a problem.

I suppose there's a first time for everything, but I haven't heard anything about it going crazy any time recently."

"And what are the amounts?" Beth asked, looking over the information Mortaine had already sent.

"Of what we need? Five hundred pounds of the mana crystal, at least a ton of the mana storing crystals, and at least a hundred of the beast cores. More is better, in this case, and anything over that we would be willing to pay you extra for," Mortaine answered.

"And you don't care about the mithril at all?" Beth asked to double check.

"Not at all. I have, quite frankly, little use for it, other than having a few of the crafters working for me practice with the metal," he said with a shrug.

"I would suggest, however, that you don't work the metal yourself until either the peak of Master or Grandmaster. Mithril itself is tricky to work with, and special variants of it, or complex alloys, are often considered the realm of Grandmasters, at a minimum. Even regular orichalcum is the realm of Grandmasters, with special kinds needing Sages, while few below Sage work with adamantine.

There are some talented Grandmasters that work the stronger metals, but those would be my recommendations for if you have any of the higher metals."

"What about things beyond adamantine, like neutronium or such?" Beth asked.

"Well, best you sell that right away," Mortaine said with a laugh.

"That kind of thing, a lot of people would do a lot of rather disreputable things to get their hands on. Best to sell it and get the coins for it instead. If you know anybody that's above Sage in crafting, you could get them to make it into something for you, but those people are far too rare these days."

"Well, we do have one connection," Beth said with a shrug.

"Oh? That old miser gave you his contact information?" Mortaine asked, clearly talking about Old Tom.

"Is it that surprising?" Beth asked.

"I think the last person that tired to get him to help them without clearing it with him first or having a token got beaten with hammers so badly they developed a fear of them," Mortaine said before sipping his drink again.

"Well, he was nice with us, if a little odd," Beth replied glancing at Sera, who just shrugged and rolled her eyes.

"Well, if you found a bit of metal that rare and valuable, he'd likely work it into something just for the chance to handle the materials," Mortaine said.

"Craftspeople of his level are always looking for the next challenge, but the materials that are really interesting for them are so rare they might get to work them once a decade. Sometimes, it might be forty or fifty years between chances working on something like that. Remember that; the way to get a crotchety old crafter to help you is to have an extremely rare resource on you."

"Sure, I'll just keep a bunch of neutronium in my back pocket," Beth said, rolling her eyes.

"Well, just for the future," Mortaine said, finishing his drink and making the cup disappear.

"I have complete faith in your group to get everything done in time. If you have questions or need some help, don't hesitate to reach out to me. Is there anything you need from me now?"

"I think we've got it covered," Beth said, glancing at the others in the dining room.

"Are you going to provide the spikes? Or are you expecting us to buy them?" Val asked, clearly still having questions.

"Ah, I can provide you some," Mortaine said, acting as if he was fumbling around about his person and robes. When he turned to check behind him, Beth rolling his eyes at his little act, a small stack of spikes appeared on the table with a faint bass note and a hint of lavender.

"Don't quit your day job to become an actor any time soon," Beth said sarcastically as Mortaine turned back around and tried to pretend to be surprised at the spikes appearing on the table.

"Yes, yes, everyone's a critic these days," he harrumphed.

"If you need more than this, which you likely will, just track how much you spend on them and I will reimburse you the rest of the price along with the payment for the materials."

"And the payments good?" Val asked Beth, looking over at her.

"Mortaine's rates are…fair," Beth said, the Exalted scoffing and holding a hand over his heart. Beth continued to ignore him and sent Val the sheet Mortaine had sent her, the kresnik reviewing the pricing at the end.

"Hmm, I wonder what the Black Ships would pay for this?" Val asked in a leading tone, tapping the edge of the table with one finger.

"I'm sure they would pay a premium, and I'm sure you can save a little extra beyond what I require to sell to them, if you really wish, but I will buy all the crystal and beast cores you pull out of there," Mortaine said with a sigh.

"Better get out of here before she takes the shirt off your back," Beth said with a snort.

"You take the job, then?" he asked her.

"Yeah, yeah, we got it. We'll get you your fancy crystals and cores," Beth said, waving a hand back and forth in front of herself.

"Excellent!" Mortaine exclaimed before disappearing in a puff of orange smoke and a sound like a small piece of glass breaking.

"I really think he pays someone to come up with them," Beth muttered.

"Come on, all his material is so bad; he clearly comes up with it all himself," Sera said, rolling her eyes as she leaned back in her chair.

"Well, let's get everyone together and organized," Val said, still going over the documents.

"We'll have to review everything and make sure we're fully prepared. There's no nearby city or outpost anywhere within a reasonable range. Looks like we'll be living out of the ships or setting up some kind of camp, given how rapidly we need to run the dungeon."

"We do have the gate and the medallion," Beth mentioned as she sent messages to get everyone to the house and gathered.

"That's true, but I'd prefer to avoid them. We can close the gate and portal when we're inside, but that doesn't do enough to fool the kind of people we're dealing with now. When it was just Awoken, we could use those tactics to hide, but Ascended are likely able to see through those tricks. Best we appear a more 'normal' team rather than stand out too much," Val said as the others started returning or walking down to the dining room.