Later on, the soldiers, Leo, and Rook watched in silent fascination. The air was filled with the low hum of alien technology and the precise, tallic thud-hiss of Eddie’s tools. The small maintenance automatoid had effortlessly cut a panel on the side of one of the massive Cerberus units, a machine that had just monts ago seed indestructible. Its small, articulated arms moved with a speed and precision that defied its size, dismantling the components attached to the degraded core with a systematic efficiency that was as beautiful as it was unnerving. The contrast between the imposing, sixty-foot-tall war machine and the diminutive robot performing surgery on it was stark and almost comical.
As they watched, Karl approached. Leo t him halfway, his eyes still fixed on the srizing display. "My lord, the, uhh..." he began, at a loss for words.
Karl waved a hand, his own gaze fixed on the working robot. "Yeah, he’s the maintenance unit, alright. It would make sense why this dungeon isn’t falling apart. He’s the only one who can repair this alien technology."
Leo nodded, his mind already churning with possibilities. "If that’s the case, you could ask him to repair the mana distribution module connected to floor 8. That way, we can finally utilize the eighth floor."
"That’s exactly what I was planning," Karl replied, a smile on his skeletal face. "I’m going to turn the entire eighth floor into a distribution center and main logistics hub. That way, the current distribution center isn’t restricted to a small, cramped space. It’ll be the central nervous system for everything we produce."
"That would be a smart idea, my lord. The current system is already struggling with full storage with the influx of new materials," Leo said, his tone approving.
"I know. I realized I’m going to need a huge floor just for storing resources, weapons, and manufactured products. And with the arms manufacturing phase now in full swing, I don’t think even that will be enough, but it’s a start. We need to be prepared for both production and distribution on a massive scale."
Leo then shifted the topic, the question weighing on his mind. "My lord, regarding the arms, are you going to continue manufacturing elental rifles? Dolrik is planning to make a prototype for a railgun on behalf of your request."
Karl shook his head definitively. "No, I’m gonna stop it right there. They’re too expensive—I an, resource-expensive. We don’t even have a self-sufficient mana stone farm yet. I was planning to create an ecosystem for monsters to harvest mana stones, but since monsters are nonexistent in this part of the region, animals would have to do. But we’re short on space. Right now, we only acquire raw mana stones from rchants, and thankfully, the market demand for them is nonexistent, so we’re buying them low for as long as possible. Raw mana stones can be used as an alternative fuel for our dungeon or for elental conversion for a lot of other things—machines or appliance components. Using them as ammunition isn’t efficient. It’s stupid, well, at the mont, that is."
The disdain in Karl’s voice was clear; he saw mana stones as a valuable, finite resource, not sothing to be frivolously expended.
Leo smiled, hearing his lord’s excuses. He knew Karl really didn’t like mana-powered weapons. He had a deep-seated preference for gunpowder and chanical ingenuity over magic. If the Kobold had not been bold enough to sell him the sulfur, Karl would have been forced to rely on mana weapons. "Alright, my lord, but I would advise having a reserved amount of elental rifles for ergencies. A few hundred stored away for a rainy day couldn’t hurt."
"Yeah, that would be a smart move at the mont." Karl agreed, a flicker of appreciation in his empty eye sockets for Leo’s foresight.
They watched as Eddie popped out of the dissected Cerberus unit’s belly, a pristine, glowing core in its hands. The robot saw Karl and saluted with a digital flourish. "
∠(’−’ )
Boss!"
"Oh, Eddie, what’s your assessnt of the core we have?" Karl asked.
"
(ᵕ—ᴗ—)
The first containnt layer of the core is severely damaged. It must be due to a sudden power surge generated by the inner core. If you had installed it, it would’ve exploded the mont it was turned on," Eddie responded cheerfully, completely oblivious to the horror it had just articulated.
Karl was stunned, a chill running down his spine. He took an unconscious step back. "I’m glad we found you. Otherwise, it would’ve been hell." He rembered Libera’s report about the Cerberus unit going berserk. "Eddie, do these Cerberus units normally go ’berserk’?"
"
(ᵕ•ᴗ•)
No, boss. But if one of them was specifically modified to level 3 threat aggression, then it’s possible."
"Hmm... then it must be that," Karl said, the pieces clicking into place. "When they took its eyes out, they said the core turned red, and the Cerberus unit beca faster and more aggressive. But without its vision, we successfully led it into our trap and took it down with just sharpened wooden logs."
"
(✧Д✧)
Ohhh! That’s quite amazing!" Eddie said, a digital star shining in its eye. "But usually, these guys don’t get that easily damaged." The robot tapped on the Cerberus’s tallic silver panel. "
(╭ರ_•ˊ)
It’s impossible to even get a scratch on these guys, unless their power connection to the external defense module is cut off."
Everyone was surprised. "That wasn’t even its full capability?" Karl asked, stunned.
"Yes, boss," Eddie said, its voice a synthesized calm. "Their armor has tiny modules of localized shield generators that are nearly impossible to notice. They are powered externally through the external defense module that distributes power to all armor. If the connection or the module itself is damaged, then one can easily pierce through its tal since it’s made of soft and flexible material."
Karl’s eyes widened as he tapped the massive, sixty-foot-tall Cerberus unit. The tal felt as hard as diamond under his phalanges. "This is made of soft, flexible material?! It doesn’t look like it."
"Yes, boss! It’s made from mineral uru, found in an asteroid field near a black hole. It’s ford when a single cot orbits a black hole and successfully slingshots away without getting dragged in by the gravitational field. The minerals inside the cot, usually iron and lots of exotic minerals, get stretched enough and turn into uru."
Karl was speechless, his mind reeling from the sheer scale of the information. Black holes? Then the owners of the dungeons must be an advanced spacefaring civilization. He could barely comprehend how anyone would even think of doing such a thing. He realized a normal armor for them would be 10 or 100 tis much harder than this one, a sobering thought that put their current power level into harsh perspective. He dismissed the complex topic for now, his head swimming with the implications. "Anyway, can you fix it?"
"
ദ്ദി(｡•ˋ,
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