A few hours ago, at the top of the Association's HQ Tower in Vice City, a blond-haired woman named Samantha picks up her transmission tablet while she looks out the glass window of the top floor of her office suite.
She is the assistant to the Vice Region's Director.
The transmission tablet in her hand glows brightly for a few seconds before the deep voice of the Director, Brutus C. Matthews, replies on the other end.
"You know I'm out on business in the Apex Region right now. What might be so important that you'd call at a time like this, and on my emergency line? The room is listening."
The tall blond-haired assistant continues to stare out the window as an enormous mushroom cloud of white energy continues to expand at a distance of about 20 kilometers away from the city.
"I believe the matter is urgent, I wouldn't have called otherwise. I'll have all available Vice Region elites sent out on the issue immediately, but I wanted you to be the first to know; It looks like we're having another surge. Or something of similar magnitude."
The Director stays silent on the other end of the call as Samantha recounts the events of the distress signal from the Green Ridge Lookout Dungeon and now the fading white cloud of light that illuminated the entire sky for the city to see.
After a long pause, the Director's voice echoes back through the transmission tablet.
"Very well, secure the perimeter and I'll make my way out there as fast as I can. Thank you for the swift action and professional response."
The transmission tablets go dark on both ends as Samantha watches the remnants of the blast fade away. Her tablet lights up again as she calls all units that are available in the city to make their way out to survey and secure the blast zone as the Director ordered.
Meanwhile, Brutus sits in a dark room with 9 other people at a large round table. The edges of the room fade off into shadows, and no one is able to see anyones exact facial features; there are only outlined silhouettes.
As he puts his small silver tablet back into a pocket, he speaks up, facing the man in the largest seat directly across from him at the table.
"I'm sorry for the interruption, Mr. Freeman. Please, let us carry on with this year's B-Class exam preparations. I'll attend to this matter once we've finished up here."
The large shadowy figure at the back of the room nods slowly one time, then a bright golden light shines from one of the rings on his right hand.
Simultaneously, the same golden yellow glow shines brightly in the shape of a collar around the necks of two A-Class Hunters that sit next to his left and right sides. They both stand up and bow toward the center of the table as the shimmering golden light disappears from their necks. As they both bring their heads up, they move in opposite directions.
One of them uses a telekinesis power to levitate the shadowy figure's chair just above the ground, turning it toward the back of the room filled with darkness as the other man speaks to the remaining people at the round table.
"The Apex Region's Director wishes for all of us to go back to our posts. Even if it is a false flag, it is best we all prepare for a surge in our home regions. We've covered most of the topics we wanted to tonight. Although our trade routes have been limited since the disappearance of a main distributor in the Dark Continent, we're making do with what we have stocked up on for now and what we can farm from the Apex Dungeons. The B-Class Exams are still over a month away, so we shall meet again next week to continue this discussion. Directors, please leave your closing notes or concerns, then you are all dismissed."
Once he finishes, the A-Class Hunter speaking for the Apex Director places a small black box with a thin slit on its top in front of him on the table. He waits patiently for all members at the table to write a few notes on small pieces of paper folded in half to voice anonymous concerns about this week's meeting and ideas that they would like brought up in next week's meeting to be discussed.
Once all papers are put in, the Hunter picks up the box and follows into the darkness at the back of the room to assist Mr. Freeman.
There are some rustles of papers and a few whispers between the remaining 7 Directors including Brutus, but it's soon followed by bright glows of transport magic being activated, and various directors making their way back to their home regions as requested by their leader.
Brutus takes out a transport crystal from a miniature item box in one of his other suit pockets and crushes it in his hand to teleport back into the Association tower's only teleport platform deep underground.
"Welcome back, Mr. Director, Samantha notified me you would be stopping by."
A tall silver-haired artificer in a purple cloak, decked out in all kinds of magical gadgets and gear, greets Brutus with an open door and a wide smile as he walks through the long halls of the underground testing labs of the Association.
"Nice to see you too, Leo. It's been a while, but I'm not in the best mood right now. That Director's meeting didn't accomplish a single thing. Our unique trade items from the Dark Continent are still on standby, we're getting no extra support from the Apex region for Labyrinth farming, and the B-Class exams are coming up fast... so we're bound to lose even more Elite manpower."
Leo calmly walks the halls next to Brutus, allowing him to rant all he wants until the two of them get to the elevator that leads to the main lobby.
The doors open with a ding, and Brutus walks inside with a long sigh, straightening his back and putting on a professional smile.
"Anyway, good seeing you, Leo, hoping next time on better terms. It's all part of the job, order must be kept by any means necessary, am I right?"
"Of course you're right."
The Artificer lets out a chuckle and waves the Director goodbye as he turns to quickly make his way back down the hall to continue a few late-night experiments.
Brutus meets up with Samantha who's patiently waiting with a silver information tablet in hand. They both walk out of the lobby into the dead of night very quickly to make their way to the forest.
The distance is far, but the two of them make it deep into the forest fairly quickly, passing a few association workers illuminating the forest path with various skills on their way.
What was previously a very dark dirt path is now covered in mana-imbued light sources, and the aura of dozens of late-night workers can be sensed out in the forest along with the sensation of many dungeon portals that were not previously in this location.
Once the Director makes his way into the clearing where the trees don't block any extra vision from the blast zone, the site before his eyes is like no dungeon break he's ever seen before.
"You weren't messing around, whatever caused this reaction packed some serious power, but I highly doubt it has anything to do with a surge... All of the dungeons in the main hub give off stable readings, this must be an outlier."
Samantha nods and looks down at her information tablet as the deep crater of dirt and rock stretching out for kilometers on either side, and over 200 meters down in a light slant toward the center comes into view.
Many blue swirling dungeon portals have spawned, littered all around the shallow hole where a mountain used to be, and small work stations of Association hunters have been set up outside each one.
Some tables have mana crystals and loot, while others are empty and the exploration parties are still inside.
Samantha speaks up as they both begin walking down into the crater.
"We've found 14 of them total so far. They're all E and D class dungeons. Some are unique, so we'll have a few new item sources to farm here, while 6 so far are duplicates of dungeons we already have control over in the main hub. It will still take a few hours to get all of the approximate boss levels and loot drop percentages figured out, but it will most likely be all complete by morning."
The Director stares down at the dungeons and thinks to himself for a full minute while the two of them walk by the first spinning portal.
Some of the guards and Association workers recognize him as he walks by and give bows and salutes, but Brutus doesn't care to acknowledge them as he's deep in thought.
Finally, he speaks up to Samantha.
"Are the guards that manned the Green Ridge Lookout still alive? I'd like a word with them if they are. Also, all high-level hunters in the vicinity with earth elements awakened and craftsmen of any level, have them report here immediately. I have a plan to fix this mess by the morning."
"Of course."
Samantha pulls out her transmission tablet and begins to make a few calls. A few flashes of light blip all over the forest as many hunters between level 100 and 550 come over the moment they're called.
Two of the hunters are the guards that were meant to be watching the Green Ridge Lookout dungeon in question when the blast went off.
Brutus has them explain the events that they can remember, but the fact that all they know is the portal turned red and they woke up unharmed almost 10km away doesn't sit well with him. Samantha uses her lie detector skill to confirm they are in fact telling the truth, so he decides to leave this mystery for a less urgent time.
"Fine, you two, go back to the Association. Samantha will arrange a luxury suite for each of you to take a rest. I suspect there is much more to this than meets the eye, and believe you're not at fault. Still, we will question you further at a later date. Your weekly pay will continue as usual as you rest and recover."
They both graciously leave the crater, and Brutus turns to the others.
"Alright, the rest of you, let's get to work on turning this into a new dungeon hub. Considering the strength of the dungeons I've spotted so far, it'll be a good place to train new recruits, and possibly an area where we can expand the city."
He turns to the three earth magic users on standby, then points to all the dungeons with an open palm.
"Your team's job is to make even pathways connecting all the dungeons together, making nice arching entrance gates to each one, then once you're finished there, make the dirt path back to the city presentable."
He turns to the small team of craftsmen next.
"I need mana-imbued lights put up along the pathways for nighttime hunters, and basic D-Grade mana shielding put up around every one of these newly spawned portals as a safety precaution."
Brutus turns to Samantha.
"Make sure the signs are put up above each stone archway put in place denoting the dungeon's skill level, we'll double check them ourselves before it's written in ink. Then, have 1 guard per gate assigned by morning at 1 letter grade above the gate's grade. Pay them standard weekly rates."
She nods and writes down information on the tablet, meanwhile, the crowd of craftsmen and earth magic users all get to work on their tasks.
Brutus whispers under his breath while crossing his arms.
"Whatever happened here, it's going to end up being very profitable for the Association, but I'd still like to get to the bottom of what exactly it was. This was not a natural phenomenon."
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