As the sun fully sets, I go to the canyon of dungeons and teleport back to the labyrinth to update Ember and my double on the news.
Afterward, one of my doubles that was farming the labyrinth takes the post of surveillance on the town while Ember and my final double continue their dungeon collapsing.
I receive a single small flake of luminite straight into my storage and a confirmation that my double is holding enough containment stones to charge another pod up to nearly 50x right now. I take this information to mind while teleporting back to a dungeon inside the Vice City dungeon hub, then change my appearance back to a D-Grade hunter and walk through town.
Once I pick up this order, I'll bring this news back to my teammates.
As soon as I walk through the front door of the office building, a commotion fills my ears.
Multiple businessmen talk to each other with concerned tones.
"Did you hear? There was a dungeon break that broke through the protective barriers of the Hub's shielding protection?"
"Impossible. No monster has ever broken through; it's supposed to be A-Grade rated. No monsters are even that strong."
"It's true! Not too far away either, they're investigating and mending the shielding right now down the street."
"It was really that close by? I heard not a single monster even got out. The Association must have deployed their strongest team to take care of it before the city was in danger."
I don't mind their chatter, because if I'm not mistaken, I'm the monster they're talking about. Breaking through the ground and protective barrier of the dungeon hub wasn't the stealthiest move I could have pulled while leaving earlier. However, it was definitely worth it. I made it back to Sector 2 just in time.
It really doesn't matter to me how much chaos I cause here; I merely see this city as a playground to be used for my wants and needs. The more work I cause for the Vice Region's branch of the Association the better. I hope they dig around this mystery for as long as they can. They won't find a thing.
As soon as I get to the desk at the back of the room, the receptionist from before greets me with a smile. He speaks up even before I do.
"Back so soon? It's almost like you disappeared into thin air; how can I help you, sir?"
"Well, I believe my order is ready to pick up; I paid your father upstairs for an express delivery."
He rings the bell again and tells the older woman named Tracey working there to go upstairs and relay the news.
She comes back down a few minutes later with a clipboard in hand and a large set of keys with a smile on her face. Then, looks at me and motions for me to follow.
"Right this way, I'll bring you to the warehouse where we've sourced all your goods."
We walk out the front door together and I begin to follow her through the dimly lit streets and into the warehouse district.
Her heels click on the hard sidewalk and her fingers tap a pen on the clipboard, completely out of rhythm with her steps.
On top of that, many sounds fill the streets. There are metal and wood factories still processing materials at full capacity, workers leaving as they get off their shifts, and some new workers arriving for their night shifts to start.
After walking through the lively area, we finally arrive at a massive warehouse district and stop at the side of a wide building that stretches further than many sports fields put together.
Once she clicks one of the keys in place, and a small door opens to let us inside, what I see is rather shocking. Just the sheer amount of stacked materials up to the ceiling of a multiple-story building, and further than the normal eye can see, is more building materials than I've ever seen in my life.
"This is all yours. This is what 6 platinum bars gets you after all. Are you going to need the warehouse number to assign pickup units, or would you like to use some of our trucks? After midnight, we'll have to charge you daily for taking up the warehouse space here."
My gaze is still glued to the thousands of trees worth of wood, steel beams in stacked piles large enough to build the entire warehouse we're standing in again, and the brick and cement that could build sidewalks and roads large enough for the entire distance we walked on our way here.
I whisper under my breath, "Maurice really isn't messing around... that's good to see."
Then, reply to the woman.
"I have enough item boxes to pack it all up myself. Just leave me here; I'll get it cleared out within the next few hours."
She looks at me with a dazed stare, only seeing the one item box around my waist that isn't even real. It's a manifestation of my conceal skill doing its work.
I can tell she wants to question how I could possibly fit all of this into a D-Grade item box, but she bites her lip and turns to leave.
"Very well. The boss told me you were a unique customer. I will let you be; it was a pleasure doing business with you, and your privacy will be granted as wished. We hope to do business with you again in the future."
The door clicks behind her as I'm left alone in the warehouse.
I activate my all-seeing eye to confirm there are no magical recording devices in here. Then quickly and carefully put small blocks of stone using earth magic over the old-fashioned video cameras on every corner of the warehouse for my total privacy.
Once content that I'm not being watched, I activate my spatial magic skill and expand it outward in every direction as far as it can go.
I walk down the long warehouse length and all of the rows of material fall inside and remain in a state of suspended animation.
This is both extremely time and energy-efficient, but also a great test for my storage power.
I've never hit its limit.
However, once I get to the end of the warehouse and the last stack of pallets falls into my white portal, I find that today the limit will not be found.
It makes me consider that maybe there isn't even a limit to begin with.
After making the walk back through the completely empty warehouse, I use my earth magic again to let the stone from the cameras fall away and show them the little item box on my waist and a thumbs up to thoroughly confuse anyone watching the surveillance footage.
Then, walk out the door and make my way back to the dungeon hub, and soon fly back to the town that now sits under the completely dark night sky.
The first thing I do is try to find one of the abandoned warehouses out in the desert that is even close to the size of the one I just left, but none of them compare.
To make sure all of the materials are safe, secure, and accounted for; I use earth magic to create a stone replica of the warehouse I just left. It takes tens of thousands of MP to summon all of the stone material. To make sure it's lit during the day, I add large openings in the walls every 10 meters or so and fill them with the product of mixing sand and fire magic.
The windows aren't perfectly clear glass, but they'll let the light in somewhat once it's daytime.
Once it's complete, I open my storage and let all of the materials back down into this makeshift warehouse exactly how they were when I took them from storage.
"That's as good as it'll get; I'll leave the actual building to the professionals."
On my way back, I notify Maurice and his team via telepathy inside their rooms that the supplies have been delivered and tell them where to find them.
I don't expect them to start using them until morning, but a notification can't hurt.
Afterward, I walk into the guildhall and find Abby sitting in the middle room of the octagonal building.
She's lying back on a comfortable looking chair, half asleep. However, I feel her aura spreading out past the guildhall. It even fluctuates the moment I step inside, so I can tell she's still on guard; just resting up with the free time she has after a long few days. She perks up once I begin to speak.
"Mission accomplished. Ready to check on the others downstairs? I'm curious to see how much they've improved."
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Author's Note:
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