Museum Core Chapter 114: A Mafia-esque Offer

If he was being entirely honest with himself, Thomas could admit that he was probably doing this far too late for it to have any chance of making a difference.

Granted, he hadn’t had everything ready for the longest time, and it wasn’t like there weren’t other issues, too. Mostly psychological ones.

The nations with which he was about to entreaty weren’t ones he knew much about, unless one counted Anime, Manwha, or the vaguely threatening propaganda on the topic of China he’d been exposed to all his life.

Ultimately, this was a recipe for shoving his foot in his mouth, and trying to get information from the BPA on how to conduct himself was only working out so-so. Secondhand diplomatic notes were … well, he could read them, but actually absorbing that information was an entirely different beast.

And these were people he’d invited here, blindly. Not “random” representatives of the local government who’d all but stumbled into his dungeon, and then the various higher-ups they connected him to, or people who approached him first … no, this was him approaching a government entirely of his own volition, and dealing with their representative. He couldn’t even use the excuse of “I couldn’t prepare” to brush any fuckups under the carpet.

The notion of having this meeting was actually giving him a mild case of stage fright.

This whole thing was semi-terrifying … and it was far, far too late to pull back out.

Even changing things up would be far from easy.

For example, what had he been thinking, inviting them here together? They’d assume he was trying to play them off against each other to get a higher price!

Actually, he knew exactly what he’d been thinking. His dumb ass had wanted to play this with cards as open as possible, assuming that making sure everyone had the same information would lessen the chaos he was throwing into the geopolitical landscape. After all, it would give even more nations access to magic and unlock yet another system for the world at large.

And was that even a good idea? Trying to put more nations on an equal footing could easily end in WW3 … yet, at the same time, what if he didn’t? World peace through someone forcefully unifying humanity using their power advantage?

Realistically, that would wind up being either the British, who had him, two systems in the form of the one bound to the Worldstrider Tribe’s village nexus and the one attached to the jungle, as well as potential access to the “lost” city of Atlantis, or the United States, who would likewise be able to get to Atlantis once the guardian was taken care off, as well as the elemental and ocean systems.

Or Russia, as a distant third option, since they did have their own, separate, personal system in the crystal plains, as well as whatever items Abrams and co hadn’t stolen during their assassination of the anchor beast.

And none of those options were good.

The British Empire had several history books’ worth of reasons why its return would be bad. Hell, for that matter, if it hadn’t been for the rise and well-deserved fall of Nazi Germany, they might have easily wound up becoming the default villains of fiction instead.

The United States had certainly not made too many friends outside the West, especially when one took into account all the various shit the CIA had pulled over the decades.

And Russia was, well, Russia. The idea of them conquering the world would have filled Thomas with dread even if they hadn’t tried to kill him.

Yet at the same time, could an eventual, potentially forceful, unification ever be as bad as a new World War fueled by systems of all stripes? Especially since at least one way to turn people into walking fission piles definitely existed, and elementalists tended to be at their strongest when immersed in their element, which could be easily achieved via nuclear bombardment, in that case.

And so on.

There were a billion ways this could spiral, even if he managed to prevent the next wave of the merge from making a huge mess of things, and while that wasn’t exactly true, it now felt as though he was realizing all this for the very first time.

Then again, it wasn’t like he was giving anyone enough power to go ahead and conquer the world. Unless another way to let unranked people fight monsters underwater, at a water pressure equivalent to being half a kilometer below the surface, surfaced, the item he’d created was it. And it wasn’t like he was handing out enough of those to turn anyone he was giving it to into a global superpower.

However, he would pass along enough to hopefully ensure that no overconfident morons in other nations would decide that their magic would guarantee victory.

But at the end of the day, none of those thoughts helped much.

Come on, come on, you’ve been involved in worse than this, stop spiralling.

Thomas had honestly lost count of how often he’d told himself that very thing in the last hour.

One thing was certain, however: rationalizing yourself out of spiraling didn’t work.

Even though it should. But it didn’t.

On and on it went.

Until eventually, he did find a way to distract himself, by focusing on the item that was the reason for this whole affair.

Boon of Prometheus’ Grace (“unranked,” unclassifiable, fleeting)

A band of bovine leather, inset with metal, enchanted to allow the wearer to (proverbially) steal fire from the gods by temporarily granting them the abilities needed to earn the system of the Divine Hunting Grounds.

Once equipped by physically sliding one’s hand into the brand and pushing it up to one’s wrist, it will tighten and mold itself across the wearer’s skin, offering give as needed, to the point where it won’t even be noticeable.

This item is powered by an initial charge of mana, provided by the creator, that will begin to drain only when the item is first equipped, and will continue to power the enchantment until it runs dry, at which point the item itself will crumble into dust.

While wearing this item, the user will be able to breathe underwater, ignore any water pressure naturally found on Planet Earth or its transformation zones, and when attacking, the limb used to do so will encounter reduced water resistance. Likewise, when struck, the user’s water resistance will be reduced to allow them to move with the incoming blow, rather than suffering the full effect.

Energy draw: n/a, this item will break 72 hours after being equipped, no naturally occurring environments on planet Earth will be able to accelerate the drain, lack of environmental pressures will not slow it either.

That damn thing had required a truly shocking number of tries to get right.

Well, perhaps not that shocking, considering how far this thing went beyond the fundamentals of magical item creation … but for someone who usually managed to make something perfectly workable within half a dozen tries at most, well over a hundred iterations was a lot.

Though, to be fair, “perfect within six tries” only applied to him being able to create something along the lines of what he’d pictured when he’d started, which wasn’t the same as being capable of achieving what he needed it to.

After all, while all those various torpedoes he’d enchanted for the Belfast had functioned perfectly well, they hadn’t exactly done much.

But all of that was besides the point.

The bracelet was perfection, both in design and description, the latter of which had been heavily designed by Elias to properly convey Thomas’ goal for it.

He’d probably downright broken the system by how he’d monkeyed around with everything, which was why the description was the way it was, it had gone entirely beyond what it was supposed to be doing … but as Elias had helpfully pointed out, the system was merely an interface, the rules Thomas had to obey were those of reality, and his creation had been well within those bounds.

Also, apparently, the system would soon correct itself and be able to adequately describe how the item worked/what it was.

Because that was something new, an entirely unranked item piled so high with the enchantments of a C-Rank dungeon that even half that amount would have already made it legendary while also artificially suppressed to precisely match the power of the material it was attached to.

And that had only been the start of things. Thomas had had over a dozen versions outright spontaneously combust, others had fizzled out and lost all their mana for seemingly no reason at all, others still had suffered from randomly fluctuating amounts of power in a way that would inevitably kill the user in the field … but eventually, he’d managed to balance out all of the various aspects of the enchantment, tried and tested them, and finally, this thing was the result.

The trick he’d figured out was adding in beads of C-Rank steel that would hold most of the enchantments, which then bleed into the leather and guard the wielder, simultaneously rusting away the beads, which had been perfectly sized to only last until the bracelet ran out of steam.

A perfect design that would allow its wearer to get a foot in the door with regards to the system of the Divine Huntingrounds … albeit one that was more expensive than any other item he’d ever created for human use, all to get an effect he could have gotten with a middling D-Rank item.

Truly, the fact that the one part of the Divine Hunting Grounds the Earth had access to was the only one that was impossible to easily access felt almost like a cruel joke, though he’d found a way to potentially turn it to his advantage.

Assuming he managed to avoid shoving his foot in his mouth the way he feared … and now he was nervous again.

Thomas looked over at the clock.

Five more freaking minutes … might as well be five hours.

And it should theoretically pass quickly … but theory bent to the harsh truth of reality.

At least Thomas could use a different body to pace while having Jan sit calmly at the head of the round conference table set up in the main hall, where he’d replaced the entirety of the floor with dark hardwood and a wide stripe of red carpet that led from the entrance to said table.

So even as he dove head-first into the meltdown rabbithole, he appeared to be calm and collected.

And then the three limousines pulled up outside, almost simultaneously, and let out six people.

Four men and two women. The ambassadors and their secretaries, with the ambassadors being clearly identifiable by the flag pins they were wearing.

Thomas had known the Chinese and Japanese flags from before and assumed identifying the South Korean flag would be a matter of simple deduction, but now that he saw it, he realized that he’d actually known that one too.

Funny how, even as a rock, he still suffered from the foibles of human memory … wasn’t it?

But even if Thomas could think and do a whole lot of things at the same time, this was the kind of thing that required his entire attention.

“Good afternoon, honored ambassadors,” he greeted with a raptor at the door, that he’d squeezed into a rough approximation of a butler’s uniform.

“Good afternoon,” the man with the Japanese flag stepped forward. “My name is Genji Tatsuno, I’m the ambassador for the Nation of Japan, and I’m very glad you invited me here.”

Thomas wouldn’t go so far as to say that Tatsuno had broken the ice; the silence would likely not have lasted more than a bare handful of seconds, but the fact that their fellow had spoken first seemed to have shocked the other two into immediate action.

“I’m Fang Guo, ambassador for the People’s Republic of China.”

It was then that Thomas’ subconscious reminded him of the joke about how nations that doubled up on things like “democratic,” “republic,” and other positively connoted terms tended to lack those very things.

Seriously, brain?

He ruthlessly squashed the impulse to tell said joke, and instead listened to the final ambassador’s introduction.

“I’m the ambassador for the Republik of Korea, Chihun Park.”

“It’s very nice to meet you all,” Thomas replied. “If you’d follow me, please?”

He swiftly led them towards the conference table, then retreated with the raptor and began to talk through Jan.

“Thank you all for coming,” he said, almost immediately mentally kicking himself over repeating himself, but also realizing that this was not the time to go down the rabbit hole of implications. “My name is Daedalus, and as you probably know, I’m the Dungeon Core who’s taken over the Natural History Museum of London. And as the representatives of the three nations in control of the North Pacific transformation zone, I have an offer for you …”

Obviously, China had the most powerful navy of those present, and therefore the largest presence at the transformation zone, but the sheer size of the area they’d had to block off prevented them from fully monopolizing it. Which was also why Thomas felt safe calling in all three nations, there was no “one holder” of the Divine Hunting Grounds.

And, quite frankly, solely empowering China would have been far more likely to, in time, kick off a war than dealing with three separate nations.

“Does that mean you know how to unlock its system?” Guo asked, being the first to speak.

Thomas nodded. “Eventually, enough information reached me that my dungeon fairy was able to deduce the nature of the zone and remember what he knew about the local system.”

At that, he tapped the table in front of him, which immediately displayed a holographic image. Enchanting it had been easy. Powering it when his avatar didn’t have the Arcanum Core power … not so much. In the end, he’d decided to be lazy and simply make it hollow and put one of the raptor variants he’d turned into living mana batteries within any time he wanted to use it.

Several large creatures, a snake, a kraken, and a titanic shark, manifested above the table.

“The zone originates from a place known as the Divine Hunting Grounds, and likely contains at least one of these creatures, which functions as the anchor beast.

“There will be lesser creatures around as well, but not many, and the system is set up to allow its users to hunt monsters far larger than themselves. One can, as always, select a power when entering a rank, but uniquely with this system, that power will be upgraded based on the greatest feat achieved by the user during their advancement in that specific rank.

“And unlocking the system is as simple as heading down there and killing a monster with your bare hands or with a simple, unenchanted knife.”

“Would I be correct in assuming you called us here to sell a solution to the lethal pressure and lack of breathable air that does not involve technology that wouldn’t work in a transformation zone?” Park asked.

“Correct,” Thomas said, placing both the item in question on the table and switching the projection to show the description.

It was the Japanese ambassador who realized what was “off” with what he was offering.

“I was under the impression that one needed magic to use any kind of magical item, save potions,” Tatsuno said carefully. “May I ask where exactly our information differs from reality?”

Now, wasn’t that an interesting way to phrase that?

“One can only equip items that are either at or below one’s rank,” Thomas explained. “Unranked magical items don’t occur naturally, and artificially creating one is a lot more expensive than all D- and most C-Rank items.”

He couldn’t see it reflected on their faces, mind you, but Thomas knew what they had to be thinking, it was guaranteed to be something along the lines of “oh shit, that means it’s going to be expensive.”

Well, either that or “oh, here it comes, he’s going to jack up the price.” After all, they didn’t know he was telling the truth about how much it cost him.

“But I don’t expect you to just take my word that this works,” Thomas said, tapping into the C-Rank power he’d given Jan for the first time to telekinetically lift three boxes up from next to him and onto the table, the glass window set into their lids revealing the three bracelets within.

“This is a gift,” he announced, placing one before each ambassador. “Unfortunately, this is the extent of what I can just give away.”

In other words, if you want more, pay me. And, of course, the single-use nature of the item meant that this all looked like some kind of grand scheme, but it wasn’t like stating “it’s not as manipulative as it looks” would do anything to change that. In fact, more likely than not, it would simply serve to highlight just how big of a manipulation this whole thing looked.

Although, considering that “give me the anchor beast’s heart if you kill the damn thing” was going to be a part of any further purchasing agreements, perhaps things weren’t quite as nice as he thought them to be.

“Is there any chance the purchasing of these items could be turned into an … exclusive arrangement?” Guo asked. “The Chinese economy is the second largest in the world, the largest going by purchase power parity, after all, I’m sure we could meet your price.”

That offer was both blatant and entirely expected, which was why Thomas already had an answer prepared, one that he’d found himself surprised to spring neatly from the very first agreement he’d ever signed with a government. The British one, to be specific. But he also couldn’t blame Guo for making the request.

“I’m afraid I’m not able to enter exclusive arrangements with any governments, other than the British, as a part of my treaty with them,” Thomas said. “However, if there are specific items you’d like to find yourself in possession of, that could be arranged.”

“Perhaps, at a later date?” Guo requested.

“Of course,” Thomas said.

And that was most of the things he wanted to get done, finished.

The four-way conversation continued to meander for nearly an hour after that, but everything that needed to be said had been, until eventually, the ambassadors went on their way, and the dungeon was swiftly returned to its original configuration, a stone path through a shallow pond.

It was only now that Thomas realized that not having included the US in this meeting might be seen as a snub, but even if he’d realized this earlier, he wouldn’t have done anything differently.

Yes, the United States had designs on the Pacific, and would probably have made a play for the Divine Huntingrounds if they hadn’t already a Transformation zone in their own country to deal with, as well as the North Atlantic and South Pacific zones that were far easier to “lay claim to.”

By the time the necessary forces had been able to be shaken loose, making a play for the zone in question would have likely kicked off World War 3.

And while Thomas was in no way, shape, or form the arbiter of whom the various zones belonged to, that didn’t change the fact that his pulling in the US ambassador would have likely been taken rather badly.

Not to mention that they definitely didn’t need these items to access the underwater area, what with them having an underwater system that was unparalleled in the multiverse, according to Elias. And, also according to Elias, the System of the Divine Hunting Grounds were very multi-classing compatible, unlike certain others that Thomas could mention. Such as the System of Elemental Mastery, where every power built on the very first one, meaning you were shit out of luck if you had accessed any system to grow to any rank.

With all that done, he turned his attention elsewhere, namely, preparations for the city guardian of Atlantis.

He’d already long-since added water-breathing bracelets, amulets, and rings to the dungeon’s pool of potential item drops, and built up an additional stock to hand out in case that somehow became necessary.

They were thankfully a hell of a lot cheaper than the items he’d just given away.

In addition, the Belfast was finished growing to the peak of C-Rank and now stuck there until he reached B, though that was unlikely to happen in time.

But on the off chance that he did, he’d already had a power prepared, a variation of Titanic Physique that granted all the abilities needed to move easily and in defiance of the squar-cube law, should that become necessary, without increasing the ship’s size, as the standard Titanic Physique would have made the ship too large to use in almost all circumstances.

But he’d also made a lot of changes to the Belfast, both in terms of design and equipment.

For starters, creature-driven torpedoes had to go, as cool as they were, they were far too expensive both in terms of mana and command limit.

So he’d instead gone with a two-part design that was basically a mechanical torpedo with an enchantment-based guidance system that automatically guided them towards the target … assuming the target had been tagged with one of several “beacons.” There were several kinds, ranging from monsters with specific powers equipped to actual beacons that took the form of spikes that someone or something would have to ram into the target.

As for the Belfast herself, he’d come up with several additional changes.

For starters, he’d registered a whole separate second submarine pattern in its shapeshifting power so he could freely experiment with it.

It was basically seventy-five percent magazines, stuffed with torpedoes, and so cumbersome as to make an elephant look like a prima ballerina by comparison, especially since he flooded the magazines to sidestep the various issues that normally mucked up reloading operations, namely de- and repressurization of the tubes.

But once a room was devoid of torpedoes, he’d fill it with air while displacing the water, further lightening the ship and giving it back much of its regular grace.

So if he could fire off enough of his magazines, he’d get the best of both worlds: mobility and magazine capacity. As to how well that would work … that was a question that would likely be answered in the crucible of combat.

Soon enough, he’d likely have to head out, however.

And all the while, he wondered what was being done with the items he’d gifted?