A Black Market LitRPG

“How long will it take to drill our way back?” Kyle asked Raksha the next day, as hundreds of goblins began digging furiously, trying to find any survivors in the collapse.

“It is loose rock, so maybe a month or so.” Raksha sighed at the sorry state of the tunnel network. He had been working in the iron and coal mines in the goblin kingdom since his original hire, paid for by Kyle.

A month is too long. Kyle feared that the war in Raktor would come to a conclusion before he even had a chance to intervene.

As of now, Kyle’s troops were now all protecting the entirety of the Culdao Peaks, forming a standoff between the combined troops of the Violet Demons and the Ardent Cretins who were attempted to blockade them. Both sides dug in deep, preparing defense fortifications on opposing sides. The edge of the Culdao Peaks was turned into a warzone, albeit one that was in a stalemate.

The Cretins and Demons definitely had enough men to warrant a direct push, but Kyle’s upgraded machine guns and air support availability made any possible victory pyrrhic at best.

On Kyle’s side, he simply did not have enough men and goblins to push, especially when pushing up across the open plains just outside of Raktor. The goblins were trained to fight in urban and forest environments – open plains combat would be a meat grinder that Kyle simply could not afford.

Much to Kyle’s dismay, the first goblin den’s explosion was not the only one – the tunnel network had been completely exposed, leading to the Cretins digging down inbetween the Culdao Peaks and Raktor and intercepting the tunnel networks.

Kyle grimaced as he watched the mashed up meat and crushed bone fragments lodged in between the boulders as goblins continued to dig hard, none of the bodies recognizable. He knew that Merissa and Gulak was still fighting here when the explosion was here, though he had long lost hope that they were still alive after 24 hours of searching.

The tunnel network being collapsed in meant that supplies would no longer flow freely into Raktor.

Sure, the Seven Snakes had enough supplies to last a while, but it meant that the major gangs now held the upper hand. If Namor is already working with the major gangs, their supply is basically guaranteed…

The whole purpose of Kyle performing the aerial observations was to map out and strike Cretin supply lines, but he did not fully anticipate a direct assault, and from another major gang no less. The odds were now fully stacked against him.

But even then, Kyle remained calm, having been placed in worse situations before. He returned back to the observation center, examining the results over the last two days. Orisa’s clones had been transported into Raktor, forming a permanent stable communication line between the Seven Snakes and the goblin kingdom in the Culdao Peaks.

“The tunnel network collapsing is not the end of the world – we can still ferry goods and supplies directly to the hypermall using the hovercraft.” Keith pointed out. “The amount of goods per day will be far less than the tunnel network, of course, but it would still help alleviate the blockade. We can see here from the aerial observations that the city is not yet filled to the brim with anti-air weapons just yet: we will be able to sneak things in, or out.”

“That would mean using the observation hovercraft, or re-fitting the armoured hovercraft back to a stealth one.” Adrian replied.

“That’s easy, it’s just fitting the panels back on. More importantly, close to half of our mechanical arcia regenerators were taken out in that explosion. It would no longer be trivial to refuel our arcite and arcia crystal consumptions at this current pace.” Gordon explained. “What’s even worse is if the hovercraft runs into an accident, we’ll only be left with one. We simply need more if we really want to establish air superiority.”

“We can make more, but that is going to take a week.” Kyle knew how to build the hovercraft, and it would be simple to have the much more established factory in Culdao Peaks with far more workers than Desham to push out three hovercrafts in a single week. The issue was that Kyle did not bring over enough arcia crystals, nor could he afford to as well.

As far as Kyle knew, the dungeon was the only source of arcia crystals that he has found. Right now, he had no known method of discovering or even figuring out where arcia deposits were. Arcia energy and its manipulation is our main limiting factor.

He knew that the way to improve one’s strength when manpower was limited, was to increase the quality of the soldiers themselves. The evolution of goblin to hobgoblin was one, but that was simply an increase in strength, not an increase in arcia energy manipulation, which was the main element that victory in battle was determined.

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Kyle was no stranger to arcia training chambers, but he needed one large and dense enough to accelerate the growth of his soldiers to form elite squads. This way, his shocktroopers would be able to shove aside anything the major gangs could throw at them.

Furthermore, it would allow him to deploy small squad operations to take out the supply chain. With his now dominant air superiority, if he could get enough hovercrafts up and running along with elite strike teams within two weeks, he would able to immediately start harassing logistical lines from the get-go.

One solution would be to simply bring over ADCON soldiers, but they were currently occupied fighting Count Leon forces’ directly. If Kyle allowed Count Leon to return, he could forget about taking over Raktor himself.

The next would be to improve his weapon technology to be even more devastating. However, that would also imply that he already had the raw materials all available. Unfortunately, many of the technological weapons such as plasma guns, prism annihilators and shields required specific exotics to be found – none of which was here in the Culdao Peaks as far as he knew.

Another would be to simply make himself stronger than ever – and he knew just exactly how to do it.

“Reese, Gordon, get on the hovercrafts now. I want three functional hovercrafts within a week – you already have a reference and the design blueprints. I know you don’t have the requisite machines to mass produce it, but just make them by hand for now. Form a production line using goblins if you have to.”

“Raksha, keep digging out the tunnel. Any possible shortcuts around, take it immediately.”

“Adrian, continue observations. Cycle between the warfront and their supply train. I want to see where all their resources are flowing from first as well. Let me know when the informants have a clearer picture on Kregol. We need allies as soon as possible.”

“Keith, manage the supplies. If the mall or the Baron asks for it, highest priority, but do not neglect our own troops. Any slipup on either warfront will mean disaster for us.”

“Sasha, select the best two hundred soldiers. One-on-one combat trials. Requirements is high arcia energy. Have them fire the machine gun non-stop at the firing range.”

“Damian, Niko, Guang Hwa – as soon as the Cretins increase their aggression, let me know immediately.”

Orisa’s clone next to him nodded in response. “They have agreed to do so.”

With the meeting adjourned and everyone moving off to their various tasks, Kyle headed back to the Oracle Chambers, where Mari was still sleeping peacefully, arcia energy running freely through her veins.

“Orisa, updates.” Kyle spoke into the empty lab, causing lights along the walkway and monitors ahead to flicker on, the electronics whirring into life.

[Sir, body scan is incomplete – the unique exotic known as ‘arcite’ is interfering with most of the micrometer-level scanning. Preliminary data results from samples show that Mari is only 60% human.]

The data was nothing new. Immediately at first glance, Kyle could already tell that the girl was not a standard human - that much was obvious with her ability to manipulate arcia energy to such an extent. Furthermore, Kyle himself knew that when he chose his Arcian race, he would no longer be human as well.

The interference of arcite was not special as well. Kyle himself had tried to scan his own body to find where the System was located, but to no avail. Arcia energy seemed to interfere with anything above the ultraviolet range in the electromagnetic spectrum, attenuation increasing with density.

“Tell me at least something new you have learnt.”

[I have observed Mari’s inclination to freely absorb arcia energy, and notice that her body instantly reacts the moment she comes into contact with high density arcia energy sources.]

“Clarify.” Kyle didn’t understand. My human body reacts to high radioactive sources as well – by disintegrating its molecular bonds.

[A unique biological reaction on the surface of her skin allows her to determine if an arcia energy source is within range, even if the arcia energy is ambient.]

Kyle decided to do an experiment, bringing out one of his intermediate Arcia Crystals that had just been recharged, while attuning his own eyes to watch the flow of arcia energy. He did not see anything special, yet he could tell Mari’s body was already reacting to the presence of the crystal.

Weird. The arcia crystals give off so little energy that it is hardly detectable by my own senses even when I am the one holding it, but yet Mari can sense it through her stasis liquid and her pod… Kyle suddenly reached an epiphany, realizing Mari held one of the keys to solving his current issue.

“Orisa, you must have a scan of Mari’s surface skin at least in detail?”

[Affirmative. Displaying now.]

Mari’s skin was amplified to the nano-meter scale, allowing Kyle to see clearly the differences in layout of her skin cells. It’s like someone modeled her to be a circuit board rather than a normal human. The format of the cells was vastly different, each individual cell clearly thriving off arcia energy instead of biological digestion and transfer of oxygen.

Kyle had seen such a genetic process before – it was how the Voidwalkers even got their name, sustaining themselves purely through radiation and particle energy collected from stars and ambient radioactive sources. The concept was not too different, but Kyle focused more on the layout.

“Zoom out. Zoom out. Wait, no, enhance. Magnify Sector 46. Zoom out a third. Focus.” Kyle moved the hologram around, trying to learn as much as he could. He did not think he could crack the code on how to make an arcia transcendent right off the bat, especially when so many before him has failed. Instead, he was looking for something specific.

His eyes focused as he traced a single row of cells that seemingly were interconnected, tracing along the skin on the micrometer level before performing a angled turn. “Orisa, match all cell patterns like this one in the vicinity. Mark them yellow.”

A series of yellow lines began to overlay the current magnified sector of skin, forming an engraving of sorts. Kyle immediately copied down the engraving onto a blank piece of paper, before ordering Orisa to save this to her database.

The Oracle Chambers did not have any metal manufacturing capabilities, forcing Kyle to head over to the factory to utilize an empty workbench. The sounds of clanging metal as hobgoblins and humans alike rushed to manufacture the hovercraft accelerated.

Kyle forced the sounds out of his mind, completely focused on his new project now. He began to etch a prototype of the engraving onto a basic piece of metal, albeit an enlarged version of Mari’s skin cells.

Immediately as he completed it, the engraving was automatically activated with no one interfering nor powering it, a dim glow present. Kyle placed the crystal next to it, causing the glow to become brighter as he brought it nearer. The implications of such an engraving was already known to Kyle. Wireless arcia energy.

So far, all engravings had to be connected directly to a source of arcia energy, like a humanoid, machine or fuel generator. Kyle theorized that the dim glow he was receiving was a result of the ambient arcia energy present in the air around him, much like how a radio transmitter would receive cosmic background radiation when tuning for stations.

However, Kyle was not too focused on making wireless power – he wanted to use the engraving to find arcia crystals. As of now, the precision of the engraving was far too crude: luminosity was a terrible measurement scale, especially for the untrained mine workers who would eventually have to use such a contraption.

The goal is to make an arcia crystal detector, one precise and able to detect minute fluctuations along with triangulating it. Kyle carved out another prototype, this time slightly smaller. Right now, he was simply grasping in the dark, his Arcia Engraver title not helping at all nor giving him any hints.

The smaller size did nothing to improve the luminous scale of the engraving. The increase in luminuousity was not linear at all, causing a big headache for Kyle as he leaned on the workbench, looking around the workshop for inspiration.

It has only been eight hours since the meeting, but Reese and Gordon already had the frame for the first hovercraft done, now waiting to be welded together. The vibration arcia saws and grinders easily cut through the processed steel plates, before they were warped through a roller that gave them a sleek curved shape.

Looking at the vibration saws, Kyle got yet another inspiration, quickly turning and drawing two additional traces in the engraving. Mari can sense the crystal using this engraving because of the resulting heat and senses – her nerves are especially attuned to the result of this engraving. However, I now have it on metal, so I need to connect it to a better sensor that can tap into the arcia current flowing through the engraving.

This was when he hit another roadblock. How the hell do I know the amount of arcia energy currently used in an engraving? Arcia fuel generators had indicators, but they were mostly used for how much fuel was remaining, not an indication of the consumption of the engraving at that instant in time.

He decided to do a quick experiment, attaching a miniaturized version of a wagon shaft to the output of Mari’s engraving, allowing the shaft to turn freely. With the crystal extremely close, the shaft turned slowly but gradually, providing a constant torque motion. Good, I can get the energy out.

Kyle attached a metal arm to the side of the shaft, making it push against a metal block mounted on a spring. He then did the same distance experiment, bringing the crystal closer and further, noting the compression on the spring. The force exerted on the spring and the movement of the block should then tell me exactly how much energy had been converted from the ambient crystal.

Repeating the experiment multiple times, Kyle eventually established a proper non-linear scale for the detection of the crystal, tuning the strength of the spring to allow for even the slightest amount of arcia energy. He then replicated the engravings, layering all of them ontop of one another in separate plates and linking them to the same shaft.

With this, the stacked engravings amplified the torque the shaft experienced, which in turn increased the reading even further. Kyle even had one of Orisa’s spare clones hold the arcia crystal further and further away, until the entire setup was tuned to be able to detect the crystal from more than a kilometer away, even with other disturbances.

Finally, Kyle duplicated the setup before integrating all of it into a cube-like sensor the size of a mini-fridge, with analog meter readings denoting which direction had the strongest reading. Arcia Crystal detector complete.

No title upgrades? Kyle was slightly disappointed, expecting a reward for his efforts. Before he knew it, it had already been an entire day since the meeting, and the factory was already done with the hovercraft assembly, the stealth engraving plates etched using Kyle’s design and copying the existing hovercraft, making the process extremely fast.

“Sir, the first hovercraft is ready for inspecti-.” Reese approached as Kyle was just touching up the sensor, though he was flabbergasted by the weird device that Kyle had just built. “What the hell is that?”

“Our next money maker. Let’s get the first brand new hovercraft ready.”

M.G.Driver

Merry Christmas everyone, hope you all enjoyed your holidays. Been working on Book 2 quietly, and its looking to be a near overhaul. Pacing will be much more measured, less hectic, with new characters and some changes (like overpowered hovercraft with no inciting incident - Kyle not first to invent it.) We're looking at approximately 60 new chapters of content between Chapter 60 and start of Versian-Raktor War.

A shoutout to an author who's been supporting me for a while now

"As the end of her journey loomed and a pleasant future was laid out before her, Cal was left with but one question to grapple with: Should she should accept the generous offer from the Deities and become one of their Champions?

She hoped that she'd find answers that would help her make that decision on the final leg of her journey around the world, where she'd fulfill one of her long-time dreams to see the world beyond the isles where she was born.

Whatever the result, she knew that the choice she made would be her own, made without regrets. For all she knew, an ending to one story might well just be the prelude to another..."

Four books in the series, and an absolute banger. Check it out! The first book in the Series is

Blood Demons Retirement: To See A Beautiful World

Also, as a side treat, the cover for Book 1 is almost done, discord members would have gotten to see it earlier in the #art channel.

Thanks to all who stuck through so far, greater things to come in 2024.