Assault
Assault
Book 2 of the Invasion Saga - A Nanomachine Magical World LitRPG Adventure
D.I. Freed
Copyright © 2021 D.I. Freed
All rights reserved
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the author.
Cover design by: MiblArt
Library of Congress Control Number: TX0008961992
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Volume 7 - Digging into Business
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14 - Interlude
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Volume 8 - Finding and Attacking
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33- Interlude
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Volume 9 - It’s Not a Dungeon!
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Volume 10 - Crafting the Future
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84 - Interlude
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Volume 11 - Business and Family
Chapter 89
Chapter 90
Chapter 91
Chapter 92
Chapter 93
Chapter 94
Chapter 95
Chapter 96
Chapter 97
Chapter 98
Chapter 99
Chapter 100
Volume 12 - Briar and Thorne
Chapter 101
Chapter 102
Chapter 103
Chapter 104
Chapter 105
Chapter 106
Chapter 107
Chapter 108
Chapter 109
Chapter 110
Chapter 111
Chapter 112
Chapter 113
Chapter 114
Chapter 115
Chapter 116
Chapter 117
Chapter 118
Chapter 119
Chapter 120
Chapter 121
Chapter 122
Chapter 123
Chapter 124
Volume 13 - Fanatical Flora
Chapter 125
Chapter 126
Chapter 127
Chapter 128
Chapter 129
Chapter 130
Chapter 131
Chapter 132
Chapter 133
Volume 14 - Truths Exposed
Chapter 134
Chapter 135
Chapter 136
Chapter 137
Chapter 138
Chapter 139
Chapter 140
Chapter 141
Chapter 142
Chapter 143
Chapter 144
Chapter 145
Chapter 146
Chapter 147
Chapter 148
Chapter 149
Chapter 150
Chapter 151
Chapter 152
Chapter 153 - Interlude
Afterword
Volume 7 - Digging into Business
Chapter 1
As the sun lights the lake valley, my beautiful elven lover and I are on our way deeper into the gorge searching for my goats. Well, they aren’t my goats yet, but they will be! I refuse to give up on this. I will find goats!
Another two kilometers into the journey and there is still no sign of my future horned herbivores; all I find is more frustratingly boring gorge.
After another two hours of goatless despair, Grace, my self-aware and rather sex-deprived matte black grav cycle with sidecar, speaks to me.
#I detect non-threatening mammalian life forms . . .
“Go!” I call excitedly. Grace guides us another half-kilometer or so until we look up at the near-vertical wall; there is a herd of my goats performing gravity-defying stunts.
I jump off Grace and cheer with my hands in the air. “YES!!!!”
“You’ll scare them away, Vic.” Aria, ever the voice of common sense, states to me blandly.
Oh, right. I stop immediately and blush. I’m just so excited.
[Grace, what’s your maximum elevation?]
#24 inches . . .
[All right, then. Jo, time to whip out the climbing and repelling gear.]
Jo is my other sentient machine intelligence. She is the consciousness of my personal nanomachine hive and is incredibly advanced. She is also my best friend and the “person” I trust the most. She’s been with me since the moment I activated my nanomachines in a cave under a rainforest. It’s a long story.
Using grav plates and stabilizing pitons, it takes me a few hours to climb up to the midway point of the goated side of the gorge. It is disappointing having not located metal deposits, but I’m not even a third of the way up yet. Discouragingly, none of these goats have the look of the shiny hide we purchased from the geospatially-impaired-but-lucky hunter. That is the whole reason we’re here—I bought a special hide from a special goat and wanted to find more and maybe some of the metal veins that made them both so special. I stop after reaching two-thirds of the way up and look around. It’s beautiful up here. Too bad Aria decided to stay down, but her fear of heights and not wanting to risk me in case she freaks is wise.
I turn back around to get an elevated view of the area and see a glint of sunlight reflected off the other side of the gorge.
[Well, shit. We picked the wrong fucking side.]
It would appear so . . .
It’s a pain in the ass, but I disassemble everything on my way down and stomp angrily over to the other nearly vertical wall. At least going down took les
s than half the time compared to going up. “Fucking wrong side. Fucking goats. Have to fucking redo everything. Fucking better be worth it.” I am not mumbling to myself. I’m not!
Nobody says anything to me.
I attack the opposite side with a vengeance and reach a third of the way up when I see a fissure in the stone to my right. It’s over a meter tall and at least wide enough for me to stick my whole hand in. I look inside and can’t see shit. Calling on my mana, I create a globe of pure white light and send it a few inches into the dark space. Sparkling silver metal reflects along the walls, giving me hope for even slight justification of this trip and everything that happened. Here’s the big moment.
[Inspect]
Name:
Large Silver Ore Vein
Description:
This is a substantial vein of the precious metal silver. With proper mining, this can produce anywhere from 30 to 3,000 tons of silver ore. There is a chance for earth mana stones to be found while mining this vein.
Condition:
Rich
Risk Assessment:
N/A
Value:
Once claimed, selling or leasing the rights of this ore vein will result in massive profit.
[Yes! Claim it.]
Claim has been filed with Sea Saddle City and the UFH . . .
I keep going up. To the right of me is another obvious glint of metal, this one darker. It is far out of my [Inspect] range, so I have to use pitons and my own climbing expertise to move sideways a good fifty meters. I only almost fall to my death once, so that’s not too bad.
[Inspect]
Name:
Medium Iron Ore Vein
Description:
This is a moderate-sized vein of the common but highly desired metal iron. With proper mining, this can produce anywhere from 100 to 1,000 tons of iron ore. There is a chance for earth mana stones to be found while mining this vein.
Condition:
Good
Risk Assessment:
N/A
Value:
Once claimed, selling or leasing the rights of this ore vein will result in substantial profit.
Vein claimed . . .
I‘m still only barely halfway up so I keep going. After another thirty meters, I see another fissure far to the left and above the silver. I scale the wall in that direction and never nearly die. Go me.
This fissure is tiny but at a very odd angle that could really only be seen from where I was. If observed from below, it would look like normal rock, and from the other side it would be hidden by the angled stone edge.
Shoving a light globe inside, I see a mostly brown glow with an occasional silvery shine.
[Inspect]
Name:
Unknown Size Earth/Metal Mana Stone Lode
Description:
This is an unknown-sized lode of mana stones. This is a dual affinity lode with the overwhelming majority being earth mana stones. Less than 10% of the total lode also contains metal affinity stones.
Note: Further excavation is required to determine stone density and value.
Condition:
Unknown
Risk Assessment:
N/A
Value:
Once claimed, selling or leasing the rights of this lode will result in massive profit.
“Fucking godballs on a dragon!”
Indeed. Lode claimed . . .
“Aria! We’re geniuses!” I scream down to her.
“Good for us, dear,” she calls back up while not moving her focus from her hands. She’s busy looking through a bunch of the crap I stole from the shaman’s chest. “The shaman” being one of the sixtyish orcs I battled and robbed yesterday when I assaulted and subsequently blew up the small Invader encampment.
Anyway, I feel like a mana stone lode is worth a little more yelling, but whatever.
***
After spending the rest of the day wandering all over the thirty-kilometer gorge, I’ve found and claimed six more veins and even two more earth lodes.
“Gah! I want to stay and search everywhere!”
I’m waving my arms and pacing around our campsite back at the lake.
“Calm down, Vic. We can always come back.”
[Are the location of the claims hidden from the public?]
Yes . . .
“Okay. That’s a relief. Yes, we can come back.”
You received a number of messages while you were in mining mode. Not that you actually mined anything, by the way; you just looked. You don’t even know the quality of the ores you claimed . . .
[Fine! I’ll mine some next time. I’m just going to end up selling or leasing it all out anyway. At least I get to use my outrageously expensive fancy new pick. It’s better than a rock and broken sliver of metal.]
I’m sure you’ll take plenty of joy from playing with your expensive tools. More importantly, Master Steeltamer offers his thanks for both the warning and protecting his people. He says he will warn the clans and add safeguards. He also hopes “the dunderheads will listen to bloody reason . . .”
I stop pacing and just stare off at the lake.
[I wonder if they are compromised. Send this reply: I found what I said I was going to, and you should prepare to decide if you want to buy or lease. Also, I’m concerned someone may be working against your people from the inside. I have a feeling your clan or someone close to your clan has turned against you.]
Message sent. You have a message from Hyoto, asking for a meeting in two days . . .
[Agree to whatever time works for them.]
Sent. Your HQ sent a message requesting an update on mission status . . .
My HQ in this case means the leader of my non-existent covert paramilitary unit known as Knight Hunters. I cannot securely comm from this location so far in the middle of nowhere and thus will provide few details.
[Response is: Debrief upon return.]
Sent. You have received requests from three mining companies inquiring about purchase or leasing rights to your veins. They apparently monitor the claimant registry . . .
I take out the matriarch’s core and sit down on the edge of the lake.
Aria walks up and sits behind me. She puts her legs to either side and lifts up my shirt. I let her, and she leans her bare torso against my bare back.
I ask, “So how’s it feel to be a dual affinity finally?”
She rubs her face lightly against my upper back and kisses my neck. “It’s like having something Mom left me. Really special. I can’t say how much I value it.”
Smiling, I say, “Shen would have been so proud to have you learn what she knew so well.”
I sigh, lean back, and turn my head as far as it will go. She kisses the side of my mouth.
Turning back to the water, I share my intentions. “I want to explore the lake.”
She sounds surprised. “Oh? Where did this come from?”
“Heavy and precious metals that are washed in by the river would sink to the bottom and, with the help of mana, perhaps compact enough over time to make a vein or at least be loose and still have passable value. Something clearly happened here to create all these veins and especially the lodes. And given what else I have found around here, it seems plausible there may be underwater veins. This can’t be random.”
“Why the sudden drive for this, Vic? I mean, aren’t you already rich beyond belief?”
“We are rich, yes. But humanity isn’t. Resources have always been our greatest constraint when fighting the Invaders. Enough metal, enough coin, enough food. If we find this and can flood the market, we can offer more of everything either directly or indirectly.”
“How does metal help with food?”
“By using the metal to either directly buy food, or indirectly give us access. Did you see those farms on the way here?”
I feel her nod her head against my back.
“Here, absorb this and I’ll tell you.”
I toss the glowing green stone over
my shoulder. She squeaks, and I see her scramble and fall over. Twisting my head, I enjoy the show. She punches me in the back and I laugh.
“So about the farms. Do you know why there aren’t more?”
She shakes her head but guesses, “They have to be defended?”
“That’s a part of it. In summary, the answer is resources. How will the land be cultivated? Resources. How will the goods be transported and, yes, defended? Resources. If we have more metal, turrets will be more affordable. If we have more mana stones, more power will be available for mana shields, and more inscriptions can be made cheaper. If we have more coin, more of all of that can be bought. Everything is dependent upon resources, and humanity needs more.”
“Oh. I guess I didn’t realize how big it is.”
“Big. How’s that stone?”
“Almost empty. This will be a huge boost for me, thank you. Now strip and get in the lake.”
“Okay, but why?”
“So I can wash you. Then you can explore until you want to stop.”
“You’re the boss.”
She nods. “Yes.”
We both do as she says. She’s the boss, after all.
Chapter 2
Using my water cocoon and a mana light, I am at the bottom of the lake, moving about dressed only in shorts. The freshwater mana-infused wildlife is lovely. There are also numerous glowing plants here. I wonder what would happen if I send some water into my [Living Inventory]?
Well, I’ll start small on that. You know, so I don’t die from over . . . errr . . . sucking? Is that a thing?
Anyway. Grabbing a quick air refill, I make my way to the river inlet, and I can feel the current pushing the water in the lake. Going down to the bottom, I do see a lot of shiny things, but they are all loose. Sweeping all that aside, I try to get to some sort of bedrock or compact mounds. I need to go up a number of times for air and once to let mana refill, but eventually, I do see some compact rock at the bottom. I continue to sweep it away until I have an area six by six meters.