The Martial Unity

Rui had to admit that the job was more difficult than he had given it credit. It wasn't nearly as easy as he had expected. Although the floor wasn't as diametrically as opposed to them as other floors were, the distribution of esoteric ore deposits was far and wide.

They needed to tread far and wide in order to gain their fill of esoteric ore deposits. It took them an entire day before they were able to fill up their entire storage capacity.

"Damn," Kane murmured. "We only finished like a quarter of the entire floor!"

"Yeah," Rui sighed. "It's crazy, honestly."

The floor was quite gigantic, it would probably take them a few more days before they were ready to completely drain the entire floor of its esoteric ore deposits.

"What do you think will happen to the floor by the time we've extracted all of its resources?" Kane wondered.

"Most of the creatures will die out…" Rui shrugged. "But, I think that we might end up seeing an increasing number of monsters leave the dungeon in search of more esoteric ore deposits, especially organic ones."

"That never really happened with most of the other monsters though," Kane scratched his head.

"That is true," Rui nodded. "But that was because the monsters could still consume the Martial Squires that attempted to clear the floor. In this case, they don't even have that. I'm definitely seeing at least some of the monsters on this floor leaving the dungeon in search of sustenance."

"So they'll end up causing even more trouble for our competitors and enemies," Kane smirked.

"Right," Rui nodded. "Though I don't know if we can keep doing that forever."

"What do you mean?" Kane frowned.

"Our ability to clear dungeon floors without killing a single monster, I suspect that we may have to stop doing that," Rui calmly explained.

"But why?" Kane frowned. "It's so broken and causes a huge problem for everybody else but us."

"You just answered your own question," Rui replied. "It causes too much of a problem for the Shionel Confederation. Think about it. What is the Adventurer Guild going to do about the fact that there are so many monsters running around in the dungeon?"

"I can see where you're coming from, but that's what the Martial Squire adventurers are there for, right?" He asked, raising an eyebrow. "A huge number of Martial Squire adventurers from all across our section of the continent have poured into the Shionel Confederation. No matter how many monsters there are, they possess the ability to handle it."

"You're not wrong," Rui told him. "But why would they handle it, even if they have the ability to handle it?"

That seemed like an extremely bizarre question. It was what the Martial Squires did, they handled it. They assumed the role of adventurers, entered the dungeon, and killed monsters inevitably.

"Because they're paid to, or get paid by selling the fruits of their success," Kane replied, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion.

"And why do they get paid?" Rui turned towards him.

"Because of the esoteric ore deposits that they extrac-" He paused abruptly as he understood what Rui was conveying to him.

"Do you get it?" Rui turned back to the floor before him. "The one and only incentive for most of the stakeholders interested in the Shionel Dungeon is the esoteric ore deposits waiting inside. In order to get those, they're willing to bear the cost of killing all the dangerous monsters in the dungeon. However, they're only willing to bear that cost because there is a reward. What happens if there isn't a reward? What happens if someone already took all of the rewards?"

"Then there isn't an incentive to kill all the monsters. Because there isn't as much to be gained. Monster hunting, in general, is profitable, but the difficulty of hunting monsters inside the Shionel Dungeon is not worth it," Kane quickly realized.

"Correct," Rui nodded. "So if this goes on, the Shionel Confederation will be left with a dungeon filled with monsters, but very few esoteric ore deposits left. This is a highly undesirable outcome to the Shionel Confederation."

"Yeah, but at the end of the day, the end outcome is going to be all monsters dead, and all esoteric ore deposits extracted. Even if nobody wants to kill all the monsters if the ore deposits are gone, can't the Shionel Confederation deploy its military and slowly clean them up as time passes?"

"They could," Rui replied. "But they would end up being the ones that sacrifice the most if that does happen. If foreign Martial Squires were the ones to set out to kill the monsters, then it would be mostly foreign Martial Squires dying in the process," Rui explained. "Furthermore, the risk of letting the monsters run around the dungeon like crazy with no esoteric ore deposits. That's dangerous. If the monsters break out of the dungeon, then that would be catastrophic, since Martial Seniors can't go anywhere near the dungeon."

"Ah, yeah, that does make sense," Kane nodded. "But you're forgetting the fact that we have special backing. As long as Guildmaster Bradt has our back, we're good."

"That is if he does have our back," Rui snorted. "What do you think he is, a saint?"

"No, but isn't it in his interests to support us?"

"Not always, not this time," Rui shook his head. "He wants the dungeon cleared as soon as possible, before the next election, at least. Extracting the esoteric ore deposits but letting the monsters delays that. He will most certainly be against it."

"Hm…" Kane frowned. "But what can they even do? It's not like they can stop us."

"They cannot, but he can," Rui sighed. "He knows we need him and his Bill C-16. I predict that there will be… measures taken by him to ensure that there aren't too many monsters who should be dead running around in the dungeon. As for what form that takes, I don't know."