Tunnel Rat Chapter 361 (Patreon)

An Arcane Workshop was something most Engineers never saw, let alone earned. The people who did have them were cagey about how they came to get them, sharing only small hints to keep their brother Engineers working on the quest. The Engineers who had joined Milo in fighting off the World Boss, Uthneragrubban, had been lucky enough to see Sledgemonkey's Arcane Workshop and had spread the tale to those who hadn't been at the fight. They talked of it with the reverence that a priest reserved for the biggest cathedral of their god. All of them aspired to have one, and it was a topic of many discussions. They knew that only a Senior Engineer could start the quest, and it could take years to gather all of the materials. And if Milo's Arcane Workshop was much smaller than the massive one owned by Sledgemonkey, a shrine rather than a cathedral, it was still a wonder for them to behold. The thought of getting to look at another of the fabled contraptions had them geared up and unable to sit still as Senior Engineer Milo worked to summon his.

The wall in front changed to two sliding doors made of polished dark metal that recessed into the walls revealing a workbench filled with beautifully made precision tools. The bench slid back, revealing the storage chests on either side. Milo had decided to add the two smaller, 8 cubic feet storage chests to the workshop, and the doors to them had appeared above the sea chests. He pulled out one of the larger chests, opened it, and started pulling out ingots of gold, casually tossing them onto the table. "These things are heavy and there were a lot of them in Mako's vault. Quite a workout to load them into here. But I need the space for other things. I'm sure there's a safe place to put them until we need to use them to finance some trading ventures for needed materials."

Captains Annie and Goldtooth stepped forward and Milo started handing the ingots to them. Goldtooth got a glimpse of what was in the storage chest and a small tear ran down her face. "So shiny. I don't mind a little hard work hauling them out. Let me help you with that!"

Milo stepped aside, "Thanks! I know I can trust everyone here since they swore a Captain's oath or are my brother Engineers."

There were nods of agreement all around, but also sweaty palms and wild eyes as the dwarves saw things they desired. The Scavengers made a line, passing the heavy ingots from the chest two at a time and stacking them against the wall. When the 400 slabs were out of the ingot storage chest, Milo opened the miscellaneous storage chest, and after a bit of cursing and hollering, they started clearing the 64 cubic feet of gold coins.

Milo's magic hidey-hole was the ultimate treasure chest to almost everyone in the room. But not to Whale and Narwhale. Boom-boom admired the tools but was saddened by a lack of explosives. Everyone on Leviathan had seen the treasure trove that Nawhale's crew had salvaged from the wreck, but only the three who went into the wreck had seen the immense, hidden treasure compartment in the sunken ship's captain's quarters.

"It's pretty, but I've seen bigger. Wish to hell I'd have known how to take the whole thing with me like you did."

Milo considered the circumstances of finding Black Eddy's workbench and the message. "Both ships were wrecks on the sea bottom, and both had specific ways to unlock them. I think the difference might be being a Senior Engineer. That was what let me claim it. I bet the one on the Queen was built by an Engineer and you might need one to relocate it."

Boom-Boom's eyes got huge, then he smiled sweetly. "I know where I want to go for a second honeymoon."

Whale scowled at him, "Keep dreaming, that belongs on the Queen."

Narwhale stood up and confronted her mother/captain, "You aren't thinking of the ramifications of what my clever husband is thinking about. That workshop had doors ten feet on a side and the cavity went twenty feet deep. Do you know how much swag we could fit in there if he claims it? We could fill it full of every bit of loot we find on the Queen and then he can close it up and take it with him. Next trip we could grab dozens of cannons. Weight wouldn't matter. That's a hell of a lot quicker way to loot and scoot than using a cargo net and loading it all into Leviathan."

Milo was pondering that idea, "I wonder how many other wrecks in the Rust Sea have hidden Arcane Workbenchs? It's an efficient way to hide treasures."

Captain Cuda looked stricken, "By the depths! That means we'll need to have a couple of spanner boys on every salvage ship. That's just unnatural!"

Captain Goldtooth smiled, "Unnaturally profitable, you mean. This deal just gets better and better. Time to start swimming lessons, boys, you're going to need them."

The Engineers looked stricken. Milo was content with his skill at dog paddling but considered some practice in the pool in Downtown. Better than swimming in eel-infested waters.

Two hours later, with the gold stored away in a secure location, Milo pulled out the three jugs of dwarven whiskey he'd found in one of the other chests and put them on the table. "Compliments of Black Eddy. I think it's whiskey, but it might be a liquid solvent for loosening stuck bolts. That chest holds them both."

The dwarves laughed, and Whale started pouring the amber liquid into glasses. "Like there's a difference? Pass the shots around, we could all use some shots to loosen us up. Damn, that was a lot of gold. Makes me wonder what Mako had planned with it."

"Who knows? Maybe just pile it up and play with her treasure on lonely nights at sea."

"Nothing wrong with having a pile of coins to roll around in."

Annie shook her head, "She had plans, big ones. She wanted to take over the city, build ships, and then take over more ports. With her in charge, of course, Queen of all the Clans and calling the shots. Things certainly went to hell quickly for her."

Whale drank down her whiskey, and slammed down the glass. "She ran out of luck, and then she pushed too hard when the dice weren't rolling her way. But there were also some people who helped her along with that, right, Senior Engineer Milo?" The other Captains and Engineers raised their glasses to him.

He shrugged, "If you don't want someone to steal your gold, don't leave it at the bottom of the ocean." They all raised their glasses and drank again.

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Milo was busy over the next two days. He took a nap in Genesis but while his character was asleep in the game, he spent the next eight hours in the real world comparing the blueprints he'd seen for rebuilding the submersibles and comparing them to real-world submarines. Things didn't work the same in the game, with magic, runes, and super-strong alloys, but he gained a better understanding of what the project would entail. His second deep dive was into canal and lock systems. This was going to be a huge project and a potentially dangerous one. He wanted to increase his knowledge base as much as he could.

Satisfied that he had enough for now, he went to sleep in his pod, woke up in the game, and began to design a more efficient mechanical drill that would be needed to dig the massive tunnels. His new design made innovations on the machine the Engineers had used before but incorporated ideas used in the huge digging machine he'd used underneath the habitat. When he was done, he found Peenhammer and showed him the designs.

His project partner was delighted with the blueprints. "OH! I like this. You want to put a team together and build it? I'm your man."

Milo rolled up the plans and handed him all four sets. "Actually, I had a different idea in mind. I want you to put a team together, and your job is to monitor three other teams. We have three groups who have started racing to Limburgher Hollow. Give these designs to all three teams, but suggest they experiment and make the design even better."

"Yeah, they'd be doing that anyway. But I get the idea. We pick the best version."

Milo shook his head, "No, we take all the best ideas from all versions. Then we do a final version, and build a drill machine ten times as big."

Peenhammer thought for a moment, looked at the schematics, then at the far wall. "Ten times as big? Now that's a proper project. Going to take a lot of materials though. Hard to get that much out of Sledge."

"Not for this. You're preapproved for anything you need for this project. Focus on efficiency and the best machine your team can make."

Peenhammer double-checked to make sure Milo wasn't joking about the budget, then saluted. "You got it, partner. I'll get them started. It will take them a week to rebuild the drillers, but it's worth it." He ran off in a cloud of dust, looking for his team.

Milo left for Shadowport immediately after that. The trip up the tunnel took far longer than coming down and was an enjoyable ride with minimal twists and turns. In his pocket was a small globe with a crystalline needle inside that always pointed to a spot where the dwarven tunneling teams were getting started. With the time they would take to rebuild their machines, he'd be able to get uptop, find Brutus, and travel back down to begin exploring toward the Engineering Complex. In his storage, he had three sets of oversized hammer steel picks and shovels. The girls loved to do new things, especially if they could race each other and go all out. It was time to teach them mining.