"Hmm…"
Since Mac had returned from his first foray into the dungeon, Mac had done a lot of thinking, creating cargo manifests, strike units and battle formations.
But no matter how many times he ran the numbers, Mac always came up short. Conservatively he was looking at 6 to 8 months of constant missions just to locate his prize, and then there was the matter of retrieving it after.
"... Shit."
If Mac knew anything it was himself, and he knew that 8 months of exploratory missions would bore him.
And a bored Mac would make mistakes, the kind of mistakes he couldn't afford to commit deep inside a dungeon.
"Shitfuck. Stupid fucking nav fuck."
"... Looks like he's doing great."
Of course Mac had chosen Hank's garden to have this conversation with himself, but unlike last time he was sitting in the corner and facing the wall, probably scaring the shit out of anyone on the other side with his muttering.
Tia had no idea why Mac was sitting there, all she knew is that he had been there in the morning, sitting cross legged on the corner patch of grass like he owned it, and he was still there in the evening when she came home.
"I'm sure he has it all figured out, just leave him be."
As Hanna had gone with Mac as he took his first foray into the hearst dungeon she knew what kind of riddle he was trying to solve, and the inherent issues of the monumental problem he was trying to solve.
"Sure…"
Tia wasn't really sure how to approach Mac after the last time the two of them talked, sure time had given her some time to calm down, but she still didn't know how to approach.
Next day when Mac was still sitting in the corner spewing venom, Tia however felt like she needed to intervene.
"Um, Mac?"
"Fucking shit without a fucking turd… Yeah, what's up?"
Seeing Mac's mind return from orbit with a dumb, pure smile on his face, Tia wondered why she was angry at him in the first place.
To be clear, this was Tia making a mistake, thinking she could help fix him.
"Nothing, it's just you've been sitting there for the past while… And you're all covered in morning dew too… Aren't you cold?"
As awkward as a teen on her first date, Tia nevertheless managed to skate around their last argument with the grace of a fat kid ice skating for the first time.
"Not really no."
Mac likewise had kind of forgotten how to act… Human after spending a few days in simulations, so as the pair managed to mutually stunlock each other until Hanna's younger sister, Paige walked out and saw Mac.
"You look like a bum."
"And you look unemployed, now who's the real leach?"
Successfully rebooting enough of his central processing to respond to the small human, Mac turned back to Tia.
"I need to take a shower, but afterwards do you want to go with me for something?"
".. Yeah, sure."
"Great."
Watching Mac run off like some sort of bum to god knows where for a shower, Tia realised far too late she might've chosen the wrong place to work.
A few hours later Tia found herself back in the capital following Mac.
"So… Where are we going?"
"The adventurers guild."
While Tia hadn't been the one that relayed the news to him, she was still sure that Mac was aware that he had been blacklisted from that guild.
"... You remember the part where you're blacklisted by the adventurers guild, right?"
"Yeah, fuck it. What's the point of being rich if I can't make my problems go away by throwing money at it? Besides, I don't care much at this point, let's go check it out. I was technically only banned from posting requests, not visiting the building."
"This will not end well."
While Tia knew Mac wouldn't listen to anything she tried to say to change his mind at this point, she figured she could at least go with him to try and prevent some of the issues this would create.
Like the unofficial one Mac had visited before to recruit Hanna, this particular adventurer's guild was also a dirty cesspit of day-drinking adventures that were glaring at him and staff with stiff looking service smiles that told Mac they knew who he was.
"Well this is quite a warm welcome."
"That's what I told you."
Ignoring Tia for the moment, Mac walked up to the staff counter where the guild receptionist stood with her stiff smile, only for her to turn around and walk away.
"... Yeah, okay."
Getting the message loud and clear, Mac thought about doing something stupid when his eyes passed over a wall loaded with handwritten pieces of parchment.
"... Hmm."
Examining the scattered notes, Mac found it to be a sort of request board, along the request that needed adventures Mac found that he could expand into and take over about 26% of the posted jobs with light reallocations of drones while a further 42% could be fulfilled within a year of setting up a proper outpost on this planet… The remaining unprofitable and bothersome 28%? Too bothersome and not profitable enough as a venture, so he would leave the adventures guild with that, just enough traffic to slowly starve them.
"Would you also write notes like these to get protection?"
Finding the request system antiquated enough that it seemed somewhat comical, Mac asked Tia about her experience with it.
"Sometimes, depending on where I was going. But mostly I would hire from adventures near the gates."
"Ah yeah, those guys who tried to kill you?"
"Yeah. The adventurers who tried to kill me, who the guild then protected after they left me for dead."
Projecting her voice so that the entirety of the guild could hear her just to state she still held a grudge, Tia were about to request her employer to use some of that authority he had with the Victoria family to bust their nuts when she noticed Mac fixated on a particular note on the request board.
REQUEST: New weapon sought
DESCRIPTION: My old sword broke, and I can't really find a new one that doesn't break after a few swings. I'm looking for a sword that can keep up with me.
REWARD: 5.000 Gold pieces Whatever you want from me, at this point I'm getting desperate.
ADDITIONAL NOTE: If you're going to try and scam me, I will lob off your head, that's a promise.
MODE OF CONTACT: I'm usually at the red claw base, or out of a quest, but you can wait at the base meanwhile.
POSTER: Elizabeth 'red claw' gold rank adventurer.
"Mac? That one is an urban legend of sorts."
Also reading what Mac was staring at transfixingly, Tia got a bad feeling as she recognised the request.
"Okay."
"She got hundreds of honest responses in the first few weeks alone, none of them could do it."
"Okay."
"After that a bunch of scammers turned up."
"Mm."
"Mac?"
"What? You got a better idea?"
"I guess I don't."
Resigning herself to the fact that she would need to find a new job soon, Tia watched Mac rip the faded request note off of the wall as he flashed a cocky smile.
"If anything this'll be easy. Come on, I've already de-orbited my personal forge from graveyard orbit. It'll touch down to the south and out of the way along the 5th route."
Back out on the street Tia still felt she had way too many questions that would need to be answered before they proceeded with whatever it was Mac was planning.
"So what the hell are you planning?"
"Planning? I'm going to forge this 'red claw', a weapon she can use, in return I'll hire to escort me on the next trip to that dungeon. Simple and easy."
While what Mac was proposing was both simple and easy, Tia could hardly see how any of it would work.
"You realise you can't land whatever you just summoned inside these walls?"
"Yeah, I remember, that restriction is what I'm trying to remove in the first place."
Currently Mac could only operate freely within the Victoria dukedom, so whatever he had just called down wouldn't be able to land anywhere inside the capital.
"How are you going to get Red Claw to follow you out of the capital? You know she'll try to lob off your head before that."
From what little Tia knew about adventurers is that they weren't the thrusting bunch, much less so when a blacklisted person came to solve all their problems with 'one simple trick' that they just needed to follow him into the woods for.
"I'll let her borrow this one to test, then after I can make her a new sword that matches her preferences."
With a flick of his right hand, a sword appeared in Mac's hand.
"Is that?"
"Yeah, this is the one I used to beat the knight captain with. It's a modified barrier spike, so I can guarantee that it's sturdy."
Last time Mac wielded this sword he had used it as a blunt instrument to smash Anastasia's defences, and for all the time he had slammed its edge into her shield it hadn't chipped a single time. Not that it should be able to, Mac had put too much material engineering into it for it to break in that way.
"Now that you know what the plan is, could you lead the way? I'm too lazy to figure out where their base is."
"... Sure."
Already having resigned this attempt as a failure, Tia knew Mac's past record of negotiating and wasn't banking on a successful outcome.
The Red claw bass was a rather nondescript, slightly run down mansion with a large open courtyard which featured a massive, single boulder.
Opening the courtyard door and walking into the courtyard without a word, Mac reached the large boulder in the centre of the yard before Tia spoke up.
"What are we doing again?"
"I'm waiting for the guy watching us from the second floor to say something."
Not even bothering to glance at the guy who had been staring daggers into him since before he entered the base, Mac's expression had long since turned into a cold smile as he didn't appreciate the bloodlust.
(Keep R.O.E tight, I'm pretty sure they're mostly bark and no bite.)
Silencing the alarm that had been blaring in the back of his head, Mac hit the central boulder a few times with his sword before the guy observing him and Tia finally spoke up.
"You aren't welcome here, go away!"
"As expected of a 'gold rank adventurer' you're actually able to spot a blacklisted person. Did you guys tag me, or am I just that handsome you immediately recognised me?"
Speaking first to the one shouting at him to go away, then to the other guy that was observing him from the first floor of the east wing, Mac hit the boulder a few more times with his sword like he was bored, as if absentmindedly picking at something.
"Please leave, as you're blacklisted by the guild we will be punished for accepting requests from you."
Finally stepping out, the person from the first floor revealed himself to be a middle aged man with a full white beard. Although he was in casual clothes, the man was brandishing a mace, perhaps in response to Mac wielding a sword.
"You must be Jack, I have a sword for your boss to test out."
With a flick, Mac planted his sword into the ground in between him and Jack as Tia took a step back, nervous that a fight might be breaking out.
"Please just-"
"I'm not blacklisted from fulfilling quests by the guild, let's just say I'm here to do that."
"..."
Falling silent as he realised Mac would just continue to give him the runaround, Jack studied Mac's cold smile for a moment, then moved on to his steady gaze.
"You must be that visitor from beyond the stars… First time I've seen that kind of look from someone that young."
Realising who and what Mac exactly was, Jack steadied the grip on his mace.
"Ha! First time in a long while I've been called young."
Although having a humorous tone of voice, Mac's expression was still locked in a cold smile.
"I've lived far longer than you can even comprehend, brat."
Perhaps in response to Mac's insult, the guy from the second floor finally had enough and leapt into the air, landing right in front of Mac by using the pair of wings growing out from his back.
"It is time for you to leave."
(A Half dragon… So that's why they call themselves Red claw.)
Immediately recognizing the person as a member of the long lived and extremely powerful dragon lineage, Tia really hoped Mac knew what he was doing, all the while doing her best to disappear into the background.
For at the moment it seemed like Mac's mouth was writing checks his ass couldn't cash.