"... I hope Mac is okay."
Staring out at the morning sky as she breathed a sigh, Tia had time to worry now that her business was starting to slow down. Not because she wasn't selling anything, the synthetic coal that still remained Red import consortium's sole product was more popular than ever, but because there simply weren't any more markets to expand into within the Victoria dukedom.
"I imagine he's doing fine."
From what Hanna had seen of Mac's abilities she imagined there wasn't much he couldn't accomplish, much less so when paired with a first class adventurer party like Red claw.
"Sure dungeons can be vicious, especially the deeper floors. But there isn't much that can stand against Mac."
Although she didn't have any reason to doubt Hanna's words Tia was nevertheless worried, she couldn't quite place it, but she felt like Mac was in trouble.
(I hope I'm wrong…)
Breathing another deep sigh, Tia prepared for another day as she readjusted her attitude, putting on a bright smile.
"... Looks like that was the last of them."
As the faux sunlight was starting to grace the dew touched grass fields around her Liz breathed a sigh as the onslaught of harpies had finally seemed to end. The fields around Liz and the camp were littered with corpses, hundreds of harpies had spawned during the night and been slain, creating multiple red puddles in and around the camp.
"Clear!"
Sharing Liz's assessment, Mac tossed his SOD-09 with its burned out suppressor to the ground and looked around before planting himself in the dirt.
"Anyone dead, injured or missing digits!? Sound off!"
From his current position Mac couldn't see all the members of the Red claw party, so he started a roll call.
"I'm good!"
Having also planted his ass on the ground, Carl yelled out from his seat surrounded by monster corpses.
"Likewise!"
Feeling mana exhaustion hit her in addition to normal fatigue, Ula also reported her state from the middle of camp. Looking around she finally noticed the harpy corpse that had landed right on top of her tent and let out a shrek.
"M-my books!"
"I'm good too, although my knee is killing me!"
Sitting down with a bloodied mace, Jack didn't get to do much this time around but still complained about his knee.
"I got nicked, but otherwise I'm fine!"
Dexter was the only one who hadn't come out of the fight unscathed, but he only had a few scratches on the arm from a harpy that got a bit too close.
"Come to the medic Lynx, I'll take a look at you!"
About to get up on his own as he responded, Mac stopped as Liz quickly arrived and offered him a hand.
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it."
Meeting Dexter in front of the sole Lynx without armament, Mac led the ranger inside and seated him before starting to inspect his injuries.
"Let's see…"
Cutting away Dexter's bloodied sleeve with a pair of surgical scissors he retrieved from the wall of the Lynx, Mac turned on the overhead light and took a look at the pair of 12 centimeter cuts running down his forearm.
"Yeah, that's quite a gash, but it should be quick to disinfect and stitch up."
"I'll leave it to you doc."
Leaving himself in Mac's capable hands, Dexter placed his arm on the table and confirmed he couldn't feel anything after Mac hit him with a quick injection.
"Is this kind of attack normal inside dungeons?"
Starting to disinfect Dexter's wound with an alcohol swab, Mac filled the silence with small talk.
"Yes, it happens sometimes. That's why normal adventurer expeditions usually have 2 or 3 times the numbers of our party when venturing this deep."
From what Mac had looked into this seemed correct, expeditions were often just throwing people at the problem trying to stay alive and was a solution Mac had briefly considered.
"It seems impractical moving with that many people, especially without something like a Lynx transport to carry the enormous amount of food needed."
"Yeah, that's why most adventurers on long duration dungeon diving turn to eating monsters… It is something that we in Red claw decided we wouldn't do early on."
As most monsters were anywhere from vaguely to overtly humanoid shaped or other kinds of obscene to eat, Mac understood why Red claw and other adventurers were reluctant to eat them, not to mention there was a significant chance of food borne illness that was very lethal this far from help. As Dexter talked Mac worked his magic and had already finished up disinfecting his injury, from there he started closing the wounds by directly printing blank tissue into the wounds.
"Boss!?"
With his attention drawn to the outside by Carl's shout, Mac identified the treat and figured out how to deal with it.
"Yeah, I see them! Keep them outside the camp please!"
Responding to Carl, Mac's focus returned to Dexter as he finished up the treatment.
Outside the camp Carl did as instructed and raised his sword, issuing a warning.
"That's close enough! Come on out and show yourselves!"
After a bit of time a single person stepped out of the tall grass, he was an adventurer, looked to be about 25 years old and wore dirty leather armour.
"The name is Adam, I am the interim leader of the steel bears adventuring party!"
Seeing the Lynx crafts instantly react to his declaration, Adam made the very sensible choice to raise both of his arms above his head.
"We mean no harm!"
"Then stop hiding and come on out, before our boss loses his patience!"
With Mac being the person who had hired them Carl referred to him as the boss, but there was visible confusion on Adam's face as he recognized Carl and knew Elizabeth to be the boss of the Red claw party. Nevertheless, the rest of the steel bears complied with Carl's demand, and soon some 20 adventurers came out of hiding with their hands up.
"Very good, now what do you want?"
Speaking again as he put his sword on his shoulder, Carl was joined by Mac on top of the Lynx, he had also taken time to find a rifle after stitching up Dexter.
"We were coming back after hunting Wyrens on the 92nd floor and made camp at its entrance when we were attacked by swarms of harpies last night, but after only a few minutes the monsters seemed to have been drawn over here so we came to investigate after the attack stopped."
Explaining his reason for approaching, Adam started inquiring about Carl and his party.
"Besides, I thought Red claw didn't do dungeon exploration anymore? What happened, and what the hell are these strange machines?"
Sharing a look with Carl, Mac took a closer look at the adventurers and quickly determined they must've been in this dungeon for months.
"I've hired Red claw to do a job down here, and the machines are mine. The name is Mac."
Introducing himself, Mac didn't like how the adventurers seemed to be slowly fanning out and flipped the switch on his SOD-09, moving it from safe to fully automatic.
"Why don't you go on your way now that we've said hello, mister interim leader."
By the adventurer's own admission there had been a leadership change in the steel bears and whether that had been an unfortunate tragedy or deliberate intervention Mac didn't really care, as long as they kept their distance.
(No law enforcement or witnesses this far down, but I don't really want to spend the ammunition dealing with these guys if they want to jump us.)
The night's monster attack had been quite draining on his resources, and while Mac had been reassured these kinds of swarming attacks were both rare and natural inside dungeons, the strain it put on his limited supplies were a cause for concern.
"Actually we've suffered a few injuries and hoped your healer could take a look at them, we lost ours a week ago."
Glancing at Carl instead of immediately responding, Mac gathered from the half dragon's expression that this was a reasonable ask.
(... Shit.)
Experience and the look in Adam's eyes told Mac that the way the other party 'lost' their healer and leader were more due to mutiny than anything else, but it seemed like they weren't going to just leave if he refused to help them.
"Fine, I'll look over your injuries, but first, a few house rules."
At Mac's words his human type drones deployed and quickly encircled the adventurers with their rifles raised and ready to fire.
"First of all you will all disarm and separate into an injured and unharmed group, then you will follow my further instructions precisely and without complaints or let you join your old leader."
Perhaps surprised by how quickly they were surrounded by Mac's drones some of the adventurers drew their weapons, but as a fight was starting to look all but inevitable Elizabeth finally intertwined.
"You have our terms, either leave or accept them!"
Landing next to Mac, Liz's bellowing voice immediately put a damper on the situation as most of the adventurers recognized her and realised they wouldn't get to walk away if a fight broke out.
"Okay, okay, we'll disarm!"
With the situation moving back under control, Mac switched his SOD-09 back to safe and handed it to Liz as he relayed instructions.
"There's no point in moving on today so we'll just maintain the camp as is for another day. Take the time to get some rest as we're going to start making up for lost progress at first light tomorrow."
Seeing no point in moving for just a half day and risking making camp way after dark in an unsafe or unideal location, Mac let the Red claw take the rest of the day off while he treated the members of the steel bear, performed maintenance on his various weapon systems and took detailed inventory of remaining munitions.
"Are you sure you don't need us on lookout?"
Also starting to feel something was off with the other adventurers, Liz offered to keep an eye out instead of just taking most of the day off.
"Nah, I'll use my drones for that, just rest up and relax for now, we'll be aiming for at least 6 floors tomorrow to get back on track. To that end we'll switch up the formation a bit, but we can discuss that later."
"Roger."
Having gotten Liz and the others to take some time to relax, Mac turned his attention back on the 20 some adventurers, by now they had complied with his instructions and disarmed before separating into two groups like he had instructed.
(11 injured… Figures.)
Quickly fetching a few folding chairs and a medic kit from the Lynx ambulance, Mac set up his impromptu clinic under armed guards and quickly received his first patient, the interim leader Adam himself.
"Take a seat."
"Alright."
Sitting down like instructed, Adam glanced at the human type drones with their weapons still raised before he took off his leather chest piece, revealing a rather crusty shallow cut across his back.
"Hmm, looks like you're lucky that you didn't catch some sort of infection from that."
"Yeah, but I sure as shit don't feel lucky."
Notably this wound didn't look like any that could've been inflicted by a monster, but Mac nevertheless started treating it without comment, first applying local anesthetic before he started to clean the wound. Notably though Mac refrained from using the blank tissue to regenerate the injuries, instead opting to simply clean and bandage not only Adam's but all the other adventurers he treated.
(There is clearly something going on here, but I have neither the time, interest or resources to look after it… For now at least.)
While treating the adventurers Mac made sure to record their faces and biometrics data, furthermore he would be directing his surveillance drones to watch for shallow graves going forward.