CHAPTER 406: THE SECOND EXPANSION

Unfortunately for Gia, Damien wasn’t done asking questions. Although he dropped the topic of the chefs for now - he was going to meet them after dinner, anyway, so there was no point discussing it any further. If it turned out that they didn’t have their licenses, he would simply include that in his report - there was one more thing that he was curious about.

"Miss Collins, if you don’t mind, there is something I would like you to clarify for me," he started, trying to maintain a conversational tone, as he could tell that Gia was getting a bit annoyed, and wanted to avoid any conflicts.

However, he failed. The fact that he wanted to continue to ’interrogate’ Gia already irritated the woman, but perhaps even worse than that...

Damien called her ’Miss Collins’. And Gia hated that.

Of course, he had done it to be polite, and it was simply the most appropriate term to call her by, as they hardly knew each other. He also wasn’t clear as to what rank within the Allen Guild Gia currently held. Not that it would have mattered - what Gia disliked was not being called ’Miss’, but rather, being referred to by her surname... Simply because it was a harsh reminder that she was not an ’Allen’. Being called ’Miss Gia’ would have been better. Especially since Nyla was usually referred to with her first name...

Lane snickered at the sight of her soured expression. Unlike Damien, he was somewhat familiar with his cousin’s likes and dislikes, even though they didn’t stay in touch - regardless of her surname, she was a part of the Allens, so Lane kept tabs on her. Knowing your enemy was the key to success, after all - so he understood what irked her so much. She was the eldest of Cyrus Allen’s grandchildren, and yet, her position was far below Nyla’s, and always had been... Even though she had good grades back at school and put in some effort into gaining the family’s recognition, unlike Lane.

Hearing his chuckle, Gia threw him a dark look in response. Although she had no idea what exactly he was laughing at... She had a feeling it was probably at her, for some reason. In the end, though, she ignored him, and forced another smile, which was getting more and more fake, as she asked Damien, "What is it?"

"It’s about the updated map of the Eldenveil that the Allen Guild had provided. I have noticed that there are two different markings depicting the Wall’s former boundaries, but there’s no information included as to what they mean... I was hoping you could explain it to me."

Naturally, Damien had already tried asking the other two members of the Allen Guild, who were accompanying them the whole day, but they hadn’t given him any comprehensive answers, they had just redirected him to Gia. It was supposed to be HER job, after all, they were just there to accompany her. Even if they knew what was going on, they didn’t want to be held responsible in case they said something wrong (or revealed something they shouldn’t)...

Now that Gia had heard what it was all about, though, her tense expression eased a bit. "Oh, that. The first line depicts the border of the dungeon before the reactivation, while the second is where the Wall was before the second expansion," she explained dismissively.

It was such an obvious thing... Even if the map didn’t include a legend, shouldn’t this much be easy to figure out?

Well... Perhaps it would have been. If it wasn’t for the fact that...

"...The second expansion?" Damien repeated, furrowing his brows in confusion.

The Association wasn’t aware that the second expansion had happened.

Gia didn’t know that, though, so she explained, "The second time the Wall receded, expanding the territory of the dungeon..."

It was only when she had finished her sentence that she finally clocked it.

The term ’expansion’ was pretty self-explanatory, there was no way that someone working in the Field, let alone as a Team Leader, wouldn’t know what that meant. And, since Damien was asking with genuine confusion...

It must have meant that the Allen Guild hadn’t reported the second expansion to the Association.

This, on its own, wouldn’t be anything particularly unusual. The Allen Guild habitually didn’t bother reporting many things. However, it wasn’t as if they were trying to hide it either - the map that they had provided depicted two former borders, which was bound to raise some questions. If they wanted to keep it a secret, they could have easily sent the Association a map with only the original location of the Wall displayed... And with how meticulous they were, the chances that they accidentally sent the wrong map were close to zero.

What could that possibly mean? The answer was simple: it was a test for Gia! Her uncle Miles, the Guild Leader, probably wanted to see how well she could deal with the situation when put on the spot, unprepared. Such a low-stakes issue was perfect for it, as he would still be able to easily smooth it out in case she failed...

Gia pressed her lips tightly, her thoughts racing. She had thought she was there just to watch Lane, but unexpectedly, there was more to it? And she had already messed up the mission a bit by separating from the Association’s team and going off on her own...

She didn’t get much time to come up with a plan, because Damien spoke again, "We weren’t informed about the second expansion."

Gia threw him a glance, no longer able to hide her displeasure. Now that she thought about it... Wasn’t it kind of his fault? He had been the one to suggest that Gia should wait for them at the Lakeside Villas. Or perhaps it was Lane’s fault, since it was likely because of her cousin that Damien had suggested that...

All of that made her dislike the couple even more.

Still, she knew better than to express her resentment out loud, and instead retorted, "There is no legal requirement for us to report that."

Indeed, there wasn’t. Technically. But...

"Every Gate reactivation needs to be immediately reported," Damien pointed out.

To which Gia argued back, "Gate reactivation, yes. However, the dungeon expanded before we had fully cleared it. Thus, there was no reactivation in this case, as the dungeon had been marked as ’active’ at that time."

Then, reflecting upon herself, she rushed to add, "Still, it is our oversight, I apologize. The ManaTech’s researchers had been investigating the dungeon at that time, so we needed to keep everything under wraps."

Of course, she wasn’t apologetic at all. She was only saying it to resolve the issue peacefully and get Damien off her back... As for the ManaTech, that was just an excuse. Even if their researchers had been conducting any research in the dungeon at that time, that shouldn’t be enough of a reason not to report the second expansion...

Gia was quite lucky, because Damien wasn’t particularly interested in her apologies or excuses. He paused for a moment, recalling the map and everything he knew about the dungeon in his mind, as he tried to process the information...

"When did the second expansion happen?" he finally asked.

"Around two months after the first," Gia answered without any hesitation. "I don’t remember the exact date... However, I can show Team Leader Lennox the records later."

Damien slowly nodded his head. If it were two months... Then that indeed should be while the dungeon was still marked as ’active’. Of course, that still left him with a lot of questions...

But he wasn’t going to launch them all at Gia, since the woman probably didn’t have any answers to it anyway. The scientists were still not entirely clear as to why the dungeon expansions happened in the first place, so a dungeon experiencing a second expansion should be even more of a mystery... Rather than grill Gia about it, it was better for the Association to send a formal inquiry to the Allen Guild and the ManaTech. So, he just switched the topic, allowing Gia to exhale with relief, as he moved on to discuss the inspection plans for the following day.

Meanwhile, Lane remained silent, lost in his own thoughts. He had also been unaware of the second expansion... Or, well, perhaps it would have been more accurate to say that he had forgotten about it. Now that it was mentioned, he could somewhat recall reading about it in some of the reports... But he had always been merely skimming through them half the time, and back then, he had other things on his mind, with Damien keeping an eye on him, trying to figure out his identity, and so on...

However, unlike Gia and Damien, he was much clearer regarding the reasons.

It was the Fertilizer. Just before the dungeon had expanded, he had planted a few capsules. The timing was a bit faster than expected, as the first expansion had happened about four months after the Fertilizer had been planted... Perhaps it was different because when the capsules activated, the dungeon was already filled with Mana?

Well, not that it mattered all that much. He would leave it to his scientists to figure it out. If they hadn’t already, that is. After all, Lane had recently been rather neglectful in reading the reports, even for his standards, so it was possible that he already had a full explanation waiting for him in his inbox...

He stayed quiet about it all, though. The Fertilizer was a secret, and it had to remain this way. He couldn’t let Damien know, at least not anytime soon...