Out of Space
Chapter 426: To Heaven and Hell!

UN, Haven, Research and Development Lab

Junker the goblin who was once known as Poky the Weakest, before discovering the wonders of the Machine Gods, was now grumbling to himself as he scribbled madly on a sheet of paper. The glow of the wonderful ever bright lamps cast an orangey glow over his work desk as he continued to ponder on his designs even after working hours.

He had changed his name from Poky the Weakest, being physically weakest among his brothers and sisters and when he joined the UN, he changed his name to Junker as he was always fascinated by junk. He was given a job as a technical designer after impressing the recruiters with his ideas at this super duper ultra top secret facility that he was even given a magical geass that prevented him from talking about his work outside.

The other goblins loved to show off during their mad karaoke and jamming sessions about their work that they do involving machinery while he had to silently endure the laughter when he said he worked in a construction company as some lowly draftsman making copies and drawings of buildings as his cover story.

He bobbed his head to the tune AC/DC being played over the pair of headphones that squeezed his ears flat against his skull. His feet kicking to the beat of Thunderstruck as he paused every now and then to perform some imaginary air drumming.

"Hey, Junker?" A short hooman wearing a pair of glasses called over to Junker from behind, making him paused at his work. "What are you still working on at this time?"

Seeing the goblin not responding to his call, the hooman reached out and tapped the goblin busy imitating some air guitar poses. "Junker?"

"Oh..." Junker hopped off the tall stool in surprise and yanked off his headphones before he threw an awkward looking salute which was copied from soldiers, which he thought was really cool, better than prostrating at the smelly feet of some hobgoblin. "Hiya, Boss Co-e-chi!"

Hideo Koichi, once just a lowly ranked naval hand, now the Director for the technical and design team in charge of making new weapons to day to day items, smiled at the way the goblin pronounced his name. "It's already dark outside. Why have you not returned home?"

Junker looked at the mad scribbles on his drafting table and Junker gave a big grin. "Me working on idea to go into the heavens!"

"Well... Isn't that project under another team?" Koichi frowned. "Why are you wasting your time on it?"

Junker shook his head, "No waste time! Me spend off time to do!"

"Other team makes dumb ideas! Junker has the ultimate idea!" He excitedly hopped back on to his tall stool and wiggled his backside till he was comfortable and gestured to his drawings. "Lookee here!"

"We got some of those flying crystals yes?" Junker asked and did not wait for a reply. "We can use those to lift rocket up to high high before launch directly to heaven!"

"Launch from the ground too wasteful!" Junker said while ticking his long knobby fingers. "Need more fuel and engines to lift off! More fuel and engines mean more weight means need more fuel and more weight and more fuel! Wasteful!"

"And more fuel means more chance to go boom!" Junker shook his head before he rubbed his chin in thought and mumbled to himself while giggling. "Wait... that makes a nice big boom... ooohhhohoho!"

Koichi rapped his knuckle on the desk to bring Junker out of his day dream. "Go on..."

"We can bring rocket up as high as we can with air crystals or big flying machine before shooting the engines!" Junker quickly explained while rubbing his hands in excitement. "Means less weight and less fuel and less distance to travel!"

"An air to orbit launch?" Koichi rubbed his chin in thought as the goblin's design made some sense. "Interesting... Go on."

-----

UN, Sea Cliff Mining and Dungeon Town, Adventurers' Inc. Hangar

Karl placed the phone back on its cradle and stood at the window of his office, looking out at his motley crew who were working on the maintenance of the company's armoured vehicles and their personnel weapons.

His latest two new employees were sweeping and cleaning a corner of the hangar which when Karl had discharged from the Navy, he bought the hangar to set up his own start up idea of dungeoning and exploration.

He created Adventurers' Inc. an company that takes contracts from the government to explore and map out the dungeon and even the surrounding regions of the Uncharted Forest since the military has their hands full against the Imperials.

Sometimes he even has a few private contracts from merchants to escort their goods or even provide bodyguard services. In other words, he turned into a mercenary and created a privatised company that was almost similar to a Guild.

He had pitched his idea of having a privatised or commercial entity to handle explorations of dangerous territory to the government and they finally gave him permission to do so when there was a lack of manpower to handle these matters due to the Imperials.

With permission to privatize exploration, Karl pushed for more benefits, like having the license to own and purchase firearms, ammunition, and even military grade equipment. Next, he started recruitment among the population, with the minimum criteria of either being a soldier or adventurer before.

Now, he has four teams of ex adventurers and soldiers working for him. With the addition of the two newcomers, he could form a fifth team which will allow him more flexibility to complete his company's contracted works.

He looked at the boy sweeping the ground with an unhappy expression and thought back to the phone call previously he had. "A Von Aston eh?"

No wonder he felt the boy's name was familiar as he shared the same family name as their only Earth Elementalist that was working for the UN. The 'Witch' as they called her and she was pretty famous once in Sea Cliff before it boomed into a town.

Either he was a younger brother or relative, judging from the same family name, and he must be here to replace the Witch. Karl headed to the door of his office and said to himself, "I need to keep an eye on him, whether if he means harm to the Witch or for some other reason..."

"Leon!" Karl yelled loudly out of his office door. "Need to speak with you now!"

Leon, the bald and muscular elf, grunted as he stacked the barbell he was lifting back to its resting spot and wiped the sweat off his face and body before entering the office. "What you needed, boss?"

"Sit down," Karl replied as he pulled out four documents. "I am forming a new team. You will be the leader of Team Five."

Leon whistled appreciatively as he leaned forward to pick up the dossiers to read. "Can I choose my teammates?"

"Nope..." Karl shook his head. "But I am giving you Kat and Yill. So you got a sniper and a healer in your team. But you will have the two newbies under your wing."

"Wait... you want me to babysit the two kids?" Leon frowned as his carefully groomed moustache twitched. "Damnnit, I am a knight and soldier! Not a babysitter!"

"I know," Karl replied calmly at Leon's outburst. Leon's temperament was generally very easy going but if he got angry, he changes to another personality. "You are good with kids and teaching since you used to teach the sons of nobles right?"

"Yes, but that was in the past!" Leon grumbled. "I don't want to look after kids now!"

"Well, whether you are happy or not about this decision," Karl ignored Leon's complaints. "I am putting you in charge of them."

"Teach them the ropes," Karl ordered. "And watch them closely..."

"Aww... Boss..." Leon sighed, his temper deflated. "Do I really have to?"

"Yes," Karl repeated. "Go and gather your new team. Get everyone to work together. I will have a mission for you when your team is ready."

"Shit!" Leon sighed. "I need the extra money!"

"Then you better teach them fast!" Karl grinned. "Or you won't get a contract..."

"Shit!" Leon cursed again before he stomped out of the office.

Karl watched Leon yelling the names of his new teammates from the window and smiled, knowing that despite Leon's unwilling expression, he will still do his best to teach the two kids on how to survive. Karl returned back to his desk and started to sort out his contracts.

"Looks like its able time to explore all the way down to the final level of the dungeon!"

-----

"KAT! YILL! CIEL! AND JUSTZE!" Leon yelled in a voice worthy of a parade sergeant. "Front and centre!"

Leon was once a Knight of Silver serving under the Rothschild's household. After the war with the so called barbarians of the UN. Barely a fifth of the Knights of Silver survived out of hundreds. He gave up his sword when the war between the Rothschild and the UN was over before signing on with the SDF to fend off the attacking Imperials.

He later left the SDF when the Empire was defeated and things became too peaceful for him. Not longer later, he found an ad which was looking for adventurers and warriors and he applied, passed the interview with the Boss and enjoyed his work here.

Leon slapped the dossiers of his new team on a side table and glowered at the two youngsters who wandered over with brooms in their hands. The other two seasoned members paused in their own work and walked over. "What is it?"

"Boss has just assigned me to be Team Five leader," Leon explained to Kat and Yill. "You two and these two newbies are now part of Team Five. "Yill will be the second in charge of Team Five."

Yill, was a tall sinewy looking elf, wearing a sleeveless shirt and jeans nodded as he accepted the assignment. His shoulder length hair tied in a long ponytail with a headband keeping his fringe in check.

"So I am getting transferred out from Team Three?" Kat asked. She was a slim looking elf with short hair and a dressed in a baggy tee shirt and shorts that showed off her lean legs.

"Yes, Boss will inform your Team Leader," Leon replied before he turned to the two youngsters. "And you two will part of Team Five as well."

"Hello," But Kat and Yill gave a simple greeting as they stared curiously at the two youngsters, having seen their abilities the other day. "

"H- Hello," Ciel replied shyly while Justze gave a nod of acknowledgement before asking. "So when do we start working on contracts?"

Leon folded his thick muscular arms before shaking his head. "No contracts until the Boss and me deemed you two ready for scrub work."

"Scrub work?" Ciel asked in confusion. "What is that?"

"It means dangerous work," Kat explained with a smile. "You need to learn how to use the tools of the trade or you might die. Worse is... You drag everyone else to die with you..."

"Oh..." Ciel replied in a small voice. "I- I understand."

"Good!" Leon said sternly. "Now that you understand, I hope you two will take this seriously! Our jobs are highly dangerous and any mistake can get someone killed!"

"If you die, that is your problem!" Leon barked sternly. "But do not drag others into your problem!"

"Now that you know the stakes here," Leon said to the two youngsters. "We will go through the basics of everything!"

"Kat, you will be in charge of teaching them shooting and identifying dangers and traps," Leon ordered. "Yill, you will teach them basic first aid, magic, and survival techniques!"

"While I, will personally train them physically and work on their melee weapons proficiency!"