Chapter 25: Renovations (II)

Before Priscus got down to the overwhelmingly pleasurable task of buying millions of denarii's worth of new gear, he thought it might be best to take care of some pressing concerns.

'System,' Priscus focused hard on his next request. The success or failure of it would determine a good part of their future. 'Can you erase all mention of the Lupus name from the games we just attended? And ensure that all records of us are changed to a new name?'

*Acknowledged. I have full access to the entire sector, I can block all transmissions coming in and out of the sector that mention the Lupus name, and alter all current records to reflect the name of the hosts choice.*

Priscus was extatic, having such an information embargo in place would seriously affect the aristocracy in its attempt to locate him. But the following question threw him for a bit of a loop as he hadn't given it much thought before now.

*And in what name shall I register the Ludas?*

...'Hadn't thought of that'

The Lupus name was all he ever knew, even though there was a separate name already on the official books he didn't know what it was. Within the compound his father and even his grandfather had always been adamant that this was the LUPUS Ludas.

So now with the topic of changing the name set before him, he was at a bit of a loss.

He sat for a few moments before turning to Icarus to ask for his opinion on the matter.

"Icarus, what do you think we should change the name of the Ludas too? And before you ask we are changing it in all the current and future records to ensure that whomever comes looking for us has a hell of a time doing so."

Expectedly taken aback Icarus pondered for a while before he came up with a name that he found amusing, but sounded intimidating as long as you didn't know the translation.

"How about 'rimosa subaquaneam'? has a nice ring to it yea?'

The smirk on Icarus' face caused Priscus some pause, he had a distinct feeling that he wouldn't like the translation.

"And what does that mean? My latin isn't exactly up to par these days."

Latin may have been the language of the ancient world but over time English overtook it in popularity, and in the year 2056 it became the official language of the empire, while Latin was still taught in schools it was more of a second language elective, kept alive as an ode to their culture.

/cough/

Icarus struggled to supress his laughter while he choked out, "it means.../phss/ Leaky Submarine...hahaha!"

Icarus couldn't help himself, he found the name truly funny, The irony of the danger of a Leaky Submarine and the parallel to their precarious situation tickled a strange section of his funny bone.

Meanwhile Priscus was not laughing. "What the hell man!" Priscus cried, incredulous at the lack of seriousness in Icarus' answer, especially given the times they were in. "Be serious please."

"But I am serious." Icarus replied firmly, staring pointedly into the eyes of his master still sporting that mischievous grin. "Who in their right mind would associate the dreaded 'Lupus' family, a former aristocratic family, with a name like 'Leaky Submarine'? Not to mention the astonishing parallels to our own situation of barely treading water in a sea full of sharks."

Priscus was struck, he hadn't considered the name from that perspective. But now that the idea was in his head, the more and more sense it made.

"Very well then." Priscus stood up straight while extending his hand. "We shall be henceforth and forever known as Rimosa Subaquaneam." Standing now together both of them let out a chuckle at their new inside joke. "Lets just do our best to patch the holes before we sink eh?"

Icarus nodded vigorously, he had no intention whatsoever to have his path to power cut short after having only recently stepped on it.

The system spent all of 30 seconds basically rewriting digital history for the entire sector. Each and every mention of the Lupus family was erased and replaced with the new name RS, or LS where the latin couldn't be entered.

Everything for the past 200 years up till today now referred to Priscus and his family as the lanista's of the RS Ludas, a much more inconspicuous name that would do wonders for them in the shadow game they were now about to play.

Clapping his hands Priscus breathed deeply, and while exhaling let go of all the stress and worries from the past couple of hours.

Urging Icarus to take a seat Priscus turned himself round and stood in the center of the sparring arena.

Standing now at the center of it all Priscus gave Icarus one last meaningful look before saying. "Let the fun begin!"

Immediately after he pulled up his full system interface and scrolled down to the store of the Ludas king.

Opening it up he was once again struck with how many different categories there were with regards to purchasable items. It had everything from food to fracking equipment on a galactic scale, and every other thing in between. Spaceships, combat droids, training facilities, spy droids, etc. etc.

Seeing all of these options Priscus was slightly overwhelmed, even with 15.95 million denarii to his name he knew he wouldn't be able to purchase everything he wanted, so he decided to try and be a bit smarter about his purchases.

'System, can you please evaluate the technological level of the empire as a whole and then restrict my choices to technology grades that the empire has access too? I'd rather not parade around the fact that I have better equipment than the Emperor, unless such equipment can be effectively hidden from spy's.'

He wanted the best of the best but he also didn't want to start blowing a warning horn that something fishy was going on.

How strange would it be for a Ludas that had been struggling for two centuries to produce even 1 champion level gladiator, to suddenly have more advanced technology then the ruling factions of the empire itself?

Pretty fracking strange.

*Acknowledged. Empire technology level has barely surpassed C-grade if measured against universal level civilizations. Their transportation is inefficient, system administration is full of holes, economy is wildly unstable in critical areas, and many other problems have prevented and in some cases stifled technological progress.

Additionally the training facilities, combat techniques, gene therapy's, and all other Gladiator related industries, and research have hit a stand still at mid C-Grade. The empires elites, even those born with B or A-grade potential are squandering that potential, unable to invent new combat techniques that are capable of taking advantage of it.*

'What are you talking about, that guy Achilles whooped Icarus like he was spanking an angry child.' Despite Achilles advanced system permissions Priscus' system was so far advanced that his orders were entirely ignored, also Priscus watched it happen live.

*Achilles is an A-grade potential with access to the best training this Empire has to offer. And while that is only C-grade it is still a universal grade, meaning his attributes are most likely maxed out and his combat technique is also a universal C-grade which would put him far and away stronger than anyone else of his grade that didn't have access to the same.

And while yes Icarus has access to an A-grade combat technique, that does not overcome the overwhelming disparity in attributes. An A-grades max attributes are 20.0 even before breaking the first gene lock. And I would be willing to bet that man had broken his first, meaning his attributes could be as high as 40.0. There is no combat technique in existence that would bridge a 30.0 attribute gap. Not unless the opponent was a fracking idiot.*

Priscus conceded the point if only to return to the matters at hand. Truth be told it didn't really matter if Achilles was stronger than both of them right now, they had time and would use it to its fullest potential.

The system had blocked out anything above C-grade making the list of purchasable items far smaller, but still enormous. There must be millions of options spread across all the different tabs, but he had to start somewhere so he decided to look at purchasing an entirely new compound for Icarus and he to live in.

*C-grade Ludus compound - Manufactured by Vulcan industries

Area: 10,500sqft

Materials: C-Class Dragon steel is used as the frame work and structural panels, along with C-Class Wyrmwood and Firemarble as the interior and exterior to provide unparalleled stability. It is resistant to any natural disaster up to D-grade global catastrophes, can withstand attacks from any conventional or electromagnetic weapon up to a yield of 35kilotons of TNT, The entire building can be locked down preventing any entry from unauthorized individuals, additionally it comes equipped with C-Class twin barrel rail guns set at 14 different locations for both anti-air and anti-infantry operations.

Impenetrable from emp bursts and radar probing from any source weaker than D-class, highly resistant to such attacks from C-class and below sources.

Facilities: 1- 3500sqft C-class training facility equipped with 10 virtual sims, 5 C-class sparring bots, 3 chefs, 2 D-class kitchens, 1 C-class med bot and med bay, 3 storage areas, 2 sparring pads, 5 gravity chambers, 10 C-class weight/restriction suits, and 30 sets of D-class training equipment.

Other areas of the compound include a master suite equipped with C-class relaxation and self care facilities such as massage/physical therapy bots, sauna, soaker jet tub, etc.

Additionally there are 2 conference rooms, 10 D-class Gladiatorial suites each with their own D-class bathrooms, a media center, central courtyard, 3 car garage, 5 office spaces, on site air gapped system server for quick access to internet services, 10 D-Class guard bots, 2 D-Class anti-spy bots, and 1 D-Class white hat hacker bot for online security measures.

Total price: 8.95 million denarii.

Delivery and set up: 2 hours.*

It was one of the best C-class gladiator compounds his shop had access too. There were some others with more capacity, nicer facilities, and other such things but with the shopping list that he had, Priscus wanted to squeeze all he could out of his budget, and this place fit the bill.

Wasting no time he made the purchase and instructed the system to begin the installation immediately.

The land he currently owned was only about 5 acres large, but it was still more than enough to accommodate such a building.

The benefits of such an advanced building was that it could be made to look any way he wanted it to.

So while the complex would be nearly twice as big as before, the exterior of the building wouldn't change aesthetically speaking. The only difference people who came to visit would notice was the much larger size of the building.

The interior would be vastly different, but seeing as they rarely had any visitors anyways that wouldn't be much of a problem.

Both he and Icarus were extatic while watching the building raise itself from the ground like a silver flood, the flooring and interior walls shifting and changing with the tide as it rolled forward to fill the entire 10,500sqft space designated for its construction.

The buildings construction could only be said to be miraculous, Priscus sure had no idea how it worked but he was beyond happy nonetheless.

"This," he said emotionally, feeling a great swell of excitement and melancholy well up inside him. "This is the real beginning of the return... of the 'Terribilis Lupus'!"