Time began to pass for Ace, only to come to a sudden halt. Things had been going well. He had even managed to defeat an entire community of kobolds on the fifteenth floor. Not that they knew that, but Ally was suitably impressed.

  No, the problem was with how they built the town. Ace and the others thought they had planned ahead to a decent degree. They thought making sure the roads were two-lane with sidewalks, even if the car-brain idea of the road being for vehicles had been broken, was enough.

  It wasn’t. Not because carts had managed to replace cars or anything and it wasn’t even just the width of the road that was a problem. Both the roads width and how sturdy they are were falling behind the town’s needs. All because people were too strong.

  Ace and most of the other inner circle had actually missed it. This was partly because they kept rebuilding the inner area of the town to grind skills and mostly because they kept fighting as deep into the dungeon as they could. So it was hard for them to judge their strength as they kept fighting stronger foes.

  All the while, even the inner circle who didn’t focus on Strength could now lug around entire trees. Not that the regular people in the second circle can all manage that kind of thing. However, people were carrying around giant loads to and from town.

  They took up more space and with all that weight concentrated on their feet? The roads did not survive. About the only place that kept up was the roads placed by the system. Though even those weren’t doing too hot since they were only to the level of the town.

  Ace had a solution for this, but it was going to require more of the inner circle. They didn’t need to personally rebuild the outer circle, though it would need rebuilding. No, they simply needed to provide the supplies for them to build with.

  The way you make it so someone doesn’t actually break the road and houses is to use materials that they can’t break. However, as a newly integrated world, they can’t exactly go out and find a stand of trees or a quarry with tough enough stones. They did have one source though, the dungeon.

  Ace and the others would need to harvest wood from as deep a floor as possible for the houses. As for the road itself? Well, the system had the right idea with how it set up the roads. While they could have mined stone from the dungeon, there wasn’t actually that much free stone before they hit the “dungeon walls” which they couldn’t break yet.

  That left one other material to use to make a pseudo-gravel road. They need the bones of tough monsters in the dungeon. Bones that would need to be broken up and smooth a bit so there weren’t sharp edges.

  The biggest problem of this was that you needed skills to properly harvest things that don’t naturally drop or are harvest nodes. Though thankfully, not special harvest skills, even if such things help. You simply need a skill that could make use of the resources. So for wood, you need a skill that works with wood.

  This wasn’t a hard thing to find. Even bone crafting skills had proliferated among the inner circle. The problem was that most crafters were in the same parties. It hadn’t been on purpose, but barring the leaders, most teams were either people who focused on fighting or focused on crafting. They would need to shake up the parties so each delve would bring out much needed supplies.

  It has to be done, but it would also slow them down. Ace bridled under the restrictions, but he wasn’t an idiot. A proper town was just as important to his future power. Trade alone would bring rare and powerful resources from far away. Plus, it was honestly time for the town to expand.

  People had begun to camp outside and many buildings turned into apartments and inns. Ace had nothing against that, but he wanted the places nearest the inner circle to be single-family residences for safety reasons. Well, he would actually rather there be an empty region around the inner circle, but that isn’t in the cards right now. Maybe for the next rebuild, because Ace was under no illusion that this would be the last time.

  At least it wasn’t as hard to extract the resources from the dungeon. Before, they had to worry about things like carrying limits. Now, the melee fighters could stack themselves high with logs and then walk the logs out, no sweat. It required some minor rebuilds on the gate facility, but honestly, that place was almost constantly being worked on. Their greatest secrets were hidden within and so Ace was a bit paranoid about it.

  And yes, secrets with an s. A second advancement was made. While no one had managed to craft a masterwork yet, Kelly had figured out the most basic of enchanting. Which people instantly connected with some classic roleplaying designations and thus the first +1 magic sword.

  The plus one part however is purely for show. While the enchanted sword had an easier time damaging things and felt easier to handle, it wasn’t a literal “+1” to something or another. Higher numbers did improve how much it helped. Though the number did have a direct meaning and that was to represent how many special abilities can be fit on it.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Ace’s hand drops to his weapon. They hadn’t managed to figure out too many effects yet. Though the first one was the most versatile. There was probably some official name for it out in the wider universe, but video and roleplaying games had already decided the matter for them and thus it was a bane enchantment.

  His weapon was enchanted with kobold bane. Ace had tested it out and while the effect wasn’t a show stopper, it was noticeable. Also, the effect was separate from the magic weapon’s basic buff. It had a different feel to it. That feeling was why the term “bane” managed to stick so tightly.

  The weapon shimmered with energies that seemed counter to the existence of kobolds. Wounds dealt by it were harder for them to heal with magic and caused more pain. Also, they had made a single human bane dagger, only to find out that wielding it actually causes damage to any human that tried to wield it despite the energy not being on the handle.

  So yeah, that dagger got destroyed. Ace had even been tempted to outlaw human bane, but decided against it for the moment. To make a law would draw too much attention to it. Besides, even just right now, there is another sapient in their town and Ace didn’t want to constantly have to change the law or make it too broad.

  Even his kobold bane weapon could eventually fall under the law if some sapient kobolds showed up in town. Better to just let sleeping dogs lay. Ace knew there would be enchantments in the future that would get outlawed, but bane wasn’t one he wanted to touch, at least at the moment.

  More important was what they had figured out about enchantments, or at least the enchantments that can fit on a plus one and a plus two items. They’re about the same, except in how general the effect is. Plus, one can only fit very specific and targeted effects, while plus two is about the same power except broadened.

  Ace is sure there are all kinds of exceptions, but those can be found later. At the moment, Kelly can’t even make a +2 item, let alone apply an enchantment that would use two slots. She could only extrapolate.

  Though there was a reason beyond secret for why the work was being done in the gate complex. An irritating reason that makes their original secret all the more dangerous, at least on the low end. Ace sighs, it is quicker and easier to enchant something if you have a higher regeneration rate on Mana or whatever it is you’re using.

  All the while, down in the dungeon Ally is crossing her fingers that they toss an enchanted weapon or two in. While they had destroyed the human bane dagger, that wasn’t done by throwing it into the dungeon. For some reason, they didn’t seem to want to give them access to the human bane enchantment.

  Not that Doyle won’t be able to develop it the moment he gains access to any bane enchantment. It might be different in other universes, but the system forces a degree of modularity. So, while the enchantment will be set once on an item. Knowing the pattern tends to be enough to experiment with other effects. Banes being an obvious one, though the elemental sword types are also covered.

  If you can make a fire sword, it is relatively easy to make a water sword. Of course, Kelly would also realize this. After all, the easiest way to key a bane effect is with the target’s blood and so Ally doesn’t exactly expect such a boon in the short term. She can dream, though.

  However, it would not surprise her if they tossed an elemental enchant into the dungeon soon enough. Fire swords are a popular weapon in the low end and Ally has a sneaking suspicion that a fire dagger will really sell well. After all, barring an aquatic version, a fire dagger is probably one of the easier methods of freeing oneself from an assassin vine. Even more than a bane targeting them, a flame weapon would allow a much easier cut.

  Of course, you had to actually make the cut in the first place. Ally giggled to herself as she thought of this. There is a sizable difference between practice and having a vine literally choking you to death. Plus, while the flame might not hurt you, because magic, the dagger itself is still a sharp piece of metal. Have to be careful you don’t do the plant’s job for it!

  And as it seems everyone else in the know is making plans for her products, Kelly is working away in her lab. Enchantments had opened her eyes to another aspect of magic. Spells, their complexity, and how that separates them.

  To be honest, she hated how much people were comparing the magic system to some roleplaying games. Though thankfully, the Mana regen and spells known aspect made the actual system more free form than even hoped for. Except, she couldn’t help but think of some aspects of those roleplaying games, the ever useful meta magics.

  While not directly possible, at least not how they were implied to work in the old games. Kelly felt that she could adapt some aspects. In particular, those that did generic things like extending a spell’s duration or area of effect.

  After all, to some extent spells tended to be quite similar in that aspect to begin with, at least within a person’s own spells. While one person may do it differently from another, unless taught by rote, a person’s spells will tend towards internal consistency. So, the aspect that controls stuff like duration, range, area, and so on would use similar magical constructs.

  It should be possible for a person to figure out a way to tack on a bit of extra power that modifies those aspects without changing the base spell. Of course, Kelly can just modify her spells to start with. What the meta magic concept helped with was ironically speed. Because from what little research she had done, using them would increase the cast time of a spell. However, compared to how long it would take to modify a spell on the fly? Much faster.

  As these changes were happening, the world energy continued to thicken. Almost unnoticed, this density of energy helped those who strived for it, to keep up their blistering rate of improvement. Not all was good, though. For just as the increased energy density allowed the humans and various kin to improve, it also soaked into the animals, plants, and monsters making their home out in the wilds.

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