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A week has gone by in the Igni Kingdom, and the end of the month was approaching steadily.
?
Outside of the busy streets of the city, Ervas, Veronica, and Kireina were flying around the outskirts of the Kingdom.
A large structure made of bricks emerged from the ground, flooding the forest with a strange power.
It opened its gates as miasma began to stream inside of it, after a few hours, monsters would begin to appear inside.
Although it was rather small, as it was only a single floor, this structure was a Dungeon.
By employing their newly acquired Dungeon Creation Skill, Ervas and Veronica managed to create a few dungeons around the Kingdom, although they were rather small, only having one or two floors, where only Rank 1 and 2 monsters roamed, such as Horned Rabbits and Giant Demon Rats.
These Dungeons were mostly made so the two could get used to the 'feeling' of creating a Dungeon, which was highly attributed to their own minds, will, and well, the ridiculous amount of Mana needed for this.
And of course, such easy to clear Dungeons would continuously generate these Rank 1 and 2 monsters, whose meat was delicious and also easy to catch, even an unexperienced group of young Beast-kin were able to fight against a few Horned Rabbits or Giant Demon Rats, and there was always a Clone of Veronica or a Phantom Clone of Ervas monitoring the places, so it was mostly a safe place where people could go hunting for food without having to search around the forest and waste a lot of time doing so.
Although Ervas and Veronica desired to create stronger Dungeons, this was their limit for now.
If they wanted to create stronger ones, they would need to first level up the Skill, but its proficiency was increasing quite slowly, and although Job Changes could bring a quick boost to Skill Proficiency, their Jobs and Ranks have not increased their levels that much, even when they had a few dozen of Clones inside of the Undead Labyrinth and the Underground Labyrinth constantly slaying strong monsters.
It seems that they had finally hit a progression wall after so much, and were struggling to get their levels higher unless they were to fight stronger beings or go against someone that challenged them to a great extent.
Also, creating a whole dungeon usually took around 15 to 20 hours, so they would often just create one every two days, as it was also quite exhausting to their souls to infuse so many millions of Mana into a single task for several hours continuously.
Creating Dungeons was rather tiring to the mind and soul, more than simply manipulating the mana around the body of living beings to nourish them, as Ervas usually did with the forest, which had already become his domain, with Plant-type monsters appearing and joining the Kingdom every day.
The Igni Kingdom didn't need to plant crops at all, as they had a large number of their population being Plant-type monsters, who were able to easily create herbs, vegetables, and fruits as long as they were provided with enough Mana, feeding the entire population.
This coupled with the Dungeons that generated Rank 1 and 2 monsters, made the Igni Kingdom a well-sustained nation.
Of course, such weak Dungeons would never spawn naturally, so other nations or Kingdoms could never easily get sustainable meat through this method.
And Plant-type monsters were thought to be impossible to tame as they seemed to lack the normal instincts of monsters or animals such as fear and hunger, due to their strange and unique compositions, so taming them through food and other methods was impossible.
This way, the Igni Kingdom was perhaps one of the first ones to employ monsters and dungeons into their daily lives to such an extent.
Although the surrounding nations and kingdoms also used the Dungeons to gather resources and food, this was only through Adventurers, as normal folk was not strong enough to hunt inside of the dangerous dungeons, where monsters of a minimum Rank of 4 roamed freely.
However, in the Igni Kingdom, every citizen was a Beast-kin or a Demon, naturally gifted races with strong physique and strength, even a group of children was capable of hunting by themselves as early as 4 years of age.
There was also a strong sense of companionship in the Kingdom, which most nations or empires did not have. This was generated by Ervas and Veronica, who unified their people through their strength and gentle natures, being natural leaders that guided their people and helped them as much as they could.
"And we are done, this should be the last dungeon we could make before those guys come here…" said Ervas.
"Hm, although these Dungeons are only temporary, as we are going away from here anyway," said Veronica as she sighed.
"How are the preparations inside of your soul going?" asked Ervas.
"Oh, everything is doing quite nice, we had managed to fill a lot of land with the ground, and through Golem Creation, I have been paving everything and also generating stone amongst other things, so houses are beginning to finally appear around… The artificial sun will take some time though," said Veronica.
"That's good. Is Kireina there?" asked Ervas.
"Yep, wanna enter?" asked Veronica.
"Alright," said Ervas.
Veronica suddenly extended her soul widely around her, generating an opening, where Ervas entered flying.
A world of eternal night and beautiful stars greeted him.
Ervas glared around, as he found himself quite surprised by the changes in the floor.
A week ago, all of this was simply darkness, but now, amidst the darkness, there was a tiny 'isle' of things.
A large amount of ground extended across, which was quickly filled with nocturnal plants and fungi, the rest of the area, such as its center, was being paved by Veronica, a living copy of her, but made of the phantom, who was paving streets similar than the Igni Kingdom, while also building up houses and other buildings.
There was even a large artificial pond, where fish swam around.
"You have worked pretty hard," said Ervas.
"Ah, lord Ervas~!" said Kireina, as she greeted Ervas with a tight hug, Ervas face was then asphyxiated by Kireina's large breasts.
"Bugguuh…!"
"Oh! Sorry, fufu," said Kireina, freeing Ervas from her lovely embrace, as she showed Ervas the place.
This was the inside of Veronica's soul, after her soul evolved into Abyssal Tartarus Soul, she was able to use her Space Expansion Skill on her own soul, creating a large space where living and unliving beings could reside.
There was oxygen as it entered naturally from the outside world, and even some flows of wind could be felt from time to time.
The overall place was rather humid and cold, like a cave of sorts, however, Kireina and Veronica worked hard so it could still be comfortable for people to temporarily live inside.
There was even a new and even greater castle being built in there, where several Undead worked diligently to clean and fill with decorations.
It seemed that Undead felt the most welcomed in such a 'world', as it was Veronica's soul, a place where Death reigned.
Flying up to the sky, Ervas, Kireina, and Veronica's Soul Clone that resided only inside of her soul flew to the skies, where they found several Spirits and Ghosts flying around an enormous sphere of light.
This was an artificial sun, although it could be said to be more like a giant light bulb.
"I created this baby through Golem Creation, shaping it was pretty easy once I had the image on my mind…" said Veronica.
Golem Creation was a Skill that lets the user create matter in exchange for large amounts of Mana. Veronica used this Skill to create glass and mold it as a gigantic, almost fifty meters large light bulb.
The source of the light, of course, was magic.
Shade and other Light Attribute Spirits floated around, as they maintained the light while creating runes around, they were slowly creating a special Magic Construct that produced light in exchange for Veronica's Mana, which was absorbed automatically from her soul.
"Ah, Ervas, you're finally here… Help us out, please," said Shade.
"This is a tiring work…" said Ozgeth.
"Oh, very well then," said Ervas, as he flew towards the enormous floating light bulb and began to use Mana Construct into the large magic formation, hastening its creation until it was finally finished.
"It's done! We are done here!"
"I'm tired…"
The Light Attribute Spirits which were borrowed from Veronica and Ervas friends flew away, leaving Veronica's soul and flying back to their original owners.
Flash!
The giant light bulb finally began to shine brightly, although its light was not as intense as the real deal, it was good enough to create a light similar to a sunset, making the place more soothing.
"Now that we are done with the Dungeons and have prepared a place to move our people, we need to begin our next plan," said Veronica.
"Oh, finally!" said Kireina.
"Hm, time to dig up a lot of dirt. Thankfully, we got Grakgna and Araba now to help us out on that," said Ervas.
"So we are using the same strategy as before?" asked Veronica.
"Yes, if they bring a large enough army, we should be able to suppress the vast majority like this… Although we should make the trap deadlier," said Ervas.
"Oh, I know! Maybe I can help out with that, if we create a ton of spears down below, we could impale all of them the moment they fall," said Veronica.
"Yeah, our previous strategy of the same nature lacked this crucial plan," said Ervas.
"Although we should still make it, so they don't all die immediately, our friends need EXP after all," said Kireina.
"That's right, alright, let's go have lunch and then we'll get to it!" said Veronica.
Ervas, Kireina, Shade, and Ozgeth flew out of Veronica's soul as they joined Veronica's main body, flying back to the Igni Kingdom, as the beautiful sight of their developed nation greeted their eyes.
People walked through the streets, selling their products, buying groceries, working in their workshops, playing games, or having lunch in large stalls with their friends and family.
The young children ran around the streets, playing and laughing.
A sight that made them desire to protect this precious moment.
Ervas and Veronica had already gone through horrible things several times in their previous life, their nation, the one they took care was destroyed, and every citizen was mercilessly slaughtered.
They still held such sorrowful memories in their minds, so they could always strive forward, to push themselves to reach their goals.
Now that they finally had the possibility of fighting by themselves, now that they finally had the strength and the opportunities, they would use everything they had to accomplish their goals.
There was not going to be the fourth life for them, this was the life where they would finally win, whatever it takes.
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