Dana stood at the edge of her manufacturing facility, holding a small clipboard in her hands. In front of her were five large buildings, each containing four of her mana refineries. It was time for the regular maintenance, so she first walked into the building marked with the number one.

In order to lessen the risks as much as possible, this facility was within the same ‘spare world’ as their world research center. However, it was over a thousand kilometers away so that they could lower the risks of the two facilities influencing each other. Given that they had the entire world to use, courtesy of the Keeper, there was more than enough space for them to create a variety of different facilities.

What was unfortunate, though, was that monsters had begun to naturally spawn after Dana’s visits to the world became more frequent. As such, she was forced to install defensive measures to prevent either of her territories from being overrun. These measures took the form of sixteen towers evenly spread around the perimeter of the production center.

“Maybe we should create a World Spirit for this area to serve as the manager?” Dana mused to herself as she entered the factory. Inside were four large machines, each with a conveyor belt leading to their own assembly lines.

One of the machines suddenly lit up, a progress bar appearing on its forward screen. Once the bar had been filled, the conveyor belt began to move, retrieving a blue brick only six inches long and three high. This brick was then taken to the assembly line, where it was encased in a ki-forged iron box.

Finally, this box was deposited through a portal into an underground warehouse to be sorted and await an automatic order. Unfortunately, such precautions were entirely necessary. Each individual brick gave off very little residual mana. That mana, however, would constantly add up when the bricks were stored in large quantities.

As Dana was nodding her head in satisfaction, checking the performance of each machine, she felt a tremor run through the ground. Her lips tugged downwards as she glanced out behind her. That tremor naturally meant that the towers had identified and attacked yet another monster.

“Yeah… it might be a good idea.” She thought to herself, closing her eyes and concentrating on her link with Tsubaki. Before she did something as big as this, she first wanted permission. This wasn’t exactly something that could be taken back later.

However, Tsubaki seemed surprisingly okay with this suggestion. It would be the first time such a being was created by anyone other than the Keeper, so Dana had assumed that Tsubaki would have some reservations.

Instead… I do not believe that this method is necessarily one that the Keeper would want to monopolize. Regardless of their creator, the Keeper has informed me that the world spirits would be unable to turn against him. If you want to handle the matter this way, I do not believe that he would be upset.

Blinking a bit at that realization, Dana nodded her head. “Well, I’m not going to do it here, anyways.” She muttered, looking at the sensitive machinery. The energy fluctuations of creating a world spirit here would no doubt disrupt the production line.

As such, she quickly swept through the other three factory buildings to ensure that there did not seem to be any parts that were breaking down in the refineries. Although they were a few years old, they underwent regular check-ups to prevent them from easily falling apart, and Dana was careful not to push them beyond the recommended production limit.

Once she was done with her maintenance check, she wrote down which parts were starting to show damage, and made plans to place an order for those parts after she returned. Originally, the Sky Citadel was rather short on funds, but did not require money for most matters. The name of the Keeper was essentially a blank check for them to request anything they wanted that they couldn’t make themselves.

Now, however, they had more funds than they reasonably knew what to do with. Each mana brick was valued as being worth a single token of Ryone. A rather amusing rate for it, but the Goddess seemed to enjoy it. With the speed of the refineries, they were producing an average of four bricks per minute.

Even if you converted the coins into the highest standard, they would be making almost a dozen tokens of Terra every day. This was all thanks to the Reality Marble used to fuel the refineries. Otherwise, even large businesses would have difficulty turning over such a regular profit.

With that taken care of, Dana walked outside of the production area, and began to take flight. The previously green ground had been scorched black for a thousand meters beyond the perimeter created by the towers, a natural effect from the constant battles. This area was treated as a ‘death zone’ by many monsters, so they only rarely approached.

Beyond that death zone, however, the world had been turned into a monster paradise. Left to breed and spawn endlessly, with no civilization to limit them, the monsters had already dominated the unoccupied territory of the world. This was the biggest concern for both Tsubaki and Dana, as more monsters meant a higher chance for their facilities to be intruded upon.

Naturally, neither of them could afford to spend all of their time within this world to oversee it. With that thought in mind, Dana flew a dozen kilometers away from her production plants, before suddenly stopping in midair. Down below, she could see numerous roaming monsters, some of which looked up towards her and let out threatening roars.

She paid no mind to these monsters, directly producing a scepter from her energy. This was not the mana-producing scepter she commonly used, but rather the one with produced spiritual energy. “Will of the world, heed my summons and take form.”

The scepter in her hands lit up, releasing boundless grey mist into her surroundings. At the same time, she controlled the natural energy in the air. It was time to create a true overseer for this world, one that would always be able to maintain the peace.

There was a lot that could change in ten years, when I took a closer look. Aside from the great forest that had appeared in Lorek, there were numerous changes that created ripples through the other worlds, as well. For instance… it seemed that Fafnir had finally managed to finish his ascension.

He was among the new gods that had begun to appear during this period of time, but of all of them, he was no doubt the one that surprised me the most. Fafnir no longer looked like a traditional western dragon, his wings having vanished entirely as his body elongated. For some reason, he chose to look far more like an eastern dragon, though I didn’t know for sure what the exact difference was between them in my own world.

As Fafnir jumped from his mountain peak to take flight, I realized that my previous assumption wasn’t entirely correct. He didn’t lose his wings, but rather changed them. Fafnir was the Dragon God of the Sky, and the sky itself had become his wings. Whenever he flew, ripples would form in the air around him, air currents shifting into the shape of wings surrounding his body.

Part of me wondered if he would ever be able to fly outside of the atmosphere with his current use of his power. After all, how would he create wings of air where there was no air? Where was the sky beyond the atmosphere? There was the possibility that Fafnir had limited himself unknowingly with his own domain choice, but I would find out in the future.

However, with Fafnir’s matter taken care of, there was something else that I wanted to look at a bit more urgently. I had simply been distracted by seeing my dragon in his new form. My view of the world panned off to the side, beginning to search through the bottom of the ocean…

A song rang out through the ocean floor, a call to the merkin from their fellow men. This was a summons unlike any that had occurred in the past, one that had been maintained for a full five years at this point. For so long, they had been scattered. A sea divided among many clans, many songs leading their path.

However, with the gathering song, these scattered clans were called to action. Their destination was the first true city of the merkin. Not merely a brine pool or coral forest, but a true city. Surrounding the city was a thin film, like the surface of a bubble. This film was a barrier that had been passed down from the people above the waves, the children of the land.

There were a number of reasons that had kept the merkin from truly advancing in the past. While the primary cause was their attention span, it was by no means the only reason. With their dwellings beneath the sea, they had no true interaction with fire, and could not learn how to forge metal, even accidentally.

With no written language, they could only pass down their knowledge through their songs. And without the ability to properly pass down their knowledge, they had almost no interactions with magic. Whereas it was common for adults of any other race to reach a level of one hundred and fifty as a scholar simply through mandatory education, the average merkin had a scholar level of no greater than ten.

In an effort to establish a relationship with the merkin, the child of the land had given them a number of items to solve their shortcoming. One was a pearl bracelet that enhanced their memory. Another was the barrier surrounding their city. Finally, they had helped the merkin in learning the language of the surface world.

While their civilization was by no means modern, the city was far beyond anything that had been accomplished before by this race. Houses made of coral were erected and renovated. Enchanters were being trained in the creation of the pearl bracelets, and forgemasters were beginning to emerge.

However, the ‘forge’ of the merkins was very different from that of any other race. They did not create their tools with fire, but with the products of the sea. Weapons made from the bones of sea monsters began to appear among the guards of the city.

The most common of these weapons was the lance. Of all the different types of movement, a straight thrust proved to produce the least resistance in the water, making this type of weapon more highly sought after.

As for what the child of land wanted in return? It could be regarded as trash by the merkin. Cores dropped by the countless monsters littering the ocean floor, or the bodies of beasts that were too resilient for the merkin themselves to process.

He was happy to take these materials that were akin to garbage, trading them for valuable information and magical insights.

What the child of land didn’t realize was that the merkin were not an exclusive resource for him alone. As they realized the generosity of the people above, they began to take the initiative to make contact with others who passed above their territory. Unknown to them, their presence was beginning to cause a stir amongst the children of the land.

Where once it was rare for people to set out to sea, there were now various trading companies that sought to do so in silence. When people saw the ships leaving the harbor, they were confused. Why would so many ships set sail on a trading voyage, when they could easily take a portal to conduct most trading matters?

However, as those ships returned carrying numerous riches and rare materials, even the common people began to take an interest. The time when the merkin would be known to all was fast approaching.