While everyone else is distracted by the failed delve, the four ladies who had decided to stay in the settlement were in the middle of their own little problem. Specifically, they weren’t exactly just there to accompany the idiot. In fact, most people back at the town up river expected a situation very much like the one that ended up happening. Though more on the side of the girls being sent out of the dungeon after being a complete nuisance. The only catch is no one had planned on the girls wanting to stay afterwards.

Their conversation had been going on for a little bit already but hadn’t touched on anything important until Courtney sighs, “I don’t think they even bothered to spy on us. They just took our words at face value and are willing to let us stay. Sure, they don’t fully trust us but I can understand that.”

Jessica nods, “I’m a little surprised they offered me the head cook position right off the bat. Sure, we weren’t exactly advertising the fact we were trying to spy on them, but to let a random person off the street just start cooking for you?”

Courtney shakes her head, “I’ve been watching them work on the buildings and such. My guess is that without an actual skill to create poison most of the people here would shrug it off as just a bit of indigestion. Nevermind the fact that the one married couple could probably spot any attempt to poison the settlement from a mile off.”

Pam sighs, “And it isn’t like there is anything for me to find while cleaning. The only place likely to have any actual secrets at this point would be their leader’s office, which is built into the safety zone around the dungeon’s entrance. Not only are they unlikely to let me clean there, but I don’t want to be that close, anyway.”

“In fact, I think the only paper this entire settlement has is in there. They just don’t have any needs yet to record things on paper. We came in expecting at least minor trappings of pre-system times and yet these idiots have happily regressed to colonial standards! I wouldn’t be surprised to see one of them wearing a tri-corner hat or some such nonsense.”

Susan smiles, “Those would be fun to make. Though I have a different take on the situation. They are not happily regressing or what have you. Rather, they are working with what they have. We know some of what happened here and saw the burnt-out remains of the two pre-system towns over there.”

“Back up river we have a bunch of infrastructure which is helping us support our old style of living. Here? They don’t have that support and I suspect they will be able to build up to what we have easily enough. Worse yet, they will probably be able to maintain it. Our old town isn’t going to be able to do that. The old way of maintaining such a lifestyle involved way too much oppression and an advanced supply system.”

“We no longer can offload the growing of potatoes to people in another state. Our clothes can no longer be made in sweatshops across the sea. Not only because we just don’t have the ability to travel like that anymore. But more to the point, it will be a lot harder to convince others to do that kind of stuff when all it takes is a quick dungeon dive to support yourself. Sure, most of them will likely end up dead, but it isn’t like people will stop trying.”

Courtney shrugs, “Well, there was a reason we decided to stick with this settlement in the first place. They’re looking towards the future. Our old place is stuck in the past. And in my opinion? Even if they could perfectly imitate all the past glories, it won’t mean much in the long run. Space is a big place and from how I understand it, magic is what lets people cross it in a reasonable time frame.”

“At the moment, we are protected here on our little blue marble because the System isn’t letting people come by. But that won’t last forever. All it will take is one ship dropping by to completely upend any efforts on our part. The visitors don’t even need to be malicious. I bet they have things out there that make even the height of pre-system luxury seem like roughing it. Just the cheap mass produced gadgets they bring would likely have caused a war or two in the past.”

“To not be subject to the whims of some rich kid from the stars who happens to stop by on a chance we need to be moving forward. Our old town might have a few people who want that. Hell, even our erstwhile leader wanted it. But the old guard who hold most of the power don’t. That place is going to stagnate and I don’t want to be brought down by it. Someday, if they don’t get their act together, that place will be looked down upon like it was a slum.”

Susan nods, “I’m going to throw my full support behind this place. The only question that remains is what do we tell them? I don’t want to cause any of you trouble but I’m going to admit to having been sent to spy on them. If the rest of you want to keep your part in it secret, I won’t mind too much but you can’t stop me from telling my side.”

The other three look at one another and shrug. Susan smiles at this, “Then it is decided. We should probably go and find Ace real quick to admit the truth. While it was nice being treated so well when they thought we fell for the idiots skills, I don’t want to be thought of as that weak willed.”

Jessica laughs, “Even if the idiot survives the dungeon, he doesn’t have long to live, anyway. Seems like he has been on good behaviour but that can only last so long. He can’t help but try to use his skills on anyone he views as below him. Maybe if he knew that there was a system message which alerts a target when his skill fails he might not be so keen to use it. As luck would have it though, no one has bothered to inform him of this little fact yet.”

Pam sighs, “I hope all similar skills work in the same method though I suspect they don’t. While the system as a whole seems to frown upon such nonsense, it hasn’t been completely outlawed. Anyway, let’s go and figure out how we will get treated from now on.”

The four of them wrap up their talk with that and head off towards Ace. Of course Ace and the other founders aren’t quite so stupid as to actually believe what the four said at face value. While Courtney had a couple tricks to check if their conversation was being spied on it wasn’t enough to handle magical spying.

Back in Ace’s office Josh has been relaying everything the four had said through a clever use of air magic. Once the four of them head towards his office, Ace gestures for Josh to leave and is once again left alone with his paperwork. Though the cheeky smile plastered on his face shows that things turned out much better than he had ever expected. And knowing how easy it is to spy on others confirms his previous decision to have all secret discussions within the dungeon itself.

When the four arrive, the conversation goes much as they expected. While Ace was willing to trust them more after they admitted their original purpose, he wasn’t exactly going to tell them he has people who can spy on them without them knowing. With that in mind he gives them enough pushback that the ladies feel they aren’t getting away with their attempts at spying for free.

Once he sends them off though, Ace calls over Susan, Kelly, Doctor, Kyle, and Jimmy to have a quick chat in the dungeon. Safe from prying ears, eyes, and assorted magics, Ace frowns, “We just had the first outsiders join the settlement. The numbers of which will grow over the next week. Those four however weren’t normal people, but rather spies. Not professional spies, mind you. Rather, there are some powers up the river who aren’t falling in with Ben and the ladies were politely”

Ace is interrupted by Susan snorting but he continues, “Were Politely asked to keep an eye on us. I am, of course a little worried, as that idiot had some sort of power to warp minds. It would be hard to trust anyone with powers like those being around. Kelly, I assume you’ve looked into it after the four talked to you during their walk?”

Kelly nods, “Sadly, I didn’t consider asking about things like mind control and slave magic while still in the tutorial. However with what I do know there are some things that can be teased apart as well as some new info that the girls offered. Whoever was behind them was much more knowledgeable on the subject in general and had extracted some key info from the idiot with a little investment of alcohol.”

“First of all and most important, the system does not permit such effects to be permanent. This means that not only does someone need to keep applying such abilities over and over, but there are no permanent slave collars. I’m sure everyone is relieved to hear that.”

“The problem is that while the mind control might not be permanent, this doesn’t mean the affected person will realize they were mind controlled when it wears off. This means that if someone is controlled to do a thing they will rationalize doing it. Maybe once the control wears off, they might decide to tell someone about it but they will truly believe it was their choice. Mind you, not all such abilities are sneaky like this. The idiot’s ability was apparently very loud about when it wears off. Though even something as obvious as a system message popping up telling you that a mind control power just wore off isn’t going to do much good if they promptly control you again.”

“This brings us to a third thing. It probably only happens with the weaker examples, but at the very least the idiot’s ability not only announces when it wears off but also when it fails. That means if he had tried it on any of us and we beat it, the system would have popped up a message about it happening. Since such things are frowned upon in the first place, I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that for the moment, all mind control abilities on the planet will do this. There is no way that the system would allow a more powerful mind control ability to develop naturally.”

Ace sighs, “Not having to worry about slave collars and other such nonsense is a relief.”

Kelly coughs, “I said no permanent slave collars. The more powerful the effect, the less time they last but someone could make a temporary control collar. A form of this is actually how some more advanced worlds handle powerful criminals. Just a collar with suggestion that they can’t use more strength or ability than a normal human might not last long on someone with the power to destroy a town single handedly, but it will last long enough to get them into an anti-magic cell or whatever other contaminant is needed. Good news is that it has to be a collar, and it has to be a big bulky one at that. A small necklace will not work.”

Ace sighs harder, “Well. That is at least something we can watch out for. The fact that the system restricts mind control enchantments to being put on a collar is a relief. That is right, Kelly?” and he glares at her until she nods.

Ace nods back, “Good. So what I’m hearing is that while annoying and something to look out for, mind control isn’t too much of a worry until outside forces join in on the fun. Though I assume if someone worshiped a god of mind control or some such they might have access to better things.”

Kelly nods to this as well and Ace throws his hands into the air, “I was trying to make a joke! Why would the system allow gods to slavery?”

Kelly coughs, “Well, slavery in and of itself doesn’t need to be magical. Plus from what I understand they tend to position themselves more along the lines of being gods who support hierarchies. This allows them to branch out into things like supporting nobility and companies. Just because one of the hierarchies that they happen to heavily lean towards being that of master and slave doesn’t matter to the system.”

“That and the system only controls our dimension. From how I understand it, gods aren’t so limited. They can’t actually travel to new dimensions, but if someone worships them in a dimension that allows them to manifest in it. While the system prevents such nonsense here, it isn’t everywhere. In fact, I suspect that those gods could bestow something like a slave collar but choose not to. Not because of the system or any of us, but rather out of fear for the person who made the system.”