Finally, having one of the women commit abortion was maybe a good thing. As the other pregnant women see the state of fatigue the one who had done it is in, they tend to reconsider the action. I have no doubt that some will still do it, but some others won’t be able to gather the courage to do it. And in my view, that’s good.

Also, it turns out that the discarded fetus isn’t really differentiable from the occasional animals’ ones I can see in my burrows. It’s interesting and future examination on the subject may bring information on what makes the difference between sapient species and animals. But that is something that needs to wait for me to remove the interdiction on abortion, and it won’t happen soon.

And that Gnome, she can perform such a gruesome operation with a face showing an expression somewhere between focus and boredom. The way she’s talking to the other member women about the procedure, it’s hardly believable the lack of emotion in her voice, only bored professionalism. On the other side, what she can do with the fetus before discarding it. ‘Foetus’, it’s a word I learned thanks to her, and her habit to think aloud when working on something she finds interesting. Yes, she finds the abortions boring, but what she does after is interesting for her, and fascinating for me. She dissects the fetus. From what I understand she’s interested in what makes the sapient beings sapient, like me. Maybe I can strike some kind of deal with her, to help her in her studies so I can use them for myself. Anyway, I’ll keep an eye on her.

In a house on the other side of the small town, I feel a small surge of mana. It’s the water token that Mililara found in the Maze and asked me about in the safe zone. I found her standing in her room with fragments of the water token in her hands. It means I have a promise to keep. I gather a bit of mana and start the arrangements. I dig a small waterway in the walls of the house and pad it with a layer of metal, I don’t want this water to be sullied with dirt from the walls or to damage the structure. Plus it needs to be some metal that can’t rust and is cheaper than the coins I provide my inhabitants, so I guess my choice goes to lead. I also install a sink with a faucet in the corner of her main room and another in her restroom. It’s not much for now, but she has running water in her house now and doesn’t need to go to the river to get some. And she can use other water tokens to improve it or the better quality ones I plan to implement in lower levels of the Maze.

There’s something else about that particular woman. It’s not the first time I notice this, but when I look at her I feel something weird, some kind of need to make her mine. I don’t know from where comes that sensation. She’s beautiful and the more I look at her the more I want to claim her by force. But I know that I can’t forcefully claim her without risking to kill or maim her, yet. So I force myself to apply some restraint and for now I only make sure to put a bit more of my mana in some of her food, hopefully, that will allow me to claim her faster.

Speaking of claiming sapient beings, the big Grundy is still trying to meditate. He’s following my instructions to the best of his capacities. I give him my help and I push my mana on him, allowing him to take more of a purer mana in than he could do with only the ambient one. Unfortunately, he’s lacking the talent and the experience that Franziska can display, it will take him a lot more time to manage lowering his resistance enough for me to claim him. But I think it can be done in one or two more days, with my help. Without it, he would need at least a month to succeed, if not more.

I also take a look at my Dwarf, she’s doing some exercises to feel how her body is different now that she’s mine and to better seize her new abilities, she’s also working on the box I gave her to help her focus her mana. That reminds me I have a promise to fulfil for her. I have a smithy to build. But I don’t know how to do a good one, so I contact my Dwarf and ask her to draw the plans for me. She seems glad to be able to design her own smithy. In the meantime, I will work on the other Citizens only facilities.

I start by raising the roof of the cavern and by digging a new area on a higher level than the current village, it’s on this level that I plan to build most of the Citizens’ only place of the town. I choose a part on the side where I grow a big building. For the walls, the floor, and the roof I try to make it out of a better quality stone than usual. I have a faint impression there is some kind of stone that would be ideal for what I want to do, but I don’t know how to make it. So, for now, my public hot bath will have to be satisfied with mana fortified smooth stone. I dig a total of six big bathes, three in the front of the building that are purposely of a lesser quality that I fill with barely warm water, one for women, one for men and one mixed. In the back of the building I put the other three bathes, they are built in the same arrangement but I give some extra care to them and add some decorations, mainly some kind of abstract engravings on the walls. Those bathes are filled with hot water and I also put some other smaller bathes near them that I fill with cold water. For warming the water I have to install a fireplace under the baths, I don’t know how to magically warm the water, but I think it is possible. After all, if there are water stones, there should also be fire ones. The two parts of the building are separated by a wall with a big double door that can only be opened by Citizens, I carve on and upon it the inscription ‘Citizens’ Area’. The front part can be accessed by everyone and mainly serves as advertising for the inner part. On the front wall I install another double door but this time I carve the words ‘Hot Baths’.

I know my buildings aren’t of the finest architecture, I’m not an artist and never had been, even in my previous life. But it’s not that bad, one day, when I have some artists in my Domain, I’m going to reshape the village into a big city, one of international importance.

The construction of this building attracts the attention of the locals, and by the time it is finished, a quarter of the former slaves are standing in front of it, waiting to see what I’m doing. At the moment I finish carving the inscription upon the front door the mumblings of the small crowd change from wondering to anticipation. I look at some of them that are quite wary and don’t dare to approach while some others look pleased by what they can read and advance towards the new building.

“Are you sure it’s a good idea to go in? It could be a trap.” Says one of them. Come on, if I wanted to kill you I could do it with far fewer efforts. I think looking at him.

“Really? You really think the dungeon would put on this kind of trap? After all, it had already done to keep us alive? Plus, it has clearly stated that it wants us to be his ‘citizens’ not his ‘dead bodies rotting away’.” Responds another one. Yes, that’s it, this one’s smarter. I think of this one better than the other one.

“Hrmff. I still don’t trust it.” Makes the first man.

“Whatever dude, I’m going to take a bath in hot water. I’m tired of washing myself with cold water.”

After a bit of time and relaxation, I can see that the people here are kind of disappointed by the hot baths, they would rather have really hot water instead of just warm one. But they can see there is a full part of the building they can’t access and they speculate wildly on what is on the other side. The main theory is that there are really hot baths, of course, they’re right.