After the mission assignments, the youngsters dispersed, while I traveled to Town Maell with Zolast. At first glance, Town Maell might have seemed like a lower-priority target. The mountain range was teeming with monsters and cultists alike, representing a threat, while the new city was still being built, its defenses far from perfect, particularly vulnerable to sabotage.

I wished that I could clone myself and supervise both operations at the same time, even with a lifetime of experience telling me that doing so would only regress their growth into incredible leaders of their own.

Of course, under more ideal conditions, I would have hovered nearby without showing myself, ready to intervene in case of a serious emergency; like I had been doing for the last few months, treating it as another test before their graduation. Unfortunately, things were nowhere near perfect, with new enemies and dangerous complications popping out at an annoyingly high frequency.

We picked Town Maell as our destination, because it was under the direct control of our church, making it ideal for the two experiments we had in mind.

"Are you sure you want to start testing your new abilities with a dungeon?" Zolast asked again once we stepped out of the flying cart. "I still feel as though testing divine alignment is more important."

"Not necessarily," I answered. "Even if we resolve it, it'll take a couple of days for Mahruss to recruit and vet the new recruits. Not to mention, the dungeon feels as though it is the easier of the two to resolve."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. The last time, I felt like a menu was trying to appear, but there was something else that blocked me from interacting with it. I'm hoping that we can handle it without going to the Astral plane." Zolast nodded, and we headed to the dungeon, which had been emptied already by our orders, as experimenting while it was filled with people didn't feel like a good idea.

"Do you think we can produce Master Skills?" Zolast asked. "It will be an incredible boon, if we can."

"Definitely," I said. "I'm particularly excited by our new mountain teams. Imagine, squads of soldiers below level twenty, but each armed with a master skill and a magic spear, commanded by Takis… Cleaning the mountains will take days rather than months."

"Definitely, and don't forget all the newly recruited blacksmiths," Zolast added. "Imagine what it will do to our production. We can increase our magic weapon production at least tenfold, maybe more if we can find a decent silver mine in the mountains."

I chuckled. "It's not going to be as fun as you think," I said.

Zolast frowned. "I don't understand. We should be able to keep it hidden."

I waved my hand. "That's not what I fear. My concern is more on the economic side. There's no way we can sell that many weapons here, but with the Calamity coming, we can't keep the production limited either. We have to keep everything in warehouses, and it's going to ruin our cash flow completely."

"Can't we just sell them to other nobles? Or guilds?"

"No. They will buy a few, but if we sell them too much, they will start to get ideas about whether they should follow the princess. Even with the city captured, her position is still too shaky to handle it easily. And, the guilds are out for the same reason. We can't strengthen them without strengthening minor nobles…" I sighed, thinking that it was a pity that we were under such a time crunch. I could come up with a dozen ways of intensifying the conflict between them to a tense cold war, where both sides would be desperate to purchase weapons at a premium, yet neither side would dare attack.

Too bad such situations, while profitable, require constant observation to work. It was very easy for things to collapse without constant observation and interventions, and we didn't have the manpower for it.

Maybe in the future…

"Maybe we can sell it to Somaton? Some chaos there would work to our benefit."

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I nodded. "That's a good option, but it won't work immediately. I don't have time to personally ferry them, and setting a proper smuggling channel would take time." I paused for a moment. "No, we're going to have to use Master skills to bridge the gap. We should produce a decent amount, considering royal powers are pretty free throwing them around."

"No, out of question," Zolast argued. "Even with everything we have done, we're still a nuisance to the Royal Families. Master skills are one of their biggest advantages. Using it for our forces is one thing. At this point, we're a relatively strong church, and it's normal to purchase a couple thousand Master skills from various parties. Selling it, on the other hand…"

I smirked. "Oh, old man. Give me more credit," I said.

"What do you mean?"

"What would happen if we allow people to play with Master skills, particularly in private games?"

"They would be willing to put in a lot of silver for the chance to win one," he answered.

"Exactly," I said. "And, since they will be private games, no one will see just how many Master skills we put in circulation. Mix in a few fake nobles from Ralum and Somaton playing and losing big, and it should muddy the waters enough."

"Eventually, they will figure it out."

I waved my hand. "Doesn't matter. The Calamity's arrival is speeding up. As long as we keep them wondering until then, it won't matter. And, if we manage to prevent the Calamity from arriving, they will have better reasons to target us than a few pesky master skills."

"True," Zolast said. "Still, are you sure we will be able to make enough money from Master skills to maintain all the initiatives?"

"Indirectly, yes," I answered. "Thanks to the valuable efforts of the royal families, there is a strong artificial scarcity affecting master skills. So, every time they win a master skill, they will feel like they have just hit an incredible jackpot. Now, tell me, what a gambler does when they win big."

"They ride their hot streak," Zolast replied, at this point, plenty familiar with gambling.

"Exactly. Together, it should solve our resource problem while we expand our infrastructure and stockpile weapons. It should be enough to set some proper smuggling rings in the territory of the other kingdoms."

"Assuming, of course, we can figure out how to mass-produce master skills," Zolast countered. "Every single step of this plan relies on an abundance of master skills."

I nodded. "True, but I'm feeling hopeful."

And, stepped into the dungeon floor.

[Dungeon Manager —

Current Access Authority: Divine Aspirant

Status: Operating

Skills Manager]

Curious, I clicked on the last line.

[Skills Manager —

Analyze Current Skills

Add Skill

Remove Skill]

I clicked on the first line, and a long line of skills appeared in front of me, across various lines, every single one of them currently being produced by the dungeon, restricted exclusively to basic and advanced skills. The list had no realistic pattern, which didn't surprise me. We had already been suspecting that dungeons pulled a random list from available options.

"Huh, better than I expected," I said as I clicked the next item to add skill.

[Add Skill—

Access Skill Library

Use Sample]

Naturally, I clicked the first option, only to be disappointed.

[Insufficient Authority!]

"Problem?" Zolast asked.

"A slight one," I said. "Do you have any master skills with you?"

"Sure, I brought a full range with me," he said, and threw one.

I clicked the second one. The master skill disappeared from my hand as I had absorbed it, but there was no change in the class screen.

I checked the Current Skills tab

[Master Swordsmanship]

"Fascinating," I muttered even as I removed the other skills from the list, leaving only that. Technically, it was a risky proposition, and a mistake might ruin the potential of the dungeon … but I didn't care. At this point, lower-ranked skills were already pretty cheap thanks to all the dungeons operating in the region, and once the new one started operating, they would turn even cheaper.

Altogether, an acceptable risk is to quicken the experimentation.

"Do you mind killing them?" I asked Zolast. He waved his hand, creating a mana nova that killed every single shadow easily.

They still produced the old skills. "Something wrong?" Zolast asked.

"Let's wait until the new set appears," I said, and we waited for a while while the dungeon floor got populated once more. Zolast killed them again.

"Jackpot," I said as I held a new skill in hand.

[Skill Detected: Master Swordsmanship

Absorb?]

Instead of absorbing, I let my mana infuse its structure. Meanwhile, Zolast did the same with another skill. "Well, technically, it's a success," I said, my tone was hesitant. While the skill was classified as a Master Skill, it had significant gaps in its structure. I would be surprised if it could work even at one percent efficiency.

"A step in the right direction," Zolast said, not bothered by it. "I'm sure we can modify the dungeon to improve the quality."

"Really?" I said. "Should we pause and move to the next test, then?"

What I received was a mocking smirk. "Oh, you're not going anywhere," he said. "You're the only one that can access the control menu. You're going to stay there, and we are going to experiment together." He chuckled. "Maybe you'll learn how fun it is to deal with a magical problem other than throwing it to me and gallivanting around."

I sighed in mock defeat. "I better go pick up some food and drinks, then."

He chucked. "Do so. It's going to be a long night…"