Vale didn't have much to report to the others, though he did share with Mias what Wrath had told him about the other worlds: the supposed number and names.

Mias stayed behind in the core, mainly locked in contemplation on the six worlds fact and the supposed realm of corruption, and began crafting some new, wild theory.

He even started to make a diagram by moving various stones around, and then started stacking some.

Vale was a little curious about what the small doll-like man was up to and what kind of theory he was cooking up, but he wasn't going to waste time staring at Mias.

Instead, Vale picked up the [Classic Football] with a curious look on his face, then left the core through the 'american' portal and looked to his side just in time to watch as a worker slashed the last bit of the stone hidden behind the blueprint.

Vale tossed the light ball in the air and caught it in his hands at the exact moment the stone finished evaporating and miraculously transported into the core.

'Finally…'

The mass of workers began screaming in triumph.

"Baaaaaaaduuuuh!"

"Baaaduuuuh!"

"Baaaddduuuuh!"

Vale hid his smile at the sheer elation the little fellas had as they bounded around the room in the air…

Sadly, as their namesake suggested, Vale wasn't going to give them too much time to rest.

'I wish I could reward them properly…'

The most Vale could do was spare extra rations, which had become increasingly easy to get as the number of beasts increased.

'Wait…'

Vale looked at the useless ball in his hand.

"Want this?"

Then, Vale extended his hand and held out the ball toward the nearest worker.

"Baduuh?"

Vale shook the ball a little and added on:

"Here, this is your reward for the hard work."

"Ba-ba-duuuh!"

The imps bounded over to Vale with joy-filled screams and cheers. They were being rewarded! Sure, it was with something they had no clue what to do with… but they were being rewarded!

The first imp took hold of the ball, then held it high above their head… but then, another imp swooped in and stole the ball. Soon, the imps were fighting each other for possession of the ball to be the worker who claimed the reward.

Eventually, this resulted in one worker running for its life with the ball in hand while the rest chased after it. Then, when the ball was dropped, whichever one picked it up next would be the target of obsession.

Vale snickered as he watched the imps play, then eventually left the room and went to where the forge's creation was still underway.

Vale rounded the corner and stared at Larry's back.

"I see you've made some more progress."

Larry spared Vale merely a glance before he went back to hammering a stone nail into the bellow.

Larry's cauldron had been completed, and the current kiln was crude but serviceable. Leaving the bellow as his final task on the project.

Dickless Jr. was right by his side, but Larry, ever since the little one appeared, had only acknowledged them to admonish them. Dickless Jr. wasn't too good yet, but he had acquired the Nascent Artisan Trait and was supporting Larry by making the stone nails. Though mistakes were frequent…

The exceptionally tiny imp with big beady eyes messed up a nail, then cried in dissatisfaction.

"Badu."

Larry just looked over his shoulder, growled, then went back to his task at hand.

As for Marvel and Aster, who were working on the forge…

Marvel had risen all the way to Emergent Artisan with surprising ease; perhaps having Larry to learn from was the key. Or maybe Marvel was simply exceptional. Either way, Marvel had made quite a bit of progress on the forge and had long completed the anvil. It wouldn't be long until its work was entirely complete, then Marvel could divert and help Larry.

In an awkward twist… Sizzy's death had somehow sped progress up because Marvel, who was more competent, had taken over the task.

Vale took notice, but he wasn't going to say it, of course.

Despite Larry's idiotic and aloof nature, the little guy was kind of traumatized having lost its closest friends. Bringing up that loss in any way wasn't healthy for the little imp.

After inspecting the progress a little more, Vale summoned the blueprint function and looked down into the 3-D model…

It was finally time to lay the blueprint for the rest of the dungeon.

As per his original plan, the current core room, the one they spent forever hollowing out, would be made into a logistical hub that connected everything. As for the branching rooms from the hub that Vale wanted to create…

Vale didn't exactly know what kind of rooms he'd need in the end, but he did make an internal list of the most important ones that should be constructed first.

The first creation would be the next core room, located down a hallway to the left side of the room. Unlike the current core room, this room was going to be much smaller as its only purpose was to house Vale's throne as well as the Dungeon Core.

Next, Vale wanted to create a large training room, another iteration of the dungeon within a dungeon, a storage room, and finally, barracks for his regular Legion and sleeping quarters for himself and Champions.

While a storage room may seem redundant since they had the infinite space of the core, the core was going to get tucked further and further away in the dungeon, making access more and more difficult.

This storage room could help streamline progress by storing the most common items they needed, as well as rations.

As for the next dungeon within a dungeon… Vale had been making the necessary sacrifice of indulging in his desires around the workers and warriors, who didn't seem to mind at all. But it was about time for some privacy once again. So, the foundation of a fairly large room, with that as the sole dedication, was laid.

The barracks would be where the typical members of the Legion slept, but the sleeping quarters, the ones for Vale and Champions, were going to be made in a way to give them some privacy when they slept for once.

Even further, Vale wanted to make a lounging room attached to it where he'd put any furniture he'd hopefully acquire. But, sadly, Vale didn't know how or when Larry would be able to create such things.

As the idea coursed through his head, another deplorable thought did alongside it…

'Oh…'

'How… How did I not think of that?!'

Vale paused in the placing of his blueprint to sort through his thoughts…

Larry had struggled so hard to create a simple bowl because Vale had only been miming what it looked like, but if they had an actual bowl to go off of, Larry would have had a much easier time creating one. Furthermore, they only had stone to build the bowl. Nothing else.

There was a straightforward way for Vale to obtain these precious models and materials…

Laertes' village.

If Vale looted the place, he could take… everything.

All of the furniture, tools, beds, clothes… they would all be his.

'No wonder Laertes had seemed so certain I was going to attack the village eventually…'

Every other Vice probably had an epiphany moment just like Vales' own. Why would he create from scratch when he could steal! It's not like he had an image to uphold. Nor did the cultist village seem to be one the world would miss.

Vale was a bit hesitant for a plethora of reasons, but he could not deny the boon that would be from the result of a successful attack.

The most obvious negative was exposing himself to the rest of the world. The second was the terrible nature of the action.

Vale was human, or at least was once, was he going to commit this atrocity of slaughter upon other humans? He'd been able to kill the boy Laertes, but would he be able to slaughter a mass of humans?

On the other hand.... the positives… they were overwhelming.

Just the prospect of sleeping on a bed with a blanket and [Cold Pillow] was enough to instill bloodlust in Vale.

The next obvious issue would be Vale's capability of launching such an attack…

To do so, he'd have to pick those to stay behind and those to go on the offensive; if he overloaded either one, he might lose. Hell, even if he didn't, Vale had no idea of the current capabilities of the village, as well as where the nearest fortresses were.

But he did have a competent spy now who could glean such things.

'Mias… it seems you're going to have a new duty.'

Vale couldn't decide if he really wanted to go through with the attack later, but he wasn't going to be lazy.

It was time to lay the foundation of assault.

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