"That dead girl! She really dares to talk nonsense!"
Hephaestus didn't expect that Tsubaki actually told Takumi that she complained about Hestia not visiting for a long time. Tsubaki had even added fuel to the fire, making her sound like a lonely person in an old nursing home whom no one cared about.
The fact was that she had only mentioned a few words about how Hestia hadn't been by lately, and she was curious about what she was doing. Furthermore, she was simply interested in what Takumi's Dimension City had achieved. That was all.
As for the rest, she had never said anything about their alliance being so weak that it was as if it had never been formed.
Seeing her so angry, Takumi also realized something was wrong.
Logically speaking, how could Hephaestus say something like that when she was usually so mature and stable?
As for complaining that Hestia hadn't played with her for too long, it was mostly impossible.
After all, no matter how good their relationship was, Hestia used to have no home; didn't they both live perfectly fine before?
Even if she did suddenly miss Hestia, Hephaestus's personality made it unlikely she would tell Tsubaki such things.
So... there was something fishy here!
"Tsubaki! Get over here!"
While Takumi was analyzing the situation, Hephaestus rushed out angrily.
However, it was in vain. The person looking after the store had already been replaced by another Hephaestus Familia girl.
Obviously, someone knew that the matter was about to be exposed and ran away in advance. Even "dealing with the accounts" was just an excuse!
She simply didn't dare to face Hephaestus with Takumi for fear of being caught red-handed.
Hephaestus looked at the girl who was now tending the shop.
The girl could see how angry Hephaestus was and panicked. To avoid being the target of that anger, she said quickly:
"Lord Hephaestus, Captain Tsubaki just left. She said she had something to deal with regarding the raw material trading. As for where she went, I don't know."
"Damn it, don't come back if you can help it!"
Hephaestus, having no place to vent her anger, didn't blame the innocent shop girl. She cursed under her breath and went back to the workshop.
Then she saw Takumi, who was smiling broadly.
He really didn't expect that Tsubaki actually had such a naughty side; even her own goddess was fair game for her schemes. She was truly bold.
"What are you laughing at? It isn't funny!"
If someone else laughed like this, Hephaestus would only feel embarrassed.
But when Takumi smiled like this, she felt that this guy really deserved a beating.
So she snapped at him angrily.
Takumi restrained his smile and said with a serious face:
"Sorry, I have been professionally trained not to laugh, no matter how funny it is."
"Unless I can't help it, pff—hahaha!"
"Go to hell!"
Seeing Takumi laugh again, Hephaestus punched him angrily.
But since her seal was not released, her strength was not enough to even tickle Takumi. Not only did it have no effect, but it made Takumi laugh even more wildly.
Hephaestus reluctantly chose to ignore Takumi and went back to her blacksmithing.
Only then did Takumi restrain his laughter.
Seeing that Hephaestus was no longer paying attention to him, he shrugged.
After this farce, he was ready to leave, so he said his goodbyes.
"If nothing else comes up, I'll head back first. I'll ask Hestia to come over and see you another day. You are also welcome to be a guest in Dimension City."
"Get out."
Hephaestus replied without looking back.
"Okay, bye."
Takumi stopped pushing her buttons and slipped away obediently.
When he left, Hephaestus noticed there was no more movement behind her, so she looked back. When she found that Takumi was really gone, she felt somewhat speechless.
"We haven't even had time to chat, and I don't know what's going on with him over there..."
"Forget it, I'll let Hestia take me to see it another day."
She was actually bored in Orario, so she was very interested in Takumi's Dimension City.
When she met Takumi, she had planned to ask him to take her there for a look.
She didn't expect such a farce to happen. Before she could lay the groundwork and reveal her purpose, the person from the Soma Familia had already left.
"When that girl comes back, I will definitely deal with her."
Thinking of the culprit who ruined her plans, Hephaestus couldn't help but grit her teeth and speak viciously.
At the same time, Tsubaki, who was strolling along the Orario Commercial Street, suddenly shuddered, feeling as if something terrifying was about to happen to her.
"Damn it, Lord Hephaestus isn't really angry, is she?"
Tsubaki instantly thought of the mischief she had done and didn't dare to go back too quickly.
"I'll hide for a little longer and wait for her to calm down before going back."
So, she continued to wander aimlessly.
Let's talk about Takumi.
When he returned home, he saw Hestia in her familiar position, reading a book.
Apparently, she had already reached an agreement with Busujima Saeko.
But Takumi didn't ask, because it was a matter between them.
"Did you just get back?"
"Well, I went to visit Hephaestus."
When Hestia asked about it, Takumi told her what happened.
"Haha, that girl Tsubaki is really interesting and far too courageous."
Hestia laughed out loud when she heard about the farce.
Mainly, she was amused that her best friend was being teased, but she also marveled at Tsubaki's boldness.
"If you have time, go see her. If there is nothing else, I'll go back to Dimension City first."
"Well, you go ahead. I'll stay here."
Then, Takumi returned to Dimension City.
He summoned everyone through Tomoko.
In the past few days, the major projects in Dimension City had been completed.
Their work had also undergone a slight change.
The infrastructure team had been temporarily disbanded because there were no active projects. The production team had also been reduced in number, as there was no shortage of daily necessities. The current main job was to maintain the production equipment so that it could be put to use immediately when needed.
Those who were laid off had all joined in taking care of the farmland.
Although the wages were lower, the work was also lighter. When they had free time every day, they practiced their skills, found other tasks, or simply relaxed.
In short, they had all gradually adapted and begun to get used to life in Dimension City.
Now that they heard Takumi was summoning them, they thought there was a new job or a new policy to be announced, so they quickly put down what they were doing and rushed over.
To their surprise, Takumi did not arrange new jobs or issue new policies.
Instead, he bestowed a Falna upon each of them.
Yes, this was why Takumi had called them here.
In addition to preparing to train them as his first batch of subordinates, it was also because they were still too weak.
Even if they ate strengthened ingredients and practiced from time to time, their current strength was still lacking.
They had gradually broken through the human limit and were entering the threshold of the extraordinary.
But they were still too weak for Dimension City; they couldn't even deal with a Killer Rabbit outside.
To make them useful, Takumi had no choice but to grant them Falna as soon as possible to accelerate their growth.
After Takumi explained what a Falna was, they accepted it happily without resistance.
During this period, Takumi also encountered some surprises.
A small number of girls had awakened skills or magic.
But it was only a very small part—only about a dozen, less than one-tenth of them.
There were even five or six awakened skills that had nothing to do with combat. Only eight were combat-related!
And they were all minor skills, not very practical.
As for magic, it could not be compared with the magic system created by Takumi.
But in general, it was quite effective. They were talented, and Takumi didn't dislike them; he even praised them.
The few who received compliments were very happy, while the others cast envious glances.
After that, Takumi arranged for them to prepare for tomorrow's harvest.
More than ten days had passed since he last planted a batch of food, and it was time to harvest again.
Fortunately, there were more people in the city now, so they no longer needed to be so busy that they couldn't rest.
Two hundred people were active again.
There was a division of labor: one group was responsible for harvesting, another for threshing, and another for drying the grain.
Takumi had searched for supplies last time and even brought back the air-drying machines from large granaries. For the current harvest, there was no need to use primitive drying methods. The machine-dried grain could be stored directly in the warehouse.
This also saved Takumi from opening another grain drying field, as the original one still had many supplies piled up.
After they harvested, Takumi plowed the farmland and planted food again.
But this time, he deliberately left a piece of land empty and plowed it himself with a hoe.
While working the ground, he was thinking seriously about the magical medicinal materials used in Divine Apothecary Skills.
Whether Dimension City could use those magical elixirs in the future depended on whether he succeeded this time.
To observe the results of this experiment, Takumi even specially arranged for two people to take care of the experimental field day and night.
At the same time, Takumi increased the cultivation of some other conventional medicinal materials.
These would serve as auxiliary drugs and conventional pharmaceutical raw materials.
After the harvest, Takumi started a new project.
He was building a house.
But this time, it was his own house.
In other words, it was a palace!
Now that the scale of Dimension City had grown, it was no longer appropriate for him, the City Lord, to stay in his original small house.
In the future, he would have more and more women, and they would definitely live with him.
Therefore, the City Lord's Palace had to be arranged!
After receiving this task, the girls responded very positively.
As soon as they heard that Takumi's mansion was going to be built, they all signed up.
"Why are you all signing up? Do they really want to work that much?"
Takumi was stunned when he heard the situation reported by Tomoko.
"The main thing is that everyone heard that your mansion is going to be built, so everyone wants to participate to repay your kindness."
Tomoko spread her hands innocently and said.
"Okay, since they are so active, let them all participate."
"But some of them already have jobs. How should they be arranged?"
"Let's rotate. Let the person who already has a job find a partner. The two can take turns changing shifts without affecting the work of either party."
"Okay, I'll make arrangements right away."
Tomoko announced the news, and the girls acted quickly.
They formed an engineering team, received the design drawings from Tomoko, and started construction.
The location of the City Lord's Palace was chosen by Takumi to the north of the central tree, facing north and east.
As for the big tree in the center, it would be turned into a square.
Takumi did not demolish the original house but used magic to move it next to the Familia branch building.
After all, this was his first building. The house was the starting point of Dimension City; it had witnessed everything. Even if he didn't live there anymore, it was meaningful to keep it as a souvenir.
As for the design of the City Lord's mansion, Takumi didn't do anything fancy. The appearance was based on his memory of a modern government building.
Takumi didn't know what the interior should look like, so Tomoko designed several layouts based on her data, and Takumi chose the one he liked.
During the construction period, Takumi also received good news.
He hurried to the experimental field and stared at the little green sprouts emerging from the ground.
"Success!"
The experiment was successful!
The medicinal materials were growing!
This meant that from now on, Dimension City could continuously produce various elixirs on its own!
Takumi suddenly became excited.
He instructed the girl responsible for the experimental field to continue taking care of it with all her heart.
Then he went to Orario and shared the news with Hestia.
Hestia was also happy for him and followed Takumi to Dimension City to take a look.
At the same time, they visited the City Lord's Palace under construction.
"This will be our new home from now on."
"Um."
The atmosphere was set instantly. Hestia stayed to spend time with Takumi and didn't leave the next day.
She was exhausted.
Even if she could lift the seal and recover her original divine strength in Dimension City, she was still unable to withstand Takumi's pressure.
Hestia originally wanted to recruit help, but Saeko was not around, so she had no choice but to call for Haruhime.
Unexpectedly, Haruhime, the timid fox girl who usually overthinks everything, fainted on the spot when she saw Takumi.
This left Hestia speechless, and Takumi had no intention of doing anything to an unconscious girl.
After all, there was no reaction at all; it would be like hitting a sandbag, completely different from sparring with a real person.
He ignored Haruhime and continued to focus on Hestia.
Hestia could only drag her tired body along to meet the challenge.
In the end, she was still overwhelmed by the middle of the night. Shizuka Marikawa, who woke up to drink water, happened to find them.
Then, she found that Shizuka Marikawa did not return, and Rika Minami, who came looking for her, was also involved.
However, the strength of these two was limited, and they were knocked out by Takumi not long after, allowing him to successfully complete a triple-play in the Apocalypse world characters.
Fortunately, Hestia took the opportunity to recover some of her strength. In this way, she survived the whole night.
"Why are you getting stronger and stronger? If this continues, I will be beaten to death by you sooner or later," Hestia complained helplessly to Takumi.
Shizuka Marikawa and Rika Minami, who woke from their stupor, nodded in agreement and echoed:
"He's so strong he doesn't look like a human being."
"Although exercise is good for physical and mental health, forget it after being beaten like this. I'm afraid I'll die if I'm not careful."
"What can I do about this? Getting stronger is beyond my control."
Takumi was also embarrassed. His perfect body had been making him stronger in all aspects.
This was a passive effect, and it was truly beyond his control.
"You can find a few more sparring partners, such as the new residents. Wait, forget it, they are still too weak."
Hestia originally wanted Kotone and others to come and help, but after thinking about it, their current physiques were not even as strong as Shizuka Marikawa's, so she gave up.
"Anyway, hurry up and find a few people with stronger physiques to bring back. Otherwise, I won't spar with you again even if you kill me."
Hestia threatened him.
She was really scared. It wasn't just that Takumi was a good "boxer," but he was very energetic and addicted to it. He wanted to "fight" every day. Who could withstand that!
It was because of this that she didn't mind Takumi finding new partners at first; then she became supportive, and now she even took the initiative to seek reinforcements.
She really couldn't stand it.
It wasn't that her side was not strong enough, but the enemy was cheating.
When Takumi heard Hestia's words, he was speechless for a moment.
He finally understood why certain heroes in stories had to avoid their partners.
Even Hestia was like this; no wonder things were this way.
But no matter how he tried to persuade her, Hestia made up her mind not to "practice" with him for the time being.
Takumi had no choice but to prepare to find a new "sparring" partner, just as she said.