After laughing, Riveria went back to her official duties.
And Takumi also began to concentrate on improving the Favor system.
The first step was preparation.
The magic power within him poured out like a dam opening.
Bright red magic patterns began to spread from Takumi's right hand until they covered his entire body.
"More than five hundred magic lines... this should be enough."
Takumi looked at the bright red lines on his body and nodded.
Each magic line held the upper limit of his own magic power, equivalent to more than five hundred extra magic bars.
"It's just... the preparation time is a bit long."
Even if he recovered quickly, it took time to store so much magic power.
This preparation alone took half an hour.
"I hope it can be improved this time."
Although he said this, Takumi also knew that this might be wishful thinking.
Last time, he only improved the status bar presentation of the Favor.
Such a small change cost him more than three full bars of magic power.
So even now, with hundreds of times that magic power prepared, Takumi was not certain.
Because what he wanted to improve this time was the Favor's level-up mechanism!
In the previous rescue operation in the Apocalypse World, Takumi felt that the current level-up mechanism was too restrictive.
Logically speaking, if the girls participated in something as massive as saving the world, the Great Achievements they earned should be enough to jump two levels in a row.
But the reality was that, let alone the girls, even Takumi himself—who contributed the most—only upgraded by one level in the end.
Because after one upgrade, the remaining Great Achievements were wiped out!
The resulting waste was undoubtedly massive.
Since that time, Takumi had been thinking about fixing this problem. It didn't matter even if the conversion efficiency was poor, but it couldn't be wasted like this.
After all, with the nature of the Dimension City, the girls would have plenty of opportunities to earn massive Great Achievements at once.
If this happened every time, the loss would be far worse than usual conversion rates.
Anyway, they usually don't fight much, so they can't afford to waste progress.
Going to other worlds to perform major tasks was the main way to earn Great Achievements.
Therefore, even if they lost small progress, they needed to keep the big gains.
Regardless of his confidence, improvements had to be made.
Magic creation!
New version of Favor!
Direction: Great Achievement storage function!
Then... nothing happened.
There was no response at all.
"Failed? So much magic power wasn't enough to add this function?"
"Again! Magic creation! Continuous Favor upgrades!"
Takumi tried again, and as expected, failed once more.
After all, if you want to allow continuous upgrades, the foundation of experience storage must be unlocked first.
Otherwise, the magic power required to unlock storage would be lumped into this single transformation.
Without unlocking experience storage, continuous upgrades were impossible.
"I still have to solve the Great Achievement storage problem first."
Takumi realized this and decided to conquer the storage function first.
There was nothing else to say.
"Isn't it just magic power? Watch me cheat!"
So, Takumi started to accumulate even more magic patterns.
After another half an hour, Takumi had doubled the magic patterns on his body. Under his clothes, his skin was bright red, densely covered with thousands of patterns.
"Again! Magic creation! Great Achievement storage function!"
Boom!
In an instant, a riot of magic power erupted from Takumi's body.
Not only his own energy, but the magic patterns on his body also output their stored power.
"Success!"
Takumi didn't panic at the sudden change. Instead, he looked excited.
Because the magic power was being consumed, it was a sign of successful creation!
As expected.
More than eight hundred magic patterns were consumed. Then, strange knowledge appeared in his mind.
It was exactly what he wanted: a Great Achievement storage system for the Favor!
"Yes! It's still compatible. I don't need to adjust compatibility now; I can install it directly onto existing Favors. This is so convenient!"
"Keep up the good work and finish it today!"
Takumi continued to accumulate energy excitedly. After gathering enough magic patterns, he improved the Favor further.
Finally, it took a whole day to complete the improvements.
After the updates, the new version of the Favor now had experience bars. Not only was the problem of clearing achievements after a level-up gone, but conversion efficiency was guaranteed.
At the same time, Takumi added space magic, giving the Favor the function of a space backpack.
The size of the space backpack would gradually expand as the Favor level increased.
The only catch was that the magic power for the space was drawn from the Favor holder.
Therefore, this function couldn't be used without a sufficient magic power base.
It should be mentioned that Takumi put some thought into the space backpack's design.
Mainly to prevent someone from using the space for illicit activities, Takumi made the entrance a window-type interface.
This way, if a conflict started, the contents could be viewed directly for inspection when necessary.
Then there was the Favor update process.
Takumi improved the efficiency of automatic updates, but he was hesitant about whether to give this to all the girls.
After all, his original idea was to use Favor renewals as a reward for military merit and as a way to control subordinates.
Although, after unlocking this ability, he discovered he could seal a Favor with a single thought, making the power unusable.
Therefore, there was no real need to use updates as a control method.
But the military merit reward aspect was hard to give up.
After some hesitation, Takumi decided to keep that part.
Ordinary girls would still require manual updates, but for his women with whom he had a confirmed relationship, the automatic update function was installed directly.
After all, this function could save lives or allow for a sudden power boost in a critical moment.
At the same time, military rewards would no longer be a single update, but the permanent unlocking of the automatic update function.
Takumi also created a scroll used to renew Favors.
This was for convenience as the Dimension City's population grew. He couldn't possibly update everyone individually; it would be a waste of time.
It would return to a reward-based system, where scrolls were given alongside commendations and medals.
After improving the Favor, Takumi took action.
He installed the latest version on Riveria, Kanae, Saeko, and the elf girls. He also updated others, including Shinobu and Kanao, as well as Haruhime and Nakiri Alice, giving them all the new functions except for automatic updates.
Everyone generally had no objection to this differential treatment.
They didn't fight often, so whether it was automatic or not didn't really matter.
The only one dissatisfied was Shinobu.
She and Kanae were both combatants, yet she didn't get the function she felt she needed most.
In addition, because of the incident with Kanae, she always had a bit of a grudge against Takumi, so she complained harshly to him.
In response, Takumi just smiled and rubbed her head, messing up her hair, ignoring her daily criticism.
Although she was no longer as hostile as she was at the beginning, she still targeted him daily. She was effectively Takumi's only "anti-fan" in the Dimension City.
"Asshole!"
Shinobu glared at Takumi angrily, then fixed her hair and went to her sister for comfort.
This was one of the reasons she never tired of targeting Takumi.
Every time she got angry with him, she would receive comfort from Kanae.
Rather than targeting Takumi, she was essentially looking for a reason to be coddled.
Takumi and Kanae knew her little game and could only laugh and let her be.
Seeing Shinobu throw herself into Kanae's arms, Takumi looked at Megumin nearby.
At this time, Megumin was under punishment and restricted from using explosion magic. As a result, she looked quite depressed.
She wasn't even interested in the new Favor functions and looked listless.
"Megumin, you must have something similar to a Favor in your world; show me so I can see it."
Takumi thought of the class system in the Konosuba World and wanted to use it as a reference. What he didn't expect was that Megumin shook her head listlessly and said:
"No, Lord City Lord. The adventurer card from my world has malfunctioned since I arrived here and cannot be opened at all."
"Is that so?"
Takumi hadn't expected such a situation.
But thinking about it, it made sense.
There was a fundamental difference between that job system and the Favor system.
Favors were given to individuals, effectively giving each person a subsystem that worked regardless of location. The job system was a rule of the Konosuba World itself.
In the Konosuba World, experience points were actually fragments of the soul dropped by creatures upon death, absorbed by the killer.
Therefore, the system was a law of that specific world. Upon leaving, it naturally became invalid.
Even if the abilities remained, the card couldn't be used and experience couldn't be absorbed because other worlds lacked that specific soul mechanism.
"I understand. That makes sense."
After their talk, Takumi temporarily gave up on using it as a reference.
Just as he turned to leave, Megumin grabbed the corner of his clothes.
Takumi looked at her again.
"Lord City Lord..."
Megumin looked pitiful, looking up at him with tearful eyes.
However, before she could say anything, Kanae appeared behind her, covered her mouth, and began to drag her back.
"No. Your punishment isn't over yet. Escaping punishment is not what a good girl does."
"Mmph!"
Megumin struggled as she was dragged away.
Shinobu followed after making a face at Takumi.
Takumi shrugged, unbothered, and went back to the sixth floor of the City Lord's Mansion to rest.
The elf girls exchanged glances and prepared to head up to challenge the "boss" together.
In the next two days, the Dimension City returned to its usual calm.
During this period, little Hermione and Yuuki Asuna came to visit again.
They both happened to live in worlds where they had weekends off from school, which is how they met.
They were just there to play, nothing special.
Because of this chance encounter, they became friends.
Hermione took advantage of her status as a senior visitor to give Yuuki Asuna a tour of the city, introducing her to friends like Nakiri Alice and Kanao.
Then, Hermione generously treated Yuuki Asuna to a meal.
Hermione had Dimension City currency.
She had a special-style magic card unique to her with more than three hundred dollars in it.
She had earned it by exchanging magic potions she made and doing odd jobs during her previous visits.
Although it wasn't a lot, it was more than enough to treat a guest. Food in the Dimension City only cost about ten dollars per person.
She was the first non-resident to own Dimension City currency.
Yuuki Asuna originally wanted to refuse.
But when she discovered she had no money and nothing to exchange, she had to accept.
She hadn't expected that she, a girl from a wealthy family, would be a penniless pauper in the Dimension City.
While this was a bit embarrassing, it planted a seed in her heart.
She wanted to make money!
Make money in the Dimension City!
For this reason, Yuuki Asuna made a list of items after careful analysis at home.
She took the list to the city the next day and asked the elf girl at the currency exchange if they wanted these items.
If they did, she would buy them herself and exchange them on her next visit.
It didn't have to be a lot. Next time she met Hermione, she wanted to be the one to treat her.
Moreover, the food in the Dimension City was delicious, and she wanted to eat it again!
Takumi didn't know the specifics of this, but if he did, he would have given Hermione a thumbs up for her contribution to the city's economic development.
What Yuuki Asuna didn't know was that visitors connected to the Dimension Gate with visitor rights actually got one free meal per visit.
This was a benefit set by Takumi.
Since he received system rewards for every visit, he wasn't worried about the cost.
Although Yuuki Asuna didn't know about the free meal, she received a satisfactory answer at the exchange.
Besides the items on her list, the elf girl suggested a clear path: entertainment resources!
There was currently very little entertainment in the Dimension City, and it couldn't be produced locally yet, so entertainment resources were on the exchange list.
The exchange office allowed Yuuki Asuna to collect movies, music, games, novels, and comics, as well as consoles and board games.
The exchange price wasn't high—it was actually quite low.
But these were extremely easy to obtain in a world with advanced information technology like hers!
It didn't require much money or energy and could be brought in large quantities, making it perfect for a student like Yuuki Asuna.
Value didn't matter if she could bring a lot!
As a result, Yuuki Asuna went back happily, not realizing the consequences of her actions.
Until one day in the future, when her mother found her collection of entertainment resources.
Only then would she understand the gravity of the situation and regret it!
At the same time, Takumi received three rewards from their visit.
From Hermione's side: Nicolas Flamel's alchemy.
Takumi was very satisfied with this, as he had finally made progress in the field of alchemy.
He now had a resource that could grant eternal life. Although the method had major flaws, Takumi didn't plan on using it on his women anyway.
As for the two rewards from Yuuki Asuna, one was an SAO game data package, and the other was something from another world.