Chương 78: Chapter 75: The Price of Progress

Without a single word of protest, the four remaining members of the dungeon team reached into their inventories and handed over two hundred gold coins each. The heavy clinking of gold hitting the oak table sounded like a solid investment in our future. I turned my focus over to Tony.

"How many active hunters do we have operating right now?"

"Five," he replied cleanly. I immediately swiped open the System Store interface, navigated to the ammunition tab, and purchased two dozen uncommon-rarity arrows for each of our five hunters. While I was at it, I tacked on a couple dozen for myself as well. I mean, that damn behemoth had completely crushed my previous quiver, and a Ranger without premium ammunition is just a guy with a stick.

After completing the transaction, I purchased the final three mana crystals we needed to round out our terminal indents, letting them clink onto the table alongside the others before passing the bundles of specialized fletching over to Tony. Next, I looked across the table at Pete.

"I'm not entirely sure what specific tool sets or raw materials you're going to need for your forge just yet. I guess we'll both find out once we physically power the structure up." Pete just offered a solemn, understanding nod.

"Tomorrow, we'll also start setting up work-spaces, gear, and materials for Jace and Travis. I assume they both chose their professional specializations when that massive cascade of level-ups hit them?"

"They did," Denise confirmed, leaning forward.

"Jace officially shifted into a Mechanical Engineer, and Travis chose to become an Armorer." She paused, her brow furrowing slightly in a classic look of confusion.

"The Mechanical Engineer role is pretty self-explanatory, I guess. But I'm not entirely sure what an Armorer actually brings to the table."

"Basically, he focuses on crafting and reinforcing magical weapons and armor," I explained, breaking down the class synergy.

"He's the guy who will bridge the gap between Pete's raw metal forgings and the tactical needs of our front-line combat teams." I cleared my throat, tapping the table to draw everyone's attention back to the center.

"Before we all head down to the core room to install these crystals, there is one last piece of business I want to put on the table. I know we are fundamentally surviving in an apocalypse—or at the very least, a total societal collapse. However, now that we are actively building a permanent settlement, we need to discuss taxes." A resounding, universal groan instantly rippled around the conference room.

I was almost certain I even heard a soft groan slip out from Denise this time, though I chose not to call her out on it.

"Look," I said, holding up my hands to stem the immediate tide of complaints.

"I am absolutely not trying to draft a monolithic, predatory tax code designed to milk our citizens dry for every single copper they're worth. We all remember how our previous form of government handled that.

"I'm not even suggesting we need to collect flat income taxes from each and every individual citizen living in the classrooms. But look at the reality here: with public access to the System Store arriving tomorrow, our people are going to want to purchase goods. Furthermore, they are naturally going to expect to get paid an actual wage for the manual labor they perform around this campus. It is only inevitable that people will want to see financial compensation for their hard work.

Honestly, I don't blame them in the slightest.

"Unfortunately, that municipal payroll has to come from a centralized source. For the time being, we are going to focus our revenue generation exclusively on a sales tax tied directly to the incoming System Store kiosks." I let that statement sink into the room for a moment. I could see the visible dread painting the faces of almost everyone at the table, each of them bracing for the exact percentage I was about to detail.

"The interface allows me to set a local baseline tariff anywhere from zero up to a maximum threshold of thirty percent," I finished cleanly. Joe was the first to break the silence, shifting uncomfortably.

"Honestly, Derrick... I completely see the need for a town fund, but I think setting it at a flat thirty percent right out of the gate is a little too aggressive."

"Agreed," Pete grunted, crossing his heavy arms.

"It's going to stifle motivation before people even get started." Zack leaned forward, studying my expression.

"Are you planning on setting it that high because you think we need it, or is thirty just the highest the system physically allows you to go?"

"Both," I replied candidly.

"But hear me out on my reasoning. Right now, as a municipality, our town coffers contain exactly zero coin. That means the absolute second our civilian workers start demanding a daily pay for farming or guard duty, our entire local economy sinks before it ever launches. If we can aggressively build up our reserves right now through high-volume trade, we will actually have the capital required to pay everyone a fair, sustainable wage.

They will then turn around and use those earned wages to purchase personal goods directly from the System kiosks. It's a closed-loop system that will actively kickstart our local economy.

"Once our people are making their own money and drawing a steady paycheck, they aren't going to be receiving free communal meals or living rent-free in secure apartments anymore. If people want to live free and eat free in this valley, they can choose to work directly for the town's public works. No one gets to have their cake and eat it too—especially not during an apocalypse.

"Furthermore, the town is going to actively help subsidize the production costs for anyone willing to craft and sell high-end commodities directly back to the System Store. Like custom storage rings"—I offered a deliberate nod toward Henry—"and refined potions"—I turned, nodding toward Alex.

"And Pete, I am completely positive you will be able to sell your custom weapons and armor directly to the global marketplace for a massive premium as well." I leaned forward, emphasizing the scale of the trade economy.

"Just glancing briefly through the default pricing indexes for the System Store's alchemy tab, the most common mana restoration potions sell to buyers for hundreds of gold pieces. Rare-tier solutions go for thousands. However, purchasing the raw chemical materials and stabilizers required to brew those identical potions costs mere pennies on the dollar. Or, more accurately, coppers on the gold.

"By the way, the System utilizes a rigid currency exchange rate: one hundred coppers to the silver, ten silvers to a gold, and ten gold coins to a single platinum piece. I'm going to have to do some serious research into how the System structures standard daily pay scales. Maybe there's an introductory administrative pamphlet or municipal guide I can purchase from the marketplace to help us iron out the exact numbers.

"I don't think you guys fully grasp exactly how much sheer wealth can be generated by selling specialized products back to the global market. The crafters who utilize these powered-up shops are going to be generating thousands of gold pieces while only spending a few hundred on raw materials. The margins are so incredibly massive that even with a local thirty percent sales tax deducted at the point of sale, you are still going to walk away with absolute mountains of profit.

"It's honestly making me consider picking up a production trade myself during our downtime. I'm already classified as a Master Builder and a Master Crafter by the interface. Who knows? Maybe I can learn to craft high-end, intricate jewelry, Henry can infuse them with attribute enchantments or dimensional pockets and we can split the profits down the middle.

"But first things first: we need to power up this settlement and build our infrastructure as much as humanly possible. My immediate priority is to construct more advanced static defenses and heavy armaments beyond the basic stone walls offered automatically by the core activation. Once we get a definitive handle on exactly what gets upgraded the second we slot these nine crystals, we'll take a full perimeter tour of the campus and identify exactly where we can improve our layout. What do you guys think?"

Silence followed my explanation, but it wasn't the tense, resistant kind from before. Looking around the table, no one had any real counterarguments left to offer. They couldn't deny that my logic made perfect sense for the long-term survival of the settlement.

"All right then," I said, a smile breaking through my beard as I swept the remaining crystals back into the dimensional pocket of my ring.

"Let's go slot these things and see what kind of power we're dealing with." Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings. With the meeting adjourned, the leadership team rose from their chairs and made their way down the administrative hallway toward the principal's office. Well... I suppose I should technically start calling it the Mayor's office now, shouldn't I? Ah, who cares. Moving on.

Walking around the heavy oak desk, I approached the illuminated control terminal mounted beside the dungeon core. I pulled the first pulsing gem from my inventory, aligned it with the first vacant rectangular indent, and watched a bright blue confirmation prompt flash into my vision: Do you wish to permanently bind this Mana Crystal to the specialized facility: The Forge? [YES / NO] I selected YES without hesitation.

Moving methodically down the line, I repeated the process for the Alchemy Lab, the Enchanting Room, and the Machine Shop, continuing the cycle until all nine indents were completely filled with glowing crystals. The moment the final gem snapped into place, the entire control panel let out a deep, resonant hum that vibrated right through the floorboards as raw magical energy surged into the school's structural lines.

After systematically tapping through a dozen generic "Congratulations" prompts celebrating the successful initialization of our municipal network, I noticed my interface had updated with nine individual, dedicated management tabs—one for each aspect we had just brought online. Honestly, I had absolutely zero desire to scroll through every single sub-menu to analyze the countless amenities, blueprints, and building options right now.

Besides, all of those physical renovations would have to wait until tomorrow anyway, given that I was still locked under the strict twenty-four-hour structural modification cooldown. Once the binding process settled into a stable idle hum, a new, deeply recessed slot manifested along the metallic frame directly adjacent to our main core.

Apparently, the settlement architecture allowed for the integration of a secondary dungeon core, which would unlock even greater structural scaling and passive trait bonuses for Novus. The immediate issue, however, was that unlike our first run, the System didn't automatically populate a quest log with a definitive location marker indicating where to harvest another core. I let out a heavy sigh, rubbing the bridge of my nose.

"What's wrong, Derrick?" Joe asked, leaning against the edge of the desk.

"Isn't an extra core slot a good thing? We were already planning on eventually scouting out another dungeon to help level up the rest of our security personnel anyway. Those stat gains from a dungeon clear are completely off the chain."

"Yeah, they are," I replied, looking up at him.

"Except our original strategy relied on specifically not claiming the final core of the next dungeon so we could keep the instance active as a repeatable training resource for our people. If we want to utilize that secondary slot to upgrade this campus, we have to physically extract the core from whatever dungeon we find—which means we'll permanently collapse it as a local resource.

"And on top of that... the interface hasn't handed me a single quest location this time. I'm starting to guess we've officially received all the free handouts and guidance we're ever going to get from the System on that front."

"Yeah, maybe," Joe mused, tracking my logic.

"But look at it this way: we can still run multiple combat teams through the next instance for weeks to maximize their levels before we ever pull the plug on the core."

"That's a fair point," I acknowledged, shaking off the stress.

"But it's all completely moot until our scouts actually locate another dungeon out in the wild anyway." While I had been busy binding the core terminal with the mana crystals, Henry had quietly pulled up a chair at a nearby assistant's desk and set to work infusing my wedding band with the spatial compression enchantment. It only took him a few uninterrupted minutes to execute the spellcraft, but the second he finished the final influx of mana, it was obvious the process had taken a serious toll.

He looked completely drained, his eyes bloodshot from the sudden, massive expenditure of his mana pool. Clutching the completed band, Henry stood up and walked directly past me, handing the ring straight to Denise. I chuckled softly under my breath—good kid, he already knew the household drill. Denise offered him a warm smile, took the polished titanium, and gently slid it back onto my left ring finger.

The moment the metal cleared my knuckle, a sharp, golden system notification flared across my vision: You have located a Dimensional Storage Ring. Quality: Good Rarity: Rare Status: Unattuned Do you wish to permanently attune this dimensional storage ring to you? [YES / NO] This time around, I didn't hesitate for a single second. I tapped YES, instantly locking in the attunement. The moment the spatial link was established, I cast my awareness into the ring's internal dimensional pocket and gasped.

The interior volume was absolutely massive, providing an astounding forty square feet of storage space.

"Amazed" didn't even begin to accurately describe the jump in capacity. According to the crafting principles Henry had outlined to me previously, achieving this scale meant he must have manually channeled an extra two hundred points of raw mana into the stabilization field right after locking down the initial one-hundred-point dimensional pocket.

The premium Intelligence band I had just gifted him had clearly covered that massive upfront resource cost, allowing him to sink far more energy into the spatial envelope than his natural pool would have ever allowed. I immediately initiated a system transfer, shifting every single item from my old, basic ring directly into the expanded pocket of my wedding band. Honestly, my active inventory was pretty light.

I handed my spent rifle magazines over to Zack so he could get them reloaded, and passed a collection of rare cavern mushrooms I'd scavenged over to Alex's workspace. The rest of my inventory consisted entirely of my primary firearms, survival gear, and tactical armor. Once my original, uncommon-grade storage ring was completely emptied of assets, I slid it off my right hand and pulled up the sell-back portal within the System Store interface.

I tapped the item, confirming the prompt asking if I wished to permanently break my personal attunement to the object. The interface calculated the asset value and instantly credited my account with a staggering fourteen hundred gold pieces for the rare trade. That final payout was, of course, the net total calculated after the local thirty percent settlement tax had already been systematically deducted from the transaction.

Coincidentally, that withheld thirty percent sales tax didn't physically manifest as heavy coins inside my personal inventory. I opened my primary mayoral interface to investigate, and sure enough, a brand-new corporate tab labeled Municipal Funds had unlocked. Tapping into the sub-menu, the settlement ledger displayed a clean, resting balance of exactly six hundred gold pieces.

This centralized revenue stream was going to allow us to generate public capital incredibly fast, giving us the liquid buying power required to purchase heavy machinery and bulk defenses for the town without draining our personal pockets. Stepping over to the desk where Henry was currently resting his head to recover from the mana drain, I reached out my hand and let a heavy, shimmering rain of gold coins cascade directly onto the wood in front of him.

Henry's eyes nearly bulged clean out of his skull as he stared at the mounting pile of wealth.

"That right there is your official payout from selling the first storage ring you crafted for me," I told him, keeping my voice steady and supportive.

"Minus our local municipal tax deduction, of course. I expect you to reinvest that capital into your workshop to benefit not only your own professional progression but the long-term defense of this entire community." Stuttering over his words, Henry scrambled to gather the coins.

"Uh... uh, yes, of course, Derrick. Absolutely. Thank you, sir."

"No thanks needed, Henry," I replied, clapping him firmly on the shoulder.

"You've handed this entire community an unbelievable advantage by figuring out how to make spatial gear from scratch. The town is going to back your work as much as humanly possible." I turned my head, locking eyes with Pete and Alex across the office.

"The exact same rule applies to you two as well. Tomorrow morning, the second we finalize the structural upgrades to your workshops—and once Alex has had a chance to thoroughly study his new alchemy manual—we will utilize the town funds to start purchasing whatever bulk raw ingredients and materials you guys need to get your production lines rolling at maximum efficiency." With that final directive laid out, our morning tactical meeting officially concluded.

Henry and Alex scooped up their respective items and exited the office fairly quickly, presumably sprinting back to their workstations to start memorizing their recipes and planning out high-value commodities to flip back to the global market. Denise offered me a quick kiss before heading back down the corridor toward the cafeteria to do prep work for the upcoming afternoon lunch service. This left me standing entirely alone in the principal's office without an immediate task on my schedule.

With the administrative functions locked on cooldown, I decided to just wander aimlessly through the school grounds for a bit, greeting our new civilian arrivals face-to-face and getting myself personally updated on the various daily goings-on around town. The quiet walk also handed me plenty of rare, uninterrupted time to seriously contemplate what kind of professional vocation I wanted to pick up for myself in the short term. I mean...

the world had fundamentally changed, but everyday life couldn't be entirely dictated by active combat. I needed a trade.