Chapter 418: The True Value Of The Small Mutant Believer Race, A Wondrous Village Of Engineers And Crafters

-----

For the Mutants’ specific needs, he placed Monster Core Refineries so they could refine the Monster Cores they obtained from hunting. The Energy and Electricity generated would fuel all of their creations, making their village the only one with artificial lights, which they needed deep underground. He didn’t want them to keep having to work around the lack of light, especially with how much time they spent building things.

Now they could put those Monster Cores to use instead of letting a useful resource go to waste. Hunting would provide more than materials, and every core they brought back could help keep their creations running. There would still be work to do, but at least they had a way to supply the Energy their village needed. For people who always had something they wanted to make, that was a good start.

Of course, an Alchemical Workshop was also necessary for the Mutants, who loved to tinker and create new things. With the mines and refineries in place, it made sense to give them somewhere to work with the materials they gathered. He didn’t know which idea they’d try first, but he doubted the Workshop would sit unused for long.

They already had plenty of creations that needed their attention, and having a proper place to work would save them some trouble. They wouldn’t have to make room for every new project wherever they could find it. The Mutants wasted no time putting the Workshop to good use, just as he’d expected.

Riven also added a Mana Converter on top of it all so it could purify the polluted air underground, both within the sewers and the subway. It would allow the Mutants to breathe fresh air while absorbing the pollution and converting it into more Energy. Considering where they lived, he felt this was something they really needed.

There was no point in giving them all these places to work if they still had to breathe whatever nasty stuff was floating around down here. Besides, turning that pollution into something useful was a nice bonus. They already needed Energy for their creations, so getting more of it while cleaning up their home seemed like a good deal to him.

Lastly, he placed three Believer Shrines, which gathered more Faith for him. This was the currency he needed to build facilities and do many other things. He’d been spending it on the villages, but these additions were necessary if he wanted his Believers to have somewhere decent to live. As much as he liked seeing what he could build, he couldn’t just place things randomly and hope they’d be useful.

The Shrines would help him gather more Faith for whatever came next, though he still had to decide what was worth spending it on. As for GP? It was the resource used to summon Believers, and he was letting it accumulate for now. There was already plenty to take care of with the ones he had.

There were also Teleportation Gates, which he’d placed in certain areas to make travel easier. However, he’d kept them outside the villages and cities, a good distance away rather than right in the middle of them. Having people come and go next to everyone’s homes didn’t seem like a great idea, especially in places where the residents were already busy moving materials around. They could walk a little to reach the Gates.

That was still better than traveling the entire distance between territories, and it would keep the arrivals out of everyone’s way. He wanted the Gates to connect these places, not make their daily work more annoying.

"Huh, this place is bigger than I thought it would be..."

Vladimir looked around in surprise, taking in everything around him. Every time he thought he’d seen most of the place, he noticed another passage or a group of Mutants carrying something toward a different building. He’d expected a few workshops, not an entire village with so much going on.

Some of the things they carried looked like junk to him, but the Mutants seemed to know exactly what they wanted to do with each piece. He watched one group sort through their scraps, picking out parts while another brought over more materials. It made him curious about what they were building. His gaze stayed on their work a little longer, trying to figure out how any of those pieces were supposed to fit together.

"It’s sick, right?" Riven asked, looking at the little Mutants tinkering away. Some of them worked together, moving scraps, mined Mana Stones, and Monster Cores into the refineries and workshops. Vladimir followed his gaze, watching how easily they divided the work among themselves. Nobody seemed bothered by the piles of mismatched parts. To them, those were things they could use, not trash that needed to be thrown away.

"They’re all hard workers by nature, and they love tinkering more than anything," Riven continued. He glanced at Vladimir’s missing arm, then back at the workshops. Vladimir noticed the look. For a moment, his interest in what the Mutants were doing became something a lot more personal. He hadn’t come down here expecting Riven to have an answer for that.

"This is why I brought you here. What do you say about replacing your missing arm with something they’ve made? They’re good not only at technology but also at integrating it with flesh and blood."

"It’s part of their whole thing, right?" Vladimir asked. "You told me about it, I believe... Their world had some kind of disease that mixed flesh and metal, making even the smallest machine grow flesh and the other way around, right? That’s not going to infect us, right?!"

He looked at the Mutants again, then at Riven. Getting a new arm sounded great, but that part of the story was a little hard to ignore. He didn’t want to agree to something only to find out there was a problem afterward. Especially a problem that could spread to the rest of his body.

"I’m not saying they don’t know what they’re doing," he added. "But you get why I’m asking, don’t you? It’s going to be attached to me."

-----