Deciding The Policy And Allocating Tasks.

“But right before that… Yoru.”

It appeared our conversation had broken her slumber.

Yoru sat straight up, but immediately registered that I wasn’t positioned right by her side. The exact dynamic fraction of a second I called out to her as she anxiously rubbed the sleep from her eyes, her worried features instantly morphed into a radiant, brilliant grin.

Ruthlessly capturing the ankle of her younger brother—who was still completely dead to the world—she toddled swiftly over to my coordinates.

“Master~!”

“Good morning, Yoru. Yep, you’re bursting with energy today as well.”

Lifting Yoru into my arms, I extended my hand to soothe Kuu’s head. Despite being violently swung up and down by his leg, the little guy seemed completely unfazed by the treatment. Or so I calculated—until he began blankly nibbling on my finger in a sleepwalking daze.

Meanwhile, his older sister buried her face against my shoulder, deeply inhaling my scent to check off her mandatory morning sniffing routine.

Shifting my gaze toward the central plaza as the racket escalated, the awakened women and goblins were already efficiently diving into breakfast preparations.

Inside the bone-hearth—which had been aggressively ignited by a barrage of <Fire Bullet>—the giant sea turtle shell acting as our makeshift cauldron was already bubbling furiously, with a steady stream of raw ingredients being thrown inside.

It was the textbook staple of the Goblin settlement: the kitchen-sink hotpot.

Nesting inside the broth were fresh chunks of Black Rock-Mushroom and Shelf-Mushroom harvested just yesterday, intersecting with our highly familiar dungeon garlic. For today’s configuration, they had opted for a seafood-heavy profile, casting crab and turtle meat as the star components.

The seasoning was restricted to basic dungeon salt, finalized with a scattering of dried, finely crushed rosemary to lock down the aromatic properties.

The moment that spectacular, mouth-watering aroma wafted across the plaza, my stomach loops aggressively activated. The sleepwalking Kuu and the clinging Yoru both began dripping a massive volume of drool.

Yeah… this environment definitely doesn’t yield the proper comfort threshold to discuss highly complicated administrative policies.

“Let’s get breakfast out of the way first. How about the rest of you?”

“Well, we technically forced a light meal down before launching our deployment, but…”

Seeing the young men’s eyes completely locked onto the steaming cauldron, an involuntary chuckle escaped my lips.

“In that case, want to grab a bowl with us?”

“We are comprehensively grateful, sir!”

“Hooray~!”

The youth alliance cheered with innocent excitement, but the exact fraction of a second they did, they suddenly remembered their cargo, unbuckling the colossal back-baskets to display the payload inside.

“Ah! That’s right! We almost let this slip our parameters. We managed to take these down along the navigation path here.”

Packed tightly inside the woven frames were the carcasses of stray Slimes and Giant Earthworms. It appeared they had picked up the drop components instead of leaving them behind to rot.

Furthermore, a cluster of bats had been tied by their ankles into neat bundles, their systems flawlessly drained of blood—a direct testament to the success of Ethan-san’s training curriculum. Because they had meticulously utilized bows to secure the kills, the wing parameters were perfectly preserved, allowing us to harvest practically the entire payload intact.

“Magnificent work. Those worms must have been exceptionally heavy to transport, right?”

“Heh, a payload of this caliber doesn’t even dent our stamina limits, boss!”

They weren’t merely boasting to inflate their metrics; this was the concrete result of their recent level-ups.

As the harvesting sequence concluded, a group of goblins swarmed the baskets, prodding the woven wood with an immense volume of curiosity. It appeared their ingrained obsession with novel items had triggered.

“Do you guys like the baskets? Well, having storage gear of that nature undeniably maximizes transport efficiency,” I mused.

Up until now, they had been forced to carry individual harvests like olive berries by wrapping them in loose animal furs. While executing a tight, intricate weave looked like an exceptionally tedious labor cycle, goblins historically loved throwing themselves into microscopic craftwork of that paradigm anyway.

“Where exactly did you harvest the vine materials to construct these?”

The exact fraction of a second I queried Ethan-san, he pulled the data from his loops and delivered a fluid response.

“You can easily harvest this species inside the forest perimeter, My Lord. Ah, come to think of it, I registered clusters of the exact same vines growing across the fourth and eighth strata here as well.”

“Are those raw specifications sufficient to build gear like this?”

“Yes, sir. If you wash them thoroughly, boil them inside a cauldron, and execute a proper drying loop, the structural fibers turn exceptionally durable.”

“If that’s the case, I can easily automate the processing loop using <Purification> and <Dehydration>. Mhm, I suppose I should assign a dedicated vine-gathering detail to our roster. Well, I’ll organize those labor allocations as a consolidated package later.”

While we were hammering out the logistics, the hotpot verified complete. We promptly joined the queue to have our portions ladled out onto hollow crab shells acting as bowls.

Blowing gently on the steaming stew to drop the thermal parameters, I held a spoonful right beneath Kuu’s beak, finally causing his heavy eyelids to flutter open. He clamped his beak around the spoon to vacuum up the payload, before running a quick, blinking scan of the environment.

Looking straight up into my face, a blissful smile spread across his features.

“Kyuu~!”

“Good morning. Want another round?”

“Kyuu~!”

“Pardon the intrusion~!” Yoru chirped.

Managing the two little entities simultaneously, I systematically cooled the broth and fed them alternating spoonfuls. Their systems possessed zero heat resistance thresholds, so moving slowly was mandatory.

However, dedicating one hundred percent of my focus to acting as their caretaker meant my own consumption efficiency dropped straight to zero. Anticipating this bottleneck, the sharp-witted Paula smoothly launched her support loops.

“Here you go, My Lord. Open wide,” she purred, bringing a spoonful to my lips.

Yep, at this point, this arrangement had become a completely locked-in default behavior for our party. For some cryptic reason, the village youth were stealing glances at our coordinates, their faces turning completely crimson.

“Alright, let’s recalibrate and map out our structural trajectory. I’m going to pitch the rough blueprint, so please don’t hesitate to deploy any questions or counter-arguments the exact fraction of a second they register in your systems.”

Our meal verified complete, we reformatted our alignment into a giant circle in the center of the plaza to resume our policy discussions.

The council was comprised of our deep-strata vanguard—myself, Paula, and the others—supplemented by Heimo the smith and the Village Chief and his wife. The textile team was represented by four senior matrons, alongside three elderly villagers who had assisted with our agricultural clearing operations yesterday. Anchoring the final quadrant was the eleven-member village youth alliance that had barged into camp this morning.

“First item on the agenda: managing the transit logistics up to the fifth floor. I intend to permanently assign the guard and escort parameters for this route to the youth alliance, matching our previous deployment setup.”

Given that they had successfully navigated all the way to this depth completely independent of our high-tier intervention, their power metrics were officially certified for the route. The young men instantly erupted into a boisterous cheer, thoroughly thrilled to be assigned official duties, but I immediately drove a sharp nail into their morale loop to keep them grounded.

“While your directives explicitly include training other citizens to expand our active vanguard, let me be perfectly clear: if our injury metrics spike or multiple units require emergency stabilization, I will systematically scrap this arrangement and rethink our strategy.”

“U-Understood, boss! Orders fully locked in!”

“Furthermore, your platoon will oversee all localized harvesting parameters. I’ll provide a navigation map later, so ensure your systems comprehensively memorize the specific environmental coordinates.”

To state the unvarnished reality, harvesting deposits of Dungeon Moss or Bat Guano Ore yielded a vastly superior utility value for our long-term operations than simply hauling back the carcasses of bats and earthworms. While handing over a physical map marked with the exact harvesting nodes minimized the risk of skipped nodes, we needed to enforce maximum operational security regarding this data.

If a document of that nature ever leaked into the hands of a third-party faction outside our network, it would trigger a massive structural crisis for the village.

To safeguard their survival parameters, I transferred a portion of my mid-tier Trauma Salve inventory to their platoon leader. The remaining two units of the medicine were distributed to the Chief and Paula to secure their personal loadouts. Finally, I locked in their sub-objectives regarding the vine-harvesting operations on the fourth floor.

“Moving on to item two: managing our agricultural footprint on the fifth floor. Chief, what is the current status of our garlic crop?”

“The sprouts are currently expanding along a highly optimal trajectory, Nino-sama. However, we are rapidly approaching a threshold where a high-volume irrigation cycle is mandatory.”

While garlic historically boasted an exceptional resistance parameter against dry environments, completely cutting off its moisture supply would cause the cultivation loop to fail. Although we had been utilizing the Boss Slime’s massive core bladder to transport large payloads of water down from the upper strata, the vast majority of the volume was currently being completely consumed by the goblins’ daily hydration needs, leaving our agricultural reserves at absolute zero.

“Has our total acreage expanded significantly?”

“Yes, sir. Thanks to the exceptional tilling efficiency of the Giant Earthworms, our total arable land is hovering close to five times its baseline scale.”

Their cultivation velocity was spectacular. If we intended to maintain this momentum and continuously scale up our fields, the smartest calculation was to systematically eliminate our water scarcity bottleneck once and for all.

“ …Alright. Looking at the geographical data, a massive subterranean lake sits right at the western dead end of this floor. We shall excavate a canal matrix to route that water straight to our fields. Chief, I am assigning the full architectural coordination of the fields and canal grid to your profile.“

“Understood, Nino-sama. I shall execute the directive flawlessly.”

“Until that infrastructure verifies complete, I must request that our non-combat volunteers manually transport water down from the spring on the fourth floor. I apologize for the grueling labor cycle.”

“U-Understood, sir! We’re on it!”

Given that the fourth floor’s hostile demographic was strictly restricted to harmless fairies and Giant Caterpillars, even citizens completely untrained in combat parameters could navigate the transit loop with an absolute safety margin. Furthermore, by outfitting them with a combined setup of the new back-baskets and our slime bladders, they would be capable of hauling an immense volume of fluid in a single run.

“Beyond that, let’s maintain our soil-enrichment protocols by continuously broadcasting bone meal. The exact fraction of a second Hans-san returns to our network at the turn of the month, we shall initiate a full-scale planting phase for a diverse array of crops.”

“Yes, indeed. I am highly looking forward to that milestone,” the Chief noted with a proud smile.

While standard vegetables were excellent, securing high-yield summer wheat was a mandatory requirement to insulate our community against the looming food scarcity crisis I had calculated.

“Next item: regarding this specific goblin settlement. Let us permanently log these coordinates under the official designation of ‘Goblin Village No. 1.’”

“Whoa, hold on a second! What’s the hidden calculation here?! Are you seriously planning on multiplying these green bastards?!” Heimo demanded, his tone laced with his usual unprovoked hostility.

However, his assessment was entirely accurate.

“Yeah. The geographical footprint of the tenth floor turned out to be exponentially larger than initially calculated. Establishing a succession of forward bases to clear the strata will optimize both our survival metrics and our progression velocity.”

Having a massive volume of allied units on the field maximized combat efficiency; that theorem had been flawlessly proven during our wolf-culling operations on the eighth floor.

“Before we pivot to the next phase, Ethan-san.”

“Yes, My Lord? How can my system serve you?”

“I want to immediately secure a dedicated rest area within the eighth stratum.”

That floor was packed with high-value material nodes, so expanding our active labor demographic in that sector as quickly as possible was a core priority. Forcing our elite clearing unit to spend three grueling hours hunting down wolves every single time we accessed the floor was a terrible drain on our operational schedule.

“Understood, Nino-sama. Leave the architecture to me!”

“If your loops permit, please include logging timber as a primary objective for that sector.”

The fifth floor’s flora was strictly restricted to olive trees; although their structural parameters allowed them to fully regenerate within a ten-day window, over-logging the lumber would systematically tank our seasonal berry harvest yields. Ever since the goblins had integrated fire into their cooking routines, our settlement’s fuel consumption metrics had entered a critical bottleneck.

The Village Chief smoothly raised an administrative note.

“ …Regarding that boundary, the surface community is approaching a critical milestone as well, Nino-sama.“

“Is that so?”

“Yes, sir. Every year upon breaching the second month of the calendar, our citizens execute a mandatory community deployment into the forest to gather firewood.”

Ah, right. During the winter parameters, the moisture content stored within trees drops to its absolute minimum, making it the optimal window to execute high-efficiency logging operations.

“Which means we’re destined to lock down our fuel reserves ahead of schedule, or our long-term calculations will fail…” I muttered, massaging my temples.

“How should our unit proceed, Nino-sama?”

The question came from Karina-san, speaking on behalf of the textile contingent.

“I have a massive volume of tasks to assign to your sector as well. For starters, maintain your current production loops to maximize our inventory of crafted goods.”

Because our raw leather supply was comprehensively overflowing, the tailoring metrics of both the matrons and their goblin apprentices were skyrocketing along a magnificent growth curve. Based on current data, they would be fully capable of manufacturing market-ready, commercial-grade merchandise in the near future.

Spending too much consecutive runtime inside the dungeon could easily distort one’s market calculations, but the surface world was still locked in freezing winter parameters; the economic demand for high-grade fur insulation and winter gear wasn’t bound to drop anytime soon. Furthermore, crafting durable leather armor loadouts was a mandatory requirement for the upcoming combat phases of our campaign.

Beyond that, the community’s domestic queues were heavily backed up with requests for daily leather accessories—bags, footwear, headwear, and gloves.

“And… didn’t you mention requiring a weaving loom?”

“Yes, sir. If it doesn’t compromise our financial parameters, we highly desire an asset of that nature.”

If we systematically scaled up our Giant Caterpillar cultivation loops, we would be capable of harvesting a boundless stockpile of top-tier silk thread. While raw silk was exceptionally durable and highly versatile, the smartest play was to process the resource into finished textiles to maximize our profit margins on the merchant exchanges. To unlock that utility, acquiring a mechanical loom capable of weaving silk fabric was mandatory—but an asset of that caliber commanded a price completely outside the reach of ordinary civilians.

Therefore, my strategy was to liquefy the glow-stones we had harvested and invest that capital directly into acquiring the machinery. Granted, since Hans-san was the only unit in our network possessing the proper mercantile stats to negotiate the transaction, this specific project would remain back-logged until his return next month.

“Until that window opens, we need to continuously stockpile silk thread. I’ll need Yo to maximize his production efficiency.”

While the Giant Caterpillars had performed spectacularly during yesterday’s Assault Bird invasion event, they had unfortunately failed to cross the Level 20 threshold. Since my long-term strategy required scaling up our caterpillar population, mapping out a high-efficiency leveling loop for them was an immediate necessity.

“Alright, what’s my designated assignment, alchemy brat?!”

Heimo the smith chimed in next. Despite his aggressively angry vocalization, his eyes were dancing with an immense volume of excitement and anticipation. After managing his loops for two consecutive weeks, calculating his true emotional state has become an effortless exercise, I thought.

“Let’s see. For the time being, maintain your current trajectory and focus entirely on maximizing the training metrics of your goblin apprentices. Furthermore—”

“Furthermore, what?!”

“You’re jumping the queue, calm down. Our clearing operations on the seventh floor routinely yield a massive volume of rusted blades and shattered armaments. Is your workshop capable of reforging assets of that condition?”

“Hah! You’re asking me if I can handle a basic loop like that?! Hmph, consider it done, brat!”

Given that he had previously stated he lacked experience manufacturing military-grade weaponry, processing these scrap components would serve as the perfect sandbox environment to level up his stats. I would coordinate with the Chief and his wife—both certified healing units—alongside the youth alliance to handle the recovery logistics from the tower.

“Additionally, continue manufacturing the standard lantern mounts and managing all maintenance queues for our agricultural tools.”

“Ugh, what a tedious grind!”

“Then simply delegate those lower-tier queues to your apprentices. We possess an infinite supply of raw materials for them to practice on anyway.”

“Oh! Look at the brain on this brat! That’s an exceptionally smart calculation!”

Simultaneously, I needed to scout out the optimal coordinates to establish his permanent workshop. While mapping it right inside this primary village was an option, managing the structural fire hazards intersected with the logistical nightmare of hauling fuel deep into the dungeon made it non-ideal. Securing a more streamlined, accessible location would yield much better efficiency.

“One last thing… do any of your networking loops include an artisan proficient in silversmithing?”

“Me?! Do I look like the kind of guy who maintains a massive social circle?!”

“Ugh, my bad.”

“Though… if we’re talking about potential leads, I happen to know a single eccentric bastard who fits the profile!”

“So you do have a contact!” I barked.

Excellent. With this link secured, we could finally map out a high-value utility path for our Silver Ore deposits.

“Alright, that leaves the final item on our itinerary: clearing out the tenth floor. We shall maintain our current elite vanguard configuration for this deployment. The mission parameters might require us to stay deployed deep inside the strata for consecutive days without returning to the surface—is everyone’s resolve locked in?”

“The vanguard configuration is fully acknowledged, My Lord,” Paula purred, dropping into a deep, graceful bow. “My blade and my devotion belong entirely to your vector, down to the absolute depths of this realm.”

“Heh-heh~! Leave everything to me! I’m going to unleash my full power and absolutely crush it!” Mia cheered.

“Zero objections here~!”

“Kyuuu~!”

Granted, expanding our deep-strata vanguard with powerful new reinforcement units remained a critical target for our upcoming loops.

Well now, with our primary policies officially decided and our tasks systematically allocated, it’s time to plunge back into the labyrinth and kick today’s tenth-floor conquest into absolute overdrive.