Sakura pulled up her hood and adjusted her mask, then hopped down from the rooftops and onto the street below.

  Today, she was conducting an evaluation of the town’s attempts to revamp its various industries, improving the quantity and quality of the equipment its residents had access to. These efforts were being supplemented with subsidies from City Hall—along with some generous donations from the settlements’ commercial and crafting associations.

  Once she toured the establishments on her list, Sakura would end her day with something new. The first core produced by the manufactory would be ready soon, and she was going to observe its installation while gauging the facility’s defenses. While she walked, she pondered the dynamics of their evolving situation.

  Now that the Ivory Plains had been teleported to the far side of Ord—surrounded by high-threat frontier regions they had only begun to explore—their old way of life that had been centered around the Prison World feeds and a regular influx of fresh tourists no longer made sense. Under Dialla’s leadership, Puppet Town was changing by the day to meet its residents’ needs.

  Her first stop was the crafters’ quarter, where efforts to swap out assembly lines that had been rendered obsolete by the anomaly were in the final stages of completion. The district’s factories had been renovated as everyone geared up to deal with the dangerous creatures that were migrating onto the plains.

  Hundreds of stage-two beasts had already been sighted in the regions surrounding Puppet Town, and it was only a matter of time before stage-three monsters and beasts made their appearance. The borders of the Ivory Plains were saturated with magicytes flowing in from adjacent biomes, and the phenomenon would reach the town’s walls sometime within the next six weeks—based on the changes they had observed thus far.

  Sakura had always been playing for keeps—since she was a jailbird who had been banished from her homeworld instead of a tourist piloting a puppet body—but now everyone else was in the same boat. Puppet Town was cut off from all forms of trade, and the settlement had to be self-sufficient moving forward, producing goods that would let them weather the storm that had broken over their heads.

  While the war with the Crimson Claws was a pressing threat, she was happy to note that the town’s long-term plans were going well. Once the current crisis blew past, they had a real chance of surviving the trials ahead—although life would never be easy on the most dangerous planet in inhabited space.

  As she pondered their long list of problems, Sakura surveyed some of the settlement’s most prominent establishments.

  The Forge and the Crafters’ Consortium had lines heading out the door and wrapping around the block. The stores offered complementary goods and catered to the town’s strongest members—cored warriors and hunters who were the primary providers of beast parts and other valuable resources.

  The dozens of smaller storefronts scattered throughout the district were almost as busy. Most of their customers weren’t professional hunters, but they still needed to be able to defend their home if the settlement came under threat.

  Sakura nodded in approval—pleased by what she saw. Thanks to the increased inventory and reduced prices, far more of the town’s residents were outfitted in quality weapons and armor, increasing Puppet Town’s military might. The settlement’s other industries had stepped up to the plate too, providing a variety of goods and services that supported the war effort.

  While it was a promising start, they needed to secure more resources to make weapons and armor that were durable enough to battle stage-two beasts. Collecting them would be dangerous, but there were certain to be plenty of quality materials in the high-threat biomes that had become their new neighbors. Once the jailbird gang was dealt with, Dialla would be able to send out scouting and harvesting teams—dramatically increasing the range of goods the crafters could make.

  Thanks to the Contribution Point system the mayor had implemented, people were incentivized to grow stronger or help in one manner or another. In addition to awarding points for training with the peacekeepers or militia, points were handed out for both conducting and taking classes that taught skills and techniques the town needed going forward.

  As a result, more people than ever were learning combat, crafting, and industrial skills, which would enhance the settlement’s capabilities over time—especially as more cores were produced by the manufactory and installed by its most valuable residents.

  While the points were making a difference, Sakura had a sense that part of the diligence she observed was due to people internalizing their new reality. Though the future was obscured by twilight and haze, one thing was certain—no one was a civilian or tourist anymore. Everyone living behind Puppet Town’s walls were now settlers and pioneers, working together to survive the myriad threats of the magical planet.

  As Sakura finished jotting down her observations, she felt Lore-Weaver skittering across her consciousness, returning from wherever the spinner of truth and lies went while gathering information—a vast network that she only partially understood, even after their long association.

  “I must admit, I am impressed by what you have accomplished in the aftermath of the anomaly. I thought revealing your status to Dialla and Earl would wind up getting us both killed, but you were right, and I was wrong. They are competent leaders whose specialties complement our own.”

  “I was right about Edge too. Although I’m worried about everyone who left on the expedition. While we’ve found a good place to put down roots, the situation with the Claws could ruin everything we have built.”

  “The jailbirds are a threat, and I understand why you are worried, but I am more concerned about what comes next. I haven’t been able to isolate the cause of the anomaly or determine why parts of the System have become increasingly erratic since. The wardens are still hiding behind the walls of their strongholds, and the Red Shield is blocking any interference from off-world.

  “I can’t shake the sense that something is happening behind the scenes that bodes ill for the future. I can feel hints of catastrophe creeping along the furthest reaches of my web, and my efforts to learn more have been thwarted thus far. Only the most powerful entities on the planet could have arranged something like this, and I feel the hand of an unknown player. I fear that unless we uncover the truth of what lurks in the shadows, none of us will survive the dark days ahead.”

  With that, Lore-Weaver scurried away. Soon, the weaver was only a distant presence flitting along the periphery of her mind. Sakura sighed and put the matter aside for now, heading toward the town square and the core manufactory beyond.

  She was tempted to make a detour by the Pioneer first so she could say hello to her friends. But after looking at the clock, she decided that catching up would have to wait a little longer. The first core will come off the line any minute now. If I don’t hurry, I’ll miss the installation ceremony.

  She picked up the pace while passing by the deputies’ headquarters, which had expanded to fill the adjoining buildings to house their fresh crop of recruits. The militia’s leaders had moved into the structure across the street, making it easy for both organizations to coordinate and conduct joint-training operations.

  Now that Edge had secured the core manufactory, Puppet Town needed to start arming its newly cored warriors with powerful skills and help them evolve as quickly as possible. To that end, there was a group of hunters taking recruits into the plains to aggressively cycle up while harvesting the raw materials required to manufacture more cores. However, Sakura was keeping tabs on their operation through other means and wasn’t evaluating it today.

  On that note, there had been several skirmishes with the Claws on the plains—the crews who were preventing Earl from sending out a strike force to rescue the expedition. Since neither side was interested in a direct confrontation just yet, the battles had been brief and casualties had been light.

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  The stalemate will end when Yussuf arrives or their elites return from besieging Trapper’s team. Sometime within the next few weeks, this war will enter a deadly new stage, and I can’t shake the feeling that only one side will still be breathing when the dust settles.

  While the impending bloodshed was deeply worrying, there was reason for optimism.

  Edge’s efforts had tipped the scales in their favor. Conquering the Savage Garden and claiming the manufactory had turned time into Puppet Town’s ally—at least as far as their conflict with the Claws was concerned. Every week that passed would see more of their people cored and improve the settlement’s odds of winning the war.

  That was why Sakura was sure the prisoners would make their move before long. The Gilded Heights was a shithole sitting in the middle of a wasteland, and Yussuf the Red had always wanted to move his gang somewhere that could serve as the center of his empire. She wasn’t surprised that the murderous bastard had set his sights on the Ivory Plains.

  Now that the dungeon was out of the picture, the Claws would try to take the settlement, kill anyone who opposed them, and enslave or recruit the rest. They intended to move into Puppet Town, claim the manufactory anyway, and then expand their base of power.

  Fortunately, while the convicts were hardened killers, they lacked discipline, and their teamwork was spotty at best. They didn’t have the patience for a lengthy campaign and preferred the direct approach, which made them easy to predict. That being said, they had a strike force of over a hundred cored killers with considerable combat experience, and the gang might prevail through brute force despite her best efforts.

  In the end, it comes down to two variables—who comes out on top between Trapper’s group and the jailbirds besieging them, and the conflict on the Ivory Plains.

  By now, Sakura was drawing near her destination, passing through the public green on her way to the town square. Most of the people who were camping on the green had been moved to permanent housing in the residential quarter, leaving the grassy field free to use as a training ground and staging area for various projects.

  The buildings next to the manufactory had been purchased by the mayor over the last few days—to prevent unauthorized people from drawing near and store the components required to keep the facility running. She was pleased to see that collecting raw materials was going better than her original projections.

  Going forward, the town would be able to produce five Basic cores a week. Their elite harvesters had located the resources required to manufacture Common fire and water-aligned cores too—although that assembly took a week to produce each Common core and they would only be issued to a handful of the town’s most valued residents, whose skillsets revolved around those elements.

  Before Sakura arrived at the manufactory, she activated Disguise to protect her anonymity, since masks weren’t allowed inside the facility. She braced herself as her core ignited and mana went flowing into her face.

  Accompanied by a flash of pain and a flush of warmth, the structure of her cheekbones rearranged—eye and skin tone shifting until she looked like another woman with features far removed from her own. Disguise was uncomfortable and made her head feel strange, so she only used it when there wasn’t another option.

  Once her flesh stopped squirming, she pulled out the letter from Earl authorizing her presence, then approached the pair of cored warriors stationed in front of the entrance. She smiled when she spotted someone with a stealth skill hiding on the roof, watching for anyone trying to sneak in while ready to sound the alarm if there was a problem that required additional manpower.

  Sakura took off her mask, then walked up to the guards while scanning for chinks in the building’s protections. “You’re the independent contractor Earl hired to inspect the facility?”

  “That’s right.” She handed over the document.

  “All right, then. Everything seems to be in order. You came at a good time. The core is almost ready, and the lucky recipient is already inside. Feel free to look around and ask any questions you like. I’ll feel a lot better knowing that our defenses are up to speed.”

  She offered the guardsman her thanks, then walked through the gate before stopping in front of the manufactory. Sakura had already viewed the structure from a distance, but this was her first opportunity to take in the details up close.

  The core manufactory was the size of a small restaurant. Its walls were made of high-grade brick and concrete that looked strong enough to endure an artillery barrage. Good. There’s no way that someone can take it out from a distance, assuming they found a way to bypass the Dome in the first place.

  She circled the building, nodding in approval when she saw there were no points of entry other than the front door. Earl wouldn’t have to worry about someone bypassing the guards and stealing a core or sabotaging the magitech devices within. After taking a few notes, she walked inside, passing by another pair of guards stationed out front.

  When her eyes adjusted to the lower level of lighting, Sakura proceeded to inspect the interior of the manufactory. She found herself standing in a small chamber with a few chairs and tables where people could sit while waiting to install their cores. There weren’t any dedicated workers, since the System-generated facility didn’t need anyone to run the machinery—other than adding fresh materials to the storage unit every so often.

  There were only two rooms inside the building. One was an observation area where people could watch the magitech device craft cores from the other side of a thick glass window. There was a display mounted to one wall—positioned next to an intake apparatus for raw resources.

  The other enclosure held the Core Forge itself. The forge was a complex magitech machine that took up most of the manufactory. It was made of a brasslike metal that was studded with glittering gemstones, with countless conduits and wires running between the components.

  Sakura had no idea how it worked, but fortunately, she didn’t have to. She was relieved to discover that there was no way to access the machine directly. Even if someone managed to sneak their way inside, they couldn’t damage the device without breaking through the window.

  Before she turned her attention to the manufacturing process, she walked over to check out the display. She tapped the screen and read through the main menu.

  Welcome to Puppet Town’s D-Grade Core Manufactory

  This is a core-manufacturing facility. The following recipes are available at this time:

  Basic Cores

  Manufacturing time: 33 hours.

  Common Elemental Cores: (Earth, Wind, Water, Fire, Lightning).

  Manufacturing time: 160 hours.

  Note: Common and Basic Cores are produced on separate assembly lines and may be manufactured simultaneously.

  Sakura memorized the materials required for each variant so she could keep an eye out for them while scrying, then turned her attention to the other people inside the room.

  On one bench was an ecstatic hunter, quivering in anticipation while waiting for her core to come off the line. Beside her sat one of Doc’s apprentices, who was here to handle the relatively simple procedure required to install it.

  Sakura took a seat beside the only other person in the room—a senior craftsman from the Forge who was hoping that observing the manufactory in action might provide insights into crafting other devices.

  Together, they watched as the device completed the finishing touches on its first Basic core. The array of machinery behind the glass started glowing as the magic of Ord was drawn into the manufactory. Unlike most magitech machines, the facility was powered directly by the System instead of running on an aether reservoir—one aspect of the reward beyond the installation itself.

  The heart of the core had already been completed—an iridescent sphere half the size of her fist. The reservoir and reactor were embedded within. All that was left was to arrange everything within a protective shell and add the channels that would hook up with its bearer’s mana pores. The core was suspended between two mechanical arms with a spindle-like component weaving its way between them.

  More shimmering threads of crimson and gold were wrapped around the central chamber with every beat of her heart, adding layers of circuits that reminded Sakura of runic magic—although the design principles were different from anything she’d seen before. When the last connection was complete, a blade appeared and snipped the end of the thread, then a separate tool reached out and welded the final strand in place.

  The arms placed the completed core into a dispensary, where it was retrieved by Doc’s assistant—who had just finished pulling on a pair of surgical gloves. The delighted young hunter fidgeted as the big moment arrived. Sakura shared a knowing grin with the crafter sitting beside her as the woman tried to maintain a stoic disposition, only to fail spectacularly.

  The lucky woman was the top earner in Dialla’s newly implemented Contribution Point system, rewarding her for going above and beyond in helping the settlement survive the trying days ahead.

  Doc’s apprentice set the newly minted core on a silver tray, then pulled up a stool in front of the hunter—who had unfastened her leather armor to expose the skin between her breasts. After sterilizing the area with an alcohol swipe and warning the woman not to move no matter what sensations accompanied the installation, the medic picked up the core and pressed it against her chest.

  With a flash of light, the magitech device sank into the woman’s flesh, binding itself to her magical circuitry and changing her life forever. The hunter let out a delighted laugh as a mantle of power sprang into being around her—the air of potency that all cored people shared.

  Sakura took a few minutes to congratulate the woman and vicariously enjoy her delight, then she left the manufactory and headed to the Pioneer to visit her friends. Days of blood and ash were fast approaching, and she wanted to spend these final moments of calm with the people she loved.