The next years were exciting, and to an extent, inspiring. Much of Zoe’s time at first was spent up in the frigid dungeon helping the small group get accustomed to life on the moon and assisting Joe with any dungeon management tasks he needed.

  Together, they’d settled on a new redesign for the city from the translucent blue frost to something still quite exotic but not so transparent. A solid rock with a blue tint formed most of the construction, with a white rock that made Zoe think of packed snow acting as a highlight in areas that needed it. Decorative pillars or designs on the outside of buildings. Benches and tables in the parks. In the end, Foizo on the Moon looked like something ripped out of a winter fantasy.

  Or, at least the part that Joe and Zoe had the time to update did. As it turned out, even with the help of a near unlimited well of mana and powerful magic that let them shape the dungeon as they saw fit, Foizo was still quite large. And none of that helped with the tedious task of designing the layout.

  Foizo on the Moon when it was left to its own devices tended to follow quite close the construction of the original Foizo. But the original Foizo had its own host of problems to deal with that the dungeon wouldn’t have to deal with. And the dungeon had its own host of problems that the original Foizo didn’t need to contend with.

  The first few days were just tearing down almost every single building in the dungeon, ripping everything apart so they had a clean slate to work with. Joe and Zoe got to work building up several test buildings from the various materials they could conjure, while the rest of the group settled into their duty of planning the actual city.

  Transportation to and from Abyllan was not going to be a simple process at first, nor would communication be between the cities. The people living on the moon needed to be self sufficient. They needed to be able to farm their own food, they needed to make their own clothes, their own furniture. So much of what people used in Foizo was imported. Furniture from Darpi, clothes from Korna, food from almost every trader that stopped in the village.

  But Foizo on the Moon would have none of that. Someday when travel was more streamlined, perhaps merchants would be travelling to the moon with their exotic goods. But until that was established, they needed a way to ensure the people on the moon would stay alive, on the moon.

  Which meant that most of the city plan wasn’t being dedicated to residences, but rather businesses. Buildings for enchanters or alchemists to work without worrying about the damage their experiments might cause. Farmland for crops that could grow in the gold with some help from some enchantments.

  After several months of gruesome work in the freezing cold, Joe and the other councilwoman — Betty, decided they’d made enough progress to start bringing up the interested Foizo residents. Zoe dropped Betty off down in Foizo and then made her way back to the moon to join Joe in the final preparations they had to make for the group that would be joining them.

  The first group of people was flown in on a very large metal disc by a royal guard Zoe named Zachary. There were six enchanters, two glassmakers and two farmers who planned to move their entire flock of Ryz up to the dungeon when it was able to support them.

  In a month, the glassmakers formed a very expensive looking large dome outside the dungeon while the enchanters worked to fill it with more enchantments than Zoe could count. Thousands of small enchantments embedded into some of the most expensive gems Zoe had ever seen working in tandem to fill it with breathable air and maintain the temperature at a comfortable level. It reminded Zoe of what she’d done herself for her little cave back in Foizo but far more elegant.

  Standing in the glass dome almost felt like standing back on Abyllan in a wide open field. A gentle breeze sometimes washed over the field, brushing over all the grass. The temperature fluctuated — and even sometimes rained. It was a work of art, in Zoe’s opinion. An entire weather system simulated so precisely with so many enchantments working in tandem. Mana rushed around just beneath the ground, turning on and off different enchantments dozens of times every second.

  The next group brought up wasn’t people at all, but rather the farmers’ flock of Ryz. It took Zachary several trips to bring all of the Ryz up, and each trip seemed to be taking him about a full week of travel. Zoe had to stop herself from helping out — she was happy to help Joe out with developing the dungeon, but being a taxi service was too far. If the council of Foizo wanted to use her dungeon, they needed to figure out transportation for themselves. And Zoe wasn’t even sure if she’d be much help regardless.

  Zachary was dragging dozens of birds to the moon with each trip. Even if Zoe wanted to put her and the birds in the most uncomfortable positions imaginable, she could only see herself managing maybe ten birds at a time, at most. And that would take at least two days, maybe more depending on how well the birds behaved and how often they needed to eat. For a four day round trip, and only bringing up ten birds? She’d hardly make a dent in the hundreds the farmers wanted to bring up by the time Zachary was done with the rest.

  With the animals handled, the next group that was brought up were more farmers to lay their seed in the farmland throughout Foizo on the Moon. Most of which were root vegetables, but a surprising number of the plants they sowed were berries. Some of the farmland was sectioned off and filled with more complicated enchantments that warmed the soil despite the dungeon’s best efforts. It couldn’t quite bring it to above freezing, but most of the crops that people grew in Foizo were more than capable of withstanding freezing temperatures as they were.

  They’d lack some of the imported foods, many of the leafy greens and most of the fresh fruits. But the variety that the farmers seemed to think would be able to grow in the freezing dungeon was quite surprising to Zoe. They wouldn’t be lacking diversity in their mealplans, even if they did end up missing some of their common luxuries.

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  Zoe didn’t doubt that in time, the people on the moon would make more of the glass domes for growing some of the crops they’d end up missing. But Foizo was only able to afford one of them at the moment, and didn’t seem keen to build more of them before more research was done on the moon regardless. How much of the work put into the dome was really necessary? How much of it was superfluous? What corners could they cut to save resources on future expansions?

  Slowly but surely as the months passed, the dungeon began to bustle with activity. Farmers slaving away in the fields, enchanters and alchemists testing out experiments they wouldn’t be comfortable with back in Foizo. Cooks thriving in the low competition environment as they set up restaurants. Merchants that opened up shops, and curious folk that were excited to explore the moon on their own. And intermixed into all of them, the strange blue creatures that listened to Zoe’s every whim.

  It was incredible to see the people in her dungeon. To see their excitement at exploring an entirely new space rock, to build up a new city. It reminded Zoe of when Foizo was first created after the fall of Flester, but lacking that fear and sadness that wracked through everybody at the time. Nobody was here by force, nobody was here because they were run out of their own home. Everybody wanted to be here, they wanted to build a new city, they wanted to be a part of the growth.

  But as the time flew by, Zoe found herself wanting to get back to her own projects. Back to working on her seventh class. Everything she’d done since she took Arcane Watch had added up to quite a few levels for her. Fighting against the darkness, transporting and protecting people to and from the moon. Building up the dungeon on the moon and keeping everybody safe against the violent frost of her dungeon.

  Her classes loved every bit of it, and she’d skyrocketed up to level two hundred seventy eight in such a short period of time. Her mana was almost reaching forty million total, with it recovering in full several times every second even without the help of Meditation.

  If the capital was safe — and to her knowledge it was, then it would just be a few short months before she could reach her first class cap. Maybe a year, at most. And even if she was almost certainly not getting her seventh class on her first try, the mana she would have at level three sixty would be incredible. A hundred million, total? With billions recovered every second? Travelling to a closer planet in the timeframe Spacial Weave gave her wouldn’t even be out of the question at that point.

  Zoe trusted Betty with her own enchantment of Foizo on the Moon and then made her way back to Abyllan with Joe in tow. She spent a few weeks back in the original Foizo before she made her way off to the capital to work on some levels.

  Most of her time was spent in the Enkindled Caverns, a dungeon she’d spent quite a bit of time in when she first visited the capital. The levels went by quick up until the mid three hundred thirties when Zoe decided to tackle the Ruins of Abyllan again.

  It was almost comical to her how simple the Tenzo were for her, for how much respect she’d been giving them the past years. The last time she’d fought one she had maybe a hundred thousand health at most to her memory. And even then, they themselves didn’t pose much danger to her. The smaller bear like creatures that were nearby were the real danger and much higher level, but even they didn’t just kill her outright. She took a hit from them and survived to tell the tale, even back then when she was much weaker.

  But now, with almost four million health by her side and vastly improved healing, the Tenzo’s bear beasts couldn’t even hold a candle to her. At around level three hundred twenty, each Tenzo was worth almost as much as the boss of the Enkindled Caverns and far easier to come by. And the bear beasts they had as companions were each over level three hundred forty.

  The final boss of the Ruins of Abyllan was impressive, but with Zoe’s immense pool of health and her powerful healing even it posed little danger to her. It was a much larger Tenzo that floated in the air far in the forests outside of the capital. Hundreds of the little bear creatures accompanied it, and it summoned massive hunks of molten metal that it hurled towards Zoe at speeds she struggled to avoid.

  Fighting it was more of a battle of attrition than anything. The attacks of the bear creatures were painful and distracting while the molten hunks of metal were already difficult enough to avoid on their own. She only fought the boss once, and hated every second of it. A downside of having a massive pool of health Zoe found, was that it didn’t come with any amount of pain reduction.

  In just a few short months, Zoe was at level three hundred fifty six with a total of sixty two million health and a staggering amount of mana regeneration. The cap she was giving herself was three sixty, but an inkling of a plan had begun forming in her mind.

  “So you’re going to go to space?" Joe leaned against the bar, staring Zoe in the face after she explained her plan.

  “Yeah.” Zoe said. The plan made sense to her. Travelling to another planet would be good for her classes, and she’d probably get a level or two from it anyway. What was the point in getting to three sixty then travelling when she could just work travelling into her levelling routine? Each time she got up to just about three sixty, she could pop off to somewhere new in space, and by the time she had her seventh class she’d have an idea of where she might like to go visit.

  Joe shrugged and shook his head. “Sounds like as good a plan as you’ve ever had. So you’re going to mark me, then?”

  “Yup.” Zoe nodded and grabbed Joe’s outstretched hand, pushing mana through her Spacial Weave skill. When she felt the mark settle in, she turned her focus inwards to disable the teleportation aspect of it. Though, with her immense pool of mana and health now, she wondered just how far the skill would be able to teleport her anyway.

  “You already say goodbye to Emma?” Joe asked.

  “Sure did. I’m gonna get going before I waste too much of this mark’s time. See ya around, Joe.” Zoe said.

  “Have fun!” Joe said.

  Zoe Cosmic Leaped up into the air as far as she could, reaching deep into space in just a single leap. She gasped from surprise and felt the air ripped out from her in the vacuum of space. A bubble of air formed around her, with a suit of armour to block out the sun’s radiation. In moments as Zoe Cosmic Leaped further into space, the planet she’d left behind shrunk. Each leap taking her hundreds of kilometers, if not over a thousand kilometers further away.

  She hurtled through space for just over a day before she arrived at the first planet on her list. A distant blue planet that always taunted her as she stared out into space. Close enough to almost be worth trying, even when she was much slower. Yet far enough that it never felt like a good idea, until now.

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