Before Alice went to visit the Frostlands and met Luna:
"Alice I want to make a country inside this dungeon, one where I am the complete overlord."
Xia says while looking over to Alice. He was currently sitting in the garden of Alice's mansion in the golden district inside the dungeon. Alice is sitting in a comfy-looking chair on the balcony of the second floor.
Alice had complained about neck pain from constantly looking up to talk to Xia so this was the solution they came up with.
The construction work for both this district and the noble or now called the golden district after the card needed to live here had been completed a week ago. The construction had been fast thanks to the undead working day and night and the dungeon providing all the materials. But despite constructing a grand city nobody but Xia and Alice currently live here.
"I also thought it would be interesting to become the secret ruler of this world, I don't want to have to directly manage all the countries but if I can control them politically then that would be cool".
"Well we do have a long life ahead of us, yours might even be infinite. Having a goal like world domination does seem possible with your strength, just go capture the enemy king and declare yourself a king?" Alice replies lazily while sipping on a cocktail she made.
"Nah that's boring, I'd also have to deal with constant uprisings and annoying nobles. Also, mass murder of innocent people isn't really my style. When I came to this world I was forced to fight and kill monsters so I became a little numb from killing and even killed the humans chasing after you. I don't feel bad about it but killing humans definitely felt way worse than killing monsters."
"I'd still kill anyone who disrespects me or tries to harm people I care about of course but just going and slaughtering a country because I can is a bit hollow and fucked up," Xia concludes with a rather dark expression on his face.
"Well I'm glad to know you aren't planning world destruction Xia but how do you plan to become an overlord of a country here, nobody will move here out of their own free will if they know it's a dictatorship run by an insanely powerful undead."
"I was thinking about that, I'm sure if I provide free food and houses people would willingly move here. In fact, I could make a utopia here with my powers and the dungeon."
"What's a utopia?" Alice asks, this world lacks philosophers so nobody had come up with an idea like a utopian society.
"A perfect place where everything is provided and done for you, unfortunately, a society like that was impossible in my old world."
"The person who came up with the idea worked out that each resident would need at least two slaves to be able to completely provide for a person back in the 1600's, as there wasn't the technology to speed tasks up."
"In fact from the information you gave me this world is quite similar to my world back then but people live longer here because of mana and stats."
Xia seemed to perk up as if having a light bulb moment and started rubbing his chin with his long metallic claws, while in deep thought.
"What if I just used my undead as slaves instead? That could work, thanks to my undead skill being so high the undead keep some of the skills and memories from their past lives so I can just tell them to farm or mine and they understand."
"So you plan to lure people here with free food and the promise of not needing to work?"
"Exactly"
"People will get bored of just drinking their days away here, also what do you achieve by ruling over a city filled with useless people."
"Hm true, what if I only attracted smart and talented people? I could be like a hub for trade and knowledge considering this dungeon's position being in the middle of the three surrounding nations."
"Also by doing that I could rapidly accelerate the level of science, technology, and magic in this world. If everyone here can live long lives and only pursue their passions without having to worry then progress would be fast."
"The ruler that controls the latest knowledge is always the most feared and powerful after all. Politics is just an arms race for power."
"How will you deal with crime? We will be the center of attention once we move Shadow away from the entrance and let people come in. There will be spies, adventurers and even soldiers sent in here to harass and kill people. We could even be deemed heretics by the church and have paladins march in here."
"I have an idea for that, Alice. Whenever something enters combat in this dungeon I get a notification about it. Usually, a dungeon master would turn it off or ignore it but I instead could set it to automatically summon undead at the location of a conflict. They could then defend the person with an authority card. That should allow residents of Eden to defend themselves against attacks from the other nations."
"Before we can attract knowledgeable and skilled people we will need more simple workers to run restaurants and inns for when people finally arrive. If we open the gates and thousands of people come but there's nowhere to stay or places to eat then they will leave or turn to violence quickly." Alice replies and then takes another sip of her cocktail, admiring the beautiful view of the golden district.
"We made a lot of food, I could go to the Frostlands and offer food in a trade for something and during the transaction of goods we could get people to come work here in the more simple jobs."
"Oh that works out perfectly, I need mana stones but they don't grow inside dungeons, and micromanaging undead outside the dungeon takes a lot more mental strain and mana. Why don't you leave tomorrow for the Frostlands, take some food with you in that storage ring to really win them over."
"Sure thing, I'll leave tomorrow then, now move your big head out the way it's ruining my lovely view of the garden."
Xia simply grunts in response and waves his hand to teleport to another location in the dungeon.
"Fufufu, maybe I can use this new country of Xia's to get revenge on my parents. Sure would be a shame if we made and produced way better products at a much lower price and sold them to their clients… maybe then they would become poor and experience what I had to."
"I wonder if they would even recognize me anymore" while feeling a little melancholy Alice looks over her massive garden and at the other marble buildings in the distance. She had helped Xia design all the buildings.
We picked marble since it's very expensive and beautiful to look at but also strong and fire-resistant. The last thing we wanted is the whole city burning down after all.
"Xia may not want to kill humans but I can't say the same… those fuckers are asking for it."
A creepy and sadistic smile found its way onto Alice's face.
"Keep it together Alice, your time will come soon…."