*Day 096*

  He’d forgotten to update Celys about the army.

  So, with liberal use of [Calm Emotions], he’d spent the early hours of the morning speaking with Celys. Also planning. Especially after letting her know that Lord Nord was now just Mr Nord, and that his barony had been transferred to Joram’s dutchy. He’d then needed to appoint someone to manage things over yonder but got a death glare when he’d suggested her for the role.

  All told, he hated politics and the minutiae of stewardship. But, after interviewing the higher-ranked members of the once rebel army, he managed to find someone both competent and fairly trustworthy. One Davin Worthington, a surprisingly efficient quartermaster.

  Very curious about how fast his [Bastion of Civilization] Achievement would work, he’d spent the morning with [Read Thoughts] active. However, after a suggestion from Avi, he tried to [Analyze] Celys instead and had gotten quite a shock.

  He

  hope that “Favourability” merely represented amicability, or how much she platonically

  liked him. Like, a Diplomacy meter or something.

  Now somewhat fearful of what [Analyze] would show him about a person, he nevertheless tried it on someone closer to him.

  He blinked at that, then suppressed a groan and a blush, in that order. But then heaved a sigh of relief because “Favourability” was just that; how favourably Celys viewed him. Nothing weird.

  But. If he found too many people with the “Romantic” section added in, he just might die of embarrassment. Because one: that was rather personal stuff. And two: how in the nine hells was he supposed to react to that?!

  Was he now the main character in some sort of Rom-Com? Or worse, a dating sim?!

  Shuddering, Joram threw that thought to the far reaches of his imagination and continued with his day.

  *Day 103*

  Kinkade looked at the new section of town, a series of high-rises that would do any modern city on Earth proud. From their thirty-six stories, the wide balconies, individually controlled climates powered by in-suite HVAC units, to the modern amenities found in each unit, he was reasonably certain that each unit would sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. All perpetually funded by them being sold as condos. Yay, condo fees!

  He shrugged. It wasn’t like he was going to charge condo fees when everything had been enchanted with [Repair] functions, let alone the all-important [Cleanse] functions. But considering that he’d built them all to house the “rebels”, he was comfortable enough to let them they owed him for the accommodations, let alone the myriads of “magic” items.

  Still, it was something. Even he’d wondered just how well that army would have integrated into his little city. He’d especially worried that they’d try to quickly gain power. But after the first hundred or so reports detailing how astonished they’d all been with the average level of his citizens, he supposed his worry had been a non-issue. Especially given how loyal his people were to him.

  Which led him to the necessity of setting enrollment dates for new students. It hadn’t been an issue when there had only been a few hundred students. But now that he was seeing veritable waves of hopeful students wanting to learn, he’d needed to do something. Having people start attending halfway through a course wasn’t a terribly effective teaching strategy.

  So, he’d done what his old world had done and structured his Academy like a modern university. Though, given the need to get as many people through as possible, he’d decided to go with four terms per year. Heck, he hadn’t even been on Iria for a year! And now he was planning for the long-term.

  Shaking his head, he got back to work. It wasn’t like it would get done by itself, after all.

  * * *

  Bob looked up at the Tower and smiled. It was almost done now. Well, the physical part of its construction, anyways. It was now ninety-seven floors. And given that each level was just over thirty metres tall, it was a sight to behold.

  Even with Dax working on the [Genesis, True] seed, he wasn’t sure when it would be finished. Heck, he was tempted to reassign Doug to the task along with all of his Minds. That might speed things up a bit.

  But what might push things along even more would be Joram finally deciding on a new Class! They’d been sitting at the peak of [World Architect] for over a week now. Sure, he understood Joram’s dismay at the selection of Classes that they had, even after having acquired a fair number of new Skills from the residents of the new city.

  Shaking his head, Bob decided to start calling their new city “New Metropolys”. Or just Metropolys. And why the “y”? Just a bit of a fun thing for him due to how multicultural the city was. Hence the “poly” at the end. He’d still pronounce it the same as Metropolis, though. No need to be too weird about it.

  Then his thoughts turned to the city he’d been building on the island. He’d need to figure something out for it, for he was sure that someone more important than him would want to know the name of his town. Maybe he’d go the clichéd route of “Atlantis”…? Or if he wanted to be consistent, then “Atlantys” could work…. Nah. Just Atlantis would be fine.

  Which would mean he’d probably have to build a shipyard at some point…. Shrug.

  At least Daphi was starting to warm a bit more to him as the shock of her deciding that he was a disguised dragon wore off. Still, he’d had to endure countless “subtle” questions regarding his views on various things. Or what kind of bed he preferred to sleep on. He’d nearly said: “the harder, the better”, but had held himself back for fear that she’d take it the wrong way. Or multiple wrong ways, as he had learned.

  He was also starting to wonder if she’d missed her true calling in becoming a [Romance Writer], or perhaps an [Erotica Writer] given where her mind went to most of the time….

  Still, he’d need to be careful. He’d already claimed Midway Isle and its surrounding waters. And given what [Bastion of Civilization] was doing, he wondered just how angry the [Demon Lord] would be when he realized that he’d lost one of his [Admiral]s….

  He shrugged again, then directed his newest set of terraforming machines to start on the decomposition phase again.

  He’d been growing random vegetation on the island, then swathing it, for the past week. Once the cut-down flora had been worked into the developing soil, the decomposition machines would go over it. Mix things up again, then repeat the whole process again and again.

  Though, with the growing- or deepening- soil levels, he’d needed to construct several rings of retaining walls to keep things where they should be. Especially given that it rained not infrequently on Midway Isle. So, a tiered layout had been the optimal choice, especially since he didn’t have any flora to keep the soil in place yet.

  Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

  But once the orchards and various fields were in place, it wouldn’t be too much of an issue. But planning for good drainage never hurt, let alone rivers and even a couple of lakes. Maybe he’d make a fish hatchery too? One for freshwater fish, and another for saltwater fish. Yeah, that would probably go well.

  The next question was: which fish? Or, maybe, he could just do salmon? It was, after all, his favourite fish. Make some salmon runs, a safe area in a new bay he’d need to make. Especially since he was sure that the local fish would easily tear his salmon apart…. Or!

  He’d read an article years ago about an ancestor of the modern salmon that was over two metres long. It was, allegedly, also quite the predator. Hmm…. He’d need to run some simulations to see if it would be a terrible idea to introduce something like that to Iria. But!

  If he used [Summon: All] to bring them into existence, then he wouldn’t have to worry about them spreading too far. Especially given the amount of control he would have over them!

  Now even more excited to run the simulations, Bob began humming by the Arrogant Worms as he worked.

  * * *

  Cyd picked up the Loot Crystal from the fine dust that remained of the [Ice Elf Matriarch] as he looked past the throne she had been sitting on.

  The battle had been astonishingly quick due to the [Ice Elf Matriarch]’s failed “Fort Save”. [Return to Dust] was just… crazy. He shook his head as he pocketed the Loot Crystal, wanting to do the actual looting once he was no longer distracted by something he considered more important.

  Like the massive cavern that the [Winter Court Dungeon] had seemingly attached itself to. He then stepped over to the edge of the matriarch’s throne room and looked out at the mind bogglingly massive cavern beyond.

  Well, it might have looked more impressive had most of its space not been taken up by a truly titanic ice tree.

  [Analyze] once more proved its worth, though he silently wondered just how old the World Trees could get. That was a staggering number for him, far older than anything else on Earth by at least two decimal places. Then he wondered why it was underground, in a cavern, of all places.

  

  He blinked away the mental tinnitus that came with such a powerful sending, then steeled his resolve before using [Telekinesis] to make his way over to the ancient tree.

  As he approached, he realized just how wrong his guess of how large the cavern really was. He’d first thought that it was a ridiculous two kilometres in diameter. Now? He was realizing that it was closer to twelve kilometres or so.

  The tree looked to be a cross between a fir and sequoia tree. It was tall, with rather lush foliage… that was pure white, sparkling like freshly fallen snow in the sunlight. Which was impressive given the lack of direct sunlight.

  The trunk of the tree, along with its various branches, were the purest ice. It was astonishingly translucent, though with [Mana Sight] still active, he could see the flows of mana being pulled up from the ground and flowing through the stunning tree, lighting it up better than any Christmas lights could have ever done.

  

  He was glad that he seemed to be getting used to its voice. Though, he wasn’t sure if he should call its voice masculine or feminine. It just…

  “I’ve been tasked by the Great Protector to find each descendant of the [World Tree],” he said, not sure if he should try connecting to such an ancient being with his Network or not.

  

  Cyd blinked at that, nearly losing his concentration on [Telekinesis] in his shock. Every other being he’d met with had had nothing but respect for the System and what it did for the inhabitants of Iria. But Icy- his new nickname for the Eternal Ice World Tree- almost seemed… indifferent? Slightly… disdainful, of the System.

  

  A moment later, a branch fell to the ground beside him, shaking him out of his thoughts. He looked over at what most people would call a tree instead of a branch and saw that there were also a few pinecones attached to it. His eyes grew large at Icy’s generosity before he remembered to pay his respects by murmuring his thanks and bowing. Even though he wanted to ask a million questions, he recognized a dismissal when he heard one.

  He then quickly retrieved the fallen “branch”, storing it away in his Realm before [Teleport]ing back to the [Ice Elf Matriarch]’s throne room. Once there, he looked around until he found where the [Dungeon Core] was hidden. A few moments later, he’d retrieved his new SS Rank [Dungeon Core] and was back on the surface once more.

  He looked around, frowned, then shrugged. It shouldn’t have surprised him that his astral construct had somehow been destroyed while he’d been playing in the Dungeon. But it did.

  He sighed, manifested [Astral Construct]A again, then designated the harrier jet-looking thing as an Astral Ally. That he could pump in so many Power Points into its creation opened up a fair number of options, not the least of which had been speed upgrades. And the reason why he’d opted for another astral construct had been the simple reason that he could add it to his Network. It made controlling it that much easier, even with Powers like [Connect] that allowed him to mentally control electronic devices.

  Once inside, Cyd started going over the implications of Icy’s words. That the System was a construct wasn’t terribly surprising. What had been the real shocker for him had been the implication that Icy was older than the System. Well, he’d also been shocked by Icy’s attitude towards the System.

  So, what was the history there? Would the other World Trees reveal more as he found them? And, if his conclusions were correct regarding how pervasive the System was, he was certain that the System knew that he’d learn more about it from such ancient beings.

  So, what was its angle? What did it hope to accomplish by having him meet with each of the World Trees?

  He’d initially thought that he’d just gain some super-awesome trees out of the deal. Now? He’d still get those super-awesome trees, but also some information that only a few beings on Iria knew. But would that same information turn out to be some sort of trap?

  Cyd directed his ride to start going up as he used [Adapt Body] to make sure that he wouldn’t die because he’d left the atmosphere. He needed time to think things through and the quiet of space would be quite welcome. No encounters meant more thinking time.

  * * *

  Joram filed away the [Eternal Ice World Tree]’s words for later, preferring to focus on his surroundings first. He was in a ridiculously dangerous situation, and one slip could mean disastrous results.

  “You are sure that taking in so many people isn’t a strain on your resources?” Bryana asked, looking exceptionally concerned for him the situation she’d placed him in.

  Before speaking, he noted Brittany’s scrutiny of him. She’d been staring at him like a hawk eyeing breakfast the entire time, making him wonder what her issue was.

  “It’s fine,” he said, casually waving off the issue as though it were an annoying mosquito, getting a strong dose of doubt from his connection to her. “That said, how are things here? I heard that more than a few people haven’t been happy with things recently.”

  He noticed the slight flicker of her left eyelid, which told him that he’d touched on a sensitive topic. He was about to apologize, but Bryana spoke up first, surprising him with her candor.

  “Many are discontent with the new policies, let alone by losing family and friends to various treasonous acts,” she said with a sigh. “I honestly worry that I’ve not lived up to the expectations of my forebearers.”

  Joram was at a loss for what to say. That he’d “inspired” more than a few of those new policies made him feel more than a little bit responsible for her current predicament, let alone the unrest in the queendom. He could just console her with the standard array of platitudes and sympathetic words, but that wasn’t who he was. He genuinely liked the young queen, and given just how much he could feel through the connection that [Harem] gave him to… people, he wanted to do more for her.

  “Is there anything that I can do?” he asked, not at all familiar with the workings of a queendom, or the various issues that came from needing to rule one.

  He saw Brittany stiffen at his words, though oddly her attention shifted to Bryana instead of him. He once more focussed on Bryana and noticed that she’d gone very still as her face coloured slightly before she quickly spoke.

  “Well, I’ve been long troubled by the various factions regarding my… sole rule,” she said then quickly looked away before bringing her eyes back to his face with obvious effort. “Having a strong King Consort would go a long way to setting the unrest in the Queendom,” she finished with titanic effort, even to his eyes.

  “Oh,” he replied as eloquently as he could as his various Minds started to scramble.

  “So, Duke Joram Smith,” Bryana said as she rose to her feet, which forced him to also stand up. “Will you marry me?”

  As each and every Mind of his went blank, he heard Avi’s laughter roar over the Network.

  I'm in pretty rough shape, hence the slowdown of the releases. Sorry about that ^_^;;;;

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