“You are probably right. I was too busy worrying about whether I could keep three women happy and didn’t stop to think about other things. I am going to have to talk to Lin and Myria about this.”

  Stillwater says “I am sorry to make things more complicated for you.”

  “No, it’s fine. This is exactly your job, to point out the things that I miss.”

  Stillwater says “So, what are you going to do?”

  “I don’t know yet. This is not something that is going to be easy to decide.”

  Stillwater says “That’s understandable. Let me know if there is anything that I can do to help.”

  “Do you want to be the king and let me go be an adventurer??”

  Stillwater says “No! Absolutely not!”

  “Then no, there isn’t anything you can do right now. Just test out the system as much as you can. Oh, that reminds me, how is Brightfire doing?”

  Stillwater says “She has already chosen ten guards and is holding tryouts to find some more. She should be in the palace right now if you want to talk to her.”

  “Yea, I was heading there anyway. I will check in with you about the system later.”

  Stillwater says “Understood!”

  I leave Stillwater to his work and head to the palace where I find Brightfire out in the courtyard. She is currently with a group of elves and seems to be putting them through a series of tests. These must be the prospects that are trying out to join the palace guard.

  Since Brightfire is busy, I head into the palace, sit on the throne, and start working on the system. I add the messaging system first since that is fairly simple and then start trying to figure out the mapping function. I basically have to add a map, then the system can mark the areas that it covers.

  The only part that causes me some issues is getting it to automatically update itself. That I fix by adding it so that each time an obelisk is placed, the system checks the coverage and then updates the map. It won’t update at any other time, but that shouldn’t be a problem since the coverage shouldn’t change.

  The only other thing that bothers me is that the map I am using isn’t very detailed. Only the areas that I have visited personally have details, which isn’t enough. An accurate map can be really important when planning things, especially military movements.

  If I am going to be ruling the entire peninsula, I want to have an accurate map to work with. I doubt that all of the unification will be peaceful and I want to be able to pick my battlefields properly. Not knowing the details of the terrain can be a huge disadvantage, but I don’t have time to survey everything myself.

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  I was planning to enchant the obelisks and then have someone else place most of them. The problem is that I will need to figure out where they need to be placed first. To do that, I need an accurate map to work with, but I don’t know how I can do it.

  I really don’t have the time to do it myself, but asking people to do it on foot would take too long. I quickly come up with two more options, having my kids do it, or making some golems. My kids would probably enjoy it and it would give them something to do, but they could also get into trouble.

  My other option would be to make golems that could fly around to do the mapping. They could also be used to keep tabs on the demons, which is making me lean in that direction. It would take some time and materials, but that is all and they would have other uses.

  I can get the kids to help place the obelisks, but I think golems are the better choice for scouting. If I can make them look like common birds, they will also make pretty good spies. About the only thing that is going to be difficult is making golems that small, but I think I can do it.

  I finish up the changes to the system and then think about how to make the golems. I have most of it planned out by the time Brightfire finishes her work and comes to find me. As she walks towards me in her tight fitting armor I can’t help but think about what Stillwater said.

  Brightfire says “Hello, Ash. Were you looking for me?”

  “Yes, I was. I wanted to check on how you are doing.”

  Brightfire says “It is going good. I have a dozen members for the palace guard already. They may not be the best of the best, but they have the potential to be.”

  “Potential is more important, especially in a long-lived race. I am glad to see that you know that. Albion and Haku have volunteered to come teach your people how to use the training room that I built for you.”

  Brightfire says “I was wondering what that was! How does it work?”

  “It creates illusionary environments and enemies. I made one for the kids to help them learn combat and teamwork.”

  Brightfire says “Great! That will be really useful! I was racking my brain trying to think of ways to get them some experience without getting them killed. While this won’t help them level up, it will help get them ready for real combat.”

  “That’s why I built it. If there is anything else you can think of, let me know.”

  Brightfire says “Well, there was one other thing, but I am not sure if you would be willing to do it.”

  “What is it?”

  Brightfire says “Would you be willing to make us a gate to the shadow plane like we used on the ship?”

  “Sure, I can do that. You will just have to be careful to keep the gate secure.”

  Brightfire says “I will make sure to! Thank you!”

  “No problem. Now, should I send Albion and Haku over now, or wait until you have more recruits?”

  Brightfire says “That depends. Are they going to just come teach us once, or are they going to stick around and help us train?”

  “That will be up to them, but I think they will enjoy having something productive to do. If they don’t stay long, I can always see if some of the other kids want to take a turn.”

  Brightfire says “In that case, go ahead and bring them over when they are available. The sooner I can start the training the better.”

  “Okay, I will do it. Anything else we need to discuss? Oh right! The equipment. With everything else going on I almost forgot to give it to you.”

  Brightfire says “It is already done? I thought it would take longer!”

  “Yep, all done! Oh, crap! I forgot, I crafted them and figured out the enchantments, but I got caught up in other things and never went back to actually enchant them!”

  Brightfire says “It’s alright, I wasn’t expecting them this soon anyway.”