"That must be, what, at least three or four miles in diameter?" Daz asked himself as he stared at the ginormous thing which was obviously his new flying fortress.

From what he could see, it seemed to be like someone had cut a mountain in half then flipped it upside down before replacing the mountain-peak with a dazzling purple crystal pillar of some sort that seemed to pierce straight through the flipped mountain.

A massive red semi-transparent bubble shield surrounded the top of the flying fortress. Daz assumed it covered the whole thing, but from where he was stood, he could only see about a quarter of the mountain.

"I should probably go up there and check it out, huh?" Daz mumbled as he withdrew Hamson from his brand then stood atop of him and controlled the shovel to fly into the sky.

When he was about halfway up, a system notification blocked his vision.

[[Unnamed] B-rank City] had been successfully summoned. Please give the city a name.

Daz didn't even give it more than a second of thought before he answered, "Call it 'Fort Sky'."

Confirmed. [[Unnamed] B-rank City] has successfully been renamed to [Fort Sky].

The reaper nodded and continued his ascent into the sky towards his newest and most powerful city.

"We greet the new king," thousands of voices all said at the same time the moment Daz had arrived at Fort Sky's central town square.

Tall and fantastical buildings lined the streets along with mechanical structures covered in copper and silver. The central square itself had a massive purple protrusion in its centre which seemed to be the head of the ginormous pillar that was staked into the island, though it was levitating off of the ground and didn't seem to be attached to the rest of the crystal.

As for the citizens gathered here, they looked like humans, except they all had bird-like wings and some of them had mechanical features like arms, legs, ears, or even eyes.

Congratulations! You have become the ruler of over ten-thousand citizens and thus have had your ruler status updated and you have been placed on a new ranking list, the [King] ranking list. Please refer to the system for your specific rank and any applicable rewards. The host [Daz], has changed from being a [City Lord] to being a [King]. Benefits The host's maximum citizen count has increased from 10,000 to 100,000. The host may now found a kingdom. The host may now construct or use an existing [City] and make it the host's [Capital City], which will grant the host's kingdom with several benefits. The Host may now invade Lords of a lower ruler rank than [King] without any restrictions. The host may now forcefully hire testees of their own world that are not affiliated with any other rulers for 1,000 merit point (not recommended).

Daz soaked in all of this information then softly landed and returned Hamson to his brand on his right hand. He calculatingly scanned everyone present as best as he could before he began walking towards the purple crystal at the heart of the central square.

The host's overall Lord ranking is #1, the host's overall Point ranking is #2 [-1], the host's overall Kill ranking is #242 [+10], the host's overall Evolution ranking is #3, the host's overall Skill Creation ranking is #49, the host's overall City Owner ranking is #13 [-15], the host's overall Potential ranking is #3, and finally, the host's overall King ranking is #94. Due to being in the top 100 for overall Kings, the host has been granted an [Abandoned City Reclaim Token].

The token was as big as Daz's palm and was shaped like a cartoon-styled town hall. Since it was too big to fit into his pockets reasonably, Daz put the token in his Lesser Item Box.

Now stood just in front of the large purple pillar head, Daz turned around to face his new citizens. "Who among you is your leader?" he asked. "Internal leader, not me," he clarified in case of any potential confusion.

A woman with short blue hair and entirely silver mechanical wings stepped forwards. "That would be me. When we are not serving a ruler, My King, I am the person elected to lead us and maintain our well-being."

"I see," Daz casually replied as he used a skill and one of its effect on the woman. 'Master Identification. Secret Override.'

Avulaway's Status Basic Information Name: Avulaway Species: Avianoid Race: Silver-winged Avianoid Age: 7,320 Sex: Female Class: Aerial Ruler Affinity: Chaotic Good Description

The former queen of the avianoid settlement on the roaming planet, Avalur. Upon facing certain destruction, she chose to abandon her pride and cut off a chunk of the planet to survive under the rule of the system with the few remaining smatterings of her people that had survived until that point just like she had.

With the help of several millennia coming and going, she has managed to slowly earn back tiny chunks of her forsaken home planet and add them to her current home [Fort Sky].

Through her laborious efforts, she has managed to increase her species' population from the low dozens, all the way up to the limit that the system will currently allow her, 10,000.

She holds hopes that her new ruler [Daz], shall be able to help her expand her people's population limit, but that is a weak hope. At most, all she realistically wishes for is to earn more favours from the system during her time serving under her new ruler, [Daz].

Well, we've got an interesting little bird here, now don't we? Quite the realist, that's for sure. Smart of her to not expect much from you, I'll give her that much.

Energies Lifeforce: 53,000/53,000 Stamina: 20,000/20,000 Stats Strength: 3,000(3,600) Agility: 4,000(4,800) Dexterity: 3,500(4,200) Honour: 1 Dignity: 800 Leadership: 2,200 Defense: 1,300 Constitution: 1,100 Regeneration: 700 Wisdom: 1,000 Fate: 540 Luck: 325 Loyalty: Slightly Low Randomly selected [Avulaway] secret: She loves stuffed animals as well as jewellery.

Daz frowned. 'Useless secret. Her past is interesting, and she's very strong... about as strong as Maddy? Still, she has more base loyalty than Will did at first, so she should do just fine. That single point of honour though... A forced stat from an evolution, I'm assuming... Yup, instincts agree.'

"You'll be the ruler of this city while I'm not available to directly command it. I assume you're fine with that?" the reaper asked.

Avulaway answered, "I shall try my best, My Kin-"

"I'm against this!" a high-pitched and somewhat static voice suddenly shouted from behind Daz.

Spinning around calmly, Daz stared at the crystal behind him. "That certainly didn't sound like a natural voice. Was that you?"

"'You'! 'You', he says! Yeah, it was me, whatcha gonna do about it?!" the massive purple sphere hummed violently as it said those challenging words.

Daz crossed his arms over his chest. "Avulaway, what is this? I'm assuming it's the Gravitation Distortion Crystal Sphere, but the system said nothing about it having a soul and a personality. Or about it being a pillar."

He was tempted to identify it, but Daz had a strong feeling that the less that he knew about the being shouting at him, the better.

"I have a name!" the massive crystal huffed. "Also, yes, I'm technically that sphere, but the real one is deep within the core of this hunk of rock! I'm actually its controller and one of your citizens even if the system doesn't recognise me as a person yet! I refuse to work with someone like you, ever!"

Avulaway wasn't surprised in the least at Daz calling her name since inspection skills weren't the rarest thing around in the wider system, but her eyes did open slightly when she heard the purple crystal speak.

"My King, while it is true that a soul naturally formed in that crystal, it has never spoken before, so I am as clueless as you are," the blue-haired woman confessed.

Daz scratched his chin thoughtfully. "Well then," he said calmly as he returned his attention to the jewel. "Wanna tell me who you are and why you're upset?"

"I am the great, the mighty, the invincible, GriD CrosS! Yes, I emphasized the 'D' and the 'S' on purpose! 'GDCS' doesn't sound as good, so I'm GriD CrosS instead. As for why I'm upset? Well, wouldn't you like to know!" the sphere arrogantly taunted.

'GDCS? Its abbreviated city-item name? Well, it's certainly more inventive with its naming than I am with mine. It's awfully childish though,' Daz thought as he sighed softly. "Yes, I would like to know, actually."

"... You would? Oh. Um, well, right! Because you're enslaving my brethren! Yes! That's right!" the thing said as it hummed brightly.

'It's lying. Why the hell is it acting like this?' Daz wondered as he replied, "You know that none of these gems were forced to be around me, right? I respectfully approached them and asked them to travel with me. They were the ones that initiated master-slave contracts, not me. I assumed that this was customary for gems. Are you different?"

"I-Is that right?... Um... You're still going to abuse me and use me however you wish, aren't you?!" GriD CrosS yelled with slightly less static in its tone.

Avulaway was amazed by what she was seeing in front of her, as were a good majority of the thousands of gathered avianoids. 'Is he really in the middle of taming what was once the eternal source of power for Avalur? Did we perhaps fall into the hands of an amazing person?'

The mechanically-winged woman had no idea how Daz had come to own what was now called 'Fort Sky', so she was initially under the assumption that he had simply purchased the city directly from the system or perhaps won it in a bet of some sort.

She would never have dreamt in a million years that he had won a highly-sought after City Creation Token, but regardless, her opinion of the man in front of her was rapidly rising.

Daz shook his head softly and gently placed his palm on the purple pillar head. "I have no intentions to force you to do anything, Grid Cross. I'm sorry if my pronunciation of your name is a bit off. I'm only a mortal, so I'd like it if you could overlook it."

"I... I may consider it! I am a forgiving person!" the crystal said as it tried to hide the joy in its tone.

Daz grinned. 'As I thought. This thing actually likes me, but it's just an awkward kid as far as souls go, unlike the mature Rimmy. Still, this thing's been here for thousands of years - maybe more - moving the city, so I'd imagine it's definitely a good idea to not piss it off. I'd rather not be forced to use my own powers to steer and move this place.'

"If I ever ask you to move Fort Sky in the future, can you do that for me? I'll be putting my trust in you and relying on you a lot. Moving a city is a difficult task only suitable for the most skilled of crystals, and, as you can see, I'm no crystal, let alone an incredibly skilled one like you are," Daz said with a bit of a forced disheartened shrug.

While his words were convincing, his physical acting certainly wasn't.

"I can definitely do that! Of course a weak mortal like you wouldn't be able to move a powerful city like... huh, it's called Fort Sky this time? Not only bad at moving flying cities but bad at naming them too! Truly a hopeless mortal! I, the great, the mighty, the invincible GriD CrosS shall do as you wish, mortal! Consider yourself lucky! None have had the pleasure of earning my full cooperation before!" the purple crystal claimed with a loud happy thrum of its body to accompany its excited words.

'Well, that went better than expected. I didn't even need to use a thought seed. I must be getting better at persuading people. Either that or Grid here was just particularly easy since it had a high affinity with me off the bat thanks to my new class,' Daz thought as he said, "Great. Can you please fly Fort Sky roughly twenty-miles in that direction? Stop once you're about a mile away from the ruined city on the surface."

"Of course I can do that! Twenty-miles? Pfft, more like twenty-seconds!" GriD CrosS excitedly replied. "Ah, I'm only doing this because I want to do it! I wanna... that's right! I wanna impress that ancient peridot! It's my senior, after all, so I should be respectful!"

The head-sized gem in question happily floated around in a very slow and lackadaisical manner.

Avulaway approached Daz and stood alongside him as Fort Sky began speeding through the skies California. "Very impressive, My King."

Daz gave her a genuine shrug. "It's not hard to convince someone to do something that they already wanted to do from the start," he said as Fort Sky arrived just outside of Waterford.

Truly, GriD CrosS wasn't lying when it said that it could move the city a distance of twenty-miles in twenty-seconds.