As the first of his people started to arrive at the temple, Rick stood up and escorted Angelica over to the entrance to shake hands and greet each one of them as they entered. Angelica also followed his example and greeted everyone after they passed by from being welcomed by Rick.

When Glalin entered she was being comforted by the other three female elves. She had presently stopped crying, but her eyes were still red and her face revealed a sad downcast expression.

Rick held her hand and apologized for the death of Findras and swore that the nekomimi tribe would pay dearly. Glalin stood up straight and took a deep breath and told him that she wanted to go with them when he went north to attack the settlement. He smiled and promised her that he would be sure to bring her with him when the time came to head north.

When it seemed that everyone had arrived and had filed past the two caskets to pay their respects, Rick equipped his formal outfit and the medallion that Faith had gifted him. When he was re-outfitted, Rick walked down the center aisle and climbed the steps of the elevated podium to stand above the fallen soldiers and look out at the crowd. He patiently waited for everyone to find a place to sit and scanned the crowd nodding to the faces that he recognized. Only then did he begin to speak when everyone was seated and attentively looking up at him standing on the podium.

"A few days back I had sent out three brave scouts to assess the dangers that lurk beyond our City borders.

I sent our brave elven brothers Findras south west to explore a vast forest full of monsters and Elisfin was set east to also explore a forest that is home to large Tigers like the ones I have tamed and he also scouted a lake region where giant eagles rule from the sky.

In an attempt to extend a hand of friendship I sent the third scout a young man named Takumi on a mission north to a Tribal settlement of Nekomimi.

Recently Findras and Elisfin had both returned from their missions to bring back crucial information on some of the threats and benefits that can be found on this island.

Still, after their return, I waited to welcome home Takumi, but he never returned.

Then today I grew to worried to wait for him to return and led a small search and rescue team north toward the tribal settlement.

With the help of Findras's and Elisfin's [Tracker] skill, we followed a faint trail that led our party to the body of our scout Takumi.

He had been ambushed and killed in the forest east of the Nekomimi settlement.

He had a white feathered arrow pierce his heart and then his body was stripped of all his possessions.

As if that was not enough of a tragedy as we examined our murdered brother Takumi's body the greedy and cowardly murders attacked our party while hidden in the surrounding vegetation.

Before any of us could react to the attack Findras and my second in command Angelica were both hit by white feathered arrows exactly like the one that killed Takumi.

While I desperately fought to save Angelica's life the other party members fought the ambushers and drove them back. Unfortunately, because of the enemy's barrage of arrows they were not able to reach Findras in time to save him.

After the enemy retreated I went out to investigate the dead bodies of the ambushers that had died by the heroic counter attack of our four elven sisters Aeriane, Glalin, Cylneth, and Silandra.

What I found were dead Nekomimi dressed in fur clothing that had quivers on their backs containing white feathered arrows exactly like the one that killed Takumi and Findras.

I have no doubt that the ones responsible for the death of our people are the tribe of nekomimi." The crowd then erupted in gasps and angry murmurs upon hearing the evidence.

Rick just nodded his head agreeing with the anger and betrayal the crowd felt. When everyone began to quiet back down he then continued to speak.

"This tribe's hostility is the reason why we are all here now to honor the memory and service of these two brave men, who were with us for such a short time but were our beloved brothers in arms.

I cannot, as your leader, in anything I say today abate the sorrow and anger of losing these two men so suddenly.

I am myself still in shock over this senseless attack we were subjected to.

I feel as if we have all just shared the same bad dream that we will all soon wake up from.

Sadly though this is not a dream and a reality of the hostile world that threatens our way of life.

Even though these men are gone from our lives they will never be forgotten as heroes to our kingdom."

*****************************************************************************************************

As Rick was speaking he had opened up his Land Managment Menu and bought 3200 acres of surrounding land to fulfill the required owned acres needed to reach the next noble rank.

Then the System asked him to chose his temple from the buildings on the menu map.

He chose the temple that they were all in and a list of lesser gods and goddesses popped up for him to chose from.

Spoiler: Temple Deities List. Temple Deities List Balin Brightblade Lesser God of the Human Race. Falgrim Thunderfist Lesser God of the Dwarven Race. Silandra Twilight Lesser Goddess of the Elven Race. Tyndus Gaugemaster Lesser God of the Gnome Race. Mistie Snowblossom Lesser Goddess of the Halfling Race. Kimiko Fujiwara Lesser Goddess of the Kitsune Race. Sakura Sugawara Lesser Goddess of the Nekomimi. Zagan Umbra Lesser God of the Demon Race. Helena Agard Lesser Goddess of the Darfellan Race. Fertuitus Bloodbane Lesser God of the Vampire Race. Other God/Goddess Description

He scrolled down to the bottom of the list of known gods of the races and clicked on other. A virtual keyboard then opened before him and he typed in [Faith]_[Goddess of the World].

Do you wish to make Faith your kingdom's patron deity? YES NO

Rick left the yes/no prompt open while he still addressed the crowd.

***************************************************************************************************

"...they will never be forgotten as heroes to our kingdom.

Goddess Faith who is looking down upon us on this day of sorrow in this time of mourning, please bless these brave men and let their souls rest in peace.

Lead them to a place that they will no longer have to fight against the cruelties of this world." As Rick spoke the last line he clicked [YES] to make Faith the temple deity.

The medallion around his neck then shot out a ray of holy light that fell upon the two fallen soldiers below him and bright Rays of holy light burst through the windows and set the temple interior ablaze in a peaceful feeling as everyone felt the embrace of the holy white light.

A moment later directly above Rick's head, a beautiful woman with long loosely curled blonde hair and pale blue glowing eyes slowly descended through the temple ceiling.

Everyone jumped up from their seats in shock because there was no denying from the presence that encompassed the temple that this exquisite being was a goddess.

Rick looked up and smiled as Faith floated down and stopped in mid air above him.

Faith looked down at the fallen soldiers and opened her arms wide.

From the caskets, two luminous transparent figures of the dead nekomimi and elf rose up to float through the air and hover beside Faith.

Everyone could clearly see that the two shades were Findras and Takumi souls and even though they were transparent they both looked very much alive again.

Findras soul after scanning the crowd broke away to float just over the audience and he looked down at Glalin with a smile and blew her a kiss.

He floated there frozen while looking her over for a minute as if he were trying to remember every detail of her appearance and then he glided back to Faith's side.

Faith turned to face both of the translucent souls and laid a hand on each of their foreheads.

They both were both smiling and waved to everyone who came see them off as they floated up and through the temple ceiling.

After Faith sent the two off she then floated down lower to hover in front of Rick and looked at him with a big smile on her face.

"Cedric Crownguard I Faith Goddess and creator of the world and creator of the lesser gods and goddesses, am now your kingdoms patron deity." She said in a voice that was not loud but clearly carried her words of joy to the ears of everyone within the land that Rick currently owned.

Rick then went down on one knee and lowered his head with his right fist pressed against his chest over his heart.

As if on cue the shocked crowd who had stood frozen in place with their mouths wide open throughout Faith's appearance all mimicked their leader and dropped to one knee with their fists over their hearts.

"I am quite proud of you Cedric you have taken great care of Angelica my most beloved Valkyrie and have provided her and your people with beautiful homes, plenty to eat and a safe environment where they can live a happy life." She said for all to hear.

"I have tried my best, but my worry-free attitude toward the tribes of this island has now lead to the death of my people on both first encounters with them."

"Yes, it is quite sad that most of the tribes of this world still are uncivilized and their culture focuses on Kratocracy which encourages those who are the strongest to rule others and have the power to determine right and wrong." Faith explained with a sad voice.

Rick then looked up at faith. "Then I Cedric Crownguard will show this tribe my people are the strongest and that we will rule this island just as I did with the human tribe!" He said loud enough so that everyone in the temple could hear him.

"I know that you were not the one who went seeking trouble, but unfortunately you will need to give them a display of your prowess so that our people can continue to live their peaceful lives." Faith responded.

"I will from now on begin to grow stronger and my power is slowly returning from you fulfilling your promise and making me your Kingdom's deity, but the transfer here from the Paradise Plane had used most of my remaining power. I must rest for awhile to regain my strength then I will be available to talk with you about the future of your kingdom. Before I leave remember as your population grows and your borders extend out further so will my power to aid the kingdom also grow." She said in a weary voice.

Rick then stood up and looked into Faith's eyes. "Then let me help you grow stronger by bringing in more people to crush that arrogant northern tribe."

Faith just smiled and gave him a nod as she slowly faded from their sight along with her aura that had filled the temple.

When Faith had completely vanished Rick addressed his people one again.

"As you all have just seen unlike the other cities of this world who have lesser gods or goddesses for their patron deities ours is the Goddess Faith the creator of this world and also the creator of those lesser deities as well. She is a kind and generous goddess and I plan to make her name known across this world once again. To accomplish this I plan to make this the greatest city this world has ever seen and with all of your help I know it can be done. You all will one day be able to proudly say I am one of the original residents who helped to build this city with my own two hands!" Rick declared enthusiastically.

"Now, everyone please return to your homes and rest because as of tomorrow we will begin crafting the tools of war to crush anyone who threatens our way of life and the goals we have set for the future!" Rick bellowed out.

The crowd who sat in listening with a fervent gleam in their eyes jumped up off their knees and yelled out in exuberance. They all began to then file out of the temple while excitedly discussing today's events and what the future of the city may be like.

Rick stepped down from the podium and walked over to the caskets. "I know you will not have to pay the ferryman to cross over since Faith has delivered you to her Paradise Plane, but I will still leave you with these coins as is the tradition and to possibly help you get started in your next lives." Rick softly said as he placed a gold coin on each of their eyes.

He then closed the casket lids and walked over to where Angelica sat in the front row watching him in wide eyed wonderment.

"I can't believe it. That was the goddess from my dreams that said she was sending me here to live by your side. I didn't even get a chance to thank her for what she did for me." Angelica said sadly.

Rick reached out and lifted her chin up to look her in the eyes. "Don't worry she just needs some time to regain her strength. The people of this world have forgotten or forsaken her over the decades and without followers, she did not have enough power to leave her own Paradise Plane. Now that she has all of us to support her. she will recover and grow stronger with us. When she returns next time I will be sure that you get a chance to talk with her. I know how much Faith favors you and how very proud she is of how you lived in your previous life and I am sure that she would want to also speak with you when her strength returns." Rick said with a loving smile.

"She had once told me that she was proud of me in my dreams. I am not sure why though all I ever remembered was living alone in some secluded wilderness location inside the Astral Plane." Angelica said in confusion.

"Hmm, I have recently found a way to travel to the Astral Plane and have explored only a small area. I have seen animals there but no monsters or other people." Rick replied curiously.

Angelica stood up and moved close to Rick. "I always enjoy being by your side Cedric but please don't be mad if I don't want to revisit that place anytime soon." She said with a wide-eyed serious look.

Rick couldn't help but laugh. "Don't worry I will never force you to go anywhere you are uncomfortable with except maybe just this one time?" He said with a mischievous smile.

Rick quickly scooped her up in a bridal style carry and activated flight. When they were hovering a few feet off the ground Angelica peeked down at the ground.

"Cedrick? What are doing?"

He just burst out laughing and told her to hang on. Angelica wrapped her arms around his neck and he shot off out the door of the temple and up into the air. Rick climbed to over a few hundred feet off the ground and he rotated his body toward the west and hovered there while holding Angelica. With the mountains, forests, and rivers stretching out below them they watched as the sun set below the western horizon.

Angelica seemed a little worried when they were speedily climbing up to this height but she instantly lost any fear and trusted Rick completely.

With her arms wrapped around his neck, she looked out on a never-ending landscape taking in a view that not many of this world had ever had the pleasure to see. She turned to look at Cedric with a look of amazement and he leaned in a gave her a long kiss.

"W-what was that for? You have never kissed me like that before." She asked with her face slightly flushed.

"All I could think about today when you were laying there so seriously injured is that I might end up losing you because you wanted to spend some time with me. I have been running off on my own and leaving you behind this past week so concerned about building this City, making the store successful, and getting stronger. I should have had you beside me so that we both could grow in strength together and had been making improvements to your weapons and gear as well. First thing tomorrow I am going to make you all new gear so that you will stay safe and always be there by my side." Rick explained in a serious tone.

"Hmm, How about we forget about the new gear and you just kiss me like that again," Angelica said with a flirty gaze as she looked up at him.

Rick couldn't help but chuckle, here he was trying to be so serious and she just wants to be kissed again.

"Well, I don't know if I really should," Rick said playing to be serious and Angelica's smile started to fade.

"I don't know maybe I should just give you both!" He replied while laughing.

He then leaned forward and kissed her again as the sun vanished from sight leaving the land below covered in a dark veil.

Rick flew back to the castle with Angelica still in his arms and then carried her upstairs and laid her on the bed. He removed all of his clothes and then he undressed her and laid on top of her. The two of them spent the next hour being intimate for the first time together.

Angelica fell a sleep physically and mentally exhausted from the day's events soon after. When Rick saw her close her eyes and drift off he covered her with the blanket and disconnected from the game.

Disconnect!

Rick continued to lay in the Gate Gear for a minute recalling the events of the day and then opened the lid to make his way to the bathroom.

When he finished in the bathroom he made his way into the kitchen and made a small pot of fettuccine chicken alfredo. Rick took his meal into the living room and turned the TV on and ate while watching the news. When he had finished his meal, Rick cleaned up the kitchen and went out for a short run. When he returned to his apartment he locked the door behind him and took a shower.

He went straight to bed after his shower and woke up quite early in the morning. Rick decided that since he only had one class today he was going to stay home. He found his phone and made sure to text his friends that he wouldn't be attending class today and sent one to Ryan telling him to have fun in his new Gate Gear that would be delivered to him in the next couple hours.

Once he had sent out his texts, Rick went to the spare room to work out and took a shower afterward.

He made a bowl apple cinnamon oatmeal for breakfast and placed the bowl in the dishwasher before he went and put on a pair of sweat pants and a cotton t-shirt.

Rick left his bedroom after getting dressed to enter the spare room and climbed into his VR capsule and connected to the game.

Connect!

Rick opened his eyes and the sun was just starting to enter the room and Angelica was still fast asleep. Rick left her a note on the nightstand telling her he would take her out for breakfast after she had woken up.

He activated his Stealth and soundlessly left the tower and flew off toward the castle plot. Rick walked down the spiral staircase and entered his workshop in the castle basement and loaded one of the blast furnaces with Iron, coal, limestone dust, and Astrallium ore. Rick decided to try another experiment of creating a blend of two metals to see if it would become something new.

The second blast furnace he filled with Astrallium Ore and the third he poured in the Infernal Crimsantite Ore that can only be found in the Astral Plane. In blast furnace number four he loaded it with Sparkling Silver Ore and the fifth blast furnace he dumped the rest of his gold ore into it. The sixth and last blast furnace in the cellar basement was packed with Titanium ore, coal, iron ore, and limestone.

After he had gone down the line and filled the six blast furnaces he left the castle basement and walked toward the temple across the northern plaza. As he made his way there he opened his blinking notification icon.

Spoiler: Show Notices!. New Battle Notice!

Battle Report

You party successfully defended your position from an ambush by an enemy tribe!

The enemy tribe's ambush killed one out of your ten units

Your party killed 14 out of the 22 attackers.

The remaining enemy retreated from the battlefield, you are victorious!

Congratulations on your victory!

You have gained Experience Points for your victory!

You have gained Leadership Points for your victory!

You have gained Fame Points for your victory!

New Title Notice!

You have resurrected an ancient religion that had died out centuries ago.

You have reestablished the original religion of this world with the sovereign goddess as your city's patron deity.

You have earned the title: Reviver of the Ancient Beliefs

Fame: +1000

Honor: +1000

You and your religious units will now be able to effortlessly convert people to your city's religion with the sovereign goddess as your deity.

Currently displaying title: Benevolent Leader

All awarded titles stack with the currently displayed title.

New Level Notice!

You Gained A Level!

Level 18

You have five unused points to distribute.

Experience points for the life of two of my scouts and almost Angelica as well, what a shitty trade off.

This title is interesting though, this will be nice to have when I open the city gates to outside visitors.

Any people of the world who visit the temple could be converted and may want to move here permanently.

It looks like I gained a new level and have five points to distribute.

But first I think I will change my title.

Display Title Reviver of the Ancient Beliefs!

Spoiler: Show Status!.

Cedric Crownguard Strength: 122 Level: (86%) 18 Stamina: 94 Health: 980 Vitality: 98 Mana: 1180 Intelligence: 118 Piety: +175 Wisdom: 60 Fame: +32,000 (locally respected) Agility: 64 Honor: +27,000 (village hero) Charisma: 30 Alignment: +4000 Leadership: 50 Satiety: 71% Luck: 10 Class: Druidic Mage Health Regen/Sec: 5.0 Mana Regen/Sec: 5.5 Feudal Domain: 5760 Race: Chosen Human Feuadal Title: Marquess Unused Points: 5 Awarded Titles Currently Displaying: Reviver of the Ancient Beliefs Title: The White Knight Alignment +/- +1000 Title: The Honor Guard Alignment +/- +1000 Title: The Duelist Alignment +/- +1000 Title: Black Hand Interrogator Alignment +/- -1000 Title: Benevolent Leader Alignment +/- +1000 Title: Explorer of the Unknown Alignment +/- -none- Title: Oath Breaker Alignment +/- -1000 Title: Honorbound Alignment +/- +1000 Title: Reviver of the Ancient Beliefs Alignment +/- +1000 Spoiler: Show Attribute Luck!. Luck

Luck affects everything you do such as attacking, defending and many more actions.

Luck affects the amount and quality of items dropped from monster kills.

Luck will occasionally stop traps and trapped treasure chests from activating.

Luck is my weakest attribute right now and I have never put any points into it.

If this can affect my all of my actions and provide me with better drops I should distribute some points into it.

Spoiler: Show Status!.

Cedric Crownguard Strength: 122 Level: (86%) 18 Stamina: 94 Health: 980 Vitality: 98 Mana: 1180 Intelligence: 118 Piety: +175 Wisdom: 60 Fame: +32,000 (locally respected) Agility: 64 Honor: +27,000 (village hero) Charisma: 30 Alignment: +4000 Leadership: 50 Satiety: 71% Luck: 15 Class: Druidic Mage Health Regen/Sec: 5.0 Mana Regen/Sec: 5.5 Feudal Domain: 5760 Race: Chosen Human Feuadal Title: Marquess Unused Points: 0 Awarded Titles Currently Displaying: Reviver of the Ancient Beliefs Title: The White Knight Alignment +/- +1000 Title: The Honor Guard Alignment +/- +1000 Title: The Duelist Alignment +/- +1000 Title: Black Hand Interrogator Alignment +/- -1000 Title: Benevolent Leader Alignment +/- +1000 Title: Explorer of the Unknown Alignment +/- -none- Title: Oath Breaker Alignment +/- -1000 Title: Honorbound Alignment +/- +1000 Title: Reviver of the Ancient Beliefs Alignment +/- +1000

It isn't much of a change with only five points added to it. I can still put more points from future levels into it later along with charisma as well. Those are the only two stats I seem to be having trouble raising so I should continue to distribute my level points toward them. Rick reflected and then shut his status window as he walked up the stairs of the temple.

Rick entered the temple that was now empty of all the people it held last night except for the two caskets containing the fallen scouts. He passed by the closed caskets and walk to the back wall of the temple and took out his hammer and a stone chisel and chipped out the cement around some tiles in the back corner. He chipped out a [4' foot x 8' foot] section of marble tiles from the floor and then cut down through the foundation until he reached the soil underneath it.

With the use of his [Move and Shape Earth] skill, Rick began to cut down into the earth at a forty-five-degree angle parallel to the temples back wall. When he cut an angled ramp down roughly thirty feet below the temple he leveled out his cut for a few feet and then stopped digging.

Rick took out his wood working tools along with some lumber and built a basic wooden staircase that could be used to walk from inside the temple down to where he had stopped digging with his skill. When he had completed the stair case, Rick started using his skill to dig out a large room underneath the temple and took out his water box and sprayed down the floor until it turned into a thick mud.

Using a section of a four-foot cut plank he smoothed out the floor in sections and cast [Transmute Stone and Earth] thus turning the leveled muddy floor into a smooth stone floor. Appling the same technique to the walls, he transformed them from mud into one solid sheet of stone as well.

With the walls and floor finished, Rick started building stone block rooms all along the walls measuring four feet wide and ten feet deep. He used his Carpentry, and Wood Carving Skills to make a three-inch solid wood door and acquired a recipe for the new door. By accessing his hinges recipe and the new door recipe he bolted these new solid wooden doors to the entrances of every one of the many four feet wide and ten feet deep rooms he had made.

These small rooms that he closed off with these thick heavy wooden doors were to be tombs that would hold any of his people who died fighting for his kingdom. He decided to build this tomb under the temple so that his people would be able to rest in peace under the protection of Faith's holy land.

Spoiler: Large Room under the temple.

When he had finished hanging the last door, Rick used his hammer and stone chisel to carve an ice rune and wind rune into the back wall of every tomb and connected them to a circuit with a switch rune and storage gem next to each door.

Rick touched the switch runes of the first two tombs and went back upstairs to retrieve one of the caskets. Ricks didn't have much trouble carrying the casket and he made it downstairs without much difficulty. He had set the casket down to open the door to the room and when the door swung open he was hit with a blast of cold air reminding him of opening the door of a modern freezer.

This should preserve the bodies from decomposing down here. I am not sure if they would even decompose and/or spread diseases but it is better to be safe than sorry. I will just have to come down here and recharge the storage gems occasionally or spawn in a unit to do it for me. Rick speculated as he placed the two caskets in separate tombs and closed the doors tightly.

He decided before leaving to take out his wood chisels and hammer and he carved a true likeness of each man's face with their name on the outside of the doors of the tomb they rested in. Rick put away his tools and used his crystal wall light recipe to make a few wall lights that he hung on the walls of the tomb for those who later came down here who did not have Night Sight.

Rick made his way back up to the temple and used his wood working tools and skills to construct a wooden trap door to fit flush with the floor over the hole that led down into the lower tomb.

He then walked over to the tables and put away the one in front of the podium that he had rested the caskets on top of and then scanned the temple for anything he may have forgotten to take care of while he was there.

He figured since he was there and thinking about it, that he should go around and take a few more measurements for possible furniture or artwork and also drew a charcoal pencil drawing of the interior of the temple for a reference.

Spoiler: Temple Interior.

Once I get the stained glass windows in here and some more artwork this temple will be looking great. I would also like to make a large statue of Faith behind the podium I just need to figure what material I want to use.

Rick tucked away his measurements and drawing and ran back to the tower and to find Angelica. She had just woken up and was preparing to go attend the morning physical training when Rick walked upstairs.

Rick called General Sturm and told him he would be taking Angelica with him and then opened a portal next to The Pretty Kitty and the two of them stepped through and walked into the Inn. They sat down at a booth and looked over the breakfast list while waiting on an available waitress.

Angelica order scrambled eggs with mushrooms and cheese with potato bread toast and Rick chose the poached eggs and Roasted Hot & Spicy rabbit meal. They took their time and enjoyed their meal and each others company. When they had finished their breakfast and decided to leave Rick paid the bill and once again purchased a few casks of liquor, mead, and ale.

Rick gave Mia a little more money than she asked for because he felt bad for diminishing her stock of alcohol. Rick thanked her and walked with Angelica over to his store. When he talked with Nellie, she told him that she had actually sold a three more carriages from the display models upstairs. Since he had not come in yesterday after all that had happened the customers left their names and the location of their homes to contact them when they could pick up the carriages.

He took the info from Nellie and went into his office and looked over the sales books and recovered the money for yesterdays sales from his desk drawer. Rick placed the sales book on Barat's office desk and went upstairs with Angelica. He showed her the wooden orc statues he had made and explained how each of them fought to familiarize her with them for when he took her to the dungeon.

While he was up there he disassembled the three carriages and placed them in his inventory. Rick and Angelica left the store and followed the directions to the residents of each customer who had purchased the carriages. Rick re-assembled the carriages out front and surprised the customers when he knocked on the door to show them their new delivered carriages.

Angelica and Rick then went back to the store and he restocked what he could from recipes and his warehouse stock. He then walked around and introduced himself to his customers and wrote up a few decent sales. He noticed that customers were buying large pieces of furniture and made a mental note to hire a Wagoner soon to make deliveries for the store. Rick figured if he advertised free deliveries he may improve his sales.

Rick checked in with Barat and informed him of the sales book he left in his office and then left the store with Angelica. The two of them walked over to the central plaza area a block away and entered the City Hall. As RIck and Angelica passed the guards stationed inside City Hall they all came to attention and saluted as they passed by on the way to the Office of the Royal Court.

The two of them entered the office of the Royal Court and Rick asked the assistant to see the Chancellor so that he could update his House Records. Rick Angelica sat off to the side and waited to be led by the assistant to the Chancellor's office after he had finished someone else who had been in his office before they arrived.

"Good Morning Chancellor, I am not sure if you remember me? I am Count Cedric Crownguard I have come to your office today so that I may update my House records." Rick explained.

"Of course I remember you Count Crownguard it is not everyday one meets a Chosen Human with numerous titles, high fame, and high honor! What changes would you like to make than today my lord? The Chancellor questioned.

"I have just earned the feudal title of Marquess, but most of my other information has also slightly increased," Rick answered.

"By the gods, you don't waste any time with increasing your status, please show me your Feudal Title Display Menu and I will be happy to take down all of your current information. He said excitedly.

Rick smiled and began to open his menu to display is information.

A knock came from the door and the chancellor's assistant came in with the House Crownguards records just as Rick had displayed his information.

Spoiler: Show Feudal Title Display Menu!. Feudal Title Display Menu Name: Cedric Crownguard Race: Chosen Human Feudal Title: Marquess Feudal Domain: 5760 Acres Titles: The White Knight Titles: The Honor Guard Titles: The Duelist Titles: Black Hand Interrogator Titles: Benevolent Leader Titles: Explorer of the Unknown Titles: Oath Breaker Titles: Honorbound Titles: Reviver of the Ancient Beliefs Fame: +32000 Honor: +27000

"How is this possible! Increased your stats you said? My lord, you have doubled all of them your land, titles, fame, and honor have all doubled since you registered your house last week!" The Chancellor exclaimed.

Rick chuckled at his reaction. "I guess I have kept myself a bit busy since then I suppose," Rick said.

Even though I truthfully haven't been doing all that much, but build my city and store. He wouldn't understand if I told him this is only natural for a player. Rick thought as they updated all of his House records on file.

"Congratulations Marquess Crownguard or should I save that for next week when you stop in to show me you are now a Duke!" The Chancellors said while laughing.

"Maybe not next week how about we schedule that appointment for the week after," Rick said also joking along.

The Chancellor then burst out laughing at Rick's retort. "Haha! I would not be surprised or at least I would try my hardest not to be! I won't keep you any longer my lord please speak with my assistant on the way out and he will take care of the update payment."

"Very good, have a great Chancellor I am sure we will meet again soon," Rick said with a warm smile as he led Angelica out to the assistant's desk.

"Cedric, what does it mean that you are a Ma-rque-ss now?" Angelica whispered as they left the office after making the record changes payment.

Rick smiled and wrapped his arm around her. "That is my noble rank right now the next one I get will be Duke and then after that, I will be a King," Rick explained.

Angelica gasped. "You will become a King soon? Will you be the King of this town then?" She asked surprised.

Rick lightly laughed. "No, I will be a King of the all the land I own around the city we are building. I own not only the land that the city is built on but a good amount of all the land around it as well. I am not considered a noble of this city, but by registering my house here I am extended the same respect and power as a Marquess who is a part of this towns nobility would receive. I would bet that there are not many other Marquess in this town so I now hold a great deal of power and protection in this Silverhall City. If someone were to come and start trouble with my store, for example, I could have the guards arrest them and toss them into a dungeon until they rotted away. I could even have my guards cut them down and no one would so much as ask me why after they were aware of my rank." Rick explained.

"I had no idea, that is incredible. I still remember a lot of things from my past, but I do not know anything about nobility except that a king and queen rule over everyone." She said.

"That won't do at all Angelica, how will you ever become a great Queen if you do not know about the feudal system?" Rick asked with a mischievous smile.

"Queen? I am only a Valkyrie Blade Master/Hero Ranger I could never become a Queen." She said.

"That is not quite true. When I become a King and marry you then you would automatically become a Queen." Rick answered with a smile.

"M-m-marry! You marry me?!" She yelled out in shock and her words echoed down the hallways.

Angelica realizing what she just did turned red and quickly covered her mouth while looking around in shock still.

Rick laughed at how cute she was reacting. "If I am not good enough to marry you then I won't force you." He said pulling her close and teasing her.

"N-no! I mean Yes I I" She tried to respond in shock and confusion.

Rick began laughing as they walked out of the City Hall and he stopped her out front.

"Just so you know a King often has many wives. I may marry other women to make alliances or to connect another house to my own. I could even marry to protect someone or just marry because I love them as I do you. Even so, I would want you to be the first Queen who holds the power. That is if you are ok knowing that it may always be only you and me or that I could end up with thirty other wives." Rick told her seriously.

"You do not have to decide right here and now, this is something that will not happen for quite a while. Just think it over and let me know what you think about the idea when you have made your decision. Whatever you decide will never change the fact that you will always be by my side in everything I do and everywhere I go." Rick said comforting her and then he placed his hands on her cheeks and gave her a passionate kiss.

Angelica turned bright red. "Cedric everyone is watching us." She shyly whispered.

"Haha, let them! they are only jealous that I have such a beautiful young woman." He said laughing.

The two of them walked off next to City Hall away from the crowds and Rick opened a portal and they went back to the tower.

Angelica went outside to prepare for the soon to begin afternoon military sparring program and Rick ran off to the tavern. While he was running along he used his cartography skill to check the city construction progress.

Spoiler: City Map Update.

Holy crap look at that, Jerem and Handil have been busy they have most of the walls and gatehouses built and have even added extra towers. I can even see different colored vegetations around the temple now, Daisia must have begun planting the colorful trees and plants from the Astral Plane over there. Now that I look to the south where I asked Daisia to grow the rubber trees I can already see a good amount of green on the map location. Rick thought and then stored the map.

He entered the tavern and dropped off the casks he had just bought from Mia and talked with the Vampire Tavern Keeper Silvana and noticed she had lost the glow to her skin and looked tired. Rick led her into the back room that she once stayed in until she had been assigned an apartment.

Rick asked her how she was feeling and after some coaxing found out that her health was slowly decreasing since she had not drunk any blood since she had arrived. Rick unequipped his shirt and gave her permission to bite him. She was quite reluctant at first until he told her that he could heal himself like nothing had happened after she had drunk his blood. Silvana took his hand and led him over to her old bed and had him sit down because he was much taller than her.

Silvana began by kissing his neck and running her tongue gently across his skin as if preparing herself for what she was about to do. Rick closed his eyes and listened to her breathing increase while enjoying the sensation of her lips on his neck. Silvana unable to hold herself back any longer lightly sank her fangs into Rick's neck and sucked on the wound to drink the fresh red blood that came trickling out.

Rick had been expecting to feel allot more pain from the bite, but Silvana was so gentle that he only felt a quick pinch and then instantly forgot about it as she sensually sucked on his neck drinking his blood. He had originally been prepared to let her drink his blood, but he had no idea that it would be such an arousing experience. He had lost himself momentarily in the pleasure and when she pulled away from his neck he leaned in a kissed her blood stained lips deeply.

After a few seconds, he stopped himself leaned back.

"I'm sorry Silvana I only meant to let you drink my blood and became over excited from having a beautiful woman like you kissing and sucking my neck. Please forgive me if I went too far." Rick apologized.

Silvana smiled and leaned in and kissed him. "You do not need to apologize I quite enjoyed it myself and not many know this but blood is an aphrodisiac to Vampires. That is why I was reluctant to drink anyone's blood because I was unsure of what I may do afterward. Many people of this world also seem to think that all vampires are cold blooded killers as well and fear becoming close to us." She replied.

Rick placed a hand gently on her cheek. "Silvana you are a stunning young woman and any man should be thrilled to receive your affection. It would be my pleasure to share this experience with you anytime. I will be sure to come by every few days to check on you so don't worry about it I will let you have my blood when ever you need it." Rick said.

When he saw her gorgeous face light up with a smile after he had told her not to worry, he leaned in and kissed her once again before leaving the tavern. Rick walked halfway across the city toward the castle plot when he then remembered seeing all the green in the plot that he gave to Daisia to plant the rubber trees.

He then changed his direction from the castle plot and started running south through the city streets toward the farming district. He reached the rubber tree farm and found that Daisia had used her skill to accelerate the rubber tree growth. The plot that had been empty a couple of days ago now had fifteen-foot rubber trees evenly spaced in straight rows. He walked over to the closest tree and used his dagger to cut a deep vertical groove out of the bark.

He then took out a clay container and held it under the long cut and placed his other hand on the tree trunk. Rick began using his nature affinity magic to siphon the latex that he could feel inside the tree out through the cut and it ran down into the clay container. When he felt that he had collected most of the tree's latex sap he used his Nature Affinity to heal the bark and it closed the groove he had cut like a heal spell sealing cut flesh.

He then went down the line of trees and began to fill all of the containers he had with the latex sap and to also heal the cuts in the trees afterward so that they remained healthy. When he collected all he could and had stored it all in his inventory he went to the castle plot.

Down in his basement workshop, Rick and poured a container of Tiger blood into a few of the molten metals inside the furnaces that he planned to use for crafting. Rick then emptied out all of the blast furnaces into ingot casts and used identify on the two batches of ingots that came from the furnaces that he had experimented with.

Spoiler: Identify!. Astrallium Steel Alloy Ingot

Astrallium Steel Alloy is a blend of the [Legendary Rare] Astrallium Ore and the [Exotic] Steel metal.

This alloy is dark gray in color and does not have the equivalent density of pure Astrallium.

This alloy is similar in weight and density to gold but is much harder than standard steel.

This alloy has been blended with Tigers blood which has provided it with special bonuses.

This is a man made element first created by Cedric Crownguard.

Titanium Steel Alloy Ingot

Titanium Steel Alloy is a blend of the [Very Rare] Titanium ore and the [Exotic] Steel metal.

This alloy is a dull silver color that and has a higher Density and is much harder than standard steel but is far more brittle.

This alloy is much lighter than standard steel and is resistant to corrosion in sea water and from acids.

This is a man made element first created by Cedric Crownguard.

Infernal Crimsantite Ingot

Infernal Crimsantite is a [Legendary Rare] metal only found in the Astral Plane.

Infernal Crimsantite is a highly heat resistant metal with a very high melting point.

This metal provides extreme bonuses to the fire elemental affinity.

This metal has been blended with Tigers blood which has provided it with special bonuses.

World Announcement!

The Player Cedric Crownguard has just created a new element: Astrallium Steel Alloy.

This is the first man made element created by a player!

Astrallium Steel Alloy is a blend of the [Legendary Rare] Astrallium Ore and the [Exotic] Steel metal.

For this discovery, the Player Cedric Crownguard has been awarded the title: The Adept of Refinement

My experiments worked and I was awarded a new title. This is now my second world announcement players will start to recognize my name more and hopefully bring more business into the shop for it.

Spoiler: Show Notices!. New Title Notice!

Through blood sweat and tears you were the first Player to create a new element!

You have been awarded the title: The Adept of Refinement.

Fame: +5000

Honor +5000

All of your smelted metals will now have a gain of 3x to their bonuses. All items must be crafted first to view their bonuses.

Currently displaying title: Reviver of the Ancient Beliefs

All awarded titles stack with the currently displayed title.

Now that is a sweet ass title! All of my smelted metal bonuses will now be three times higher than they normally would turn out. This is a perfect time for this title to come along.

Rick closed his notices and sat down at the corner table to design a set of armor for Angelica.

Spoiler: Angelica's Armor Design.

When he had an idea of what he wanted to make, Rick placed a few of the Astrallium Steel Alloy ingots mixed with Tiger's blood and a few Mithril ingots into the forge and sat back down again at the table. He took some time to think of how and what runes he could add to her armor and came up with a simple three rune design to experiment with.

Spoiler: Runic Armor Attachment.

Rick drew up a design for a small thin rectangle box that would be built into the back of Angelica's armor. Inside would contain a tiny wind and ice rune to provide cooling inside the armor so she would be able to fight for extended periods of time without overheating and helping to conserve stamina. In the center of the box, he would engrave a larger metal rune that he was unsure of what it might provide since he had not yet experimented with them. These three runes would all run off of one circuit that would connect into four storage gems.

Rick left the designs on the table and went upstairs to sprint over to the glass blowers shop. He found him in the Glass Glazer's shop helping him make the stained glass windows for the temple. Rick drew up a couple quick sketches of modern chemistry test tubes, beakers, Distillation Apparatuses, stoppers, caps, and a few custom glass bottles.

The glass blower looked over the design and got to work blowing the different glasswares. It didn't take the skilled glass blower to make everything he needed and when they had cooled he packed them away and started running back to the basement.

On his down the spiral staircase into the basement he checked his notifications that had been flashing for awhile.

Spoiler: Show Notices!. Attribute Increased: Strength +3 Attribute Increased: Stamina +6 Attribute Increased: Vitality +6 Spoiler: Show Status!.

Cedric Crownguard Strength: 125 Level: (86%) 18 Stamina: 100 Health: 1040 Vitality: 104 Mana: 1180 Intelligence: 118 Piety: +175 Wisdom: 60 Fame: +37,000 (locally respected) Agility: 64 Honor: +32,000 (village hero) Charisma: 30 Alignment: +4000 Leadership: 50 Satiety: 95% Luck: 15 Class: Druidic Mage Health Regen/Sec: 5.0 Mana Regen/Sec: 5.5 Feudal Domain: 2600 Race: Chosen Human Feuadal Title: Marquess Unused Points: 0 Awarded Titles Currently Displaying: The Adept of Refinement Title: The White Knight Alignment +/- +1000 Title: The Honor Guard Alignment +/- +1000 Title: The Duelist Alignment +/- +1000 Title: Black Hand Interrogator Alignment +/- -1000 Title: Benevolent Leader Alignment +/- +1000 Title: Explorer of the Unknown Alignment +/- -none- Title: Oath Breaker Alignment +/- -1000 Title: Honorbound Alignment +/- +1000 Title: Reviver of the Ancient Beliefs Alignment +/- +1000 Title: The Adept of Refinement Alignment +/- -none-

Rick had closed his windows when he entered the workshop as he walked across the room to reach into the forge flames and pull out an Astrallium Steel Alloy ingot with his bare hands. His higher levels in Fire elemental magic gave him enough resistance now that the glowing hot ingot did not feel overly hot or burn him.

Rick took out his Astrallium blacksmith hammer and began to work on Angelica's armor. He made the helmet, cuirass, gauntlets, and greaves from the Astrallium Steel Alloy ingots in the forge. Then he used the Mithril ingots to make a lightweight Chainmail tunic and leggings that could be worn under her armor to protect the parts of her body that are exposed in the joints of the armor.

Using the large stone cubes he still had in his inventory from tunneling, Rick cut one stone cube into four foot long by three feet wide and four inch deep stone tubs. He cut and shaped them easily with his [Move and Shape Stone] skill and laid them out along the outside walls of the room.

He then made a couple workbenches from recipes and placed a metal roller on one and the chemistry glassware he had made on the other. With the custom designed glass chemistry ball, he placed a glass curved tube and lid over the top to seal it and connected the other end of the glass tube to a separately sealed bottle filled with water.

Rick placed his fingertips on each side of the sealed glass bowl and began to shoot small arcs of electricity from his fingertips into the glass bowl. The electricity that he shot through the bottle soon began to break apart the oxygen and nitrogen atoms inside the bottle. This allowed the separated atoms to recombine to make nitrogen dioxide molecules and form NO2 which is a brown gas.

This brown gas filled the sealed bottle and then traveled down the glass tube to be filtered through the water held in the second bottle. He continued to filter the brown gas through the water for just over a half hour and then he took out a copper coin and laid it on the workbench.

Rick picked up the bottle of water and dripped a couple drops onto the copper coin and it began to fizz and bubble on the surface of the coin. This bottle did not hold normal water anymore after filtering the No2 gasses through it over time it was transformed into Nitric Acid.

Spoiler: Nitric Acid Process.

Now that Rick had about a gallon of Nitric Acid he took out all of the clay containers filled with latex sap and dumped them into the stone tubs. When the tubs were full of the latex sap he began to add roughly four or five ounces of the acid to each tub and used a piece of wood to stir them all. By adding the acid to the sap in would then begin to cause it to coagulate and over time and then become solid.

Rick then left the workshop now filled with latex stone tubs and Angelica's Armor to head upstairs and sprint over to the tower and up to his room. He then began carefully going through all of the books and scrolls he had recovered from the ruined temple. He had a few minutes to kill so he decided to see what he might learn from his books to improve his runic designs.

After going through everything he was lucky enough to find a book and a few scrolls that contained the same written language used with the [Demigod Dialect] skill that allowed him to make his engraved runes.

He sat down in a big cushioned chair by the bedroom window and began to read the book and scrolls and was soon able to improve his knowledge of the language. By improving his vocabulary and reading further into the Demigod Dialect lore, he would now be able to fine-tune his runes and even create other elemental affinities that he had as of yet not used.

Once he had gone through any information he could find relating to the ancient runic language, RIck left the tower and ran back to the castle basement. The natural rubber in the tubs had now begun to solidify so he removed the blocks while they were still wet and pliable. The next step in processing the natural rubber was to feed these four inch thick blocks through the metal tube rollers. He adjusted the tube roller spacing so that when he cranked the natural rubber through it would be compressed into one-inch sheets.

Rick cut a piece of thick cloth with his scissors and laid out the roller compressed natural rubber on top of the cloth and then covered it with another piece of cloth. He continued to compress all of the rubber blocks in the tube roller and cover them in thick cloth to help them dry and not stick to each other as he stacked them.

When he had emptied all the tubs of the solid natural rubber he stored the tubs and went over to work on Angelica's armor. Rick engraved a metal rune on the back of the armor using the knowledge he just learned. First, he engraved the rune circle and inside of the circle he carved the runic words. (festa stal sifjar sterkr verja moti sokn) these words would roughly translate to, (strengthen metal affinity strong defense against attack).

The next rune he carved was a tiny ice rune and also a tiny wind rune. He connected the metal rune, ice rune, and wind rune to one circuit and ran an off branch for a fourth rune. Rick engraved the circle for the fourth rune and engraved these words inside of it. (vega halfr megin sifjar byrdr) this would translate to, weigh half ability, affinity, burden. This last rune, if he was right, should apply gravity elemental magic to the armor to cut the felt weight in half.

Rick used copper to make what looked like fuse clips that allowed him to snap the storage gems into them and hold them in place. He connected the four "Storage Gem Clips" to the rune circuit and engraved the circuit line up to the side collar and attached it to an engraved switch rune.

All of these runes and storage gems fit into a rectangle compartment on the lower back of the torso armor that measured approximately eight inches wide by one foot long and extended out from the armor just over an inch. Rick also crafted an Astrallium Steel Alloy hinged lid on this compartment that could be screwed shut to protect the storage gems and runes from damage in battle.

Inside the compartment, the next step was to drill holes through the compartment floor that encircled the wind and ice runes so that the cold air could be blown into the interior of the armor.

He then closed the compartment lid after drilling out the ventilation holes and touched the switch rune on the collar.when he put his hand on the armor he could feel the cooling effect working and when he picked up the armor the weight felt comparable to light leather armor.

He turned off the runes after testing them and then grabbed a few sheets of the now dry natural rubber and cut and glued it to the interior of Angelica's prototype armor. His idea was that by lining the interior of the suit of armor it would absorb most impacts and protect her from blunt force injuries. When Rick had completely lined the interior of every piece of armor with rubber he then enchanted the torso each piece with Reflect Magic.

Spoiler: Identify!.

Rick took a look at the armor stats with Identify.

Enchanted Astrallium Steel Alloy Cuirass Body Armor: 65 of 100 Durability: 2000/2000 Quality: Legendary Rare Bonuses: +20 to Agility from Tiger Blood Magical Properties Spell-Skill-Attribute Name Uses Enchanted Magic Reflection 11/11

After reviewing the stats for the torso armor he turned the runes on and used Identify to examine any changes.

Enchanted Astrallium Steel Alloy Cuirass Body Armor: 87 of 100 Durability: 5000/5000 Quality: Legendary Rare Bonuses: +20 to Agility from Tiger Blood Magical Properties Spell-Skill-Attribute Name Uses Enchanted Magic Reflection 11/11

Look at this the metal rune raised the Body Armor by 22 and the armor Durability went from 2000 to 5000. I wonder if a bigger or smaller metal rune would change these numbers even more or if they are fixed?

Rick set the Cuirass down and picked up the gauntlets for Angelica's armor set and enchanted them with the attribute strength and they now held a +11 Strength.

Hmm, +11 isn't that exactly how many levels I have in enchantment now? I have nine levels in beginner and two levels in intermediate so does this mean everytime I level up my enchantment I gain a +1 to attribute bonuses?

Rick decided to experiment with enchantment to test out if he was right. He took out an iron ingot and placed it into the forge and then stored the sheets of natural rubber into his inventory. Rick removed a few stone tubs and placed them along the wall. He then filled them with the remainder of the stored latex in his inventory and then add the acid to make it coagulate.

He went through his inventory and found a small cut of lumber and used his [Shape Wood] Skill to change it into a one-foot long stirring paddle. With the use of his hand drill, he bored out a few holes in the paddle and surprisingly acquired a recipe for it. Rick used his newly made paddle to stir the latex until it seen that small globs began to form in the liquid.

He then stored the paddle and walked over to the forge and pulled out the hot iron ingot and sliced it up it thin square sections. When the thin sheets of iron cooled he set them on the table and sat down next to them and began enchanting each one of them with random attributes. After he had enchanted over a hundred sheets of iron he opened the notification icon that had been flashing since he left the tower earlier.

Spoiler: Show Notices!. Attribute Increased: Intelligence +4 Attribute Increased: Wisdom +2 Attribute Increased: Stamina +2 Attribute Increased: Vitality +1 Skill Increased: Blacksmith Advanced Level 5 16% Skill Increased: Enchanting Intermediate Level 4 74%

I gained a few points in Intelligence and wisdom from reading that book and the scrolls on the Ancient runic language.

All of this running around today is providing me with small gains, but it is allot slower than using flight to travel around.

Let's see I gained two levels with Enchanting so time to give it a test run.

He picked up Angelica's gauntlets again and re-enchanted them with the strength attribute.

Spoiler: Identify!. Enchanted Astrallium Steel Alloy Cuirass Body Armor: 25 of 100 Durability: 1000/1000 Quality: Legendary Rare Bonuses: +5 to Agility from Tiger Blood Magical Properties Spell-Skill-Attribute Name Bonus Enchanted Strength Attribute +13

So it does actually add +1 for each level to attributes. That would mean then when my Enchanting skill is maxed out I will be able to add a +54 attribute to weapons, armor, and jewelry. If I enchanted a ring for all ten fingers with strength when my Enchant skill is maxed I will have a bonus of +540 Strength then. That is just over four times of what my current strength is now. I need to take some time then to power level Enchanting if that is the case. The only problem I can see with this is do I really want to sell jewelry from my store with +54 attribute bonuses? That could come back to bite me in the ass later by making a future enemy stronger that he really is. Rick deliberated over his discovery and then closed the item windows and continued to work on Angelica's armor.

Rick pulled out an ingot of the new Infernal Crimsantite that like the Astrallium could only be found in the Astral Plane. He walked over to the forge flame and held it in the flames while activating his produce flame skill that he used to weld with. The Infernal Crimsantite was extremely resistant to heat and he even had a hard time smelting it down so now not only did he rely on the forge to heat the ingot but he used his own elemental flames to surround and slowly heat it up.

When the ingot slowly began to glow from the flames he laid down in the forge and went back to enchant the rest of the armor.

He enchanted the greaves, gauntlets, helmet, Mithril chain mail leggings, and Mithril chain mail tunic of her armor with a +13 strength bonuses to each piece to help her with the weight. Even though the gravity rune cut the weight in half it still weighed as much as steel plate armor.

After he had enchanted the entire suit of armor he went through and identified every piece to double check the stats and bonuses that they now possessed.

Spoiler: Identify!.

Stats with the runes Deactivated.

Enchanted Astrallium Steel Alloy Cuirass Body Armor: 65 of 100 Durability: 2000/2000 Quality: Legendary Rare Bonuses: +20 to Agility from Tiger Blood Magical Properties Spell-Skill-Attribute Name Uses Enchanted Magic Reflection 13/13

Enchanted Astrallium Steel Alloy Gauntlets Body Armor: 25 of 100 Durability: 1000/1000 Quality: Legendary Rare Bonuses: +5 to Agility from Tiger Blood Magical Properties Spell-Skill-Attribute Name Bonus Enchanted Strength Attribute +13 Enchanted Astrallium Steel Alloy Greaves Body Armor: 45 of 100 Durability: 1500/1500 Quality: Legendary Rare Bonuses: +15 to Agility from Tiger Blood Magical Properties Spell-Skill-Attribute Name Bonus Enchanted Strength Attribute +13 Enchanted Astrallium Steel Alloy Helmet Body Armor: 30 of 100 Durability: 1000/1000 Quality: Legendary Rare Bonuses: +5 to Agility from Tiger Blood Magical Properties Spell-Skill-Attribute Name Bonus Enchanted Strength Attribute +13 Mithril Chainmail Tunic Body Armor: 25 of 100 Durability: 1000/1000 Quality: Legendary Rare Bonuses: -none- Mithril Chainmail Leggings Body Armor: 20 of 100 Durability: 1000/1000 Quality: Legendary Rare Bonuses: -none-

This armor is incredible. It now will add +65 to strength, +45 to Agility, and reflect 13 spells back at the enemy mage.

Rick reviewed the armor stats and closed them as he walked over to the forge and pulled the Infernal Crimsantite ingot out of the flames and placed on his anvil. WIth his Astrallium blacksmith hammer and a chisel, he split the ingot into four sections. He hammered out the two larger sections into the shape of his gladius blade with a few more inches of length. The smaller two sections he hammered into guards.

He used the remainder of the Mithril he used to make the chain mail and hammered out two grooved handles and two round pommels. Rick brought out his engraving tools and then engraved a tiny ice rune on the bottom of each blade and a fire rune in the center and near the tip of the two blades. He had to then connect each rune on a circuit and engraved the circuit path down the blade and the blade tang.

Rick then assembled the two short swords and made a socketed channel for a storage rune in each pommel that overlapped the circuits under them on the blade tangs. On the hilt guard of each sword, he engraved two tiny wind runes and a switch rune on the handle.

When Rick touched the switch rune with his thumb small flames belched out of the fire runes. The ice rune began to cool the base of the blade and the wind runes on the guard blew a blast of air along the blade forcing the flames into a column shape that wrapped around the length of each sword blade.

With the extreme resistance the Infernal Crimsantite had to heat and the tiny ice rune the sword handles remained cool to the touch.He tested the swords out by swinging them around the room and the wind runes kept the flames away from him as the blades swished through the air.

As a last minute thought, he decided to enchant the two swords with his [Acid Bolt] spell.

Spoiler: Runic Fire Sword.

He sat down at the grinding wheel with the two short swords and put a sharp edge on each one of them and received a recipe for these new sword designs. He named the recipe Runic Fire Sword and used identify on them to examine them.

Spoiler: Identify!. Enchanted Infernal Crimsantite Runic Fire Sword of Acid Bolts Attack: 30-35 Durability: 1000/1000 Quality: Legendary Rare Bonuses: +10% to Swing Speed Spell Duration: 10 seconds Bonuses: Corrosive Acid Bolt Runic effects: +3 seconds to set target on fire Uses: 13/13

A Legendary Rare Infernal Crimsanite short sword that has been blended with Variant Tiger blood. This short sword has been enchanted with an Acid Bolt Spell and has been engraved with fire, wind, and ice runes. This sword has the option to wrap the blade in flames and set a struck foe on fire for three seconds. It can also shoot out Corrosive Acid Bolt up to twenty feet away.

Rick then used the recipe for the Runic Fire Sword to make two more and also used a recipe to make two back harnesses and placed the fire swords in them and stored them with Angelica's armor in his inventory.

His next project was to try and make a runic fire arrow. Using his pedal lathe he spun out a couple wooden arrow shafts and set them on the table. He then brought out some feathers and a chunk of a Mithril Ingot. Rick placed the Chunk of the Mithril ingot into the forge and then sat down at the table to use his dagger to splice the feathers. He then glued the spliced feathers onto the wooden arrow shafts and used his knife to cut a notch into the end of the shafts.

When he took the Mithril Ingot chunk out he split it into sections and hammered them into barbed arrow heads. Rick sat down once again at the table with the barbed arrow heads and carved small fire runes into each one and then carved out a small channel to snap in a tiny storage gem. Next, he attached all of the iron barbed arrow heads to the wooden shafts and carved a circuit from the fire rune to the storage gem and then onto the wooden arrow shaft.

Where the circuit ended on the wooden arrow shaft, Rick carved a connecting switch rune. He received a recipe for the arrows and named it Runic Fire Arrow. Rick had decided to use Mithril to make the arrow heads because it was much lighter than other metals so it would travel further and faster.

Spoiler: Runic Fire Arrow.

By using his jewelry recipes Rick made ten plain thin steel rings that would be able to fit under Angelica's gauntlets and enchanted five of them with the Agility attribute and the other five with the Strength attribute.

Rick packed away the rings and turned off the forge. Before leaving he recharged all the storage gems on the furnaces and the forge and went off to find Angelica. Rick called her from the party chat when he left the basement and found out she was in eating in the restaurant with Kanna and Silandra. He stopped by the restaurant and walked back to the tower with her and took her upstairs. He took out the set armor, the harness with the runic fire swords, the ten enchanted rings, and a bunch of fire arrows.

He assigned ownership of everything to her and when she put everything on it adjusted to fit her perfectly. She commented on how heavy the armor was and that it would be hard to move in and Rick just smiled. He first put the rings on all her fingers and then touched the switch rune on the collar of her armor. Angelica looked shocked when she suddenly felt the cool air circulate through the armor and the weight seemed to disappear with the benefit of the rings on her fingers and armor runes activated.

Rick then adjusted the back harness to fit over her armor snugly and slid the fire swords into it. He then handed her the helmet after assigning ownership of it to her and led her downstairs and outside. Rick had her take the fire swords out of the harness on her back and showed her where the switch was to set them aflame and what to expect when she did. He had her activate the swords and the flames leapt out to shroud the blade in swirling fire.

When Angelica was comfortable with the new swords she slid them back into the harness on her back. He then took his bow out and nocked a fire arrow and drew the bow back. He stretched his finger out from the grip and touched the switch rune on the arrow and a flame engulfed the barbed arrow tip. Rick released the arrow at a tree and the arrow sunk into the trunk and caught the bark around it on fire.

He walked over to the tree with Angelica and broke the arrow off and used a water box to extinguish the bark. He laid his hand on the tree and used his nature magic to heal the tree. Rick then filled Angelica's quiver with the fire arrows and looked her over. The only exposed areas, Rick could see were her neck and the slits in her helmet while she wore the chain mail under her armor she was now completely protected.The materials that her armor was made from would shatter any arrow or crude iron blade that struck it and with the attribute increases she could move as easily as a half naked blade dancer and strike with the force of a half-giant.

With her shiny armor and her winged helmet, she looked like a true Valkyrie all that she was missing were wings on her back. Rick told her with the way he designed her new armor she could even do the daily evening run from the city to the quarry and back with her new armor on since it was basically air conditioned.

Rick took her over to the crafting district so that they could spend some time together while he picked up finished items and gave instructions. Rick chose some of the better weapons that they had been making for the store and had the weaponsmiths concentrate on making a selected few to supply the military units with. He did the same with the armorsmith having them focus on only a couple sets of men's and women's armor.

When he had picked up everything the two of them walked over to the apartments and found an empty apartment. Rick filled the bathtub with water and placed his hand in the water and used his fire elemental to heat up the water. He then had Angelica strip off her armor and under-armor and hop in the tub. He then took out a bar of rose scented soap and a bar of lavender scented soap and a piece of cloth.

He was curious how the newly finished soap turned out and wanted to test it out. His character never got dirty so he thought he would test it out on Angelica. Which worked out perfect because even though she had completely healed from her arrow wound her chest still had some blood smeared on it from her attempt to wipe it off with a scrap of cloth.

Rick wet the wash cloth and lathered up the lander soap on it and her test out the new soap. The soap had a calming fresh smell to it and a decent lather. When she had rinsed herself off he then tried out the rose scented soap that was almost like a weak perfume that smelled like a flower garden. Rick was happy with the way both soaps turned out and decided to sell them at the store.

Angelica loved these new soaps and couldn't stop sniffing the pleasant flowery smell of her skin when she got out of the tub.

"Once the castle is built I will make a large bath in there and you will be able to use the soap every day then. It is much more relaxing in a warm bath than wading out in that cold river and wiping yourself down."Rick said as he used a recipe to make a new under-armor for her.

Rick drained the tub and wiped it down while Angelica put her armor back on and they left the building to walk over to the Officials building that his CHancellor Alexandra had her office. They went into her office and found out that they had already figured out which apartments were full and empty so, he decided it was time to bring on a larger military force.

Rick took out his small desk and began to write out a list of unit classes, genders, races, and amounts of each of them.

Spoiler: Cedric's Military Unit List. Classes Amount Gender Race Cleric_Assassin Five 3 Female-2 Males Half Angel Battle Axe Hero_Aura Knight Eight 5 Females - 3 Males Half-Giant Assassin_Pyromancer Ten 10 Females Forsaken Hero Knight_Battle Mage Ten 10 Females Human Hero Ranger_Druid Six 6 Men Elves Blade Master_Battle Mage nine 9 Females Valkyire Balista_Battle Axe Hero ten 10 Females Dwarves

When Rick had his list written up he called Sturm over to where he was with the Party Chat. Then informed Alexandra and her assistant that he would be bringing in more people as soon as Sturm showed up.

When Sturm walked into the building he was greeted by Rick, Angelica, Chancellor Alexandra, and her assistant. Rick then opened the unit menu and spent a good portion of the money he had to spawn in all the units on his list.

Rick told Angelica and Sturm that the nine female Valkyries would be under Angelica's direct command. He instructed Alexandra to have her people assign them apartments and then take them over to the restaurant once they had done just that.

Rick walked over to the restaurant with Angelica and Sturm and sat down at a booth to wait for the new troops to finish being assigned their apartments.

"Angelica I want you to be in charge of the nine Valkyrie directly because no one knows more than you what they have all been through. Just like you up until now, they were alone wandering the Astral Plane for years. All of these people around them all of a sudden will be confusing and a little overwhelming for them. If any of them are having problems adjusting you can bring them over to stay in the tower on the second floor where the other girls had stayed before they moved into their new apartments." Rick instructed Angelica and then turned to General Sturm.

"I want you to keep an eye on the ten Assassin/Pyromancer Forsaken. I am not sure if they will act the same way as their brethren who can be found in tribes around the world. I know that they are known to favor assassin thief type classes and usually lean toward the evil side of alignment. I won't stand for them attacking or bullying other citizens here. If they are truly evil and can't seem to fit in with us here then I will get rid of them all. I will probably have them take shifts following me around so that I can see how they act and how thing are run around here." Rick said.

About ten minutes after Rick explained everything all the units showed up and he introduced Angelica and Sturm as their commanders. He told them about the trouble with the northern tribe and that they would be attacking them in the next couple days. Rick then sent Angelica off with her Valkyrie Squad to the tower and left Sturm to explain the training program that they would take part in every morning afternoon and evening.

Rick left Sturm to finish catching them up on everything about the town and their duties and left the Restaurant. He Ran down the main street to the castle plot and went down to his workshop. He removed all the natural rubber blocks from the stone tubs and ran then through the metal tube roller and stacked them between sheets of cloth to dry like the first batch.

Opening his inventory, Rick removed a few Astrallium Ingots mixed with Tigers blood and regular Steel ingots then placed them all in the forge and turned it on. As the forge came to life and started to heat up the ingots, Rick took out his wood working tools and set them on his table. Sitting down next to his tools, Rick drew up a new design on parchment with a charcoal pencil.

Spoiler: Ballista Design.

When he had a plan he used his recipes to make a few eight-inch thick wooden posts and took out a big roll of spider silk. Rick used his knife to cut long strips of spider silk cloth and began braiding them together to make a one inch thick ten-foot long rope. He coiled the rope up and placed it on the table and brought out his tap and die set to make ten 1/25 inch wood screws along with bolts and nuts in different sizes.

Rick used his [Carpentry], [Wood Carving], and [Shape Wood] Skills to build the ballista frame from wood posts and then used a steel ingot to make a swiveling bracket to attach the crossbow portion to the frame. Now that he had the frame and crossbow connected he made two steel attaching brackets that held the bow limbs in place.

He grabbed another ingot from the forge and made the crank axle and bored, taped, and threaded holes for the crank levers so he could screw them into the axel. His next step was to carve out three inch thick limbs and attach them to the ballista. Once the limbs were cranked down tight he used the spider silk rope to string the limbs and connected the limb rope to the crank axle rope with a bracket.

Rick took the last steel ingot from the forge and split it up and made three solid steel bolt shafts and three bolt tips. Rick acquired a recipe for the ballista and the steel bolts in the end and used the ballista recipe to make nine more. He used the steel bolt recipe to make two hundred bolts and then he engraved one of the bolts in the same way as the Fire Arrow with a fire rune, small storage gem, and switch rune. He also received a recipe for the steel runic fire bolts and made one hundred of them.

Rick placed the ballista in his inventory in two pieces and then stored the now dry sheets of rubber.

Once again he sat down at the table to draw up an armor design for himself. This time he wanted to make a suit of armor that was thick and strong enough to deflect even one of his steel ballista bolts.

Spoiler: New Prototype Armor.

Rick used his Astallium blacksmith hammer to hammer out the Astrallium ingots that had been mixed with Tigers blood when he had smelt them. He started on the torso armor first normally he would hammer his torso armor to about a 1/8 of an inch thickness this time he was shooting for half an inch thickness. With the density and hardness of Astrallium, a half inch thickness should stop a bullet and make regular melee weapons useless against it.

This would mean that the armor would now be roughly four times heavier than the first Astrallium suit of armor he had made and struggled with its weight. Now that he had a system to add runes this shouldn't be a problem though. When he had finished making the thick torso, greaves, gauntlets, and helmet, he began making an Astrallium chain mail tunic and leggings to wear under his thick armor. After he had braided quite a few links he acquired a recipe to make a 1' x 1' square of braid chain mail he just needed to make a few up and link them together to make his tunic and leggings.

He soon had his new set of extra thick armor finished and when he picked up the torso piece he guessed it must have weighed almost as much as he did. Rick flipped the torso armor over and welded a rectangle compartment and lid onto the lower back of his armor that was larger than the one he had made for Angelica's armor.

With the use of a small hammer and his engraving tools, Rick carved twelve circles inside the compartment. Six of these runes were gravity runes and the other six were metal runes. He connected all of these runes on one circuit that merged into eight good sized storage gems and a switch rune that was engraved on the collar of the armor.

Spoiler: Runic Armor Compartment.

Rick did not bother to add the cooling option to his armor because his elemental fire magic provided him with resistances against heat and flames.

When he tried the chain mail tunic, leggings and the complete suit of armor on he found it hard to even stand much less move around. He then reached up to his collar and touched the switch rune and all the weight on his upper body vanished. The only problem was that his legs felt like they were stuck in a thick mud when he tried to walk around. The runes from the torso armor seemed to be working to remove the weight on his upper body and arms, but his helmet and legs still felt all of the original weight still.

Maybe these runes are working similar to electricity. If a piece of armor is not in contact with the torso armor that has the runes it will not receive the provided effects.

Rick took off all his armor and made small linked chains of Astrallium in the same way he had done to make his chain mail and used his drill and small nuts and bolts to attach the small lengths of chain to his torso armor. Rick made a small clip and ring and attached the clips to the ends of the chains and the rings he welded to each of his greaves and the back bottom part of his helmet.

Once again he equipped his armor and clipped the small chains to the rings on his helmet and greaves. Now when he activated the runes for the second time his entire suit of armor became virtually weightless. When he jumped up and down he could hardly feel any weight at all and felt that he would be able to fight in this thick armor without any problems.

When he was happy with the results he removed the armor and began to glue layers of natural rubber sheets inside his helmet, torso armor, greaves, and in his gauntlets where the back of his hand would be when he wore them. Rick then assigned the ownership of the armor pieces to himself and he could see each piece visibly change shape and size so that they would fit him perfectly when he wore them.

Rick acquired a recipe for his thick Astallium suit of armor and he named it "Bastion of Protection." He then placed his hand on each piece of armor and enchanted them with [Magic Reflection] and used his [Indentify] skill on them while the metal and gravity runes were still activated.

Spoiler: Identify!. Enchanted Astrallium Cuirass Body Armor: +100 of 100 Durability: 3000/3000 Quality: Legendary Rare Bonuses: +20 to Agility from Tiger Blood Magical Properties Spell-Skill-Attribute Name Uses Enchanted Magic Reflection 13/13

Enchanted Astrallium Gauntlets Body Armor: 75 of 100 Durability: 1500/1500 Quality: Legendary Rare Bonuses: +5 to Agility from Tiger Blood Magical Properties Spell-Skill-Attribute Name Bonus Enchanted Strength Attribute +13 Enchanted Astrallium Greaves Body Armor: +100 of 100 Durability: 2000/2000 Quality: Legendary Rare Bonuses: +15 to Agility from Tiger Blood Magical Properties Spell-Skill-Attribute Name Bonus Enchanted Strength Attribute +13 Enchanted Astrallium Helmet Body Armor: 85 of 100 Durability: 1500/1500 Quality: Legendary Rare Bonuses: +5 to Agility from Tiger Blood Magical Properties Spell-Skill-Attribute Name Bonus Enchanted Strength Attribute +13 Astrallium Chainmail Tunic Body Armor: 80 of 100 Durability: 1200/1200 Quality: Legendary Rare Bonuses: -none- Magical Properties Spell-Skill-Attribute Name Bonus Enchanted Strength Attribute +13 Astallium Chainmail Leggings Body Armor: 75 of 100 Durability: 1200/1200 Quality: Legendary Rare Bonuses: -none- Magical Properties Spell-Skill-Attribute Name Bonus Enchanted Strength Attribute +13

Rick closed the item windows and sat down to make a few more Atrallium chains with clips and rings so that he could also link Angelica's armor and chain mail pieces to her torso armor to provide further weight reduction.

As Rick was making the chains for Angelica's Armor he began to wonder how far the rune effects could travel along a wire. He finished up making the small chains and stored them in his inventory and took out an iron and copper ingot and placed them in the forge fire.

Instead of sitting around waiting on the ingots to heat up, Rick opened a gate across the road from the horse stables south of Siverhall City and walked through it. He walked across the dirt road and walked inside to find the owner that he had bought his horses from. Rick bought a hundred bails of hay and one hundred large bags of grain from him and the stable owner took him out back to his storage barn to load up all the hay and grain into his inventory.

Rick paid him and walked back across the street and used a portal to travel to his own new horse stable. He told the Animal Trainer that he had purchased more food for the horses and walked into the stable storage room and filled it with the bails of hay and bags of grain. He left the storage room and ran back to the castle basement and removed the copper ingot. Cutting the ingot into sections and then hammering the small sections on the anvil he was able to make round strands of copper wire. He found if he used his elemental flame to heat up the ends of two pieces he could hammer them together to form one continuous wire.

He hammered the small lengths of wire together to make a ten foot of copper wire this way and received a recipe for copper wire. He used the new wire recipe to make a fifty-foot spool of copper wire and began experimenting with it to try and make one of his bell alarms work from a switch rune that was connected to the copper wire on the other side of the room. At first, he didn't have much success with his ideas until he tried a different approach.

Rick linked the copper wire to the bell alarm circuit that connected to the storage gem and wind rune. He then liked the other end of the copper wire to another storage gem and a switch rune on a circuit across the room. When he hit the switch the bell alarm started ringing across the room on the table. For some reason when he had added a storage gem that connected to each end of the wire he was able to send the runic signals from one circuit along the wire to the circuit on the opposite end.

He then removed the alarm and tried out a small fire rune and storage gem on a circuit and found that when he hit the switch across the room a flame sprung up from the fire rune on the table.

It seems that if I power two separate circuits with storage gems then it is possible to link them with a wire. The code must somehow treat the two powered circuits as one connected piece when there is mana energy flowing in and out of both ends of the copper wire. It also will work with the bell alarm and a fire rune so I would assume that this could be applied to many other uses.

He opened his friend list found Daisia's name and sent her a text message asking her to start planting the colorful leafed trees in front of the apartments and crafting buildings. He also wrote that he wanted her to use her skills to rapidly grow them to about 15-20 feet tall.

His idea for the trees was to use them as telephone poles are used in the real world. He would string copper wire from tree to tree and run lines to the different buildings so that he could place a bell alarm in each shop that connected to the meeting hall. This way when he needed to talk with his crafters over new designs he would not have to run from one shop to the next to ask the crafters to head over to the meeting hall. He would be able to push a switch rune at the meeting hall and ring the alarm bells in every shop as a signal to head over for the next design meeting.

Rick left the castle basement after packing everything up and shutting off the forge. He ran back to the tower and found Angelica on the second floor with her Valkyrie squad. Rick sat down with them to talk with each of them and they seemed to all have gone through a similar situation that Angelica had. They were all wandering the Astral Plane alone and then they were instantly transported to the System Gate. When they opened their eyes they found that they all still could remember their time spent in the Astral PLane, but had no memory of their previous lives.

After talking with them they all seemed to settle down and adjust to their new surroundings. Rick told them if they needed anything at all Angelica and him would be just on the floor above him. Even though he was going to Disconnect for the night Angelica would still be there to help them out.

He said good night to the nine Valkyries and walked upstairs with Angelica and unequipped his new armor and climbed under the covers. When Angelica had removed her armor Rick used his [Produce Flame] skill to weld the small chains, clips, and rings on to her armor and showed her how to connect them to her greaves and helmet. They both climbed under the covers and he gave her a kiss goodnight and disconnected from the game.

Disconnect!