Tiria looked somewhat unbelieving at me and shook her head, “I can't believe that you would try to enslave one of your brothers and sisters.”

I defended myself at once, “Enslaving? Brother? Sister? Are you kidding me? If I understood anything then if I ever encounter any of them, they will try to kill me and absorb all of my land. So I think it would be much better to serve me instead of being annihilated. In some of the stories back on earth there have been cities build above dungeons to gather their resources and to train soldiers and adventurers in them. All I would do, is making the dungeon my bitch and using it for my purposes.”

The goddess looked like I had slammed her with a mace and then shook the head again.

“I wanted to make you a bit more hard and less kind but not turn you into a slaver of my creations, but to answer your question, it is possible for you to subjugate a dungeon core. If you want to go down this route then I would recommend a young dungeon with a level not higher than 10. Once it's under your rule it can't break your power over it again, but you will have to share your own mana at the start with it to develop its power and abilities. The other gods will throw an tantrum when they hear about it, as you will then be able to create ressources with mana alone. I will have to think about it, but as I already said that I wouldn't limit you anymore, I can only hope that you won't make my life too hard and use the dungeon's abilities with care.”

Yeah, sure, if I ever get my hands on a dungeon core and can subjugate it, I will use my everything to get all I need from it, and if some of these nagging gods want to disturb my fun, I will have to find ways to make them shut up. There are no bigger resource spots around as far as I can see and trading seems far off until this world develops a little bit more sciencific or magical tech.

Tiria watched me and sighed, “I see, you will make my life interesting. There was a curse on your world, wishing you to live in interesting times, “She smirked only, “I should have listened to it, but now the damage is done and you will have to deflect what the other divines throw your way. Maybe I will help you here and there but don't count on it. I will take my leave now and let you continue with your work, so make me proud and entertain me, little one!”

I knew, that she would say it again, just to annoy me. Her body lit up again and with my returning sight she was gone and left me with four shaken elves behind. Kalla was the first to get out of her stupor and looked me straight into the eyes.

“Where do you want to find a dungeon? And especially now that we have an army coming our way?”

I hesitated to gather my thoughts frowning, “The dungeon thing is something for the time after the assault and after I had time to train Galen, Nala, Kitara and Chara manipulating their mana enough to develop some simple spells. I guess that I will have to learn more about runes and mathematics to create spell weaving and complex magical structures. As I see it,we will concentrate our mages training on creating a ranged area spell first to smash the goblins and their allies to pieces and burn their sorry asses to ashes. We also should let some of them survive so they can return to their tribes with my message not to mess with me again or suffer the consequences.”

Excitement and simple blood thirst appeared on my elves faces and they smiled at each other and me. Maybe I have created a monster here but the goblins started it and I will wipe them from this planet if I get the chance. Nobody needs these suckers anyway so why not go all the way when I get the chance, but the dungeons on this world will surely revive the species as they stand quite low in the food chain and therefore make an excellent starter race.

I realized suddenly that my wish for peaceful city building turned into warmongering and with regret I remembered the history of earth and that with every big city there always came some big fights about it. Rome is a prime example for it. I just hope that I can make the history take another turn on my new homeworld. Certainly I will never allow slaves here, with the dungeon core a small exception until I have trained him enough to reach sentience and be a loyal servant to me. Yeah, I know, it's a bit hypocrite but you have to smash eggs to get a good dough. Sue me!

“I will send you back now, and I want my guardians to meditate now as I will need more mana for enhancing my nightshade rose. Kalla, please don't forget to tell your people not to touch them. Oh, forget what I said, and tell them that they should harvest them careful for the thorns and the poison. They would make any arrow much more deadly than everything we have now at disposal.”

Kalla's eyes grew with the idea reaching her and the grin split almost her face, “Oh yeah, that would be absolutely devastating against these green menaces. I will tell the others about it, but how long do you need for growing them?”

I thought about the time needed for growing the vines and the tree and answered, “Give me two or three days and then the first bushes should be ripe for gathering. I will need a lot of mana for it and after that I want to create the traps next. With a little bit of luck Galen and the others will have a working spell in the next week which will then be taught to the other mages. I want them to train the spell until exhaustion and get their skill up with it, lest they don't incinerate themselves or us. We should also work on the crossbows to give most of our citizen a chance to strike back, “I took a glance to my new guardians, “You know what you have to do, so I send you out now. I will imbue you with my mana manipulation skill, so you can start working. Make me proud!”

With a thought I sent their minds back to their bodies and called for Dorien, the shy carpenter.

He was working on a bow and almost destroyed his work when I spoke beside him. I wanted to chuckle seeing his spooked face but refrained from doing so. The poor guy was already shy, I didn't need him to be reclusive also.

“Hi Dorien, I have a project running that I'd like to have your opinion on it, so would you be so kind and sit down and meditate a bit? I want to invite you to my workplace.”

Curiosity and fear battled in his eyes and the tool in his hand was in constant movement as he was thinking about my offer, “Why do I have to meditate to go to your place? That doesn't make any sense, my lord.”

So he was the cautious one, eh? Others would have jumped for the possibility to see my place.

“It's inside my mind, so it could be somewhat hard to get there with your body. Don't be a baby and just take my invite. I need you to check a new idea of mine and see if it's feasible with our means.”

He was still hesitant but sat down and closed his eyes, tension visible in his muscles.

“You should meditate and not work out. Relax and enjoy the ride.” I sent my invitation to him and after some seconds I felt his mind make the connection to me.

He appeared beneath my table with the hologram of the crossbow above it and his whole demeanour changed rapidly seeing my idea. His eyes lit up and he walked around the table studying the contraption before him, completely ignoring me standing only some steps back.

After I gave him enough time for a close look, I cleared my throat making him jump back and looking frantically around himself. His eyes went wide when he saw me standing behind a chair and watching him. He looked down and bowed his head, “I am sorry, my lord, I didn't want to disrespect you. I just can't take my eyes of something that interests me. And this strange weapon looks really intriguing.”

I only nodded and sat down on my chair, never taking my eyes of him, “So what do you think about my crossbow? That's the name of it, by the way.”

“It's awesome! But it would be hell to create it now, as I think that there will be many things to build before we can think about crafting this little wonder there. After we have a proper tool shop and a good crafting station we can build them and figure out what materials we need for each part, but now I have to say that it would be impossible. Sorry to disappoint you, Sir.”

Okay, that wasn't what I thought, but he was honest and I will have to think about other things to bolster my defences.

“Thanks for your advice, Dorien, if you have an idea for creating a crossbow earlier, just come to me and we will discuss about it. I need every input I can get.” I smiled grateful which made him smile also and then sent him back outside.

Shrugging I returned to my work with the seed and let my mana bolster the earth mana in the core very slowly. After all I didn't want to destroy the work I already had invested in my new weapon. It took me more than 5 hours to get the seed as strong as possible and challenging my downgraded manipulation skill.

It was so much easier before! Returning to the outside world I went as far away as possible, noticing that my maximum range had increased a whole 100 meters when I reached level 10. Before it only grew 20 meters, so it seems that I have reached the town stage when I was in the village stage before. I was thrilled to reach my city stage better sooner than later, but as I understood Alvera I had reached a point where I needed a new kind of crystal to grow and I was quite sure that this stuff didn't grow anywhere near.

Chara came down to me and watched me working, closely watching how I sent my mana into the seed after I had planted it.

“It's such a big difference watching it and somewhat understanding what you are doing, now that I have the right skill for it. Would you allow me to try it myself with the next bush?”

I smiled inwards and answered, “That's a good idea, Chara. It will help you raising your skill and I will watch closely to help you with the control. Give me just a little bit of time, until this bush has reached its first harvest time.”

After half an hour, which Chara used for meditating and moving her mana in her limbs to increase her control, the nightshade rose was 1 meter tall and small black fruits the size of a walnut hung from its branches. Sadly there were only 20 of them that I could use for growing new bushes, but I only shrugged and went on with the plan.

After Chara took a fruit very careful to not hurt herself at the 4 centimeters long thorns, she went 4 meters sideways to plant it into the ground. I concentrated on her and took a front-seat in her mind, which startled her first when I slipped into her mind.

“That's odd, Marcus. I can feel you beside and inside my head. It's not quite uncomfortable but also not natural.”

“You will grow accustomed to it very fast, dear Chara. I need to watch what you are doing and that's the best way to help you. Now let's start the show. Concentrate on the seed and try to create a mana thread connecting you and it.”

Chara gathered her mana in her right hand and tried to send it forward. First the mana resisted to go beyond her skin, but then with a sudden rush all mana she had gathered rushed outwards to the small plant.

I took the liberty and reached for the energy enveloping it with my own and then bringing it back to my charge. Chara could absorb it easily enough again.

“Okay Chara, let's use less mana to repeat the same thing again. Do you remember the feeling of your mana leaving your body?” She nodded and her gaze was very determined, “Now use only a tenth than before and repeat it. When you try to make things grow, use less mana first because you could else incinerate your target with your mana.”

Chara repeated the process of gathering mana, but now with only a very small amount and sent it out again. I watched it flow to the seed and divert somewhat. This time I just used my mana to guide it a little bit, until it connected with the plant. Chara was a smart girl and didn't stop to provide the thread with energy, so she now had a stable connection.

“Nicely done, Chara. Next time try to keep the thread more focused because you only want to connect with your target and nothing else. But for your second try, that was a very impressing performance, “I could see and feel her proud smile. She was still a child, even if she was on her way to become a young woman, and praise could do very much for her confidence, and it didn't cost me anything.

“You now have a connection to the seed. Try to feel its mana and how much it can use to grow. Start with only a small amount of mana again and then increase it slowly until you feel that the plant can't take any more.”

Chara followed my instructions splendidly and her mana thread transferred a miniscule amount of mana to the nightshade rose, which began to send its roots into the ground and reach for the surface with its first green sprout. Chara now sent more energy to it and the plant grew faster, but as I watched my charge's mana pool, I saw it depleting very fast, much faster than mine when I grew my rose bush before. Maybe that was the difference between a lower and a higher skill in mana manipulation, which meant that I would also need much more mana now to help the hearth tree grow. Thanks again for this special gift, Tiria!

I sent my own mana to Chara to restock her energy checking at the same time what I took from me to fully charge her again. Disregarding some mana loss because she didn't stop with her work, it took me more than double the mana to recharge her. I was sure, that with my former better skill I would have used much less energy for the same task.

Chara was still focused on her task, when I stopped her at least, “It's enough for now, Chara. You have depleted all your mana pool and didn't even recognize it. That could be very dangerous in some occasions, so always try to keep a small reserve in case of an emergency. Just send me a thought and if the situation allows it, I will give you a hand and restock your mana pool, okay?”

Chara smiled and nodded excited about her first successful exercise with the mana manipulation skill and said, “Thank you, Master. I will work hard to make you proud of me. Would you like me to help you further with the growing of the bushes?”

I thought about it shortly, “No, my dear, I want you to try to create a small globe of fire some distance away from you. Use a mana thread first and then try to form a ball with the thread itself. After you accomplished that, fill it with fire mana and try to hold it until you have only half of your mana left. If you have done that, send me a message and we will try something new. Go to Galen, Nala and Kitara and show them what I have shown you, but let them work with some vines instead. I need my seeds for now.”

Chara turned around and I disconnected from her mind and continued with my work again, very satisfied with the young elf's progress.

You have learned the skill Teacher!

Your pupils learn any of your skills 10% faster per skill level.

Nice and a quite useful skill for someone like me also. For the next 5 hours I only focused on creating my first obstacle course.