**********************************POV Marcus******************************

I was working on digging a moat around my wall when I felt Kitara entering my domain again and sending me her thoughts, 'Master, I have found an interesting person near our city. He's a human and was searching for your mana signature from the time when you descended from the sky.'

Oh nice, new blood for my city. Ehm, that sounded somewhat strange, perhaps I should say new servants? Hm, not much better but it has some nice ring to it.

'Guide him to the wall, I don't want him too close to my core. Something else?'

I felt her embarrassment through our connection, 'Yeah, I told him about a mana tax for our citizen if they wanted to stay within your domain.'

She wanted to tell me more but I was angered by her surging forward without my permission, 'You did what? It may be a nice idea but I don't remember to have given you the right to decide such things by yourself. Get back here and excavate the moat not with magic but with pure muscle power and don't dare to use body enhancement. Keep your mouth shut and don't even dare to think about doing anything other than working your butt off!'

This lady had forgotten who's boss and has to be taught some manners. Next time she maybe did something much worse if I didn't make myself clear now. I was so furious with her trespassing the rules that I couldn't concentrate enough to continue with my work and Galen and the others recognized my anger too.

They came running to me and Nala was the first to address me, “Lord Marcus, what's wrong? You emit so much enmity that we could feel it easily through our link to you. Did something bad happen?”

I snapped at her, “Yeah, your stupid co-wife happened. She found a human sneaking around and told him something she should have asked me about first, and now I will have to adapt to not be seen as a weak ruler who isn't able to reign my subjects. Damn it, this stupid girl!”

Galen and Nala threw worried looks at each other and remained silent for now. Chara watched the scene and sat down beside me, waiting for Kitara to close on us with the human right beside her.

It took her some minutes to reach us and my guardians waited in awkward silence around me while I tried to think about a way to make everyone pay a mana tax without splitting my mind into too many pieces and letting them come too near my core.

Maybe I could use some of the unused crystal from my village stage, I still had 2 kilograms of it in my inventory, to create some pedestals where my citizens could offer me their mana. I would have to connect them somehow to my core, perhaps with a thin crystal thread. With my small amount of material available these pedestals would still have to be close to my core, but I could create a small fortress around it in the future. The gathering or trading for crystal will have to take priority in the coming weeks and months.

I will also have to designate some tax collectors who watch who has paid and give them some force to press their will on others. Damn it, it was so much easier in the games I played and much less political. It seems that I didn't think it through when I proposed my wish to Tiria back then.

My city will need some guards beyond my guardians and therefore I will need a place for them to stay, enough food to feed them and pay them for their service, which means that I will also need a kind of currency. Maybe the others know about that, in the end they have traded with other tribes and the dwarves already.

If I have a currency I will have need of a treasury because I don't want to pay attension to anyone who wants of brings me money. That could have been eased if I had a city guardian with inventory access designated as my minster of finances but even that would only work as long as my city is relatively small and could be handled easily. After I have grown more I will need a complete ministry with officials and paper work, laws and policemen enforcing them.

Being a dungeon didn't sound so bad right now thinking about the consequences of me being a city core. At least the mana tax would be dealt with quite easily.

Kitara and the human had reached us now and she threw a gloomy look to her partners and began to dig in the moat, much to the surprise of the human man following her.

He squinted his eyes briefly and wariness sneaked into his expression when he noticed my presence. He bowed deeply before me and addressed me politely, “I come as a peaceful messenger of my clan and greet the ruler of this place. My name is Darius Sunstrider, a scout and warrior of the Sunstrider clan.I won't hide that it was my intention to find the strange mana signature of what my elders thought was a dungeon core, but it seems that Tiria has sent down some interesting new addition to this world.”

The young man was around 1,8 metres tall with dark brown hair trimmed to shoulder length and a shaved faced. With a sharp gaze like an eagle and green eyes, clear lines on his face and high cheek bones, he looked like a noble. Under his well-cared leather armor he had tanned skin with the tone of a latino from old earth and strong muscles from training and his journeys without any visible fat anywhere. On Earth he would be eye candy for most women and I think he knew that.

I sensed some mischief and boldness from him, but at least he had some manners, even though not much, “I'm Marcus, the city core in charge of this place. I welcome you and your clan to my domain as long as you as you wish to trade and remain peaceful. Be warned that I will not look kindly on people who want to disturb my town and perhaps even threaten it. I have enough of that already on my plate with an army of goblins and lizardmen marching to destroy the elves under my protection and snatch my core for their own purposes.”

Darius looked alarmed and eager to ask more questions but I interrupted him at once, “I know that you have many questions, but my time is scarce at the moment and I have to bolster my defences, so if you and your clan don't want to help us against the green menace, you will have to wait for a longer talk after we have defeated our foe.”

He bobbed his head and looked straight at me, “I understand this, so if you don't mind I will hurry back to my people and look for their counsel. Maybe they will decide to teach the goblins a lesson about who rules the plains.”

I felt the unspoken words in his last sentence. At least I also trespassed into their territory as he so clearly said.

“I will welcome you and your clan and all of your friends with open arms if you decide to join this fight as our allies, but I have to warn you about possible enemies you will make if you fight with us. Gammorren and a dragon have made it clear that they want to subjugate me, so please inform your elders about that too.”

Darius bowed his head slightly, “Thank you for the information you didn't have to offer. Regarding the dragon I can reveal to you that we have our own problems about our own problems with the reptiles, and Gammorren has never been a big friend of my people after we struck down any attempt by his worshippers to gain a hold in our plains. My elders will want to have a talk about you building this place here, but I think they look into this matter with delight and search for an alliance.”

His look wandered to Galen's wives for a moment and I knew that he was looking for trouble as Galen's eyes squinted, and then looked back to me, “I will hurry and come back with their decision as soon as possible. This should take only 3 to 5 days, so if you hear our battle horns over the plains you can count on our assistance with the green pests. My clan will not attack you without a clear declaration, of that I can assure you. We honour our words and traditions.”

I felt Galen's thought reaching me, 'That's true. Humans of such an esteemed clan have never broken their word, so we have at least some security there.'

“I wish you a secure journey and hope to hear good news from you in the future. It would be nice to have some other people to talk to also. My means are limited for now but I hope to trade with your clan and other humans in the future too.”

Darius nodded and turned around, jogging with long steps and a powerful stride along the field.

“It's strange that he was alone. I thought that a human scout would never leave his animal companion behind.” I heard Nala say.

In the next moment I heard the human scout whistle and a loud roar answer him from the other side of the river. Turning my gaze to the sound I was shocked to see the animal this guy had as his companion. No wonder that the humans ruled the plains without any noticable resistance.