Chapter 11

After Gerad left my territory to kill the leader of those thieves, and the other 12 guys went into the slums, to “evacuate” the citizens into my territory, I float to the people who are currently waiting inside the fortress.

“Don’t worry, our guards were able to expel the intruders, you can go back to your homes.”

With that I make magic street lights, consisting of a few stone bricks that are holding an iron pole, that ends in a sphere out of glas. inside this sphere I place a “little magic stone” inside of the sphere each time. With this construction, the inside of the fortress is illuminated in soft light, while thanks to a few of the constructions placed outside, the important ways between the shacks are also brighter than before, when they were only illuminated by the light coming out of the windows…

With their surroundings lighted out, my citizens go back to their homes. Is it bad to call them my citizens? I mean they live inside of me, don’t they?

And a nice thing I noticed, is that the mana I get every hour, is actually divided into smaller portions, so I get 1 mana every few minutes. When I have a higher mana gain per hour, I might get mana every minute or even every second…

So then, I will get many new residents, that of course means, I have to build some shacks for them to live in, or big halls that are more like reception camps, because it would be really expensive (I mean too much mana mana) to build a house for every family and single person that might come in my territory.

With that, I float outside of the “shacks district” outside of the fortress walls and begin building a big stone base to build a hall on. Then I place big stone pillars, to hold the ceiling later on, and make some poorly done wooden walls (I have to save up a bit mana, so they have to bear with it) they reach up to the top of the stone pillars. I actually made the stone pillars too big for just one floor, so I begin building the first floor, using the wooden plank method I used all the time till now.

Next thing to do, making a staircase from the ground floor to the first floor, or more accurate from the outside ground to the first floor. Well I actually make two stairs, one on each side of the building, so it’s easier to access.

Last part is the housetop, I simply make a nearly flat one, it is bend a bit, so the rain will (if it comes) will be collected by a downspout, and then lead into a collecting tank, that is integrated in the house. So they have a bit water in the house, life might get easier this way…

After finally finishing (I had to wait after finishing one step, till my mana was high enough to make the next step) the first refuges finally show up. I’m so lucky that I have the possibility to get some, as I remember some countries on earth had the possibility to get them, but were strictly against accepting them, I don’t know why but I don’t care either. But to be honest, accepting them gives you so many things. they work for you, make your food, and give you more mana, well maybe not the last option for everyone…

Not that I am accepting them, I let them be picked up by my minions, there were not enough in the first group (those I build the shacks for), so I had to “hire” some more. Luckily I could use the “we are going to fight against the thief lord in the city, evacuate the citizens” excuse, to let them come to me thankfully.

While the first refuges are shown their place to live in for now, I get a massive mana regeneration increase, so I begin building a second building. They can each maybe hold about 25 people, 30 if some share their rooms, so I have to work really hard for now…

A few hundred people are currently in front of the new build halls, I finished 4 for now and am building more at the moment. Thanks to saving the building plan, after building it the second time, and a big amount of mana I gain every minute, I can now easily build more halls. And then a really nice message pops up

Gerad is now your friend, due to that your mana pools are now connectedYour mana pool is expanded by 13, your new mana pool is able to contain 33 mana.

Nice, nice, but why was he suddenly my friend? Have to ask him about that later on...

Half an hour later, I finished enough halls, to house about 350 people. And then the groups of refugees from the city stop, and the rest of my servants, that remained in the city to get more people, finally come back. So I “give shelter” to about 450 people now, well not really I have to build 4 more halls, but I don’t have enough place to do so…

So I have to use “expand territory”, I gain about half of the slums, when a message pops up.

WarningYour territory is touching with a sphere of Defense, you are not able to expand further into that direction.

Ohh, so there is such a thing as that, but that also means I’m not able to use the city buildings for my own goals, at least for now…

The halls I build until now, were all build near the way, leading from the city to my core, but now I have to expand my territory to the sides… wait, I haven’t expanded my territory to all sides symmetrical? I think I did so at first, but after seeing the city, I wanted to get there, so maybe I unconsciously expanded my territory only in this direction?

Doesn’t matter right now, I only have to destroy this ‘Sphere of defense’ and expand my territory into the town…

No of course not, I have to expand on the sides of the town so I’m able to surround it, and then nobody can leave it without paying a price…

I’m going to stick with the second idea, but I think the last part won’t happen, for now…

After building the halls, I search for Gerad, he has to be somewhere here, ah, right where are my skeletons, they went into the city, right? wasn’t there the ‘protection barrier’?

There he is, coming out of the city, with the unit of ‘stronger skeleton warriors’. Should I let him sleep first, or should I bombard him with my questions? Well maybe he can get a bit of sleep next night…

When he comes back, I order the warriors, to guard the ‘fortress’ while the weaker warriors, that helped with the evacuation, will patrol the outer buildings, and the near area.

“Welcome back Gerad, I hope your task was successful, I have to ask a few questions to you…”

“I have killed the thief lord, that attacked us, and please feel free to ask, I try to answer the questions the best I can” Ohh, he’s kneeling in front of me again…

“Good, one person less, to care about, ahh no, I mean it’s good that someone as evil as him is dead” I wouldn’t wish dead to someone who can bring me more mana, only to someone who tries to rob or kill me or my mana source.”Then about my questions, how were you able to enter the city with the undead, as far as I know, there is some kind of barrier to shield the city against harm.”

“yes, right, there should be some kind of barrier, but it only acts against non-physical powers, like for example magic, the runes that were used for the barrier should be carved into some big magic stones…”

“What do you mean, carved into magic stones?”

“exactly what I say, if you carve a rune into a magic stone, and the magic stone has a high compatibility with the rune, in this case it was a rune for magic protection from the outside, carved into a stone that supports the rune, and it should be a big one...”

I see, so if I carve a water magic rune, into the ‘little magic stone (water)’ then it might become a powerful magic…

“So if I use a rune onto a compatible stone, I can use as much magic as I want?”

“No, there are some limitations. like you have to cast to activate the rune, and that alone can take quite some time, it depends on your total mana pool if and how fast you are able to cast the magic…”

“So there is someone casting at the rune that protects the city?”

“No, actually you only have to activate such a rune once,because it is a constant spell, then it will uphold the magic until the stone runs out of magic power, and it turns into magic powder. The runes you use for actual combat on the other hand like ‘fireball’ or ‘blizzard’ have to be casted each time they should be used, and another big down of this is, that the magic stones that are used for this type of combat break much easier. If they use a big enough magic stone, the actual casting might be done about half a century ago, maybe even longer.”

“But that means there are many different magic stones, right?”

“Yes and the bigger they are, the more powerful they get, but sadly I don’t know how they come to existence, if they grow from little too big over time, or use some other kind of system”

That explains a few things, maybe I can get some of these bigger mana stones…

“Okay, then to my last question, I think you got the message, but why are our mana pools connected?” That’s actually the thing that bugs me the most…

“After I finished the task given by you, I came back into town, and when I saw the people going out of their shacks and to your territory, I thought about how generous you are, that was the moment the message popped up.”

So he finished this early, but why didn’t he come back right then? Well, doesn’t matter right now, I’m actually quite tired after all these actions.

“Good night Gerad, I’m going to sleep now…” Nope, he does not get a thanks for answering my questions, he took his time coming back, so that’s his “punishment”.

With that I float to my Dungeon Core, and quickly drift into a world of dreams…

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wup wup, finished the chapter ^^

If you have any ideas for how to continue the story, please let me know. I have some pretty nice ideas but I would enjoy adding some of your ideas in the story^^

If you find grammar or vocabulary mistakes, please tell me so I can correct them and you can read the story easier...

Next I want to make a POV of the stupid Goddess and her past, but I hope I can update it at the 31 or at the 1 january, but that’s up to how quickly I get that nasty runny nose of mine under control, have a beautiful day/night I’m finishing my rice and then sleep… after reading a few more stories :D