Mark watched his Guards go about their business for a few days, but nothing of interest happened. The guards fought for as long as they could, and a few of them had to be teleported to safety by Mark, but they were doing fine, for the most part.

The people had kept building, and Gavin, Mark’s Advisor, had taken a keen interest in planning the city, and the construction of the residential areas was almost finished. They could fit many more people than they currently had, thanks to the concerted effort of everyone, so they were prepared for the future. Their next project would be an artisans' district, where people could build workshops and practice their craft.

Gavin had planned out the various districts but concluded that with the increasing speed of construction, they didn’t need to be as careful about which came first, and Mark had shot down the idea of prioritizing a palace for him.

Over the last few days, Mark had been working on his enchantment idea, and the rings had finally finished the attunement process, so he was as ready as he could be.

He arranged the rings around him and started with the smallest one. He didn’t have a tool capable of engraving runes into the metal, so he was forced to use his spatial magic. He used an old pen he’d found in his family’s home and fixed a spatial tear on the tip with mana. This turned the pen into a stylus of sorts, and he only had to take it slow and easy, or the tear would ruin the pen.

His studies during the Tutorial had given him a decent idea of how to go about this, and he’d spent every downtime since working on a schematic of sorts, though he had nowhere to write it down; it was all in his head, and he had to take care to remember correctly.

He brought the stylus down and started engraving a series of runes into the ring, following a swirling, flowing pattern. The individual runes were tiny, but every line and rune took a lot of mana to infuse.

Enchanting could be done in a few different ways. The easiest way was to draw essence from objects or beast parts and use that essence to infuse related runes. Doing it like that would infuse the enchanted object with aspects from the essence; obviously, Mark didn’t have anything he could, or would use, so he went for another method.

The way he was doing it was far more taxing, but it was far more flexible. By engraving the correct runes, in the right patterns, while infusing them with enough mana, he could create the same effects, though he had to be familiar with the effect he wanted. He’d trained, tested, and inspected his chakram a lot, and he could already use it to enhance or channel his magic, so creating more was relatively simple. Adding the amplification array to every ring and connecting them to work in harmony was far trickier and the thing that had kept him thinking for so long.

Testing his Royal Bond and Starlight skill provided the solution. The way the Royal Bond skill bound him and his court together and how the Starlight skill allowed him to amplify the stats of others weren’t a perfect fit, but they were close enough for him to fill in the blanks.

He had to be careful not to run out of mana at the wrong time, as that could cause a catastrophic failure in the runes, and they could explode in his face, but he had a large pool, fortunately. Still, he couldn’t enchant more than one ring before he had to rest and recover, and he encountered an issue when he reached the last one.

The third ring had taken everything he had, and he almost passed out from the exertion by the time he finished. He didn’t have enough mana for the last and largest ring.

Mark racked his brain for a solution, but his only recourse was to recall Alyssa.

“What can I do for you, sir?” she asked after he’d teleported her to his side.

“I’m about to finish enchanting my weapons, but I’ve run into a problem,” Mark explained as he gestured for the rings. He’d almost recovered all his mana by then and was nearing ready to continue. “I need you to feed me mana potions while I work, as I need to focus on the enchanting. How many do we have left?”

“We have plenty, though the mages will be miffed at the expenditure.”

“Any word on potential alchemists among our people?”

“A few are interested, but getting started and learning it has proven difficult. We don’t have any books or teachers, and everyone already has other classes. The ones who are trying are doing it like you, without a related class, and it has proven challenging.”

“Ensure they receive the resources they require,” Mark said as he massaged his fingers. “Potions will always be needed.”

“Of course, sir. We already are.”

“Good. Then, let’s begin,” Mark said as he settled into position.

Fortunately, many people had remembered buying out the stock of potions before the Tutorial ended, and Mark was disappointed that he’d forgotten. He’d racked up a lot of credits that he never used.

With Alyssa feeding him potions upon direction, he finished the last ring and activated the enchantments. The four new rings, and his old one, flew together into concentric rings that settled behind his back. Mark tested them out for a while, moving them around, and after recovering a bit, he channeled mana through them and suddenly had five spatially edged chakrams flying around him.

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Moving each chakram independently was straining, but it would get easier with time and practice.

Mark smiled at Alyssa as he stowed the chakrams before settling down to recover fully.

“Thank you, Alyssa,” he said. “Any word from the scouts?”

They’d sent some people out to scout the area to see if there were any threats or something interesting nearby.

“None yet, sir,” Alyssa responded. “I’ll let you know if anything comes up.”

“Alright, thank you. Dismissed.”

He had also sent Krister, the Royal Guard wielding a bow, to check on his parents and the Brightest Dawn. Mark reached out and found Krister at the edge of his communication range.

“Krister, have you arrived?” he asked.

“No, sir, not yet. I’m close, though. Another day, I think, based on your description.”

“Good. I sense you’re at the limit of my communication range, which means you’re out of teleportation range. Be careful, Krister.”

“I understand.”

“Also, see if the Daughter of Light would join us. The Brightest Dawn had done well, as far as I saw when I was there, and unless things have changed, they will make a good ally. We can harbor them at the Mountain, so extend my offer, but don’t push it if she wants to remain.”

“I shall do as you command, sir.”

“Very good. Keep it up, Krister.”

He cut the connection and returned to practicing with his chakrams. It would take a long time before he could reliably use all of them in combat.

In the end, he found that he could reliably control two of them while he could hold the rest close. He could still infuse the others with mana, but anything more than slight, slow movements would affect the two he had for fighting.

After practicing for a few hours, Mark decided to take a walk. He’d watched the people work from his perch in the tree, using his Spatial Dominion skill, but he’d been reluctant to actually walk among them; most of his people hadn’t even seen the man they swore fealty to. He knew he had to make a choice, and soon.

He’d been stuck at level 39 for a while now and figured it was either due to not taking an active rulership role or having some hold-ups about taking on that role. He had to do some soul-searching, and walking around the budding town sounded like a good environment for that.

The place was still bare-bones, as everyone was busying themselves with building up the town rather than decorating or beautifying. Mark could see areas set aside for parks or greenery, but they were bare. People scurried back and forth, using their superhuman strength or magic to carry materials to and fro, as people worked with impressive speed in erecting buildings.

Seeing these people work so hard was inspiring and humbling, as Mark realized he’d been sitting in his tree, hiding away since he got to the Mountain, which made him think he wasn’t cut out for active ruling.

He’d had the same thought after the battle with the treant, as that made him feel more alive than he’d felt since reaching the Mountain. But what could he do?

Obviously, he had to find some regent or another ruler to act in his stead because he was unwilling to give up the Mountain entirely, and that person had to be loyal or someone he could trust. Maybe he could do something that gave a person a class bound to him, like the Guards and Advisors?

If he got someone else to deal with ruling and being in charge, he could go on adventures and explore the world rather than sit in the tree. Still, at this stage, he had an irrational fear that the second he took off, something would go wrong, and nobody would be able to work the spatial defenses of the Mountain except him. He knew he could just teleport back, so long as someone from his court remained, but the fear remained. Whoever took the seat, so to speak, had to have some ability with spatial magic for Mark’s peace of mind.

He’d reached the edge of the plateau and was looking down the Mountain and taking in the view when he received word from Krister.

“Sir! I’ve encountered an expedition from the Brightest Dawn. They’re looking for you.”

“For me,? Why?”

“They wouldn’t say, only that they’d talk to you, not me.”

“Very well. You’re out of teleportation range, so I’ll either have to move there the old-fashioned way, or you can bring them closer.

“We’re already on our way. I had to move closer to get into communication range, so I brought them with me. I hope that’s fine, sir.”

“Yes, don’t worry. I’ll check in occasionally and let you know when you’re close enough.”

It took a full day before Krister got close enough to teleport, and when Mark appeared next to him, he saw five other people. They were three men and two women who wore rough leathers and varied weapons.

“Sir. These are Melaine, James, Jamie, Larry, and Ann. They were sent by the Daughter of Light to find you.”

“I see, and what does the Daughter of Light want with me?”

“She needs help. The Deep Horizon is back, and they’re pushing us back.”

“They’re back? I thought we dealt with them?”

“Yeah, no. Apparently, we only dealt with a smaller part of a larger force, and now the central part of them has arrived. You were instrumental in defeating them last time, and she hopes you can also help this time.”

Mark stood silently for a while, thinking, before responding.

“I’ll help if, for no other reason than that, my family is currently part of the Brightest Dawn. I’ll bring a few of my Guards along with me. Krister, who would you recommend?”

“Well, sir. Alyssa is great in close combat and defensive, so she might be better off staying back if something happens in your absence. Joshua and Percival would be my recommendations for this. They’re more offensively geared, and for fighting in a city, their talents are very suitable.”

“I agree.”

“Josua, Percival, prepare yourselves for teleport. We’ll be heading off for a fight. Alyssa, Neal, and Gavin, you’re in charge of defending the Mountain in my absence.”

It took a little while longer to recover enough mana to teleport them, but within an hour, they were off.