As expected, he found himself standing outside with the sun blinding him from above. He looked around and this time, the, now city, was majorly changed. The wall had at least doubled in size again, standing around 20 to 25 meters high. It also seemed thicker, though Felix wasn't sure it wasn't just an illusion given how daunting it's height was. It was also made of perfectly uniform rectangular stone bricks with a light grey color, instead of the mishmash of oddly shaped stones glued together with concrete that it was before.

The buildings throughout the entire city were made of more uniform materials, not with each-other but respective to themselves. Instead of being made of a combination of brick colors and sizes, each building looked like they had been individually planned instead of repaired ruins. There were still a smattering of buildings with holes and incomplete sections, but they would be patched eventually by the builder professions. The roads between them was now also made from flagstones laid flat and almost entirely level, at least according to Felix's amateur eye.

The castle had drastically changed this time. Before there was a wall a few meters high with a large complex inside, the university upgraded that to a uniform building with three towers containing offices. Now, there was only a singular building standing within a wall easily surpassing 5 meters in height. The building was a massive monolithic structure with windows lining every one of it's 5 floors. It was entirely rectangular, like a giant brick and was surrounded by a verdant park. Before, the green land within the grounds was almost entirely grass, now it was mostly trees with grass between them. The trees gave the building a more hidden and secret look, which fit perfectly with the city's designation.

The biggest change of all, was a brand new structure entirely outside of the city pre-upgrade. Behind the library, halfway up the mountain that the city backed into, an octagonal tower almost fifty meters wide rose from the ground. It rose hundreds of meters into the air with its top at a similar height to the mountain peak behind it, possible even surpassing it. The tower was made of light grey stone bricks resembling concrete with a thin marble cap on each corner. The entryway led to a staircase that descended the side of the mountain and disappeared behind the old castle complex. The staircase climbing the mountain reminded Felix of a pilgrimage.

Lastly, the banner of Tri-Peak was completely different. The three peaks remained but the castle had been replaced by an book with a padlock on the cover. There was also now a tower rising out of the rear most peak, though it was more of a decoration than a focal point. It was still mostly white with blue accents except now there was also a touch of purple on the book.

Congratulations!

Your Minor City has been upgraded to an [E - Epic] Bastion of Knowledge - Major City.

The relevant buildings have been upgraded and all buildings have received minor cosmetic upgrades. A new building has been tailored to best fit the leader, known as the Keeper, of the city.

Tailored Building: [E - Epic] Wizard's Tower

Upgraded:

[E - Special] Wall => [E - Epic] City Wall

[E - Special] Stable => [E - Epic] Spy Network Headquarters

[E - Special] University => [E - Epic] Vault of Secrets

Congratulations!

You have received a new title.

Keeper of Secrets.

Note: Titles are purely cosmetic and may be changed at any time. The only other function of this title is to mark the current Keeper. If you wish to relinquish the role, simply pass the title on to another.

This title is given to the current leader of a Major City: Bastion of Knowledge

Would you like to equip your title and display it to those who identify you?

Yes.

No.

Hell no.

Tutorial Announcement

A Minor City has been upgraded to a Major City.

All other Minor Cities will be unable to upgrade until the existing Major City is either captured or decimated. The Major City will persist outside of the tutorial as well and become a city on earth upon your return.

The Bastion of Knowledge will be marked by a special icon on your maps.

As soon as Felix closed the screen, he noticed the crowd was now also populated with random tools and projects that were half finished. It seems everything that didn't have a place in the new building was ejected outside. Felix didn't expect people to be too happy about that so he was glad he was still wearing a disguise. Doubly so when he spotted Noah searching through the crowd.

He would have to talk to him eventually, and he did have questions for him, but right now Felix wanted to get out of the crowd.

Tower it is.

Felix bolted through the wall and around the Vault of Secrets towards the start of the pilgrimage stairs. He ascended them as fast as he could without much trouble. At the top of the stairs the entrance into the tower was a large double wooden door. Felix pushed them open and entered into what appeared to be a lobby.

The floor was carpeted with a soft red material and there were stairs winding upwards starting at the back of the room. The only other thing in the room were crystals acting as lights hanging uniformly around the area. Felix walked towards the stairs when he was interrupted by a voice behind him.

"Nice tower." Noah said.

Felix whirled around in surprise.

"Got a movement skill to dart around the town, well city now I guess. Not quite as fast as you are, but within the city walls, I'm no slouch."

"I see. Sorry about not consulting you first, I kind of got wrapped up in the moment."

"Yeah, I wish you had but… what are we gonna do about it now? I'm not actually upset, I'm mostly hiding from the crowd of people that were ejected from the university, likely with a thousand questions each. Out of curiosity, what were the other options?"

"For the Minor City building upgrades, or the Major City designation?"

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"Both." He shrugged.

"For the Minor City it was two of: Auction House, Wall, Warehouse, Stable, Docks, Dorms"

"Oh gross, I'm curious about the warehouse and what the docks would have become, maybe it upgrades the boats too? I can't argue with your choices too much though. The designation?"

"The one I chose, which I assume you can check and read the description of. An equivalent option where all knowledge is collected and shared. Finally, two religious options, which I have no idea why we were even offered."

Noah laughed, "I know exactly why. It's cause no one in the damn city knows who you are or ever sees you, so there are some wild rumors. We've also been visited by more than a couple raiding parties that couldn't even declare war on the town because of the level difference."

"Oh. Wait gross, I don't want to lead a religion. I don't give two shits about the rumors, but I am not a cult leader."

"I'm glad you aren't. As for the other option about sharing, that likely would have been better for the tutorial and if the city persists, the rest of earth. You know humanity as a whole."

"Yeah, probably."

"Also probably would have made the other cities striving for upgrades less mad at us for locking them out."

"Yeah, definitely."

"So why'd you pick this one?"

"Honestly? This one sounded cooler and fit me better. Not a great reason I know, but I just don't think all knowledge should be shared. Also, I do intend on sharing most knowledge. Ultimately this one gives us more options, to share or not to where the other sounded a lot like we would be forced to share everything. We definitely wouldn't have looked as evil though, so…"

Noah sighed, "It's your City."

"Sorry."

"Eh? Oh don't worry about it. I would rather be attached to the Major City led by the highest level person that differs slightly from my ideals than risk being wiped out by a raid. You are still planning on letting anyone in and focusing on trade right?"

"Oh yeah. I don't plan on changing anything. Losing the university is a blow. I wish I had bought all the upgrades and classes, but transportation of goods should be better, I hope."

"You don't read anything do you?"

"Uh, honestly no. I get way too many notifications."

Noah laughed, "I bought out all the upgrades a while ago. Also, the vault functions as a university of sorts. The layout is just vastly different and I think the costs are higher but it also has rarer knowledge so… It's a wash?"

"Oh. Well that makes me feel better. We can still share most of the information we ever have, but now we aren't locked into a specific price and we can choose what to share and what not to."

"That's fine and all, I just personally am of the belief that all knowledge should be shared, everyone should be open and honest and all that."

"Did you choose the tower by the way?"

"Nah, it tailored the building to the leader without consulting me at all."

"Well, expect more religious options back on earth. This is definitely gonna feed a lot of rumors. Alright, can we talk logistics though? I don't know how long you'll be here so I'm gonna beg for your time if that's what it takes."

"Oh, yeah. Can we walk and talk? Maybe we can find a sitting room or something."

"Sure."

Noah followed Felix up the stairs to the second floor which held a feast room as well as kitchens, a pantry, servant's quarters and closets.

Felix sat at the feast table, though not at the head as that felt too weird to him. Noah took the seat opposite Felix.

"First thing's first, I got a list of people that want to meet with and discuss things with you. At first I just brushed them off, then people kept coming so I told em I'd ask."

"What, why?"

"Well, the most important one is Henry, he's a high level smith and other crafters tend to listen to him. He wants you to lead a party to go and take out a world boss. He already has 200 people lined up and plans on hiring the last 50 from the neighboring towns."

"250 people? That seems excessive."

"Huh? Oh right, I forgot you missed the whole pre tutorial explanation. 250 at around level 50 is the recommended number of people to take on a world boss."

"Holy shit… Why do they want to take one out? Any particular reason?"

"Glory? Mostly the materials though. They want to work with interesting materials to craft things and they either get them from the world boss corpses or the world bosses guard something natural."

"I see. Tell him… Not right now? I'll think about it?"

"I'll tell him, but he might just knock on your door so… be ready. He's a pretty persistent guy."

"What else you got?"

"Not sure there are any other meeting requests worth mentioning, most people just want to see if the rumors are true."

"Ugh" Felix sighed and moved to rub his face with his hands but collided with his mask. Felix looked at Noah, "Would you mind keeping my level a secret by the way?"

"Sure thing? 50 isn't that ou-"

Felix pulled off his mask and rubbed his face then shook his head. The mask was magical and designed for his face so it fit perfectly. It was also a mask on his face so it was stuffy and annoying.

"Could I send a barber up here as well?"

"What?" Felix reached up and felt his face then his head.

"Oh yeah, if we have those send one up."

Noah preceded to summarize all of the happenings in the town while he was gone, since Felix dismissed all his notifications without reading them. He also asked some minor logistical questions and Felix' opinions on some choices, though nothing substantial.

Apparently, The System taxes had skyrocketed so trade routes were created and the docks and ships were commissioned. People were migrating over here from other towns mostly for the pay, with the trade routes, dungeons and just in general, people wanted to travel and most merchants were hiring guards. The merchants in Felix's city tended to be the wealthiest so they paid the best and attracted all kinds of talent from throughout the tutorial. With the trade routes, caravans and ships up and running, they were expecting a large influx of population.

Most of the buildings were complete, and any buildings currently being put up were mostly cosmetic or extravagance, with some wealthy crafters commissioning mansions. The university was a huge success and helped immensely with increasing the citizen's levels. They also finished repairing the wall just recently, only for it to be immediately replaced.

"Finally, one of the towns to the north got conquered."

"What?"

"The icon is gone. We had a ship heading that way but it turned around less than a day into the journey. They saw that the icon disappeared and was replaced by a town icon with a sword through it then the name changed to Swampwatch. None of the traders wanted to mess with a fort that was conquering or had been conquered."

"Icewatch raided the swamp town?"

"That's the working theory. It's got people a little stressed out but hopefully the massive wall helps with that a little. We are hoping our caravans can get to ‘Oasis: Bosom of the Desert' soon before Icewatch heads down that way."

"The what?"

"Yeah I know, it's an idiotic name. We were bound to get some with 9 forts."

"I guess…"

"We're gonna keep an eye on them and other raiding in general, and I'll keep you updated. Hey maybe you can send some spies to check it out."

"I'm not even gonna look at that until the tutorial is over and done with."

"I don't have anything else for now, you mentioned you had questions for me?"

"I have a list. Let's see, how do the rarities work? Where does Arcane and Mythic fit into it?"

"It's Common, Uncommon, Rare, Special, Epic, Legendary. Mythic, Divine, Ancient, Arcane, Unique and a bunch more are kind of separate. If something has one of those for it's rarity it is either way above the rarity tier list or it doesn't fit between any of them and is kind of separate. Though I have no idea what would fit that description, that's just what The System told us."

"Huh. Good to know." . . . . .