Oh boy, your speech could be interpreted in more than one way and Ildara and the others did notice that.

I saw Kitara walking over to me and addressed her, “I need you to gather a team for Andarin to level him by hunting smaller goblins squads. He should be more than strong enough to handle smaller groups by himself if even a dragon had to go all out facing him. I want Ildara to be in the team, so you should build it around these two.”

Kitara nodded and bowed her head to me, then turned around and left to gather some people. Ildara watched the exchange and seemed fascinated by me giving commands to Galen's wife like a village elder.

“They follow your commands as if you rule them. Will that happen to anyone who lives in your city?”

“My guardians serve me directly and I expect my commands to be obeyed. Regarding the other citizen I want them to follow the laws, with one law above all others. Do nothing to others which you don't want to be done to you. It's an easy rule but hard to follow. This city shall be a beacon of civilization and learning, but it will also destroy anyone who wants to enrich himself with its power and riches. All others can live in peace and enjoy trading with us.”

She looked around, watching the other elves going about their business and studying my town centre, then pointed her gaze back to me, “You have given yourself a high standard to follow. I hope you're successful, but I doubt that it will be smooth sailing after we have beaten the goblins. The potential you represent will entice anyone around this world to get you and rule over you. The gods themselves may fight for dominion over you. At least until Tiria creates another city core.”

I sighed, “I fear, that won't happen in the next few years, if I understood my goddess's wishes the way she meant them. I will be the only one for the time being and I fear you are right on the topic of a possible fight over my core. My hope lies in the building of a temple for all the gods of this world so they have no reason to attack this city and risk of being banned along with their chosen people.”

Ildara frowned and then sat down. She grabbed her backpack and rummaged shortly in it, pulling some jerky out and then snacked on it. With a somewhat full mouth she just wanted to say something when Galen smacked her on the back of her head, “It is quite impolite to talk with a full mouth, niece. I thought I have taught you some manners.”

Rubbing her head and looking apologetic at her uncle she smirked and then swallowed the jerky down, “Please excuse my manners. I haven't been in company for some months and even then it was with some other hunters. What I wanted to say, what do you expect from leveling Andarin here exactly?”

The young elf raised his hand, “If I may tell her, lord Marcus?”

Why not? If he made a mistake, I could still interrupt him and as a paladin he would need some leadership skills too, so he should start as soon as possible, “Go ahead, Andarin.”

He cleared his throat and smiled shyly at the young woman before him, trying to keep his eyes in secure places, “Lord Marcus has suggested to make me into a holy warrior of Alvera. My function would be to guard her people and enlighten others to her teachings. The city core gave me a new technique to strengthen my body far beyond the normal, but I need more mana and stats relating to it to become a paladin. I had invested most of my stats into strength and endurance, some also went into dexterity to enhance my coordination with my weapon skills, but almost nothing went into intelligence and wisdom.”

He looked ashamed to the ground, “I'm not very bright and therefore wasn't able to receive my lord's gift right away, so now I have to train and the goblins are perfect targets for this, as we will also weaken their army at the same time. So please lend me your strength and counsel, lady Ildara!” He bowed his head to her and awaited her answer.

She hesitated for a moment and looked seriously at him, “That's a paladin, huh? Sounds quite amazing to me and it would sure as hell be useful in the fight against the green pests to have someone with the power of the goddess at our side. I will guide and fight with you, Andarin. Perhaps you could teach me this skill your lord taught you also.”

He looked up and grinned like a child who had found the candy jackpot, “I'd be delighted to teach you all I know.”

She smiled also with a knowing look, “Oh I'm sure you would be. Lord Marcus, if you don't mind I will walk around and check this place out until we depart. Just call me when the team is ready and I will come running.” Winking at the young and eager man before her she said, “Show me around, Andarin!”

She stood up with a grace that reminded me of a cat and linked arm with the to-be paladin. Then they walked away without waiting for an answer from me and I just shrugged and turned to Galen and the others.

“Okay, I want you all to help me build booby-traps like the one Chara lit earlier.”

My guardians were all suddenly nervous and reluctant. No one eager to start I just ordered all of them to follow me to the to-be field of slaughter and showed them the ropes to build the contraptions. After they had created their first one I filled the first with only half the mana I used before and this time ordered Galen to do the detonating, but only after we had evacuated the place. After all I wanted no unneeded injuries or even casulties.

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Kitara had gathered the team in the mean time and waited some distance away with Ildara and Andarin reaching them shortly after. I sent Kitara a message that they should get some cover for the experiment and they went behind some boulders.

Galen then threw his fireball with deadly precision, someone had trained hard it seems.

The explosion wasn't as impressive as the first one but still left an impressive crater and shrapnel shredding the immediate surroundings. I saw Ildara and the others going pale and disbelieving the destruction shown to them.

After dirt and grass lumps stopped falling down the new crater and inspecting it closely. Ildara turned to me, “I didn't believe you last time even though I saw the crater, but now I almost pity the goblins when they come close enough to be slaughtered by this weapon. If that doesn't break them, nothing will. I know that it would for me. That's the sickest way to die I could imagine, and I dread what other things you could do with something like that.”

My guardians with exception of Chara only nodded and reflected about my newest addition to my arsenal.

“Come on, guys, the goal is to annihilate the goblins and break their will forever more. I want them to shiver in fear by even mentioning this city and therefore I have to show them hell on earth when they attack us. I mean, nobody said that we wouldn't defend, right?”

Kitara suddenly showed a murderous grin and smirked, “You are so right, mylord. I will enjoy the payback for destroying our former home and losing so many of our friends. Would you mind showing me the skill you taught Andarin? I think I could release some destruction too with some more punch behind my strikes.”

Hehe, that's the right attitude, my dear. Galen looked dubiously to her and shook his head, “Darling, please don't forget that we are still his future teachers and not just his death squad. Killing is needed but not the essence of our vocation.”

Kitara seemed angered when she answered him, “I will take their lives and make them fear this city. When they think about us they shall remember the slaughter we brought upon them and piss themselves. I know that you mean well but revenge will be mine. To hell with them!”

Wow, the nice lady has turned into a killer right before my eyes, but at the moment I needed her just like that. After we've mobbed the goblins there'll be time to cut her claws back to normal. I just hoped that our enemy didn't have some nasty surprises themselves for us.

Andarin and Ildara talked a little bit with their new team and then bid their farewell to us, walking briskly to the forest while the rest of us continued to fortify our position.

While Galen, Nala and Chara built more booby-traps I began to teach Kitara the body enhancement skill, while my subminds began to create the first caltrops. I also wanted a moat all around the wall filled with spikes made from stone, but I wasn't sure if I could accomplish it in the given time.

Kitara was a natural and learned to enhance her body very fast after she understood the principle, and she had a much bigger mana pool to start with. After all she was the wife of one of the strongest elven mages and learned some tricks from him. With the skill she would be able to hit like a truck and use a much stronger bow to lard her enemies with arrows.

Teaching and creating the caltrops took most of the rest of the day and my guardians were tired after the work. They went back to the town centre and met with their friends and relatives to talk about their day. Most of the elves who didn't have a crafting skill just gathered food either by fishing or gathering herbs, roots and fruits that grew along the river. Three young men had even constructed a makeshift float and got on the other river side, searching there for more stuff.

The river ran quite fast here and they had to work hard to not drift away too much, but it paid off as they caught many small reptiles and frogs, not that I'm a big fan of frog legs, but if you have some hungry mouths to feed you can't be picky. My elves were delighted about their catch.

Gillian awaited me and offered me her mana and some other elves did too, as my mana pool grew fast with every new level. When they dumped their energy into my core I grew again by a whole level. That's a nice boost again.

Name

Marcus

Race

City dungeon

Level

13

Mana

10/9100 300/h reg

180/minute from citizen

Int

23

Wis

23

Cha

23

Luck

10

Skills:

Earth

Newbie 20%

Water

Newbie 20%

Air

Newbie 0%

Fire

Newbie 18%

Life

Newbie 35%

Mind Speech

Adept 19%

Architecture

Beginner 7%

Sculptor

Newbie 27%

Mana Manipulation

Journeyman 5%

Enchanting

Newbie 25%

Carpentry

Beginner 17%

Teacher

Beginner 19%

City buffs

Barkskin

Fertility

Plant growth

Range of influence

300 meters

Number of citizens

136 (providing 140 mana/minute)

4 City guardians

Inventory

4096 m3 (1m3 used)

I got a new buff, so let's see what it does.

Plant growth

The spell makes plants grow 10 times faster than normal in a 100x100 meters field.

Usage: 500 mana Upkeep: 50 mana/h

By reducing the growth speed you can widen the area targeted.

Could be useful later on but right now I needed military buffs. Hopefully my next levels would give me something I could use against my enemies directly.

For now I had to get back to the grindstone and build more defences, what a royal pain.