********************************POV Kitara*********************************

I love master!

He gave me a skill that could make me an equivalent to Nala at least. I won't just be an addition to Galen and his first wife for the rest of my life.

Back in the tribe I watched them with dreamy eyes as they were our strongest mages and their power could take down any possible attacker, but when we were attacked even they couldn't turn the tide. Sure they killed almost 60 goblins by themselves but after they had depleted all their mana it was up to me to guard them.

I had worked hard to get Nala's acknowledgement to be the second wife. Nala has always been the more practical of the two and realized fast that in a close combat it would be important to have someone guard Galen and her against their enemies.

I accepted this role because it was the only way to get near Galen beyond just being a tribe guard. He was always outstanding and all elves looked up to his powerful mana pool, but now with master's teachings I realized that I was blinded by pure power. Since I have worked with Marcus, he has shown me so many new ways to use mana that I still can't believe that he just gave us this knowledge.

When I approached Nala 5 years ago with the idea to become Galen's second wife she was reluctant at first but I knew that she needed someone whom she could trust with her life if anything dangerous happened, as it later did. And it helped also that she liked women as I'm not an ugly face to look at.

I spent years to train my mana pool and my hunting skills to become the most dangerous hunter in the tribe, as I feared that Galen would have been disappointed with me if I neglected my magical training.

Nala helped me to make him accept me as his second wife much easier than I would have thought, and it was also her who trained me in my third role as an information gatherer.

Lately I was shocked that Marcus just gave his knowledge away so easily and I will have to speak with him about this if I want to secure his power in this world and therefore also my family's power. He doesn't understand fully just how much power he possesses and how much greed it will generate in any ruler out there as soon as they see his city growing.

Marcus learning speed is abnormal and his ability to teach his skills to others is too. Sure, as a guardian it is too easy because Marcus can just copy his skills to us, but I have watched the other mages and they have started to learn the mana manipulation skill so easily. Normally to learn a skill someone would need weeks if not months, but here they will be able to learn it in days. I'm quite sure that it's a side effect of his domain.

It is only a question of time until someone who visits this place and learns a skill realizes the accelerated skill-gain and passes this on to his boss and then we have a new problem. Many will come to us with honest intents but there will be also the spies of other powers. We will have to discover and root them out.

I already have learned to gather infos from unwilling prisoners,some might call it torture but I'm sure that master has some other ways too to get what he needs from our enemies. After all Tiria gave him a dungeon core body as a base and I heard that they are quite crafty to get information from their foes.

With my new body enhancement skill I will be so much more dangerous than before and I think that there is even more to learn. Marcus said that it might be possible to apply mana to my arrows too to give them some extra punch and I want to test that as soon as possible, but for now I will have to wait and check the forest for any spies first.

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I still can't believe that the dumb Andarin discovered the mana manipulation skill by himself by trying to enhance his body. It speaks for master's insight that he discovered my fellow elf's ability and used it for strengthening his forces even more.

We will have to be careful who learns it. In the long run we won't be able to keep it secret but I will make sure that we use our advantage as long as possible and milk it to our best ability. Marcus should give the skill only to his most loyal subjects and make them pay for it, maybe with a kind of mana tax they have to give him regularly. Yeah, that sounds good. This way he could become much more powerful many times faster.

I have seen the crystal he needs to grow even stronger and that is the only problem right now. Even though I have travelled most of the Great Forest in many miles around I have seen any other crystal like that. We might have to trade with the dwarves to gather this resource even if I don't trust the midgets. They always try to pull a fast one on you if you're distraught.

Ildara and her team have left going straight north, but I'll follow the river some way west and watch for any suspicious tracks and things that don't belong here. The reed here was taller than me and I had to use my hearing to discover any threat so I enhanced it a bit with mana.

Hell! That hurt like someone had beaten me with a rolling pin. Every noise was so much louder now and I had problems to distinguish single sources. It was just overwhelming and I had to turn down the volume quite a bit by reducing the mana flow by more than a half.

I felt something warm flowing down the side of my face and touched it with my left hand, shocked to see that it was blood coming from my ears. Maybe I should be more careful with this skill. Master had warned me about it but I was too eager to test it. My years with Galen and Nala should have taught me better to be careful with magic.

Suddenly I tensed because there was a noise that didn't belong here. Reed was broken very silently some 20 meters before me and without my enhanced hearing I wouldn't have noticed it. Whoever tried to sneak up on me there wasn't a beginner as a hunter. I used more mana to make myself faster and stronger and drew my two daggers from their sheaths. I had oiled them only some days ago to prevent any noise from the hard leather and I was very happy about it right now.

My eyes darted around to find a place with some higher ground, but the reed hindered me now more than it helped. My hearing told me that my opponent was alone, which told me that it wasn't a goblin at least. They never hunted alone being pack hunters to the core.

The other must have realized that I discovered him when I hesitated in my steps because he gave up his sneaking and came running at me now breaking through the reed like an angry bull.

I tensed up and prepared my stance to welcome this danger with some low blows when the creature broke through and I could finally see him. Round ears, a human!

What the hell did a human near our town? He has drawn his weapon, longsword made from an unknown metal. His eyes met mine and he hesitated, coming to a stop and letting his sword sink.

He seemed as surprised as me and we stood there in an awkward silence watching each other carefully.

“Ehm, hello!? My name is Darius Sunstrider and I'm a scout of my clan.” He bowed without letting me out of his sight.

I bowed my head also and answered, “My name is Kitara Niska Malloren, guardian of Marcus and the Hearth tree Gillian. You are trespassing our territory so I have to ask you for your intent.”

Darius looked surprised and somewhat fascinated, “Your territory? I thought that you elves live in the Great Forest and almost never leave them, and who is this Marcus?”

With a bit of anger in my voice I threw his question right back at him, “I asked for your intent! Make yourself clear right now, young human! My tribe had some bad luck lately and we are quite careful of any newcomers right now.”

He sheathed his blade with slow and careful movements and then raised his hands defensively, “I don't mean you any harm. We come in peace and want only to discover the reason for a sudden spike in magical power in this region, as we assumed the appearance of a new dungeon here. To prevent any danger coming from it, we came to subjugate or destroy it as fast as we could.”

I sighed relieved as I understood now why the humans have come here. Even if they are whispered to be a nomadic people, only an idiot would call them weak. They use mounts for fighting and their weapons are very advanced, even more so than the dwarves's. The first people to call this world home they are rarely challenged for when they gather to strike down a bigger foe, even the dragons try to avoid them.

“Then I have a surprise for you, because the dungeon isn't the kind of creature of Tiria that you assume it to be. The goddess created a new kind of core, called a city core, that creates not a dungeon but a city instead. A city for all people who want to live in peace in it and enjoy the core's protection.”

The poor human lost control of his facial muscles and his jaw hit the ground. What a funny fellow, I will have to tease him some more later and enjoy his dumbstruck expression. I should use my former idea and give Marcus a boon here.

“The only conditions to stay in his Marcus' city are to help him defend it and pay a mana tax for him to build his place.”

I hope Marcus won't punish me for my idea.