My internal clock says that I’ve slept for quite a while. Looking at the sky it seems that it's well past morning. As the fight ended well before it got dark, I truly have slept for quite a while. My regular energy reserves were almost full, but my core energy was only about 1/3 full. I should take it easy for at least today. It was time for me to start heading towards the dungeon but this time I will probably avoid every fight I can.

Before I climbed down the tree I looked at my other notifications. It seems that one of my traits reached a milestone. Getting my presence stat points past 160 is something I didn’t expect to happen so fast, but it was nice.

It's still a bit hard to believe how many stat points I now gained per level. The new trait was called improved mental resistance and while I didn’t know exactly what it did, I was quite certain it wasn’t a bad thing.

Before I left towards the dungeon, I headed back near the lake, but I wasn’t able to get close enough to see the monster’s body as there were so many other salamanders that had converged on this location.

Fighting them to retrieve the core if it was even still intact was not going to be something that I could do. There were so many fire salamanders, and my strengths didn't lie in fighting endless hordes of strong monsters. Then again perhaps no one was actually good at that.

It took a while to find the dungeon entrance even when I knew it was supposed to be around here. It was hidden behind a thicket of trees. Otherwise, the entrance was quite similar to the dungeon on my own land. The unnatural darkness of the entrance always looked scary yet inviting. I didn’t rush in as I had some things to prepare that I had learned from the dungeon book that I received.

From my tattoo storage, I retrieved a few pieces of paper that I have drawn specific symbols on. Just in case I haven’t used this technique with my own dungeon, but it should be safe. I walked into the dungeon, but I didn’t travel into the first room but stayed in the passage. I located the first piece of paper and then set it on fire. After that, I quickly pressed my hand against the dungeon wall and waited.

Almost a minute passed and I thought that this did not work but then my mind was flooded with information. The paper that I burned had symbols on it that greeted the dungeon and asked for its current status. I received a greeting back that somehow sounded hopeful. The information however was quite troublesome.

I had expected a simple few-floor dungeon but it wasn’t. There were 27 floors and after the first few floors, it started to have first-rank challenges. I wanted to be excited about this discovery, but the dungeon was bursting with monsters and any moment now the dungeon could break allowing every one of these monsters to escape into the outside world.

It should be possible for me to clear the dungeon, but it will take a few days. Luckily my schedule for the next few days is to fight and earn experience which I can do here perfectly. I will need to manage my energy expenditure, but this dungeon shouldn’t be too big of a problem unless I get some unfavourable matchups. With a smile on my face, I started to rush through the first few floors where I didn’t even have to use energy to boost my sword to kill everything with one strike.

POV Verhard

Another morning meeting was finishing up and I was glad that I could stretch my legs again. Just before I left, I looked at the chair Rich sits in. Every time I picture him, I see two conflicting images. One of a carefree man that’s so confident that he would let other people have power. The other image, a ruthless warlord controlling everything down to the latest detail. I have seen both of those sides and I am absolutely terrified of either one.

I snap out of my thoughts and say goodbye to the three other mages. Now there are four of us here enjoying the freedom and support that we get. It’s still something I’m not used to. Once again all of that is because of Rich.

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Taking in so many refugees shouldn't work. All of them should be trying to plan to take control from the previous rulers but we just offer anyone who wants an opportunity to join the leadership. I have now watched three people die in horrible ways but every time I am not horrified but relieved.

Usually, kingdom power is used to keep the kingdom’s laws absolute yet here this power is used to keep leaders in check. It was an interesting and seemingly quite effective at keeping people who only think about themselves out of leadership. Will this be effective in the long run I do not know but I hope it will. As I pass the market square, I can see the people here and there's no misery, only determination and hope, something I’m not used to.

The only problem is that our economy doesn’t need mages or alchemists. That time will come but it won't be anytime soon. Still, just in case I headed to the jobs building to check. I haven’t been here for over a week but hopefully, someone will need a healing potion or something more specific. When I entered the building there were quite a few people here looking for jobs. Most of these people had more specific skill sets that weren’t needed right now.

From the meetings, I know that this place is working even better than expected and our economy was quickly expanding thanks to it. There are some worries that perhaps we might be giving out too many credits but David and the owlbear assure us it shouldn’t be a problem in the long run. I will trust they know this better as I never learned much about economics.

My train of thought was halted when I noticed a few posts in a section that should be empty. I walked there as quickly as possible and to my surprise there were posts about making different potions. At first, I was excited but then I started to doubt my alchemy certification. I hadn’t heard any of the potion names. What the hell was Harold’s incredible potion or Sara's wonders draught? There were seven more different potions with unknown names.

Is someone making a joke? I was so annoyed that I almost tore one of the posts off to go and complain about it to the receptionist when I noticed who had posted this job. It was Rich. I stopped for a moment and tried to think it through.

First to my knowledge, Rich should have a minimal understanding of potions. He wasn't an idiot so there had to be an explanation. Going over the names again, one of them seems to remind me of something.

Then I remembered. It was a lesson at one of the first alchemy classes that I took in the academy. The alchemist explained how basically every person who comes up with a new potion names it after themselves because the system records that name and everyone wants to live forever even if it’s just their legacy. But around the world that name isn't used to recognize potions as there are so many people with the same name, it would be impossible to keep track of it all. Harold’s incredible potion was actually called soft tissue strengthening with an oil base and energy focus.

This was the only one that I could recognize but for other ones, I would have to use a potion codex something I didn’t have access to. What I can do is write to the Alchemy Association. They will send me the relevant information.

I looked at the time until I needed to finish the orders and there should be enough time. After accepting the jobs with the receptionist, I headed to my office where I finished the letter and cast a sending spell on it. It should reach its intended location in a few days, and I should get a response back in a week or two.

It was good to have a job again. Just going to the meetings has become quite tiresome. I will need to go and start finding some basic ingredients and I will just have to hope that I already have the other ingredients that will be needed. Something that I still don’t understand is how Rich knew the names. It must have something to do with the achievement page but what ability could give access to this kind of information?

The only explanation I have is that he was able to gain an ability that was influenced by his former world. If someone hadn't informed me, I don’t think I would have figured out that Rich isn't from this world. He didn't act like the other two that aren’t from this world that I’ve run across. They were both in the Academy and you could instantly tell that they weren’t from this world.

As I understand Rich is a special case and he also has the memories of this world in some sort of weird once-in-a-lifetime accident. Whatever the case might be he seems to fit into this world quite well and his unique perspective is helping us strengthen ourselves quite fast.

There is no doubt in my mind that with the current situation in the world, he could have been a strong warlord controlling a huge territory but like with every warlord he would eventually die and his empire would fall apart.

The empire that he is now helping to build will be a lot larger and will most likely survive a lot longer. I can already imagine it. United Freeholds banners span across this entire continent, each city is clean and the land full of golden fields of grain. I just hope that I will be able to live long enough to experience that beauty.