The meeting finished, the shadow elves and I talked long about the food situations, military training, access to basic knowledge like a library, and ended with the surrounding wildlife. First, in order to fix the lack of farming, I have decided to train life mages to support future nature mages. The elves seemed to be innately good at stealth, archery, space magic, and nature magic. Using my past with fantasy games from before, it didn’t surprise me with the nature magic or stealth and archery. It seems like a status quo for being an elf. But the space magic did, if I could train assassins that used teleporting abilities, they would be unstoppable. They did have a few fire mages and water mages as outliers but, they have many people with potential in space magic, however, it is incredibly difficult to wrap one’s head around the concept of space without any knowledge. In the end, the lack of understanding stops almost everyone from being able to use space magic.

They had a single library, and it is well maintained but the knowledge is quite lacking. Apparently a few hundred years ago a human raid ended up burning down many of their key structures such as the library and many of the apothecaries. In the end, they lost hundreds of years of research if not thousands. It could be said that the shadow elves currently are the most out-dated race on the continent, however, the human and lizardmen have also had such sabotages and aren’t much further along the technological road.

Finally, the wildlife within the shadowlands or the southern part of the continent where all the shadow elves are currently, are also one of the most dangerous areas. The dark ambient energy draws in many sneak-based creatures, and also large birds more near the central mountains. There is supposed to be hawk-like ravens that thrive on the edge of the shadowlands, they are supposed to be the natural nemeses of the megalodora worms. Luckily they are territorial-based and will not encroach further in where the shadow elves live. Besides those creatures, there are hundreds of types of bugs that live on the feeding of the trees and grasses that grow within the lands. Supposedly many of the bugs are quite large and are similar to giant black beetles.

I thought over what I had learned and decided upon a course of action. I will train the shadow elves in agriculture, stealth, archery, and magic. I will also train my royal guard in minimizing their excess moves. Luckily the royal-guard seems to be quite strong straight off the bat, so I’m not too worried that they won’t grasp the concepts quickly and efficiently. While they are training I will also talk with multiple professions like apothecary owners, fishers, and potential farmers. If I can get these professions having higher-level knowledge in their fields then food shortages won’t be a problem. Once all of these are done, I will then hunt the surrounding wildlife from the coast working my way all the way to the mountains. Once I reach the mountains and have seen the strengths of the wildlife, I will then be ready to start the conquest of the lizardmen.

…

I spent my first week talking to the shadow elves, telling them about their weaknesses and strengths and how to improve. At first, the shadow elves were skeptical but when they learned I fixed their infertility problem, the entire race had absolute reverence in their eyes. Training them in multiple fields was trying, and many of the times completely boring, but I knew that it must be done in order for my new subjects to increase their strength.

The training was going quite well, their archery skills were quite amazing and it seemed the reason was elves naturally have better senses than other races besides smell. With enhanced eye-sight, they could shoot a wood target 100 meters away. I taught the scouts on how to cover their tracks, discover many different types of tracks and conducted many missions with them for field experience. Then I looked to many quiet-looking shadow-elves that were natural born assassins within the race. Just about 50 natural-born assassins were huddled before me during late hours. I trained them within the dark and turned their habits and skills to predators of the night. At first, many of them were reluctant to put away their past duties such as hunting but soon with my training, they realized their potential and were thrilled.

Of course, my training hasn’t even begun yet, in the past, people who were trained by me cursed me in their sleep. Right now they are just trying on the shoes of amateur assassins. I conducted many rounds of competitions to weed out the strong and the weak, of course, these competitions differed in results. There were intelligence competitions in which I introduced them to a chess-like game, carving the pieces out of wood was incredibly hard to do so instead I created a few pieces of each chess piece then had wood-crafters make them after my design. I was never an amazing artist but I still had some skill in a few areas. After the intellect-based competitions, then it was a strength, then stealth, and finally archery. These competitions allowed me to see what people of the shadow elves were good at what, even the elves themselves were really surprised with the results and I found many hidden talents.

Although there were some who were just average in all and were at first let-down, I explained that these people had even more important roles. As citizens with no skill in warfare or intelligence, I taught them how to farm. Those who had strong wills amongst the average were set as farm leaders. Each farm leader had 20 people that helped them out in farming. I enacted crop-rotation to support the changing seasons. When winter comes, there will still be some plants that can be supported through the winter. Also, this method will allow the soil to never become brittle and useless.

I spent my morning training my guards, afternoons training civilians, and night training assassins. As an elemental, I don’t need sleep, but that doesn’t mean I can go so long doing something repetitive. All I could think after the second week of training was, I can’t wait to hunt some strong creatures soon.

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After all of the training sessions, I also gained a nice skill:

System(Generalist)

Revelation Effect: As a master of many trades, it’s easier to see the flaws within life. +15 PER WIS +20

…

The training in the farming technique called crop-rotation was going quite well, the elves naturally have a close affinity with nature. Also, a large amount of nutrient-rich ash was extremely healthy for replacing the dried leaves on the forest floor. In order to get the ash, the few fire mages used a few days of creating tiny forest fires. The elves along with most people tend to think forest fires are bad, however when at a small scale they are extremely helpful for recycling nutrients and allowing the trees and ivy to stay healthy. However, when I explained the purpose of the tiny fires that they have put out over the last hundreds of years, they were shocked. To compare ash and nutrients together seems almost hysterical, however, when explaining the ash is nutrients for soils and plants they seemed to want to test out my theory. Throughout the month the ash slowly dispersed, the ground floor started growing vegetation and the forest seemed to be thriving.

The once dense atmosphere of the inevitable extinction was erased, in its place, there was laughter, hope, and many discussions sounding throughout the forest. I also really hated the hut vibe of the tree-houses, I created minion shadows to slowly revamp the entire housing. At first, the shadow minions just began to destroy the housing but then I showed them the correct way of taking the wood walls and the thatch roofing out, I also built a more natural house with beautiful curves and an upside-down v-shape roof. These houses seem to give a majestic, calm, and natural feel to the forest and the elves instantly fell in love with my creation. Throughout the month the buildings were replaced.

With all of these improvements, training, and new lives, the shadow elf people were incredibly happy. Along with this happiness, I could guess what will happen, just like wars, when soldiers come back from war they tend to make a little bit of love. Luckily the new buildings isolated sound, but I could sense the romantic atmosphere... luckily hunting season begins soon.

…

I met with the council of the shadow elves, the meeting building was also revamped and the interior is now more gorgeous with a purple and mahogany based rooms. The past meeting wooden table was replaced with a decorated stone table depicting vines. Also, the chairs were carved from dark oak in a flowing fashion. Artists with hidden talents were gathered together now, they had free time to build and create to their hearts desires. With nature's affluence, they created many beautiful furniture and carpets that matched the dark oak and purple structures. The throne in which I sat upon before the council members was a large stone chair with wooden vines creeping up it. The vines were embedded into the stone and weren’t actually alive. It was quite comfortable but not perfect yet. I thought, I need to teach leather making and fabric making. Cushions would be so nice right now.

…

I looked at the council members before me, they had reverence, awe, and fear within their eyes. All the shadow elves announced their loyalty to me before even the first week was done, if I continued with my pace right now it wouldn’t be surprising if I was worshipped within a few months. I spoke to the council, “I will be gone for the next month, although I am currently strong, I am not strong enough to rule all the races on this continent. I will be training myself and my royal guard along with me. When I come back I will be even stronger and then we will head out to deal with the lizardmen. During this time you have to continue working on farming and training, although you say you control the shadowlands, this continent has long lost its humanoid rulers. Now it belongs to the wildlife, I must become the alpha and only then will everyone be safe”.

I looked around as the shadow elves were thinking about my soon to be journey. I continued speaking, “I may be your ruler, but that does not mean you can hang on to me like a baby bird. The shadow elves have fallen before due to this, and if it continues eventually it will happen again. Prove your worthiness to me, become more independent and spread your wings to grow into a magnificent raven. Only then will you be worthy of my time and my experiences. I also want two things done during my time away. First I need scouts to continue searching for shadow elementals, this forest is too dense for just two, there is likely to be tens if not a hundred or so elementals within this forest. Second, I want competitions to continue, competitions are amazing at improving strength, wisdom, and intelligence. Now do any of you have any questions?”.

The shadow elves contemplated for a few seconds but couldn’t think of anything. However before the meeting was about to finalize, a space mage stood up. He was the space mage that discovered the small space distortion when I was first being chased. I learned his name, Vernus, a while ago after talking to assassins about space magic and stealth combinations. Vernus bowed in respect and then spoke, “Sire, when you leave, can you leave behind the royal guard mage, his magic techniques are quite amazing and if he could stay behind then we could progress our magic quite a lot while you are away”.

I contemplated his words but before I could respond, the marshland elder quickly stood up and spoke in anger, “Are you trying to get our lord injured or even worse killed! The royal guard are his protectors! Are you asking to…” before the marshland elder could finish I had snapped and his voice was cut off.

My voice echoed within the walls, “Gerald, no need to speak for me, I have a voice. I will be fine, my strengths are much more than you can comprehend or have seen. One royal guard hardly can protect me in the wilds if something could really put me in danger. I will accept this and allow my void-mage to stay here. This will allow the city to be protected and allow the mages to train their strength. What do you think, Beta?”. I looked to my void-mage

The Void mage bowed at a perfect 90-degree angle with a clear noble demeanor. He spoke, “My brother Alpha will be there to protect Sire, I can comply with this mission. I will train the mages and protect your subjects. However, I fear that I will not be as good as Sire”.

I looked at the void-mage with interest, Seems like he took on the role of a noble mage, cool I guess. I told him, “have no fear, if they can’t learn from your abilities then they need to be educated more in the basics. Make sure each mage has a strong foundation”.

The void mage bowed and nodded then went back to the position of alertness. I named my warrior and mage, Alpha and Beta respectively. I decided simpler names will allow me to control them easier as their numbers will most likely grow in size. I finished the meeting and left. I went back to the lake on its rocky shore. Kids nearby were swimming to the more smooth shores and were having fun. I smiled and thought, Right now it’s the calm before the storm. However, what many don’t know is that I am the storm. People will say there are bigger fish in the ocean, however, I will become the ocean itself.

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