It was hard to call what happened next a conversation. It was more like a room full of children who had been told there was only one toy left. Each member of my council jumped to their feet and proclaimed that I just had to give the arcane matrix to them.

“My lord, I must insist that you let me use the matrix. My master’s master once discus—” Amon started before being interrupted by Todii.

“Bah! No one wants to hear about the words of an even older man. You should hand the matrix over to me. We could make the grandest forge in the world.” When Todii attempted to move closer, either to further accentuate his point or take the matrix, Sanaa leaped from my shoulder, pushed out her frills, and let out a Draconic roar. I couldn’t help but smile as my small familiar made multiple full-grown adults stumble over themselves. Todii nearly fell out of the tent.

I chuckled as she calmed down and turned her nose up at the now stunned council. She practically strutted through the air before landing on my shoulder again. I scratched under her chin and sent my thoughts to her. “Good girl. Don’t hurt anyone, though. We don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

She let out a very cat-like purr in response before lowering her head into the nape of my neck. I smiled and let her be. I looked over at Osenda, who hadn’t shown the matrix even the slightest bit of attention. They were still looking over the arbor heart. It almost looked like the item’s glow was nourishing their body.

“Tenebris, could you keep an eye on them? I don’t think they will steal from me, but it’s better to be safe.” Tenebris sat up and flared his wings. All eyes fell on him for a moment and I felt a wave of righteous indignation flow through our bond. It only took me a second to realize that he didn’t like being undone by Sanaa. I decided to leave him to his “work”.

“Can each of you take your seats?” I gestured to the table and knocked over chairs. When no one responded, I brought the palm of my hand down onto the wood with a loud clap. The sound snapped them back to it and they began gathering themselves. “Now, according to the item prompt and your chaotic jumble of words. This item can be used to make a magical item or building. Can any of you make something with it? I heard something about an ‘Engineer’s studio’? also a library?"

“Y-yes, my lord.” Amon was the first to gather his wits. “I strongly suggest a library. I have heard word of a handful of great libraries spread throughout the world, though I have never seen one. It is said the Dominion has one in the heart of its capital city, though anyone that may have seen it has never returned.”

I nodded and had to admit building a library did sound like a really good idea. Not to mention it would help with the reading and writing quest. I looked over at Todii, who immediately began speaking.

“M’lord, if we put the matrix into a forge, we could craft some of the best items on the continent. Weapons, armor, everything, and anything I am willing to bet we could have the best-equipped army in the world.” He folded his arms and glared at Amon as if he had just given an argument that no one would dare contest. In truth, it was a good one. I didn’t care about weapons and armor nor did I care about having an army, but one thing I did know was eventually someone that wanted to take what I had would come along. When that day came, my people would need to be ready for them."

Before committing to a course of action, I turned to Tariku. He took a breath as if calling on courage from deep within himself, before locking eyes with me. “An Engineer’s studio is the best way forward. It would help with our immediate problem of housing plus it would um help us build future buildings. According to a book I read when an Engineer’s studio was constructed, a fledgling village became a continent-spanning empire in a few decades.”

I stared at Tariku, stunned for several seconds, forcing the man to wilt as if the last of his strength ran from him. I had to admit, his argument was the best one so far. Wasn’t transforming fertile land into a thriving city exactly what I wanted? Hell, even an empire might be nice. I considered it for a long beat before nodding my head.

“Ok. What do you need for the hall?” I held up a hand to stop the round of protests and complaints that had just started to flow. “I know you all are upset, but for now, Tariku is right. What we need are buildings. Our people need roofs over their heads. We can start worrying about weapons and armor later, but we need housing and sources of water. I am not sure if the hall can help with the second one, but it can help with the first.”

“Well, from the stories I have read and heard, you only need the matrix, the building itself, and a building material. I imagine that we could get the building up soon if we prioritize it over housing. It should help us get the housing up faster once we have it, though.” Tariku added hurriedly.

I nodded and looked at Amara. “Well, My Lord we still have time on the housing quest, though without knowing any exact numbers it will be difficult to know the impact of the building. If the building is as impressive as he makes it out to be, it might be worth it.”

“Alright, this is what we will do. I want the builders to finish the current tenement building. After that, you will focus on getting up at the Engineer’s studio as soon as possible. I don’t want anyone working more than the eight-hour day, nor do I want the quality sacrificed. While that is being done, I will be paying a visit to the nearby Ifrit. With any luck, they will provide additional resources we do not have. I hope to invite them to see the tree being planted. Regardless of if they come or don’t, we will get the tree planted before I go to get my next power.”

Everyone nodded in response, though not everyone was as thrilled as Osenda and Tariku. Which, as far as I was concerned, was a good thing. Not everyone could be happy, but everyone had the chance to share what they needed to say. “I need people to gather up empty potion vials. Can any of you take care of that for me?”

“I can handle that, My Lord. How many would you like?” Amara added while making a note on her tablet.

“Just gather as many as you can. I have left the gold ore I was working on with a handful of the drones. If you could add it to the rest and start smelting it down. I want you to focus on purity at this point. We don’t have a lot of places to put large amounts of the bars.”

“Alright, M’lord. We will get it done. Do you want us to start creating more ingots of the other metals? Or do you want us to focus on the gold?”

I hesitated for a moment before shaking my head. “Focus on both. Once the other metals run out, focus on the gold. I hope to increase our production of the other stuff soon. Ideally, I will be able to put together a trade agreement with Afrium for some more materials, but that’s for another day.”

With that, the rest of the meeting went uneventfully. We needed to discuss farming, but there wasn’t much to do it. We have a lot of the same kinds of seeds, which means our vegetable and fruit offerings were going to be pretty limited. We were a city in a canyon inside of a desert, so there wasn’t going to be a lot there. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the warm lake nearby, we would probably have run out of water by now. Once the meeting ended, I let the council leave while Tenebris, Sanaa, and I made our way over to the makeshift stable. It took us a few minutes to find Rex, get mounted up, and ready to head out. Both of my familiars pushed off of my shoulders and into the sky as I drove Rex forward.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

The journey back to the spring was pretty quick. Altogether, the journey took about two days. During this, we encountered something strange. We attempted to hunt a large crablike creature with a dark striped stone shell. When we killed it, I did not get any experience. A quick check told me that Sanaa and Tenebris did. We decided to deter from our journey a bit to test out a theory. After our third encounter with a pair of scorpions, I was able to piece together what was happening. There was a level cap on how much experience I could get. I wasn’t sure how large the gap could be, but my best guess was five levels. If the gap was any bigger, I just wouldn’t get anything, which made sense in an odd video gamey logic way. It still sucked, since it meant I would need to either get more powerful monsters or travel somewhere with more powerful monsters.

Thankfully, Tenebris and Sanaa were able to gather experience. Both of them were getting close to gaining another level. The plan was still to save for the next level of Soul Bond, but after that, I would need to give it some thought. They had to work together to take down these lower-level creatures. If I was going to find stronger enemies, then they needed to hit harder. I had to admit, though; they were fast. They had to be one of them, not the fastest flyers in the canyon. I sometimes had a hard time keeping track of them, especially Sanaa. Her golden scales fit in against the radiant sun above. Once we finished our hunt, we turned back to our original path. When we arrived at the spring, we found it the same as when we left it. The temperature difference felt like heaven. I let Rex drink from the spring while Tenebris and Sanaa flew lazily above. I filled up the first potion vial and took a look at its prompt.

You have found: Potion of Well-Being Alchemical Level: Concoction

Alchemical Strength: Powerful

Details: Restores all of the imbibers Health, Magic, and Stamina Points. Maximum of Five Hundred

Weight: 3oz

So it turned out the potion wasn’t a perfect heal-all. Still, restoring up to five hundred points to all three stats meant that it was a lifesaver. Especially since most people wouldn’t have anywhere near five hundred points. I would need to invest every point I had into Intelligence for the next three levels and only then would I be at 500. That still wouldn’t make the potion less effective, since the other three stats were still well beneath the number. There was also the fact that I received more points than the average person. Altogether the Potion of Well-Being was going to be clutch for his new citizens.

It took nearly twenty minutes to fill up all of my empty vials. Once that was done, Tenebris flew down and landed on my shoulder. He flared his wings before bringing them in close and wrapping his tail around my neck. He had a plant that looked a bit like blue pomegranate. “I see you found something to eat.”

He snapped his jaw at me before biting into the fruit. “Boring hunt.” He sent his words and irritation across the bond, making me chuckle.

“I believe that’s because plants don’t fight back. Actually, those plants don’t fight back. We might be able to find some interesting plant monsters.”

He swallowed the rest of the strange fruit. “I need a good hunt.” I waited for him to say something else, but he stayed silent. I got to my feet and went over to Rex, who was dipping his face into the cool spring water. I was just about to climb onto his back when I caught sight of something glimmering at the bottom of the spring. I brought my face as close as I could to the water without going in, but I couldn’t quite make it out. I looked up at Sanaa before asking her to try to get whatever it was. A moment later, her serpentine body arched through the air and disappeared below the water. I watched her reach the bottom within seconds and rip something out of the water. Seconds later, she was out of the water and wrapping herself around my arm. She dropped the item in my palm.

“Good girl.” I scratched beneath her chin before turning my gaze to the item she just dropped. Now that I could see it clearly, it was a scroll case. The case was a dull bronze color. It was still shiny and caught the light when you held it at an angle. On one side was a simple and slightly rusted clasp. I flipped it over and removed the top. I then gently moved and poured the scroll out.

You have found: Scroll of Protection(Undead) Details: Reading this scroll will create a sphere of safety that will prevent all undead and living dead below level 15 from passing for ten minutes. The sphere will move with the caster but the effect will end early if the reader stops reading.

Durability: 3/9

Item Rarity: Uncommon

Item Quality: High

Weight: 3oz

Holy fuck. First, this was an amazing item. It wouldn’t work on targets that were too high a level, which was fair. If I found myself fighting something that strong, it might be better to just run away. The fact that I had to read it made me pause. My True Speak ability should allow me to read it, but did the language used to create a scroll limit who could use it? Part of me was tempted to unravel the scroll to see, but since I couldn’t be sure that wouldn’t just activate the scroll, I decided not to risk it. I placed the scroll back into its case and then into the ring. I searched the water for any other goodies but didn’t find anything.

Once I was satisfied there was nothing else to do here, I mounted Rex, and we made our way toward the burning chasm. We traveled for less than an hour before a cloaked figure appeared from the sands forty feet in front of us. I held up a hand and called Tenebris and Sanaa to me.

“Hello,” I called out once they had landed. “My name is—” Before I could finish, the person removed their hood, revealing a scared face. He had what looked like a claw mark going down the entire right side. His scalp burned like a light ember and his skin was a dull grey color. When he spoke, it sounded a bit like he was a chain smoker.

“I am aware of who you are. I have been told to bring you to the matriarch. With full hospitality.” The man then pulled back his cloak and grabbed a black canteen. Which he tossed to me. I caught it and nodded. I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to be poisoned, but accepting drinks from people I didn’t know was a bit weird. I quickly pushed the thought down and took an air drink from the canteen. I kept an eye on the corner of my vision, but when no notifications appeared, I relaxed. I put the cap back on the bottle and tossed it to him.

“Do you want to ride on Rex? It would be a bit faster than walking.” I asked.

He shook his head. “I am fine walking.”

I waited for him to further elaborate, but he didn’t say anything. “Riiight, well, lead the way?” The man grunted before turning and walking further into the sands. I watched him for a moment before having Rex settle in behind him. I pulled up my relationship points with the burning chasm and found it was still pretty high. I couldn’t be sure, but if his attitude was because of his Charisma score, then I was going to need to get mine as high as possible as fast as possible. He also made me wonder if a wound could reduce my Charisma or any other attribute for that matter. If that was the case, then I needed to get my hands on things to protect against that. The last thing I needed was to fight a monster that could reduce my Intelligence score.

I was pulled out of my thoughts about ten minutes later when we arrived at the entrance to the Burning Chasm. Shaurianna and Zakia stood waiting for us. I flashed them a smile before bringing Rex to a stop. A few minutes later, I had dismounted, and a guard took Rex away. I made my way over to the matriarch.

“Welcome back Lord Maximilian. I believe we have quite a lot to discuss.”