They returned to Radiance just as night began to fall. The transition from a darkening desert to the bright sunlight of my territory earned a few shocked awes and mutters from the Ifrit, something I enjoyed greatly. When we arrived, I led them to the area her workers had set aside for their last time. I wasn’t sure what she was going to do, but I was prepared to have some extra tents brought over. Only for Shauriana to dismount and bring both hands together. At first, I thought she was praying, but that thought was proven false as her hands began to glow. The glow was a mixture of red and dark brown. It took a second for it to click into my brain. She was casting a spell that was made up of two different spells schools! The casting only became more complicated as her hands went through the motions faster and faster until she brought them both together and shouted a word of power. The word was long and complicated. My ability offered no translation, which made me wonder if it was an actual word.
I was expecting something to emerge from the ground, but a circle the size of an SUV was carved into the ground. A staircase emerged and disappeared beneath the ground. Veins of burning red spread through the ground and disappeared down the hole. Shauriana swayed on her feet slightly, prompting Zakia to grab and steady her. I summoned a potion from my ring and was about to pass it to her when one of her guards beat me to the punch. She downed a vial of azure liquid.
“How did you do that?” I asked with a mixture of awe and surprise. “Did you learn a single spell, or did you cast two different spells?” The storm of questions inside me picked up as I considered options that I hadn’t before.
She raised a hand to stop me in my tracks. “You will learn more about doing that once you get your class. For now, you should focus on what you already know how to do.” She flashed me a slightly drained smile before turning toward the hole. “We will go and get ourselves comfortable. Please come and find us when you are ready.”
I nodded and watched as the Ifrit followed their matriarch down. Once they were all gone, I turned and called out. “No one is to bother our guests. They have come this way to share in a momentous occasion. Tomorrow at high noon, I want all citizens to be in front of the Great Wall. I promise that you will want to see what happens.”
I pushed Rex to turn and head off toward the stables. A short while later, I left him with the workers, and me, Tenebris, and Sanaa were making our way through the town. I took my time and watched how everyone went about their work. The division in the town was mostly just lines drawn in the sand, but once everything was up, we should have a bustling space. Eventually, we could grow into a powerful city that could rival anyone. I smiled before calming myself down.
“Sanaa, Tenebris, would you mind going and gathering everyone? I need Amara and Osenda to meet me at the tent. Don’t accidentally hurt anyone and it isn’t a rush.” Both dragons flexed before springing off of my shoulders and into the air. I watched them leave before making my way down the road. I arrived at the command tent a short while later. I made my way inside and took a seat. I pulled up the settlement’s menu and began to go through everything. The most glaring issue was obviously our lack of housing, but food was a close second. Our farms were decent but even with the classes Farmers it wasn’t enough. Trying to run a city in a desert was always going to be a tough proposition and, for the time being, we had the food we shipped in. The animals were another issue, but hopefully, we would be able to take care of that as well. There was also the sheer size of my territory to look into. 707 square miles was nothing to look down at. I couldn’t be sure, but that had to be bigger than some cities back home. Right now it was all empty space, but if I could turn that into something special, then well, then we would have solved our problems.
The more I thought about it the more I realized we needed that Engineer’s Studio. There were multiple buildings that I needed to construct, including a Seat of Government, more housing, a market, a House of Healing, and a barracks. That assumed I wouldn’t find more things that needed to be built as I moved forward. Hell, it also assumed I only needed one of each building. I rubbed my temples before cracking a smile. It was a lot, but it was like starting a fresh save of any grand strategy game. There was always so much to do, and all I had to do was to start. I got rid of the screen as the tent’s flap was pulled open. Amara was the first to arrive.
“Good Evening, My Lord. I have been told that the Ifrit are visiting? Is there anything I can do to help?”
“No, right now they have arranged a place for themselves and our resting. In an hour or two, would you mind sending them some water? I am not sure how much they drink, but I figure it would be rude to not offer anything.”
She nodded and made a note on her tablet. “I think that would be wise. I am not sure if your um familiars were trying to communicate something specific?” She let the last word hang in an unasked question.
“No, no, I just wanted to discuss the planting. I have spoken to the matriarch, and she says that she will cast a spell of Pyro and Geo, which means we need one for Lumos, Necros, and Spira.”
She nodded before tapping on her tablet for a moment. I was just about to ask her if something was the matter when she looked up. “There are three magicians in the village that have spells in those schools. I can’t be sure they will have something useful, but I will get word to them as soon as I can.”
I smiled at that before nodding my head. “That would be perfect. I am not sure if they need to cast a beneficial spell on it or if it just has to be of that type. I don’t want to risk the durability of the item, so let’s try to play it safe for now. Has anything happened while I was gone?”
She shook her head. “The builders have begun working on the next building, but other than that there are no issues. We continued putting the elderly and families into the available housing, as you instructed. We should be finished with them in the next two buildings. Do you have any plans for how we should deal with that?”
“Hmm, once they are taken care of, we can start moving people in based on age. Once the amount of people who need homes has narrowed down, we could loosen the restrictions. I don’t want to control where people can live, but I also didn’t want children and the elderly living outside if I can do something about it.”
“As you will it, My Lord. I have updated reports on the food situation as well if you don’t mind?” I glanced at the entrance to the tent, but there was no sign of the others arriving. I slowly nodded my head, and she moved closer.
We sat like that for nearly twenty minutes. I was pleased to see that we were actually in a better position than I had realized. Thanks to constant daylight, the hunters could form large hunting parties that could go nearly around the clock. With the danger of being ambushed greatly reduced, they could sneak out of my territory on occasion for larger prey. Altogether, they could make up for half of our food needs as long as we limited the amount of excess we generated. It wasn’t all good news, though. The small amount of fruit I wanted to be planted was struggling to survive. There simply wasn’t enough water. Even asking people to carry buckets from the lake repeatedly wasn’t enough. The farmers were working on a weak form of irrigation, but it wasn’t working. Apparently, they needed an actual plan or schematic on how to build one. Right now we were just digging lines in the sand and hoping for the best. I added it to the list of things we needed to do. We put the topic to bed as the others arrived and my familiars took their perches on my shoulders.
The new group included Osenda, and two humans I hadn’t met before. One was dressed in a set of black robes with ashen grey trim. He was on the thin side, though not overly so. His hair was braided into neat rows. He held a simple wooden staff with an onyx stone at the top. The second person was bald and was much stockier in build. He wasn’t exactly athletic, but he wasn’t skinny either. I wondered if he had put points into Endurance or if it was Strength. He didn’t have a staff or wand or anything of the like, so I wasn’t sure if he was an actual spell caster.
“My lord,” Osenda said as she moved into a bow. “I have found a necromancer and one of the farmers knew a Lumos spell.”
I nodded and looked at both of them. “I am not sure if we have briefed you on the situation. I am looking for people who are willing to cast some spells on an item. I am prepared to pay you a fair wage for it.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
The larger man was the first to speak. “I don’t mind providing my services, but I would like to know what I was doing. Are you willing to tell me what you are planning?”
I nodded before summoning the Arbor Heart from my ring. “This is an Arbor Heart. We believe that it would be best to cast a spell from each of my powers onto the seed before we plant it.”
He nodded. “I can do that. The spell I have is more about protecting things from curses and I am not at a high enough level to teach it to anyone. I can also only cast it every couple of hours.” When he caught the look of confusion on my face, he continued. “I don’t have a high affinity with Lumos. It was just enough for me to advance to level 3. The spell, ‘Lesser Blessing of Light’ requires a lot of MP and I don’t have great regeneration.”
“Right well, you should only need to cast it once. How long does your spell last?” I asked as Tenebris stirred on my shoulder. I summoned a small piece of meat from my ring and held it up to him.
“Uh, r-right. It shouldn’t expire. It’s more of a healing effect, so it should just work. I don’t know how it will affect your seed thing.”
I nodded before gesturing for him to come forward. The man stepped up and began his casting. His hands moved slowly through the air. Thin streaks of golden light formed at the tips of his fingers and flowed through the air until he reached out and touched the heart. For a second, nothing happened, and I began to worry that something had gone wrong. I glanced over at Osenda a second before the seed flared golden. We each took a step back as the heart pulsed with light. We waited several seconds past the last flare-up before we approached again. I picked up the seed expecting for the prompt to change only to find nothing. It was exactly the same. I turned and looked at the smaller human and we repeated the process, only this time the pulses were ashen grey. I placed the heart back into the ring ten minutes later and handed both men a pair of silver coins. They left the skinnier man not even saying thank you, which was irritating, but I decided not to complain.
I summoned the Arbor Heart again and began casting a spell. I wasn’t sure if this spell would work for a tree, but it shouldn’t hurt it and I figured why not try? After a few seconds, my casting was completed and the Arbor Heart glowed with a slightly green color. I waited for a few seconds, but nothing happened. I placed the item back into the ring and smiled. All we needed was for the matriarch to do her part tomorrow, and we could plant the tree.
“Osenda, we will be doing the planting tomorrow. Can you be ready an hour before high noon? “
They nodded. “Of course. I assume you want to plant it in front of the wall?”
“Yep, I am thinking I want it right at the base. That way, the tree could be protected and people won’t be able to mess with it. With luck, it might grow its roots down and throughout the city.” I stretched my arms up and let out a yawn. My exhaustion hit me all at once.
“I can do that. I will be ready tomorrow morning.” Osenda nodded to me before making her way out of the tent. I waited a few seconds after she left before turning to Amara.
“Can you help make sure everyone is near the back wall tomorrow? I doubt there will be enough space for all 3000+ of us to huddle around, but everyone should be able to see what happens.”
“Of course. I will see it done.” Amara nodded.
“Is there anything you need me to do before I leave? I am getting tired and hungry.” She shook her head, and we both made our way out of the tent. I yawned again as the light hit my face. It was still very strange to know that it was “night” time while the sun sat high in the sky, but it was pretty cool. Once we got outside, we went our separate ways. I made my way back to the mine while Tenebris and Sanaa flew up and into the air. I watched them leave for a few minutes. Their draconian bodies swam through the strangely beautiful air. Once they left my line of sight, I sighed and entered the mine. I found a quiet corner near the entrance to the next level. I sat down and pulled up the notifications from today to see just how well I had done.
Congratulations! Your skill Governance has leveled up. Governance has reached levels 6 and 7. +7% to Morale, Loyalty, and Production for your village.
Congratulations! Your skill Riding has leveled up. Riding has reached levels 7 and 8. You have +8% to mounted speed and +8% resistance to being knocked off your mount.
The bonus to riding wasn’t as interesting since I really wasn’t planning on riding too often. Ideally, I would get some wings or a flying spell, and all my movement-related problems would be solved. Governance jumping up was really nice. The +7 to well all three things was clutch. For four days of travel, I had done pretty well for myself. I wasn’t sure what the benefits of the Arbor Heart were going to be, but if it was just a decent boost to production, it would be worth it. I wiped the screen away and leaned back against the wall. I summoned some leftover food from my ring and settled in for the night. Tomorrow was going to be a long, long day.
The next day, I awoke, got myself cleaned up, and made my way to the wall. People were already lining up and muttering about what was going on. Thankfully, no one seemed to be upset about being here. It was more of that annoyed curiosity. I reached for my connection to my familiars and called them to me. They didn’t arrive until I was about fifty feet from the wall. Thankfully, Amara, Osenda, Shauriana, and Zakia were all standing around waiting for me. They had even cleared out a spot for the tree.
“Greetings my Lord. We are still about an hour and a half from high noon. I was just speaking with the Matriarch about future collaborations.” She gestured to Shauriana, who looked equal parts amused and curious.
“Hello Amara, Good Morning to you Matriarch Shauriana. I hope everyone is feeling well this morning.” I summoned the Arbor Heart from my ring and held it out to the matriarch. She reached out and took it in her hands. She stared into it as if looking into a crystal ball. I raised an eyebrow at her but didn’t interrupt. The red of Pyro magic flowed from her hands and around the seed. Unlike the other spells, this one seemed to nurture the heart. It was as if we were just throwing water onto a seed while she was pushing the water directly into the seed. As soon as the red light faded, a dark brown one replaced it. Watching her so effortlessly go from one magic to the other, all while not bothering the seed, was like watching a painter work. I wasn’t sure if I was more excited about the seed or disappointed that the display of magic was done. Either way, she handed the Arbor Heart back to me and nodded. I took it and looked up at the real sun high above us. It was almost time for the next step.