I sat down at my desk with a burning headache. Kharon had already wandered off to take care of the new batch of adventurers that had wandered in, leaving me to do one last look over the city design to make sure that everything was taken care of. So far, we have changed around some commercial districts, combined them more with the residential areas, and ensured that each could be easily reached, though I still had ways to design some public transportation. Maybe I could create a smaller version of my teleportation as a way to move around the city. If it got big enough, of course. Though it was still something to ponder.

We also decided to upgrade the town into a smaller city and make it roughly thirty square kilometers, so it wouldn't be something to scoff at. However, because of the sheer size and resource usage, we will break the creation into multiple parts and constantly expand it as needed. The city's first phase would be the outskirts, filled with tiny houses and retail areas, but nothing that would hint at the overall size. At least that I hoped so.

Once the outskirts were finished being made, I could start working my way inwards. At least, that was the plan. This was exhausting, and what made it worse was that I didn't know exactly what to do for city planning. I sat back in my chair and rubbed my eyes. I stared at the ceiling for a bit, spacing out until I heard claws scraping concrete. I sat up, unsure of what I was hearing, only to see a pack of wolves sitting in my doorway. Five, to be exact, plus the one that I claimed as my own.

Looks like the little guy brought home some friends. Wolves are pack creatures, after all, though I wish I would have known beforehand what it was planning. I wasn't expecting to have so many pets here. I stared at them as I tried to decide if I wanted to keep them or not. But thankfully, it only took a few quick seconds for me to decide. I mean, I didn't have to feed them, nor did I have to do a lot to take care of them. They would do their own thing, and I wouldn't have to do anything more.

With a sigh of resignation, I gestured for the small pack to file into the room, and they took a spot in the far corner. Once my domain upgrades finish, I would have to make them all a bed since it would feel wrong to let them sleep on the floor. I watched them and thought of a few names as they were settling in. For the first one, I would name him Grim, a little on the nose, but it would do.

As for the rest, well, I had to figure it out. I put my feet on my desk, settled in, and gestured for Grim to come over so I could rub his head. I spared a quick glance at my screen and saw the domain only had a few more hours left before the upgrade finished. But what could I do while I was waiting? I pondered the thought before realizing I should probably focus more on my training in my downtime. That was something that I couldn't be slacking on since it was vital to ensure this domain stayed strong.

I looked through my stats and skills, seeing what I needed to work on. Maybe I should meditate and get my Ki core up on another level. It saved my ass during that fight with the assassins, and it wasn't something that I overly minded working on. Right after, though, I needed to work on my soul since that was the basis of everything I was working on. I gave Grim one last pat on the head before I stood up and tried to find a semi-quiet place to meditate at. Sadly my rock was out of the question for now due to all of the adventurers in my domain. I took a deep breath and fell into the Ki realm.

The ball of Ki that dominated my main domain was spinning around, sucking up the haze that still continued to permeate the area. However, instead of the pure orange that I was familiar with, the sphere had turned into a ghostly white color, with the bolts of lightning that came from it a muted grey. That must be because of the draconic ki that I now had. I sat down on my platform, ignoring the bolts of lightning that danced around me, slamming into the ground with thunderous explosions.

The surrounding haze gently caressed my flesh and began filling up all my pores. Though it felt like no matter what I did, the haze didn't threaten to drown me like it did last time. Maybe I was doing something wrong. I focused on the energy and found that it now reacted to my mental commands, though it wasn't to an extreme degree. It was much like running my hand through the water and having the energy part rush back into the empty space.

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When I used Ki, it was much like a volcano, which feels so inefficient. What if I changed its overall direction? I nuzzled the surrounding energy in a tight elliptical shape since it felt right. The energy gently rotated around me as I quickly tried to coax it forward. At first, the energy didn't react all that much. But then the surrounding haze shifted, and a silhouette formed around the sphere that hung in the sky. At first, it was faint, but as I coaxed the energy forward, more fog was torn from the ground and joined the disc solidifying around the core.

The sphere grew, and the disk encircled it seemed to extend outwards as the interior spiraled inwards and connected with the central core. The core grew darker and trembled as the surrounding disk sucked energy from it before they both seemed to enter a state of equilibrium. I felt something click inside of me as the energy started to cycle on its own, and the sphere became almost impossible to stare at as it grew in unbearable radiance.

Congratulations! You have unlocked the Radiant Lightning Core (Draconic Version).

All ki expenditure will now be faster and more efficient.

I stared up at the core as the surrounding disk seemed to draw in the fog and slowly drug it into an orbit around the sphere, much like watching water circle a drain. The lightning grew even more potent as it filled the sky in brilliant displays of power. I stood up and clenched my fist as I went through the steps of shifting my ki into various parts of my body. Instead of an explosion, it was as if the ki was already in motion. I clenched my fist, and I felt a smile growing across my face. Good, I was getting stronger. All I had to do now was practice with it for a bit before I went to my soul realm.

I stood in the extensive training area I had constructed a while ago. The lights above were slightly dimmed, and a bunch of my guards was in here practicing with one another or running drills. However, Alessia and a few of the guard officers were in the corner with me. Hector and Amari stood before me with their weapons bared. Alessia had her arms crossed as she stared at me with a strange look. "Are you sure that this is a good idea?"

"Yeah! Besides, the only way I'm going to get stronger is by practice." I flicked my cloak behind me and clenched my metal fist as I mentally steeled myself for the sparring session. The goal was to only dodge everything coming my way the best I could and only by using Ki and my physical prowess.

Alessia pinched her nose and shook her head. "I heavily disagree with this, but if it's what you command, then I will begrudgingly allow it."

I shrugged as I loosened up my shoulders. It's not like she had too much a say; I would have done it regardless. Once I was finished rolling my shoulders, I made a come hither motion towards my two undead. Hector stepped forward and stabbed his spear forward while Amari vanished from sight.

The tip of the spear rushed towards my face, and I sidestepped and felt a presence appear behind me. Without thinking, I twisted my body and caught the blade with my hand while forcing my body up to kick away Hector's spear. I felt a primal grin cross my face as the adrenaline coursing through my blood. I danced around the two. Though I was enjoying this dance, I realized that my body couldn't react as fast as my mind was. No matter what I did, there was always a small lag. But it didn't matter. The two couldn't hope to keep up with my movements.

After what felt like hours of this, my stamina was running low, so I cut the exercise short and focused on trying to catch my breath.

"Not bad at all, Empress. You have improved greatly since the last time we spared." Alessia's voice sounded close by as I felt her hand rest on my shoulder.

"Thanks. This Ki core upgrade did wonders for my speed. I just have to work on the reflexes now, and I think I'm set." I stood up and tucked back some of the hair that had managed to escape from the confines of my hood,

"We will work on that. As soon as we are able, I highly recommend that we work on the hand-to-hand combat a bit more." She patted off the back of my cloak and rested the polearm against the ground.

"Sounds like a plan, Alessia sounds like a plan."