Second World Novel

Jack didn’t immediately go to the City Overview as Peniel asked. He first accessed the Royal Guards Overview and sent a royal agent invitation to Laurent. Laurent accepted the invitation and expressed his gratitude to Jack for the honor.

Jack proceeded to give him the Pill of Growth. Laurent didn’t expect such an immediate gift the minute he became a royal agent. He bowed and thanked Jack for the gift. He used the pill and his special elite grade improved to rare elite. He was now a level 70 rare elite, close to Duke Alfredo’s power level.

Alfredo congratulated him for the upgrade.

Laurent’s base equipment was already decent, so Jack didn’t make any changes.

Jack studied Laurent’s spell traits and affinities. Laurent’s spell traits were Arcane, restore, Enchant, Manipulate, and Boundary. His affinities were wind and light.

Jack installed two spells onto Laurent. The first was Telekinesis, the same as Alfredo. Laurent was a level 70 and had the Manipulate spell trait, so he had no problem using the spell. The second spell was Chained Healing. This spell healed the first target by 10,000 HP. The spell then jumped to nearby allies with less healing. It could jump up to ten targets. The spell had a short 10 seconds cooldown.

After finishing with Laurent, Jack opened the Foreign Overview. He saw that their relationship with Verremor had improved from hostile to neutral. There was even a message that they had received a gift of 50,000 gold coins from Verremor. But many officers considered this a small part of war remuneration instead of a gift, so they weren’t excited about it. Many still viewed Verremor as an enemy.

Jack asked John if he had dealt with the orc prisoner matter. John said that all orc prisoners had been returned to Verremor. Many of the human prisoners had also arrived in Themisphere.

About the request for an embassy Jack had sent to the Republic of Palgrost, it had been denied. It was as Peniel said, it was not easy.

Jack didn’t do anything about foreign matters except send a thank you message to the Grand Chief of Verremor and send him a request to establish a trade route.

It might be difficult for the two races to trade with one another so soon, the relationship stated in the monarch system was also only neutral. Still, he thought he had to take the first step. The grand chief also seemed friendly enough, but Kabaka might need to convince his officers if this trade route was to be approved. If it happened, it could help the two races to start interacting and burying their hatchets.

Jack then opened the City Overview to check the new building Peniel mentioned. Considering that Peniel said the new building was previously unavailable, it should be a special building. So, Jack scrolled down to the bottom of the list. He saw a green-color building name down there.

“A wonder building?” Jack said. Remembering the World Peace Garden that had been built, its name was also green. This new building was called Ancient Beacon Tower

*

Ancient Beacon Tower (Wonder building)

Houses 5,000 level 90 ancient champions (4989 rare elite, 10 mythical, 1 eternal). Not part of the kingdom’s army, can’t be promoted into official positions.

These 5,000 ancient champions will actively defend the city if the city is attacked, but can only be commanded as a regiment during war campaigns against the underworld force.

When an ancient champion is killed, it will come back to life after 30 days inside the tower.

Allows 1% of the kingdom army to register to become the special unit: Ancient Champion

Increases the overall Security in the country.

Construction cost: 30,000 gold coins, 100,000 mana, 10,000 lumbers, 10,000 minerals.

Construction time: 50 days.

Upkeep: 50,000 mana/month

Requirement: No demonic portal within the country.

*

“Level 90… Almost five thousand rare elites… With ten mythical and one eternal…? This… This regiment is insane…,” Jack uttered. “With this regiment, no one will be able to conquer Thereath. We no longer need a country guardian to protect our capital.”

“But other than for the defense of this capital, they are practically useless for other campaigns. Since the main quest has been removed, there will be no confrontation against the underworld force,” John said. Jack had informed John about what he had learned of the main quest.

“Yes. I guessed this building is more geared toward the main quest, but it still has other benefits. It increases the overall security and we got access to a new special unit.” Jack turned to Peniel and asked, “We can only turn 10% of our kingdom army into special units. With this Ancient Beacon Tower, does it mean that our limit increases to 11%?”

“That’s correct,” Peniel confirmed. “Some later research in the Military path can also increase the percentage further.”

“No demonic portal. So, this Wonder Building could be built because I closed the portal in Themonium,” Jack remarked after reading the requirement to build this Ancient Beacon Tower.

“That’s right,” Peniel confirmed. “Since this is a Wonder Building, once you build it, no other country can build another Ancient Beacon Tower even if they close the demonic portal in their countries. You can view this as a secret reward for being the first one to close the demonic portal.”

“The mana upkeep is very high, but we can still afford it,” Jack remarked. “Let’s put this building as a priority.”

“All right, I will build this tower once the current construction is finished,” John said.

“You’ve better build it now,” Peniel said. “Ancient Champion is a very powerful unit. 1% from your current kingdom army meant you can have around 30,000 ancient champions. But it takes time to reach that number because soldiers will have to manually apply for the transformation and they will have to pass a test given by the Ancient Beacon Tower. So, the sooner you have this building up and running, the sooner you get this special unit among your army.”

“Well, I guess it is time for my ruling power to work its magic then,” Jack said and opened his sovereign status in the country overview screen. “Hey, I got a new option for using my ruling power.”

*

Enforced Tax

Generates 30,000 gold coins from Megalopolises, 10,000 gold coins from Metropolises, 5,000 gold coins from cities, 2,000 gold coins from towns, and 500 gold coins from villages.

Greatly reduce Happiness throughout the country

Cost: 10 ruling power

Cooldown: 1 week

*

“You can get 193,000 gold coins if you use this power,” John said when Jack was still calculating. “It even only cost 10 ruling powers.”

“But it greatly reduces happiness,” Jack said.

“Yes, it will be a lot harder to increase happiness if it goes down. You’ll just invite a revolt if you keep on using this power,” Peniel said. “Only use it if you truly need the coins.”

Jack hoped it didn’t have to come to that. He used the option to hasten construction in Thereath.

“Choose the Colosseum,” John said. Colosseum was the special building he put into construction when Jack departed to Verremor. There were still 17 days left for its construction time.𝐍𝔬𝓋𝓮𝓵𝒏𝑬xt.𝐂𝔬𝗆

Jack agreed. He spent 2 ruling power and the colosseum was completed. He then started the construction of the Ancient Beacon Tower and used 5 ruling powers to immediately complete it. From the city map, the tower stood at the edge of the noble district.

Jack left his throne and ran to the royal balcony by the side of the throne room. He went outside and immediately caught sight of the magnificent tall tower. It was many times higher than the rest of the buildings in the capital. At its top was a large shining orb that glowed brightly. Since it was evening, the glow was very eye-catching. It was like a beacon of hope, encouraging those who saw its light.