The first thing that Jack inspects is the white snake that is now happily sleeping around his bicep as though it’s some sort of ornament. It looks quite peaceful and relaxed, but also very tiny roughly 30cm long and as thick as two fingers. Jack rubs the snake’s head to which it attempts to nuzzle his fingers.

Pulling up the system information:

[White Scaled Snake]

Level: Stage 0-1

Grade: SSS

Stats: Strength: 2, Intelligence: 9, Agility: 2, Constitution: 3

Skills: Holy White Dragon Aura, Poisonous Bite, Guardian Beast Protection.

Description: A white snake that has a strong bloodline of the Holy White Dragon.

Guardian Beast: Holy White Dragon-Phoenix Empire.

The information is as Jack suspected, this is a snake that has a very strong White Dragon bloodline, perhaps it’s even related to the snake that appeared in the trials. The guardian beast information is related to the City Heart.

Each City Heart has a Guardian beast that is bound to it upon creation, all cities have them. They can be any animal which will influence certain stats or produce the town has. A farming town can have a Cow as a guardian beast which will provide benefits to milk production or beef production.

A town could have a wolf as a guardian beast and have bonuses related to hunting or group actions. Each guardian beast will also lend its power to the city lord or mayor, the person that controls the city heart. They can also be bound to weapons, enhancing it and providing benefits within battle.

Such as, if a city had a snake as a guardian beast then the city heart will reforge the city lord’s weapon into something that can stretch or contains poison. It’s all rather complicated but each city will be different.

Jack is rather excited by this and wants to rush to check out what sort of options he has regarding making his own city lord weapon but he holds off on his excitement and looks at the stats of each of the other animals.

Sleipner appears the same except it’s much larger, not quite 3x the size but it’s still gigantic for a horse and completely impractical. Sleipner notices Jack looking at it and shrinks down in size, returning to his old usual self which is still large for a horse but manageable.

The smaller horses have also become larger, just slightly smaller than Sleipner’s original size. Their heads also contain horns just like Sleipner which they are all proudly display. Jack takes his time to pat each on their head to which they all enjoy and nuzzle up to him.

Fenrir trots over in his massive new size and attempts to nuzzle Jack too as though he’s jealous of all the attention on the horses. The horses notice this and one of them gives Fenrir a quick zap of electricity.

Fenrir turns his head towards this horse and snorts, a wisp of flame leaves his nose giving them a fright to which they promptly bolt. Fenrir is now chasing these horses in it’s huge size, Sleipner also joins in on the chase reverting to its gigantic size.

Jack laughs as he watches these stupid animals have fun as though they have no care in the world.

He starts to walk over to the city heart to see check out its information while chuckling to himself when some birds land on his shoulders. He wasn’t expecting this and immediately stops to check them out.

On his left shoulder is a rather large blue bird and on his right is a large red bird, they’re both the same size, no bigger than a sulphur-crested cockatoo. Their tails are quite long at 20-25cm each, making the birds approx. 50cm or 70cm big.

Jack isn’t too sure what to make of this so he reaches out his hands to touch them, they both lower their heads to meet his scratch as he pulls up their information:

[Red Luan]

Level: Stage 0-1

Grade: S

Stats: Strength: 2, Intelligence: 4, Agility: 4, Constitution: 2

Skills: Dash, Long-flight, fire affinity.

Description: A common red bird bathed in Phoenix qi, has strong affinity for anyone with phoenix qi.

[Blue Luan]

….

Description: A common blue bird bathed in Phoenix qi, has strong affinity for anyone with phoenix qi.

‘Red Luan would like to submit to you, do you accept?’ A prompt appears for each of the birds, to which Jack accepts.

Each of the birds let out a beautiful tweet and fly off into the sky, Jack smiles to himself and hopes that there are more surprises waiting for him like that. He’s disappointed that the two birds aren’t King rank creatures with a den but he isn’t sure how he would even use a lot of birds like that apart from pets.

Jessica is peering at Jack from behind the tree, still hiding her body since she ran off before grabbing some clothes off Sleipner, who has now run off to chase Fenrir somewhere on the grassy plains. She’s jealous that the birds didn’t land on her shoulders as they were so pretty.

“Jack, get me some clothes!” she yells.

“Go chase Sleipner if you want some clothes, but what are you hiding for I’ve already seen everything?” Jack asks with a sly smile on his face.

Jessica just sticks out her tongue with a red face and hides behind the tree again. Looking around to see if there’s any leaves or grasses that can be used to cover herself up.

Jack continues to walk to the black and white city heart that is floating above the ground. It’s a rather eerie, out of natural world looking item. It’s an orb that’s taller than Jack, the black and white are slowly rotating but always in balance.

The snake wrapped around Jack’s bicep can feel the orb proceeding to unwrap itself and attempt to stretch out to touch the city heart. Jack notices this and helps it, it’s technically the guardian beast and this city heart can be considered part of it.

Just as the snake touches it, a bolt of energy blasts through the snake and directly into Jack’s mind. His mind is quickly absorbing this information, it’s a cultivation technique built upon the combination of the two qi, Yang-Yin Dragon-Phoenix Myriad Arts.

The energy felt incredibly painful at first but in a split moment it disappears and replaced with extreme exhaustion, he feels like slumping over and falling asleep for 100 years. He focuses his mind and tries to control this draining feeling.

Within an unknown blank space, as though it’s a simple piece of space yet without any light or well, anything in it. A black and white symbol appears slowly rotating it’s a familiar yin-yang symbol, in the centre of this rotating symbol a tiny spec of dust appears.

Jack’s forehead starts to bleed where some stars start to appear, 1 star appears above his eyebrow, followed by two more above it, follow by 4 above it and so on until his forehead is covered in stars, 18 in total.

Information appears within his mind as he comprehends part of the cultivation technique. These stars are able to store a technique within each one providing various benefits such as faster circulation rate or able to contain massive amounts of qi. He has only cursory glanced at this part of the cultivation technique but it only provides benefits.

Jessica walks over, clothed in various leaves and looking rather silly. She saw Jack’s forehead start to bleed but quickly get replaced with various stars.

“The birth of the Lord of Myriad Realms…. The first sign is the appearance of the Emperor star…. The second sign is the appearance of 18 stars points…… the third is…..” Jessica mutters while lost in her thoughts, shaking her head she dismisses this thought as there’s no way this legend can be coming true in front of her.

Jack’s mind is still going through all this information while fighting the exhaustion, the snake is still completing the circuit between the city heart and Jack. This energy abruptly stops and the ground starts shifting.

A large statue of a phoenix rises out of the ground near the city heart, drawing the attention of both Jack and Jessica. Jack is unable to move so Jessica walks over to it and touches it, she can feel a special connection with it and reads the inscription at the base.

“I will wait until the ends of the Heavens for you, together with you we will strike down all those who keep us apart, even if they’re the heavens itself” Jessica can feel her heart tremble as runs her fingers along the words.

A weak glow appears in her hand as she runs over the last character in the inscription and a little baby bird appears in her palm, it’s only 6cm big and weighs almost notice unable to support itself. Its eyes are barely able to open but it looks at Jessica, she gives it a smile and cradles it on her chest to which it climbs in between her bosom that’s covered with leaves.

‘SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT – The heroes of old shall be reborn anew, the mighty warriors who died for their nation and buried with their honour. Do you wish to proceed?’ a prompt appears for Jack who is brought out of his comprehension. Jack quickly reaches for the Yes prompt but pauses and considers for a moment.

He doesn’t know anything about the Holy White Dragon Empire nor the Phoenix Empire, so he isn’t too sure who will be reborn or come out of this process as this process is a benefit of the system and its spawning system. If he obtained the legacy of a nation from the real world, he might have more knowledge about who comes out.

Jack is unable to decide but ultimately press on the accept button.

4 figures step out from the city heart, shrouded in energy covering their looks. Each of them takes a look at their surroundings but when their eyes meet Jacks’, they each kneel down and say in unison, “Lord!”.

Jack takes a look at the first one, he’s a tall, large man with horns on his head and reptilian pupils. His eyes narrowed but full of respect when they land meet Jack, the man nods his head and Jack pulls up his information.

Name: Drakon Laoshe

Grade: SSS

Title: None

Profession: [Stage 1 General]

Race: Dragon - Coral Snake

Age: 32 (910)

Loyalty: 100

Stats: Strength: 40, Intelligence: 20, Constitution:35, Agility: 30

Cultivation: Stage 0-3

Cultivation Technique: Holy White Dragon mantra

Skills: Fire Breath, Poison control, Basic Sword Technique…

Equipment: Cloth clothing....

History: A mighty general that led to the conquest of over 3000 worlds, ultimately betrayed by his loved one in a betrayal that led to the downfall of the first White Dragon King dynasty over 2 million years ago.

Jack is glad that he has a general that appears to have some experience with battles, Jack’s only experience with that is some Strategy computer games. Jack turns his gaze to the person kneeling next to Drakon, it’s a middle-aged man with red hair and a set of glasses, bringing up the information:

Name: Maurice Shine

Grade: SS

Title: Researcher

Profession: [Stage 1 Researcher]

Race: Human - Phoenix bloodline

Age: 46 (210)

Loyalty: 100

Stats: Strength: 13, Intelligence: 48, Constitution:10, Agility: 21

Cultivation: Stage 0-2

Cultivation Technique: Phoenix Empire mantra

Skills: Fire Energy Manipulation...

Equipment: Cloth clothing....

History: The lead researcher of the Phoenix Empire, he was kidnapped and held for random by the Phoenix Empire but when no one would accept it, he was incorporated into the Phoenix Empire leading to a technology revolution in the use of ‘Aeros Ore’.

Jack isn’t too sure what to make of this person as at this stage he needs military might more so than researchers. He won’t complain about this and quickly turns his gaze to the two remaining people kneeling.

The first is a middle-aged woman with a pair of glasses and a very stern face, if one were to describe her, it’d be the typical stuck up librarian. She has a set of horns on her head but her pupils are normal.

The second is an early 30s man, he is rather sly looking but has a genial smile on his face. He has the sort of face that makes him seem like he’s always plotting your downfall. His hair is red but an orange shade compared to Maurice.

Jack pulls up their information:

Name: Hilda Nailong 

Grade: S

Title: Civil Leader - Prime Minister

Profession: [Stage 1 Civics Leader]

Race: Dragon - Cow

Age: 38 (510)

Loyalty: 100

Stats: Strength: 18, Intelligence: 33, Constitution:20, Agility: 15

Cultivation: Stage 0-2

Cultivation Technique: Holy White Dragon mantra

Skills: Literacy and Numeracy, Taxation…

Equipment: Cloth clothing....

History: Prime Minister of 300 worlds, led to untold wealth and prosperity…..

Name: Bane Revi

Grade: S

Title: Civil Leader - Internal Affairs

Profession: [Stage 1 Civics Leader]

Race: Human - Phoenix bloodline

Age: 31 (110)

Loyalty: 100

Stats: Strength: 11, Intelligence: 34, Constitution:21, Agility: 25

Cultivation: Stage 0-3

Cultivation Technique: Phoenix Empire mantra

Skills: Literacy and Numeracy, Observation…

Equipment: Cloth clothing....

History: Led several violent purges to rid the Phoenix Empire of spies, nicknamed ‘The Butcher’ for his sadistic torture methods.

Jack closes all of the information screens, his head is now swimming with all new sorts of information and he needs time to process it.

“Rise” Jack says in a commanding tone. Each of the people kneeling on the floor stand up. Jack motions for them to stand behind him as some more people appear where they were kneeling.

The people that appear are just some of the common villagers that spawn everyday from the city heart, as the city has just been established it can only spawn 3-5 people a day but as it progresses into higher ranks more people will appear every day.

There are 3 men that spawned today and viewing their information, two of them are simple labourers and the last one is a physician – apothecary. The group of men are kneeling, afraid to look Jack in the eyes.

“Rise” Jack says again as the men rise from the ground. Jack looks at the group of people before him, Jessica has run off as she’s afraid of being seen with her leafy clothes that are coming apart quite quickly, “You are all members of the Holy White Dragon – Phoenix Empire now, I hope in the future you will help bring all of us to glory!” Jack attempts to inspire the people before him.

Each of the people give Jack a salute with their fists over their heart, Jack then steps away from the City Heart and starts to formulate some plans in his mind on what to do next. He needs time to work out what each of these people can do, he needs to give them appropriate jobs and he needs time to process the information about his cultivation technique and various other bits of information.

Jessica is peeking from behind a tree far in the distance at this group of people following behind Jack, she has a smile on her face while the barely alive chick in her bosom sleeps soundly.

Zeeksi

This was a difficult chapter, will most likely be the only time there's a massive introduction of information like this. Needed to include the char sheet for people joining the MC faction and in future, will at most be 2 person joining.