Jack is feeling incredibly relieved now, he has established the city and no longer has a chance of losing all the special items when he dies within this game world. He walks with the group of silent people following behind him, almost deathly quiet as a funeral procession but each person is brimming with excitement.

Each of the newly spawned people take in their surroundings, it’s just a plains area with long grasses and several trees. There is an incredibly straight river not too far away, a couple metres wide but several hundred metres deep, as though a massive sword strike landed against the terrain at some point.

The grasses and trees have been mutated by the release of energy from the city heart during its transformation, the grasses are waving as though they’re communicating and have spiritual intelligence. The tallest of the trees has gone from only 60m to well over 600m with a thick trunk.

Jack brings the group to a tree stump that is located not too far from where the city heart is located and gives out his first commands as the lord of this newly created village. He orders the labourers to start gathering resources to build a few buildings, such as a temple structure for the city heart and a city hall first before moving onto individual houses and utilities.

He orders the physician to gather all the helpful herbs he can find in the local area. Jack and Jessica have been hurt several times over the last couple of days and they’re running quite low on basic healing supplies. Jack’s wounds have mostly been healed with the massive influx of new energies within his body, while Jessica’s wounds will no longer scar with her experience.

Jack orders the civil minsters to draw up a constitution or some form of starting point for the nation he is hoping to eventually build. He has no experience within this field, he has his own opinions on governance which could be called very socialist-like but in this feudalistic, almost medieval kingdom fantasy world it might not be the best solution.

He believes that it’s best to leave the people qualified to handle these matters, but he is technically the lord so he will implement what he chooses to. This makes him excited but also gives him a massive headache just thinking about all the nuances.

The two civil minsters both walk away, quickly getting loud and arguing. The woman, Hilda is quite rigid in her approach, she believes that the Emperor’s will is a god’s command and the populace must support the Emperor with all their heart with harsh punishments for simple infractions. The man, Bane believes that the Emperor’s will is the law of the land but the Empire must adapt with evolving situations. Their arguments devolve into classical examples drawn upon their empire’s massive histories that Jack has no clue about.

Most of the newly spawned people have their roles, the two that are left are Maurice the research and Drakon the general. Maurice is simply standing there with a genial smile on his face while Drakon is standing very stoic-like, as though he’s a slumbering bear waiting to erupt at a moment notice.

Drakon peers from the corner of his eyes and lets out a snort, “Do all your women dress like that?” he asks. Jack looks at where he’s looking and can see Jessica peering from behind one of the trees still.

Jack chuckles, “I’m not sure why she hasn’t put any clothes on yet, I personally don’t mind it but since you guys spawned there’s a few too many people around” he explains while letting out chuckles still. Jessica sticks her tongue out and ducks her head behind the tree again.

“Hahaha, I guess she’s cute for a phoenix, sorry an immature pure phoenix bloodline human” Maurice says with a slight smile. Maurice was a member of the Phoenix Empire where each member must have a minimum phoenix bloodline giving them a special induction to other people with similar bloodline.

“Phoenix?” Jack and Jessica can be both heard almost shouting while questioning this. Jack never actually bothered to look at the changes within Jessica’s body after the city heart’s energy affected her. Jessica also felt something was going strange with her body, she feels a new affinity for fire and the little chick sleeping in her bosom gives her fiery feeling.

“Yes, phoenix or should I say specifically, celestial phoenix which is rare enough that I’ve never seen it. The highest rank phoenix bloodline within the Phoenix Empire was an Immortal bloodline, a celestial rank is higher than Immortal. How could you not know?” Maurice explains with his face still containing that genial smile.

Jack and Jessica both look towards each other, their gazes meeting as though they’re questioning each other with their eyes. They each have a look of puzzlement and confusion on their face, their minds drawing a blank. They both shake their heads towards each other indicating they don’t know.

“Ohh, well you better look after your woman, boy” Drakon says without any emotion, remaining almost entirely still like a statue but a statue that’s ready pounce and fight an army of thousands.

“Yes, lots of people will try to steal her blood so you have to protect her well as when she matures, she’s going to be stronger than us all…. Apart from you my lord” Maurice states, pushing up his glasses as he peers to Jack gauging his response.

Jack has a serious look on his face and nods in response to this. Jessica can be heard muttering in the background, “Who…. Who’s his…. Woman..” her face producing a blush. She then runs off into the distance shouting, “SLEIPNER GET BACK HERE WITH SOME DAMN CLOTHES YOU STUPID HORSE, PURPLE SPARKLY BOY WHERE ARE YOUUUUU?” her loud voice can be heard going into the distance.

“Lord, I would like to collect some mineral samples of the local area as this area should have the precursor material ‘Aeros’ in massive quantities” Maurice says while kicking the dirt on the ground, trying to uncover some rocks buried in the ground. Jack agrees to this and soon he’s left standing by the tree stump with Drakon standing there emotionlessly still.

“I get the feeling you don’t like me” Jack abrupted says to Drakon. This causes a reaction Drakon who merely opens his eyes squinting at Jack in a serious manner. His face expressionless still but his eyes feel as though they’re peering into Jacks soul.

“You are my lord; I just feel you are too weak to protect yourself or this village” Drakon bluntly states. Jack scratches his head, it’s true that he’s too weak. He finally has a cultivation technique and it appears to some mysterious one but he has only glanced at the very beginning of the scripture.

Jack can feel that there are endless mysteries involved with the scripture but he’s brand new to all of this and can only graze the surface of the true contents.

“I’ll be relying on you until I get stronger, general” Jack says with the might of a ruler. Drakon can feel this pressure which relieves him slightly, this pressure proves that Jack has protentional to be a ruler even if he’s very weak at this moment.

It’s decided that Drakon will act as Jack’s bodyguard for now, they have a massive lack of personnel and that can only be solved with time. The two of them proceed to walk to the City Heart where Jack pulls up the information screen:

Village Name: Dragon-Phoenix Village (Mutated Legendary)

Level: 1 - Primary (0/500)

Village Area: 1 square kilometre

Village Territory: 26 square kilometres

Residents: 9/110

Soldiers: 0/48

Popular Support: 100 (Popular Support refers to the loyalty stat of residents. If popular support is lower than 0, the residents will abandon the village.)

Everyone that can be considered a resident has 100% loyalty so it's at 100 now.

Village Special Stats: Crop Output +40%, Crop Growing Time -30%, Population Limit +10%, Population Attraction +20%, chances of attracting higher grade population +20%, Land Detoxification time -10%.

The special stats are where villages all differ from one another and the values are rather simple, as Dragon-Phoenix Village is considered a Legendary city albeit mutated, it has enhanced stats from any other village.

The crop production modifiers will help with food and attracting more villagers from the surrounding areas, while the city itself will attract people because of its legendary status. Higher grades of population mean stronger populations that possibly have more specialised professions, such as attracting more S rank Doctors than E rank farmers.

Land detoxification is the rate at which the poisons that are contained within the Plains of Sorrows are removed, the river when Jack checked it out earlier had poisonous black sludge. This has also infected the land in the whole area, he isn’t too sure what this poison is but he now no longer has to find a solution himself and can simply wait for it.

There are currently no soldiers within the city as Jack hasn’t unlocked any profession change functions of the city heart, these come in many forms but the primary one is a Profession Change stele. He is able to unlock the first stele upon levelling the village up.

He can level up the city heart in many different ways such as; conquering another village, destroying another village or by doing actions that obtain achievement points. Jack has already acquired a few hundred achievement points by acquiring the dens of both the Lighting Scaled Horse and Grey Wolf.

The dens of both these animals haven’t been integrated into the city yet as Jack wants to plan out the city first to avoid having Wolves spawn next to the City Hall and scare the population in the future.

Jack has a big smile on his face as he considers how large the village will end up growing, right now there’s literally nothing here but a grassy plains area and a few trees. In the future it might even be a huge futuristic high-tech city with flying vehicles and robots everywhere as he has always dreamed about but he’s quickly drawn back to reality when he tries to match up the current swords and magic world to the futuristic one. He pushes it to the back of his mind but promises himself that he will not forget it.

Some people are noisy talking behind him coming up to where Jack and Drakon are, it’s the two civil ministers Hilda and Bane. They come to the front of Jack and kneel; Jack isn’t adjusted to this sort of behaviour and just stands there looking at them.

“Your Majesty, these humble ministers would like your opinion on architecture. This minister believes that each building needs to be grand in scale and showcases the might of the Empire and how it will last for all eternity and crush all that oppose it” Hilda speaks up before giving Bane the chance.

“Sire, this minister believes that we need to focus on what we can do now rather than the future. Sire is mighty and benevolent but right now we do not have access to the materials to make anything grand nor do we have the labour force to create it.” Bane quickly adds on his opinion.

Jack listens to them and then rubs his temple, they both have valid points and building something right the first time has always been appealing but that will not happen with the current work force and result in many unfinished buildings while awaiting more resources such as stone and rocky building materials.

“We will build things out of wood for now while we plan for our great Empire, I have my own opinions on this matter and will advise you further, just prepare appropriate buildings with our current materials and workforce. I will judge you on your decision” Jack says and waves at them to leave which they promptly do.

Jack can already feel the problems that creating his own Empire will produce but he’s glad that the system is helping him. Each legendary city will have a legacy like Holy White Dragon Empire did, such as spawning in historical people. There’s no way to control who gets spawned so the system decides or it’s random, but each of the people were buried within their respective Empire, Kingdom or Nation.

Jack takes a deep breath in; he has a huge load a responsibility on his mind and he’s worried that he’ll mess it up. He lets it out as he also considers that this is really just a game, all these people he’s meeting are just people that aren’t real and ultimately don’t exist.

He reaches his fist out and clenches it a few times, feeling his hand that has Sleipner’s horn pass through it a few days ago, it doesn’t hurt anymore and as he takes off the bandage he can see that there’s no wound and the skin looks brand new with some redness on it still.

Jack looks to Drakon, the massive almost 7ft tall man with horns on his head as his body starts to heat up, he clenches his fist a few more times. His knuckles cracking with each squeeze of his fist. Jack starts to revolve the little qi within his body, the black and white qi circulate in increasing speed. Jack closes his eyes to manipulate this flowing qi within his body and directs it to his fist.

Drakon is standing there as he always has, as still as a statue.

Jack quickly punches out his fist but Drakon easily intercepts his fist, pushing it away. Drakon has a slight smirk on his face, his eyes partially open looking at Jack. Jack smiles at Drakon and punches out with his other fist which is again intercepted.

This continues for a few exchanges but Jack’s speed is getting quicker and quicker, soon Jack is sending out a punch every second, then two punches a second. He reaches three punches a second, Drakon is still easily able to intercept all of it.

Jack has a larger smile on his face and attempts to draw all of the power within his dantian for a massive punch. Drakon can feel this strike’s power and changes from redirecting his blows to catching Jacks fist, the sound of a solid fist colliding with Drakon’s palm can be heard as he’s forced to take a step back.

“Good!” Drakon simply says letting go of Jack’s fist. Jack draws back his fist and shakes it to return feeling to it, it’s red raw but it doesn’t hurt. Jack produces a smile on his face as he feels like he finally has some power.

They repeat this exchange a few times with Jack slowly getting more confident and more powerful in his strikes. Eventually Drakon signals for them to stop, they’ve been practising for several minutes now, Jack’s panting out of breath while Drakon is no different.

“Your strikes are getting more powerful, but I feel you’re holding back and not suited for hand to hand combat. Do you have a weapon?” Drakon asks.

Jack thinks for a moment, he did have a few swords he took from the Feather Town guards but most of them disappeared after he woke up after the incident in Arwen’s cave. He did have one left but it’s with Sleipner who has run off somewhere.

“I have a sword but it’s not very good” Jack states. Drakon furrows his brows and thinks for a moment.

“You should place that sword within the city heart so that it can absorb the qi and be reforged over time. If you start this process now while the City Heart is still new, it will become very powerful as the City Heart grows” Drakon explains.

Jack knew this already but he had decided to wait until he found something better than a simple iron sword. As he explains this, Drakon interrupts and explains that the reforging process will also increase the quality of the sword and that a simple iron sword can become a divine weapon given enough time.

Jack is surprised at this information and decides that he will place the sword within the heart as soon as Sleipner returns.

“A swordsman can be called an expert by using a divine sword but a true sword master can destroy that divine sword with a simple iron sword…” Drakon explains to which Jack nods his head in understanding. Jack never thought about being a sword master but he can’t say he hasn’t fantasised about it before.

They chat for some more time, Jack learning some more about the Holy White Dragon where Drakon came from and they increase their favourability towards each other, no longer standing in silence. \

Jessica returns wearing some clothes, along with all the other animals they’re all covered with grass, Jessica complains to Jack about how they were running away from her which just produce a chuckle from the two men.

Jack then places the sword within the City Heart and starts the reforging process, he’s not too sure how long it will take but it won’t happen anytime soon. Jack decides that he has been online for several days now and it’s about time he returns back to real life as he will have to work soon.

Jack leaves the residents to carry on their works, they’ve already started digging the foundation for the city heart’s temple and city hall. He says his goodbyes to everyone and proceeds to log off, he’s transported to the boring crystal room yet again.

This time it’s different though as the NPC from before the Hall of Trials is there standing in the centre of the crystal room looking at Jack.