Jack and Jessica spend a couple more days within the tent, Jack’s body ejecting the poison with the help of the various herbs that are delivered each day. Jessica is happily taking care of Jack, enjoying the time they spend together and learning more about his life. Jack finds himself adjusting to her constant presence in his life.

She’ll often laugh at his stupid jokes that she can’t understand, she’ll ask questions about parts of his life she doesn’t understand, she’ll even help change his bandages and wipe down his body. The last one often leaves the two of them both red-faced looking to each other as though they want to pounce on each other but they hold back.

Each night, Jessica will softly play the flute lulling Jack to sleep where she will proceed to climb into his bed where they sleep by each other, Jessica often wrapping around him in various positions by morning. Jack finds the sleeping arrangement torturous; he hasn’t had any ‘action’ in a while and now he has a beautiful girl spending all their time glued to him. He feels like he’ll explode if he doesn’t get any release soon.

On the third day, Jack is quietly circulating his cultivation technique his bodies constitution slowly improving and allowing him to heal slightly faster, he feels the fire within his body is suppressed but also enflamed by his cultivation technique, as though there are two sides to it that oppose and suppress each other.

He tries to focus on the suppression part of his cultivation technique, a cold yet fiery qi but as he does that, the hot fiery part of his qi starts to revolt as though it’s being threatened by this increase in the cold qi. He can feel a sudden increase in the hot fiery qi within his body causing his body to feel hot, feeling like he needs to release this extra energy somewhere.

Jessica is currently outside the tent getting some food for the two of them but just as she enters the tent, Jack grabs her almost pushing her to the ground. Jessica is startled by this and wants to ask something but her mouth is quickly by Jack’s mouth as the two kiss. Jessica just closes her eyes while Jack’s hands just wander her back but this only lasts for a few moments when a sudden burst of qi comes from Jessica’s mouth into Jacks.

This qi is almost the same as the cold, suppressive feeling fire qi that Jacks body is lacking. It easily integrates into his body, bringing the imbalance back into balance forcing Jack’s body to settle and cool down. Their kissing changes from one of almost savagery into one of passion as they continue for a few more moments as the qi imbalance is solved within Jacks where they part.

Jack looks at Jessica under him, her clothes are slightly dishevelled and the food she just brought into the tent now all over the floor, he feels guilty for forcing her into this situation and tries to explain himself.

Jessica listens to him but interrupts him, “Drakon explained to us that you cultivate a combination Dragon – Phoenix Qi technique and that if the two get out of balance something like this might happen, so it’s ok because luckily this lady cultivates a phoenix Qi technique that can suppress your dragon qi.” She gives him a smile to relieve himself while Jack helps her up.

Jack scratches his head, cultivation is new to him so he isn’t aware of the pitfalls, he has some knowledge on how to get stronger and how to progress through his technique but nothing about what to do in the previous situation.

“Thanks, I don’t know what I would have done if you weren’t here” Jack says sheepishly to Jessica.

Jessica has a sardonic smile on her face, “Do you want to make this lady, your queen?”.

Jack is slightly stunned by this question and quietly replies, “Maybe….”

Jessica’s smile goes even wider as if she’s taunting Jack, “Well, my king, stop lazing about in this tent and go do something for your kingdom” she says while leaving the tent. Her heart is actually beating a lot as she feels a stronger attachment to Jack ever since the last kiss, as though there’s now a stronger link between them and she needs time to settle down her heart.

Jack is left standing there, he is able to walk now but he’s still at only about 40%. He leaves the tent as is again, left stunned as he looks at the progress made over the last several days. Jack has been out of commission for nearly a week, 3 days unconscious and 3 days within the tent. He was able to hear a lot of work going on outside the tent but upon seeing it, he is very pleased.

There are now at least seven buildings set along a main street, just simple log buildings but it looks like the beginning of a village. The city heart is now enclosed by a tall protective wall and there is a city hall building that is already starting construction on a second story. Looking around there are now about 30 people running around the town, mostly on construction.

Jack walks down the street, there is a building selling food, a building that is used for smelting ores, a building for baking. There’s a guard house and a watch tower too, it’s coming a long quite nicely for their utter lack of resources.

He is unable to see Drakon, Hilda or Bane which makes him glad as that means they’re busy doing things so he just walks over to the city heart, along the way nearly everyone that he passes will stop what they’re doing to address him as ‘Lord’ and such.

The area around the city heart hasn’t changed very much, it’s still just an open area with a phoenix statue standing over a large black and white orb, the city lord weapon is sticking out of the city heart in that familiar glow.

Checking over the stats, the city heart hasn’t changed much just increased in experience and population. He brings up a menu that he’s after

‘Job Stele Selections – Advanced Swordsman, Advanced Archer, Advanced Spearman, Heavy Cavalry, Heavy Shield bearer, Advanced Scholar…’

The Job Stele selection will allow him to unlock an advanced profession, there is already a basic soldier job as such but it wasn’t unlocked until now:

[Holy White Dragon Empire Soldier]: E grade Military. Description: Holy White Dragon Empire Soldiers who swept across countless worlds as unstoppable legion. Effects: Every soldier who changes professions will receive the basic cultivation technique [Holy White Dragon Mantra].

Each person who becomes a soldier appointed by the City Lord will then be able to change into a specialty profession within the class line such as Soldier – Swordsman which will in turn grant bonus stats appropriate to the class like so:

[Swordsman] receive the skill [Basic Sword Technique] and the profession bonus of Strength +2% and Constitution +2%.

[Archer] receive the skill [Basic Archery Technique] and the Archer profession bonus of Strength +2% and Dexterity+2%.

The profession that he’s most interested in is the Scholar profession as this is the only way to research certain things the system has such as, teleportation channels and further special jobs or professions.

White Dragon – Phoenix Village finally has the population to support assigning a few people to the soldier job, after thinking about it for a moment Jack decides to assign the first job change stele to Heavy Cavalry. He was tempted to get Advanced Scholars but decided against it for the time being, they have large horses that would suit heavy cavalry.

As Jack makes the selection, two steles appear not far from the city heart creating a small stone platform that looks rather jarring when contrasted with the rest of the wooden village. Jack quickly overlooks the steles, one for the basic Soldier class and another for the Heavy Cavalry.

Jack then quickly sought out Drakon, who is overlooking the goblins to ensure the wolves don’t cause any issues with them. The goblin leader is standing beside Drakon, he looks much calmer now that he has settled into the new town, upon seeing Jack Drakon gives Jack a salute, the goblin Leader kneels down without looking at him, Jack just waves at him to stand up.

“You look much healthier now, your majesty” Drakon says.

“I’m able to walk around now so I shouldn’t stay inside all day or people would think I’m a bad leader, what’s going on here?” Jack asks and looks at the goblins doing something, they’re seemingly digging into the ground with two piles one of dirt and one of black looking slime.

“Maurice said that there should be some ore beneath this location and the goblins had nothing to do so we gave them this task, as they’ve been digging we have discovered that the poison that’s within the plains of sorrow is starting to combine together” Drakon explains, “The poison gets much stronger as it combines underground and after enough time become poisonous slimes” he adds.

Jack raises an eyebrow upon hearing this, if that’s the case ‘why isn’t the whole plains overrun by poisonous slime’ he questions internally. “What can we use that stuff for?” Jack asks Drakon.

Drakon as if expecting this question answers, “If we have people with a taming skill, we might be able to control the slimes. The slime could also be used to poison people by stealth as it’s quite tasteless in its condensed form”.

Jack has already had an experience with the poisons of this world, he nods his head and agrees that it sounds like something they need to organize in the future. Jack then explains why he came over, they need to select some people to change their job into Soldier and then choose a profession from there.

“I’ll bring some people over shortly as I already prepared for this; 10 people will become soldiers, 3 swordsmen, 3 archers, 2 heavy cavalry and 2 scholars and each day, if they spawn without an advanced civil profession, they will become soldiers” Drakon explains in simple terms.

Jack has no objections to this and quickly agrees to Drakon’s plan, turning his attention to the goblins again he looks toward the goblin leader who is standing there not fully understanding what is being said. Jack is suddenly reminded that he hasn’t placed down the Goblin Village City Creation Stone.

He pulls out the city creation stone, Drakon upon seeing the tiny stone suggests an area where it can be created and they walk over there, it’s not too far from the city but far enough that it will not impact its development. Jack tries to create the village in the same way he did previously but nothing happens. He tries it a second time where again, nothing happens. Feeling awkward he hands off the village creation stone to the goblin leader; a bright light appears as the city creation stone just starts to hover above the ground before them.

‘SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT – You have obtained your first subsidiary village received 100 achievement points’

‘SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT – As you have obtained your first foreign species subsidiary village, you have obtained bonus stats – 10% increased spawn rate of residents for all city hearts’

The system prompts appear before Jacks eyes as he looks over the information:

Village Name: Green Brook Village (Normal)

Level: 1 - Primary (0/500)

Village Area: 1 square kilometre

Village Territory: 5 square kilometres

Residents: 0/30

Military: 0/10

Popular Support: 0

Village Special Stats: Territory Crop Output +2%, Territory Crop Growing Time -2%.

Subsidiary Village Limit: 0

Essentially nothing that Jack didn’t expect, so he closes out the prompt. Jack and Drakon leave the Goblin Leader to handle all the other goblins, leaving Sleipner and some of the other horses behind to protect the goblins.

Drakon quickly gathers the people to change into the soldier professions while Jack walks into the forge building, the heat immediately hits Jack while he’s confused as to what they’re smelting. Maurice and a few other villagers are within the room crowded around a table, Jack walks over and takes a look, they’re dissecting the carapace of an ant.

Jack is quietly confused about this but says nothing as they must have collected some dead bodies of the ants while he was out of commission. Maurice is hitting various parts of the carapace with a hammer while the others are trying to slice it apart. Jack doesn’t disturb them and lets them continue on when a pile of black metal looking plates catch his eye.

Jack picks up one and taps it, it feels quite solid as though it’d suit being used in weaponry and armour plates. This sudden noise causes the other people in the room to stop, Maurice can see that Jack is within the room and quickly starts to explain.

“Lord, the exoskeleton of the black ants you found is well suited to be used in place of metal in a lot of purposes, it does need some heat treatment but that’s nothing. We need to collect massive amounts of these ants and study them more” he explains quickly without pause.

“How long until it’s useable?” Jack asks as this would solve a major problem right now.

“It’s useable right now, we just need more of it. In the tailor they are already making several pieces of armour containing these plates, if you want to know more go over there” Maurice quickly explains while paying attention to a forge.

Jack ignores Maurice’s action and heads outside of the hot building and heads into what looks like the tailor but is intercepted by Jessica who isn’t allowing him to enter under mysterious circumstances.

Drakon has now gathered 10 people and two horses by the city heart area, 8 men and 2 women. They proceed into the stone floor area and change their classes, each of them can feel power entering into their body as the changes take effect.

Jack now feels relieved that they have the start of a military and are no longer reliant on just Drakon and himself for defence. All these current soldiers will mostly act as bodyguards while Jack has left the village but while he’s within it, they’ll need to do patrols and training.

The newly created soldiers are left to inspect the changes the enhanced stats and skills provide while Drakon and Jack make a plan which is going to the ant hill again in order to continue farming the raw ant carcass and money they drop.

They will use people on horses to bait single ants away from the hill, slowly clearing an area and moving onto the next working their way up the hill avoiding the larger stronger ants. Jack has a feeling that there is some reason for the ants to be there so he also wants to explore the ant nest but he needs to wait until he has recovered.

Drakon agrees to the plan and sets out to train the new soldiers while Jack is left by himself again, he returns to the tent that is now considered his temporary palace and cultivates, making sure he doesn’t run into the situation from earlier where one side of his qi is unbalanced.

He feels that if he can obtain a source of the cold fiery qi, he will be able to store excess within one of his forehead stars allowing him to call upon it if he runs into the same situation and Jessica isn’t around to assist him.