The young man and the giant purple scaled horse ride through the dusk after inspecting the exterior of the ant’s area with no result, there wasn’t a single demonified ant, a red orb or a lousy metallic ant for Jack to practise on. The horse lets out a snort as it passes by a slime, Jack watches the slime bounce as they pass it feeling mesmerised by its motion, slimes have been seen more often lately which feels natural and sounds better than a damn demon invasion.
The sounds of construction can be heard as the two near the area they crossed over in originally, most kobolds and goblins are still hard at work, the twilight is causing the sun to cast a red glow over everything indicating that it's coming up to dinner time so a few of them are slacking but suddenly perk up upon seeing the giant horse, the young man smiles as he passes by them quickly not stopping to talk, the ditch is coming along nicely and he feels proud of the workforce so far.
The goblins return to normal but many of them start to gossip, "Do yoo tink DeeYo talked to lord?", "DeeYo said so" another responds while they all discuss their own divided opinion. The squad leaders of the goblins also join in on the discussion, while the kobolds continue to dig as they’re in their element.
The giant horse continues along the roadways that have been partially cleared as he passes by two other towns on his way back to Dragon - Phoenix village, one of the new human villages which is simply two wooden houses protecting the village heart and the bunny village.
The bunny village is more well established with stone houses shaped with taller doorways, a few rather attractive bunny girls have spawned so far but none that Jack feels excited about, Jack rides by with a smile whilst looking over the villagers who return a wave back to him as they quickly part ways.
The rest of the ride is uneventful going through empty plains area giving him some time to think about what class he should unlock but after not too long, he makes the obvious choice; Advanced Spearmen. Drakon and Tyson both use different weapon types making them unsuitable as training partners and Jack has a newfound respect for the spear, Bunny Dash and Heavens Piercing Thrust compliment each other greatly, even in close quarters combat against many enemies and there's no reason it won’t get better with proper training partners or learn some spear skills beyond stabbing.
Jack can see the perimeter of the main village, smoke is wafting from the forges that are smelting down materials to power the war machine beneath the exterior of this rather boring looking wooden village, the air is filled with the smell of all kinds of things as the demonic sheep can be heard bleating in the distance, hundreds of them won’t stop bleating when one gets started.
He enters the town and quickly checks in at the tent ensuring that nothing has burnt down, letting out a sigh of relief Jack then heads to the city hall building where he gives a quick summary to Hilda.
"So, you captured the goblin town... just like that?" Hilda looks at Jack in disbelief and almost awe.
"Yeah but we can't trust them fully, make sure we can prepare a force to counter them"
Hilda nods her head twice before jotting things down on the paper excited, Jack is left scratching his nose as he feels that everything that happened isn't exciting nor great, the powerful field of ice he encountered after it really grounded him and a simple goblin town is nothing before that power. Hilda finishes writing up a report, Jack reads over it before approving it.
'1. United Goblin town has technically surrendered but population attitudes are unknown, 2. Formal surrender is yet to take place so consider the town still hostile, 3. Goblins from the Town will show up on the perimeter to start exchange between the two sides, 4. Goblin leader is currently hurt and under influence of unknown entity 'Oracle' that has never been mentioned before...'
Jack leaves Hilda to write up more reports regarding his experiences so as to inform Drakon and everyone else when they return, while he exits the city hall building.
“My Lord is certainly great…” Hilda quietly mutters as he exits the room.
The dusk has truly settled in negating the red glow of twilight, but it has been replaced by an eerie red glow in the distance from high above. The red-moon is still peering down like a giant eye in the sky much more visible than it was during the day, Jack quietly watches the moon as he walks down the main road, the activity along the road makes the village sound busy but the moon holds his attention as it looks different to the previous moon... almost as if there are ruins on it.
His short walk is over upon arriving at the city heart building, he passes through the barrier without effort and enters the building where he's greeted by the orb of equal black and white energy, the room is quiet but that's broken by the sounds of Jacks heavy footsteps as he walks up to the orb placing his hands upon it some familiar prompts appear.
'SYSTEM NOTIFICATION - Do you wish to upgrade your Lv2 Intermediate Village into Lv3 Advanced Village?'
Jack immediately accepts it, the city heart orbs spins a few times as qi enters the surrounding area, the black dragon qi and white phoenix qi spread out from the city heart into the building bathing Jacks body in the two types of qi, the little dragon tattoo on his arm starts to dance about as it greedily absorbs this energy while Jack’s body also absorbs what it can but this only lasts a moment to the disappointment of the little dragon.
'MOOOOOREEEEEEEEEEEEEE'
A voice resounds in Jack's mind, it sounds similar to the toddler voice from the last time but this time it sounds older, if Jack had to guess then it's probably about 6 years old, younger than Mai who Jack estimates to be around 8 years old yet old enough to speak properly. Giving the tattoo a stroke, the little snake appears wrapped around his arm where it slithers towards his neck and then proceeds to climb on top of his head curling up into a ball, like a weird hat.
"Uhh, are you going to tell me what you're doing?"
'Sleep time, good night'
Jack tries to speak a few more lines with the snake but he gets no response causing him to be incredibly confused as to the reason it climbed onto his head but as he inspects his body, he finds that the dragon qi from his forehead star is being siphoned off slowly by the snake. Not enough to cause concern but enough that he's able to notice it yet it gives Jack an idea about using qi via non-standard veins, perhaps he can tap into the massive reserves on his forehead and headbutt people...
Smiling to himself as he pictures all the enemies that he has previously encountered suddenly burning up as their head is invaded by dragon fire qi, he looks at the enhanced city stats but it's boring, only a 5-10% increase in the stats with no facilities nor historical people summoned this time. Pressing down on the city heart orb again, the next prompt comes up:
'SYSTEM NOTIFICATION - Do you wish to choose your profession for the City Profession Stele?'
Jack immediately accepts this and after browsing the list, he is left disappointed after hoping that there will be new options but perhaps advancing into a Lv4 village or the start of the Town classification, he selects the option that he decided upon earlier: Advanced Spearmen. The city heart rotates a few times as a grey stone stele flies out and positions itself near all the others, he's curious as to what makes them 'advanced' but he presses on the city heart yet again and brings up the final prompt:
'SYSTEM NOTIFICATION - Do you wish to acquire 1 x Region Reward Box?'
This is a new prompt so he's curious as to what will happen, accepting the prompt a present box with a bow on it appears flying into Jack's hand which opens up almost instantly upon touching it revealing the contents: A black metallic lump.
'[Origin Ore] Grade: Legendary, Description: A legendary ore that was formed upon the creation of this world, providing a bridge between all the elements it has countless benefits in all applications'
The metallic lump of Origin Ore is sitting in Jacks hand but he doesn't know how to feel about the reward, the little snake flickers its tongue and stealthily looks at the lump of metal but doesn't move, it's another lump of ore that the village probably can't use like the previously acquired Innate Purple Gold Ore.
They aren't able to forge gold grade equipment yet due to lacking people able to work with it so disappointed it wasn't a weapon, skill or even a class Jack places the metal in the storage ring and exits the city heart building.
The street is busier as people prepare wagons of food for the goblin and kobold workforce, Jack is walking to Maurice's workshop but notices many people are sneakily looking at his new headgear, the curled up white snake. He bitterly smiles and speeds up, Maurice's workshop isn't far from the city heart building so it doesn't take long to arrive where Jack is greeted by a busy workshop filled with people passing around different materials while Maurice is stationed in the centre silently looking down at a crystal, his focus is concentrated as he's laying down intricate circuits on a pendant surrounding a crystal.
Jack silently greets the people of the workshop indicating he doesn't want to disturb their activity and watches Maurice for a few moments, it's like Maurice is soldering an intricate circuit board using his finger and it is truly interesting for Jack to watch this, it reminds him of his real life and gives him a few thoughts about how he can apply his existing skills in this new world.
Maurice stops soldering and lets out a sigh, "Something's missing but what...." as he places down the crystal before looking at a piece of paper hanging before him, Jack clear his throat causing Maurice to look at him.
"Lord, Sorry I didn’t greet you, what are you doing here?"
"I just got this piece of metal from a reward box, I don't know what it's used for and your focus is on ore and minerals so thought you'd have an idea" Jack holds out the lump of metal, Maurice closely inspects it visually before picking it up and inspecting it further with his senses, his expression goes from fatigue to astonishment to excitement in seconds.
"That's it... That's what is missing... probably" Maurice can't contain the excitement in his voice as he holds the piece of metal up to the light.
He ignores Jack as he places the piece of metal on the table and gets to work, his focus is entirely on his work and Jack can sense that he shouldn't be disturbed right now so left scratching his nose in the busy workshop. There are 10 people passing materials back and forth, mostly ant carcass parts but there's also the black iron wool and various other minerals that have been dug out of the ground that they're trying to test against demonic energies.
Jack walks over to a pile of ant carcasses in different colours and can see that there's no yellow ants, there's plenty of black and red ants while there's lesser green and blue ants yet no yellow at all. Jack stops one of the researchers and asks about it, "My Lord, we have not found any yellow ants previously but if you can provide some, we'd be grateful as Earth Element Ants will provide a good foundation on the city walls"
Looking through his storage ring, Jack withdraws a the larger yellow ant carcasses and fills the room with the stench of dirt causing all eyes to turn toward him but the young man is left confused, looking through the storage ring again he can see all the yellow ant carcasses are gone but there's 3 missing from the ones he stored. 'Strange...' he inwardly mutters and inspects yet again, this time closely inspecting all the items in the storage ring yet turning up no result again, on a hunch he also inspects the new storage area and can't sense the ant carcasses but upon using his divine sense to inspect the clump of dirt on a whim, it's different.
The clump of dirt is larger, it's still a clump of dirt but instead of being the size of a fist it's now about 50cm³ and contains a miniscule amount of different energy, an earth Qi.
Jack quickly consults his cultivation method and techniques but can't find any explanation so he's left with the only logical explanation even if it's incredibly outlandish, the clump of dirt absorbed the ant carcass and integrated part of its qi, he's left standing there before the pile of yellow ant carcasses while the researcher thanks Jack for the assistance.
"Uhh, no problem..." Jack mutters disinterestly as he eyes the rest of the ant carcass parts, "I need 3 of each type of ant that we have, whole bodies if possible".
The researcher then explains that the research storage room should have plenty of them including two metallic ants, Jack quickly parts from the researcher and enters the storage room attached to the workshop, the stench of death assaults his nose upon the first step causing Jack and the little snake to wince and cover their mouths. The storage room has piles of ant carcasses haphazardly placed while cut up exoskeleton are placed on rows of shelving; it has an organised feel reminding him of the supermarket.
Quickly walking through the storage room Jack stores 3 of each colour ant within the new storage space before pausing before a giant metallic ant, it's pincers are large and it's body has wounds all over it indicating it had a bitter struggle before death, he places his hand on it to store the metallic ant carcass but he's assaulted by a splitting feeling in his head as though something is tunnelling through his head but the tunnel is far too small, he cradles his head as his hand is kept on the ant, forcing this sensation causing the ant to finally disappear.
His nose starts to bleed but he has a smile on his face as he inspects the clump of dirt which is more like a pile of dead ants now, the clump of dirt starts to throb as strange energy gathers and the pile of dead ants shifts but nothing major happens leaving him disappointed as he was expecting some sort of massive quick change given how quickly those ants earlier disappeared, blood drips from his nose causing the snake to flicker its tongue but it still doesn't move.
Wiping his nose, Jack leaves the storage room of death but upon entering the noisy workshop he feels like his head is splitting apart from the noise so he quickly exits the room without consulting anyone else, the researchers are busy at work dissecting the yellow ant carcass while Maurice continues working on the crystal and pendant and don’t notice Jack leaving.
The street is filled with the smells of food causing Jacks stomach to grumble, his mind and body are assaulted by exhaustion as he makes his way down the street. Step by step his feet get heavier as he finally appears before the tent, his nose twitches as the garden smell enter his nostril but he sneezes causing blood to spray from his nose onto the area before him and onto the little girl sitting in the garden.
"Ewwwwww... eh?"
The little girl yells out before turning around and looking at who it was, her eyes light up upon seeing Jack but looking at his dripping nose and then down at her clothing and skin that has splotches of blood on it as she uses a finger to lick some up.
Jack just slowly blinks his eyes at her as if he's in a daze, "Uhh sorry" as he's left standing there almost like a zombie.
"Don't waste your delicious blood like that"
Mai stands up, her short figure only comes upto Jack's waist but she still reaches up to hold a cloth to his nose as the blood continues to drip from his nose but is caught by the cloth that quickly becomes saturated.
"Ugh, why do I feel so terrible" Jack walks through the little garden area taking the cloth from Mai holding it by his nose, the little girl is left to chase after him but licking her fingers as she does shouting "Wait... big brother", as he enters the tent.
All the furniture is replaced, the partially burnt items from the morning are gone but Jack doesn't care about that. Jessica is cultivating in one corner of the room surrounded by the signature white glow of her phoenix cultivation method; she coldly looks at Jack he enters but her expression softens upon seeing his condition.
"What happened?"
Jessica stops cultivating and stands up rushing over to Jack but he collapses on the bed before she can reach him, the little snake slithers from his head to his chest where it curls up again, Mai is following closely behind Jack as she speaks up.
"I don't know..." the little girl responds meekly.
"I'm fine, I just think I need to sleep" Jack weakly says from the bed while Jessica takes the rag from his nose, it's still dripping with blood indicating that something is definitely wrong.
Jack closes his eyes as his body starts to glow green, Jessica has seen this before so isn't alarmed by it but it's the first time Mai has seen this, she rushes over to grab his hand as her own hand starts to glow green in a similar fashion.
"Wha... why does big brother's body have this energy? No... it's different..."
'You two need to let him sleep, I will watch him' a young voice enters the minds of everyone in the tent, Jessica and Mai both look at each other before shaking their heads and looking around the room. The little snake raises its head and looks at both of them before settling on Jessica, 'Get that jealous girl out here' it speaks into their mind again.
Jessica and Mai both look at each other in confusion but it speaks again, 'The bird hanging by your neck' the little snake's eyes closely watch Jessica as she in her confusion reaches into her robe and pulls the little bag out, the little chick is squirming in the bag and sticks its head out making a cute peeping noise before tilting its head at the little snake.
'Yes you are cute now help me, immature phoenix girl place the jealous girl on his chest near me, plant girl you make sure he has lots of wild fire origin grass, demon suppressing grass and royal dragon grass for tomorrow'
"Who are you, are you really just the guardian beast?" Jessica asks as she places the little bagged bird by the snake, its voice sounds incredibly young but it contains a strange ancient wisdom.
'Never mind that, I can't stay awake for long so hurry up and give him a drop of your blood phoenix girl'
The white snake starts to glow softly black, Jessica pierces her finger and places a drop of blood in Jack's mouth, the phoenix qi spreads into the surrounding area before the little chick starts to glow white giving a contrast to the little white snake causing the phoenix qi to disappear, Jack coughs slightly as some blood flows from his nose again.
Jessica and Mai are left stunned at the course of events, Mai looks to Jessica and wants to speak but she's interrupted by Jessica quietly going "shh"
The girls exit the tent feeling lost about what to do, Drakon walks into the garden area where the two girls are standing with a worried expression.
"Where is the Lord, young madams?"
"He's uhh, cultivating and won’t be available until tomorrow" Jessica speaks out while Mai nods her head along, she breaks into a smile to disguise her worry.
Drakon furrows his brows but doesn't press the issue, "Please inform him that we'll be having a meeting later tonight to discuss todays actions and the goblins, if he's not available then please inform him that we'll be delaying tomorrows actions until the convoy from the mining village turns up". Jessica responds by saying that she'll do so causing the man to respectfully bow at the two young ladies and leave the area.
Jessica lets out a sigh, "Let's go see what's for dinner" she says while putting a new smile on her face and grabbing Mai's hand. The little girl looks up at Jessica giving her a worried smile but they leave together hand in hand as the tent with Jack and the two little animals softly glows black and white, the little snake is yawning while the little chick is giving it the stink eye.
'This is our second chance; I know you don't like men but he's your lord now and perhaps he is the one you were waiting for...'
The little chick doesn't respond or perhaps it can't respond yet as the night proceeds, Jessica and Mai end up sleeping beside Jack each holding his hand as his body involuntarily twitches at times, the soft green glow on his body slowly weakens through the night as the damage caused by forcing the metallic ant through his divine sense thread is repaired, the little clump of dirt expands as it absorbs the energies contained within the ant carcasses.
Jack's dream is strange as multiple versions of him at various ages sitting crossed legged cultivating with a large White Dragon and many multi-coloured Phoenix’s dance in the sky above him while in the distance various animals can be seen like a Qilin, White Tiger, Black Tortoise, multiple headed wolf and various tailed foxes along with many other lesser yet still divine beasts. Jack feels a special connection to all the creatures and the land itself as many stars shine bathing the land in extremely rich qi, immortal energies and even basic primordial energies, opening his eyes he's not shocked by the multiple versions of himself as various women gather to serve him food and drink...
Also character design is done for one character, I'll be doing more;
¿Quien es esa chica? la imagen