"So that's what my plan is, if you guys don't know what to get the dwarves."

Jack has just finished explaining his plan to expand the city. It was mostly just garbage about how his current world is set up and some problems that have been produced from current housing and social issues. It's depressing and there's no need to go over the real life, but there's a chance to avoid that stuff here so he has laid out his best plan.

"Lord, while I would love to envision a day that we could design our cities like that. The reality of the world is different, we need to focus on defence more than anything. It's much better to copy the design of the system cities as you can see now, the city orb provides the best functions while the sprawl won't work with those functions. The other ideas are quite excellent, they touched upon some ideas you mentioned previously." Bane speaks as Hilda jots down information.

Amber is helping her too but doing a rather lazy job of it as she plays with her pen, Jack makes eye contact with her and she winks at him. Ignoring her, he responds to Bane.

"It might be difficult to implement some institutes, but the foundation needs to be laid early. They outer cities should also take the prime real estate while its free and no one is exploring. Do you have any assistants in mind, Hilda?"

"Lord, honestly I don't have the time to even consider any of that, I have been so busy that I haven't had time to show anyone else the processes I have currently." Hilda speaks but doesn't stop her pen. Her workload is forever increasing and adding on multiple regional cities will be far too much.

"Well, you must prepare as best you can. I'll work on recruiting some more people. We have to be close to increasing to the next level on the city heart. One thing is that we need to get the soldiers off the roadways. They need to get out there and help with the extermination efforts."

"Lord, I'll get the word out." Hilda responds and continues to write without responding.

"Any other news for me, Bane?"

"Lord, there is no further use for the people captured from the nearby village. None of them had a spiritual lock, so I could acquire nearly everything from them. We can either dispose of them or return them."

"What do you recommend?"

"I suggest returning them, killing them is no issue and will bring no drama but, if they were to be released then we can use that as a pretext for something grander."

"Something grander? Did you come up with something already?" Jack asks.

"Yes, perhaps we could even wipe out their family or acquire all their wealth. They're essentially the same, we have gained information on their properties and wealth so it's just a matter of time."

"Hmm..." Jack ponders this for a few moments, "what about turning them into our pawn?"

"Oh?" Bane looks at Jack, he can tell that he's looking at him with squinted eyes.

"Well, how about this?"

Jack then explains his plans, let go of the woman and get her to inform whoever they'll come to retrieve him and they'll feed him some poison. There're no villages in the nearby region, and residents can't teleport easily either. They'll just say that they rescued the people of the village and found him already poisoned, residents shouldn't interfere with player affairs which is what they were doing.

"It sounds fine but I wouldn't worry about it at all, just release both of them. They'd be stupid to launch a full scale assault right now, and we'd learn about it in advance, the only army we have to worry about is the system army and they are not permitted to gather outside the city for a purpose like this. This restriction applies to towns too, but they aren't a concern."

"Do they know the location of our village?" Jack asks.

"Their memory has been tampered with but the incident at the town is firmly engraved. They will be able to narrow down our location sooner or later as we have to remember they found out perimeter earlier."

"Just process them however you want, I trust your abilities."

"Lord then, I would suggest that you don't take Madams tonight, they are unaware of the world and won't particularly help you there."

"I'll consider it. Amber, you are coming too, right?"

"Yes, my Lord, I'll be happy to serve you."

"All right get over here and help me out." Jack taunts her.

She blushes but still approaches him and calls his bluff. She places a hand on his pants and slides it upward under his shirt.

"Shall I keep going?"

"Perhaps later." Jack pulls her hand out of his shirt. She takes back her hand, giving him a final tap before leaving. He was unprepared, causing her to giggle on the way back.

'Hmm' Xueli mutters while Jack ignores it.

"Tahel, what about you?" Jack asks out loud. The bunny man appears from almost nowhere, no one is shocked at his appearance, yet it gives him a much-needed distraction from the exchange between Amber and him just now.

"I wish to guard Prin-Miss Nelliath." he bluntly speaks.

"No problem, but it sounds like I need to ask, for how long?" Jack takes a long look at the bowing rabbit-human. He reveals no expression, but Jack can't forget how he has always been rather mysterious.

"Eterenally." Tahel states.

"Just remember that you serve me and the city, not her. She'll let it get to her head and when she learns about some things, it'll be a harder crash..." Jack is trying to get Lunamarie to establish herself first so she has a place in the village before learning about the truth of some things. It's possible her family still exists, but how long has it been?

"My lord." Tahel responds resolutely by placing his fist over his heart.

"That's fine then go, I hope you won't disturb us though." Jack looks intently at Tahel trying to decipher his thoughts but gets no clue from the stone-faced Tahel. Jack has no reason to distrust him, but he's definitely hiding something important regarding Lunamarie and himself, or at least their two races. He thinks back to the scene with the two coloured bunnies in the vision.

Tahel gives him a deep respectful bow and disappears, Jack tries to spot where he exits but cannot do that. His skills are very well suited to getting around, Jack's thoughts wander about how to replicate that, Bane speaks out, disrupting his thoughts after a few moments of silence.

"He's trustful and will be great for the interior agency, him protecting the lead alchemist will be important yet also give him plenty of free time." Bane gives his opinion on the situation. Jack trusts him with primary intelligence gathering and Bane excels at this.

"I just hope he won't get too bored and mess something up... What is the total amount of gold coins we'll have available for the auction?"

"230,198,291 gold coins are available." Hilda responds, she then lists off a few of the other assets and expected worth.

"That sounds like a lot, but it's still not enough to make a dent in the debt for the White Flower Church. We're going to need some method of gaining massive amounts of gold. Lunamarie is attending the alchemy laboratory, so perhaps she'll surprise us..."

They speak for some more time about the plan for going to the city, it's still on for tonight but Jack is reconsidering taking the girls along when Jessica comes inside interrupting their talks with the smell of medicine and herbs. She has a pleasant smile holding the little rat in her hand. It's no longer squirming and struggling as before nor shivering in terror so it seems to have warmed up to her.

Reaching into her pocket with her free hand, she pulls out a pill bottle. Jack greets her and walks her back.

"Fenrir is hanging around the outside, he seems to want her. I can't decide on her name." Jessica walks to the table.

"Oh, it's a her? Well, it doesn't matter, you decide. What brings you over here? The pill bottle?"

"Lunamarie said that we should try putting a drop of your blood in its mouth as you feed her this pill. She didn't really understand it as she has gone crazy, I've never seen someone control over one cauldron before. It's amazing."

Jessica holds out a strange-looking bottle, she opens it up to reveal the small green and brown lined pill; it has a single band around it. The pill emits a strange beast odour, causing everyone to get distracted for a moment.

"Tier 1 pill line?" Hilda and Bane almost shout in unison, Amber stands there with her eyes wide opened. Jack was about to ask how many cauldrons when the others interrupt his thoughts.

"She said that it could unlock whitey's bloodline potential. It might upgrade her into a king class if not it'll upgrade her strength. "

"Did she say the pill name?"

"Uplifting Spirit Blood Pill." Jessica mutters while frowning as if she is thinking hard.

"Never heard of it" Jack approaches her, the smell of processed herbs comes from her body as he takes ahold of the pill bottle. The other people in the room don't speak up.

The system information appears: <Uplifting Blood and Spirits Pill - A medicine capable of unlocking beast potential, effective on beasts tier 6 and lower.>

"So I just need to place a drop of blood in its mouth then feed it the pill?" Jack holds the small pill, inspecting it further. The information is different, but it's possible Jessica just misremembered.

"That's what she said." Jessica responds while reassuring the rat. It squirms around her palm, looking around the room without much care, sniffing about randomly.

Jack thinks about it for a moment even considering asking Xueli about it but he chooses to just forgo all of this. He picks up the little white rat. It takes a moment to settle, Jack lets it sniff the pill where it starts to almost ravenously want to consume it.

Jack pierces his finger allowing a drop of his blood to integrate into the pill, a single drop seems to just absorb instantly into it. The rat squirms and reaching for the pill in his other hand.

"Here you go, impatient."

The rat consumes the pill in a single bite.

The large pill barely fits in its mouth but it consumes without incident, Jack can feel a strange connection with this rat that lasts only a moment as the medicinal energies flow through its body. They nourish all parts of it, Jack uses his divine sense now that his spiritual energy has recovered, some allowing him to watch the energies flow through the body of the little rat gathering in two places in particular.

The first location is within its mind while the second location is strangely in its stomach.

A lot of energy is pooling in its stomach as a tiny crystal appears, "Beast core?" he mutters.

"Beast core?" Jessica asks.

"Uhh Xueli, can you help us?"

Xueli appears on his arm. It looks at the rat who would panic if it weren't undergoing the effects of the medicine.

'The medicinal energies are turning this beast into a magical beast. Creatures that start off with a simple mind need to become a magical beast before they may undergo tier upgrade. It's quite amazing that it had the knowledge to do this...'

"What's the benefit of doing that compared to like Sleipner or Fenrir? They don't have a core and are really strong, I don't even understand how they're gaining strength."

'They had a better starting point and could see the benefit of going in the other direction, they were also already leaders of their respective den. It's entirely possible for them to develop a core and develop as a magic beast, but it's up to their innate knowledge and their wishes.'

"So it's possible for each beast... Is there a benefit? Could you?"

'Quiet, don't you blaspheme the supreme race of the beast. We have the highest starting point and you better be prepared for when I get my memories back, I'll soar to the heavens in a single bound!'

"Ok sorry" Jack apologies while Jessica smiles at their exchange, "are there benefits?"

'It can provide a clearer pathway for the lower realm beasts. It gives them blessings from the heavens so these beasts benefit greatly, but it also makes enslaving them much easier. They cannot revolt against the core and there's countless beast enslaving tools and skills that specialise in it. You need to have soul skills otherwise.'

The energies slow down within the rat, Jack is watching it with his divine sense. The previous time he didn't have divine sense, so he's curious what's going on and the rat is small enough that it's easy to peer through.

"Soul skills, huh..." Jack mutters while watching it.

The energies flow into its bloodstream where a faint illusory lock appears, many of them unlock in sequence following on from the first one but as the final one breaks it's not enough for the bloods to upgrade. The energies pool into its mind have settled down as the core forms yet it doesn't, the final energies make pathways through its body in a moment but as the core didn't form, it's all inactive.

Jack gives it back to Jessica after checking the rat over a few times.

"Well, I don't know how smart this rat is now, but it has done something. Let's go ask Lunamarie anything else for today?"

"No, lord." Hilda and Bane respond.

Jack and Jessica leave. The rat seems much smarter and doesn't mind Xueli. It seems even fascinated by her while Xueli watches it, Fenrir greets them both and seems interested in the rat, but it stays watching Xueli.

"Look more lovingly and stop eating scraps. What do you prefer to eat, meat or something else?" Jack asks. Fenrir responds by looking at him with a tilted head and follows them.

They walk the short distance to the alchemy workshop, wagons are being unloaded full of raw minerals. That should be a delivery from the mining village, 'Perhaps we should use these pills on that dog too... Brownie?' Jack mutters in his mind as they walk by the wagons.