When Jay went through this final corridor the expression he made quickly changed. At first, he simply saw a myriad of lights reflecting off of the wall, but when he got an actual view of the next cavern he was in awe.
The cavern before them had hundreds of different light sources stemming from a multitude of rare resources. Long stalactites came from the ceiling creating puddles of water on the ground, all of which beautifully reflected the light. In the very middle of the cavern stood a stone pedestal, with a glass cube resting atop it.
The glass cube was gorgeous, emanating a deep blue light that would make someone want to look at it for hours on end.
Jay could feel the amount of mana here was more than what he had ever experienced, even better than inside the magic tower. And so, somewhat greedily, he slowly walked up to the glass cube, the source of this power.
He could feel that this entire dungeon was powered by this small cube, which was only 10cm x 10cm.
Once he was about 10 meters away from the cube he was forced to stop. He felt that he was almost going to get burnt by mana overflow, something that could directly harm his soul. Standing 10 meters away from it was his absolute limit. But even when he was standing this far away he could feel the will of the cube. He felt that the cube was a key and once he got access to it he would be able to control the dungeon in its entirety.
It felt like a key to absolute power, if even just looking at the cube could give you such a feeling it was hard to imagine its actual properties.
But however much he wanted to, there would be no way for him to safely carry it to the surface, and even if he did there would be no way for him to safeguard it, as anyone that wasn't Tier 1 would probably be unable to look at it without burning their eyes.
While he was looking at the blue light the cube emitted he quickly lost track of time, and hours had passed before he realized he had almost lost himself within the light.
After this realization came to him he immediately left the cavern. He had heard that some high-grade items could cause people to go insane just by looking at it, and he was afraid this might be such an item. But he still couldn’t complain, he had gotten the golden scepter and once he got stronger he would surely come back for the cube too.
Once he got back up to the surface, he looked around Twin city. He could see many of the woman getting trained at this point. Previously the army here consisted only of men while the women did the other work, so Jay took advantage of the temporary ‘Blind Follower’ status to change their mentality.
Even though it had only been a week since he set out, Jay decided to head back to the capital. He simply had too many people. He couldn’t allow the newcomer to change the culture of First City and would have to make them integrate. This would already be very hard with the current number of newcomers and it would be impossible if he kept going.
If he went on for another week, Jay was afraid that his culture of strength and productiveness would fall. Even if this meant he hadn’t been able to clear the area he wanted to initially, getting so many people so quickly could still be considered a good thing.
Twin city wouldn't be moved, these were 2 silver grade cities who would slowly work towards becoming one, an important place to defend the treasure underground.
Before leaving the cities Jay did 2 things.
First, he restricted access into the tunnels, nobody was to enter under penalty of death. He could not risk the treasure being destroyed or taken. The second decision he made was to leave some soldiers from First City here.
They would serve high roles and act as an example for the citizens. He hoped they would be able to sufficiently change these citizens within the week. Introducing them to the way of life they were used to.
Soon bodyguard Morning, Isabella, and Jake followed Jay and his troops back to First City. Jay had decided to take these for a couple of reasons. Bodyguard Morning was obviously going to be his bodyguard, Isabella was a rare ancient mage that was still very young. Even if he wasn’t completely sure if the magic tower would have an effect on her, he was sure old man Von Hauser should be able to help her in some way.
As for Jake, there was no way Jay could allow him to stay in Twin city, that would be just asking for an uprising. It was a lot safer to put him in First City since most people there had the ‘Blind Follower’ status.
Soon, they arrived back in First City. All of the new troops, as well as the special trio, were stunned by the sight of it. There was both an inner and an outer wall, the roads were plaid with stones, the houses were all large, there was a bridge going over the massive river to the west, there was a huge mansion and a massive tower, and a beautiful view to the north, where they could see the snowy mountains.
Obviously, the people remaining inside saw them coming and prepared for their arrival.
Jay was happy to see that miss Evergreen had made more golems since every gate now also had one as protection.
He was quick to send everyone to work. They were specifically told to follow the instructions of the original citizens, and the original citizens were told to mention the Lord a lot and do a bunch of combat training.
He hoped that this way many of them would awaken the Blind Follower talent, something he had learned to love dearly.
More houses were being built constantly, with a third wall also beginning construction. Jay was a bit nervous about all of this, micromanaging citizens would now turn impossible, among the people they had gained were a bunch of basic talents. This included cartographers, scientists, magical scientists and more.
This obviously made Jay insanely happy. He also decided that if most of the people didn't have the blind follower specialty he would just buy some on the market. The problem was he was getting somewhat close to the limit on the system market. Even items such as farmers had a limited inventory, it was just that nearly nobody bought them.
There were only about 100 farmers left in stock and a similar amount of warriors.
He decided to hold off for now and focused on managing the city.
Luckily many people with the leadership talent were here, with more being trained at this time. After all, skills can be improved and he didn't believe that after guiding a group of people for a couple of days any of the original citizens would lack the leadership talent.
In this way, more than 4 days passed peacefully. During this time Jay hadn't gone outside of the city for even the slightest bit of time. Most of the time he was holed up in the tower, reading the remainder of the magic books he had and attempting to apply the theory. He also discovered that Jake was a very capable subordinate. Even if he couldn't be controlled or given the 'Blind Follower' talent he decided to listen to him carefully.
At this point, he had obviously already asked him about his reason for surrendering and was rather surprised by his wits. For this reason, he decided to make him the mayor of First City.
As for Isabella, she was given permission to the first 2 floors of the tower, unexpectedly the magical tower also had an effect on her type of magic which was a positive discovery. The only thing he worried about a bit was how little she acted as a kid, but in the end, he decided not to worry about that.
As for bodyguard Gustel, he was ordered to remain by his side at all times.
After these couple of days had passed, at last, general Green was spotted. But when Jay got to the eastern walls he instantly got worried. The General could be seen leading around 150 troops but it looked like they were being chased by another group.
