The day that Jack returned to Thereath was coincidentally also the day his human race age turned eighteen months. His Limitless Potential increased to rank 12. This skill now gave +3500 to HP, +350 to stamina and MP, and +12 to all attributes except for the luck stat.
After he dealt with the serial killers, he sent the investigator teams back to work on the affairs. Since then till now, Jack had completed seven affairs. Three were mediocre results. This was because Jack simply picked from one of the multiple choices provided. These three were the affairs that the investigator teams had no time to investigate.
The number of affairs appearing in the monarch system slightly decreased due to that. The remaining four were completed with three good results and one perfect result. The total number of rewards he received was 430,000 merit points and 5 ruling powers.
His sovereign level increased to level 11, receiving 10 ruling powers. He also acquired a new sovereign power mentioned by Peniel before. The power to punish guilds based in Themisphere, but he did not need this power for now.
Five days before he returned to Thereath, he received the monthly income of ruling powers from his sovereign level. At that time, his sovereign level was still at level 10, so the ruling power he received was 100 ruling powers.
The boundless cache had also been collecting ruling powers every week. The collected ruling powers were 15 ruling powers.
With the previous 33 ruling powers, the total ruling powers he now possessed was 163 ruling powers.
There were still 57 days before the construction of the large-sized fort was completed. Aldryth was on her way to this fort with his army and refugees, so Jack had to make sure this fort was already completed when they arrived.
Jack opened his sovereign power screen and used 6 ruling powers to hasten the construction. The fort was immediately completed. A prompt appeared and asked him to input the fort's name.
Jack simply gave the matter a brief thought and input the name, Aldryth. This caused Peniel to roll her eyes.
"What? I give the fort to her. What's wrong with using her name for the fort?" Jack commented.
"You are simply lazy to think up a proper name, aren't you?" Peniel said.
Jack didn't answer her. He called Thaergood over and informed him about his intention of giving the completed fort to Aldryth. He also informed him about giving Aldryth autonomous power over the area around the fort. He asked Thaergood to announce this to the military and also to make the preparation to provide Hydrurond refugees with the resources to build a temporary settlement around the fort.
Thaergood was a bit hesitant about sharing resources with a foreign power but Jack was adamant about it so he had to comply. Thaergood left to make the arrangement.
After completing that most urgent matter, Jack dealt with the other matters using the monarch system. He appointed eight native officers to the ranks of knight captains and knight lieutenants who had died during the war. He had previously discussed with Armstrong and Isabelle regarding which officers to be promoted, so he completed the tasks quickly. These promoted officers were the soldiers who had performed well during the war.
Jack left the research and the settlement's buildings to John. John would be returning to the palace tomorrow. He had also left the army and let Armstrong accompany Aldryth. He was currently in Heavenly Citadel, helping Tip organize the rebuilding of their guild army which had suffered quite a loss.
Jack used 80 ruling powers to do the monthly Call to Arms and Mass Drill. He also used manual drafts and training on each settlement. This act brought 364,000 recruits. Considering they lost 700,000 soldiers during the war, this number only covered about half of their losses.
Jack browsed the newly recruited soldiers to see if there were any mythical-grade recruits. He had used his Runestone of Luck when he did the Call to Arms, he hoped that helped increase the probability. There was one. A young woman named Ana.
When his sovereign level reached level 12, he would be able to add another royal agent. If there was no better candidate by then, he would consider offering Ana to become his ninth royal agent.
He then used the monarch system to send formal letters to Sangrod and Palgrost. In his letter, he pointed out Liguritudum who had invaded and taken over Hydrurond without any provocation. This showed Liguritudum's desire to conquer other countries. It was time to acknowledge Liguritudum as a threat and to band together against this common threat. Otherwise, Liguritudum would pick them off one by one.
As for Verremor, Kabaka had sent Jack a formal letter. The letter contained Kabaka's apology for not being able to convince the lord chiefs and elders of his nation to join Themisphere in the expedition into Hydrurond. Most still didn't think they should be embroiled in other countries' wars. Kabakas expressed that he would continue to try to convince the others. He also assured Jack that if Liguritudum or Aurebor forces ever set foot on Themisphere's soil, Verremor would send help.
Jack hoped Sangrod and Palgrost were more inclined to join in tackling Liguritudum. Palgrost bordered Liguritudum from the start. Sangrod was now the same after Hydrurond fell under Liguritudum's domain. In this situation, they should see Liguritudum as an immediate threat to them.
Jack ended the diplomacy screen and then went to the City Overview. He left most of the planning of settlements to John, but he needed to build one building he had promised.
He opened the screen of Therimdell, a main city close to both the territories of Sangrod and Hydrurond. He had discussed this with John before he came back. It was not ideal to build all the Wonder Buildings in Thereath. Aside from the benefits provided in the building's description, a Wonder Building also had the hidden effect of becoming an iconic landscape of the city, improving its prosperity and increasing the population growth rate.
Another reason why he chose Therimdell was that it was close to the future battlefields. He believed this was what the future residents of this Wonder Building to have wanted. He scrolled down the available buildings that could be built in that city. At the bottom of that list was what he was looking for, the Sanctuary for Courage.
