Jack chose one week out of thoughtful consideration for his new allies. Thelgrun had much to deal with after the destruction caused by this war. They also had to chase out the retreating Liguritudum army to make sure that the enemy truly left Palgrost.
Horatio had just come into power. He also needed time to secure his hold on the empire.
As for Verremor, he had contacted Four Winds. Four Winds confirmed the alliance. Thanks to Jack's tips about the kingdom toppling quests and the information gained from interrogating the captured Raretooth and Angryfeet tribes, they managed to root out the plans before it was carried out. Two tribes were banished due to that. The Angryfeet tribe and another tribe called Toughhead.
They were found to be colluding with the World Maker to disrupt and ultimately disband the current Council of Ten in Verremor. Uncovering that the World Maker had a hand in this also gave Grand Chief Kabaka and Four Winds the justifications to persuade the others into allying with Themisphere, who had been advocating Liguritudum's menace to all the countries in this world. The remaining six tribes within the council finally agreed to Kabaka and Four Winds.
As for the two empty seats on the council, Verremor would be hosting another election tourney. The tourney would be carried out within this week, so it could be settled before they came to Themisphere for the leaders' meeting.
Jack and John teleported back to Thereath to settle the arrangement of this meeting. Jeanny stayed behind and coordinated with the Themisphere army to chase out the retreating Liguritudum army from Palgrost.
On the way, John gave Jack a summary of the battle result.
Out of the 1,500,000 troops they brought to Palgrost, they lost one-third. The final all-out battle had taken quite a toll. They had also lost several ranked officers which Jack would have to replace using the monarch system. Jack sighed upon hearing the reports.
John told Jack that the enemy had it worse. He didn't have an exact number, but he estimated that the Liguritudum army retreated with a bit over one million troops. Rendezvousing with the troops they left behind to guard their supply line, the enemy retreated with around one and a half million troops.
The biggest loss the enemy suffered was their zombie army. The entire zombie army was completely eradicated. Master wouldn't be able to create another one any time soon without a major battle going on.
John said he would need to compile information on the army from their allied countries and gain as much intel as possible about the enemy's army. He would need all this before he could work out a strategy for their offensive campaign. An offensive campaign took many more resources than a defensive one. There was no do-over if they failed. That's why they would need to have the highest success chance before carrying them out. He would use this one week for the planning.
With John, Jack went to his throne and accepted all the alliance requests. Aside from Liguritudum, Aurebor, and Hydrurond, all other countries were now his allies. He also had embassies built in all those allied countries, so he could send messages fast.
He sent the formal invitation to have the country leaders come to Thereath one week from now. He also sent the message to Queen Aldryth in their temporary city, Alsvelg. He bet Aldryth would very much like to be a part of the offensive push.
Today was also the day when Jack received his monthly ruling powers. He received 140 ruling powers from his sovereign level 14. He also collected 25 ruling powers from the Boundless Cache. He had 208 ruling powers to spend.
He left the Call to Arms and Mass Drill for the last. He did manual drafts and training on each settlement first. With three countries in allied status, the World Commerce Center gave him an extra 300,000 gold coins every month. The trade routes and economy in every settlement also flourished due to that Wonder Building. This allowed Jack to continue the heavy expenditure on all that drafting and training.
There was no new Wonder Building to build, so he left the building arrangement to John. He did ask if John had anything to use his ruling powers on. John pointed him to several buildings and research to hasten. Jack spent 36 ruling powers on all those things.
One of the research gave them the portable teleportation rune diagram like the one Linda had used. He had experienced the effectiveness of this diagram firsthand, so he approved of John's choice.
There was no special research popping up anymore. John suggested they also arranged for their armies to do joint drills with their new allies. A portion of Themisphere and Sangrod armies were already in Palgrost at this time, so they should take advantage to do these joint drills. Maybe there would be special research that appeared again after the drills.
Jack agreed. He informed Thaergood to send the transmission to Arther who was still in Palgrost. He also sent another message to Verremor and Sangrod to request these joint drills.
Jack then used the Officer Overview to appoint capable soldiers who had been meritorious in the Palgrost war into the blank portraits, refilling all the ranks. Kramer and Ana had been doing quite well in the war, so Jack promoted the two to Knight Lieutenants. He was happy for the two's growth, but he was happier that the two survived the war.
Afterward, he used 10 ruling powers to increase the population in Theneward. With the effect of Serenity's Blessing and the effects of various Wonder Buildings, Theneward's population had increased to eight million. Still far away from a megalopolis but it was getting there.
He then spent 60 ruling powers on Impose Blockade. The blockade was on three guilds this time. World Maker, World Ruler, and State of Galhana. The State of Galhana was filled with mercenaries that were on par with Dogs of War and Jackal Crew. They could create trouble if they were allowed free rein.
After making sure there were no other things to do in the monarch system, he spent 80 ruling powers for Call to Arms and Mass Drill. With the manual draft from earlier, he recruited 478,000 new soldiers, almost replenishing the troops they lost in Palgrost. He only had 22 ruling powers left after that.
Jack summoned his legendary-grade Runestone of Luck when he used the Call to Arms. He also pumped that runestone with as much willpower as he could exert.
Afterward, he expectantly opened the list of recruits. With all the boosts, he hoped they got more mythical recruits this time. John also looked expectantly from the side. After scrolling the list, the two's eyes were glued on the recruit at the top.
They didn't get any mythical grade, but on top of the list was a name, Elayne. She was an eternal-grade human.
