"And this is how six thousand gold coins look like, guys."

  Bertramus looks at the piles of coins on the table, "You could buy a castle with that much gold!"

  "Yes, the guy that gave me that gold did just that."

  It has been five days since I delivered the fortress to Count Colchester. I spent this time managing my two settlements and bonding with my family members. I also had to take the new recruits out and power level them a bit so they could acquire the jobs they needed. All five demi-humans are now guild receptionists and I got my fairy back. I summoned Atlas and sent him to the Battle Spring core room to feed it with MP. Noornor is slowly warming up to the inhabitants the monster settlement now. I helped him acquire poison resistance level 2 as required to live near the death willows.

  Another thing I did was to replace the palisade with a proper stone wall. We recycled the wood into new housing for the monsters and there is also a hundred feet area near the wall that was cleared of trees. But my reminiscence was cut off by some annoying message.

  Who the heck is Cassel? When did I enthrall someone that is not under my wing... Oh. The envoy from King Hrothgar. Took them long enough. Right now Heorot should be moving to assemble forces to attack me.

  "I think the vacation is over..."

  Marcy by my side stops gazing at the coins and asks, "What happened?"

  "I just got a System message saying the envoy I sent back to Heorot was released from my control. They should know the whole truth about the little insurrection we did here."

  "Will they attack the town?" Asks Hilde with a worried face.

  "I don't think so. Hrothgar knows my strength and that was before I even evolved once. And he knows his two hundred knights were all killed and that I took over Mirfield without bloodshed." Helen clears her throat. "Without any open and visible bloodshed that could be pinned on me, anyway."

  The few hundreds of people that chose to remain in Mirfield are very happy. The food situation is stable now that it is being supplemented with monster meat from the Battle Spring. Helen is empowering the fields using her magic. I know the rudiments of crop rotation and we will implement it here. I also bought some seed varieties to enhance our crops. It is only a matter of time before Mirfield becomes a bustling town again.

  And in the little time I have, before Hrothgar sends trouble my way, I will make just the thing to grow the town's fame. A dungeon. Colchester has one that will begin to be explored soon. I should get one here too.

  "Father, how much gold does the town needs to go through the Spring and the Summer?"

  "We will only collect the tax in fall, so I think five hundred gold will be enough with a margin for unforeseen problems."

  "Take the gold then. I am going to deliver some honey at the commercial association and then I will be crafting things the whole afternoon. Helen and Zahariel, I will need your assistance tomorrow."

  Once again that deep pain that crushes my very core makes me stumble and slam the table. Coins scatter everywhere.

  People rush to support me and give me some refreshment.

  Helen is supporting me on a side, "This one was faster than before! We need to hurry and go find this cure!"

  After a few more uncomfortable minutes, I recover enough to move. The coins were already collected and placed on a bag. With half the family having appraise (money), none of the servants would dare to lift a copper.

  "I need to make sure the ones left behind will be able to protect themselves before we leave. I'll go make the preparations." I excuse myself and teleport to the meadow. My workshop in the half-buried hovel awaits.

  I will craft two cores from the high purity quartz. One will be a cubic dungeon core, but the other will be something I've seen in a web novel I liked. A City Core. Something to enforce the ruler's authority over the town and to protect the place from harm. The problem is that the thing would have to extend a huge area. if you place it at the town's center and count the crop fields, it should spread the field over two or three miles in radius. How could I get such a range? The guildmaster have the skill [Guild Field Expansion]. At maximum level, if I were to expand a guild field, it would reach three miles. But it would require me to continually expend MP. As I continue to cut and engrave the quartz block, my mind keeps racing to find an answer.

  Sculpture Lord helps in leaps and bounds to engrave magic circles. I gave the skill a single bat of an eye when I acquired it, but now I must say, it is a cornerstone of my magic circle engraving business. The dungeon core cube will be even more complex and powerful than the Battle Spring one. I want to better manage the creature types it spawns so more useful creatures can be created. Also, the magic power management needs work. I want it to generate MP on its own, draining magic from the walls and the earth around. The Battle Spring won't get much MP unless I am there. Also the security. Only bootleg guild members in good standing will be able to enter, nothing changed here. The roof of the first floor will be encased in a force wall to avoid anyone digging a physical entrance.

  It was already night when I finished carving the dungeon core. Several overlapping magic circles of different depths littered its six sides. One could already find a faint glow deep inside it, courtesy of auto-enchant. After storing the not-yet-enchanted dungeon core in my item box I leaned back on the chair to catch my breath and let my mind wander. One TV show came to mind and I giggled. It was an environmental awareness show where several kids joined their magic rings to summon a superhero. Then it hit me. I can already join up with Zahariel to make enchantments. Why not with several other people? If I can join the unique abilities of my party members, I can make the City Core I want.

  I became feverish as several schematics and possibilities flooded my mind. The fortress core had a dodecahedron shape and the guild crystal was almost spherical even though it was faceted. The pinnacle of geometry, the regular polyhedron with the biggest amount of faces. An icosahedron would have twenty faces to play with. If each one of them were of the same area like a dungeon core face...

  The night went away as I sifted through my quartz chunks until I found the biggest and purest one. The dungeon core is two foot on a side. This beast will be two yards in diameter. Cut, shape, sculpt. The block of quartz floated in a low gravity zone supported by a metal clamp covered in rubber beetle carapace. The night slipped away, the day went by. One by one two hundred magic circles were painstakingly engraved. Since spawning one drive was constant in my life. To protect.

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  I protected Helen from those wolves. My arm moved on its own to take that arrow. Even the skills I got. Someone dear to me could have died already if it were not for sacrifice aura. The times when I enraged the most were those when I felt like I failed to protect someone. The shaman totems. My family lives in Mirfield. My friends. The refugees that chose to place their blind trust in me. The people that remained behind in a soon-to-be ghost town because they believed in my rule.

  I teleport and bring to the workshop Petal, Helen, Marcy, Cloude, and Zahariel. The huge icosahedron is in the middle of the hovel, hovering over a sea of quartz dust and shards.

  Zahariel stretches out his arms as if to measure the size of the crystal, "What is that monstrosity?"

  "Mirfield's future city core crystal. We are going to enchant it now."

  "I can't even imagine the amount of MP this thing will require to fill up," ponders the Angel.

  "This crystal alone should be worth thousands of gold!" Exclaims Cloude.

  Petal flies close to the crystal and gets disoriented by the gravity field, "Zahariel you silly! It is already done. Beowulf, Isn't this piece already enchanted? I can feel magic from it!"

  "It is only primed because of my Auto-Enchant ability. And the five of us are going to contribute our powers to this crystal. To make something that will protect and nurture the town. Helen's plant magic to enrich the crops. Marcy's guild field manipulation to make it cover the whole town and thrive on the people's leftover magic strength. Petal's magic sensitivity to make it subtle. Cloude's ideals and stalwart personality. My own abilities to add several effects. And Zahariel's angelic magic to bestow protection and the finishing touches where we lack."

  I change everyone's jobs to those with the biggest MP pool and we sit to meditate and fill up the reservoirs. I let the skill and my heart guide me. Five wyvern pemadras are crushed and a bit of blood from the five of us is mixed with them. The whole thing would make the different magical energies to explode by now if it were not for the deep trust we hold on each other.

  The sparkling magic crystal powder floats in the gravity field and I direct it to the circuits using prestidigitation. The five of us stretch our hands to the crystal and we begin to pour MP.

  "Steady. Once you are down to 30% of the MP slow down the flow so it matches your regeneration. Don't go below 20% and keep focusing. Including Helen. Don't sacrifice HP. Grant the crystal your wishes for the town. Shape the magic. Feel the power of everyone here."

  Two, three, how many hours we were there? How many tens of thousands MP were into that crystal?

  "It is done!" A tired Zahariel lets his body fall on a chair.

  The core vanishes, triggering a teleport to the town. The world swirls around us as we find ourselves in the central square of Mirfield the next instant.

  It should take 186 days for an ordinary villager that recently moved in to become a citizen. Faster for people with a bit more MP. Less than two hours for me.

  The core is nowhere to be seen, but we can sense its presence several hundred feet below the ground. And we can sense the field expanding. The ground of the square rumbles and a large circular stone fountain about twenty feet across rises from the ground. It has a lifelike sculpture in the middle. In it, five heroic adventurers of mixed genders and occupations stand back to back with their weapons ready and standing over defeated monsters. Fresh cool spring water flows from the mouth of the monsters and quickly fill the fountain without overflowing.

  A certain embarrassment can be seen on the faces of three of the 'heroes' depicted. Zahariel and I share a look and laugh loudly at their shyness.