Second World

"What do you want me to use my ruling powers on?" Jack asked John. He had 69 ruling powers left.

He was planning to use 10 ruling powers to increase the population of Theneward. It was the second most populated settlement after Thereath. If it could be upgraded into a second megalopolis, it would improve Themisphere's growth even further.

But that would take some time. At the moment, Theneward's population was seven million. Even by using his monarch power, it would still be long before Theneward could hit ten million population.

He also wanted to extend the Impose Blockade on World Ruler and World Maker. That required 40 ruling powers.

If he followed his routine, he would only have 19 ruling powers left. He wanted to listen to John's needs first to determine which took priority.

"On research," John replied.

While Jack switched to the research screen, John explained, "During your absent, Armstrong and I arranged a joint training with Hyrdurond's army at Fort Aldryth."

"How are they? Have they got used to the fort?" Jack asked.

"Yes. They had even built a new settlement around the fort with the citizens they brought from Hydrurond. If you go to the settlement list, you will see we have one new city."

"We did?" Jack asked. He went back to the City Overview again and looked at the list of settlements.

"Alsvelg?" Jack read the name of the new settlement.

"Aldryth uses her name and her ancestor's name, Eorsvleg. The one who founded the Hydrurond Dominion. She said it is so she remembers that their home is elsewhere," Isabelle explained.

"The settlement is already the level of a city. It must be because of the population she brought from Lefkauselis," Jack remarked.

"It is counted as an autonomous area, so we can't do anything to that city," John said. "Your Call to Arms and Mass Drill just now also didn't affect that city."

"We have been supplying provisions to them the first few weeks, but the draconians were a prideful race," Thaergood said. "They worked hard on the surrounding lands. They should be able to sustain themselves in one or two more weeks. By then, they would be able to support themselves without us sending them provisions."

"That's good to hear," Jack said.

Some nobles of the country expressed objection when they found out about Jack giving the draconians a piece of the country. Asking their settlements to send provisions to these draconians further caused displeasure among these nobles. Jack had been ignoring the protest.

He was lucky Serenity's Blessing was in effect in the country, thus reducing the chance of unrest caused by these nobles. Now with the addition of Joy's Recreational Hub, the discontent should be driven down further. Still, if Aldryth's people could become self-sufficient, that would greatly help him in dealing with those protesting nobles.

"Can you please go back to the research screen, please?" John said.

"It's you who brought up the Hydrurond's refugees," Jack said. "What does that have to do with the research?"

"As I said, we have been doing joint training with them. As a result, new tech has appeared in the military path," John answered.

"Really? I don't know such a thing is possible," Peniel said in surprise.

"Despite Hope's knowledge in me, I'm also surprised when it happened," John said. "I think this is the world system adapting by itself."

The screen was now showing the research overview. Jack entered the military path. Aside from the usual tech tree, two new techs were floating by themselves without being attached to any of the branches from the tech tree.

The first one was titled 'Coordinated Strike: Hydrurond, rank: 1'.

When Jack clicked on this tech. It said that after researching this tech, the enemy army who received a joint attack from Themisphere and Hydrurond's armies would receive a debuff of -5% to their defenses and resistances. This tech was in the process of being researched. It still had twenty-eight days to go.

The second one was titled 'Martial Art Drills'. This tech improved the martial arts learning speed of native soldiers. This tech required eighty days of research time.

"This also popped up by itself?" Jack asked.

"Yeah," John replied. "After the efficiency of martial arts was shown during our battle in Hydrurond, words of mouth had spread quite quickly among the army. Emris was especially vocal after witnessing it firsthand. He requested Armstrong to send instructors to his camp. The other Lord Marshalls followed his lead, and thus the practice spread throughout the entire army in this country. This tech appeared then."

Jack nodded. He used 11 ruling powers to learn both of these techs. He expected 'Coordinated Strike: Hydrurond, rank: 2' to appear, but it didn't.

"Perhaps we need to arrange more joint training with the Hydrurond army for the rank 2 to appear," John guessed.

"I was wondering. If this tech can appear, then there should be similar techs for cooperating with the other countries," Jack said. "We should also arrange a joint training with the Verremor army."

"With the current political climate, I don't think this is the best time to bring that up," John said. "We need to solve the issues at the border first."

"You are right," Jack said.

Since he still had ruling powers to spare, he went with his plan and increased the population in Theneward as well as extending the blockade on World Ruler and World Maker. He had only 8 ruling powers left afterward.

"Thank you, everyone. It's late already. Let's rest," Jack said to everyone. To Thaergood, he added, "We will talk about other kingdom issues tomorrow as well as meet those nobles you mentioned."

"Yes, Your Majesty," Thaergood replied and left with Isabelle.

"You are not going to rest yet?" John asked Jack when he saw Jack was still sitting on the throne.

"In a minute, after I do Mass Pay to increase the officers' loyalty," Jack answered. "Before you go, what is your cloak's grade?"

"Rare grade. I suppose you have something to offer me since you asked?"

"Yeah. Take this. This cloak is a super rare grade. It helped me a lot of times in the past," Jack handed John his Cloak of Shadow.

"Well, I do wonder where your usual cloak has gone when you come in with that eye-catching fiery cloak," John said.

"Hehe," Jack changed the element of his cloak into lightning and the cloak flapped behind him while crackling with electricity."

"Show off," John said as he received the Cloak of Shadow.

"Neat cloak," John said after wearing it. All his information was now hidden. "Its shadow-melding ability is a nice combination with my God-eye monocle. This cloak is tailored for me indeed."

"Tailored your ass. I used to have both, remember?" Jack said. He wondered if he would miss the information-concealing ability of that cloak. But with how famous he was now, everyone would recognize him even if they couldn't inspect him.