Towards the north, a large mountain sat with what appears to be earth elementals. These rock, steel, sand and dirt giants were strolling around like they've always been there. I have yet to find a higher spirit or magic beast to act as the guardian for that area.
Then again, it looks like I might not have to. As I continued to look over the mountain, couldn't help but notice the mountain was oddly shape like tortoise shell. Rings of trees encircled the mountain as on ascended its slopes. The earth elementals were busy carving into the mountain creating caves, mountain trails and the like.
Shifting towards the west, the rolling meadow-like hills there were now filled with flowers. Infant-sized spirits could be seen swirling atop the flowing grass. The wind blew gently through the patches of emerald oak trees in neat array all over.
As the wind blew, I was noticed Byakko in her giant tiger form, lounging in a patch of grass. She must be using the nearby trees for shade while tiny wind and nature sprites treated her as a jungle gym.
Glancing to the east, an out of place hot and humid tropical forest emerged. The forest was teeming with life as it arose from what used to be a flat area. This tropical rain forest was very unique as I was able to see many spirits living underneath is humid canopy.
Spirits both elemental sprites and spiritual magic beast navigated the tree line naturally. Some even swam through the deep but still water on the forest floor lithely like fish. Meanwhile, other spirits tilled and nurtured the patches of dry ground to allow more trees to spring up. The forest appeared to slowly become a living, breathing entity.
After marveling at everything, I turned my focus to the south, and noticed too many drastic changes. The dark elven steading was affected by the sudden expansion as facilities were spread of from each other. What used to be a small tight knit community, was now all spaced out.
The closely arranged facilities were at least 5km away from the now giant hollow tree shrine. This giant hollow tree now had a similar appearance to the one from the dungeon master trial. Of course without all of the spell inscriptions. That was something I would need to add, but at a later date. To add insult to injury, a system message chimed in,
"Congratulations, you have unlocked the Achievement: Hidden Nation, Secret Country! As a result of developing your very own country, you have unlocked the ~Citizen Control~ function of the ~System Menu~."
"Congratulations, you have unlocked the Achievement: Country for Old Elves! Now that you have established a spiritual realm, you have unlocked the ~User Info~ stat" ~Animosity/Notoriety~!"
"Please note, all other nations will now view your nation as neutral. Should either you and/or your citizen do anything to change their views, additional bonus, or status debuffs will apply."
"Congratulations, your exploits have all been recorded into you Divine Myth. Please note, your myth has been directly affected by you "Lawful Evil" nature. Adjustments to your myth have been made and are now available for review."
(Nooo!! I didn't mee to create a fucking nation now! How the fuck will I hide this from Duxlian politics!?) Floating while kneeling(?), I held my head as I cussed to the heavens. Afterwards, another system message appeared.
"Due to unlocking the ~Citizen Control~ menu, you have learned arcane arts "Mass Teleportation." Please note, this arcane art requires the title: Dungeon Master and can only be used once every 1 and a half sols. Choose wisely!" Seeing this message, I stopped my wailings, and opened the system,
~System Menu~
User- Markov-Lysenko, Henry Status: Logged-In Time: 16:35 Date : 14th Summer, 987
User Info Map Logbook Quest List Dungeon Menu Servant Listing
Citizen Control (New) Inbox (99+ Unread) Notifications (99+ Unread) Chatroom
Divine Myth Inventory (Read-only) System Settings (Limited access)
Ignoring my messages and notifications, (if you haven't noticed by now, I don't read them shits) I selected ~Citizen Control~ which sowed the following,
~Citizen Control~
Country/Organization: Unknown
Location: Emeraldshade Forest
Population: 0 (dungeon population not accounted for)
Dungeons/Ruins: Baronac's Cradle
Dungeon/Ruin Rank: C+ (Next rank- Required # floors: 10/50)
Provinces/Districts: 5 (East: Rain Forest, West: Hills, South: Steading, North: Mountains)
Capital: Unknown
Special
New Dominion (New)
Hidden in plain sight (New)
Looks like the system keeps track of the number of citizens within the country/organization. Apparently, the population counter doesn't count the dungeon residents within the dungeon. I will have to check that out later though. Anyway, I switched to my stat window to see what this new stat is,
~User Info~
Location: Markov Residence – Evenshade – Monarchy of Duxley…
Incarnation: Yuriy Markov XV
Age: 10 Sols Race: Mixed +
Stage: MagiKnight (New) +
HP: 5000/5000 MP : 5725/7000
Stamina: 1260/1260 Fatigue :100/100
SP : 500/500
Attributes
Str : 600.33 Chr : 100 End : 1050
Dex : 600.66 Vit : 668.66
Int : 1905 Luck : 11(84)
Moral Affinity (Evil Meter)
↓
Neutral----------Lawful----------Chaotic----------Infernal----------Absolute
Animosity/Notoriety (New)
Monarchy of Duxley: Unknown
Dark Elven Settlement: Ancestral Ruler
League of Adventurers: Silver Rank- Highly favorable
Dungeon: Baronac's Cradle: Dungeon Master
Elemental Affinity
Earth: 10 Fire:10 Water:10
Air:10 Light: 10 Dark: 10
Lightning: 10 Nature: 10
Ice: 10 Null: 10 Blight: 10
Accursed: 10 Decay: 10
Special
Moral Character: Lawful Evil
Divine Vessel | Assiduous Mind
Uranium Fever | Dungeon Master
Living Artifact | Progenitor of the Children
Creator of the Path | Lion Among Men
Bloodlust Manifestation
Curse Eater (Unlocked) | Ancestral Blood
Clover Peach mandrake, Ivy's lover
Fearsome Vestige
Soul of the Doom Bringer | Guardian Angel
The new section appears to only include nations and/or organizations I have visited, lived in or work for. It also considers the dark elven settlement to be a separate sovereign state, something like Navaho nation I guess. Anyway all of this was fine and good, but I need to secure a way of shielding this area from everyone I do not want to know about nor enter. That's when Dori chimed in,
"Alert: Dungeon expansion complete. Notice: Surrounding area has integrated with dungeon core control functionality. New control actions are now available from the core."
New Functionality? Does this mean I can control the area as if it were a part of the dungeon? Retaining this thought, I created a portal back to the dungeon core chamber. Once there, I immediately interacted with the core and found 3 new functions available.
The first focused on the fog barrier which acts as the gateway to this land. This function allowed me to control who may and may not enter. The second function focused on Shenlong and Byakko. The had been classified as "Field Bosses" gaining their own specified territories. As a result, their territories flora and fauna all began to have similar characteristics and traits as the two guardian spirits.
The last function was Realm Teleportation. Much like the system message had already stated, I can use the dungeon core to teleport the realm to any place I want. However, the ability will require almost all of the dungeon core's magoi reserve. Not to mention this spell has a cooldown longer than 1 sol.
Since I don't know of an ideal place at the moment, I will not do anything with this. Not to mention, I may need this action in the case an emergency occurs. Anyhow, I will worry about all this later. With everything taken care of, I once again left the dungeon core area and continued with developing a place for the treant sapling.
-End of Chapter