Lucan spent the night in his new fortress. When he woke the next morning, the new shadow elf subordinates were already hard at work repairing the damages sustained to the building during the conflict.

He stood atop the tallest tower looking out towards the dark territory. In the distance a best ler out a roar sending several birds into the air as the fled the area. This was a common occurrence inside the dark territory. Luckily the truly powerful being preferred to stay deeper inside the dark territory where the light of day couldn't reach.

Even though only weaker beasts and creatures inhabited the outer layer of the dark territory, it didn't mean that they wouldn't be a threat if they assaulted the fortress in numbers.

Looking below, he could see the shadow elves clearly following his orders. There was a good number of elves on the fortress wall and they all kept a watchful eye focused on the dark territory.

Turning away from the dark and wilds lands, he looked at New Avalon in the distance. The city was expanding every day. Just this morning he received news that two villages, one at the entrance of a quarry and the other near a lake, had already been upgraded to towns. One could see that from the advancement of the outlaying settlements, the new city was growing fast.

The workers sent to build the transporter had reported that they will finish by mid day. After that they would make their way towards the new fortress. Lucan had slightly different plans for the teleporter that would be built in the fortress on the dragon spine hills, or also known as the dragon spine fortress.

He planned to have a slightly more advanced teleporter built. It would cost four times the resources to build it, but it was capable of sending more people in a single go. A regular teleporter could send at most ten people with a single teleportation. The one he planned to build here could send a thousand in a single go. Not only that but its defense was much higher, and it would harder for some on to sabotage it or forcibly enter the dragon spine fortress.

Unlike the other teleporters, this one would remain on the private setting. Someone who was an officer or higher rank in the shadow elf army would be needed to access the teleporter. Of course, Lucan and his direct warlocks could also use it.

This was important because the dragon spine fortress would main be used by the military. Lucan's goal was to provide battle opportunities to his troops on the edge of the dark territory, not only that, but he needed to keep New Avalon in check in case any of those people from Baramore turned on him.

After Lucan left the tower, he traveled around the fortress inspecting every corner of it. He wasn't looking for loot that had been overlooked or anything like that. He was instead assessing the fortress while trying to figure out what sort of formation would suit this place the best. Once he decided on what formation to construct, he would search for the necessary materials and then build a formation to protect this fortress.

At midday, the workers arrived to begin construction on the teleporter. After giving them a few directions, Lucan used a return scroll and disappeared back to Shadowsweep.

He entered his castle and exited into the fortress he first conquered, the fortress that was blocking the passage between the mountains ahead. Now that he had two fortress, he decided to call this one, mountain fortress.

Alasan was waiting for him in the command room ready to give his report.

"Lord Quilldrake, congratulations on conquering another fortress." Said Alasan.

Lucan shrugged. "We managed to get it, but the boss escaped." In his eyes, it was a bitter sweet victory.

"Mr. Hekin has offered us a good price for a large number of the elemental crystals you recovered. Even though he wishes to buy in bulk, from my recent investigation, I found the price he offered is slightly above market price."

"Then sell him what he wants, but he can only buy up to half of our stock."

"Understood." Alasan said. "This gold is coming at a very good time. With all the sudden projects we have take on our gold supply is currently stretched to the limit, we are spending as fast as we are taking it in. And that is even when we include the monthly gold deposit from the Queen of shadows. I will feel much more relaxed since we have some extra gold coming in."

Lucan clicked his tongue, when he decided to absorb the people from Baramore into his territory, he knew it would put a large pressure on his funds. In the past he had sold some of the natural resources procured on his lands to provide a steady stream of income, but now those resources were being funneled directly into city building, no longer earning him any gold. And on top of that, he also had to pay gold to hire construction workers. Right now, most of his resources were going towards New Avalon.

His expansion of Destol was a small project compared to the others, it could be completed with local sourced resources. The dwarven citadel was a special situation since according to the dwarves, the citadel was already inside the stone, they were simply setting it free by excavating the open spaces. This also kept the cost down. Lucan only need to pay for minor supplies and even that wasn't much since the dwarves were naturally resourceful people. If their tools broke, they didn't need new ones, they would rather fix it themselves and get back to work compared to trying to break in new tools.

The situation in New Avalon was very different though. Pretty much all the resources harvested in his territory every day were being sent to New Avalon, and even that wasn't enough. But the city in the dragon spine hills was a long term investment. Some of the resources sent to New Avalon were purchased by its citizens but most went into Lucan's own construction projects. If the people their wanted to build things for themselves, they had to retrieve their own resources. This is what caused the sudden emergence of several villages and a few towns.

The benefit of this project was that the resources Lucan sent and the gold he spent was all used to build houses and facilities. All of which belonged directly to him and were then rented out to the people. The upfront cost was large but as long as New Avalon prospered and he didn't lose control of the city, then he would be able to collect rent every month earning him another steady source of income.

And as the city developed further, the value of his properties would rise as well, if he every got tired of renting out his buildings, he could sell them and the land they sat on for a large amount of gold.

Lucan wasn't the only one who knew this. Right now there was a huge rush to build and claim territory inside the new city. The people who used to be influential in Baramore were eager to build their families back up again. Fully unleashing the shady businessman inside himself, Lucan made sure to take advantage of this for himself.

Those resources that he sent to the city but were sold off, were all sold to the influential families of Baramore. He sold them for gold to some, but most of the families were willing to trade treasures or artifacts for those building resources.

Those families knew they were over paying but they were more than willing. With a limited number of resources and more territory claimed inside the city everyday, it was a battle against time. The families who could build and spread their domain were willing to over pay today, because in the future, the ones who had several plots of land would be more powerful and influential inside the city.

The ones who could buy resources from Lucan, had to buy them from the surrounding villages and towns, and there was also a limit to what could be collected every day.

Those who had to wait to build later would end up building in the less desirable parts of the city, which would in turn lower the value of their property.

The people who decided to move away from the city and set up villages and towns were very happy with the arrangement. With the limited resources, who ever paid the most or made the best offer would get the prize, thus a few of the influential families with foresight, sent their branc families to set up villages in resource rich areas. But most of the villages were set up by people who also lived in villages inside of Baramore. To these people, the perks and money they received after coming to the shadow realm, made abandoning their country worth it