ARENA has been added to the land of Sandstorm.

The blue rectangle emerged in front of Dallion.

SANDSTORM has acquired 16734 inhabitants.

SANDSTORM can be improved to Level 5.

The massive arena popped up in the center of the settlement. The number of inhabitants was impressive, even if the vast majority of them were furies. Belaal—who surprisingly enough, turned out not to be the Mirror Pool’s prince—claimed that thousands of more members were on the way. Dallion was highly doubtful, but even if that were the case, they would remain well short of the furies.

“Forging a province is never easy,” Dallion said to himself.

It had been ten minutes since he’d had a semi-functioning village and already he could see some obvious problems. Everything had seemed so much easier in Nerosal. Since everyone came from the same city, and owed him a debt of gratitude, Dallion assumed they’d get along with each other easily. How wrong could one get?

The plan had always been for the furies to get the arena building, while Dallion used his skills to create homes for the Mirror Pool. Yet, that had proved not to be enough. Despite acknowledging that they were part of the same settlement, both groups had requested to be as far away from the other as possible. That went against every principle Dallion thought he knew. Logically, the closer the major elements of a town were, the more efficient it would be. Clearly, that didn’t take personal preferences into account. Normally, villages would take generations to develop, which was also the reason for the vast inefficiencies Dallion had frequently noticed. In his case, this was more a gathering of outcasts, none of which particularly trusted the rest. Or, as Adzorg had put it, “an interesting challenge”.

“Not bad.” Hannah approached Dallion. “Will need a heck of a lot of work, though.”

Tell me about it. “Yeah,” Dallion sighed. “And I’ve yet to start inviting hunters.”

“They’ll accept.” The woman’s confidence was to be envied. “You’re offering what they’ve always lacked: a home.”

The same could be said for each of the other groups. Having them all at the same place, though, was like mixing three groups of volatile elements—if he stopped paying attention, there was every chance that everything would go up in smoke.

If you’re having trouble running a village, how will you run an empire? Vihrogon asked.

Tactful as ever, Dallion sighed.

Just my way of telling you to relax a bit. In this place, you have all the power. If you want, you can even raise walls between the groups, creating isolated quarters.

That sounded like a terrible idea, even if undoubtedly functional.

What did you do with your domain? Dallion asked the dryad.

I dumped it on the first person I could find. Vihrogon laughed. Joy by far wasn’t the only emotion that emanated from him as he did. Of course, I joined the imperial army soon after. Besides, all my inhabitants were dryads.

A crowd of furies had already flocked around Diroh’s inn. Many knew her back from the time she was in Nerosal, aware that she was heir to the fury throne. It wouldn’t be long before they’d start treating her as such.

“You’ll have to keep an eye on that,” Hannah said, looking in the same direction. “The empire destroyed one alliance of furies. They won’t hesitate if there were a second.”

“Di’ll be able to handle things.”

“Maybe, but can you guarantee the rest won’t cause issues?”

Dallion considered his options.

“I’m not building this place on limiting echoes,” he said in a firm tone.

“No one takes control of a settlement wanting to use limiting echoes, but we don’t always get what we want. And what about them?”

The woman turned in the direction of the new cluster of houses by the west gate. That was also a new addition, created by Diroh along with Gleam and Skye in Dallion’s absence. It was telling that the trio already considered Sandstorm their home, though the same couldn’t be said about the Mirror Pool. Their request to be close to a town exit was showing.

“Can you handle them?” Dallion asked Hannah. “Just for the time being.”

“The guild and now half your town. Anything else you’d like?”

“Luck,” Dallion whispered. “Lots and lots of luck.”

Shaking her head, the woman gave Dallion a pat on the shoulder, then walked away. Some things were better left unsaid.

Dallion spent the next few minutes standing there, looking at everything and nothing in particular. He’d been a domain ruler for months now, yet seeing his settlement actually take shape felt like losing his virginity—pleasant, strange, and very confusing. Still, there was no time to dwell on matters. Once the few minutes were over, Dallion went back to work.

The first thing he did was enter Sandstorm’s realm again and face the area guardian. The fights were just as fast as before, allowing him to raise the settlement level to six. As it turned out, from the town level onwards, every improvement came with firm requirements. Inhabitants seemed to be the only limiting factor, but as Dallion knew, in order to get and keep inhabitants here, a lot of additional structures had to be built. Also, people weren’t the only ones that had to be kept happy.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

For over a day, Dallion ventured through the realm hunting cracklings. In the process, he took special care to talk to all the guardians in his realm. It wouldn’t be long until some of them grew into key guardians of the domain. The rules on this still remained a bit unclear, though the assumptions were that the most significant structures would eventually take on the role.

Finished with his caretaker duties, Dallion then proceeded to reorganize the settlement a bit. Keeping the circular form, he extended the walls outwards, then divided the town into five separate districts. The fields tended by the rune golem became the southern district, responsible for food production. Using a bit of magic, and a lot of shaping, Dallion made an irrigation and canal system to ensure an optimal growth. He was even tempted to scatter a few growth and vitality magic symbols about, but Adzorg warned against the idea. Although magic was the trait of exceptions, it had a tendency not to follow common logic. Thus, while it would allow crops to grow dozens of times faster, their nutrient value would remain negligible. Nobles tended to use the practice to boast beautiful gardens which remained only for show.

The western and eastern areas Dallion designated as living quarters. For the moment, only the western one was occupied, but once hunters started to flow to it, that would change. In addition to common houses, Dallion also added a few artisan workshops, a few taverns, and, above all—proper plumbing. In time more would be added, based on the people’s requests, but for the moment it was better to start simple.

In the center, Dallion kept the arena, which would serve as the furies’ home, as well as the seat of power. For that precise reason, he moved Diroh’s inn to the center of the field. Being a mage’s apprentice, she had the skill to change it into anything she desired. And should she have issues, Gleam would gladly leave a hand.

The final sector remained empty for the most part. There, Dallion placed the Gremlin’s Timepiece along with a few warehouses to contain the items he’d gotten from Canopa.

Finally done, Dallion thought, returning to the real world.

People kept on moving about, examining the buildings as they chose which one would be their home. For now, no one was particularly picky, but as space diminished that, too, would change.

“Pretty scary, isn’t it?” Pan said, taking on the appearance of a trader Dallion once knew. “How they move about focused on their everyday worries, never noticing the changes that took place.”

“What do you mean?”

“As far as they’re concerned Sandstorm has always been like this. Well, they know that you brought the arena from Nerosal, that you created the buildings that they’ll live in, but all the changes you’ve done in the last week will remain completely ignored.”

As if to confirm, Dallion split into instances. The copyette was right. In all the conversations, no one mentioned the change. What was more, a few were considering choosing a house near the taverns, claiming they’d had their eye on them since arriving.

“Don’t worry, it’s normal,” Pan said before Dallion could ask.

“That didn’t happen before.”

“Everyone who is part of the city only notices if the ruler wants them to. Back when you used to be a hunter, didn’t you notice how different the city was each time you returned?”

Dallion wanted to say that there had been reasons for that. With all the events taking place, it was natural that the city would go through changes: the Star’s attack, the phoenix hunt, the poison plague, even the few skirmishes with neighboring countries back in the day. Was that the real reason, though?

Just as Dallion was about to ask how often, a spark of fear flickered through his realm.

Dal, things are bad! Gleam’s voice came from his personal realm.

Dallion’s immediate reaction was to look around, but there was no sight of her. Wherever the shardfly was, it had to be a significant distance away.

What happened? He cast a flight spell and moved up to get a better view.

Water golems! There’s a pack of them—

Make a light beacon! Dallion interrupted. “Pan.” He looked down. “Hannah has the town. Tell her to prepare for an attack.”

“How bad is it?” The copyette asked, but Dallion had already flown off.

Gear and pieces of aether armor covered Dallion as he summoned his weapons, simultaneously casting a dozen protective spells. The possibility of being attacked was in his mind ever since he saw the first water golem, but this was far too soon. Unlike the Tamin Empire, The Azures weren’t slacking. The loss of Canopa must have urged a response and quite a massive one.

A thread of light appeared in the distance, marking the exact spot of Gleam’s encounter. It was on the other side of the mountains, which meant that the enemy didn’t know the location of Sandstorm yet.

I saw it, Dallion told his familiar. Are they only water golems?

Isn’t that enough for you? The thread of light abruptly disappeared. I like a good hunt like anyone else, but not against this many!

Gritting his teeth, Dallion started casting the most destructive spell he knew. By his estimates, it was going to take him about ten minutes to reach Gleam—more than enough time to finish the spell, but was she going to prove capable of surviving that long?

Gleam, when I tell you I want you to get out of there, Dallion ordered. Head straight up to the sky, as quickly as you can.

You’re going to do something crazy, right? The joy emanating from her voice was chilling.

Nothing I haven’t done before.

Technically, Dallion was right. He’d cast the ray of destruction several times before, though in most cases it was after he’d consumed a Moonstone. Other than the forbidden spells Adzorg had showed him, this was the only one that Dallion found too dangerous to place in a clay cylinder. The slightest miscalculation was enough for it to hit the wrong target, causing by far more harm than good.

Splitting into instances, Dallion took advantage of his massive speed to grab a clay cylinder from his belt and break it, all the time without interrupting his spell casting. An aether echo of him popped into existence.

“Stay here and make sure nothing goes through,” he ordered.

“I know.” The echo smiled, starting its own series of spells. “You don’t need to tell me.”

Gleam, Dallion focused on the task at hand. Can you get them in one spot?

You’re joking, right? It’ll be impossible for me to separate them. The pesky puddles have merged into one big… thing.

Okay!

That was good.

Keep them like that. When I fly over the mountain, you fly up and I’ll fry all of them at once. Whatever’s left, we finish off later.

Err, there might be a slight problem with that. The shardfly didn’t sound at all confident. There’s more than water golems now.

Damn it! What else is there?

Nymphs…