"I have to pay kingdom mana?

" Jack asked.

"Of course, do you think it consumes no energy to establish a connection from so far away?

" Peniel returned.

"The 10,000 mana is only for the initial payment,

" John added.

"Every hour afterward if you don't end the connection, it will consume 5,000 mana.

"

"Ouch…,

" Jack uttered. All this time, he only worried about gold coin income. That didn't mean that mana was not a concern, it was just that he didn't find an urgent need for it. Now, he did.

"Don't worry. Once we have a mobile fortress, I have organized for settlements around the country to construct more mana-generating buildings,

" John said.

"Of course, you still can't abuse it by having this remote monarch system operational all the time. Only use it with a clear objective of what you want to do, so you don't waste time operating it.

"

Jack gave John an accusing look that said, 'Isn't it you who like to use the monarch system all the time?'

Jack accepted the kingdom mana payment. Soon, the display windows of the monarch system appeared before him. He saw a new window aside from the usual ones. This extra window was the one John mentioned. It contained the available upgrades for the mobile fortress, its cost, and the time needed to perform the upgrade.

"

"Don't pick an upgrade that needs more than three days,

" John told Jack.

"We will be moving again soon. The war is not yet over.

"

"Where will we be heading?

" Jack asked.

"What did I say about wasting time when using this remote monarch system?

" John reminded.

"Oh, right! Sorry. Do you have anything you want to upgrade from this mobile fortress?

" Jack asked.

"As I said, the blacksmith workshop and the alchemist workshop are good additions, but they are not urgent. I think it is better if you improve this fortress' defensive mechanism. Now that we have a rune tree inside here, we will need to make sure this fortress can fully defend itself. Our enemies will surely do all they can to breach this mobile fortress and get to the rune tree once they see its healing effects on our troops.

"

Jack looked at the upgrades that increased the fortress' battle power. He could upgrade the mechanical arms or its magic towers. There was also the option to upgrade the fortress' mechanical legs. The upgrade increased the fortress' movement speed to one that was close to the speed of a rare steed. This should allow the fortress better mobility and also an option if they needed to flee.

Jack asked John's opinion about upgrading the legs. John had no objection. Good mobility was always needed in a war. The upgrade required three days so it was within the time limit he had given Jack.

Kingdom fund and kingdom mana were automatically deducted once Jack confirmed the upgrade. A timer appeared in the upgrade window, showing how much time it took before the upgrade was complete. When that timer appeared, the other upgrade options were greyed out. They could only upgrade one thing at a time.

Jack returned his attention to the monarch system. He had 195 ruling powers. Unfortunately, these ruling powers couldn't be used to expedite the mobile fortress' upgrades. These 195 ruling powers came from his sovereign level, the completion of affairs, and also the remaining 20 ruling powers after conquering Messephyria.

He received 150 ruling powers from his level 15 sovereign several days ago. The five affairs that were in process before he left for Hydrurond had also been completed recently. Out of those five, he got three perfect and two good results. He received 440,000 merit points and 15 ruling powers.

The merit points increased his sovereign level to 16. He received another 10 ruling powers from that level-up.

At sovereign level 16, he could recruit his eleventh royal agent. He decided to wait until he saw what recruits he got from this round of Call to Arms.

He left that for later, he first spent 8 ruling powers to complete the Legion Hall and Killer Abode which were still in construction.

*

Legion Hall (Wonder Building)

Increases the overall Security in the country.

Allows 1% of the kingdom army to register to become the special unit: Legionnaire.

Allow the city this wonder is built on to draft twice its maximum number.

Upkeep: 10,000 gold coins

/month, 2,000 mana

/month

*

Killer Abode (Wonder Building)

Security of the city this wonder is built will never go down below the 30% threshold.

Allows 1% of the kingdom army to register to become the special unit: Hitman.

Slow the reduction rate of officers' loyalty.

Automatically removes an officer whose loyalty has fallen below 30.

Upkeep: 7,000 gold coins

/month, 5,000 mana

/month

*

Jack proceeded to hasten the research of Coordinated Strike: Verremor, Rank: 1, Coordinated Strike: Sangrod, Rank: 1, and Coordinated Strike: Palgrost, Rank: 1. Each of this research required forty days. He spent 12 ruling powers for all three research.

Afterward, he went to the Officer Overview and refilled the blank portraits. Quite a number was blank because they lost many soldiers in the siege. Some of the fallen officers included Salem and Bailey. Luckily, they were resurrected by the Revival Pool like Arther.

John brought eight bottles of resurrection potions when he came with the mobile fortress. These were the ones the country alchemists were able to brew before he departed from Themisphere. After the war ended, he sent soldiers to bring these bottles to use on high-ranking Themisphere officers who had fallen inside the capital. Unfortunately, many of such officers had died for more than an hour. They used it on the highest ranks who could still be resurrected.

Hence, there were many blank portraits.

There were, however, many promising ones from the survivors. Armstrong was among those who survived and he compiled a list of soldiers who had shown great courage during the siege. Jack was now using that list to fill the empty portraits.

After finishing appointing the officers, Jack spent 60 ruling powers to refresh his blockage on World Maker, World Ruler, and the State of Galhana.

Next, he used the Call to Arms and followed up with manual drafting from each settlement. The act gained him 498,000 recruits. He then used the Mass Drill. For using the two sovereign powers, he spent 80 ruling powers.

He had 35 ruling powers left afterward.