The 500 swordsmen were sleeping as the moon stood high in the night sky.
All except a few scattered guards on the walls and plateau.
"Lord, by my calculations, the armies should at least have reached the top of the Silver Mountains by now."
Lee sat opposite Jack at a small fire, a stone throw away from the troops inside the semi starfort.
"You're guessing my thoughts Lee." Jack replied without taking his gaze away from the flames.
Lee watched his lord as he sat with his large bearcloack over his armor with the snakeheads as shoulderguards.
'That armour is precious, even the flames seems to be absorbed into it.'
Lee admired that heavy armour that Jack had acquired in the Crazed Forest. It was very valuable and seemed to cast a shadow of dread around the lord.
A deterrence for sure.
"It's way past midnight. If you don't mind, I would like to send some troops to the top of the mountain to wait for news there as well."
Lee had already slept a few hours and hadn't expected his Lord to be sitting and looking at him as he woke up in the night.
He was practical now. The two armies needed a rally point on top of the mountain.
There were no guarantees that they could easily locate them at their current location, from way up there.
"I don't want to risk the troops. It's not necessary." Jack simply replied, still not diverting his gaze from the fire.
However he could feel Lee's questionable gaze on him and continued;
"When the armies have killed the leader, I will be notified. You will find them at that point."
Jack finally moved his eyes from the fire, and looked at Lee.
"I will leave here now. You will be in command of the mission. When it is concluded, I want you to stay here for a few days untill you have made the entire fortress-town in order. I will send all the civilians, troops and materials you need in the following days."
Jack had been watching Lee sleeping and been in deep thought.
He didn't need to personally be here. He could continue advancing another front or settlement.
He concluded that he had to share the burdens of command, and his answer was sleeping right in front of him.
"I want you to secure the beach area from this settlement. Join me again in a week, but make sure the armies are returned to Black Mountain as soon as their mission is done. You'll have to secure the beach with your own garrison."
Lee contemplated this turn of events. His eyes flashing with calculations in acceptance of his lord's words.
"My Lord, you honour me. Am I right to assume that you need someone to share your military command?"
He was blunt. But Lee's eyes had matched Jack's and he knew that now was the time to be absolutely plain.
If he are to assume shared control of the conquest, then he needed to be able to talk level-headed with his lord.
"You are right Lee. I can't be everywhere at once. I'm counting on you from now on. Be my right arm. Secure the north, including and very importantly, the beach. Report to me in 7 days."
Jack stood up and whistled for Blackmane.
Lee stood up as well.
"My Lord. I will do my very best. I will wait here for the resources. When the armies find me, I will send them back as you said. But I must ask. How do you want me to hold the beach? Without you, it will take months to build fortifications."
Jack hadn't overlooked this, he simply didn't expect Lee to hold the beach just yet.
"You're truly sharp, Lee." Jack smiled.
"I don't expect you to build anything. I want you to hold the beach and secure it. Sha'ri I bound to have forces there or close by."
Jack said this while mounting Blackmane and looking in the direction of the beach.
"The real reason is that there are creatures far more terrifying out there, Lee. I have fought on of them. A young one. And I barely escaped with my life."
Jack directed his gaze directly to Lee.
"Those monsters are Prime Rex. Do not engage them. Track them. Study them. If you find one, I want you to learn everything about it. If it attacks you, flee! Do not attempt combat."
Lee had already heard rumours about these monsters, and about his lords captivity. But he didn't pursue any more answers.
'If my lords wants me to know more, he will tell me himself.'
"As you will my lord. I will stay here for a week, optimise the fortress town, secure Silver Mountain as the settlement in this region. Repel any and all reptilian forces form the land and the beach, and ultimately find out all I can about the Prime Rex. It will all be done to satisfaction within a week!"
Lee wasn't boasting or making empty promises. He wholeheartedly believed he could, and would, fulfill every order within this short timeframe.
"I'm counting on you. Prime Strategist Lee!"
With this Jack whispered a word to Blackmane and he vanished through the gate in full speed.
'You're truly brilliant with your tests, my lord. Making me build a town from the ground up, with everything that entails of infrastructure. Create a command chain with a new settlement army. Fight another lord's army, win and secure a whole beach while simultaneously searching for and study the most dangerous creature I have yet heard of...'
Lee scoffed with lightning flashing in his eyes. Yet he smiled. He smiled wide and embraced the challenge from his lord!
Jack awoke in his mansion bed at midday.
System notifications sounded and blinked before him.
[You have slain the Leader of the Mountain Trolls. Reward: Dungeon Mirror(Artifact, Epic)]
[You have slain the Leader of Silver Mountains]
[Silver Mountains merging with lords territory]
[You have conquered Silver Mountains, wild beast and monster spawns decreased by 90%]
[Conquest mission completed. Reward: Castle Blueprint(trash rank)]
Blackmane had carried Jack at full speed under the light of the moon.
They had arrived at the gates of Lake-Town within an hour, disturbing the guards and waking Xena from her sleep.
Jack had spend time with Xena until dusk. He had used his salmon treasure at the lake.
It was an endless pink salmon spawn. It required 50 square meters of water.
The salmon that spawned where easily the length of a dwarf, weighing hundreds of kilos, and many spawned into the lake and river every day from now on.
He didn't have time to taste them or even catch them yet. But surely an epic ranked treasure such as that, we're bound to taste good, as it was described to be a highly delicatesse of the sea.
He had left Xena after much talk, both family and politically oriented. Keeping her up to date.
Coming to Black Mountain he was embraced by Gynda who led him to his mansion and family.
There he had crawled into bed where Nisha and his son Janus were already sleeping.
What a shock Nisha had initially had. But she was quickly happily relieved and slept truly wonderful trough the night.
Even the son Janus seemed to be pleased with his father's appearance, and didn't cry the entire night.
But as Jack woke up in the middle of the day to the notifications, he found that the bed was already empty.
He didn't linger though. Thinking Nisha had moved somewhere else with Janus, as to not disturb his sleep.
Jack found a plate of food at his regular spot in the kitchen.
Boiled potatoes sliced in the middle with melted butter. A large chunk of fire-roasted dimwag youngling. A mixed salad of different kinds of vegetables and greeneries, all topped slightly with a thick black root sauce that just spiced it enough to be extremely mouth-watering.
Jack enjoyed this while suddenly it knocked on the front door.
"Excuse me my lord, but I have urgent news!"
Cochi had arrived at the mansion and Jack let him to the meeting room where he originally ment to study the mission board and conquest map.
After sitting down on high chairs at the meeting table, Jack gestured for Cochi to proceed.
"My lord. I have fought skirmishes with the reptilians for days. My original 10.000 trash troops and 1500 common cavalry on standard horses have been heavily depleted."
Jack knew skirmishes had been ongoing since the day the rivers ran red. Yet he now pounded his head for not establishing a proper line of reinforcements and resources to Cochi.
But since Jack didn't speak, Cochi continued.
"It is my duty to safeguard those lands, and that is not why I urgently rode here through the night..."
He had a small pause, looking at Jack whose golden eyes stared directly at him, making him shiver.
"The skirmishes stopped a day ago. And I sent scouts to investigate. Approximately 10 kilometres eastward, between the giant lake and my outpost, the reptilians are amassing a huge force. I fear that without your direct intervention, the outpost and corresponding lands will be completely overrun!"
"I understand Cochi. I will be there in 6 days with enough forces to purge the lands up to the giant lake. For now. Take the trash troops in the garrisons beyond Lake-Town. There should be 20.000 stationary troops there. Keep a keen watch about the enemy's movement. Keep the lands for 6 days. This is your mission."
Cochi rose and saluted before he left in a hurry.
'Cochi is truly dependable. I hope 20.000 trash troops is enough to hinder the enemy's advance until I am ready.'
Lake-Town had about 10.000 trash troops on defence. Harkens fort in the forest had the same. And Black Mountain had almost double that.
That leaves Cochi with about 25.000 trash troops and around 1000 common ranked cavalry.
'My two commanders armies consist of 12.000 common ranked troops each, before they claimed the Silver Mountains...'
Jack quickly pondered. He knew that left him with little choice but to wait.
He quickly gathered 5000 trash troops from the Black Mountain and guided them to the drill-zones.
Being back home left him no choice but to keep recruiting.
Also 10.000 new human civilians and 10.000 dwarf civilians would be finish summoning in the evening as he had begun the process before going to his mansion last night.
'Even if I want to further progress Black Mountain City and Lake-Town, I have no choice but to focus on Lee's star fort and Cochis tiny walls...'
Tomorrow at noon, 8-9000 fresh trash troops and 5000 common troops would be ready together with 20.000 new civilians.