Jack had to walk back from the bridge to the lakeside.
Standing with his troops and civilians, he could truly marvel in the sight of this giant citadel.
Seven magnificent towers in red and black design, with a fully made trebuchet in the middle of each, and four ballistae, one in each corner.
And that's not all, the small scorpions was on the edge of every tower and every wall.
The walls themselves was 25 meters tall, just like the city walls he had just made in stone, but these were made in solid black iron!
The gate directly faced the bridge and was equally amazing.
20 meters wide, thick oak and iron-made gate doors that could be firmly closed with a thick metal pole from the inside. And behind the heavy gate, a portcullis of arm-thick iron bars appeared.
The citadel itself was without equal.
White primary colour on all the walls. The doors and windows painted red. The floor was black and the roof was blue.
However the colours flowed together perfectly and everything was hard as steel!
But then Jack saw the 'gift'.
An old and very well-dressed man came out from the open gates.
Jack met him half-way and inspected him.
[Butler Hero, Dex]
[Fortitude: 200]
[Spirit Power: 200]
[Abilities: Jack of All Trade(epic). Serve and assist(epic). Cooking and cleaning(epic). Spy master(epic). Butler(legendary)]
Jacks grin couldn't be wider as he saw this and shoke Dex's hand.
"My lord! I am at your service! The citadel is yours, fully equipped with 7 trebuchets, 28 ballistae and 1000 scorpions. 20.000 epic ranked human citadelguards are likewise at your service!"
Jack hadn't seen them at first.
But now he could clearly see some of the troops walking outside the gates.
A long and truly shining polearm in the right hand. A tower-shield, triangular and much more refined than the ones he used himself, on their other arm.
A full heavy plate-mail covered their bodies in red and white colours. The pointy and plate-made helmet had a single long black feather in it.
A blue thick cloak of heavy fibers hang from their shoulders with golden-broidered patterns along the edges.
A proper sword and dagger hang in their belts.
They formed a long row on both sides of the bridge, all the way from the mainland to the very gates.
"Magnificent aren't they?" The butler, Dex, commented with a smile on his old and semi-gray face.
Jack smiled right back.
"Truly, they are!"
[Human citadel Guard]
[Fortitude: 85]
[Spirit Power: 50]
[Abilities: Citadels Pride(50% boost in stats when standing on citadel grounds). Citadel shieldwall(When citadel guards form a shieldwall together it becomes truly indestructible. No force can break it). One-handed polearm efficiency(epic). Shield efficiency(epic)]
'This force is without equal and exactly what I need to guard that bastard child and my family'.
Jack was pleased with all this.
"Dex, take command of the citadel for now. The civilians on the beach can assist you with whatever you need to make the place liveable for my family."
Jack said this and Dex bowed and went to the civilians.
'If only it had the mansion features, it would be perfect. But alas...'
Jack went to the beach side again and build his mansion to the right of the bridge.
He directly upgraded it to epic rank, implemented with the same water faucets as the mansion in Black Mountain.
A large, 4 story tall and square formed mansion appeared. In the center a 200 square meters garden appeared.
It was beautiful, truly a mansion befitting a wealthy lord.
The new feature was the ability to change his domain into a new 'branch'.
Kingdom, empire, sultanate and many, many others.
The details about this was limited, but in short a kingdom had certain 'slots' for counts, lords, viscounts and so forth.
Jack casually chose 'empire' and the panel closed.
He knew a 'book of empires' was now inside the mansion. He could study it later.
After this, he decidedly used what resources he had left and build everything a capital would need.
Including houses for hundreds of thousands of civilians. Even though he had only brought 100.000 fresh civilians from Black Mountain. 50.000 dwarves and 50.000 humans. He still created enough houses to satisfy his shortly needs.
An entire harbour, rivaling Ocean city, complete with a shipyard and boatyards were constructed.
Garrisons, forges, tanneries, bakeries and every blueprint he had, came into use.
The sawmills he placed in key locations, close to forests and other areas with trees, outside the walls, but close by.
He ordered the civilians to settle and picked out places for huge farms, locations for cattle, storage houses, river-mills for the farm-grain that would eventually come.
In a week, the capital was completed and it's name was Eros.
His domain was no longer 'Lord Jack' on the territory map.
It was changed to 'Etal Empire' and Eros now stood as it's grand capital in the middle of the peninsula on the borders of the giant lake.
In the 6 meter tall walls around his mansion, Jack created 6 sections, beautifully made as he became skilled in his ability.
In each section he planted the summoning stones.
[Lords common resources: wood: 185.000. Stone: 475.000. Iron: 80.000. Gold Coins: 2.500.000.]
[Lords rare resources: Gemstones: 1750. Sulfur: 75.000. Mithril: 0. Adamantium: 0.]
Jack had depleted his resources. But he was done.
His empire had a huge capital with 100.000 civilians and 50.000 common troops and 20.000 epic troops in the citadel.
All his towns and cities were bustling and protected.
He had two standing armies with 50.000 common troops each.
Nisha, Janus and Xena lived in the citadel and was heavily protected. Even the half-breed was secure in the strongest cell in the strongest citadel on prime.
Lake-Town had a new governor as Xena had moved. But just as Lee had Denghis as his right hand man, Xena had likewise found a suitable replacement.
Silja, a blond woman with a firm spirit and an ability like Xena, though far from as potent, was chosen to govern in Xena's place.
Jack wanted Xena at the capital. Her ability could eventually make the capital the greatest human city on Prime.
And Jack very much intended that to happen.
'Two weeks before I have to set sail.'
Jack knew he had promised to attend the festivities in Ramises town, as the first year on Prime would soon come to an end.
3 large ships had already been built in Ocean City's shipyard. And 3 more were currently being build.
It was the larger battleships, equipped with 3 ballistaes, strong enough to punch a large hole into other ships.
They had a ram strong enough to topple and break ships of the same size as well.
500 troops needed to be trained to manoeuvre these vessels.
Additional 1000 troops could be transported in their holds and sleeping quarters.
All along a sizeable storage unit, enough to carry several tonnages of goods.
In Eros, the capital, he commanded the flagship to be built.
No blueprint existed in the shipyard for this ship.
But he told them to double or even triple the size of their current warships.
With Xena's nurturing ability, he was certain that the civilians with shipbuilding potential could figure it out, using the blueprint of their current warships.
Jack spend a few more days with his family and improving the capital before he spend 2 million gold coins on 20.000 new dwarf and human civilians.
50.000 gold coins for 5000 new trash troops that he then again spend 500.000 gold coins to improve them to common rank.
These 5000 common troops already had a full set of improved gear waiting for them.
Besides the 20.000 epic troops at the citadel. These 5000 would be the patrols and garrison of the capital city.
Jack marched out the following day, intending to claim the territory that contained the pathway trough the mountain to the mainland.