They were all exhausted after the fight.
Endless skeletons had risen from the piles of bones in a steady stream, making Xena, Angelica, Ramises and Cochi very busy and exhausted throughout the fight.
Goran had taken damage again and even Jack had sustained deep cuts from the shadow bones.
But even as they were all exhausted, they were all alive and well.
"Let's check the loot father!"
As the boss fell dead, a small chest appeared and a new scroll was floating above it.
Xena hurriedly ran to it while the rest rose up after resting and eating their supplies and healing chocolate.
"Ohhhh! There's 1500 gold coins in the chest, mixed with some gemstones and a pair of mithril bracers!"
[Paralyzing Wristguards]
[Created with spirit-infused mithril. They can resist small magic attacks if used to block, and store the energy inside to later unleash a paralyzing shockwave if slammed together.]
"They are 15 centimers long and covers the wrists completely from the hands and halfway up the arm!"
Xena was thrilled by these bracers. They were beautiful and suited her well, so Jack told her to keep them.
"I'll take the gemstones. Ramises, take the gold." Jack then went to inspect the scroll himself.
[Ability Scroll: Shadow Step, Epic]
[An ability that is highly depending on spirit power and shadows. When mastered, the user can freely step through and appear at any visible shadow for as long as their focus and spirit power allows it]
'This is an insane ability. An unpredictable mobility ability, strong for both offense and defence. I could boost myself significantly with this... However!'
Jack already knew who to give this to.
"Angelica, my Empress. This scroll is yours."
Jack tossed the scroll to Angelica, his tone not giving room for any debate whatsoever.
She looked at it, saw its description and just stared back at Jack. She saw how serious he was and didn't argue as she obtained the ability.
"I think this is our limit. 45 floors of a rare dungeon. This area is safe and I don't want to push our luck. And even if we could kill the Lich in the end, I don't want to. We will leave and go home for the new heroes ceremony, and they can use this dungeon to become strong."
They left the dungeon while all talking about the many different resources they had found inside.
Riches, herbs and gear. Many with magical properties that might change the entire world of Prime.
They spend some time at Ramises city, Event Harbour, before boarding the ships and sailing home.
On the 7th day after the appearances of the dungeons, the first hostile creatures from various dungeons across Prime, began to emerge from overflowing dungeons.
Jack had sent the Empress and the royal army to the Bloodfall Mountains.
A large cave had appeared at the roots of the mountains, exactly where Williams army had made camp before.
A 100 square meters area had protruded from the ground, forming a large and round stonecave with a single large openining.
[Dragons Treasure, Mythic, 200 floors]
[An ancient pure dragon rests upon its riches in the deepest cave. A multitude of different beasts and monsters has gathered before it, soaking up it's spirit power and creating a defensive force while the dragon rests]
[Hero parties are required to be minimum 15 and maximum 80 in size to be allowed entrance]
[The dungeon is currently overflowing, monsters from the first floor now have access to the world of Prime! Every day, a new floor will gain access! Stop them and kill the first boss before it's too late]
Angelica had quickly contained the overflowing weak cobolt creatures that had emerged, and checked the dungeon information herself.
The royal army in her command consisted of 100.000 well geared trash centaurs.
75.000 very well geared swordsmen.
150.000 plate-geared spearmen with tower shields.
25.000 longbow troops and 10.000 with shortbows.
10.000 horse cavalry and 300 giants.
Of all the troops, many, but not yet all, had gained new steel equipment to replace the iron gear, it had been sent back to be resmelted and forged into steel.
Jack was currently walking with Xena to the mansion rofrom the citadel in Eros.
"Let's see how many turned up. We need these heroes to grow and secure all the first bosses of the dungeons within or close to our empires borders."
Xena looked at Jack and understood perfectly.
If they didn't contain these dungeons, they would prove a much, much bigger threat than all the human kingdoms combined.
At the huge plaza outside the mansions walls, Xena and Jack had to stop and gasp.
Half a million civilians from all over the empire had traveled with haste and gathered here.
Jack went with Xena to the gates of his mansion, flanked by 500 citadel guards.
"My people! You all know just how important this step is for the Empire, and the entire world of Prime!"
As Jack spoke, every single chatter silenced immediately.
More than 500.000 pairs of eyes stared directly at the Emperor and their Princess beside him.
"I will keep it short as we must move with haste! Every one of you knows the danger. A 80% success rate might seem high, but not all of you will leave here alive."
He let the words settle, yet the civilians didn't make a sound. They had already come to terms with the possibility of death.
"However! Those of you who awakens as heroes will enjoy great respect and riches within this Empire! We need you! I need you! The Empire needs you! So, the first of you, please step forward and join me inside the mansion!"
Many civilians, contrary to what Jack initially thought, actually almost begin to fight to be the first one to enter the hero training in the mansion.
25 people had managed to scramble ahead of the others and Jack looked at them as they stopped pushing eachother.
Then he smiled and spoke;
"Etal Empire truly has such patriots amongst us! Follow me!"
The 25 civilians curiously followed Jack and Xena past the mansion gates with the 500 citadels guarding it.
Inside they saw the giant mansion with a huge yard with flowers and properly maintained bushes.
In one section of the yard, a barren area appeared that clearly looked like a weapon practise area.
[Lord System: The training area enables the Lord or Lords heroes to cultivate their abilities, increasing their strength. The training area also has a chance to upgrade a civilian or troop into a hero, however if it fails, the individual will die]
Jack knew that to upgrade abilities that had a higher potential, costs a lot of resources.
But cultivating new heroes were free, however there was a risk that they might pay with their very lives.
The civilians firmly understood this, but had chosen to come anyway, and Jack didn't dwell on this.
"Move inside, the cultivation will start immediately. I wish you luck on behalf of the entire empire!"
Jack said this and no more. Simply waiting for the civilians to take the step that would either end their life, or bring about an entirely new future.
They all stepped inside at the same time and simply vanished.
Five minutes later, 19 of them appeared back outside where they had entered.
'6 deaths...' Jack was actually sad about this, but yet again didn't dwell on it.
'It was so be expected.'
The civilians also noticed this and sent a silent prayer for their comrades, yet they quickly turned their attentions towards their awakened status.
Some had gained an ability towards building, resources or other none combat areas.
One had even awakened an potent ability in the alchemy area.
Yet some very few of them, had awakened and entire set of abilities and skills, very tightly focused around a new thing called a 'class'.
Jack was very interested in this new form of 'abilities' as he saw the classes.
Green Mage class, who had abilities to manifest healing energies and forest-based defensive and attack skills.
Shield Knight class, who's entire body became hard as rock, had massively exploded his personal bodily defences and gained abilities to engage others to attack him and protect himself with shield-required abilities.
Magic Archer class, who could condense spirit power into a spirit bow and utilise spirit arrows into different ranged spirit attacks.
'This kind of heroes will undoubtedly be the main strength of a lord or nation in the future! These new civilians-turned heroes are already strong in their abilities. They only lack experience and essence cores to truly be forces to be reckoned with!'
Jack was very happy with this turn of events.
"Guards, show the new Imperial Heros to the armory. Let them have their pick of gear, weapons and items from there. Also if the dead civilians have any family, make sure to send some gold for their sacrifice!"
The reason why Jack's imperial army had not been entirely equipped with the new steel armours and weaponry, was because he had set thousands of pieces aside for his heroes in advance.
Even if these pieces were not magically imbued as many of his own, with special traits, they were still forged with steel, and very dependable
The heroes needed these to maximise survivability in all their future struggles.
Also he had placed the 1000 chests containing 1 million gold coins in total. To be used for the dead civilians families, if they had any.
Many people in Jacks empire had been through weddings ceremonies with eachother, creating families and many children or pregnant women were in every city.
"Form up into 25 lines and move into the training zone. All of you can now enter in turn!"
Jack had seen what he needed and allowed the rest to enter.
One might think that it would take days for this many to enter.
But truly, the hero training zone was special.
As the civilians walked into it, they disappeared and a new civilian could walk inside immediately.
After five minutes, they would reappear and join the line to the armory.
It was very fast indeed.
The next day Jack got reports from the finished hero training.
Of the 500.000 civilians, almost 100.000 had died.
250.000 had gained mixed random slice-of-life and profession abilities.
100.000 had gained a direct combat or defence ability, while the remaining 50.000 had gained one of these special 'classes'.
A new announcement was given after Jack had erected the new Adventurers Guild House.
It was a large building, rivaling the lords mansion itself.
He had set it in a yet open area inside the outer gates and walls of Eros.
This Guild House supplied quests for all over the Empire.
Areas where beasts had spawned and the normal common troops didn't patrol, could be cleared with missions from this place.
And similar to the lord's mission, heroes missions of other various natures, could also be accepted here.
There could even be posted personal missions from anyone, on a huge board in the main hall of the building.
Travelers could hire heroes for protection and so forth.
The entire Guild House and it's vast yard contained new attached workers who could help heroes form entire guilds.
The Guild House essential provided everything that heroes needed, including it's own tavern and meeting rooms where heroes could gather, share intel and form parties and guilds.
Jack spend an entire month following this, traveling the entire Empire and all it's cities.
He created an upgraded mansion in every city and a guild house next to it.
He even sailed to Brutus's territories and erected a mansion and guild house there in Conquest City.
He erected 25 meters high walls for him and lavishly spend tons of resources to rapidly grow this city into one that could rival Eros, the capital itself.
In the beach territory next to Conquest City, a tower had emerged, and Jack fully intended to have a major hero station here with Brutus.