Second World
chapter-1601

'Aha! The true reward from the faction quest!' Jack exclaimed in his mind. Outside, he appeared perfectly poised.

"If it is not too much trouble, the kingdom of Themisphere is honored to receive your faction's blessing," Jack said with a composed expression.

"You shall have it," Panacea replied.

Jack heard a system notification then, that Themisphere had received the blessing from the Healer Society.

'Huh? Just like that?' Jack asked in his mind.

"King Storm Wind, we have all come here to give our blessings to Themisphere," Ragorth announced. "This is our way to express our gratitude."

Jack's eyebrows lifted. In his mind, he was asking Peniel, 'Does the blessing from the other league factions also provide a new wonder building?'

'Most, but not all… I must say, it is surprising you gain blessings from so many league factions all at once. Considering your war needs, I think you will be most thrilled to find out the benefit of Blacksmith Circle's blessing. That faction lets you…'

"Woo-hoo…!" Jack shouted, which startled everyone.

"Thank you! Thank you, everyone, for your blessings! I know you all prefer to be neutral. I'm very excited by your blessings," Jack went and shook hands with them vigorously, one by one. Gone already was his calm demeanor.

"Ye… Yes… We can see that…," Hashi uttered when he shook hands with Jack.

Jack ended up chatting with them for the entire morning. He asked Thaergood to prepare snacks and refreshments to serve the guests.

Grace and John came a little before noon. Jack called them over. John originally didn't want to because he still had something to deal with in Heavenly Citadel. But after hearing about the blessings, he practically ran here.

Grace took over in entertaining the guests when she arrived. Jack and John went to the throne.

"You haven't used your ruling powers for the Coordinated Strike techs, have you?" John asked.

"Not yet, I was about to when they came visiting," Jack referred to the league faction people.

"Good. You can leave those techs for later. What we get from the faction's blessing is much better," John said. He already knew because of Hope's Knowledge. "How many ruling powers do you have?"

"57," Jack answered.

"Hm… Not many. You should have put more effort into getting these ruling powers," John chided.

"Dude, it's not easy getting them."

"Depending on the situation, we might need to prioritize…"

"Tell me first what we get from each faction," Jack said. He was already on the throne operating the monarch system. He was scrolling the building list to where Wonder Building was located."

"Not all the blessings give you new wonder buildings," Peniel said. "Five out of the nine give new wonder buildings. The remaining four provide new techs in the research paths."

Jack saw the five new wonder buildings on the list. They were Legion Hall, Killer Abode, Revival Pool, Soul-securing Shrine, and Seven Races Trading Foundation. Jack could guess from their names which league factions these wonder buildings came from.

All these wonder buildings ranged from forty to sixty days for their construction time. These should already take up half of his ruling powers. When Jack was about to build one, John stopped him.

"No, do the research first!" John instructed. "A Wonder Building is ready to use once built, the research isn't. After researching, we still need production time. So, it's better to complete the research first."

"Production time for what?" Jack asked.

"Go to the research overview and I will show you," John replied.

"But I want this revival pool!" Jack exclaimed.

"Just save some ruling powers for it. Go to the research first!" John insisted.

Ragorth and the others who were enjoying their refreshments turned to the two. They wondered what the two were arguing about. Grace assured them it was normal. She told them the king and the royal advisor often communicated in this way. Thaergood nodded at that statement.

Jack followed John's demand and switched to the research overview. Aside from the three Coordinated Strike techs in the military path, there were four new techs.

One was in the civil path. The tech was called Nutritional Values, obviously courtesy of the House of Culinary. Researching this tech allowed cities or higher-grade settlements to build a special building called the Nourishment Center. Peniel explained that this special building improved the overall diet of the citizens. The population of a settlement with this special building would increase faster and better-quality combatants were more likely to appear when the citizens of that settlement were drafted.

Jack was itchy to begin the research of this tech but John and Peniel explained to him about the other techs.

Two out of the four new techs were in the mystic path.

One of them was granted by the Order of Magi. The tech was called Arcane Support. Once learned, Jack could cast it as a country enchantment. This enchantment affected all Themisphere units. Their natural recovery speed was tripled, the effect of recovery potions was doubled, and the deterioration of equipment's durability was halved.

With this enchantment, their army's dependence on supplies would be greatly reduced.

The other research on the mystic path was from the Alchemist Union. It was research for the resurrection potion. Once learned, the alchemists of the kingdom would be able to brew this potion. Of course, the potions required rare ingredients. Hence, they couldn't provide every soldier with the potion, but at least they could produce some for their high-ranking officers to use on each other when needed. This should increase their survivability.

Resurrection potion was very rare. Peniel mentioned before that the members of the Church of Creation could buy this potion if their rank were high enough. Even then, this potion would require a large number of faction points to exchange. As for the recipe, it was even rarer. Now, here it was, available for his country. Of course, this was the country's property. He couldn't transfer the recipe to his guild. Players would have to search for this recipe elsewhere.

Jack was excited about all the research. But when he came to the last one, which was in the military path, he heard John say, "We should prioritize learning this one first."