As Harken brought Jack through the gates, the whole village became in uproar.
Everyone stopped working, civilians flocked the troops carrying Jack.
Harken had to use troops to make way.
Everyone wanted to see the return of their lord.
But as they saw him barely conscious they made way, so he could get to the mansion.
Instead they changed their attention to the procession that followed.
Fraco had been their support and the one they had poured their hope into as Jack was gone.
He had protected them for almost a year, and he had become famous as a warrior and the one who kept searching for the lord.
Now they watched him slain. His head removed and they erected the largest funeral pyre the village had yet seen
Right in the middle of the plateau, Fraco found peace amongst his friends.
Jack was feverish for days, and never did Nisha leave his side.
Dimpa, even if she was devastated from loosing her husband, she equally gave everything she could to restore the lord.
She carried Fracos child. And Fraco had given his life to carry the lord back.
Dimpa would forever honor that determination, and completely dedicate herself to the lord in his place.
A weak later, Jack finally came back to his senses in a way he hadn't been in almost a year.
"Nisha, is that you?" Jack opened his eyes.
Nisha, sitting exhausted in a chair next to the bed jolted awake.
"Lord! You're truly awake!" She kissed Jack and started crying.
"I'm sorry it took so long.."
"Shh... All that matters is that you are back."
Nisha and Jack spoke for a long while about many things.
Knock. Knock.
The door was opened, and Xena entered with a child in her hands.
"Jack, meet your son..."
Nisha smiled as Jack sat up in the bed. She had already explained everything he needed to know about the village progress and his son.
Jack saw the fluffiest little boy with brown curly hair as his mother, and golden eyes like his farther.
After holding his son for a while he asked...
"What's his name?"
Nisha took the baby from him and smiled.
"Your sons name is Janus. But he still needs a last name."
Jack looked at her, "I don't have a last name, Nisha.."
She just smiled again.
"He is the lord heir. Both the lord and the heir needs a family name."
Jack had never considered it, yet he suddenly thought about the gods and how he was translocated late.
"Janus Etal.." That will be his name.
"Etal? Does it have a meaning?" Nisha liked it but was curious.
"No, I just like it. We now have a family name, and I did promise to marry you, so get used to it." Jack answered.
With this, Nisha cried again, she really had missed her lord and man!
"Hi Jack... I never got to thank you back then... I'm so sorry about what happened!" A low girls voice sounded.
"You must be Xena. Don't you worry, Nisha told me about you and what you have done for the village. I should be the one thanking you..."
Jack finally laid eyes on Xena and was suddenly heart-sick.
She reminded him of someone he had almost forgotten!
He had a daughter once.... A very beautiful and smart daughter...
Xena looked just like her!
"No, Jack! If it was not for me... If I hadn't said I wanted to be your hero... Then none of this would have happened.." Xena was visually sad.
"Xena Etal? Does that sound good?" Jack had already made up his mind.
And when he looked at Nisha, she was very pleased.
In all the time he was gone, Nisha and Xena had formed close bonds. She was already like an older sister with motherly care for her.
"What?" Xena replied with a weird expression.
"You heard me. From now on you are my daughter, Xena Etal. And as such, a lady in my territories."
Xenas childhood memories, those she still remembered, came rushing into her and she let herself fall into Jacks arms.
She burst into happy tears, as she had just gained something she thought she would never have.
A little brother...
A mother, Nisha whom she already loved dearly.
And a father, Jack who had spend huge sums, made the first real manual trade and effort between human lords, been taken captive and tortured for a year...
All for her... He was already more of a father than anything she had ever known.
Nisha and Jack let her cry for a while before Jack asked to be left alone.
"Come Xena, Jack still needs rest. Let us leave him alone for a while."
Nisha gently pulled at Xena and helped her stand.
But before Xena left, she quickly ran back and kissed Jack on his cheek.
"Thank you.. Father!"
They closed the door behind them
Jack was finally alone.
He checked the chat for a while and found that, truly, a long time had passed.
Lords now spoke in another manner.
They spoke of trade, conquest and alliances in a very serious and respectful tone.
Many had around 5000 civilians and sufficient forces to finally keep their starting territory safe.
Resources were harvested, land and sea trade had become common.
Much of the trade was now made between civilians.
'I have some kilos of iron, do you want to trade for your beast skin?'
Resource to resource.
Some lords had even made a taxation system and lowered the resource dumps in the mansions.
The amount of items in the tradehubs had decreased, as the lords wanted to bypass the buyers fee.
Yet items like 'treasure' were still plentiful, as the tradehub still had one crucial element.
It was global!
Jack learned many things watching the chat.
Common rank troops was now the norm amongst most lords.
Less in number and upkeep, but far stronger and more practical than trash troops.
Also, as the trade was mostly done resource to resource, a monetary system had appeared.
Copper coins, silver coins, and the very rare gold coins, that the civilians rarely saw as the lords hoarded them.
Jack also saw all the messages from Xena and Ramises.
And there were many from the past year, but none of them mattered now.
He then checked his inventory and found a few new items.
He vaguely remembered getting the 'boatyard' blueprint.
Next after that, he had gained something from the Prime Rex.
[Epic Fortitude Essence Core]
After this he found a farewell gift from Fraco.
Every pack-leader he had killed in the time looking for Jack, had added an item to Jacks inventory.
[Common Treasure: Wheat Field]x2
[Common Spirit Power Essence Core]x4
[Common Fortitude Essence Core]x2
[Unc58ommon Spirit Power Essence Core]x1
[Uncommon Fortitude Essence Core]x2
[Rare weapon: Dilo's Tooth]
Jack ate the cores instantly.
[Lord: Jack]
[Fortitude: 196]
[Spirit Power: 58]
Jack pulled out the weapon and a beautiful spear appeared.
[Dilo's Tooth: A rare weapon made from the materials of a boss-ranked dilato. 50% chance for a second mirror attack on succesfull hits]
'Oh a high chance I will hit twice instead one once?' Jack briefly thought as he put it back into his inventory.
[Lords Common Resources: Wood x71.245.000. Stone x153.780.000. Iron x1.750.000. Gold Coins x225.000.000]
'What the....'
Jack was completely awake now...
He tried to do the math..
They would have to have continued to dump a lot of resources every day for a whole year for these numbers to make sense...
Then again, he really had been a sex slave, to a domineering reptilian queen, for a very long time.
'I guess they have found some natural sources of iron while digging in the mountain, the chat did mention that besides the resource spawns. Finding natural spawns was highly effective these days.'
Jack had an entire mountain territory. Obviously different kinds of ores could be found.
But what to do with all those resources, was a question that Jack had to think hard on.
He wanted to get back to... before...
Upgrading the village, explore, prosper and enjoy his life.
But he had a debt to pay.
War.
It was the only word that described what he was thinking.
He wanted to find Sha'ri. But this time with 1.000.000 troops at his back.
Sha'ri was a strong lord. He knew that.
He had seen her village grown into something resembling a small city.
And he knew she had many smaller villages scattered all over her territory.
These reptilians were not like humans. They liked to scatter everywhere possible to maximize influence on other clans or 'lords'.
As the single other lord, capable of flourishing on the peninsula...
She was bound to have many troops.
As Jack had decided he quickly gathered noteworthy people at his meeting room.
Before they arrived he checked the mission board.
[New mission: Extract 500 units of iron from a resource spawn. Rewards: Forge Blueprint.(Completed)]
[New mission: Construct 5 wall towers. Reward: Siege workshop blueprint]
[New mission: Create 1 boat. Reward: Harbour Blueprint]
Jack had finally received the forge blueprint, but stored it for now. He knew that his highly efficient civilians, due to Xena, had already managed to make them on their own.
[Territory Conquest Mission: Claim the Dilato Fields. Reward: Random Epic Ranked Treasure]
Nisha with his son Janus, Xena, Gondo, Harken, Dimpa and Gynda had all gathered.
Jack had focused his war plans around the missions.
"We will create a large military base at the small lake, create a boatyard for transport and conquer the Dilato Fields. Then secure a chain of protection points to the beach, create a harbour and establish trade with the outside lords."
They all looked at Jack with serious expressions. He had changed a lot.
Visually he still looked weak. But mentally? A new brutal aura was emanating from him, and they dared not interrupt.
"When this is done, we will create the largest city on Prime. Directly at the large lake in the center of the peninsula. From there, we will launch the greatest assault on another species in humans history!"
They didn't speak. None of them, as they grasped the magnitude of his plans.
"But first, we will maximize profits here at home. Create a large workforce and bring about a great army!"