Dana stood in front of a small house in the Lithium Mines housing complex, smiling at Karl’s mother.
"Well, who do we have here? Come in, I will put tea on. This must be your mother. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Madam."
Dana’s mother smiled. "You can call me Wendy, we’re to be family, it seems."
Karl’s mother smiled back at the haggard woman with her messy brown curls, so much like her daughter’s.
"The government assigned us new identities so that we weren’t immediately linked to our son, who apparently has a knack for causing trouble.
But you can call us Jake and Ella.
Now, did you prefer tea or strong black coffee? There isn’t often milk available at the company store, but we might be able to get some." She asked.
"Black coffee is good, thank you Ella." Dana replied with a smile, while Wendy looked confused.
"Does your son not send money back? It must be such a hardship living in a tiny mining town." She asked.
Karl’s mother snorted in amusement, while his father chuckled. "Oh, we stay at a place in the Capital for a few months every year, during the down season, when it’s too cold for the factories to properly process the lithium and the stockpile is full.
But I’m the head of workers here.
The town might not be glamorous, and the mines aren’t a pleasant place, but it’s been better now that they’ve got me to speak with the big boss for them. If I left, the job would go to some crony who doesn’t give a damn and pockets any savings he can find.
Probably plus all the bonuses and overtime pay, like the last one did."
That explained a lot about why he was passionate about his work here at the mines.
Things had always been, and most likely always would be, bad for the miners. But when you had managers above them who were skimming their benefits, or outright embezzling from the company, things would be even worse.
"I hope you booked some time off." Dana joked as the coffee brewed.
Jake nodded. "Indeed. I booked it the day that I got the notice. It took a few tries to convince the boss that my Karl wasn’t dead, but off on a secret government mission. But there is enough of that going on with the Inquisition and the more powerful Elites that he didn’t argue too hard."
As if speaking about him had summoned him, there was a knock at the door, and an elderly man in a pinstriped suit stood with the Mayor, a Commander Rank warrior who was rapidly approaching his middle years.
He had been one of the earliest successful test subjects for the Elite Program, and now that he was approaching forty, the years and experimental treatments were catching up with him.
"Overlord, welcome to Lithium Mines village. Might we ask what brings you here today? Or is it just a social visit?" The Mayor began.
"Alright. I will see what I can do to bring all the functions back online. Don’t worry, I have some experience with this." Karl agreed, then transformed, and let [Behemoth] expand his dragon form for a bit more visual shock factor.
At this size, the mark on the temple roof nearly perfectly matched his foot, which Karl gently placed in the outline, then gave the temple a pulse of mana to see if it had dormant functions.
It was the temple used for advancements, and it had been vital to the success of the Church after he had left the continent. But when Karl started the process, runes lit up all over the surface, and the Temple began to demand an enormous amount of mana.
That was something that Karl could provide, even when it started to demand something more. The power of a Fundamental Rule.
Karl’s understanding of the Fundamental Rule of Mana Manipulation wasn’t complete.
Far from it.
But it was enough to satisfy the temple, which sent a burst of golden light high into the sky for a few seconds before the power faded.
Karl nodded in satisfaction as he examined the changes. It wasn’t anything new to the temple, but an improvement on what it could already do. The temple had been able to give advanced classes to those who qualified, but it should have been able to give rare classes and even reward supplicants with rare skills that had been saved in its magical memory.
Now, it should be useful to everyone, right up to Totem Rank.
But they had definitely attracted attention.
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