Chapter 7

"Point me, copper deposit!" Harry cast his wand to confirm the location of the deposit one last time. Yesterday he took a break, spending the day to finally recover from one month of pure conquest and grind.

Today he chose to locate all the natural resources of Skagos and Skane. "That seems to be the last one." He muttered as he used the spell to search for the different resources on the islands that came into his mind as he sat on his broom, hovering in the air.

Land the size of Ireland had quite a few resource deposits to discover. Overall, on his map, there were 9 notable deposits of copper, 7 iron deposits, 11 coal deposits, 2 silver deposits, 3 different locations that contained gemstones, and a few other locations with notable resources.

One metal he was missing was gold, but he was already happy with whatever he had found. It would help to start the economy of his land. After all, he had a massive and tireless workforce available.

His Army of Inferi wasn't just a good and fearsome army; they could be used as a good menial workforce.

While it was impossible for them to perform more complex tasks like smithing or any other craft, they could easily transport, mine, farm, or chop wood.

The best thing was that they were able to work day and night and never need to rest!

When he said eternal servitude, he meant it.

But even with such an efficient workforce, he had a few big problems. First of all, he lacked skilled workers.

The Skagosi he had enslaved didn't have many people with any useful skills beyond fighting and hunting. At most, there are a handful of blacksmiths that could be of actual use, though their actual skill level is quite limited.

His second problem was a lack of trade. Skagos was a part of the North, but so isolated that the people had barely any contact with anyone outside of it.

While it had helped him conquer the islands without any troubles, it limited their potential for growth.

It wasn't like he could declare himself King of Skagos and Skane and expect that the other nations would accept it and start trade relations with him. While isolated, it was still part of the Seven Kingdoms, specifically the North.

The Seven Kingdoms, while still medieval, were more advanced. His inferi were strong but not impossible to beat. These Necromances called the Others, up there far in the Northern Part of the World, called the Land of Always Winter, were proof of it.

According to legends, they had been a massive threat with an army of undead far larger than his own, almost having conquered the world. But in the end, they still lost and have been pushed back.

Since then, there have been a few inventions that were very effective against Undead, for example, Wildfire. There is also the possibility of dragons suddenly appearing somewhere and destroying his army.

And with his position so unstable and without any idea of how big the world actually is, he had no interest in starting a war against the Seven Kingdoms.

There were also the Starks. While he was a different Harry Potter, some of the boys old emotions lingered. And if possible, he didn't want to become their enemy, but rather an ally.

Which brought up the question of how he should act; he could declare himself the King of Skagos and Skane, which would mean war.

Or he could lay low and declare himself the new Lord of the Islands and become a Northern Lord. For now, at least.

Decisions.

———

Eddard Stark POV

Lord Eddard Stark was having breakfast with his family in the great hall of Winterfell when Maester Luwin entered through the door, clearly in a rush, holding a letter in his hand. "Lord Stark, a Letter from Skagos. Something major has happened!"

Eddard stretched his hand out, taking the letter from the maester. During the last century, communication with Skagos had been scarce.

At most, the Night's Watch or some brave traders had contact with them. While technically part of the North, the Skagosi had isolated themselves completely from the rest of the world.

Strangely, the letter was still sealed, so how does Maester Luwin know something major happened? Acourius look at the elderly grey Maester made the man reply, "Look at the seal, Lord Stark."

The still intact and untampered wax seal showed a rooster. It took a moment for Eddard to realize what was so strange about it. A Raven was not a Sigil, which either of the Skagosi Noble Houses possessed.

House Crowl had a ply flame and black, while House Stane used a driftwood tree, and the strongest of the three houses, Magnar, used a green lobster on white holding a black harpoon.

A Raven wasn't a coat of arms any house in the North used. So who was sending him a message with its origin noted as Skagos?

The hand that has written the word Skagos on the backside of the letter right under the seal looked practiced but at the same time a bit out of place, as if the letter itself were unfamiliar to it.

The Lord of Winterfell contemplated the meaning of this for a moment as he noticed that his whole family had stopped their breakfast and was watching him. He told everyone to go back to enjoy their breakfast.

He looked at his wife, Catelyn, and upon her nod, he unfurled the letter and started reading it.

While it was written short and direct, in the very same clean but still inexperienced hand, its content was explosive. Indeed, something major has happened. And he was unsure how he should react to it. Harry Potter. This wasn't a northern name.

"What is it, my love?" Catelyn asked, and he passed on the letter to her.

"There has been a war in the North. An uprising on Skagos." He said it with a frown as the rest of the family, including Maester Luwin, looked at him.

"An uprising, Father? Will there be a war?" Robb was his oldest, and Heir asked with interest in his eyes. Both Jon Snow and the Ward of House Stark, Theon Greyjoy, had a similar look.

'Green Boys.' Eddard thought with sadness, remembering his own youth, "Maybe, but it doesn't look like it. Apparently, the three Houses of Skagos have been in conflict since their rebellion a hundred years ago. The constant warring boiled over, and the smallfolk rose up and destroyed the three houses. They have elected a new lord, Harry Potter of House Potter."

"Just an upstart. Why do these smallfolk think they could create a new noble house?" Theon Greyjoy scoffed in disdain.

Eddard just looked in disappointment at him and said, "Skagos has been isolated from the rest of the North for such a long time that we don't have any real influence on them. Their lands are harsh and wild, and while we can destroy their armies, we are unable to conquer their people. Only one of their own could rule them. Anyway, the Lord they have chosen is on its way to Winterfell with a small entourage to swear fealty."

"What do you plan to do, Lord, husband?" Cat asked with curiosity in her eyes.

"Nothing for now. I would rather like to meet this Harry Potter myself before I come to conclusions." Eddard said patiently, "We don't really have the power to enforce anything on Skagos, even with the help of the Crown. It's not easy to lead an army that far north over an ocean. But this may be a real opportunity to reunite Skagos with the rest of the North for the first time in centuries."

The cat gave a nod while his children went back to breakfast. Where Sansa was disinterested in Skagos, Arya was excited.

The three eldest boys looked a bit disappointed but indifferent in their youthful courage.

Bran looked similar to Arya, while Rickon, still a baby, did not really know what was happening yet.

———

Harry Potter POV

'Observe. Observe. Observe. Oh, a stone, and observe again.' Harry thought as he cast the skill again and again from the back of his horse in utter boredom.

Medival travel took so damn long. Unfortunately, he couldn't just use his firebolt to fly to Winterfell and be done with it.

While the Skagosi were all under his absolute control under contracts, which pretty much equaled slavery, though he doesn't want to abuse them in that way and only force them to change their savage ways, that couldn't be said by the other people in this world.

From the information he had gathered, magic was something gone from this world; in the perception of the Seven Kingdoms, it died with the death of the last Targaryen dragon.

Harry had no interest in letting some wild rumors about himself and his magic spread that could spin out of control and label him as a dark and evil sorcerer, which was technically the truth.

But only if one sees the world in extremes.

A quick journey on his broom was out of the question, especially since, for appearance sake, as a lord, he needed an escort.

That's why he was accompanied by a party of 20 Skagosi, young adults that he had put into armor and was teaching to act like actual disciplined soldiers under him instead of the savages they had grown up to be.

Of course, 20 men didn't fit on his broom, not that he wanted to cuddle with a hairy, tall guy on his broom.

The alternative was obviously Apparition or Portkey. Unfortunately, a portkey only works if he knows his target location, and it would be hard to transport their horses with it. Without them, it would look suspicious.

Apparition, on the other hand, while a bit troublesome, should be possible with a horse. And such a small party could be transported with a reasonable amount of jumping.

The only problem was that he hadn't learned to appreciate yet. It was one of the very few magics he knew how to do, but didn't dare to learn.

Splinching, the result of an unsuccessful attempt if one's mind is not focused enough, was something he didn't want to try.

He didn't know how his gamer ability would react to losing a limb. It could result in his instant death if he was unlucky. Or he could directly lose his head.

Learning it in the natural way was accompanied by instructors who could instantly interfere and restore your body magically. Meanwhile, Harry was completely alone; one fatal mistake, and he was dead.

Even if he was lucky enough to get the skill, he didn't know if the risk of splinting was removed. If he had to level it first, then it was simply too dangerous.

After all, he only had to count the one dark magic book in his school books for the first five years of his Hogwarts education.

It is barely enough to get to the level of an OWL wizard without the additional resources of the Hogwarts Library.

Despite the fact that he knew other spells and magic from the Harry Potter book series and movies, and his skills made it easier to master them, he was still limited. There were many advanced spells he knew existed, but he had no idea how to cast them.

Neither did he know how to create his own wizard spells, since he was lacking the necessary classes in arithmancy and runes. And besides that one spell Snape used in the sixth movie, he had no clue about healing magic.

So Apparition was out because he couldn't learn it.

His only choice remaining was to travel by horseback, good that he had more than enough essences to gain a good skill level in it without embarrassing himself.

During the journey, he quenched his boredom by leveling his observation skills and occlumency. Oh, and also contemplate whether he should invest his stat points.

[ Name: Harry J. Potter

Class: The Gamer

Gender: Male

Level: 68 Next Level: 68.5%

Titel: The Boy Who Lived

Age: 16

Species: Human (Magical)

HP: 380

MP: 165

193

Strength: 45

Vitality: 37

Intelligence: 31

Wisdom: 23

Dexterity: 48

Charisma: 11

Luck: 7

Points: 338 ]

While conquering Skagos, he could stay back and was never truly in danger.

During his grinds, he could always take out his opponents from the shadows with his invisible cloak and had enough distance between himself and them.

But now things are different. He would stand in the front as a Lord of Skagos. People would expect him to be there and not play it safe in the shadows.

Harry needed to be strong enough to ensure his own survival and came to a decision.

First Harry chose to raise his intelligence, which was the stat responsible for the amount of mana he possessed, the very source of his power, and even the strength of his spells.

When he received a skill at 50 intelligence and one at 100, he kept on adding after seeing their effects.

Unfortunately, he got neither one at 150 nor 200, only another one another one at 250. So he chose to stop there and focus on other statistics to get more skills, raising his overall strength.

He brought his wisdom stat responsible for MP recovery, magic control, and logical thinking to 100, gaining two more skills, and his charisma to 50 for another one.

The remaining 3 stat points he put into his luck stat since it was his lowest one and he hadn't figured out a way to raise it. Maybe if he was lucky enough, he wouldn't splinch.

[ New skill acquired for raising your intelligence to 50! ]

[ Dense Mana (Passive) Lv. Max: The mana inside your body is unnaturally dense, increasing its natural potency and quantity.

10% increased amount of total mana.

20% decreased mana consumption for all mana-related skills.

5% increased power for all mana-related skills. ]

[ New skill acquired for raising your intelligence to 100! ]

[ High Level Mana Reserves (Passive)] Lv. Max: You have naturally large mana reserves of high quality.

50% increased amount of total mana.

20% decreased mana consumption for all mana-related skills.

10% increased power for all mana-related skills. ]

[ New skill acquired for raising your intelligence to 250! ]

Ultimate Mana Reserves (Passive) Lv. Max: Your inborn mana reserves are the largest ones a human could naturally be born with.

100% increased amount of total mana.

30% decreased mana consumption for all mana-related skills.

20% increased power for all mana-related skills.]

[ New skill acquired for raising your wisdom to 50! ]

[ Magic Affinity (Passive) Lv. Max: You have a natural affinity for magic; your control and regeneration rate are higher than others.

10% increased mana regeneration rate.

10% decreased Mana Consumption for all Mana related Skills.

Learning magic comes naturally to you; you are easier to learn and master new spells with your natural affinity for mana and the ability to sense it. ]

[ New Skill aquired for raising your Wisdom to 100! ]

[ Magic Manipulation (Passive) Lv. Max: Your Magic bends towards your Will, you have higher Control of your Magic related skills and Mana.

50% increased Mana Regeneration rate.

20% decreased mana consumption for all mana-related skills.

You gain the ability to manipulate and shape your magic with your will and no longer require a Foci. ]

[ New Skill aquired for raising your Charisma to 50! ]

[ Pretty Face (Passive) Lv. Max: People like the appearance of your Face, and enjoy to look at it.

Success chances of persuasions and negotiations were raised by 10%.

Increased first impression with the opposite gender. ]

[ Name: Harry J. Potter

Class: The Gamer

Gender: Male

Level: 68 Next Level: 68.5%

Titel: The Boy Who Lived

Age: 16

Species: Human (Magical)

HP: 380 MP: 4158

Strength: 45

Vitality: 37

Intelligence: 250

Wisdom: 100

Dexterity: 48

Charisma: 50

Luck: 10

Points: 0 ]

'That feeling… is that Magic?' He tought as his perception of the World had changed, different from his previous Magic Sensitivity that allowed him to notice enchantments.

The feeling inside his Body had also changed, where it previously had been a small stream of Mana that he was using for his Spells, now it was an Lake ready to break out.

But he had not time to experiment more with these Changes since in the distance a huge Castle Complex had appeared.

That's huge, bigger than Hogwarts.

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