I Somehow Got Tasked With Managing A Realm

It didn't take long for me to reach the bathhouse and I quickly found the two that I was looking for.

Just what I thought... my god they are adorable.

As expected, Julia and Mr. Flippers were right at the cold bath. The penguin was clearly having a blast swimming in circles and Julia was watching him with a small smile on her face. Although she was not swimming with him- probably because of how cold the water was- she still sat on the side and dipped her feet in the water.

"You two having fun?"

Julia turned her head at the sound and her eyes lit up once they met my gaze.

"Jaco- ah!"

The elf immediately shot up and slipped while attempting to run over to me. Luckily I was close enough to catch her so she did not get hurt.

Julia made no effort to pull herself off of me, yet she was unable to hide the slight red blush on her face.

"Jacob! Are you okay!? What did they call you for?" she asked.

Really? You're just gonna pretend that you didn't almost fall on your face...

"Apparently my design was so good that I have to change some things to make it more fair," I said with a wry smile.

"...Right," Julia finally pulled herself off of me, "Well, I'm just glad you're not in too much trouble. You had me worried after what happened in the classroom..."

"I'm fine, don't worry. Based on what I just saw, I should be the one worrying about you if anything- "

"Squawk!"

Julia and I turned back to the bath to see Mr. Flippers jumping out of the water.

"Finally noticed I was here, huh?" I teased the tiny creature who waddled over to me.

"Squawk!"

"I'm okay, don't worry." I smiled and picked up the tiny, wet penguin, "I'm glad you were able to swim again, but we should get back to the domain soon. There's some work I need to do."

"You have to go already? Are you sure you can't stay for a bit longer... I was about to take a bath..." the elf shyly mentioned.

I really should go back now, but honestly, I doubt that Tatton would mind a tiny delay. Besides, I did promise Julia that I'd stay with her the next time she took a bath. Also... I could use one myself.

Although it was a bit embarrassing to admit, I got completely drenched with sweat during whatever happened with the sheep instructor.

"Alright, I'll join you, but I'll have to be quick."

"Okay!" Julia's face lit up and she quickly dashed to the changing area to get into a towel.

"Be careful! I don't want you slipping again!" I called out to her jokingly.

"I won't slip!"

With a smile on my face, I followed behind her and got changed too. The bath itself did not last long and I stepped out squeaky clean within 30 minutes.

"You know... it kind of defeats the purpose of showering when we put on the same dirty clothes after," Julia said with a sigh.

"It is a bit annoying," I replied, looking down at the usual clothes on my body, "I feel weird about it, but we might have no choice but to wash them in the bath. There's no washing machine or anything here from what I've seen."

"Washing machine?" Julia asked curiously.

"Oh right- it's a thing from my world that washes clothes. Pretty self-explanatory." I explained, "I would try to make one in my domain with domain creation, but sadly I doubt I know enough to accurately make one."

"Domain creation! I almost forgot!" Julia's eyes lit up again, "That's exactly what I need!"

I tried and failed to hide my smile at her shout. 

"Looks like someone's excited. You should go test it out- it's time for Mr. Flippers and me to head back anyway. I'll see you in the morning like usual?"

"Definitely- I'll see you later! Return to Domain!"

With that, the adorable elf disappeared quickly followed by Mr. Flippers and me.

A familiar dark space greeted the two of us and I made my way over to my desk. The massive screen on the wall in front of me immediately brightened upon my approach- an enormous brown and blue sphere was displayed on its surface.

I still can't believe something so beautiful was so close to imploding.

After a few minutes of staring, I let out a sigh and zoomed into the mountain range. It might be a bit conceitful, but the sight was beyond magnificent. Giant stone mounds were spread out far beyond the eye could see. Topped with snowy peaks, these absolute behemoths of earth engulfed the horizon and towered over the surrounding land.

The mountains themselves vaguely resemble the Rocky Mountains. Well not exactly- it's more like the Rocky Mountains had a baby with the Andes Mountains... and then those babies grew up to be the size of their parents. Still, it is kind of weird how there's barely any snow on the ground here. I know that it is roughly November on the planet, but I expected there to be more.

The area that I was looking at was in between the two mountain ranges to the North-West of the continent. The latitude at this point was roughly equivalent to mid-to-upper Canada.

Curious, I zoomed out and watched my realm for a bit. Since the time in my domain had now been sped up to heavenly time, one day in here was about 1,000 years in the realm. That would mean that for every second that I spent in the academy or my domain, roughly four days would pass in mortal time.

After a few minutes of observing, I could figure out what was the cause of the lack of snow: the mountains to the south were so high that they directly interfered with clouds from the warmer parts of the continent that carried an abundance of moisture. As the clouds drifted north, the mountains would practically squeeze them dry leaving massive amounts of snow and rain on the southern mountain face, but drought-like conditions on the northern face where I was looking. 

The first set of mountains north of the plane pretty much did the same thing- any water that had managed to evaporate in the cold conditions to the north would get squeezed dry as they attempted to move south. A quick glance at the northern face of the upper mountain range revealed the massive build-up of snow there. Most of the rain that fell within the mountain ranges flowed toward the giant lake, rather than the land between them.

With these two mountain ranges blocking the moisture, the area between the two was left as an icy tundra. Although it did make my natural defenses a bit weaker in this section, having this space so far to the north with calm conditions was not exactly a bad thing. In the far future, it could act as a really strong line of defense for my lifeforms to set up in, or even as a rallying point if I were to launch an invasion into other realms.

There's nothing that I could do to change it even if I had a problem with the area- the only resource points that I have are the ones loaned by the Flower Box to create a passage through the two mountain ranges.

Based on my estimates, they wanted to passages to be about 1 mile wide given how much they provided.

Well... I guess it's time to make it.

A smirk appeared on my face as I looked at the sphere.

If they're going to force me to create a path, I might as well have it work in my favor.

I quickly made a path through the northern mountain range far to the right, followed by a passage through the southern mountain range all the way to the left to ensure that invaders would need to travel the farthest possible distance before reaching the main continent. In the wintertime, invaders would practically be pinned between glaciers and mountains on their way to the northern passage.

Although this massive delay through Arctic conditions would serve to greatly weaken attackers and heavily deplete their supplies, it was not enough to be worthy of defacing the gorgeous mountains in my eyes.

One benefit of the passageways that I had yet to mention is the fact that they would be a bottleneck to invading forces. Sadly, since they were both a mile wide, the force would not be overly cramped, but I thought of a way to increase its lethality.

High on the mountains on both sides of the passages, I created large flat platforms that could easily support a small force. Anyone stationed on these cliffs could inflict massive damage on those walking through the pathway below using arrows or even by simply dropping rocks. The only way to reach these platforms was through stone ramps that I made using leftover material from the destroyed mountains. Because the entrance to these ramps were to the south, there would be no way for invading forces to reach them without first making their way through the passageways.

Since I made these ramps on both passages through the mountain ranges, this left a golden opportunity for two nearly impregnable lines of defense.

"That was close... but I think it looks pretty good," I muttered to myself looking at the passages, "I used up nearly all of the Resource Points destroying the mountains, so I had to re-use some of the material to make the ramps."

There was still plenty of time before class as making the passage only took me about an hour, so I turned around to see what Mr. Flippers was up to. Similarly to last time, he was playing with my deck of cards, but he had a slightly bored expression on his face.

Maybe this would be a good time to test out Domain Creation?

I flipped my palm up and spread out my fingers. In my mind, I pictured a certain cold, white, and arguably fluffy substance. I felt a very small amount of power being drained from my body and a perfect snowball soon formed in my hand.

Wow- that was a lot easier than I thought.

"Hey, Mr. Flippers!"

"Squawk?" he looked over to me and was immediately hit by a snowball on his penguin body.

The penguin let out another annoyed squawk as he grumpily began waddling towards me, before quickly stopping and looking back at the white snow on the floor.

"Squawk!?" Mr. Flippers instantly waddled back to the snow and began hopping on it.

"It's been a while since you've got to see any of that, right? How about I give you some more to play in," I said with a smile.

I quickly made a small wooden tub and filled it with a giant pile of snow which Mr. Flippers happily jumped into. He played in the snow pile for a long time as I watched with a warm heart.

"Alright- I'm coming in too!" I announced as I eventually joined him in the pile of snow.

The penguin jokingly kicked snow onto me the second I hopped inside the tub and I did not hesitate to return the favor.

Time passed quickly as a snowball fight ensued.