Gil'thuk

After days of luring out his kinsmen with the help of the two village idiots, Gil'thuk was rapidly approaching the end of this project. It had gone far better than he'd expected it to thanks to some advice, well more like orders, from his new dungeon overlord.

'As we convert the other troglodytes I am going to have them go back to the village and act normal. I do not want the alarm getting raised or any of you getting too nervous. Don't mess this up.'

Every day that Gil spent tricking and kidnapping the other troglodytes brought him closer to the realization that he wanted more. His biggest fear was that after everyone had converted into dungeon slaves like him, he would fall back to the bottom of the hierarchy. Surely that was unjust considering his new status as first-reborn, reborn into the service of the most powerful dungeon in the land. Probably.

Still he spent every minute of his existence trying to please the powerful voice who now guided his entire world, the voice that he found inexplicably irresistible. Today that meant it was finally time to bring down the chieftain and the shaman. Gil wandered down the winding slope that lead from the dungeon back into the village, flanked by the two idiots he'd tricked on the first day and the last of his kinsman to be converted besides the elites.

Their colony wasn't big, only 13 strong after their battle with the dogmen a few months past, so it hadn't taken too much time. On top of that his mistress became more efficient in the time it took her to ensnare each of them every time, practice makes perfect afterall.

Gil'thuk rehearsed his plan once more in his head. He'd come to realization that he did not stand a chance against either of the elites, with or without the other 10 troglodytes backing him up. He knew for a fact that they stood no chance against the two with a united cause. To this end, Gil had not stopped brainstorming for days until he had a plan and he'd refined it.

Once again Gil'thuk sent up a silent thank you to the dungeon who had taken him, albeit against his will, and given him this gift. He did not know whether it was due to his new diet or the more expansive language he now had access to, but he'd found it easier to think in a linear fashion that he had his entire life. Never had he had such coherent thoughts and now he was going to use it to his advantage.

As he walked by the communal fire pit his group split up, going about their daily tasks as they usually would. He was pleased to see both the chieftain and the shaman were not currently in their huts but walking around the warren together, seemingly preparing for something. As Gil passed the shaman he noted the suspicious glance cast his way. He'd been receiving that look more often than not from the shriveled troglodyte over the past few days. An uncanny feeling that the shaman knew what he was up to came over Gil, but it was far too late to stop him now.

He snuck into the shaman’s sleeping den and went about stashing the foods he'd smuggled in from the dungeon around the place, taking the time to hide an extra special something to tilt the encounter to come even more in his favor.

An hour or so later the two elites returned to the warren from their patrol and the shaman led them over to where Gil was sitting on a rock. The chieftain, a man of few words, grabbed Gil by his neck and began dragging him towards his hut. It seemed that the shaman had somehow communicated his suspicions to the burley troglodyte despite the language barrier. Forced into action, it was time for Gil to tip his hand.

"Stop. Stop. Stop. Good. Stop." Rotating rapidly through the limited vocabulary Gil practically yelped each word down. Seemingly it worked as the much larger creature slowed down and pulled Gil around to look him in the eye. The very angry eye.

"Fight." The chieftain shoved Gil'thuk backwards so hard that he nearly flipped heals over head as he tumbled backwards.

"Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop. Hunt. Stop. Good Hunt. Stop. Stop Fight." Gil crawled back towards his chieftain on his knees with his hands crossed and tears welling in his eye. "Stop Fight. Good Hunt." He frantically pointed in the direction of the shaman’s den.

Furiously the shaman stepped forward, apparently ready to kill Gil himself. Instead the chieftain stopped him with an arm, squinted down at Gil, and beckoned for Gil to lead the way. As he rose to his feet he spat out a glob of blood from the cut he'd received in his mouth. With no time to waste he stumbled towards the den and pointed through the doorway while repeating the words Hunt, Good, Fight.

The three of them entered the domicile, and Gil was pleased to see the chieftain’s eye go wide with anger. Without words to question the plethora of contraband scattered around he had no choice but to point and then roar into the shaman’s face as loud as he could. Perfect, it seemed that Gil was right when he assumed that the chieftain was not as capable a thinker as he. His plan, which he'd formulated after remembering a brutal pit fight to the death several seasons back over a single stolen rabbit, seemed to be unfurling just the way he'd wanted.

The two exchanged heated shouts while the shaman threw furious glances Gils way. Finally, after the shaman realized things were not going to go his way he lunged at Gil, who'd placed himself on the opposite side of the shaman’s bedding. As the tattered rags that passed for bedding were shuffled out of the way the loudest bellow of rage he'd heard yet came from the mouth of the chieftain.

Both smaller troglodytes froze in fear, eyes falling down to view the source of the brute's anger. Instantly the shaman turned to defend himself as he realized that the object he'd kicked out of the blankets in his haste to attack was none other than the chieftain’s missing stone warhammer.

The chieftain managed to get two swift blows into the shaman’s stomach along with a wicked gash across his face, launching the frail mage across the room. The chieftain walked towards the prone form of the shaman slowly, towering over him as he boiled over in rage.

For several seconds the room sounded of the thudding of a foot on a ribcage and the occasional whimper. As the chieftain raised his foot above the shaman’s head, preparing to deliver the final blow, he suddenly froze. Perhaps frozen isn’t the proper word as the troglodyte seemed to vibrate in place, struggling against the dark tethers that held him in place.

Using the magic that had earned the small creature it's place at the head of the pack alongside the giant warrior, he'd summoned up the shadows to constrain the troglodyte chieftain in place. Nursing an injured face and several broken ribs, the shaman slowly wiped the blood out of his eyes as he rose. It was obvious from the concentrated look on his face as he limped over to the offending weapon that the spell he used had a constant upkeep of mana.

He shambled over to the barely restrained chieftain and shared a long moment of eye contact. The magic man swung the hammer in a two-handed grip, starting from as far over his back as he could overhead and straight down onto the top of the chieftain’s head. After two more blows like that the massive ball of muscle that was previously the chieftain slumped over before being released by the shadows.

The shaman slowly collected himself, heaving at the lack of breath he had from the physical exertion as well as the massive headache that was quickly on setting. Before he could turn however, the smaller and almost forgotten instigator of the entire event took advantage of his distraction. A small knife appeared from behind the shaman, stabbed directly into one side of his neck and dragged across to the other before he could react.

Gil'thuk couldn't help but feel pride at his accomplishment. Not only was every living troglodyte down here now under the dungeon's control, but he'd even managed to secure himself a place at the lead of the pack. A coughing drew his attention to the chieftain, and he realized that the large man had not yet passed from this world. Now that just wouldn't do. He plunged the throwing knife that his master had awarded him into the chieftain’s eye before pulling it back and stabbing him everywhere else he could. In most areas the hardness of the troglodyte’s muscles prevented the knife from penetrating more than a couple centimeters, but Gil took full advantages of areas that didn't like the neck and eye.

Once again basking in his glow of accomplishment, the small creature sat down to nurse the cut he'd received from the dagger hidden in his mouth when he was thrown down earlier.

He spat out another chunk of blood and closed his eyes, engulfed by the sensation of his dungeon slowly spreading her influence down where she'd been previously hindered. It was finally Gil'thuk's time to shine.

* * * * * * *

Manning

"It's perfect Manning, I love it!"

Ash was currently standing in the clearing with the Cara's entrance looking at the product of the last few days work. As I hoped, she agreed with me when I mentioned moving her tree deeper into the forest, something I'd been trying to figure out sooner. Like many of my problems, this one was solved by working on something else and accidently stumbling upon it.

It all started when the Lupane man had ventured into my forest with the two elves days ago. They'd spent the evening hunting and foraging much like I'd assumed they were on the way to do, but on the way out the beastman tried to chop down one of the oaks from the forest path. Not liking that one bit, I sicced some of the mutated field rats I had nearby on him to discourage the behavior.

This did give me an idea however when I recalled the spike in his mana output when he swung the axe as hard as he could at the tree. I'd already made the connection between the amount of mana I could absorb from the sapient visitors and their level of physical effort. It was almost the same amount that they off put when meditating in my forest and I wanted more.

To this end I had the hedgehogs plant a few of my less used seeds for the sapients to chop down deeper in the forest at the first glade. I extended a little effort to make them grow literally overnight, but unfortunately nobody had returned the following day. This was a bit concerning, surely, they hadn't been scared away by a simple rat attack. I spent the day distracted myself from my worries by working on the enhanced fruit tree I had in mind. I'd been trying to cross my ideas between fruit enhancement and metallic seeding, which was very difficult.

Luckily around midday the next day, a group of sapients once again decided on braving my domain. The group was composed of the blue haired girl, the purple elf, and much to my excitement the two earth mages and one of their companions. I was practically drooling at the thought of getting my first observation of active magic and I tracked them very carefully.

When they got to the clearing they wasted no time getting to work on taking down the trees. The halfmen seemed excited about the quality of the wood which convinced me to keep that specific species of tree a bit deeper into my forest. Just as I'd guessed the amount of energy they expended chopping the trees down led to a net profit in energy for me, and that didn't even include what they'd have to use up getting the trees out of the forest.

They spent hours in the grove chopping down the mahoganies while the two females did their own thing. Before the group set off to depart the grove, I felt a nagging sensation from the center of the grove. It was almost like someone was trying to get my attention, the two women I thought. It didn't matter however, because the halfmen had my undivided attention. I watched as they went through some motions and I saw their mana forming patterns in the air around them.

It took almost a week of the dwarves coming and going, using their magic to move the trees more easily out of my domain, but finally I learned the spell. It was the same spell they'd used to rip up all the grasses for their town square and I was sure that when applied correctly I could use it to move a tree, root system and all. I spent another few hours practicing on the less important trees in the forest before moving the ash to the new grove I'd made for us with Ash sitting in the branches of the tree holding my core we set off.

After a few more hours we arrived in our new home, and as Ash had said it was beautiful. The clearing was mostly filled by a large stream-fed lake, with its shores surrounded by a scattering of tin-infused willow trees. Not the murderous trees, just regular willow trees that I'd managed to mutate. This deep into my domain most of the trees were mineral-enhanced in some fashion, with most of the trees made up of pyrolusite enhanced oaks. The pyrolusite pattern was an unexpected gift from Cara a few days back, something she'd found in her new breeding den of troglodytes. Once again, I spared a quick thought on how lucky I was to have been trapped with her, and then paired with Ash, the two most wonderful women to ever exist.

Now that I was safer, deeper into my domain with Ash, I was able to commit more of my attention to evolving my creatures and figuring out how to enhance the fruit trees without making the fruit inedible. Going out on a limb, I sent out a flock of birds and rats to try and collect more plants and other items of interest. Hopefully this would go better than last time.