Chapter 11

Hana released a deep sigh as she felt the latest wave of mana leaving her body and invigorating the recently transplanted tree. Under her guidance, the tree’s roots grew thick and strong, anchoring deep into the earth and securing the nutrients the tree would need to grow further in the coming hours. The altered composition of the tree would also begin siphoning mana from the ground and dispersing it into the immediate area.

This was the single most important aspect for a Dryad Grove and Hana assumed it would prove very useful to a more traditional Settlement as well. The modified trees would begin concentrating the ambient mana and would both increase the rate of mana regeneration of monsters in the vicinity, as well as increasing their maximum capacity over time as well. Although it wouldn’t be nearly so effective for Lord Tim’s other minions, Hana would see substantial benefits in the coming days. In particular, the mana siphons would provide the levels of ambient mana required to begin hatching the unknown monster eggs.

Popping another manastone into her mouth, Hana hesitated for a moment before swallowing. This was a practice her mother had strictly prohibited, and for good reason. Already attuned to the natural world of the Labyrinth and the plethora of flora that inhabited it, Hana could have slowly continued her own growth by filtering mana from her surroundings alone. It was the path Dryads were intended to take.

However, it would have taken far too long for Hana to obtain the power she needed for her revenge! Recalling her mother’s Grove set ablaze, Hana grit her teeth and swallowed the manastone. Feeling the fresh wave of power spreading through her body, Hana knew she was close to reaching her evolution and seriously considered that a second evolution was likely within reach as well. Such power would have taken Hana more than a decade to accumulate on her own through passive absorption. Although the price for cutting corners would likely come due sooner rather than later, Hana didn‘t care. If it meant she was able to kill The Destroyer, she would pay any price.

Hana’s corruption from consuming the manastones was a price she could live with. Her transition from a Dryad to Corrupted Dryad had only one notable change in that the soulless would no longer ignore her presence. Effectively, they would treat Hana as they would any other monster of a different species, which is to say they would attack her on sight. As Hana continued to evolve, the aura of corruption would intensify and her presence would begin driving the soulless berserk.

Hana smirked ruefully as she continued her efforts in guiding the growth of the tree. The disadvantage of the corruption didn’t actually mean much in her current situation. As Lord Tim’s Overseer, Hana had access to the Settlement’s management options, and she had already enabled the protective ward to drive out soulless from the territory. Well, most of them. The human minion known as Nadine had requested the carnivorous fish be allowed to stay, so the other minions could ‘farm them’ for food and manastones. The idea had merit, so Hana had agreed and would establish a sizable pond later.

Lord Tim’s minions were not what Hana had expected. For so many of them to be human was a true surprise. From all her mother had told her, Hana was under the expectation that human minions were exceptionally rare. Their natural bigotry, greed and tendency towards violence, made them difficult to control, and yet Lord Tim had four of them. They were obedient as well, following his every command without needing to be threatened or otherwise coerced. What had made it all the more surprising was Lord Tim possessed an enslavement class but showed no signs of actively using it. Instead, Nadine had explained that he was using it to shield his minions from the enslavement of others.

For an Ogre, Lord Tim was incredibly strange. Besides asking Hana to help establish the Settlement, which was one of her new duties as Overseer anyway, he had seemed content to leave Hana to her own devices. The only order Hana had been given was to pace her consumption of manastones to avoid what had been explained as a form of mana addiction. Hana had never heard of such a thing but didn’t see much of a problem following the order either, it just gave her more time to adjust to each incremental increase in strength.

“I wish I could grow plants like that,” Nadine sighed wistfully, “It’s truly impressive.”

Hana smiled and graciously accepted the compliment. After all, It was only natural that a minion would complement the Overseer’s abilities. As Nadine had explained earlier, her own class involved the healing of injuries through binding and stitching flesh back together. Perhaps not as valuable as it would be in other Settlements that lacked the Lord’s Iron Gut recovery aura, it was still very useful.

“Oh!” Nadine gave a start, “Do you think it would be possible to grow some flowers?”

Hana nodded, “It shouldn’t be too hard,” she agreed.

“Do you think you could grow some flowers next? The smell is pretty bad around here,” Nadine explained somewhat apologetically.

“Hrm,” Hana didn’t particularly like the idea of delaying the establishment of the Settlement. Even though it would not technically require that much mana, it would still set Hana behind her self imposed schedule. Getting the last of the required mana siphons to the requisite size and potency before evening would be difficult.

“You know,” Nadine leaned in and shielded her mouth conspiratorially, “Tim has complained about strong smells like this before. I bet he would appreciate it if you took care of it,” she suggested slyly.

Hana considered this new information for a moment and approximated the amount of mana it would cost. Weighing the loss in productivity against the potential goodwill from the Lord, Hana eventually agreed that Nadine’s suggestion had merit. With a flourish of her hand, Hana caused a wave of verdant green vegetation to erupt from the ground and spread through the area. After a few moments of rapid growth, thin petaled flowers began blooming from the long stalks and releasing a pleasant but not overpowering fragrance.

The lilies were actually native to swamp biomes like this one but were normally devoured by the soulless for the trace amounts of mana concentrated in their bulbs. Or at least that is what Hana figured must be happening because she had not seen any such flowers in their vicinity despite the faint traces of the immature bulbs beneath the ground.

“Wow!” Nadine exclaimed in wonderment as the flowers rather quickly overran the Settlement.

Hana patiently counted down the requisite time in her head until she could take the next manastone. Although she had not found the rotting smell of vegetation disagreeable, Hana did have to admit that she preferred the sweet scent of the lilies more.

“Pretty!” The Goblin, Toofy, raced headlong into the field of lilies, hopping around excitedly as she took in the sights and smells of the flowers.

Curiously watching Toofy play amongst the flowers, Hana smiled a little and decided to join her.

Seeing Hana approach, Toofy’s smile widened, revealing a mouth full of sharp teeth, “Look! Look!” She insisted, gesturing frantically at the surrounding lilies, “So many pretties!”

“You like the lilies?” Hana asked, already feeling like the expended mana had been worth it.

Toofy nodded emphatically, “Pretties look pretty, smell pretty!” She explained, as if Hana was not able to tell for herself.

Rather than being offended, Hana was rather amused. Is this what it had been like for her older sisters? Hana wondered wistfully.

Toofy’s energy level dropped rather suddenly, her expression becoming concerned, “Hana sad?” She asked worriedly, “No sad Hana,” Toofy insisted before Hana had a chance to answer, wrapping her in a tight hug.

Hana’s first reaction was to push Toofy away. Being the Lord’s Overseer required her to maintain a strong, confident and authoritative presence in front of the minions. However, the earlier reminder of her lost family had unsettled Hana somewhat and she could use a little comfort. Besides, the Lord often seemed to indulge Toofy’s eccentricities, giving the little Goblin close to free rein, so Hana was just going to do the same until told otherwise.

*****

Returning to the Settlement with another uprooted tree, I was surprised to see that the ground ahead was blanketed with lush green plant life and most surprisingly, crisp white flowers. Carefully setting down the tree, I walked closer for a better look. They appeared to be a type of swamp flower, but I honestly didn’t know much about botany besides knowing the word.

Wandering around a little, I was very impressed with Hana and Nadine’s progress so far. Ten newly transplanted trees dominated the local landscape, forming a rough circle centred around the Totem and our current residence. Although each of the trees was of slightly different sizes, they averaged out at about ten feet wide, half as much again near the base of the trunk and even the shortest were around fifty feet tall. Assuming Hana intended to grow them even larger, it would not be surprising if they just about formed a solid wall at this rate.

Of course, they were pitifully small compared to the tree serving as our home, which was easily four or five times their size. Over the course of the day, Hana had nearly doubled the tree’s size from yesterday and I had to wonder just how much mana she was actually using to accomplish it. It was another rather blunt reminder that I still didn’t have MP of my own, let alone any cool abilities to use it on. Well, that isn’t completely true I suppose, there was always Shady’s Shadowstep synergy.

Heading up in the treefort, I found Toofy animatedly entertaining Nadine and Hana with a stirring rendition of the sausage song. It is truly amazing how Toofy can misremember the words, sing out of tune, but still maintain the rhythm. She was definitely gifted.

Nadine had noticed my return and was doing her best not to laugh, while Hana looked incredibly confused and didn’t seem to know what to do.

Seeing me standing in the open doorway, Toofy abruptly stopped singing, “Tim!” She bounced over, excitedly grabbed my hand and tried to drag me back down the stairs, “See pretties!” Toofy insisted.

Wanting to avoid an accident, I swept Toofy up and deposited her on my shoulder before heading downstairs to look at the flowers again.

As we reached the bottom of the stairs, Toofy wriggled free of my loose grip and began excitedly jumping amongst the flowers. “Pretties! Tim see?!” She declared emphatically.

I smiled and nodded in agreement, “Yes the flowers are very pretty.”

Toofy stopped and cocked her head to one side slightly with obvious curiosity, “Flowers?” Toofy asked hesitantly.

I nodded and picked one of the lilies, “They are called flowers,” I explained patiently, holding out the stem for Toofy to take.

“Oh...” Toofy nodded sagely, as if the revelation was obvious, “Flowers!” She agreed emphatically, accepting the lily and wildly waving it around.

Thinking she might enjoy it, I picked a few more lilies and roughly wove their stems together to form a crown. Waving Toofy over, I placed it on her head. I had never woven a flower crown before and was relieved that it didn’t immediately fall apart.

“Flowers!” Toofy screeched, staring up at her crown and nearly falling over backwards as she tried to get a better look.

Nadine and Hana had followed us down the stairs watching Toofy’s antics with similar expressions to before.

“Is this normal?” Hana asked somewhat uncertainly.

“Pretty much,” Nadine nodded but did not elaborate further.

Hana furrowed her brow and began wringing her hands together with worry. After a few minutes, she seemed to have made up her mind and approached with a determined expression, “Ah, my Lord?” Hana asked somewhat hesitantly.

“Yes?” I was more than a little curious as to what was making her so nervous. I am not keen on being called a Lord, but that was something we could discuss once things were more settled.

Hana seemed unable or unwilling to look me in the eye, “Do you like the flowers?” She asked nervously.

“I do,” I replied honestly, thankful that I was no longer able to smell the overbearing and pervasive stench of rotting vegetation.

Hana appeared visibly relieved, “I am glad you like them!” She smiled and genuinely seemed quite happy by my response. “I think I should be able to finish the fortress by evening,” Hana insisted firmly.

“Really?!” I looked around at the trees a moderate distance away, “That’s really impressive!” I felt another pang of jealousy and was a little suspicious, “You are pacing yourself with those manastones like I asked, right?”

“Of course!” Hana insisted, appearing mortified at the suggestion.

That actually made me feel a little guilty, “Sorry, I just don't want you to get addicted.”

Hana was somewhat mollified and distractedly adjusted her plant-fibre dress, “I appreciate your concern...” She replied a little quietly, “But I am your Overseer, I wouldn’t dare disobey a direct order.”

I winced. That made the nature of the Labyrinth’s arrangement sound uncomfortably similar to slavery. Hopefully, our relationship was more benign. The memories of the pain I had felt were still quite fresh in my mind and I had no intentions of inflicting it on others. “Just...just do what you think is best,” I did my best to keep the suggestion vague, just in case.

“As you will,” Hana agreed, shifting her attention to the surrounding trees as she popped a mana stone in her mouth and gulped it down. “You said you wanted clean water for bathing, right?” Hana asked Nadine pointedly. Without waiting for an answer, she raised her arms out to either side and was quickly blanketed in an emerald aura. Eyes radiating the same energy, she gestured one hand to where I had left the uprooted tree.

Within moments, the tree was quickly crawling across the ground by its roots towards Hana, like some sort of wooden octopus. At her direction, the tree moved a short distance away from the Totem and opposite the treefort. Hana motioned her hand downwards and the tree’s roots grew many times their original size and began boring deep into the ground. While the roots descended, Hana directed the tree to grow outwards, rapidly increasing its girth and creating a large open cavity before causing the trunk and branches to wither and be absorbed into the lower trunk of the tree. After a few minutes of intense growth and displacement of the nearby soil and vegetation, Hana had formed a gnarled and knotted wooden basin roughly twenty feet in diameter and close to five feet deep.

Evidently still not finished, Hana caused a fresh seedling to sprout from the centre of the basin and diverge into three separate trees. The trio of trees twisted and coiled around one another as their trunks grew thicker and began occupying more of the basin. With the trees now occupying roughly half the space, Hana brought an end to their growth.

“Is this a water catchment pool?” Nadine asked curiously.

Hana smirked, made one final gesture with her right hand and dissipated the aura.

*Glurglelugluglug*

The unmistakable sound of water flushing through pipes drew my attention to the trees in the basin. A few seconds later, water began gushing out of holes in the trunks of the trees and splashing into the basin.

“How...” Nadine seemed lost for words, opening and closing her mouth in stunned silence.

“Water pressure,” I declared, much to my own surprise.

Hana looked surprised, but not nearly as much as Nadine and myself.

How did I know that? The vague memory of a large tree gushing torrents of water drifted at the edges of my mind.

Oh...

It was a viral video. Apparently, the phenomenon wasn’t even that uncommon. When a sufficiently large tree tapped into a water source below ground, the pressure would draw the water up and out of the tree if it had a breach in its trunk. Obviously, Hana had just done it on purpose rather than waiting for it to occur naturally.

“You tapped into a large deposit of bore water or something,” I assumed, partially to provide Nadine with an explanation for what must seem like another source of magic, “The water pressure drives the water up through the roots and out of those holes in the trunk. Basically, the trees are just acting as pipes.”

Hana nodded, looking rather impressed that I had managed to figure it out, “I should have known that my Lord was knowledgeable of such things,” she complimented brazenly.

I shrugged off the compliment, “Just a coincidence. I really don’t know much about plants,” I deflected.

“Hrm,” Hana narrowed her eyes suspiciously for a moment before apparently deciding she had better ways to spend her time. However, a couple of seconds later, she stiffened and began running back to the treefort, “The first of the eggs are hatching!” She cried urgently, already racing up the stairs.

“Eggs?” Toofy asked curiously, temporarily distracted from the alluring danger of the fountain.

“You want to see the eggs hatch?” I asked Toofy, lifting her up and onto my shoulder before she had a chance to refuse. I was now going to have to add swimming lessons to Toofy’s schooling schedule. Especially since there was no way a fence would be able to keep her out of the fountain once she was determined to get in.

No less excited than Hana, Nadine beat me to the stairs.

When we reached our living quarters, I saw Hana very carefully removing eggs from the chest I had received upon completion of the Labyrinth’s quest. Scrutinising each one intensely before either placing it back in the chest or setting it aside on the ground beside her, Hana was fully engrossed in her task.

“I wonder what kind of monster eggs they are!” Nadine whispered excitedly,

I was just as excited but far more apprehensive. The Labyrinth’s quest had not exactly been particularly accommodating. Sure, the Settlement was potentially a great boon in the long run, but it required significant investment, and something told me that whatever these baby monsters were, it would be a similar situation.

Apparently finished checking all twenty-five eggs, Hana had set aside three of the eggs and now presented them for my inspection. “These three eggs are very close to hatching,” she explained, one of the eggs wobbling slightly in response, “As Overseer, I will need to imprint on the hatchlings so they do not run amok,” Hana explained and looked at me expectantly.

Understanding that she was asking for permission, I nodded, curious to see what it would entail exactly.

Toofy slid down off my shoulder to take a closer look at the gently rocking egg.

“Careful,” I warned. The last thing I wanted was Toofy breaking one of the eggs, or getting into a biting contest with one of the hatchlings.

Toofy waved me off distractedly and laid down on the floor to get a closer look.

Letting out a sigh, I looked to Nadine for some support, but she was already following Toofy’s lead and moving in for a closer look. Unwilling to be the only one left out, I moved a little closer as well.

The eggs were reasonably large, around the same size as an emu egg or maybe a little smaller. All three eggs were now wobbling about, the technicolour patterns on the shells intermittently flashing in conjunction with the movement.

*Crack*

The first egg to hatch, unsurprisingly, was the first to show signs of movement, sporting bright green lightning-like patterns on its shell. A large crack now ran the length of the shell, like a jagged seam.

*Crack Crack, Crunch*

All at once, the egg was forced apart and a small mucus-covered blob burst free and onto the ground. “Gnnn, grrrr, raaaz, kriiii!” The small monster began mewling and growling as it slowly untangled its limbs.

Although just as surprised as we were, Hana was quick to act. Gathering the same emerald aura as before, she gently touched the newly-hatched monster’s head with her index finger.

All at once, the monster grew still, revealing that it looked like a very small child with small horns protruding across its forehead.

[Settlement Alert {Tim’s Settlement}: {Gric - Lesser Daemon} was recruited by {Overseer Hana} as a minion.]

A black notification appeared at the bottom of my peripheral vision.

Wait...What?!

Hana had a similar reaction, “Daemon?!” She exclaimed worriedly, quickly retracting her finger.

The tiny green-skinned Daemon, Gric, followed Hana’s finger with its eyes hungrily. However, seeing that it was now out of reach, it shifted its attention to the broken remains of its shell.

“Baby hungry,” Toofy declared in epiphany. She got up and retrieved a large chunk of the leftover meat we cooked yesterday evening. “Baby eat,” Toofy insisted, sitting back down and depositing the large chunk of croc meat next to the freshly hatched Daemon.

“Toofy I don’t think-” I started to say, but stopped abruptly as the little Daemonling scrambled into action.

Opening its mouth wide, Gric revealed a mouth of short lizard-like serrated teeth, which it then used to begin ripping off pieces of the roasted meat and swallowing them as fast as it was able.

Toofy nodded understandingly, and gave the Daemon a soft pat on the back, “Good baby.”

Gric ignored her and continued stuffing its face.

“Uh is this alright?” I asked Hana since she was the only one of us who had even known monsters lay eggs, let alone what would come after.

“Ah, I think so?” Hana replied distractedly as she watched Gric shred through the meat with increasing energy. “The newly hatched would normally eat their eggshells and absorb the mucus before becoming this...active...” Hana explained nervously before stopping to think for a moment, “Oh,” she sighed and shook her head, “I forgot about the Totem,” Hana apologised, “The poor thing must feel like he is starving.”

“He?” Nadine asked, beating me to it.

Hana nodded a little awkwardly and pointed to the Daemon’s hindquarters.

Previously covered by the mucus, the nub of a tail on Gric’s back was now visible along with the similar protrusion from his groin.

“Oh...” Nadine blushed a little in embarrassment.

After about a minute, Gric appeared to have eaten his fill, the Daemon’s belly distended to what had to be a painful degree. However, Gric seemed unfazed, just continuing to stare at the remaining veritable mountain of roasted meat possessively with his black and gold eyes.

Now that Gric was relatively still, I quickly noticed that he was ever so slowly growing in size, easily a half-inch taller than when he had first hatched. The trio of horns now crowning his forehead had grown a little too but still weren’t very large.

Both of the remaining eggs now appeared to be close to hatching as well, the purple and orange patterns each respectively flashing as the eggs grew more restless.

*Crack Crack, Crunch*

All at once, the purple egg was torn open, followed a moment later by the orange one. Two new Daemon hatchlings tumbled out and onto the ground, mewling and growling at one another. It was like watching a pair of kittens try to intimidate one another.

Hana promptly gave each a gentle tap on the forehead, immediately quieting both Daemon hatchlings.

[Settlement Alert {Tim’s Settlement}: {Qreet - Lesser Daemon} was recruited by {Overseer Hana} as a minion.]

[Settlement Alert {Tim’s Settlement}: {Dar - Lesser Daemon} was recruited by {Overseer Hana} as a minion.]

Two more black status alerts quickly flashed into my peripheral vision.

Assuming the status alerts were in the same order Hana had recruited them, then the light purple-skinned Daemon was Qreet, and the dark orange-skinned Daemon must be Dar.

“Are you naming them?” I asked Hana, more than a little confused by the strange names.

Hana shook her head, “No, the Labyrinth named them. But if you wish, it is possible to rename them at the Settlement Totem.”

“Really?” I guess it made sense, in the same reasoning that the Labyrinth assumedly named all special monsters in the first place. But it was interesting to know that I could change their names through the Totem, rather than through enslavement and the status commands. That reminded me that I had pretty much forgotten about the Totem and had no real idea what it was capable of, if anything beyond changing monster names and allowing the Settlement itself to exist.

Before I had the chance to ask Hana a few questions, the curious behaviour of the two newly hatched Daemons drew my attention. Obviously hungry, Qreet and Dar had crawled over the short, but not negligible distance, to Gric and the comparatively large chunk of roast meat. However, instead of tearing into the food as Gric had done, Qreet and Dar had both prostrated themselves before Gric and were mewling pitiably.

Toofy hopped up to get more meat, but while she was gone, Gric surprisingly tore off a large strip of meat with his teeth and threw it to Qreet.

Expecting the two hatchlings to fight over the morsel, I was surprised again when Dar did little more than stare hungrily at the food its hatchmate had received.

Gric chittered and nodded his head approvingly. He then tore off another piece of meat and threw it to Dar. Who spared a moment to squeak in gratitude before viciously assaulting the roasted meat.

Toofy returned with two more pieces of meat for Qreet and Dar.

However, Gric did not seem happy about this, hissing and glaring at her.

Toofy was taken aback for a moment, “No mad at Toofy!” She reprimanded Gric, bopping him lightly on the head with a piece of meat. With Gric suitably cowed, Toofy gave Qreet and Dar each a piece of roast meat of their own.

Again, neither Daemon made a move to begin eating, instead, they stared intently at Gric, clearly waiting for some form of permission.

Toofy seemed to notice this as well and frowned, “No greedy baby!” She warned, baring her mouth full of sharp teeth.

Far less intimidated than he should be, given that Toofy could just about stuff him whole into her mouth, Gric hissed in annoyance before chittering at Qreet and Dar.

Evidently having received permission, the pair of them began tearing into their pieces of roasted meat just as Gric had done minutes earlier.

Satisfied, Toofy nodded, “Good baby.”

“Are all monsters so hierarchical?” Nadine asked curiously.

Hana shrugged, “I don’t know, and while I also do not know much about Daemons, the one thing I know for certain is their rigid adherence to hierarchy. It is what makes them so dangerous. A Daemon will obey its superior without question, even if it means that they will die.”

“Was hatching first enough to make Gric the leader?” Nadine asked curiously, beating me to it.

“Well...sort of,” Hana agreed tentatively, “More likely, I think it has something to do with their rate of growth. The green one, Gric, hatched first because he developed faster, most likely because he has a greater aptitude for manipulating mana. The same goes for Qreet and Dar, who have hatched slightly later, but still well before the rest of the other eggs. I was actually surprised that these three hatched today. I was expecting the eggs to still need at least another day or two before I had grown the mana siphons enough to provide the necessary mana.”

“Wait a second, mana siphons?!” Nadine demanded, beating me to it again.

Hana fidgetted a little nervously, “Ah, yeah, this is what the ring of trees is for...” She explained sheepishly, “The trees gather mana from the surrounding soil and release it into the immediate area. It’s a core part of any Dryad Grove...”

Nadine was speechless.

“What does that mean exactly?” I asked, unwilling to let my expectations get ahead of themselves.

Hana was only too happy to explain.

Vindicating my expectations, it turns out there are great benefits to having increased mana levels. Firstly and rather obviously, is increased mana regeneration. But apparently, even progression towards rank and evolution is possible if you stay in the area long enough. Hana also explained that without the mana font effect, each individual egg would need to be either surrounded by manastones or be donated mana directly through prolonged skin contact with a monster that has excess mana. So the mana font, or Grove as Hana preferred to call it, was a great boon to the long-term growth and development of a Settlement.

By the time Hana finished her various explanations regarding the ins and outs of the Grove’s ambient mana enriching effects and exactly what made it so important, and by extension herself, the others had returned from their first round of hunting.

“They look pretty weak,” Clarice commented glibly after getting a good look at the Daemon hatchlings, “Do they have any cool abilities?”

The green Daemon Gric narrowed its eyes and glowered at Clarice, evidently at least able to understand her tone if not her exact words.

Similarly, Qreet and Dar did not seem particularly amused either, baring their small serrated teeth and hissing.

Apparently not having expected that response, Clarice shifted her attention to me while still keeping the corner of her eye on the little Daemonlings, “Uh, so how smart are they exactly?” She asked a little nervously.

The trio of Daemonlings had close to doubled their original size and were about a foot and a half tall, making it painfully obvious now that Gric and Dar were male and Qreet was female. I had sewn together some loincloths, but if they kept growing at the same rate, they would outgrow them by tomorrow.

“Not sure,” I admitted honestly, “They seemed to understand the insult well enough though, So I should be able to invite one into the party to take a look at their status.”

Gric shifted his attention from Clarice to me, immediately becoming docile.

“Since they are your minions, you can just call them into your party directly with a single command,” Hana suggested helpfully, “Just say Invite minion and the names of the minions you want to invite.”

Really? That’s pretty cool, “Invite minion, Gric, Qreet and Dar.”

The trio of names immediately appeared alongside the others in my group status.

[Gric - HP: 12/12 - Normal ], [Qreet - HP: 12/12 - Normal ], [Dar - HP: 12/12 - Normal ]

I saw no immediate differences between their HP, which made sense I suppose, so I figured I would take a closer look and see what stats and abilities the Daemons had, “Status.”

[Gric - Daemon Hatchling: 1 ] [HP: 12/12] [MP: 0/0 ]

[Tim’s Minion. Minion of Tim’s Settlement.] [Class: ???. ] [Exp:0/0 ]

[Strength: 6 ]

[Agility: 6 ]

[Toughness: 6 ]

[Intelligence: 6 ]

[Willpower: 6 ]

[Presence: 6 ]

[(Racial Ability: Natural Selection {Rank ???}): Consuming the fallen allows emulation of characteristics and traits by expending MP. Changes to characteristics and traits cannot be reversed, only overridden or progressed.]

Ignoring the parts I had already seen on other status screens, I was a little surprised by the trail of sixes for stats and wondered if maybe the Labyrinth had a sense of humour. But I didn’t have much time to dwell on it because the Racial Ability very abruptly stole all of my attention.

Woah...

Did the ability mean that the Daemons would change their biology after eating another monster? If so, were the changes simply cosmetic, or more practically oriented?

“What is it?” Clarice asked, now looking a little worried, like perhaps the tiny monsters were not so weak as they appeared.

I read the Racial Ability description aloud for everyone to hear.

“Woah...” Clarice exclaimed, just as surprised as I had been.

“So they copy abilities?” Emelia asked uncertainly, scratching her head as she dubiously considered the Daemons.

“No, it would have said that it copies the Racial Abilities if that is what it does,” Nadine insisted, “The Labyrinth’s descriptions can be vague sometimes but never regarding core concepts.”

Hana nodded in agreement with Nadine.

“So something like chimaerism?” I suggested, “They find another monster with a better natural advantage and emulate it?”

“I think so,” Hana agreed somewhat uncertainly, “But we won’t know for sure until one of them decides to use it.”

The whole time we were talking, Gric had turned to look at each person as they took their turn to speak. “Griiiik!” The sudden screech caught everyone off guard, including me, despite the fact that I had been watching the little Daemon closely.

Everyone looked down at Gric.

Gric stared right back, pointing animatedly at the pouch on Hana’s waist and back to himself, “Griiik!” He screeched again, though much less strenuously.

“Baby wants shiny rock,” Toofy declared in sudden realisation.

Gric narrowed his eyes witheringly at Toofy but nodded.

“Should I?” Hana asked, obviously intrigued.

I wasn’t so sure about this, “They aren’t even a day old yet, is this safe?”

Hana shrugged apologetically, “I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think so. They are already passively absorbing mana from the surrounding area, it isn’t like mana itself is harmful. At worst, he might fall into a coma until he is able to process the impurities out of the manastone. Which wouldn’t take long, since manastones are basically pure condensed mana.”

Well, that makes it seem pretty safe I guess. There was something else as well, the Daemon hatchling was obviously aware of everything going on and seemed to be reasonably intelligent. So it would know if something was harmful to it, right? Ugh, I can’t believe I am rationalizing whether a newborn has the intelligence and experience to know if something is dangerous...

“If it was dangerous, the Daemon would know right?” Nadine asked Hana, “Shouldn’t the Labyrinth have imprinted a whole mess of information into his head about what he needs to know to survive?”

Hana nodded agreeably, “It varies, but generally yes.”

“Wait a minute...” Clarice interjected, confusedly shaking her head, “How does that work exactly? Isn’t it just like a baby right now? How can it understand what we are even talking about? How would it know what it ‘knows’?!”

That was generally what I wanted to know too.

Hana sighed and took a moment to formulate a response, “I can’t really think of a much better way to explain it, but my mother...She often told us fantastical stories where the heroes and heroines were reborn into the world in the bodies of infants. Even though they were limited by their newborn body, they still had a lifetime of experiences to draw from. It isn’t a perfect analogy, but it is close. We monsters are not like your human offspring, we may lack emotional maturity for a time, but we are just as capable as our seniors intellectually.”

“...” Clarice did not seem to fully understand, but surprisingly didn’t want to fight over it.

Fully aware of the type of stories Hana was referencing, I understood what she meant, “So it’s like starting life as a teenager,” I suggested, “You already know most things you need to survive and how the world generally works, but you are still emotionally immature and need to physically develop until you would be recognised as an adult.”

“Oh!” Nadine nodded, “Alright, I think I get it now. That’s really strange but it aligns with the general observations of the documented nature of monsters,” she agreed while also giving me a curious glance, likely wondering how I was able to so readily understand Hana’s analogy.

Clarice grudgingly nodded as well, ‘I guess that kinda makes sense,” she grumbled, “It’s still really weird.”

I noticed that Emelia and Tobi had both stayed silent throughout the exchange and were actively avoiding eye contact with those who engaged in the discussion. I didn’t blame them, it’s probably a difficult concept to get your head around from an outside perspective.

Seeing Toofy offering the three Daemons some more roasted meat, despite not having finished their previous portions, I couldn't help but reevaluate how I had treated Toofy herself. Some things had been obvious for her, while others were completely foreign. How did the Labyrinth decide what was important and what wasn’t?

“Baby eat!” Toofy insisted, tearing off a shred of meat and pushing it at Gric.

Gric glowered, glancing warily in my direction before calming down slightly, “G-r-i-c,” the Daemonling rumbled, pressing its throat with one hand and gesturing at his chest with the other.

“Gric?” Toofy seemed confused.

“Toofy, he is telling you his name,” I explained patiently.

“Oh!” Toofy grinned and pointed at herself, “Toofy!” She then pointed at the Daemon, “Gric!”

Gric nodded, released a pent up sigh and even smiled a little.

“Gric still baby,” Toofy insisted with a cheeky smile, immediately souring the Daemon’s mood.

“Are we gonna give it the manastone or what?” Clarice asked impatiently, “As fascinating as all this is, daylight's burning and we should probably get back out there. If any of those other eggs hatch and have close to the same appetite, we are gonna be in trouble.”

She had a point.

“Oh, that shouldn’t be too bad,” Nadine interjected, “Hana agreed to make a pond so we can just fish for those carnivorous fish.”

“We don’t know if they are edible yet,” Clarice countered, “Besides, we don’t really have the tools for catching them either. So even if we are just going to use wooden fishing spears, we still need to make them first.”

It was kind of strange seeing Clarice so serious, and not for the sake of an argument either.

Noticing my curious look, Clarice blushed a little and cleared her throat, “Look, I just don’t want us to be left unprepared, you know? Looking after kids is a lot of work!”

She had a point. I barely had the supplies to provide loincloths for just the three of them, let alone another twenty-two potential siblings. Keeping them all fed was going to be a real issue as well if their appetites continued at the same rate as Gric and the other two. Getting them into a position where they were a bit safer while we are busy is probably a good idea.

“Alright, could you please give Gric one of the more powerful mana stones?” I asked Hana, curious to see what would happen, but also hoping that nothing would go wrong.

Hana nodded and retrieved two manastones from her pouch, swallowing one herself and handing the other down to Gric. Noticing my questioning look, Hana smiled wryly, “I am still accelerating the growth of the trees outside,” she explained, “Once the tree reaches a certain size, it doesn’t need detailed direction and can be allowed to just grow.”

Concentrating, I realised that she was still faintly cloaked in the emerald light. Feeling a little guilty for suspecting Hana of feeding an addiction, I shifted my attention to the Daemon instead.

Gric did not disappoint. Less than half a minute after forcing the manastone down his throat, Gric began to change. Accompanied by the crackling of breaking bones, Gric’s jaw widened, the lower mandible thickening and forming into a pronounced underbite as thick sharp teeth erupted from the gum line. Opening his mouth, Gric revealed smaller but similar teeth protruding from the upper side of his gum line as well. Despite the blood dribbling down his chin and the ejected teeth piled on the floor, Gric appeared to be very pleased with himself, grinning happily as he experimentally worked his jaw.

“Well, that was gruesome...” Clarice commented.

Tobi and Emelia nodded, looking a little ill.

While I would normally agree with them, I was more distracted by the sudden change than the side effect. With his new teeth, heavy lower jaw and the accompanying muscles, Gric seemed far more intimidating than someone a foot and a half tall had a right to be.

“Not as big as change as I thought there would be,” Nadine admitted disappointedly, “But I suppose if it is MP dependent, I shouldn’t have expected so much.”

Gric narrowed his eyes slightly at Nadine but otherwise did nothing.

Qreet and Dar, on the other hand, were now carefully eyeing the pouch at Hana’s waist.

Okay, that could become a problem. Better to try and nip this in the bud than deal with a tragedy later. “Gric, Qreet, Dar.” I waited until I was sure I had all three Daemonlings attention, which took all of half a second, “You are only to consume manastones as directed by myself or Hana, understood?” This would be an important rule if Hana established a fishing pond later.

All three Daemonlings nodded vigorously in response, their expressions solemn and serious. It would have been rather comical if the implications weren’t so unsettling.

Excusing myself, I decided that it would be a good opportunity to at least try and teach Toofy the basics of swimming. There was water everywhere here in the swamp, and the thought of her drowning while I was distracted, terrified me.

Besides, the swimming lesson would be able to double as a bath and opportunity to wash her clothes, which were definitely getting on the gross side.

Lacking proper bathers, I just made sure to retie the knot on my boxers and slip into the fountain. The water was crystal clear and I suspected that Hana had put more thought and design into it all than I had guessed earlier. The slight current I could feel at the bottom pretty much confirmed it. Somehow Hana had created a self-filtering fountain, almost like...magic...Right...I keep forgetting how ridiculous magic like this could be.

Toofy took to the water like a drowning cat. It took the better part of a couple of hours to even get her to try treading water, but that was mostly my fault. I had never tried teaching anyone to swim before, so my instructions weren’t very helpful, which only made Toofy more reluctant. In the end, I had to abandon the swimming lessons for the day because of how tired Toofy was getting.

Leaving Nadine to help Toofy get changed into her dry underwear, I set about cleaning my own clothes. The stains would never come out, but I didn’t really care about that at this point. I will admit that walking around in my underwear surrounded by members of the opposite sex had initially been mortifying. However, at a certain point, my embarrassment peaked and I guess I started acclimating to it. It even made dealing with the humidity more bearable. But when it comes down to it, I just missed wearing clothes...It was harder to remind myself that I was not some sort of savage monster when I was just running around in my underwear. I guess the biggest hallmark of civilization for me, is wearing clothing.

After washing my tunic and pants as best as I could manage, I gave myself a rough wash after waiting for the water to clear up a bit.

Clarice, Tobi and Emelia had just about finished resting and were preparing to set out again. Their previous hunt had managed to fill a small pouch with mana stones, but they had not brought back any monster corpses for butchering. To be fair, I hadn’t asked them to and our supplies had seemed adequate at the time. With the understanding that meat would be a higher priority than the manastones, Hana had generously ‘grown’ a sled from woven tree roots so they would be able to make more efficient use of their time.

After bathing, I decided to investigate the Totem. There was far too much I didn’t understand, and even though I could ask Hana for some answers, I still had a distinct impression that she was not coping nearly as well as she was letting on. Hana’s driven behaviour seemed motivated by either avoiding the source of her pain or preparing to face it. For the time being, I would wait and see if there was any way I could help her, but thus far, the best I could come up with was to give her some time to herself to process her grief.

Standing before the Settlement Totem, I sighed awkwardly as I now considered the rather disturbing pair of eyes and toothy mouth Toofy and I had carved into the tree. Able to think of no other way to interact with it, I pressed my right hand against the Totem.

I immediately felt a small jolt run through my hand, up my arm and into my head. A torrent of information began flooding into my mind in such a way that I was half reminded of the re-education facilities often depicted in movies. Unable to remove my arm and incapable of stemming the tide of information, I was forced to weather through it as best as I was able.

Stiffly drawing away my hand, I became aware of how desperately I needed to blink. Stumbling half-blind to the fountain, I splashed the water into my eyes as best as I could, glad for even the small measure of relief it provided.

I felt tired and glancing hesitantly toward the sky, mentally bracing for the pain the bright light would cause my abused eyes, I froze. The sun was already hidden behind the now fully grown wall of trees surrounding the immediate area. So what had felt like minutes must have, in fact, been hours.

Thinking about what had happened I vaguely recalled a myriad of status messages intermittently flickering in and out of my line of sight. Unfortunately, I hadn’t managed to get a good look at any of them and could only recall that they had been black. Glancing back towards the Totem, I briefly considered touching it again, but couldn’t work up the nerve. Losing a few hours and being unable to fill the gap was already quite distressing enough without repeating the trauma.

“I really should have asked Hana about it first,” I groaned, pushing myself up onto my feet again, now that my eyes felt mostly recovered.

Heading back up the stairs to enter the treefort, I was surprised to see that the stairs continued up further around the tree. Curious, I followed the stairs upwards and found another hollowed-out alcove. More than twenty feet up in the air, I made a mental note to ask Hana to make guard rails of some kind to reduce the risk of potential accidents. I am not afraid of heights, but it wouldn’t hurt to be prudent about such things either.

Peering into the large hollowed-out area, I was a little surprised to see that Hana had taken the effort to divide the space into three rooms. Granted, there were no doors, just open arches, but it was not something I had expected. After inspecting the first of the three rooms, I was impressed even further when I found that there was a large bed on the far side. Or at least I figured it had to be a bed because nothing else would really make sense.

The bed was a large roughly rectangular raised surface covered in what looked like thick springy moss. Taking an experimental lie down on the ‘bed’, I was happy to find that the moss was thicker than I had expected and quite comfortable. Hana had even gone through the trouble to grow the moss thicker at the head of the bed to approximate a long pillow. It was sort of weird when I stopped to think about it, right up until I remembered that Nadine was likely the source of the suggestions.

Investigating the two other rooms, I found that they were a little smaller but otherwise identical. Well, the beds would make sleeping tonight that much easier and help keep up morale, so they were definitely a welcome addition to the treefort.

Walking back down the stairs to the first floor, I found it mostly as I had left it earlier, with the noted exception that now the large alcove was supported by a single large wooden pillar in the centre. Since it had not been necessary before, I just assumed that Hana had erred on the side of caution. Theoretically, the weight above would have been reduced by hollowing out the new bedrooms, but it was still the best explanation I could think of.

Although now that I was looking more closely, I noticed that the Daemonlings were absent. I had already assumed that Nadine and Hana would have taken Toofy with them to keep an eye on her, but for some reason, I had also assumed they would leave the Daemonlings behind. Walking back down the stairs, I retrieved my now dry tunic and trousers from the branch I hung them on earlier to dry. Pulling them on, I then quickly made my way over to the arching gap in the wall of trees.

Thankfully, Nadine, Hana, Toofy and the Daemonlings were all safe and sound. Hana seemed to be in the process of terraforming the surrounding swampland. She was draining swamp water from the small ponds in the immediate area and appeared to have similarly drained the excess moisture from the ground as well. The ground still felt soft underfoot, but it no longer sank with every step I took either.

[Toofy has slain {Fleshripper: 1 } +100 Exp], [Toofy has slain {Fleshripper: 1 } +100 Exp], [Toofy has slain {Fleshripper: 1 } +100 Exp]

Taking note of the trio of status alerts, I had to assume that the Fleshrippers were the carnivorous fish and that Toofy was opportunistically culling them after Hana left them stranded.

Hurrying over, I found that there were more of the fish than I had expected. The small pond had been perhaps thirty feet in diameter, but there were easily forty or so of the Fleshrippers still flopping around in the drying mud.

Thankfully, Nadine or Hana had given Toofy a spear, so she was not really in any danger. Skirting the periphery, Toofy was choosing her targets wisely. Striking without warning, it was rare for one of the Fleshripper’s to survive the first strike. After receiving the status notification, Toofy would then retrieve the dead fish and toss it into a proportionally large woven basket hanging off her back.

As I had expected, the Fleshrippers bore a striking resemblance to piranha, with one notable exception. The Fleshrippers had no eyes.

Giving Toofy a smile and a wave, I joined the others.

“Toofy wanted to surprise you with fish for dinner,” Nadine explained somewhat apologetically, “We tried talking her out of it, but the best we could manage was convincing her to use a spear instead of that shiv.”

Glancing over at Toofy stalking her next target, I nodded in understanding, “I hope she wasn’t too much trouble,” I apologised.

Nadine shrugged, “I think she was just really worried about you,” she explained, “I mean, you were just standing there and we didn’t know what was going on until Hana explained you were attuning to the Settlement through the Totem.”

“...” I was about to ask what that was, but rather abruptly I just seemed to know. Attuning to the Settlement was a necessary step in exercising control over the myriad of settings and controls available to the territory designated under the Settlement. I intuitively understood that changing these settings only required clear directed thoughts of intention while within the Settlement’s territory. I also understood that a few settings had already been altered by a designated subordinate, Hana. Her title as Overseer was not just for show, it gave Hana a level of control over the Settlement that was just short of my own.

There was something else as well. As Lord of the Settlement, if the population reached a sufficient size, I would be able to issue quests.

*****

Riding the sled atop a small pile of monster corpses, Tobi continued contemplating how he would ask Tim for his assistance. It didn’t help that Tobi already owed him his life. The prospect of begging a favour on top of it all seemed like he was tempting refusal on principle alone.

Even though Tobi had assisted in Tim’s escape from the first-floor Foothold, he knew that his own contributions had been largely negligible. Even hunting for food and manastones, Clarice and Emelia were both proving far more helpful than Tobi. Without proper equipment, there really wasn’t much Tobi could do about it. Slinging stones was all well and good, but there were precious few of them in this swamp and Tobi was slowly losing them to the treacherous bogs and murky pools.

While he was not a bad swordsman, Tobi certainly wasn’t very good either. Worse still, he only had a shortsword and was in no rush to get closer to these swamp monsters than was absolutely necessary. Tobi still thought Clarice must be at least a little crazy to so eagerly charge into close quarters at the first opportunity.

Scratching behind Shady’s ears, Tobi wondered if Tim and the others would allow him to rank up the faithful Shadowcat and if possible allow him to evolve. Unlike his own personal request, Tobi felt like they would probably allow it.

Letting out a sigh, Tobi scanned the surrounding area for hidden threats. Or at least, he had meant to. Just like the last time and the dozen or so times before that, Tobi’s initial intentions were forgotten as his attention lingered on Emelia. Quickly looking away before she noticed he was staring again, Tobi swallowed hard and tried to ignore the rushing blood in his ears. Fairly certain that Emelia was not spoken for, Tobi did not want to overstep his tenuous position in the group to confirm it. Perhaps once he had solidified his position...

After allowing his mind to wander for a while, Tobi became aware of Clarice staring at him expectantly. “Uh...” He wasn’t sure what to say and was worried she had seen him looking at Emelia.

Clarice rolled her eyes, “I was asking if you saw anything trailing us.”

Tobi gulped dryly, “Ah, no, nothing has been following us,” he replied hastily.

Clarice narrowed her eyes and after a few moments, she began to grin. Glancing between Emelia and Tobi, it quickly became obvious that she suspected something. “Hey Emelia?” Clarice called out happily.

“Mmm?” Emelia shifted in the makeshift saddle, looking to Clarice with mild interest.

“I think Tobi’s been toughing it out on that sled for quite long enough. You should let him ride on Beaky again,” Clarice requested sweetly with a devilish grin.

Emelia shrugged, “Okay.”

The sled came to a halt.

Clarice motioned for Tobi to take his seat behind Emelia, “Well? Come on, we don’t have all day!” She insisted, eyes sparkling with barely concealed joy at his discomfort.

Tobi gulped and climbed up onto the saddle.

“Just try to be more careful with your sword this time,” Emelia stated a little crossly, “It was a little uncomfortable feeling it digging into my back last time you know?”

Clarice snorted and stared knowingly at him.

Tobi quickly fit his boots into the stirrups and gingerly wrapped his arms around Emelia’s waist.

Soon they were on the move again and Emelia giggled, “You know, I actually thought that maybe it was your other sword,” she said jokingly.

“AHAHAHA!” Clarice apparently couldn’t hold it in any longer and burst out laughing.

Deeply embarrassed, Tobi shifted back a little on the saddle.

“Aww, I’m sorry Tobi! It’s just a joke, I uh, I think you’re a real gentleman!” Emelia apologised, obviously misinterpreting the cause for his silence.

Coughing to clear his throat, Tobi did his best to seem unfazed, “It’s fine,” he insisted in what he hoped came across as nonchalant indifference.

“Ah, oh! I know! Why don’t we trade places! I’ll let you ride in front to make it up to you!” Emelia insisted, bringing Beaky to a stop again.

“It’s fine, really!” Tobi insisted, beginning to panic.

Emelia didn’t seem to be listening and leaned back on the saddle as she made to remove her feet from the stirrups. Glancing back behind herself as she was preparing to hop down from the saddle, Emelia suddenly froze. Looking quite puzzled, she was staring at the shortsword strapped to his left hip. Wriggling her behind experimentally, she seemed confused.

Tobi dared not make a single sound or move a muscle.

Emelia’s brow furrowed in confusion and she looked over her other shoulder. Hopping off the saddle Emelia’s eyes grew wide in surprise and she began to blush, “Oh...”

*****

Roasting fish on skewers by the fire, I was pleased by the amount of enjoyment Toofy seemed to gain from the rather simple activity. Toofy had proven a natural at cleaning and gutting the fish. I felt like an idiot for thinking she wouldn’t. Most people took some time to get over their squeamishness, like me, but obviously it was not a problem for Toofy.

Toofy was sitting on my lap as we both tended the fire and rotated the fish to try and cook them evenly. We had already Cooked around twenty or so and the trio of Daemonlings was busy pulling off every scrap of flesh and depositing them in a small woven basket for dinner later. Gric, Qreet and Dar were eating as much as they were storing, but that was fine too. Besides reducing the chances of someone choking on a fishbone, it was mostly busy work so I could keep an eye on them.

The three of them had been steadily growing and are now around two feet tall. Rather interestingly, hair had begun to grow on their heads as well. Not sure why exactly I hadn’t noticed it before, but Qreet and Dar only had two horns each compared to Gric’s three. I wonder if the number of horns has something to do with their ability to manipulate mana. It was an interesting coincidence that he had hatched first, while Qreet and Dar hatched later, but it was still possible that it was precisely that, a coincidence.

I was distracted from my musings by the return of Clarice, Emelia and Tobi.

Although Clarice was in high spirits, both Emelia and Tobi looked somewhat subdued.

Hopping off of Thunder Thighs, Clarice energetically rushed over with a big grin on her face, “You will never guess what happened!”

“Clarice!” Emelia cried angrily, rushing up behind Clarice and shoving her hard.

Narrowing her eyes slyly at Emelia, Clarice’s grin turned predatory, “Then you tell him,” she insisted.

Emelia froze like a rabbit caught in oncoming headlights.

“Just stop it!” Tobi growled, glowering at Clarice as he stomped over to join them.

“Make me then?” Clarice goaded, making it painfully obvious that this was what she had wanted to begin with.

Tobi growled with anger. Fists trembling, he glared at Clarice for a few tense seconds before deflating slightly and shifting his attention to Emelia instead. “Let’s go,” he said cooly, taking her hand and motioning his head back towards the entrance to the Grove.

Emelia was a little surprised but nodded, taking firm hold of Tobi’s hand in return as they both briskly walked away.

Clarice chuckled, “Figured that would do it,” she crowed triumphantly.

“Is there a particular reason you were riling them up?” I asked Clarice, unimpressed with her deliberately agitating our teammates.

Clarice leaned down conspiratorially, “The best reason,” she replied cheerily while dragging over the overburdened sled.

“Which is?” I asked patiently, doing my best not to lose my temper.

Clarice grinned a little wider and winked, “Helping a sister out, of course! Emelia is so stressed out over a bunch of things that she barely says a word anymore!” She grunted and pulled a croc carcass off the sled, “So, I figured since Tobi was so obviously into her, that I would rile’em up a little and let nature take its course! Brilliant huh?!” Clarice demanded, evidently proud of herself.

Wait...

It took me a moment to figure out what Clarice had intended, “You are manipulating them to-”I covered Toofy’s ears protectively, “-have sex to improve Emelia’s mood?!” I demanded incredulously.

Clarice shrugged and nodded, “Basically, yeah. I mean, Tobi’s a bit of a wimp, but he seems like a decent guy.”

“Clarice...” I just couldn’t find the words.

“What?” Clarice demanded, sawing into the croc’s neck with her butchering knife.

“You...You can’t just manipulate people into relationships like that!” I insisted, feeling sorry for Tobi and Emelia.

“Nah, pretty sure I can,” Clarice boasted, “And I just did! You’d be surprised how well people bond over a common enemy if given half the chance,” she grinned wickedly.

“...” I let go of Toofy’s ears and rubbed at my brow to ward off a migraine, “No, I meant that you shouldn’t do it,” I clarified.

“Why?” Clarice demanded, yanking out the mess of croc guts and dumping them in a basket, although curiously stowing away the intestines in another. “Look, Tim, we all have needs and no offence, the selection around here isn’t great.”

“What?...” My hands instinctively covered Toofy’s ears again, migraine be damned.

Clarice shifted a little uncomfortably as she peeled the skin off the croc, “Well...you’re a great guy and all, but...you’re still a monster...” She glanced over at me with a sympathetic expression, “Humans and monsters don’t mix. Just know that it isn’t personal, yeah?” Clarice explained in a surprisingly gentle tone.

“Don’t mix?” I asked, sensing there was more to it than face value and wanting to distract myself from the minor blow to my ego.

Clarice shifted uncomfortably, “There are rumours amongst the whores that work the arena and fighting pits, of expecting mothers just dropping dead or miscarrying the near fully grown child after a few days...” She shuddered and returned to her grisly work. “So it’s nothing personal. Just, don’t expect any human girl to risk going through that, you know?”

“Yeah,” I agreed, feeling a little sick, avoiding romantic entanglements with humans seemed like a pretty high priority now. “Nadine doesn’t like me that way either, right?” I asked, feeling a little worried.

Clarice shook her head, “I don’t think so. She’s easily the smartest person I know, so there is no way she doesn’t know about it.”

I sighed in relief. Alright, new Settlement Law, no breeding with humans.

[Tim’s Settlement Law: All breeding with {Humans} is prohibited.]

Toofy and Clarice both stiffened.

Clarice stopped what she was doing and gave me an incredulous look, “That’s a little mean spirited don’t you think?” She demanded angrily.

Whenever I created or altered a Settlement Law, a status alert would be sent to everyone inside the Settlement’s territory. Similarly, the laws would be displayed to everyone entering the Settlement’s territory as well.

Flushing with embarrassment, I concentrated to try and rectify the mistake.

[Tim’s Settlement Law: All breeding between {Humans} and {Monsters} is prohibited.]

“I swear it wasn’t on purpose,” I apologised. Although, since the system worked off of intent, perhaps the blow to my ego earlier had been greater than I was willing to admit.

Clarice narrowed her eyes at me, forked her index and middle finger on her left hand and motioned between her eyes and my own before returning to skinning the croc.

Awkwardly removing my hands from Toofy’s ears I did my best to avoid her curious but all too intelligent stare.

I spent the rest of the evening composing and altering laws for the Settlement. It was trickier than I had expected it to be, given that the system should have been very literally intuitive. So in the end I was forced to make more laws than I wanted, just to make sure certain contingencies were accounted for. Defining theft was particularly tricky since we had no established form of trading. Defining sexual assault was not a pleasant half-hour either and resulted in a particularly awkward but necessary series of explanations for Toofy and by extension, the audience of Daemonlings.

As a result, dinner was a rather subdued affair and no one really felt up to talking much. Well, everyone but Toofy, who was very keen on getting everyone’s opinion on her roasted fish.

Retiring to bed, I had assumed the Daemonlings would just sleep with myself and Toofy, apparently, that was not going to be the case. Gric and Dar curled up on the bed with Tobi and Shady in one room, while Qreet joined Nadine, Emelia and Clarice in their room.

Hana rather nervously crawled into bed alongside Toofy and I didn’t have the heart to shoo her out, so that was that.

Waking up early the next morning, I was surprised to find that Hana and Toofy were missing. A little worried, despite the protections afforded by the Settlement, I quickly got up and pulled on my tunic. Quickly glancing into the other two rooms to make sure they aren't there, I headed downstairs.

Partway down, I was relieved to see Hana and Toofy chatting away as freshly skewered meat was roasting by the fire.

“No, that's not what I meant-” Hana suddenly stiffened and grew silent as she saw me descending the last few steps.

“Hana like Tim?” Toofy asked curiously, narrowing her eyes momentarily before noticing me as well. “Tim! Breakfast!” Toofy excitedly jumped to her feet, raced over, took hold of my hand and began pulling me towards the campfire. “Toofy make. Toofy give Tim breakfast!” She declared proudly.

Sitting down, I gratefully accepted the skewered meat, “Thanks Toofy,” I pulled off a chunk with my teeth and chewed it experimentally. Surprisingly, even though I was fairly certain it was meat from one of those six-legged crocs, it tasted of fish. It could use some salt, but it wasn’t half bad, “This tastes really good,” I complimented Toofy and tousled her hair.

Toofy grinned and bounced a little in excitement, “Toofy like cooking,” she agreed excitedly, “Toofy like making tasty foods!”

I smiled and pulled her onto my lap, offering her a bite of my skewer.

Toofy tore of a sizable chunk and chewed on it happily.

All the while Hana had been watching us intently. “Could...Could I try some?” She asked nervously.

Noticing the numerous skewers roasting by the fire, I figured that they probably weren’t cooked yet. “Alright,” I agreed amiably, I was not very hungry anyway, so I could wait.

Hana sat herself down on my lap opposite Toofy and opened her mouth expectantly.

I hadn’t expected that. I Offered Hana the skewer a little awkwardly since I had to swap it to my other hand first.

Just like Toofy, Hana took a big bite of the meat and set to determinedly chewing, eyeing Toofy in a way I could only interpret as competitive.

Something suddenly clicked and I began feeling far more awkward. Hoping I was just being paranoid, I decided to test the waters so to speak. “So Toofy, what were you and Hana talking about earlier?” I asked with feigned innocence.

Toofy looked thoughtful for a moment before realising what I was referring to, “Oh!” She hopped up and cupped her hands around my ear, “Hana thinks Toofy and Tim mates,” she giggled quietly, “Hana like Tim,” Toofy insisted, comically wiggling her eyebrows and puckering her lips.

Apparently having heard everything, Hana stiffened and blushed, refusing to look either of us in the eye.

So it is as I feared...

“Ah, Hana, I’m sorry,” I apologised awkwardly, “But, you are just too young and-”

“I’m twenty-three summers old!” Hana shouted, trembling and glaring angrily at Toofy. “Nadine said that my size would put you off, that it is too child-like,” she hissed bitterly, “But that’s okay!” She turned her attention to me and stared intensely into my eyes, positively twitching with desperate manic energy “I will grow! I am close to evolving! You will see!” Hana stumbled to her feet and rushed up the stairs and into the storage room of the treefort.

“Uh oh...” Toofy cringed sheepishly.

“Watch the fire Toofy and stay away from the fountain! I am going to go make sure Hana is alright” I explained hurriedly as I got to my feet.

Toofy nodded solemnly, “Toofy do!”

Rushing up the stairs to the storeroom, I found Hana stuffing her face with food.

“Hana, are you alright?” I asked cautiously.

Swallowing down a mouthful of food, Hana was about to reply but smiled broadly instead.

[{Overseer Hana - Corrupted Dryad Sapling} is evolving.]

A black status alert popped up in front of my eyes.

Corrupted?

Hana began growing in real time, steadily gaining more than a foot in height. The rate of growth slowed but didn’t stop entirely and Hana began stuffing more food into her mouth.

“Hana...You don’t need to do this,” I insisted gently.

Hana paused but didn’t look like she believed me.

“The whole physical, intellectual and emotional disparity in monsters is a mess, I think I get that,” I explained sympathetically, “You are probably thinking that rushing to change your appearance will suddenly change everything right?”

Hana nodded hesitantly.

“Well, it probably won’t,” I admitted wryly, “Objectively, Clarice, Nadine and Emelia are all attractive young women around my own age, but I am not romantically interested in any of them and it appears to be mutual,” I explained a bit more flippantly than I felt.

Hana visibly deflated, “Oh...” She mumbled, looking quite embarrassed. But after a few moments she seemed to grow rather determined, “Why?” Hana asked pointedly.

“Er, why what?” I asked nervously.

“Why don’t you find them attractive?” Hana demanded determinedly.

I shrunk back towards the doorway, “I guess I just don’t,” I replied lamely.

Hana narrowed her eyes sceptically, “Is it because they don’t have giant breasts or buttocks?” She demanded accusingly.

“N-no!” I replied hastily, mortified at having this argument with what looked like an eleven-year-old, “Look, I was just trying to check on you to make sure you don’t do anything rash alright? Suddenly growing three feet won’t really improve my opinion of you Hana.”

Hana deflated dejectedly.

“I mean, you’re pretty damned amazing already. Why would a few feet change that?” I insisted, trying to buoy up her confidence a little while not making it dependent on romantic implications. As if I didn't already have enough trouble establishing boundaries with Toofy. “Just look at everything you managed to build here, in just a single day!”

“Really?” Hana asked uncertainly, “You aren’t just saying that to make me feel better?”

“I really mean it,” I insisted, “Just grow at your own pace alright?”

“Alright,” Hana smiled, putting down the basket of dried fish flakes.

Moving to head back downstairs I noticed Nadine just slightly further up and could tell that she had been listening in. Without a door, it would have been hard not to.

Nadine gave me an approving nod before slipping into the storage room, assumedly to have a talk with Hana.

It wasn’t until I reached the campfire again that I remembered Nadine already played a part in this melodrama and realised that leaving her alone with Hana again may not be the best idea. Unfortunately, I was already too late and the pair of them were now chatting quietly to one another as they slowly came down the stairs.

“Tim?” Nadine asked politely.

“Yeah?” I replied warily, taking note of the obvious solidarity between the pair.

“Hana has been working really hard to make all of this, wouldn’t you agree?” Nadine asked with a painfully obvious leading question.

“Yes,” I agreed, knowing there was no way out short of sprinting away and hoping Hana didn’t seal the entrance to the Grove. Judging by the intense expectant look Hana was giving me, I really couldn’t rule out the possibility of that happening.

“And you meant what you said about her height, right?” Nadine continued in the same leading tone.

“Yes,” I agreed again, feeling the noose tighten around my neck.

“Then it is only fair you prove it by taking her on a date right?” Nadine and Hana’s eyes gave off a predatory intensity as she asked the question.

“Y-” I almost said it but caught myself at the last millisecond, “-how and where?” I spluttered instead, congratulating myself on the save, even if it was neither graceful nor tactful.

Nadine didn’t skip a beat, “Why at the town fountain of course!” She insisted with a broad grin, “It’s a very common date location for new young couples.”

“...” My brain was drawing a blank.

“You're both artists, of a kind, so I am sure you will have a great deal to talk about,” Nadine pressed aggressively.

“.....” Come on! Think! I don’t want to be that creep who dates girls who look way underage!

“Or are you really that shallow?” Nadine suggested snidely, raising her eyebrow evocatively.

Damnit...

“Fine...” I agreed.

Nadine and Hana turned to one another and shared a victorious grin.

“But!” I added firmly, “Only after the Settlement is finished being built.” If they were going to play dirty, then so was I, “And to be clear. This is not the town fountain, it is far too small and deep. Children could easily drown in it,” I stated firmly.

Nadine was slightly taken aback, while Hana only looked more determined.

“Fine!” Hana agreed, smiling determinedly, “It’s a date!”

Confident I had bought myself at least a little time, I sighed in relief and nodded.

Snatching up a pair of skewers, Hana gave one to Nadine and dragged her out of the Grove.

“What’s date?” Toofy asked curiously.

Damnit...

After awkwardly explaining what a date is and what the general point was of taking someone on one, I decided to exercise for a bit to try and burn off some of my nervous energy. The prospect of dating someone who looked underage was really driving my anxiety through the roof. I mean, I meant everything I said to Hana earlier, it’s just that I have a lifetime of social conditioning to contend with as well. Being friends with a kid? Sure, not particularly advisable in most situations given earth’s infinite number of highly publicised degenerates, but still possible. Dating a kid? NO.

It's such a cringeworthy trope in fiction and fantasy settings.

It’s okay! She looks twelve but is actually five thousand years old.

Ignoring the problem that the person is still attracted to someone who looks twelve!

Why did I have to intervene?!

“Looking a little rough,” Clarice commented, “Something on your mind?”

“I don’t wanna be a creep who dates people who look like kids!” I groaned without thinking.

“Wait a minute! What?!” Clarice demanded, suddenly all ears, “Toofy or Hana?!” She demanded.

I looked at Clarice in disgust, “Hana, obviously...”

“Fuck!” Clarice swore and kicked at one of the nearby lilies, “I owe Nadine five silver...”

I stared incredulously at her for a moment, “You girls are monsters...”

Clarice rolled her eyes, “Really? I’m meant to be such a bad person because I thought there ‘might’ have been something more to your whole selfless devotion and self-sacrifice?” She demanded, clearly insulted.

“YES,” I insisted, “They are basically kids!”

Clarice just shook her head, “You really don’t see it do you?” She asked warily.

“See what?” I demanded, feeling a stress headache coming on.

“Toofy isn’t a kid. I mean, Nadine and I aren’t sure exactly how old she is, but she definitely isn’t a kid,” Clarice stated candidly, “At the least, she has to be around the equivalent of a teenager, that much is obvious.”

“...it is?” I asked quietly, now suspecting what I was going to hear and dreading it.

Clarice gave me a funny look, “You mean to say, that after literally bathing her, you didn’t notice?”

I blushed and tried to force down my embarrassment, “I was making active attempts to avoid looking at anything!” I insisted.

“Riiight,” Clarice agreed sceptically.

“It’s true!” I insisted adamantly.

“Well, then, I guess you will just have to take our word for it” Clarice stated with a shrug, making it clear that she didn’t really believe me, but wouldn’t fight over it further.

Hang on...” Is that why Nadine was helping Hana to pressure me into going on a date?!” I demanded, now feeling quite angry.

“WHAT?!” Clarice demanded, evidently somehow more upset than I am.

“They ambushed me a short while ago,” I explained a little bitterly.

“Oh, hells no!” Clarice stormed off towards the entrance of the Grove.

I felt a little better that someone was finally taking my side, but only for a moment as I soon realised that Clarice was probably more upset about the bet than my feelings.

After a short while, Clarice and Nadine returned, still embroiled in the middle of a heated argument.

“We agreed that there would be no interference!” Clarice growled angrily.

“No, we did not!” Nadine insisted, “You suggested it and I said no.”

Clarice scowled darkly for a moment before grinning wickedly, “Tim’s pretty pissed at you y’know, thought betting on relationships is ‘monstrous’.”

Nadine frowned and glanced uncertainly in my direction, “Well, you did it too!”

Clarice shrugged, “At least I was honest with him about it and didn't try to play monster matchmaker.”

Nadine glared angrily at Clarice, “Well, at least Hana actually has those feelings! Any idiot can see Toofy considers Tim as a father or brother!”

“So?!” Clarice deflected, playing the contrarian, “Loads of girls are into that sort of thing!”

Nadine stared open-mouthed at Clarice, “WHAT?!” She demanded.

Realising she may have gone a little too far, Clarice tried to backpedal, figuratively and literally, “Well, what I meant was-”

“You're fucking sick Clarice!” Nadine shook her head in disgust, “You mean you made the bet knowing their relationship already?!”

Clarice bolted, “Gotta take a shit!” She called over her shoulder, “Don’t wait up!”

Even though Clarice had evidently lost the argument, I still had the distinct impression that I was the one who had lost overall.

Nadine took a few minutes to calm down before coming over to try and explain herself. “Okay, I know it looks bad, but Hana really does seem to like you, in a romantic sense I mean,” she insisted, “I didn’t know that before making the bet and I kind of thought Clarice was joking.”

I chose not to interrupt and see where this was going.

“More importantly, Hana is having a much worse go of it than she is letting on,” Nadine explained cautiously, “At the moment, she is distracting herself with work and to a lesser degree a little bit of a crush she has on you.” She sighed and appeared far more concerned than I had initially given her credit for, “After what happened to her, it’s obvious that she is going to start falling apart if she doesn’t start processing it in a more healthy way. What happened earlier was a telling sign of how fragile she is right now. Hana needs time to heal, and I think you can give her that,” Nadine explained, looking quite concerned but also expecting me to give an answer.

“So you want me to be her pretend boyfriend?” I asked warily.

Nadine shook her head, “No, I want you to take the relationship seriously,” she insisted, “As much as Hana needs you, you need her more.”

I frowned but Nadine hastily began talking again before I could say anything.

“It's obvious that you are unhappy,” Nadine observed, “You treat Toofy like she is your only positive emotional outlet...and it isn’t healthy, for you or for her.” She shifted somewhat uncomfortably, “I still remember the look in your eyes when they had Toofy locked away, you had given up. Not just on rescuing her, on possibly escaping. You gave up on everything and were waiting to die.”

I met Nadine’s gaze but said nothing. After all, she was right and we both knew it.

“I don’t want to diminish any of the things you did, but it’s obvious that most of your bravery stems from thinking that you’re expendable and readily replaceable. Emotionally balanced people don’t think like that,” Nadine explained, “You have been using taking care of Toofy as an excuse to care about yourself, even if it is just a little bit. So I want you to seriously reconsider giving Hana a chance. If you need to find excuses to care about yourself, excuses to justify living, then why not love? You both need each other and even if your relationship does not work out romantically, I am sure that you will both be able to support one another as good friends.”

Nadine literally just gave me a speech on the value of love and friendship. I snorted quietly and shook my head. As an adult, I had never seriously considered the possibility of being part of a romantic relationship. To put it bluntly, I had always considered myself to be too ugly. After all, it was the reason every girl I had ever asked out had given, before the polite ones excused themselves or the meaner ones began ridiculing me. So now that I had the prospect of a relationship in front of me, why wasn’t I leaping at the chance?

“Fine,” I agreed. I already agreed to the date with Hana, so it wasn’t like this changed much. Besides, being emotionally available wouldn’t kill me...probably.

*****

Kai surveyed the canvas for his latest masterpiece and was filled with excitement. The quaint classical architecture of the relatively small town was going to suit his purposes perfectly. Located deep within a taiga forest on a large open river, the town would stand a decent chance of repelling his attack under normal circumstances.

However, Kai had no intentions of fighting fair. No, in order to realise his childhood dreams, Kai was decidedly against anything that could be remotely considered as ‘fair’. Rubbing his hands together in anticipation, Kai made a finger gun with his hand, aimed it at the town gate, and fired, “Pew.”

The town’s invisible protective barrier flickered into being, deep cracks webbing against its surface from the point of metaphorical impact since there was no actual projectile. With the barrier compromised, Kai gathered energy into his right fist, moulding and shaping it with the power of his imagination, before lobbing it towards the town gates.

Even though the pair of armoured guards saw it coming, neither of them managed to run away in time before the beach-ball-sized orb of fire smashed into the ground and detonated. The resulting explosion ripped the stone gateway apart and sent the gates flying.

Knowing that this would be more than sufficient to announce his presence, Kai playfully prepared another and began slowly walking towards the town. If he was lucky, the hero would come and find him, if not, well...Kai would have to find him instead.

It was a curious thing in Kai’s experience, every small town he had managed to find had a hero, someone who would rush out to fight him to the bitter end. Sometimes they even had two! The heroes were the most fun to fight and so long as Kai held back just enough, the fun would last quite a while. It was a shame more people weren't like that though.

Lobbing the pair of fireballs over the walls, Kai waited expectantly for the screaming to begin and was not disappointed. Within a few moments, cries of pain, confusion and terror could be heard from within the town and looking through the open expanse where the gate had once stood, Kai could see people running too and fro

Nodding in greeting to the pair of charred corpses that had been smashed against the town wall, he generously donated a small portion of mana to regift them a semblance of life. The pair of guards staggered to their feet and fell into position behind Kai, awaiting his orders.

“Stop anyone who tries to escape,” Kai ordered, keeping it simple so they were less likely to be distracted. The Ash Guard, as he liked to call them, would drain his MP to cast their spells, but it was of little consequence. So long as they killed even half the people that they attacked, Kai would be able to recoup the mana.

Walking down the main street of the town, Kai was beginning to wonder why no one had tried to stop him yet. Feeling a little putout, he glared angrily at a young woman who was rushing past, and nothing...

“Hrm...” Kai stopped and rubbed his non-existent chin, then he felt it. Sighing wryly, Kai tore away the piece of ashen sackcloth he had tied around his helmet. He had forgotten he was wearing it.

A young man rushing down the street caught sight of Kai and came to an abrupt and sudden halt.

Feeling the waves of fear emanating from him, Kai decided to let him go. It was better in the early stages to let the townsfolk gather others and form some semblance of resistance, it was much more fun this way.

Continuing his leisurely stroll towards the centre of the town, Kai could practically taste the mana wafting off the powerful magic item the locals believed to be so cleverly hidden beneath the biggest building in town. Normally they would have been right, but there was precious little that was normal regarding Kai.

*Twing*

Sighing and shaking his head, Kai looked up at the thoroughly surprised archer that was hiding on a nearby rooftop. Waggling his finger at him, Kai considered letting him go with a warning, but then he thought better of it. Since a hero had not shown themself yet, he figured that it might be about time for him to become a little more proactive.

Preparing another fireball, Kai lazily lobbed it in the cowardly archer’s general direction. If it hit, great! If not, well that was fine too. Unlike most other towns he had visited, Kai was surprised by the disturbing absence of EXP he should have been receiving. It had taken him a while to notice, but now that he had, it was all Kai could really think about. Perhaps it was as he had feared, maybe he had finally out-levelled this stage of the game.

That was a little sad in a way. Kai had never played such a brutally realistic yet fantastical game before, especially one that let him be whoever he wanted. Heroes were so boring and Kai loved that this game allowed him to play the role of a villain. He was still working on ideas for a villain name, but none of them had really felt right or was already taken. The last thing Kai wanted was to find out that people were laughing at him because of a stupid name choice.

It did remind him of that one lucky NPC who got away by glitching into non-existence, the first bug Kai had encountered in the otherwise flawlessly immersive game experience. She had kept screaming the destroyer this and the destroyer that. It was kind of on the nose, so to speak, but it did sum up rather well what Kai was all about. But a name like that had to be already taken right? It was such a low hanging fruit that there was no way it wasn’t already taken. But what if it isn’t? Wouldn’t it be kind of cool to pick a name provided to him by the game itself? It’s kind of like unlocking a rare title.

“Screw it. If anyone’s watching my stream, shut the fuck up or I’ll burn your house down!” Kai threatened, giving fair warning to any stream snipers and trolls. “Status, name change, The Destroyer!”

If his avatar could smile, Kai would be positively beaming right now. This had to be one of the perks of super-secret Alpha testing, all the cool names were still available!

*Twing*

Another arrow ricocheted off his helmet, but Kai was far too good a mood to care. “You get one more!” He called out in warning, “Then I start taking it personally!”

Unsurprisingly, the archer seemed to have decided against taking another shot.

“Definitely not a hero,” Kai muttered, shaking his head as he continued walking towards the large building. A casual ‘off the cuff’ death threat would not deter a real hero.

Facing no real resistance, but wanting to firmly establish his new name and title, Kai, The Destroyer, passed the time by casually throwing smaller fireballs into buildings as he passed. Some had people inside and he felt the pleasurable rush of mana flooding into him, others had been abandoned or were otherwise empty and he ignored them.

Thankfully, a real semblance of resistance seemed to have formed up ahead, barring his path to the large building and the powerful magic item within.

Five young men and women, presumedly of some interesting blend of classes, had taken a stand on the road ahead. Well...Two of them were technically standing on the roofs of nearby buildings, but that’s semantics and Kai didn’t really care. What mattered was he had found his hero, and perhaps more besides.

“WHO DARES STAND AGAINST, THE DESTROYER!!!” Kai roared menacingly, really hamming it up for anyone who might be watching. In his opinion, if you weren't overacting, then it wasn’t worth doing the whole villain and hero schtick in the first place.

The woman standing at the front of their formation, in gleaming plate and mail, with a cool looking shield and honestly, rather boring looking spear, took a defiant step forward. “I am Katarina VanDyne and I will put a stop to your butchery foul monster!” She cried back, although her voice was muffled somewhat by her helm.

Kai was excited. It was always more interesting to fight a real heroine! Her look was fantastic too! Her shield had a real coat of arms on it and everything!

Katarina gave a nod to her companions and the three of them on the ground, rushed towards him.

One of the pair left behind, another archer, fired three arrows at Kai in rapid succession.

*Twing Twang Twing*

Amazingly, all three arrows made it through Kai’s open-faced helmet, although they were promptly incinerated. Kai disliked his body becoming stiff from built-up junk and would have to remember to clean his boots out later. Even so, Kai was super impressed, this archer was easily the best he had seen so far. He hadn’t even used any mana on those attacks either, it was all skill.

Noticing the large amount of mana being formed by the young woman on the opposite rooftop, Kai felt annoyed. He didn’t like fighting other spellcasters, it was too risky.

Gathering and condensing mana in his fist, Kai threw a small baseball-sized orb of fire onto the roof of the building. Upon making contact with the roof, the globe erupted like a water balloon and spilled fire everywhere.

The young woman screamed and tumbled off the roof into the pooling fire below.

“ALL SHALL BURN!!!” Kai crowed triumphantly, even if the woman hadn’t died just quite yet, she would soon enough. Giving the hero and her companions time to readjust and compose themselves, he took a closer look at the archer.

Surprisingly, the archer was on the move, but not running away as Kai had half expected, instead, the archer was sprinting across the rooftops towards him!

“Yes!” Kai knew that there had to be more than one hero for a town this large.

*Twing Twing Twang Twing*

The archer kept firing arrows at Kai as he ran, even though they were far less accurate, every one of them still landed a hit.

Curious to see what the archer’s ‘big play’ would be, Kai conjured a wall of fire that would stall Katarina and her two other party members.

“YOU DARE FACE ME?!” Kai roared, hoping that the archer had a comeback or one-liner prepared.

“Can’t do that!” The archer called out, rather disappointingly as he dropped his bow and threw something at Kai’s head.

Seeing that it was a glass vial, and not wanting to risk an unknown fluid making contact with his body, Kai prepared to incinerate both it and its contents.

“Because you don’t have one!” The archer yelled, rolling for cover on the other side of the rooftop.

Kai let the attack through on principle.

The vial shattered against the left side of Kai’s helmet and exploded, blasting him sideways through the brick wall of the adjacent building.

“That actually hurt,” Kai chuckled, clambering to his feet, stomping through the debris and back onto the street. “YOU DARE TRY TO DESTROY THE DESTROYER?!!!” He roared happily, “I’LL BURN YOU UNTIL THERE IS NOTHING LEFT!!!”

It was quiet for a moment and then a knife came flying at Kai from a different rooftop, “Figured that would be how I die!” The archer called out.

Again, Kai was going to let the attack hit on principle, wanting to see what would follow.

*Twing*

The Archer leapt across to another rooftop, throwing another knife midleap, “Since my name is Ash!”

“YES!!!” Kai roared in triumph, “FINALLY!!!!!”