I was getting used to that reaction, though in this case it was the Forest Keepers that had done an amazing thing, I had just helped by digging holes.

"I am Lord C.C." I said. "What is your name?"

I never seemed to meet people in civilised circumstances where introductions were done first.

"Beacan... your lordship." The leprechaun scout leader, Beacan, said.

"Beacan." I said. "As to the other part of your question, I am one of two Champions that are currently in the world. The other Champion is trying to end the world, while I am trying to ensure that several species survive the end of the world. The other Champion may also try to eliminate some species directly."

Beacan seemed to be taking the news of the end of the world well, or perhaps he wasn't able to feel more shocked than he was at an enormous tree growing in the space of a few minutes.

"I met Gerry, a leprechaun who lived in the Mountain City-" I said, Beacan interrupting me.

"I know of Gerry." Beacan said. "He's famous."

"He made a good impression, helping me out when I needed it." I said. "I'm in the middle of some other things but I decided to offer sanctuary from the end of the world to the leprechauns as one of the species I will save."

Beacan nodded. "This is all completely outside of my authority." Beacan said. "It's my responsibility to take you to someone in charge, which will end up with you meeting with the matriarch."

Mal'Thorn had approached while we were talking and was waiting to the side. I looked over to him.

"Is there something you need?" I asked.

"No, my lord." Mal'Thorn said. "I was coming to ask if there was anything further."

"No." I said.

"We need time to grieve." Mal'Thorn said.

The Forest Keepers were packing in around the new Heart of the Forest tree, swaying back and forth. Time to grieve, in private. I nodded to Mal'Thorn and moved the portals around so that the Forest Keeper floor portal led back to the hills and gestured for Beacan to go through first. He barked a few short commands and the leprechauns filed through the portal.

"If you need anything, speak to one of the Fortress Presences." I said.

"Thank you my lord." Mal'Thorn said, bowing as I stepped through the portal, picked it up, and placed it back into my pocket.

There was a call from behind us in the leprechaun language from the scout I'd met first, which was returned by Beacan.

"This way, lord C.C." Beacan said.

The leprechauns formed up around me, this time lacking their bows, and led me down the hill at a run. I was able to keep up with them by walking quickly. I twitched slightly when the System sent me a ping, but opened the message without stopping.

Warning One of the items in Fortress Storage, 'Locroix Berry', has deteriorated to the point of becoming 'Spoiled Locroix Berry'. It will no longer be provided in response to requests for 'Locroix Berries'.

I hadn't even considered that things would go bad in the Fortress Storage.

I turned my focus from the surroundings of my body, bringing up an interface overlayed over my local simulation. I soaked my power into one of the good berries and made a detailed scan of it, just as I would if I were scanning a person I was going to modify.

With the full scan I tried to use that as a source to duplicate from, using stone as the stock material as always. And it didn't work at all. My power couldn't sink into the model, didn't even acknowledge its existence, and so had nothing to duplicate from.

I frowned. I can modify my own body, and the bodies of other people, modifying stone into a berry is no different. It should actually be easier, as I don't have to deal with the resistance from mana or the pain to someone's consciousness.

I focused on that, and on my annoyance about the rules of the simulation not being applied consistently, and tried again. It worked, though it definitely felt grudging. The first berry I duplicated from the model was slow to form, and took a lot of energy, as though the simulation was fighting against it. But the second one was much easier, more in line with what I would expect it to cost in time, effort, and energy.

I set a program to scan each of the materials in my Fortress Storage, and then a second one to expand my digital memory as needed to cover the hundreds of models I would be gaining.

I pulled up the model of the first berry that I had scanned, which was apparently called a Locroix Berry, and analysed it in detail. I could see the molecular makeup of it, some of which must influence the taste of the berry.

There was a lot of water in the berry, so the first thing I tried was removing all of it and then creating the berry from the model. And it promptly crumbled into a dusty substance. I modified the rules of the simulation I was running to incorporate that and increased the water in the berry until it stopped breaking apart, about five percent of the original water amount.

I smoothed the model out so that it was a smooth sphere instead of a wrinkled berry and increased the size to be the same as the original berry. I created the new berry and passed it through my pocket portal, placing it in my mouth. It was quite firm and had a light taste before I bit down on it, breaking the skin. Then it was intensely sweet and sticky, chewing on it took some effort as it tried to glue my back teeth together.

It took me a minute to finish it, and I summoned a fresh Locroix Berry to compare. The fresh berry had a much gentler taste, the sugar having less of a bite to it. Another few berries had been added to my available models and I tried each of them fresh and then a smaller amount in condensed form.

Having other berries to compare to I was able to start separating out the common features to isolate the tastes. The scan for the different types of sugar had completed as well, and I was able to pick those out of the berries too.

I made a complex fusion of the tastes of six berries, lowering the sugar ratio slightly to fit them all, and then produced a fresh berry and a condensed berry.

The taste of the fresh berry was... Complicated. And not entirely pleasant. Instead of being a rainbow of tastes it was a brown smear of everything combined, and it was bitter as well.

I broke the skin of the condensed berry with a fingernail before cautiously licking it. The taste of the condensed flavours, along with the increased sweetness, made it much more tolerable. I placed the whole berry in my mouth and bit down on it. Not my favourite, which would be the condensed version of a red berry that was scanned second, but definitely passable.

I was still walking quickly following Beacan, so I looked in on the progress of the large excavator thread portal. It was well behind the original estimate, as I had been prioritising other projects that needed portals. The Bags of Holding alone were taking up a lot of my portal creation time.

Beacan slowed and turned to face me, and I realised he had been talking nervously the whole time he had been running. I scanned back through the recording I had from my ears, my perfect memory only working on things that I had noticed at the time, to find that he hadn't said anything of substance, just a rambling talk about the leprechauns, Gerry, the matriarch, and observations of the land we were passing through.

"This is it." Beacan said. "The leprechaun village."

I couldn't really make out any of the houses, the hills looking much like the other hills that we had crossed, with the exception that these ones had more trees on them. I was looking through the trees intently, trying to find some sign of habitation when my heat vision overlay flicked on in my simulation. I had forgotten all about it. With it on I was able to see plumes of heat rising from what must be chimneys on top of mounds on the hill, disguised by the trees.

I saw some leprechaun-sized heat spots up in the branches of some of the trees, but couldn't see them at all with my unaided eyes, and the woods were making enough noise to cover them.

"It is easier to shoot monsters if we have high perches to shoot from." Beacan said, noticing my gaze. "We do quite well in summer."

Beacan led me through the woods and into a clearing with a single larger mound in the middle. I could see the doorway into this mound, and the top of it barely came to my chest. I would need to crawl to enter, which would definitely be beneath my dignity. Beacan noticed my pause and then looked between the door and me.

"I will request that the matriarch comes to see you out here." Beacan said.

Beacan knocked on the door, which immediately opened revealing a leprechaun with a small sword at his waist. After a short discussion Beacan came back to me.

"If I could have the letter for the matriarch, this guard will take it to her." Beacan said.

I gave it to him, and he gave it to the guard, who shut the door. A few minutes later a new leprechaun came out, stopping two meters away, projecting his voice loudly.

"The Matriarch is busy." He said. "She will come see you when she is ready. You shall wait."

And he went back inside. I frowned. Someone was trying to play power games.

"Lord C.C.." Beacan said, looking a bit panicked. "I will go see what the delay is."