An hour later the meeting finished and the members leave to get some grub in their bellies before heading to work. Of the group, Urist and Vlad walk and eat to down a hallway till they reach a door guarded by a few veteran warriors.

Finishing his sandwich Urist turned to Vlad, “So, how did the rats take to the transformation?”

With a smile Vlad swallows that last bite of his sandwich and smiles, “It’s been a smashing success, open the door and see for yourself.”

Intrigued Urist gives the guards a nod before opening the bamboo door. Seeing what was in the lit-up room he raised an eyebrow. In the center was the Rat-Kin Eins that he remembered seeing and next to him was a blood mage talking to various male and female rat-kin as she answered their questions one by one.

Bewildered Urist turned to the amused Vlad, “How do they know our language?”

Vlad rubs his beard, “Thanks to you allowing me a daily allowance of 500 points I looked through the market and found this potion that allowed them to speak dwarven. It was pretty cheap only costing five points, just enough for all the Rat-kin here. To turn them all humanoid-like Eins was also cheap thanks to their bigger mass so it cost around 120 evo points.

“Right now Blut is whose has some talent in teaching and has monstrous patience. He’s currently teaching them common sense, language, and some basic rules. Although we weeded out most of their undesirable instincts, such as hyperdrive of mating, bad eyesight, coprophagia, and a few other ones. We got these as a freebie with how much mass they had so I figured it was worth it.

“To get them to adult intelligence I’ll need more evo points. Also, I need about a week or two to teach them right from wrong before we allow them to move around. If we had more teachers and space I can say that for certain they will be usable within a week.”

Seeing the rat-kins eyes shining as they devour information and how calm they were acting Urist felt satisfied.

“Consider it done. I’ll send you 200 evo points to work with and over the past few days, we have gotten some teachers so they will be under your command. I’ll pull over an earth mage from the construction team to make another room for you. But I have one question for you Vlad.”

Confused Vlad responded, “And what is that my king?”

“Why are all of them beautiful? Hell, how does each one of them have personality in their facial features?”

“It’s was Dali handiwork. Said that it wouldn’t be right to give them boring features with all these blank canvases.”

“Are you sure she isn’t some artist instead of a blood mage?”

“I wonder that myself as well my king.”

---

Wandering the grounds Ubel made his rounds before the magic swordsman Volt approached him.

“Hey, strategist you got a minute?”

“Alright. We can walk and talk as I inspect the walls. What is it you want.”

The middle-aged man nods, “Thanks, I was going to talk to Urist after the meeting, but it seems his hands are tied up. I was wondering if you can slip him a message for me when he wishes to challenge me.”

Walking up the steps of the wall Ubel stopped and turned to Volt. His eyes held a faint chill, “Oh? And why is that? Are you thinking of…”

Volt shook his head, “No, I’m not made to be a leader, born and raised vanguard. I’m just. I don’t want to keep sitting on my ass for my new home. It just doesn’t sit right when watching all these youngins fight while I can’t.”

Hearing Volts’ response the coldness in Ubels eyes faded, “Why bring this up with me? You could’ve just waited for Urist to be finished before bringing it up with him.”

At that, Volt scratched his bread, “Ya see, I could, but when you look like you’re not busy so I thought it would be fine. After all, you see him more than me and I got peasants in the art of not dying.”

With a sigh, Ubel responded, “Fine it’s a pretty easy request to fill. I’ll deliver your challenge to him after making my rounds. That all?”

Volt nodded his head, “Indeed, thank you for helping me with this.”

“Well, having you in combat instead of training grunts is what I consider a net gain. So think nothing of it, but if you want to pay me back train those peasants on how to use a knife. We got that knife training book, might be useful to go over.”

“Consider it done. You know, you’re not that much of a prick I thought you were.”

“Is that supposed to be a compliment? If it was it's a pretty shit one.”

“I’m not known for my words. I’m known for my actions.”

---

Finished with their exchange, Ubel finished his rounds before heading into the cave to meet up with Urist and maybe go over the local map afterward again.

Heading to the civ room, he caught Urist just as he entered the room.

“Hey, Urist how is your little project going?”

Urist grinned at him, “Very well. If you want I can show you sometime later. Vlad and his group are doing wonders and within a week or two we’ll have a hundred workers ready to go.”

Ubel stared at him with dead fish eyes, “I don’t see what you see in vermin, but I should take a look at the potential. Besides that, I came with a message for you.”

“Oh? What about?”

“Volt wishes for you to challenge him so that he may fight for our home. He’s wondering when you want to do it.”

Scratching his bread Urist mulled over it before his eyes became fierce.

“Let’s do it tomorrow, I’ll have enough time to upgrade my skills and adjust them for tomorrow. It’ll be the perfect time to test my strength.”

With a sigh Ubel looked at Urist exhaustedly, “Fine, just don’t end up in bed. Again.”

“I don’t plan on it. Before I go off to do a little training let’s go look over the base expansions. I heard that Unicy and the carpenters are working on the design. You game?”

“Yes. I wanna make sure you guys don’t add anything stupid.”