"I just remembered, we heard some giggles and moans when we were coming here," I say, "Do you know what it could have been?"

Pallido looks at me with the corner of his eye, he suddenly seems hesitant to talk.

"That, uh..." Pallido massages his temple, "That must have been one of us. The moon was having an effect on us a day ago so the other dryads must have gotten... 'mischievous'."

"There were some suggestive moans," Roxanne says.

"Well... I'm sorry, they were mating near your tent," he hurriedly confesses, "They didn't mean evil and they would never interact with you due to Gify's presence but they certainly did some regrettable things."

"It wasn't anything bad," I wave my hand in apology.

"Yeah, just creepy, don't worry," Roxanne smiles wryly.

Pallido nods and awkwardly returns to his more formal demeanor.

We are taken to the 70th floor, around the middle range of the tree. The red grass is so thin and soft that it feels like we are walking on a textile carpet. The corridors are a neutral grey with very few leaves and ivies. They are all organized on a simple and orderly grid. It's one of the few floors were I actually saw doors. This feels like a hotel.

"This is your room," Pallido says. He stops on a particular door with unknown markings. "Apologies but please memorize or copy the markings, they are in a neutral language we all use."

I pull out some paper and a small clipboard and copy it multiple times, then I give the paper to girls. Each character is a number of scratches organized in a circle.

"The other five rooms along the corridor can also be used by any of you."

How much of our life did Gify tell Gecynd?

Gih.

Our sleep arrangements is not really "just enough".

"The Cublend in front will be your guide, his name is Arlo," Pallido points to the other side of the wall where bunch of leaves arranged in the shape of a man are growing out of the wall. I see them flutter loudly. "If you wish to separate ask it to him and we will prepare more guides for each of you."

"Thank you for your hospitality," Alissa says with a nod.

"It is our pleasure," he bows, his curly grass hair bounces wildly. "If you need nothing else I will be taking my leave. You can always ask for another meeting with our Lord, she's not a busy person."

"Thank you. That is all," I say.

Pallido walks away and I feel glad the overly manly man is away from the women.

We enter the room and the first thing we see is that the bed is larger than ours, there's a thick silk blanket on it and some very fluffy and furry looking pillows. There's a wardrobe that looks like it grew out of the wall, a table with some chairs that look they came right out of a nobles house, and I recognize a gnomic magic tool that controls the temperature. The mix of technologies is jarring but very curious.

To our left the door is open to a large stone bath, beyond that is an almost modern looking toilet. To our right we see that the doors to our other rooms are all open. Behind the bed there's a balcony that gives us a view to the south of the Sea of Trees. We are considerably high above the canopy of trees, giving us unobstructed view to something amazing.

Roxanne throws herself in the bed. -.

"SO FLUFFY!" She yells.

I - join her. Yeah, she's right. This is super fluffy.

Oh Gods, I fell asleep. It's almost evening so it's time for a bath.

I wake up to Roxanne spooning me on one side and Hana on the other. My brains are being massaged by Hana's strong hands and I almost fall back asleep instantly.

"Let's take a bath," I manage to force out before I end up blacking out again.

The hands stop moving and I regain my consciousness.

A groggy me and Roxanne are almost dragged to the bath where the other girls are taking a look. Simple grey stone with a large hole in the middle. Multiple gems decorate the border of the hole, magic tools. There's a large ice box where cold alcohol and some snacks are stored. Alissa closes the ice box and her nipples appear pointy. Even the floor is warmed.

This is a hotel.

"Wolfy, look at this!" Lina exclaims happily, "So many enchantments, maybe we should get some for our bath."

I blink blankly for a few seconds and finally fully awaken.

"Most look like magic tools. You weren't focusing on that, right?" I ask.

Her eyes go back to being gloomy.

"Ah, yes. I know very little about [Magic Tool Carving]."

Lina's Trivia: Enchanting is a spell that affects an item, a magic tool is a spell completely contained in a crystal.

"We can just ask Gecynd later. Actually, you should do it, ask her about the Monster King too."

Lina stiffens and her breath quickens. Ciel chuckles at her anxiety and gives her a calming, breasty hug.

"You will do fine, she doesn't bite, or rather, shouldn't," Ciel smirks.

Alissa starts filling the bath. Bubbles start to fill the air, fluffy and golden foam starts to form, the smell of flowers fill our noses, and a harp starts to play.

"Wow, even music. Now that is a bath," Hana says with a chuckle.

Roxanne face plants on the water and we enter after her.

"Cough, cough, gueh! What...? Oh, a bath," Roxanne surfaces.

"Sorry, my love. I didn't notice you weren't fully awake," Hana says with a guilty grin.

"You what?"

"Nevermind..."

Alissa activates another gem and the water starts bubbling, massaging our skin.

"Oh yes..."

My consciousness fades again.

I wake to the comfortable - pillow of Hana. Ciel and Lina are also sleeping while cuddling. Aoi and Gify are floating in the middle while they hold hands. Roxanne is sipping some blood red drink.

"Let's switch," I say.

-

Roxanne bites her lips, she wants in on the fun. I nudge on Alissa -.

"Kiss her," I point to Roxanne, "you are Roxanne's pet now, do whatever she wants."

Roxanne's eyes dart between me and Alissa. Her mouth puckered in surprise. Hana simply smiles wildly.

- After we use each other to our heart's content, Alissa and I show the intensity of our love and depravity to each other -.

"What have we become?" She asks.

"Two depraved perverts."

"Two people in love."

"Two hearts entwined."

"Two souls bound."

"Two beings who trust everything about each other."

-

I look to my side and the girls are eating salted not-peanuts and drinking some unknown beer while watching us. Lina found some green whiskey, hopefully, she won't get drunk.

We eat some snacks and rest some more on the bed. Due to Lina and I being so small we can all fit on it if we cuddle.

I finally explore what changed in me after that vision. I get a hunch and add points to [Space Magic], at 40 points a new spell is shown [Warp Space].

"Holy fuck! I can now use spells up to level 40!" I exclaim.

"I guess visions about future destiny is a good way to change your 'perspective'," Roxanne smiles wryly.

"Seems so..."

"You gotta teach me [Holy Spirit]!" Ciel grabs my shoulders and her eyes leave no room for questioning.

"Well, I have a lot of things I have to do. Is it really that important?"

"Well..." Her enthusiasm deflates and her shoulder drops, "No. I just really wanted one."

"Why do you want that one?" Alissa asks.

Ciel twiddles her thumbs and avoids eye contact.

"Bragging rights..." She mutters.

Our stifled chuckles just make her even more embarrassed.

"A-anyway," she quickly gets up and tries to change the topic, "let's go out and take that tour."

I look at the other magic tools and find something worrying on [Summoning Magic], the level 40 spell is called [Bind].

Lina gets out of the bed and stumbles. She immediately uses [Spirit of Gaia] and returns to normal. So that is the secret of dwarves.

Outside of our room, we surround the bundle of leaves in shape of a man.

"H-hello, are you Aslo?" Ciel asks shyly.

"Arlo," answers a voice. It is old but strong, there's an undertone of wood creaking.

The leaves grow away from the wall, pushing the existing leaves towards us while new leaves grow at the back. It looks like a stick figure of a man made of leaves. Eventually the branches snap and Arlo disconnects from the wall.

"Sorry, Mr. Arlo," Ciel lowers her head.

"Raise your head, humanoid," Arlo says, "I feel no offense on your words. And simply call me Arlo, no need for 'Mr'."

"Understood, Arlo."

The small openings between leaves show he's made of twigs, there's no organs inside. There's no mouth and I can't feel any mana coming out of him. How the hell does he talk or even see? The only facial trait he has is a bunch of leaves that look like a nose.

"Well then, Arlo. Can you show us some place to eat?" Hana asks.

"Sure thing," the leaves that make up his head nods noisily. "We have a section where food that should be to your palate is traded. Try not to take food from any other floor, it could cause problems for humanoids."

It needs to be said how odd it is to talk to something that does not show facial expressions. Even the lack of eyes to show where he's looking at irks me.

"Really..." Hana says, her eyes shining.

"Hana, don't do it," Roxanne says, stern, "this is not a challenge."

"Awn..."

"We won't heal you if you end up sick," Ciel says.

Hana pouts during our elevator trip but it quickly dissolves when we reach the 30th floor. The smell of food is mouth watering.

A grass bridge takes us out of our basket and into the floor proper.

In a nutshell, you can put on the Cantina Theme and it would fit right in with this atmosphere.

A marketplace exclusively for food. Multiple races and animals all walk through the dozens of stands. I don't know the name of half the living beings in here. Some of them are so alien I question if they really belong to this world.

The buzzing of trade is very similar to that of Rabanara's, even though most sounds produced aren't part of any language I recognize.

I see a Gatun growling at a Curind vendor. The bark-man vendor answers with the sound of stone grinding and wood crunching. The Gatun delicately puts his paw on the stand and a bundle of lightly glowing grass appears.

The bark hand of the vendor turns into a large spoon. He sweeps the grass off the counter and pulls out two mangoes from below the stand. The Gatun delicately grabs the mangoes with his mouth, he tilts his head and the mangoes disappear.

Even the animals know [Item Box].

We see fishes being grilled by a weird fish... Man? He looks like a huge fish that grew jelly-like arms and legs. Another that I don't know the race of.

"What is this?" Roxanne asks, "It looks like some good fish."

"Blargdablagarag!" Says the fish man.

"What did he say?" Asks Ciel.

"Uh..." Arlo thinks for a few moment then turns to the fish man, "Blargarag."

"Blargudlalar," the fish man answers.

"Glarlalalala."

"Glardu."

"Globar."

"Blargh."

"Blargh."

"They are bartering," I say to Ciel.

"How do you understand each other?" Lina asks.

"It's due to the blessing of our Lord," Arlo answers, "It should be similar to the spell you system mages call [Animal Tongue]."

"Oh I see. You mostly understand the feelings behind the words," I say.

"But it looked like he was speaking the same language," Lina says.

"Blarg language is not really a true language," Arlo says, "A single word has many meanings, it still mostly depends on feelings."

"Hmm... So maybe this is why it is not on the system," Lina says.

"Maybe."

"Anyway. What currency should we use?" I ask.

"None," he answers flatly, "you are guests so anything you want we will provide."

"How generous. Thank you," I say.

Arlo nods. Rather stoic this Cublend.

"Do you trade with coins?" Lina asks.

Hana points to a few grilled fish sticks and the Blarg looks at Arlo. He nods and the vendor gives it to Hana, his fish lips distorted in what could be described as a smile.

"They have some value but not much," Arlo responds. "Most valuable things are plants with mana on them."

A shish-kebab stall being tended by a dryad is attracting lots of attention. He's roasting a large amount of sticks on top of a scented log. The smoke he's creating is being sucked by some large flowers hanging from the ceiling. The man trips and hits his firepit, a large ember falls out and starts a small fire.

The crowd merely steps back a few centimeters. A flower on the ceiling turns to the ember and gushes water, putting out the fire. The flower then turns to the dryad and gushes double the amount of water on his face. The crowd produce sounds that could be interpreted as laughs.

The dryad recovers the wet ember and returns to tending to his stall.

The fish stick has quite the odd spice. Something like lemon but not very sour. It's in small clumps that burst on the tongue, sending periodic jolts of flavor. Cute gimmick.

I ask for a few of the sweet-smelling mangoes and Arlo barters for them. I guess not even Gecynd wants to feel ripped off when she receives the invoice of our expenses.

The girls spread around and drag Arlo onto a few stalls. They come back with multiple types of fruits that I have never seen before.

The shopping spree slows down and Arlo stops in front of us.

"Would you like a restaurant?" He asks.

"Sure."

Better than eating while walking.

Hana brings a bunch of large beetle shells. Everyone frowns at her until a smaller than normal Aoi crawls upon her body and snatches one.

"Sweeet, can-dy!" She says.

Trying to ignore the image of eating a bug. I throw a beetle on my mouth and chew.

With a satisfying crunch the shell breaks apart and I feel a sweet and mushy taste of peach. It's consistency reminds me of pudding.

"They are not the insides of a bug. Do not worry," Arlo says.

I swallow and smile at them.

"Tastes good, like fruit," I say.

Alissa and Lina eat it with some reservations. Ciel and Roxanne look at each other then at the beetles.

"The shell is only used as decoration, it's just pudding," I say.

I pick two and push it to them.

With a grimace, they take them and eat it.

"Tastes good," Ciel says.

"But it's not the taste that's the problem," Roxanne says.

"Yes. Food should look appetizing. Even if the shells are just decoration it's still a major negative point."

Roxanne nods her head along.

"Yes, yes. I give it a seven for taste but a minus ten for presentation," she says.

"Indeed. Minus three is all it deserves," Ciel copies the nods.

"Don't let the vendor hear this," Hana says with a smirk, she pops another bug on her mouth.

I look back at the vendor, he looks like a large meerkat. He nimbly moves between each customer, appraising the magical plants. He gesticulates wildly at whoever he's bargaining with and finally swiftly switches the plants for assorted beetles. At one point he quickly appraises a bundle of weirder than normal grass and throws it into the face of the not-hawk that put it there, a moment later he's already dealing with another customer.

"Do you have any dietary restrictions?" Arlo asks.

"Diet... What?" Hana asks.

"If there's something we don't eat," I say.

"Well they don't eat bugs," Hana smiles at the two on the back.

"I think he means something along the lines of not eating meat or drinking milk."

"Yes, precisely," Arlo nods, his leaves make every movement noisy.

The girls shake their heads.

"Well I wanted to eat some meat, if possible," Roxanne says.

Arlo nods and we change our path.

The stalls turn into large rooms as we near the border. I see the sunlight as small balconies open up to the outside. A few animals like Gatuns and birds seem to use them as entry or exit points.

We are taken to a restaurant at the border of the tree. Small windows let in the moonlight of the psychedelic moon and their satellites, tonight the green moon is the brightest.

This place also has the odd mix of nature with technology. The floor is soft and warm dirt, the chairs are made of wood with very soft cushioning, the cloths used are what I believe to be rare spider silk, the dryad waiters use the same proto-waiter uniforms seen in Rabanara. It's all so bizarre.

Since the dryads speak our language Arlo stays outside to give us some privacy. He merges with the wall in front of the entrance.

It's an all-you-can-eat restaurant with a salad buffet. The proto-waiters pass through each table offering different cuts of barbecued meat. Let me say that they know how to smoke and roast some meat, the scented logs must be the local specialty.

"So, what do you all think about Gecynd?" I ask, "I'm not very fond of allying with her, mostly because I don't fully understand her motivations, her whole perspective is different than ours. A semi-immortal being who uses the lives of others so casually scares me a little."

"Hm... I actually think it's a good idea to keep in contact with her," Roxanne says, "She could be a good ally due to her power."

Aoi lifts her head from her plate.

"Kweh! Good wo-man!" She says and goes back to eating.

Hana runs a finger through Aoi's spine, making her shiver.

"She means us well," Lina says.

"I agree with Wolfy, I think she's odd. I don't know what she's really thinking," Hana says.

"You kind of say this about most people, what's so different about her?" Roxanne asks, trying but not really trying to mess with Hana.

"Well..." Hana sends a glare to Roxanne, forcing her to squirm and bite her tongue, "It's just that I don't know how strong she is. I don't know how far we should, uh, appease her."

"I agree," Ciel says, then she cleans her mouth with a napkin, "Having the Lord of the Forest as an ally would be incredible, but also far-fetched. She eventually will want something from us, nature doesn't do charity."

"That would be our powers. Well, Wolfy's," Lina says.

"Indeed. What she expects from us is not gonna be so outlandish," Roxanne says.

"Alissa...?" I turn to her, she's quiet.

"I... I still can't believe we met the Lord of the Forest. Then there's the vision that you two had, I don't know what to think about it."

"Then don't. I hate cryptic things," I say.

Alissa sighs and drinks from her fruit punch.

"I don't feel any danger from Gecynd," she says, "We all know of Wolfy's destiny, Gecynd is now connected to it, she will be an ally in the future. Even if she does need something from us, it will benefit us if we help."

"Well, the Lord of the Forest is known to be fair. Having her in our debt would be great," Ciel says, "I'm just concerned about what will we need to do to put her in our debt. How big must a problem be for someone like her to not be able to fix it by herself?"

"A lack of legs?" Hana asks. I almost chuckle but she's got a point. "If she could move she would have changed her location already. She's way too close to Rabanara, it shouldn't be easy to keep her presence a secret. And even with the Speakers I never heard of any of those creatures ever leaving their forests."

"Now that sounds more plausible," Ciel says.

"We are adventurers," Lina says, she spins the ice in her green whiskey in thought, "traveling the world would be in line with what we do."

"And with what we want to do," I say, "After becoming a noble I want to travel the continent."

"There's that vision she saw," Roxanne says, "If we find what 'legado' means then we might find what we need to help her."

"In Portuguese, one of the languages of Earth, it means 'legacy,'" I say.

"Could be a coincidence," Lina says.

"I have a hunch 'legacy' is the proper translation," I say, "The languages don't translate directly but I can feel the similarities to many languages of my world. Andraste seems similar to Greek and some Latin, high elven is very similar to Portuguese, dragonkin's are inspired by Japanese, Sommerland seems to be German, Maplethorne is English, Faium seems Arabic. There's plenty of references going around."

"There's only one thing we are going to do at the High Forest," Alissa says.

"It seems we found our dungeon to conquer," I say.

After loosening my belt a few notches we go back to our rooms. Arlo told us he gets nourishment from merging with the wall so he has no problem in waiting for us. It's kind of like resting at his "bed".

We all end up sleeping on the same bed. Along with the gnomic heaters we got some coolers too so we didn't get as hot as we would have been.

I love the smell of the girls, the perfume of the lotions mix with each other and create a very sweet little piece of heaven. Their skin, and mine, is so soft now I kind of understand why Ciel likes to hug so much.

I never thought I would be so lonely in a new world but there are so many little things that annoy me and they pile up. The clothes that don't really fit right, the socks are rougher than I like, the constant need to use boots so you don't get your feet wet and dirty, the casual way death is treated, the need of individual strength to protect yourself from the world, the lack of a stable income, the constant reminder that there's something bigger than me going on, the lack of so many daily conveniences of my past life, a nagging feeling that if I stop increasing my power I will regret it, the impulse to make connections with people with power but the fear of what comes with it, the lack of internet, the lack of memes and web novels, no one understands my references, the food is just not the same as the one from my last home.

I miss coming back from work, eating some mac & cheese, then reclining on the sofa to watch some anime. I miss being small and insignificant. I was just another speck of cosmic dust that acquired sentience.

Now semi-immortal beings are taking interest in me and what I will change in the world. Seems that fighting only for my women would be a rather shallow motive, I have to take responsibility for what my power entails. With great power comes great responsibility.

I see the Everlasting Storm again. This time I don't feel discomfort, I feel confident. The Storm fades and slowly my usual dreams replace it.

Today is the 28th.

-

Roxanne wants to play with Alissa so I decide to stay and help. I whisper something to Roxanne and she answers with an evil "ohohoh~". Roxanne is as much of a sadist as I am.

We both hold Alissa down, she holds the legs and I hold the arms.

"I will go out get our breakfast," Ciel says after recovering from her embarrassment.

"I'll go with you," Hana says.

"N-no, that's not-not necessary," Ciel laughs nervously, "L-Lina, come with me. We will carry everything, just, just stay here. Look, look, play with Roxanne."

Ciel seems a little nervous in seeing Alissa being abused again but she seems even more nervous about what Hana might bring for breakfast.

Hana turns around to see Roxanne - use her dagger tail. "Ooh..."

To the disappointment of Lina, Ciel snatches her and they both go out.

Roxanne's tail can be used as a dagger but when she wills it the blade gets as soft as rubber. It's still scary as shit, though.

-

Then Ciel comes back with multiple fruit salads immersed in Chantilly.

-

After breakfast, I take a nap -.

I wake up to a mesh of light brown hair on my face, my nose is filled by her sweet perfume of orange, my mind is filled with the calmness that the perfume provokes on me. A hint of gold shows Gify's feathers peeking out from Alissa's arms.

A [Breeze] magic tool is on the table, it creates a soft wind on the room that caresses our - exposed skin. A small gust of wind hits my face and lifts my hair lightly, it tickles just like how Hana strokes my hair.

Hana is cuddling with Roxanne on one of the chairs at the table. They whisper something to each other and share pecks on the lips. Aoi sleeps on Hana's head, her small legs sprawled about.

I raise my head and see Ciel and Lina cuddling on a chair outside, overlooking the Sea of Trees. -.

I caress Alissa's floppy ears very gently. I feel her tail twitch, it's riding up on my belly and the fluffiness tickles me.

-

I'm healing. - Love, good food, doing nothing all day. This is the life.

The room - is getting smelly, though, we have to leave so the maids(?) can clean this up.

Today my [Nature Magic] increased by 1 (now 0+16) and everyone's "Wisdom" increased by 1. Mine is now 17, Alissa's now 13, Roxanne's now 18, Hana's now 11, Ciel's now 19, and Lina's now 12.

We leave the room to take a walk. Arlo called Gin and Aife, more Cublend guides. We got to a general trade floor and spread around but still remain close.

Roxanne is regularly coming back to me to deliver assorted plants she finds. Lina once in a while brings some random nick-knack.

The girls were very contained on their spending spree except for me, I got buckets of legitimate cow milk and cheeses. It's milder than minotaur milk but it's the closest thing I have that reminds me of home.

"Say, Aoi," she stretches her head downwards and looks me in the eye, upside-down. "Don't you want anything?"

She tilts her head and starts to look around. After a few minutes she jumps from my head and lands on the counter of a stall. There's some magical trinkets on it, one in particular is a cone of wood with a ball of gold resting on top.

Aoi stretches her claws to the cone of wood and feeds it some mana. The ball of gold starts to float and spin, I see a nearly microscopic gem on the wooden cone. The gold ball heats up until it glows with heat and mana.

"Kweh!"

Arlo nods to the stall owner and the ape pushes the cone to Aoi. She grows and grasps the trinket.

"We should teach you [Item Box]" I say, then I get an idea, "you should be able to keep things like these to yourself."

I hand her one gold and one silver coin. She stares at them for a few seconds then quickly snatches them with her mouth. She happily clinks them on her teeth.

Hana looks at her with some confusion.

"What's so good about those coins?" She asks.

"On my world dragons usually were fond of gold or other shiny things. Maybe it's something similar," I say

"Hmm..." Hana holds her chin in thought, "We heard that dragons would collect weapons and coins, we thought that it was just the remains from their victims."

"If you kill them regularly they don't have enough time to acquire too much treasure," I say.

"Makes sense. Huh, who would have thought."

"Then she really needs [Item Box]," Roxanne says, "she doesn't have pockets to carry her coins all the time."

The Cantina Theme fades off as the animals look much more contained this time. I think the effect of the green moon is subdued during the day. Tonight should be a yellow moon so things will get much quieter as time passes.

Eventually, we go to the restaurants for lunch. It's another dryad-run restaurant and this time we have pierogi with ground meat. Lina tentatively drank some whiskey again, later I saw her struggle to ask for more and got juice instead. I'm not sure what to say to her, I don't like drunk people but I don't need her to be a teetotaler like me.

In the afternoon we spend our time on the balcony. Roxanne and Lina play Civil War again while we cheer them on.

The balcony is rather small because I think Gecynd doesn't want people to see it from the outside. It's enough for us to sit on chairs though. If it was only slightly longer I could pull out a cheap sofa we once bought.

The place where we are at has very few vines so it's quite a large view. It's just endless upon endless green. Then the forest tips over the horizon and disappears. To our right, we can see the Rakontagne Mountain Range, snow-tipped mountains with greenish stone.

"What you think is out there?" Hana asks.

"Maybe a town of animals?" Ciel says. -.

"The animals must have formed clans, perhaps even a village," Alissa says, "there are some on the Misty Low Forest."

"If this place exists why couldn't it also exist somewhere else?" Roxanne asks then turns back to her game.

She regrets her distraction as Lina kills one of her Ronti lancers.

"Arlo said that there's a blessing that gives the beings here [Animal Tongue]," Alissa says ,"it could be exclusive to this place."

"Or it could be reproduced somewhere else..." Ciel says. -. "There's plenty of magic tools here. They could buy some, from whomever they are buying from, and set them up on towns and such."

"Would be quite the cost," Hana says, "both on mana and on gems."

"Well it is the Tree of Mana, maybe her roots could be used to at least feed the gems," Ciel says. She smiles at me as I kiss the top of her foot.

"At this point, I think Gecynd could just create a smaller version of herself somewhere else," Alissa says, "if her mana reaches the gem then her body also does. I find it hard to believe the Symbol of Nature wouldn't be able to somehow reproduce and create smaller versions of herself."

"If anything, we know that nature is all about reproduction," Hana says.

Heh.

"The lower levels are residential and the sounds of sex are quite common," Alissa says while nodding.

"Anyway, whatever is out there must be able to keep, hm...! The monsters in check," Ciel says, "We now know, ah...! That Gecynd somehow takes care of the worst ones."

"Gih hih."

"An army of dryads sounds scary," Alissa says.

Lina glances towards Ciel and loses her concentration. She makes a bad move and loses a Gatun scout unit.

"Ohohoh," Roxanne chuckles with an evil smile.

Lina glares at her and purses her lips in annoyance.

"Kweh! Calm doown," Aoi cheers for Lina.

"You traitor. I gave you my shoulders all the time," Roxanne glares at Aoi.

"Hih-hih. She, neeeds, cheee-rin'."

"Oh-hoh, so that's how it is. I also need some cheering, I'm not invincible."

"You, old, Li, young."

Roxanne scowls in pain while Lina snickers.

Roxanne loses an [Earth Wall] mage, creating a hole in her defenses.

"No!" She slaps her forehead.

Lina lands dragon knights beyond the wall and makes her lancers charge.

Roxanne puts down the [Eternal Gate] card on the board and summons dwarven men-of-the-line to receive the charge. Lina's smile fades as she realizes the trap.

The charge is halted midway, none of Lina's infantry can move inside to storm the walls. Because of this Roxanne's auto-ballistas on the wall are free to focus on the dragon knights, eradicating them.

"Noooo," Aoi cries.

"Ohohohohoh!" Roxanne laughs with her hand covering her mouth.

"Impressive acting," Hana says.

Roxanne blows a kiss to Hana.

Lina groans and regains her resolve. She retreats her lancers and prepares a new strategy.

Roxanne's counter is swift but she narrowly wins. The dwarf girl is a vicious defender. Current score is 8-4 in favor of Roxanne.

I finished Ciel so I sip my not-earl grey along with my gorgon fruit pudding. I'm so calm I feel like meditating. Ciel looks at me with hungry eyes and I quickly eat my snack.

-

"So," I clap my hands and strain a smile, "who gets the priority?"

Ciel and Roxanne look at each other. Their eyes hold aggressiveness, their pout holds anxiety.

"We don't really get hurt a lot," Roxanne says.

"It's for when we get hurt that we need the spirit," Ciel retorts.

"If I have enough power then you will never need a spirit. I can just blow everything away."

"Not all our enemies are monsters that attack from the front. We already got ambushed more than one time."

"And when we do I can just instantly explode them."

"But you didn't. The [Water Spirit] also won't help that much with [Explosion]."

"Hohohoh," she laughs mischievously, "there's [Heart of Fire], I'm not just going for the spirit."

Ciel bites her lips.

"[Heart of Fire] is worse, it's only to help you. It won't help us much during battle."

Roxanne smiles smugly, making Ciel turn red in anger.

"Well I'm kind of the most vulnerable already. You also underestimate how powerful quick relocation can be for a mage. If I can learn how to cast it chantless then I'm a step closer to becoming a demi-god of death, ohohohohoh~..." Roxanne smiles maniacally, every word makes her more agitated.

Now Ciel turns smug and crosses her arms.

"[Heart of Fire] consumes a ton of mana, you will have to train to increase your mana," she says.

All the evil in Roxanne gets cleansed in an instant.

"Ah, shit!" She mutters. "Wait! Wolfy said Kyros was going to give him a training routine to increase mana. I can just use that!"

"Yes you can," Ciel nods but her smugness increases, "but what guarantees it's not gonna give you the same headaches that normal mana training does?"

Roxanne scowls and strangles the air in frustration. After getting over her silent tantrum she breathes deeply and looks at Ciel with all the confidence she can muster.

"I will do it," she says.

"Do what?" Ciel frowns.

"I will train my mana."

"Pfffff..." Hana scoffs at Roxanne.

"Oi!" Roxanne scowls at Hana, "This is a conversation between the two of us. Stupid dragons are not invited."

"Kweh!"

"Sorry. Stupid perverts are not invited."

"Oi!" Alissa enters the fray.

"After what you did to Alissa you can't say you are not a pervert," Hana says.

"That... Nevermind!" Roxanne throws her hand in the air in frustration. "Back to the conversation."

"As you were saying," Ciel leans forward and speaks in a slow, mocking tone, "You believe you would train your mana with Kyros' technique."

"I don't just believe. Hoh!" Roxanne scoffs, "I will."

Ciel lifts her hands in defeat.

"Fine, fine. I will let you learn [Heart of Fire]. Buuuut!" Ciel jabs a her finger on Roxanne's nose, "If you fail you will have to accept punishment."

Roxanne's eyes race about as she imagines what Ciel might ask. She smiles as she thinks of Ciel's fetish, then she frowns as she remembers Ciel is not that depraved.

"What kind of punishment?" She asks, wary.

Ciel smug smile fades as she fails to think of a proper punishment.

"You are too much of an angel to enjoy sadism," I say.

Ciel pouts but I see a hint of a smile on her face.

"I will punish her," Hana says.

Roxanne shivers and she forces herself not to smile.

"That won't be much of a punishment," Lina says.

"Oh no. I'm gonna punish her," Hana licks her lips, "I will abstain from Wolfy just so I can use her and break her."

Roxanne shivers again but this time she doesn't smile.

"Awn..." I let out a disappointed moan.

"For the greater good," Hana says to me with apologetic eyes.

The greater good!

"Do it for me, Roxanne," I say, summoning the puppiest of all the puppy eyes I can summon. "Don't let Hana's insides forget the shape of my dick."

Roxanne sighs and her mouth twitches in a smile.

"I will do it, for you."

We take our clothes off and do it in the bath. I put on all my points on [Fire Magic] and [Mana Control], then I cast [Heart of Fire].

My entire body turns into flame. I lose my human shape and become a large ball of fire. It's a horrible feeling, I immediately turn back. I splatter on the water and nearly puke.

Alissa immediately fishes me out and I cough water.

"[Refresh]."

My dizziness disappears and I just float belly up.

"That seemed fun," Roxanne says with worry.

"I think..." I catch my breath "That people practiced this spell... Little by little, instead of transforming... All the body at once."

"Seems plausible," Ciel says, "but can you do it like that?"

"No," I answer flatly.

"Well shit," Roxanne mutters.

"I'm becoming more comfortable with modifying spells. This could be a good test for me," I say.

"Then..." Roxanne taps a finger on her chin then shrugs. "I will just meditate and try to glimpse how it works from a distance."

A spell that turns you into fire. Let swords phase through your flame, fly through the sky like a flaming arrow, slam on the ground like a meteor, that's what this spell can do. Big con for it is that if the flame is snuffed you die, makes it kind of dangerous to use during rain and impossible while underwater, also [Drown] becomes a death sentence.

I have to do it slowly, just a small part of my body has to turn into fire. I sit down on the stone and concentrate. The knowledge that everyone is naked in the bath takes a lttle of my concentration away but it helps in keeping the pressure off. I'm still into "vacation mode", I don't want to stress myself.

Many faceplants, crashes into water and near pukes later and I finally manage to at least keep my body from becoming a ball of fire.

"You kind of look sexy like this," Hana says.

I look just like a fire elemental, a naked man made of fire.

"You might not want to sexualize me. The only thing that you can get is a nasty burn."

"You said that you could eventually gain feeling on this form and choose when to burn," she says with a pout.

"Eventually. This spell is quite hard," I turn back into my nakedness, "and it's using my mana like a fountain. I have to meditate again."

Her pout turns into a frown.

"Maybe if it only burns a little..." She mutters.

Alissa shudders and mutters a groan.

Roxanne managed to cause a few whisps of flame to float around her. Thankfully there's little risk in burning your own hair otherwise fuck this spell. I went bald once, once.

I spend my evening training my Andraste. Been quite some time since I last did it.

"Why do we have to do it naked?" Ciel asks.

"Put 'naked' before any activity and it instantly becomes better," I respond.

"Naked family gathering," Roxanne says with a smile.

"Okay, I get it. Still, the longer we stay naked the happier I get."

Ciel crosses her arms and pouts.

"You are going to get distracted like this," she says.

"Only if you keep pushing them together like that," I say.

She blushes slightly but does not move.

-

Today is the 29th.

-

My [Fire Magic] and [Andraste Language] increased by 1 (now 0+1 and 5+5). Slowly I will get there. Spending time naked with Ciel is fun but what is not fun is grammar.

"These are gifts from our Lord," Arlo says. With a small bow, he extends a platter with 6 necklaces. "They have been blessed so it produces the same effect as [Animal Tongue]. They will also serve to appease any animal or forest guardian that you meet."

We all pick our necklaces. They are made of branches, leaves, flowers and some small berries. It reminds me of a thinned Christmas wreath.

I put it on and immediately feel a change in how I perceive things. It's a much stronger effect than my [Animal Tongue], I can feel faint emotions of every animal near us instead of only the one I'm directly talking.

"When you leave the Tree of Mana the effect of the blessing will be reduced but it would still be effective," Arlo adds.

"Hey, I can finally talk to Aoi like Wolfy does," Hana says, she grabs Aoi out of the ground and holds her like a baby. "I love you my little one."

"Kweh! Lo-ve!"

"Awn..."

Hana's expression melts as she suffocates Aoi on a hug.

Arlo's leafy face is expressionless but the necklace tells me he's "smiling".

With the blessed necklaces, we can finally take part of one of the most curious entertainment activities around here: the theater.

Without an official language to use, the actors have to get the story across using all other methods. Sounds, music, dance, expressions, and body language, all of these is aided by the blessing that the Tree gives to all its Children.

We get front row seats to the show. The theater is the odd combination of furniture found in the house of a noble with the heartwood of the walls and indoor red grass on the floor.

The lights dim and the actors enter the stage.

A girl is born. The father looks disappointed at his child, the mother cries at the bleak future of the family.

As if understanding what awaits her the girl grows wild like an animal. She grasps on the last branches of life. The father brings food home and watches as the little animal eats the food with ferocity.

I will live, I will live.

The father stares with fear on his face as he sees a dark and frightening ball of magic leave the palm of his daughters hand. The ball flies and hits a resting bird, it convulses and writhes on the ground, crying in pain. The little girl rushes to the bird and snaps its neck. With dexterity, she defeathers the bird, bleeds it dry, and with a ball of fire on her hand, cooks the bird.

The father approaches the girl and her eyes widen in fear. She growls and shows her fangs, which are still sunk on the meat of her catch. The father smiles at her display and offers a piece of dry meat.

The girl takes it in the blink of an eye and soon her belly is full of meat.

I shall starve no longer.

The tall and muscular brother comes, he wants his place, his destiny, he challenges her. The scrawny girl twists him and breaks him apart. As his body and mind fails to recover the girl extends a hand, with it comes a kiss.

The lives of the strong shall not be wasted, they will flock to me.

Father, then leader, then lord, they all fell to her. She takes them all, no life shall be wasted, no potential go unused.

I slit the throat of my enemies, I eat their meat, and mate with their strong. I take what I want and what I need.

She grows strong and extends her tendrils far. Her enemies tremble in fear of her ferocity. The Queen conquers all.

Then she meets her nemesis.

A creature so wide it is confused with a mountain. So big its steps provokes earthquakes. So strong the ferocity of the Queen is nothing but the anger of a single ant. But a swarm of ants can still take down bigger prey.

I fear no one, I shall conquer you.

Fire and brimstone rain upon her children, wind sweep them of their mounts, coffins of earth open and entomb her men, and a storm forms just to clean the earth of the filth that are the survivors.

She lifts her head from the dirt and see nothing remains. Tears run free as she despairs, everything she ever had has been lost in a moment. The creature did not even glance at her.

Stricken with grief, she uses her magic on herself. She carves on her body the shame of her loss, the folly of her pitiful attack, the stupidity of her arrogance.

I won't die quietly, I shall have my revenge.

She climbs upon the creature in silence. With pure physical prowess and stubbornness she sneaks upon the monstrosity. Once on top of the head she plunges her little sword that barely manages to break the skin of the creature.

She flows her magic through the sword and penetrates the mind of the creature. She will invade the mind of the creature and destroy it. She will have her victory even if it takes her life, she has nothing else to live for after all.

The creature fights back. She views the endless well of life, the cycle of birth and death. She is born again, suffers again, thrives again, rejoices again, and finally, fails again. The cycle repeats over and over and over again. We merely live until we fail and the world takes us back to the earth.

How foolish of her to throw it all away when she lost for the first time. She has the privilege of remaining alive, she will do it all again and this time she will do it better.

No more arrogance, my lineage shall survive this time.

The creature shakes the earth with a horrifying sound. Her ears burst and bleed, her body shakes, and her bones creak. How cruel to die just after regaining the meaning for her life.

The creature took notice of her and stopped its laughter. Such power that merely a laugh nearly killed her. Apologizing for its outburst the creature nursed the little girl back to life. Suddenly the creature speaks in voice only she can hear.

"Bring me back a family worthy of the name 'Kaengraeng' and this time I will see you as my equal, my kin."

The Queen answers with a scream of war. She will take this as a challenge, she will create a new family so strong the creature will tremble. Or at least one that survives a bout of laughter.

She will come back and this time she will worship the creature.

The lives of the strong shall not be wasted, they will flock to the creature. Under its wing I shall gain power, power to safeguard my kin.

This is the story of the first Speaker.

"I see the show left you speechless," Arlo says.

"Yeah that was quite the storm of emotions," Roxanne says, "I cried so many times."

"Hah, I think you cried more than you didn't," Hana says.

"She just had such a hard life. So tragic."

"Such was the life during the Age of Oppression," Ciel says.

"From what we heard of Bestiaram things aren't that much better," Lina says.

"Blame the heretics," Ciel grits her teeth, "How could people ever worship pain?"

I smile wryly.

"Over here there's really only one religion so things are calm. Back on Earth when religions fought each other horrible things would happen, even worse than what I heard from that continent," I say.

We come back to our room in the evening. Everyone is rather quiet but very content. The show provoked a bout of introspection on the girls.

We all lay down on the bed and stare at the ceiling. The show may have been silent but a large amount of emotions have been transmitted to us. We are all rather tired.

Another fluffy and perfumed bath where Lina tries again to decipher the magic tools. Then another wonderful dinner, this time the main course is varieties of breads with wonderful sauces to spread, there was even pita bread. We finally regain our presence of mind and return to our normal way of acting.

"Say, Alissa..." I call to her.

"What?" She leaves the table and lays down on my side.

"Would it be weird for us to, uh, have sex on your fox form?"

"No. Well not for me," she smiles wryly, "Most non-wereanimals don't find it attractive so we hardly mention it. They feel it's like having sex with an animal."

"Well it is having sex with an animal, but considering it's you I don't mind it."

She beams with a smile -.

Suddenly she grows furry and the next second I'm looking at a large orange fox on top of me.

-

I collapse beside the fox and she turns back to her normal form. She nuzzles up on my neck and her arms and legs turn into tentacles as she hugs me with all her strength.

"I love you, I love you, I love you," she mumbles while she smiles with her whole face.

"I love you too," I weakly let it out.

That definitely felt weird -. But seeing how happy that made Alissa I will certainly make an effort to please her. Not like I'm going to be arrested for doing anything illegal.

After I regain my breath 4 pairs of hungry eyes stare at me.

-

Intermission 9

What does it mean to forgive? The pain doesn't go away so why should I forgive, why should I forget what doesn't leave me?

I don't even understand why she apologized. She doesn't show emotion when the Children of the Forest die yet she apologizes for master's death. Is it just duty that makes her feel guilty about death?

Why does a giant concerns themselves with an ant?

The basket reaches the top floor and the vines open for me. The flowers feel good when trampled by my feet. They quickly whiter and a new one grows on its place.

Huh. What a perfect analogy for my situation. I feel guilty about trampling on the flowers, such beauty shouldn't die before their time.

"Good evening," Camassia says with a smile.

"Good evening," I answer.

A branch sneaks up on the ear of the dryad.