Chapter 25

I was wondering what to do next when a woman pushed her way through the other humans and stopped near me. I was a bit surprised when I realized that she was wearing a maid outfit. She had an athletic figure and I couldn’t help but find her stunningly beautiful. The only imperfection some men would find with her was that her breasts were small. Probably only an A cup. I had never cared much about breast size though. Or perhaps it would be more correct to say I was a fan of every size.

“We didn’t get the chance to meet before. However, I wanted to thank you for saving us. I’d also like to continue serving you.” The woman said.

It took a moment before I realized what she was talking about. I had nearly forgotten about the breeding program that clan Ashton I had been planning. “Did any of the other maids survive?” I suddenly asked.

The maid shook her head sadly. “I was there when the monsters killed them all.” She said. I hadn’t met most of them, and the few I had met I hadn’t known well. That didn’t stop me from feeling a bit shocked that they were all dead. It felt a bit surreal to know that people I had met recently were almost all dead. Including clan head Evan and most of clan Ashton’s elders.

“How did you escape?” I asked curiously.

The maid shook her head. “I didn’t escape. I killed half a dozen gnolls and a couple other monsters before the guards finally arrived and killed the rest.”

“You’re a cultivator?” I asked. I hadn’t known that any of the maids were cultivators.

The maid nodded and then reached behind her back. In a flash she had a dagger in each hand. “I’m a mid level five cultivator. I started cultivating because I heard that cultivators live longer. Unlike most people I enjoy meditating and sparring so I kept with it as a hobby. I never expected that I would be in an actual fight.”

“Clan Ashton is gone. As a level five cultivator you could make a decent living wherever you wanted. Why would you want to keep on being my maid?” I asked.

The maid put her daggers back as she considered my question. “Before all of this I was thinking about leaving. That’s why I never met you. Fighting those gnolls and what happened to clan Ashton opened my eyes. I may like cultivating and sparring. I don’t like fighting and killing, I’d rather live a comfortable life. You are more powerful than anyone I know. Even elder Yui gives you respect. Staying with you gives me a better chance at the life I want. Also I saw how much more powerful mage cultivators are. When I have children I want them to have mage talent. If I had mage talent I probably could have saved some of the other maids.” She said.

Her tone during the last part was what convinced me. She was obviously upset about not being able to save any of the other maids. I would be shocked if she hadn’t lost many of her friends. If I was in her shoes, living in this brutal world, I would probably want the same thing. To surround myself with powerful people and try to make sure my children were as powerful as possible.

The longer I was here the more I realized just how important power was. The only thing you could depend on was your own power. The disturbing thing was that I couldn’t help but wonder just how much power you needed to be truly safe. Elder Yui and his wife were both level nine cultivators. Yet neither of them had been truly safe. Given some more time Clan Hill would have been able to kill them.

“You can continue being my maid. Just promise to let me know if you ever change your mind. I’m not going to force you to be my maid if you don’t want to be. What’s your name?” I asked the maid.

“Thank you for accepting me as your maid. My name is Kristen. Do you need anything right now master?” Kristen asked.

“Not at the moment. I’ll let you know if I think of anything.” I said.

Kristen nodded and then took a seat nearby. I was a bit surprised when I noticed that she immediately started cultivating. Her dedication made me suspect that she had reached this point through pure hard work. Most cultivators her age that reached level five did so by using pills and other supplementals. I couldn’t imagine that clan Ashton had provided the maids with much of those though.

A few minutes later the other humans in my space started to make their way to talk to me one by one. Most just thanked me. A surprising number of the servants wanted to basically pledge their allegiance to me. In their view, Ashton was gone. Many of them clearly believed I was their best shot at continuing to live a protected life.

Besides the servants there was a second group of humans in my space. They were all members of clan Ashton. However, all of them were women or children. And none of them were above level four cultivators. It looked like every member of the clan that was at or above level five had fought to the death against clan Hill or had found other ways to escape.

Quite a few of these women and children were relatives of Emma. Many of the women had married into the clan. The children were almost all either cousins or second cousins. Although a few were the children of various elders.

The families of anyone without a high status in the clan wouldn’t have been living in the castle. Instead they lived in the city. The only exception would be if the family member was also a servant.

I directed all of these people to talk to Emma. She was now the head of clan Ashton. None of the other members of the family were as powerful as her. Even if some of the children grew into powerful cultivators and mages they would never be able to match her talent. Elder Yui was the only alternative choice for clan head. However, I knew he wasn’t interested in leading the clan. If he was then he would already have been leading the clan.

As the sun started to set, clan Hill finally started to make a move against the grove. I knew this because I had recently discovered that I could see outside of my space without having to leave. It was kind of weird though. I was basically a disembodied set of eyes. It was especially disconcerting when I ran into something and my vision went right through it. The other weird thing was that I couldn’t see anything past the edge of where I could exit the universe at. Past that it was like the world ceased to exist.

At first it was just a couple of low level guards that edged towards the grove. I had the feeling they were being punished for something. When the vines didn’t kill them they hurried back to the barrier.

Next a group of rank eight cultivators moved towards the grove. They were still cautious and fearful that it was some kind of trap. After a few minutes a large group of clan Hill guards moved forward. They reached the edge of the grove and began cutting apart the foliage. I was impressed when it took them over ten minutes to get into the grove. The dryads hadn’t been fooling around when they made that barrier.

Finally they made it through and found a completely barren area. I had transported every herb and even some animals that were in the grove. The only thing I had left was the foliage wall that the dryads had built around their grove.

Over the next hour multiple cultivators and mages came and went. Eventually one of them seemed to decide that maybe we were hiding inside the foliage wall. A group of guards came and lit the entire thing on fire. Meanwhile the strongest cultivators and mages in clan Hill waited for us to come running out.

I nearly laughed at how confused they looked when the entire wall was burnt to ashes but nobody tried to escape. Then a few guards mentioned that they had seen me teleporting around. Apparently they settled on the idea that I had come in and teleported everyone away. Scouts were sent out to make sure that I wasn’t nearby. However, it didn’t seem like they expected to find me. If I was a powerful teleporter I could be over a hundred miles away.

Late that night the clan Hill guards finally left the remains of the grove. Part of me wanted to try to escape at that moment. However, I stayed patient. I had heard them order the guards to scout the nearby area. If I was unlucky I’d run into one of those groups. If I waited, those guards would come back and report that they had found nothing. With any luck they would pull back all the scouts after they didn’t find me.

As I waited, both of my universe continued to grow. It was actually a bit shocking how much energy I was gaining now. Just over a hundred and sixty thousand energy each day. Unfortunately over half of that was going towards expanding the drake universe. So the dryad grove was going to be crowded for quite awhile. Eventually I fell asleep while leaning against one of the dryad trees. With any luck things would get better over the next few days.