I wake up. A box is on my chest… Was it the right choice?… Should I even bother trying to avoid getting another soul leech. He's a god after all… He's probably thought up one thousand scenarios to get me to eat it again. Aegis what do you think?

“Hmm… I'd say you should open that chest and see what is inside first.”

“...You're not in on this right?...”

“Really? You're really going to ask that? I've been nothing but helpful.”

“...Yea, I guess.”

I open the chest… The moment I do the chest eats me! I roll into it, when I look up, I see a giant castle. Beside the castle is an even bigger tree… Well, since I'm in here I should explore. Aegis speaks up again.

“This is a house mimic… I've never seen one this big before… Calling it a castle mimic is fairly accurate… I'm honestly more interested in that tree. It should be impossible for a tree to grow inside. The light is coming from a false sun. I've never seen a mimic with a fake source of light.”

“I'll check both out, the insides of this castle mimic is insane. It is easily big enough to carry one thousand troops in… If it grows crops it can be used as a mobile food base for an army. You could keep the freshest crops around. Just thinking about it is making my mouth water… Speaking of which. I still haven't fed you one of those black iron swords yet… We'll have to figure something out as payment later.”

“Agreed… Speaking of mouth watering, I've been waiting to eat those swords since you've made them.”

I check the castle. It is a giant one at that. It has a barracks, food court, central garden and around 25 separate rooms. It even has a king's room… I'll take claim to that. The bed is huge. It could easily fit five people on it…

I head to the tree next. It has a giant door on the outside with a sticky note attached. The preferred method of communication from the gods. I picked up the note. “This is the gift I gave you. It is a time tree. Inside the tree, the higher you go up the more time dilates. On the very top floor, the time dilation is a year to a single day. Once you enter the room you can't leave. I'll provide the food while you live/train there.”

...He isn't even trying to hide the fact that the soul leech is hidden in the top floor… At least that would be the obvious place for it to be… Would he really risk infecting other people besides myself just to infect me… I hope he wouldn't go that far. If he did, I would go out of my way to make my life more boring if he did.

“How do we get out?”

“There should be a hole to exit against the wall. Check where we entered from. Also… These mimics eat mana from living things inside as it's food source. Expect to lose mana while you're in here. It isn't a rare either. So it wont cause mana explosions.”

“Well that's convenient.”

I search the wall. There is a tiny hole… How am I supposed to fit through that? I start pushing on it and it gets bigger and bigger. I expand the hole slowly until it can take my entire fist… WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH ME! Aegis chimes up.

“Just run at the hole you idiot.”

I take a running head start at it. Jumping into the air I for a ball and get shot out of the castle mimic… Did I just get another pet? I haven't tamed it yet, it is technically a monster. It is harmless though. More of a symbiotic relationship. The smaller mimics are the ones that eat people to try and evolve into a house mimic.

After trying… 1000 times to tame the mimic, I gave up. It isn't meant to be I guess. It seems docile enough. It can't move on it's own or rather I might be able to move just very, very slowly. It is technically a trap type monster. I've seen a few in my past lives.

The most dangerous ones were the ones that took the shape of other objects. Some resemble gold mixed in with feces. They don't hurt you but have the chance of inflicting several permanent diseases on you. Others take the shape of stalactites and drop from the ceiling, impaling any unaware adventurers. The worst is the shadow clone mimics that will copy your moves completely. The only way to kill them is to have an ally attack them. These are all a part of the mimic family tree of monsters.

I still have a lot to do today. I need to try and win over the ninjas. Learning any classes they have here would be smart. I know it is going to be more than ninja. They've had several hundred years to build up learning/acquiring new classes. I'm going to expect at least 2-3 of those and a few specialty jobs… Hopefully that is. So I have to be especially careful to not aggravate them.

I head towards the village. My pets have decided to travel with me. Some of my generals have also decided to visit the town. Lance and Trice go, almost running into the village. Leaf following behind. She's wearing her plain robe armor... I should make her something sexier to wear. Nargzar and Leon have both headed into the village. I expect they are going to look at weapons, maybe buy some ninja items. While I go to meet the leader, I hope they don't get into to much trouble.

I head to the village. I've met the shogun before during my trip as Greed. He lives in a castle inside the town. It is far different than normal castles. The ninjas have a very strong/sturdy wood. Most of their boats/buildings are far sturdier. I would like to trade for some while I'm here. If the ninjas opened up trade with other lands, they could sell this wood for anything they wished.

Entering the village, I'm greeted by Nami. She begins to speak.

“I've come to escort you to the shogun. He might still be sleeping… The shogun is very old, he will be dying within the next fifty years. I see that… You're followers have decided to look around. We shouldn't have to worry correct?”

“Well. Lance, Trice and Leaf should be fine. Leon and Nargzar might want to challenge some of your ninjas. They won't go too far if anyone agrees to the duels.”

“Heh, maybe I should go seek them out after you visit with the shogun.”

“I would most certainly like to see you fight. Maybe it will bring back memories of your father.”

“...You speak of my father quite often… I didn't really see him very often when he was traveling… I wish I would have known him better before he passed away… We were outnumbered 50 to 1… I still don't understand how you plan on fighting such a giant army... Even elephants will lose to ants if they are outnumbered.”

“I'll explain a few plans once we meet with the shogun. I'll tell you early if you give me a little kiss?”

She completely ignores me... Thankfully... We continue to travel the rest of the way in silence. Ninjas aren't known for being talkative. We travel through the village. It is one of the most structurally sound ones I've seen in potential allies. Normally they live in huts with no protection. This village is completely walled off with guard towers. Inside the village is very active. A few of the murine folk have come out to greet us and see what all the commotion is about…

We enter the village… The amount of troops I've seen running around is small compared to my last trip. I only see a few dozen ninjas. The battle had cost them over half of their fighting strength. I understand why they aren't willing to go to war with the pirates now.

We enter the castle. It is far smaller on the inside than how it looked. Many small rooms cut off with sliding paper and wood doors. We enter the biggest room. Speaking of which, I should make an audience room for myself at the fortress. I'll keep the mimic castle for living and remake the giant room at the fortress for meetings.

The shogun is sitting on a pillow when we enter. From my trip here last time. It seems that we both sit on the floor with neither of us being seated higher. It is a sign that we are both people and neither of us are above the other. Far different the human kings do it. Making their guests kneel in front of them while they sit on a chair raised above even normal standing height. He begins to speak.

“Nami has told me we were going to have visitors today. I did not expect such a small child to be the leader.”

“I'm only taking the form of a small child, I'm actually a dragon.”

The old man looks at me more closely. Then speaks again.

“You are most certainly not a dragon. While I don't doubt that you can change into one. You do not act like a dragon in the slightest.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, for one. You are too courteous, while dragons are smart. They tend to have big heads and act superior to other creatures. I sense none of that from you. It is exactly the opposite, when you came in the fact that I sat to look my guests eye to eye left you with a feeling of camaraderie.”

“Heh, I knew you would see through me. We've actually met before and you were just as wise back then too.”

He gestured for Nami to leave. Most likely to get us some tea. Another sign that he views us as equals is the fact that he has no guards while speaking to guests. He is centuries worth of wisdom rolled together.

“So, we've met before? I guess even at my age I'm still surprised by things because I don't recall your face.”

“I had a different one the last time I was here. I visited with Tezuna before. I was the pirate leader back then.”

He slowly got off his pillow. Walked over too a table and pulled some papers off of it.

“I believe we had an agreement that you haven't held your part of.”

Those were the papers I signed to show support with the ninjas. It stated that we would bring food and shelter for weapons and wood. I remember even though we were new, the papers were written favorably towards us… For my son or granddaughter to fall so far as to attack an ally… She must be taught a lesson in honoring agreements.

“Yes… About that, I haven't been in power for over forty years. My son was the leader than his daughter took over… With how we mistreated your people, I feel ashamed at myself for being such a bad father. If I was a better one maybe my son would have been a better one. We wouldn't have this problem if I was.”

“We are all just creatures, living in the world as we see fit. While I don't doubt your story, it is only a small portion that I understand. To understand it further and give you a ruling on whether we can betray the pirates depends on the full story.”

I went into detail about my rebirth. How everything played out so far. How I regained my past lives memories and even how I spoken with the gods more than once. During the story, Nami had brought us tea. I hushed myself until she left again. I instinctively took a sip but realizing it might have had a soul leech in it I spit it out. He asked what was wrong and I finished my story. This elder mouse is the only person who knows the full story besides Aegis and my generals.

“I see… You have been through much in your short life… I would like to help you. You understand that they have hostages now so we cannot betray them without risking their lives… If you can find a way to get them back, we would throw all of our support behind you. The hostages should amount to around fifty captured civilians… That was ten years ago… I'm… I'm not even sure they are still alive.”

“We will get them back. If you give me some ninja troops and train me in the ways of your people. Everything that can help get your people back will be helpful.”

“We don't have much… The pirates take all that they can every few months… All of our blacksmiths have either quit or left because of their merchandise being stolen… Same goes for most other job workers… You'll have to ask them yourself since I cannot speak for them.”

“Thank you for your time shogun. I… Tezuna was my friend… I'm so sorry things turned out this way.”

I work on gathering my generals who have visited the town. I'll have to make attempts to gain jobs and classes myself. I see Nami is talking with Leon and Nargzar. Leon is laying down and Nargzar is sitting, both are breathing hard.

“Your generals are stronger than I thought they would be. Perhaps if they both fought me at the same time they might stand a chance. Would you like to go a round to avenge your troops?”

“Sure, may I ask what classes you are first?”

“I am shinobi, advanced wind mage, assassin and my last class is samurai. I broke the class barrier five years ago. I just recently got samurai, so it is the only non upgraded class.”

I let out an excited cry when I hear all those classes I didn't have.