After resting for the night the group had a decent breakfast and advanced towards the docks. The ship that Teiming had chosen for their journey was rather spacious. With forty meters in lengths and a good six meters in width it was the largest available ship. That obviously meant that the group would arrive a little later than originally anticipated, since the vessel would move slower than a small sailing boat. Twig did not really mind arriving later, since that allowed him to spend more time on raising his ever increasing “army”.

Apparently the smaller boats had departed just a few days ago and would only return in about a weeks time with trading goods from the eastern cities. Without any other options the group then settled into the vessel, crammed in between various crates, bundles and stuff that were shipped to the frontline. The ever increasing presence on the borders required a steady flow of food and equipment and this need was partially satisfied by the freshwater marine force.

If one could even label them as such, since the group of traders that originally founded the government organisation never actually planned to encounter any conflict. Robbers had little options to assault the large ships on the river, since the river Norr was reinforced by countless smaller waterways on its way east and grew to a full three thousand meters of width down the line. Naturally protected as they were, there was hardly any need for anything but a few armed soldiers to be present, but these were more experienced in operation the ships, rather than defending them.

The ship itself was a large and rather flat box, with a few cabins in the front and storage space everywhere else. Twig had chosen himself a spot between a few wooden crates in the back of the ship, allowing for a peaceful resting spot, where he was free to send out his ravens on scouting missions and experiment with his abilities. And he needed his ravens to fly out constantly. Not for information, but rather for grass, small insects and fruits that contained a lot of sugar. His inferno beetles were hungry.

And growing in numbers. Twig had spent the last night and day spawning inferno beetle queens. Nine of them had already laid a good hundred eggs each and cared for their brood while consuming a frightening amount of food. And the little queens were not picky either. They basically devoured anything Twig brought them. Since the surrounding area was rather scarce his ravens mostly returned with grass and insects. But the beetles seemed to love the fruits the most, especially his first one. Queen Elizabeth the second practically gulped down apples, twice her size in a few minutes.

Twig still liked to give his creatures names, but in the last days he had been to distracted by everything that was going on. Henrietta the IV. and the XIII. came right after Elizabeth, only to be followed by the royal sisters Dutchess Leila, Rita, Swinni, Zhalda, Emilia and Kane. Twig basically spent his whole day observing their hive behaviour, how they laid and cared for their eggs and how they ate. Basically he had nothing else to do. Daz was either meditating, cultivating or pulling the ship while swimming, while Marcella cultivated and Jorak and Mira duelled themselves.

Well, to say they were competing was more like it. They had picked up the habit of fishing with conjured thornes and arrows and were actually rather close in success, which just inflamed their duell even more. From what Twig gathered the group was, for the first time, really relaxed and easy going. Which allowed for Teiming to talk a lot more with him. He had a lot of questions to his summoned monsters and was thinking up tactics with Twig. All in all his master was much more open and showed Twig a completely different face.

Originally he had assumed him to be just a royal that was out to get the throne through scheming and exploiting Twigs abilities. But rather than that it appeared that he was honest, hardworking and caring for his country, where he was mostly exploited by his father or brothers. If he had been a little smarter about his actions and did not report everything he did to the king, Twig was sure he could have been on the throne himself in a few years. But maybe it would still come to this, considering the fact that the war was still a big threat to Antalia.

A dead king, a accident on his older brother and a few nobles losing their lives in “accidents” and Twig was sure his master would make for a fine king. He would even help him achieve that, once his soul binding was relieved. Until then Twig would search for new ways to break it, all by himself. He did not like to be controlled, even if his master gave him the freedom of choice. Aside from these strategic talks and observing his insects, Twig brushed up on his other available skills. One caught his attention especially. The Mimic.

[Mimic: The summoner draws power from the realm of the dead and brings forth a demon spirit of greed, gluttony and sloth: a common mimic. The creatures possess a inanimate object, empowering it as their vessel and praying on the mortal souls. Depending on the mimic level it can posses chests, cupboards, floors, ladders or other objects. A mimic is always hungry, only ever decides to move when faced with total starvation and is inherently stupid. In fact these creatures are often so dull, they hardly realise that what or who they eat often damaging themselves in the process. Warning: Mimics may also eat the summoner!]

[Manacost: 2.000 Mana]

[Monster Core Cost: 1.000 Mana]

Current Mastery Benefits:

1 Common Mimic Demon Inhabitable Objects: [Chest], [Crate]; [Door]

Twig had to smile at the thought of visiting a house and randomly replacing all the doors inside with mimics. And beds, staircases, kitchen ovens or tables. But the warning that these creatures would be able to eat even him, was rubbing him the wrong way and he decided to not use them anywhere near his resting spot. Noticing his full mana bar again, Twig conjured a few more inferno beetle queens. Just when he was finished and the new batch of six queens made their way to enjoy their all you can eat buffet, he received a message.

[Level up!]

[[Create: Monster Core] is now Level 2!]

[Create: Monster Core]: Level 2

While expensive, infusing a monsters essence into a small core has many advantages. Even the very most basic Monster Core can provide monsters with heightened stamina and increased recovery and healing rates. Equipped with a stronger monster core, they can even develop skills best suited to their natures. Monster Cores break down once their respective monster is dead.

Current Stamina & Healing Bonus: +0.50%

Twig read over his skill again, hardly seeing any difference. The increase in healing and stamina, which had essentially ten folded, was not surprising, although Twig still had no idea how much that really influenced his monsters. However it seemed that this monster core level up also improved the bonus effect it showed on his monsters. With [Abyss Raven] he was now able to summon two invisible birds, his [Inferno Beetle] queens produced 60 additional eggs instead of fifty and his [Golems] showed a entirely new bonus on their monster core.

[Golems: A giant humanoid statue made of either earth, clay, stone or steel. Depending on the Mastery Level and material size or amount of golems summoned can be increased.]

[Manacost: 1.000 Mana]

[Monster Core Cost: 2.000 Mana]

Monster Core Benefit: Golems recover 0.02% of their maximum health per second.

Current Mastery Benefits:

3 Earth-Golems Maximum Size: 2 meters

2 Clay-Golems Maximum Size: 1,5 meters

1 Stone-Golem Maximum Size: 1 meter

0 Steel-Golems Maximum Size: -none-

Essentially his golems now needed a solid 5.000 seconds to recover to their original state, unless their cores were damaged and destroyed. If this effect would improve more later on, Twig would have something really incredible. Steel golems of huge size, that recovered at a stunning rate. Essentially a army that would never be overcome in battle. At least not physically. How magic would play into that was still left to be seen.

As Twig was remembered, his four basic spells [Absorption], [Repair/Restore], [Ghost Shell] and [Create: Monster Core] had received hardly any attention, while increasing their level could show huge potential. Twig decided to now summon all his monsters with a monster core, just for the sake of leveling up his skill. Additionally he looked into the [Absorption] spell, which in its entirety sounded awesome.

[Absorption]: Level 1

Allows to decommission monsters for a mana return. Decreases monster mastery rate slightly. Return Rate: 60%. Damaged monsters return less mana. Can be used on non monster corpses.

Since the spell could be used on corpses that were not his own monsters, he tried it out on dead fishes, insects and birds, that were caught by his ravens. Sadly the mana return was rather disappointing. Two mana for a bird, three for a large fish and one if he absorbed a bunch of smaller insects. Not worth the outcome at all, Twig decided to try something else. His inferno beetles. Since Matah Nahts mastery had increased just by her existing, Twig guessed that the same would be the case for hatching inferno beetles.

And if he was right, the nine hundred eggs his queens laid every day would eventually bring him to a level up. After which he would absorb a few of the beetles, hopefully gaining a lot of mana without decreasing his mastery level since it just leveled up. He was also thinking about using the [Absorption] spell on the dark tree for a moment, but then remembered that she most likely was too strong to find her end that simply.

With nothing better to do, Twig left his queens to their feast and decided to visit his new favourite hobby: dozing off in the sunlight. Although sleeping was impossible for him, the sensation was nice and soothing, especially with the light weaving the ship produced while floating down the river...

Marcella had a hard time cultivating. Although she had reached the third earthly layer of cultivation and her magic abilities were stronger than before, the constant heat she absorbed from the fire elemental crystals was really distracting. Not only did she randomly catch fire on several occasions, the elementals also influenced her emotions. She was getting angry for no apparent reason, which was fine for her. It was not like she had never been angry in her life before.

No, another emotion had taken root inside her. Whenever Marcella absorbed too much energy her body began to heat up, almost to the point of having a fever. In addition to that she became incredibly horny. And not the kind, where she felt like having sex. It was a shivering, warm sensation that took root deep inside, below her belly. A sensation that made her want to touch herself, stimulate herself, but she was forcing herself to resist, which in turn lead to her being unable to concentrate while cultivating.

She had given in to this feeling once, which left her satisfied, but somehow also made it impossible to advance with her cultivation. The half nude swimming Daz, that literally pulled the ship faster down the river, right in front of her did not really help her concentrate. She had even asked Twig about this problem, which he had just shrugged at. Apparently she was supposed to figure it out herself. Which made her attempt two things: trying to cultivate with that horny feeling and craving for sex or accepting this sensation and overcoming her bodily desire to advance her cultivation.

So far, very unsuccessfully. Sighting, she just reached for another crystal. Hopefully she would overcome this soon, otherwise she was sure to do something stupid just to get rid of this feeling….