“Aight, I don’t have much time so give me a quick rundown on any immediate needs and such. Also, any underground society yet? Ah, the hurricane is gone by the way.” Cain’s abrupt entrance startled the elders gathered around the table; his speedy delivery of information spared no time for greetings.

While the elders processed the information, their moods varying greatly, Cain checked their memories to ascertain their position, profession, and species. ...Fine, I’ll spare your brain cells and deliver the information like so. Cain conceded to Rex, having most likely fried his brain during the hurricane incident.

Looks like there’s no hierarchy to the elders as they each have different professions and therefore views… It seems like they’re the best at each of their professions though which is cool. It’s likely for a young or middle aged demi-human to be included if they’re the top of their craft… Anyways.

We’ve got a Jerboa Blacksmith… huh, thought this was Ark for a sec… A racoon logistics manager? Something like that, I think Dresil got distracted during the tl. Anyways that’s Erucon. Huh…? How is an African Wild Dog a type of demi-human here… Odd, anyways that’s the boi in charge of hunting.

Then we got Behemoth as the village chief. It should be obvious by his fangs and ears, but he’s a wolf boi. A… Wow, that’s neat. A leaf-cutter at demi-human is in charge of farming. Did those ants know how to farm?

Huh… a type of capuchin is the elder in charge of livestock. …dang if we were still on earth, the ethical and moral shitstorm this would’ve caused, hehe. Then a beaver as a the elder of carpentry… though they would have eaten all their materials first.

Lastly, a chimpanzee demi-human in charge of finances… Uh… isn’t that a monkey x monkey basically? What the heck was their evolutionary tree like-oh. Well shit. That explains a lot. Cain’s monologue finished right as the elders were about to speak, only to be interrupted by Rex in the group chat.

—Group Chat: Cain, Dresil, Bob, and Rex— (1032ms)

Rex: So… who’s sitting where.

Cain: …use your eyes.

Rex: I can’t, looking at memes and just using audio for the rest.

Cain: …

Rex: Pleaseeeeeeeee. Bob, I’ll give you some riddles.

Bob: Do you even have any?

Rex: Wow, no one trusts me…

Dresil: Would you trust yourself to have riddles?

Rex: Actually, no. Well shit.

Dresil: Exactly.

Rex: But I do have riddles… Pleaseeeeeee.

Bob: Payment first then.

Rex: Fine…

Bob: Behemoth is at the head of the rectangular table, Cain is standing at the other head next to Aurora. Then Cain just described them from the closest one on his right to the closest one on his left.

Rex: …Give me a few to process this.

--------------------------

“R-really?” The leaf-cutter ant demi-human’s antennas twitched in uncertainty as he confirmed the information of Cain’s opening statement, particularly the last bit. Cain simply nodded, glancing around the elders, waiting for his answer.

“We’ve been too busy trying to close off the secret passageways that used to lead to the castle. Now they just open up into The Pit. We’ve had to take care of a few human traffickers as well so there probably won’t be any human visitors until the rumors about us die down or someone stupid enough sneaks in.” Erucon answered Cain’s question swiftly while the others fumbled for the words to speak, dumbfounded by Cain’s revelation.

“As for our immediate needs… We’re lacking in food, weapons of at least good quality, and fur or hide. If we just got some good weapons then we’ll be able to take care of the rest on our own.” Behemoth explained their needs while trying to maintain an image of some self-sufficiency. His pride wouldn’t allow him to let every little need be taken care of by Cain.

“Don’t you guys already have weapons?” Cain asked, confused as to how they took care of the humans who infiltrated the secret passageways without them. “Just some poor quality ones and whatever we managed to loot from the traffickers.

“All of the good stuff was in the castle that you made disappear.” Behemoth responded while flexing his claws and channelling mana through them, implying they also used other means to dispose of the traffickers.

“That stuff won’t work on the beasts around here and we’ll suffer major casualties or injuries if we fought them with our bodies since most of us are starved.” Behemoth finished with a pensive sigh of helplessness.

“Alright, I’ll make some stuff then, although it’d be better if you had someone to make them.” Cain stated while creating some titanium, making it appear it dropped on the table from a portal. “You got anyone who can work with this? If they can make do with iron that’d be fine too.”

The Jerboa elder grabbed the ingot of titanium and fondled it breifly. His muscular arms squeezed, bent, twisted, and compressed the ingot to get a gauge on its properties. He demonstrated the ingot to Behemoth who scratched it with a claw.

The Jerboa elder inspected the results of the tests then reported his findings. “Unfortunately our kind isn’t suited for precise, strength intensive, and heat intensive tasks such as blacksmithing. We have a few blacksmiths who can handle the basics, but none with the skills required to smith with this material.

“From a first glance, only a few of us would be able to properly smith it, but I don’t know if we’ll have the stamina to complete it without swapping out as that’ll drastically reduce our efficiency. To top it off, the weapons we make with iron would probably break after a few uses due to our species’ natural strength… Their skills are lacking to say the least.”

The Jerboa elder set the ingot back in the center of the table for the others to inspect if need be. The group chat appeared as a terminal in front of Cain; he experimented with different methods of concealing it and examined the elder’s reactions as they contemplated possible solutions.

—Group Chat: Cain, Dresil, Bob, and Rex— (47s)

Rex: So… what did you conclude?

Cain: Are you talking about the evolutionary thing from a while ago?

Rex: It was only a few minutes ago…

Cain: :sigh: Later, I’m busy rn

Rex: Aw, come ooooooooooooooooooooon

Cain: Nope

Cain: Dresil, what did you do with all of the fur and hide from the monsters I ate?

Dresil: They’re being preserved in separate a dimension along with the bones, tendons, and various other inedible parts.

Cain: Sweet, can you drop off about 50 or so wolf pelts outside the meeting area?

Dresil: Of course.

Cain: Thanks.

Rex: :sus: Why don’t you always say thanks whenever someone does something for you?

Cain: Partly bc it’s for some reason awkward for me to say it, and the other part is because saying it too often would numb its meaning so I only use it when necessary

Rex: I see… maybe

--------------------------

“Hmm… Well, I’ll just make about 50 or so swords. You guys will have to sharpen them though bc I can’t guarantee their sharpness.” Numerous metal clangs invaded the meeting place as Cain spoke.

Numerous ears twitched as a few subordinate demi-humans entered the meeting place. Three of the four waited outside due to the small size of the room, leaving one to report to Behemoth. He redirected them to Erucon who gave them various instructions on how to handle the materials and where to place them. The subordinate demi-human rejoined the three outside the door shortly after and left to carry out their orders.

“Alright… do you guys have the tools needed to harvest a wyvern?” Nearly all of the elders furiously shook their heads to Cain’s question. Their strongest warriors could hardly penetrate their scales, let alone their worn down tools.

“Just checking.” Cain mumbled as he redirected his senses to the outskirts of the magic circle under his territory. Using the border between it and the forest as a reference point, Cain opened roughly 20 portals scattered within the trees. Streams of his mana formed mini Mana Zones, scouring for any large lifeforms.

“What’s he doing…?” The beaver elder mumbled as they watched Cain stand there silently with his eyes closed. “I don’t know… maybe he’s sleeping?” Another elder commented quietly as if not to disturb his supposed sleep.

“Instantaneous sleep, while standing at that? That’s quite some skill.” The chimpanzee elder praised Cain for his presumed skill. ‘...the heck?’ Cain thought as he killed several cockatrices, demon wolves, and a wyvern using the mini Mana Zones.

Their corpses were deposited outside the meeting area, causing numerous cries of fear, worry, and surprise to draw the elder’s attention. They rushed outside to calm their citizens and discover the cause for the commotion. Aurora slowly followed behind them.

“I’ll harvest the wyvern, you guys take care of the rest. You don’t need to worry about their mana reacting with yours as they have none left.” Cain spoke as he walked behind the elders, his sudden voice causing some to jump.

“None?” One of the elders muttered in disbelief. “Not a single drop, er, I guess it would be particle? Meh, anyways have fun.” Cain stated as he walked off to the medium size wyvern, well, based on wyvern standards.

The wyvern’s wingspan was 6 meters, its length 4.5 meters. Cain paced around the corpse as his mana soaked into its skin. He manually tagged each scale then used SRI to teleport them to the side, effectively descaling the corpse.

Cain raised the corpse a few millimeters off the ground using a magic platform to prevent the meat from getting dirty then proceeded to teleport its underside scales above the pile of scales in front of the corpse. After he did the same to the bones, Cain ascended into the air using steps of platform circles.

“Aight, my job here is done. Let me know if you guys need anything else, this should last you a while though… Anyways, I’ll have a blacksmith come by sometime, whether or not he stays though is up to him.

“Ah… as for that pit the castle left, you guys can do whatever you want with it. I recommend making it into a water reservoir since half the job is done, but meh. I’ve never managed a city before. Peace.” And with those words that drove the elders on a roller coaster of emotions, Cain vanished through a portal and appeared within the lich’s cavern.

Cain immediately copied the stream the party saw onto a fresh terminal before him. He sat down where the stream depicted him to be then copied each and every aspect of the stream, down to the type of snack in his hand, how much was left, and how he chewed it.

Once his movements matched with the stream, he turned the loop off and finished the snack in his hand. Not a speck of dirt shifted on the terminal during the seamless transition between the loop and reality. “Yo, sorry for the sudden feast. I suddenly got hungry out of nowhere.” Cain greeted the party as he stood and brushed the dirt off his but.

Doesn’t look like they’re too upset. Seems like Dresil gave them snacks too, sweet. Cain concluded from their expressions and the crumbs on their plates that were transmitted through a spy portal; a peephole sized portal that had just enough room for Cain to look through but also not enough to be discovered immediately. It was positioned behind the drone so it appeared as if Cain was looking at them the entire time.

“Alrighty then. Let’s speed run this so we can go take some baths.” The girls’ ears nearly stood straight when they processed Cain’s words. In that moment, Cain and the streaming drone teleported directly to the lich’s lair, skipping several floors of cobblestone structures.

...reminds me of the Terraria dungeons. There’s not a dungeon guardian here too right? Cain observed the reactions in his Mana Zone, expecting a giant skull to come flying and one shot him. ‘Sweet.’ Cain stared at the lich who instantly stopped moving and stared back, his confusion plastered within his jewel-like eyes.

“Hello there. Sorry to disturb your research but it is causing problems on the surface. Any chance you could… not do that?” Cain greeted the lich as the latter set down his books and inched over to his scythe.

“I’m afraid I cannot do that.” The lich responded in a cold tone, literally. The temperature dropped several degrees when he spoke, his disembodied voice floating around the room.

“Dang, that’s a shame.” Cain responded as he tossed the lich’s life vessel, a mythril jewel embedded inside his skull, into a newly created dimension.

—Dms: Cain and Bob— (17ms)

Cain: If we seal that dimension, will it “kill” the lich? I want to study his life vessel later

Bob: Hmm… We’d have to seal it on par with what we did for the bronze medallion in case it has comprehension of any spatial powers.

Cain: That’s fine. I’ll probably just toss that dimension inside of another dimension and use the outer one to study and interact with the inner

Bob: Like those plexiglass boxes with gloves built into the walls?

Cain: Basically

Bob: Shall I prepare that setup right now then?

Cain: Only if you have the time to spare

Bob: Understood.

--------------------------

The lich’s body collapsed into a pile of bones the moment the dms were closed. The party gawked at the terminal in disbelief, Veronica and Jared froze mid-bite. Cain had killed a lich who was presumably at the 7th circle before he could lift a finger, such a demonstration shattered the party’s conception of Cain's power.

Cain stored the books within the lich’s lair with the books he took from the previous lord of his territory, then walked through a portal and emerged on the elliptical platform with the party. His appearance shocked them out of their stupor, Jacob and Veronica even jumping slightly.

“So… that’s it?” Jared muttered as Cain sat down on the platform and drank some soda. “That’s it.” He confirmed in between chugging and refilling his glass. “What now?” Victoria asked, still trying to come to terms such a powerful existence perished before it could resist.

“We’ll go back to the capital and relax. If it’s alright with you guys, I want to wait about a week before our next quest.” Cain responded while checking over the dimensions created in the past month and their contents. Looks like I got my work cut out for me… He thought while the party discussed their next options and the possibility of a break.

“That’s fine with us, we have been travelling and completing quests back to back for a while.” Victoria answered Cain after emerging from their huddle. “Alright then, I’ll make a portal that will take us to the carriage then once we’re all loaded up I’ll create another one to the capital.” Cain stated as a double sided portal emerged in between him and the party.

The residents of the elliptical UFO vanished through the portal and entered the carriage. Jared checked on the horses and the carriage’s state while Veronica positioned herself atop the carriage to scout for danger. Jacob organized their belongings in the spatial ring as Victoria did an inventory check of the items inside the carriage.

“What do we do about the cursed substance?” Cain asked while and yeeting a few samples into sealed dimensions with the aid of the extended Mana Zone that lay under it.

“The guild will probably send a few bishops or cardinals to cleanse the entire area now that most of the danger is gone.” Victoria answered as she did an overall inventory check of the spatial ring and on the carriage’s floor. Veronica swung inside the carriage from the roof, landing next to Victoria.

Hmm… meh, that’ll take too long. Cain thought as he tossed a sealed glass vial containing some of the cursed moss to Victoria. “Bring this in when you submit the report. The cursed area was about 74,131m².” Veronica caught the vial on reflex and showed it to Victoria as Cain spoke.

“Was?” Veronica asked confused. “Was.” Cain confirmed, pointing out of the carriage to the now dead area. All of the cursed substance had been converted into water then into mana. Cain reconfigured the extended Mana Zone to monitor the status of life above it, to see if mana could potentially breathe some life back into the dead plants and soil.

“Um… alright. The guild will probably still send some scouts though.” Victoria responded, bewildered and confused from the pace of events. “Alright.” Cain acknowledged as he created a portal to the capital in front of the carriage.