Lair

Volume 2, Chapter 050 - Survival Of The Fittest (Danar)

By Skalsar

(POV Danar)

All this pain.

All this suffering.

All this darkness.

Why is all of this so hard?

I thought, if I were to grow in strength, everything would be fine.

But I was wrong.

What does strength really mean?

For the population of this world, our race is but a tool to provide for them.

If we grow to be dangeroues, we get annihilated.

There is never enough of us to stop all of them. We saw it when the [Hero] attacked, we saw it when the [Paladin] attacked, we might see it in the future, too. But we got lucky so far. How long will this luck keep us going?

All these children of mine.

They might perish any day if I don't do anything about it.

If I mess up, everything will fall apart.

They don't see what I see, they don't understand it yet.

I just don't want them to live with all that worry on their mind.. So I block them from the knowledge Odas provided me with..

But how long can that go on?

I shudder at the thought of an army attacking us.

'It's done.', Lysk finally appears back in the dungeon with a joyful face.

Or two in his case.

I had send him to his former [City], the [City] that held his dungeon prisoner in the past, raiding it again and again for its resources. I never want to see something so cruel happen to my hive.

Being in an endless circle of getting my children slaughtered, being consumed by rage and not able to even lift a finger.

'It was quite easy, you should have allowed me to kill more [Humans] besides these [Nobles].'

'No, it's bad to get too much attention.', I tell him.

His hatred for [Humans] is the biggest I guess.

But for now, I only have him disrupt the state of that [City].

They lost their dungeon some time ago, now they lost their rulers.

In between I had [Formlings] steal their food reserves.

In a week, we will send a messenger and offer help to them.

Rego should do fine.

As he is loyal to Odas, he will perform splendidly if he hears that another [City] is suffering.

'What about that other problem?', Lysk asks me and takes me from my thoughts.

Right, he is talking about Odas and the [King].

Because we revived Odas as a [Ghoul], his bond to the [King] was severed.

The [King] tried to summon him a while ago, but we had Odas resist it.

'We can't do anything about it.

It's in the past.

Only when the [King] sends someone to talk to Odas we will be able to react to it.', I tell him.

After nodding in aggreement, Lysk takes his leave.

Well, it's looking good so far.

The fields outside the [City] look promising. We have enough food stored for the [Humans] and [Monsters]. The [Adventure Guild] acknowledged our [City] and use it as a travel point for their [Field Walk]. Even some other [Lord] had send a messenger to offer trade with our [City].

All that while being able to keep the deaths of my children in the dungeon to a bare minimum with only mindless ones being killed.

Only Nydar really worries me.

His mind is so confusing, his very being is abnormal to the other [Hiveborn].

As if he hadn't a care in the world.

Sometimes I believe, something else was mixed in when I created him with the [Magic Power] of that strong [Adventurer] in the past. But I can't point at it. He is simply too strange.

If he focused, he could improve our [Hiveborn] race with ease.

He might be able to create beings more powerful than ever before.

And yet, he only strives for his personal freedom.

Doesn't he know how important all this is?

At least, by chance, he often finds ways for improvement.

Yet it drives me mad to think about his personality of taking it as if it was a simple thing to do.

As if our survival was irrelevant to him.

But he doesn't get what my irritation is about.

This terrible, yet lovely child of mine..

I will have to keep an eye on him.

For his own sake, I can't let him go on like this, for I don't want to see him die in the future.

'Sora. How is it with that [Hero]?'

'Well, she looks normal to me. Lifeless eyes as ever. No sign of resisting.', Sora shruggs in her mind while explaining so.

Looks like there is no sign of the development of a skill, if the being itself has given up.

She was imprisoned quite some time ago.

Being used as livestock ever since.

Kept alive through being fed and cleaned by slimes who dissolve plants and meat for her.

Lysk laughed at the irony when he saw her for the first time.

'We should do that to all [Humans], to show them what it's like to imprison a dungeon.', he had said.

But I disagree.

If we did that to many [Humans], they might find out at some point and decide to attack us for it.

We will just keep that one as an emergency stash of [Magic Power].

For now, we will increase the numbers of residents.

It's complicated for the [Goblins] though.

For some reason, they can't breed many [Goblins] with their own females.

That's why they often kidnap females of other [Monsters] or [Humans].

But Sora said she might be able to create [Hiveborn] with the needed generative organs.

Well, she has the most experience with these things, I will put my trust in her for this matter.

That being done, I arrive in front of the [Lizardras].

For a moment, they look afraid.

>Don't worry. You are all safe here. No one will be harmed.

>My kid was eaten by your monster that subdued us, yet you talk about not harming us?!

That Nydar..

Not that I care about it.

He only ate one small [Lizardra] and shared the experience with the hive.

>Well! From now on, we won't harm you. If you behave well.

They seem to be about to cry.

>Have you apointed a leader candidate as I requested?

At that moment, a female [Lizardra] steps forward and kneels down in front of me.

>I was chosen as the demanded sacrifice.

I tilt my head.

>Seems like you misunderstood.

Well, it doesn't matter.

This female is as good as any [Lizardra] I guess.

Can't really tell anything about them either way.

I raise my hand to her direction.

A [Watcher] appears besides me and I feed him large amounts of [Magic Power].

In return, he transmits it to the parasite in the females body.

Looks like the method Nydar thought of is working fine.

Just a minute later, her body starts to glow strangely as she evolves from the gained experience.

Something unique to [Monsters].

Her body grows to two meters.

Four arms where there were only two before.

Her scales much more massive and sharp.

Her head looks as if she was wearing a helmed.

On her Hands were small crystals, a sign for [Monsters] who are able to use [Magic].

The [Lizardra] turned speechless.

Somewhere in the world, a [Dragonewt Lord – Rare Variant] has been born.

Looks like the world sees this as some kind of special event.

>What is your name?

She looks at herself in disbelieve.

Tears run down her face.

>My name is Li'dra.

I'm a [Dragonewt Lord – Rare Variant] now.

>A [Dragonewt Lord]!

>She turned into a noble one!

>The [Hiveborn] turned her into a ruler!

>She had the fires blood!

All the [Lizardra] suddenly started to mutter and chat, before, just as sudden, turning quite and kneeling down.

Afterwards, the blue boxes only visible locally popped up again.

The [Dragonewt Lord – Rare Variant] Lin'dra has been acknowledged as the [Lizardras] eternal leader.

>Interesting. I will apoint you as the [Lizardras] leader, will you accept the [Cities] rules and become residents to it?

>I.. I agree. The [Lizardra] have been acknowledged as residents of the [City] [Great Necropolis].

>I expect much of you.

With this, one more step is done.

I wonder when I will be able to convince some [Orc] tribes to join the [City].

But for now, everyone has to get familiar with living here.

They would be shocked if suddenly [Orcs] appeared again.