“Select skill…”

I didn’t finish my sentence, and with it, my selection.

There was a certain level of earnest excitement, or perhaps anticipation, this time. I couldn’t tell if it was a side effect of Narita’s power, or a mere fact that every skill opened so many possibilities, for good or ill.

My mind raced.

At first, I thought about selecting the ‘space’ element. There was an alluring promise of the all-solving skill in that single word, one that might be capable of providing me with the form of transportation, a magical gateway through space and time that could bring me back home in an instant. Truly magical solution, both in literal and metaphorical sense, bypassing the need to learn the local incomprehensible language.

It was an attractive choice, at least it seemed to be on the surface level.

Things were unlikely to be so simple, I reminded myself. The system behind all those powers worked with a certain cruel twist attached to it, and the seemingly simple solutions replaced the original problem with the new, possibly more complicated, one. It was unlikely this specific skill was any different.

I looked back over my shoulder at the growing furry menagerie. Keen and restless, they already wandered around, looking for things to do, for enemies to fight, for the wildlife to hunt. They also picked up whatever the caravan carried with the ferocity of ravenous locusts.

The system, and the legion of monsters it created, didn't bring me there and thus wasn’t likely to bring me back. If they did, if they could, they would do it though the intermediary, which would be another of my monsters facilitating the transfer.

Would they mind if I abandoned them here, and what would they do afterwards? Or would we all be brought to a different world with me? Were there limitations to what counted as ‘space’ for their abilities, when I couldn’t say for certain where, and when, I was?

I didn’t have any solid answers to any of those questions.

No, I thought. I had responsibility for my monsters. I had to find the way they are provided for, and I couldn’t blow this choice for something I wasn’t even certain would work.

Finding a source of food was a major concern and was still a priority, perhaps more than ever before. Growth was exponential, unbelievably so. There were a few hundred of them, and providing the steady source of external threats trying to kill us, their number may double once again easily.

Food it was, then.

This, however, was easier said than done. The ‘Wood’ themed skill offered the promise of more utility, at least in my mind, possibly by growing fruits to eat, and plants to recycle with the Defilers’ life-draining magic. At least, that was my assumption, as the power didn’t come with the manual, and even though I couldn’t ever be certain it wouldn’t backfire in a spectacular way, I could comfort myself that the impact would be at the very least localised.

Flying creatures would help me scout the area we were in, to send the hunting parties far away to bring in food, but my follower count already far exceeded the numbers typical of the hunter-gatherer societies. As much as I wanted to get the layout of the area I was in, this didn’t seem to be a way to go. At least, sustenance-wise.

The more dedicated warrior monsters, which I assumed was the point of the so-called ‘steel’ element, demanded we would go on the offensive. We could bring a fight to the humans, seeking subsistence from raiding. It would bring us even further down the spiral, especially without knowledge of the local tongue, but I very much doubted there was a dire need for more specialised fighters.

Creating a self-sustaining force was the only logical way forward, at least until we found a way to negotiate with so far consistently hostile natives.

“Select skill Green Hell!” I said, this time with much more confidence.

The system didn’t care for how much thought I put into my reasoning:

The effect was immediate.

Skill “Green Hell lvl.1” gained.

Eruption of the red fog came through, out of the thin air as so many times before, quickly solidifying into yet another monster.

“My Master!” She exclaimed excitedly. .

Womanlike voice and noticeably feminine form was a rule, though the hissing undertone to it. This monster, just as many before her, took the form of the anthropomorphic animal, this time resembling a lizard, or perhaps even a dinosaur, in appearance.

While her head was decisively reptilian, it had the horns curving backwards and the colourful feathers where the human would have hair, though in her case it almost looked as the natural war bonnet the way they were positioned. Her snout at least partially resembled a beak too, though her mouth wasn’t lacking in sharp teeth.

Though she was noticeably lizard-like in appearance, covered with the green scales, with the thick tail tipped with the feathery plume, and standing on the digitigrade legs with the sharp claws, the power took great liberties for her body, as it still looked visibly feminine.

Either the system couldn’t tell the difference between the mammal and the reptile, or hated the biology with the passion monsters hated humans, as she definitely had breasts.

She noticed I stared and tried to cover herself.

“I am sorry.” I apologised and immediately looked away, ordering the other monsters: “Tama, Miwah? Could you please find her something to wear?”

“Yes, Master.” They answered, though they didn’t leave me without the guards. There were always two smaller versions of my monsters lurking around, keeping the protective circle around us, and they seemed more insistent to keep around after I got wounded.

A few of them waved and cheered when I looked at them. “Master! Master!”

“Narita? Please, I will need your help.” I added.

“Master?” The rat monsters looked at me with the questioning expression, and stayed close, as she was asked.

“I wanted to test something, but first, we need our… new friend here… stop feeling embarrassed when I look at her.” I said, realising mid-sentence, that I didn’t give the fresh addition to the now not entirely furry menagerie a name.

Few more screams reached my ears. It was the glimpse of the monsters handling the prisoners that made me pause. An image of the werewolf-like ‘Eviscerator’ kneeling on the captives' back, while others tore found cloth to gag the screaming human. It was eerie as it was unpleasant to watch, though I felt they forced my hand in this. Voice of my newest creature, however, brought me back to reality before I slipped into the deeper introspection over my past actions.

“It’s not you, my Master.” The new monster seems to calm down now, even though she still commented with a certain repugnance in her voice: “Humans! So revolting!”

“Don’t I look like a human, too?” I asked, almost automatically, slightly confused.

“No, Master! How could you say that? Humans are so disgusting and degrading!” She said, her previous expression of shame entirely gone now when captives no longer had the chance to even gaze in our direction. I recalled that Tama once said she didn’t like humans looking at her too.

“I…” I said. She was making me nervous, though I collected myself quickly, bringing my mind back into the focus for what I planned to originally.

“Perhaps we should find out what we should call you?” I offered instead, “What about Mai?”

“Oh, my Master.” She answered, however, before she had the chance to express her satisfaction, or disappointment, with the name system reacted, sending yet another bland notification in front of my eyes.

Unit named! Mai, The Corruptor Alpha

Skill “Green Hell lvl.2” gained.

Out of the ruby haze, another four monsters formed, each of them the smaller version of Mai, only slightly smaller than us.

“Mai. Interesting choice, my Master.” The newest of Alphas commented, considering the choice I’ve made. While it was certainly marvellous that even a lizard-like version of monsters could be quite expressive with her face, allowing me to at least guess her emotions, the worrying part was that there were much more of them.

Not only that naming gave levels, I found that out a while ago, what was important was that the system was constantly increasing the rates at which new creatures were made. It used to be one per skill gain, then two, eventually three, and now four. I wasn’t certain what to make out of this, but my silence at least gave Mai the chance to judge my not really existing naming scheme.

“I am Mai then, my Master.” She confirmed, while her little kin echoed her words with “Master!” exclamations of their own.

“Would you mind the demonstration of your powers?” I asked.

“Of course not!” She replied and offered me her clawed hand. I took it.

We were merely a couple of steps away from the treeline, which I thought would provide an ample source of valid targets for Mai’s magic, at least if it worked the way I presumed it might.

With almost hold of my breath when the reptilian creature reached to touch the bark of the lone tree, and worked her magic.

It was slow at first, subtle, barely noticeable, if not for the unnatural azure aura it emitted slowly seeping into the wood. For a short while, maybe even more than a few minutes, nothing happened aside from that gleaming shine of the mystical energies engulfing the tree.

Then it changed.

Where Narita’s spell was stealing the life force, causing the surrounding greenery to wither and die in the extremely rapid pace, turning it into nothing but blackened husks, Mai’s worked almost on reverse.

It seemed as if the tree was affected by the uncontrollable surge of growth, rapid, almost cancerous, with no rhyme or reason, rapidly increasing in bulk, but twisting it beyond what would be normal for the original plant. Bark and branches alike twisted and cracked, only to be patched with the unsightly overgrowths from where new patches of moss bursted out, only to grow leaves, which ‌sprouted needles where it shouldn’t. The entire process also gave out quite a lot of warmth, which was strange.

The result was a deformed parody of several plants put together in a fashion that simply didn’t and couldn’t occur in nature.

I was shocked, but Mai seemed satisfied with her work.

“Thank you, Mai! Impressive. Are edible fruits an option? We all need to eat.” I asked, trying to not show my feelings on the matter, inspecting the deformed parody of the plant instead. I looked back at her once I regained my composure.

She blinked at me, showing the third eyelid usually seen in crocodiles or other reptiles: “Oh, yes, my Master, but we need appropriate material to work with.”

It sparked a few questions, though I didn’t speak them out loud, not to encourage further experimentation, at least for the time being. If she needed domesticated plants, it would mean we would have to raid the local farmland to get them, which furthered the cycle of violence I didn’t want to continue unless I would be forced to. At least, I had confirmation that Mai’s power really affected the plant's growth.

Only one thing remained to test out.

“Narita?” I asked and looked over my shoulder. The rat woman was, of course, there, waiting patiently, along with the remaining ‘personal guard’ that followed around. Even Tama and Miwah were back, with something for the newest Alpha to dress with. I didn’t ask where they got it.

“Could you drain the tree to provide nourishment so we can skip hunting?” I focused on Narita.

“Yes, yes, Master!” She said and worked her magic into the twisted amalgamation of the plant.

Effects were even more extreme this time. The bizarrely contorted tree didn’t merely decay and faded away in the sped up rate. As the other targets of the life draining ability, it disintegrated violently, turning into nothing more than the floating ash basking in the sickly green flow, consuming everything in the vicinity in an even more destructive way than ever before.

The effect on us was, however, equally dramatic, and just as sudden. The jolt of energy that hit us had the intensity of the lightning bolt, a sudden and powerful, invigorating everyone in the vicinity in the instance.

I never felt like this in my entire life. It was overbearing, intoxicating; it was indescribable. I couldn’t hold it.

But I didn’t have to.

All that accumulated energy was released at once, through the explosion of that familiar, bloody mist, birthing dozens of monsters at once. The Purifiers, the Eviscerators, the Defilers, all of them excited, full of energy, giggling and chanting happily.

“Master! Master!”

This time, however, I found their excitement almost infectious, almost pleasing, and I experienced a certain level of satisfaction that our numbers rose again, and my monsters are feeling well. Never before has there been such feedback. It was something I didn’t and couldn’t expect.

I returned their affection and gave all the swarming smaller monster kind a hug, and pat, welcoming them until the larger ‘Alphas’ decided it was their turn to get some attention from me. It was in Miwah's warm, fluffy embrace when the initial intoxication faded away. I realised what had happened.

There was no notification, not any of those bland, informative screens invading my visions. I recalled the overview screen, and the realisation hit me - the excess energy reset the timer, and monsters scheduled to be respawned in about an hour returned to me much sooner.

Though there was still the prize to be paid for this convenience. In a radius of a dozen metres around us, all life simply ceased to be, turned to a darkened cinder, not even the husks reminded as it was before. This was definitely a bad sign, though. Narita’s range wasn’t that great early on.

I freed myself from Miwah’s reach again.

“Does anyone feel hungry?” I asked, hopeful that this destruction was worth it.

“Master!” the smaller versions answered as the chorus, yearning, still eager to set out to do something. That was definitely a ‘no’ - I didn’t need a larger, more talkative ‘Alphas’ to translate it for me.

At least this part worked.

“Mai? Could you regrow the vegetation after it has been annihilated like this?” I asked, gesturing towards the blast zone where Narita’s power practically removed all traces of life it could reach.

All of my furry menageries cleared out of the area.

The anthropomorphic lizard made a few steps forward to the border of the circle, where some original grass still lingered, untouched by the power that sucked the life from the rest. Mai uprooted the piece of turf with the sharp claws on her legs and nodded approvingly.

“Yes, Master!” She said, releasing the same light blue cloud of energy as before, seeping into the remaining greenery.

Thorny veins shot out, spreading rapidly over the ashes until they covered it entirely, with the blades of thorny leaves erupting from the ground, forming into the thick overgrowth of the still green, yet somehow alien-looking ferns and grass.

“I wonder, does it work faster because the original species has been removed?” I wondered aloud briefly, but after a brief pause, I continued: “Nevermind. As an emergency food supply, with Mai and Narita working together, it will work.”

This, however, didn’t answer where we would stay for the night - whatever this quarry, this hamlet was, it wasn’t exactly the best place to set up shop permanently.

At least, the old place had a well, and it wasn’t far away.

I approached one of Mai’s smaller kin. Though, comparatively, she wasn’t that small, though her head roughly reached my chest, an average height among my growing menagerie, with only Alphas standing taller.

With the great expectation that her kind would be the food providers for my monsters, I put my hands on her shoulders.

“Master!” she exclaimed happily. Reptilian eyes were a little hard to get used to, though she seemed as friendly as any of my furry minions.

“You should be Lily.” I said.

It was unimaginative, but considering the number of my followers, I was scraping the bottom of the barrel already.

Unit named! Lily The Named Corruptor

Skill “Green Hell lvl.3” gained.

The second of her kind, almost like a twin to her, asked for attention.

“I name you Rose!”

Unit named! Rose The Named Corruptor

Skill “Green Hell lvl.4” gained.

“And you Ivy!”

Unit named! Ivy, The Named Corruptor

Skill “Green Hell lvl.5” gained.

“Aster!”

Unit named! Aster, The Named Corruptor

Skill “Green Hell lvl.6” gained.

“And…”

When I finally realised the viciousness of the system where the naming followers gave the free levels, the red mist already materialised the unbelievable sixteen of my anthropomorphic reptiles, as antsy as the rest of the monsters.

It was as overpowered as it was prone to turn against me. At the very least, I was making my future farmers. I hoped so.

“Narita, have the surrounding life force harvested, and converted to energy to make sure none of us go hungry!” I barked orders before I could sink myself into randomly naming the monsters for even more uncontrolled growth I would have to remedy later.

I paused, still not accustomed to truly being the leader of this strange horde around me. Nothing in life could have prepared me for this.

I hesitated.

“Command me, my Master.” Mai encouraged me.

“Mai, regrow it afterwards so there is a suitable cover around there!”

“Miwah? Send ‘Eviscerators' to look for water sources. Don’t let yourself to be seen.”

“Gather everything we can use and the prisoners. And dispose of bodies, if they are any.” I ordered, “A few of us will stay guard here, with the hideout the new plants provide. Rest of us, we are going back!”

While I was still surprised by myself, my monsters were not. They seemed happy as they ran in all directions to execute my orders, with the cry “For Master!”

I was still shocked when they threw in a few human bodies to be hungrily consumed by that rapidly growing corrupted greenery.