My monster giggled giddily as the surrounding forest died.

The plants swollen from explosive, unnatural growth under the influence of one magical ability, only to be turned to ash the moment after by another, with nothing but lifeless, blackened earth remaining.

It wasn’t anything new.

While I knew perfectly that a single ‘Defiler’ could drain life from a small area around her, Narita and her smaller kin pushed beyond what I’d expected. I underestimated what a hundred of them could do when they put their powers to work in order to feed the thousand-headed horde.

As the life force redistributed by their abilities washed over me, it was rather my thoughts than my actions that went into overdrive .

I looked briefly at Tama, Miwah, Narita, Mai and Kuma - five of my ‘Alphas’ with a gleam in their eyes as it filled them with more vitality than usual, way more. They were beautiful, and they were mine. A strange notion from my side, my previous emotions considered.

Tama winked at me.

Shaking my head, I returned my attention back to the devastation.

It wasn't nature that I was worried about; it was the well-being of my many monsters.

Only seeing this at work made me realise the scale at which I would have to process the surrounding woods in order to bypass the need for conventional food through the use of their powers.

It merely ate through a few metres of forest now, which didn’t seem like a lot at first glance, but I could clearly imagine going through the same process three times a day, every day, relying on the sustenance the ‘Defiler’ powers could provide.

With each day, my monsters would have to travel increasingly larger distances to get a replacement for a normal meal, leaving a noticeable dent in the plant life.

It was an approach that was best to be used on the move.

‘Corruptors’ drove the creep forward, preventing ground from turning into a sea of mud, twisting the landscape in an image that did their name justice, with the blackened vines and thorns, along with other nightmarish parodies to a natural order left in their wake. It pushed the border where our little world collided with the original, native one, even further.

This could, eventually, include the edible produce, even if tailored to suit my monsters rather than any of the native species, but it didn’t change it wasn’t, in fact, free.

I even had ordered the ‘Defilers’ to fuel their lizard-like cousins in their job to create our not so little settlement, manipulating one plant at the time.

Said fuel, however, didn’t come from nowhere. It was a conversion of energy, expecting us to move forward until a sizable chunk of the land was converted.

Unless we had some central store, a granary, with a decent storage of food to overcome the time necessary for setting up the farming infrastructure, our settlement would stretch with time. Though some tasks were significantly easier with magic involved than it would be without, the endeavour wasn’t completely devoid of costs.

We had neither the time nor the spare supplies - we had to move. It wouldn’t happen today, but it would come eventually.

At least, something in that energy I received urged me, to lead my creatures to a more suitable place where they could prosper.

I was still against raiding the local settlements for supplies or assaulting them to take over what they already set up.

Doing so would ruin any future prospect of peace with the natives completely, or at the very least, make it more difficult to achieve, increasing the number of grievances we had with each other.

It, however, seemed I would be forced to do so anyway. I just would not be today.

“How difficult would it be to build something to store the food?” I asked, considering the options we had.

It was something we needed if we established any permanent settlement, as long as we didn’t take the pre-existing structures from locals, and we needed it before we had the foodstuff to fill it with.

“A root cellar, Master?” Kuma suggested, her tone once again sounding slightly bored. “We can dig under the tree for roots to provide support.”

She didn’t sound too excited about the prospect.

I couldn’t tell whether it was a quirk she had, along with the other ‘Ravagers’, or if she was genuinely disinterested in the subject. Her only marginally smaller kin had very similar expressions, too.

“Won’t the roots grow into it?” I tried to approach it logically, though I had very little practical experience.

“I wouldn’t let them, my Master.” Mai interrupted, sounding noticeably more excited about the prospect.

I would have to think about it later. I recalled it would have to be at least several Metres deep. They could not dig it with their bare claws. I wouldn’t ask them to, which brought my attention back to something I should’ve checked earlier.

I thanked her and continued to question my metal-shaping bear.

“Can you shape the steel into tools? Picks? Axes?” I queried.

She answered only with the long, deep “hmmm” in agreement. Kuma once again called her weapon, shaping the metal to resemble a pickaxe, albeit a tiny, and entirely made of the single material.

“Do you have to hold on to the metal you reshape for it to maintain the current form?” I tried to confirm..

“No, Master.” A bear-like monster confirmed, driving it into the fallen tree, then letting it go.

“Could you make it bigger?” was my next question. A miniature pick she made wasn’t that good for digging if it was essentially a one handed tool.

“No, Master.” she said, the tone of her voice unchanged. “Not enough metal.”

“No matter ex nihilo.” I pondered. While it made little sense why, their magic followed some laws of physics, while ignoring others, and the only thing I could do about it was accept it with a shrug.

It placed yet another restriction on me - the only place I could get metal was from the natives, just like cloth, and trading won’t be possible in quite a time. Only wood was reasonably plentiful, although not entirely unlimited, as my little lizards could only exert their botanokinesis to a certain point before they exhausted themselves.

“Very well then. If we have any spare weapons, they will go to Ravagers.” I continued, though the way the monsters were called still felt strange. “Purifiers would use their fire should there be a fight, anyway. Rest would need them. Maybe ‘Eviscerators’ would not. They had their claws."

I could almost feel the disappointment in my little foxes when they had to part with their trophies, but they did so anyway. The rest of my furry menagerie didn’t primarily rely on their powers as offensive weapons, only perhaps ‘Defilers’ would.

“I am sorry.” I murmured, even patted one of the small vulpines on the head. Even with the area literally swarming with them, they were always a couple of them, acting like some self-appointed security detail.

I found out that the not-so-little versions of Kuma had a somewhat weaker variant of the ability, making the entire process slightly slower. With a low quantity of iron or steel, there was a little need to push it out fully.

The few suits of scale armour we had were too valuable to keep my companions alive, and the thin sword blades or spear tips could only make so many axe heads. There simply weren't enough things to recycle.

At least something was done, though.

“Thank you.” I expressed my gratitude to all of them.

“For you, anything, Master.” Tama said, assuredly.

“That’s…” I was hesitant to make my ursine companions only workers just because they could shape the tools, and without finishing my sentence, I made a few steps toward my ‘Alphas’ and back towards the few houses of our camp.

“Nothing. There isn’t a pressing need to dig while we still wait for the expedition to bring us the seeds.” I explained to no one in particular.

As much as I felt restless, filled with the energy to do something, an urge I visibly shared with the rest of my furry menagerie, there was a very little we could do at this very moment.

My monsters needed the tools, or seeds, or metal, or other resources to work with.

They, however, wanted to do something. The part of the surrounding greenery was sacrificed to that goal.

It made me itch almost.

The presence and closeness of my monsters gave me a certain reassurance. It was strange how fast the thing changed.

Though, I still feel the urge to at least walk around our settlement when I look around.

“Right now, the priority is security, shelters, and food.” I mused, “Mai, do you think you can have the shelters created with your powers? And could you find something for Kuma to wear?”

It would be a shame to not use the easiest option we had.

“Certainly, my Master.” Mai confirmed and with the usual cries, they set out to work. Unlike any conventional building process, there was no middle step, and the improvised shelters could be grown literally from the ground.

It was still at the cost of original vegetation, though.

Still, the settlement was an ant nest of activity, with the sea of fluff and scale, teeth and claws, and I couldn’t help but to be proud of my monsters for being this productive. There were so many of them right now.

Whether they ran around exercising their magic, or to do menial things like collecting firewood, attempting to cut trees with the few tools they had, or gathering food, they had so much energy.

“Master! Master!” They chanted, occasionally.

I socialised with my monsters a little, with every little one wanting a bit of personal attention, which they obviously enjoyed. They seemed tireless, with seemingly endless vitality, probably by the sudden boost the life-drain provided, but enjoyed fooling around occasionally - and I was more than willing to let them.

The ‘Alphas’ weren’t strict with them, either. Although monsters always knew what to do without words spoken by them, I wasn’t entirely certain what they communicated and how.

In the end, I retreated to the central longhouse, not to rest, but to hold a council on what we do next.

Then, looking at the rocky cliffs with the remnants of degraded scaffolding, all covered by weirdly coloured climbing plants, I realised something.

This place was an abandoned quarry, a tiny one in the middle of nowhere, most likely considered not worthwhile to work anymore. All the material needed for the road we followed the entire time couldn’t have come from there. It was obvious, but it didn’t matter as much now. It was the only site with the barred rock close by.

It was possible there was iron ore, or copper, or other minerals in there.

Except I just didn’t know how to tell them apart.

“Kuma, could you look at the rocks around here to check if there is ore in it?” I asked, “It counts as metal, doesn’t it?”

Smelting iron may not require advanced technology on paper, but it wasn’t easy to figure it out without prior experience. Finding large quantities of iron ore would be a serious challenge for a person without substantial knowledge of geology.

Luckily for me, I didn’t have to tell what the iron ore looked like. Kuma would, and with her abilities, we might not even need a furnace.

She pondered it almost as long as I spent the time thinking about any guidance I wasn’t entirely sure I could give, but when I almost considered this a failed idea, she said.

“I will try, Master.” My bear-like follower answered, wandering off.

I considered asking Mai to use her plants to grow between the cracks, finding the metal deposits, but I opted against it.

Not only was she busy getting her kin to shape the greenery into the shelters, I wasn’t certain the plants would know what the metal tasted like, even if driven by magic.

Experimenting with this could wait until some preliminary survey.

Until then, I had no proper plan, and no task I could occupy myself with.

As long as we stayed away from the natives and avoided the conflict, there was no need to actually map the area, through the saving grace of being secluded in the hard to access location. It was the only intellectual pursuit I thought I could contribute to, especially after I proved myself to be quite useless with languages, but there was no pressing need to focus on it.

The ancient maps, predating the age of discovery, were mostly the question of directions and guessed instances, made by people who never had the chance to see the world from a bird’s perspective.

Without creatures that could fly, we were in a similar position.

There were only the two directions enemies could come at us, and we had those covered.

At least, I thought.

For a while, I watched the settlement and the hectic activity there. I felt guilty for letting my girls do all the work. We almost got through the day without me doing anything that felt productive.

I paused at the realisation that I, for the first time, thought of my monsters as girls, though they were evidently all-female.

Tama, true to her flirty nature, pushed herself closer, evidently didn’t mind making advances in front of everyone.

I wasn’t disturbed by it as much as I should've.

“Why do you like me so much?” I wondered, questioning her affection.

“You hold a special place in our hearts, Master.” She answered ambiguously.

However, before I could try to escape it, or indulge, or even before the vixen provided any kind of answer, I noticed Miwah staring absentmindedly into the horizon, which usually signalled she was preoccupied guiding her smaller kin.

“Miwah?” I asked, worried.

The werewolf twitched and growled at an invisible enemy. They never did that before.

Only once, I recalled, back in the ruined shrine, with that strange woman we released. My monsters had a special dislike towards her, above the misanthropy common in them, and her presence felt weird even to me.

Perhaps it was what happened there.

It got attention from the others ‘Alphas’ as well.

This time, however, it sparked something within me as well.

This time, I also felt something was wrong.

“Master!”

I looked around.

There was no sign of disturbance within our settlement, though there was, unmistakably, something wrong within me.

Never have I received feedback from my monsters, not even if they were born, fought, died or were respawned, but now it was there.

A brief thought that the last free power-up changed something shot through my mind. I never had the chance to ponder on it.

A red fog unmistakably heralding the spawning of my monsters being formed appeared, as suddenly as before, however this time, they sizzled back into nothingness, leaving nothing behind except a sharp piercing pain in my skull, followed by the feeling of loss, almost like something dear was stolen from me.

Both Tama and Narita quickly caught me before my sudden dizziness hit me.

I blinked.

Sudden vertigo was gone as quickly as it appeared. However, this time, one of those floating windows invaded my field of view, with yet another notification I never saw before.

15 units sealed until the caster is dead.