Ogre Tyrant

Ogre Tyrant: Chapter 11 – Death of a harem – Part One {Rewrite}

Ogre Tyrant: Chapter 11 - Death of a harem - Part One {Rewrite}

Returning to the Settlement with another uprooted tree, I was surprised to find that the ground ahead was blanketed with lush green plant life. More specifically, crisp blue and white petalled flowers. Carefully setting down the tree, I walked closer for a better look. They appeared to be a type of swamp flower, but I honestly didn’t know much about botany besides the word and a few common medicinal plants.

Wandering around a little, I was very impressed with Hana and Nadine’s progress so far. Ten newly transplanted trees dominated the local landscape, forming a rough circle centred around the Totem and our current residence. Each of the trees was of slightly different sizes, and they averaged out at about ten feet wide, half as much again near the base of the trunk, and even the shortest were around fifty feet tall. Assuming Hana intended to grow them larger still, it would not be surprising if they just about formed a solid wall at this rate.

Of course, they were pitifully small compared to the tree serving as our home, which was easily four or five times their size. Over the course of the day, Hana had nearly doubled the tree’s overall size from yesterday and I had to wonder just how much mana she had actually used to accomplish it.

It was another rather blunt reminder that I still didn’t have MP of my own, let alone any cool abilities to use it on.

Climbing the steps of the tree fort, I found Toofy animatedly entertaining Nadine and Hana with a stirring rendition of the sausage song. It was truly amazing how Toofy could misremember the words, sing out of tune, but still maintain the rhythm.

She was definitely gifted.

Nadine had noticed my return and was doing her best not to laugh, while Hana looked incredibly confused and didn’t seem to know what to do.

Seeing me standing in the open doorway, Toofy abruptly stopped singing, “Tim!” She bounced over, excitedly grabbed my hand and tried to drag me back down the stairs, “See pretties!” Toofy insisted.

Determined to avoid an accident, I swept Toofy up and deposited her on my shoulder before heading downstairs to look at the flowers again.

As we reached the bottom of the stairs, Toofy wriggled free of my loose grip and began excitedly jumping amongst the flowers. “Pretties! Tim see?!” She declared emphatically.

I smiled and nodded in agreement, “Yes the flowers are very pretty.”

Toofy stopped and cocked her head to one side slightly with obvious curiosity, “Flowers?” Toofy asked hesitantly.

I nodded and picked one of the lilies, “They are called flowers,” I explained patiently, holding out the stem for Toofy to take.

“Oh...” Toofy nodded sagely, as if the revelation was obvious, “Flowers!” She agreed emphatically, accepting the lily and wildly waving it around.

Thinking she might enjoy it, I picked a few more lilies and roughly wove their stems together to form a crown. Waving Toofy over, I placed it on her head. I had never made a flower crown before and was relieved that it didn’t immediately fall apart.

“Flowers!” Toofy screeched, staring up at her crown and nearly falling over backwards as she tried to get a better look.

Nadine and Hana had followed us down the stairs watching Toofy’s antics with similar expressions to before.

“Is this normal?” Hana asked somewhat uncertainly.

“Pretty much,” Nadine nodded but did not elaborate further.

Hana furrowed her brow and began wringing her hands together with worry. After a few minutes, she seemed to have made up her mind and approached with a determined expression, “Ah, my Lord?” Hana asked somewhat hesitantly.

“Yes?” I was more than a little curious as to what was making her so nervous. I was not keen on being called a Lord, but that was something we could discuss once things were more settled.

Hana seemed unable or unwilling to look me in the eye, “Do you like the flowers?” She asked nervously.

“I do,” I replied honestly, thankful that I was no longer able to smell the overbearing and pervasive stench of rotting vegetation.

Hana appeared visibly relieved, “I am glad you like them!” She smiled and genuinely seemed quite happy by my response. “I think I should be able to finish the fortress by evening,” Hana insisted firmly.

“Really?!” I looked around at the trees a moderate distance away, “That’s really impressive!” I felt another pang of jealousy and was a little suspicious, “You are pacing yourself with those manastones like I asked, right?”

“Of course!” Hana insisted, appearing mortified at the suggestion.

That actually made me feel a little guilty, “Sorry, I just don't want you to get addicted.”

Hana was somewhat mollified and distractedly adjusted her plant-fibre dress, “I appreciate your concern...” She replied a little quietly, “But I am your Overseer, I wouldn’t dare disobey a direct order.”

I winced.

That made the nature of the Labyrinth’s arrangement sound uncomfortably similar to slavery. Hopefully, our relationship was more benign. The memories of the pain I had felt were still quite fresh in my mind and I had no intentions of inflicting it on others.

“Just...just do what you think is best,” I did my best to keep the suggestion vague, just in case.

“As you will,” Hana agreed, shifting her attention to the surrounding trees as she popped a mana stone in her mouth and gulped it down. “You said you wanted clean water for bathing, right?” Hana asked Nadine pointedly. Without waiting for an answer, she raised her arms out to either side and was quickly blanketed in an emerald aura. Eyes radiating the same energy, she gestured one hand to where I had left the uprooted tree.

Within moments, the tree was quickly crawling across the ground by its roots towards Hana, like some sort of wooden octopus. At her direction, the tree moved a short distance away from the Totem and opposite the treefort. Hana motioned her hand downwards and the tree’s roots grew many times their original size and began boring deep into the ground. While the roots descended, Hana directed the tree to grow outwards, rapidly increasing its girth and creating a large open cavity before causing the trunk and branches to wither and be absorbed into the lower trunk of the tree. After a few minutes of intense growth and displacement of the nearby soil and vegetation, Hana had formed a gnarled and knotted wooden basin roughly twenty feet in diameter and close to five feet deep.

Evidently still not finished, Hana caused a fresh seedling to sprout from the centre of the basin and diverge into three separate trees. The trio of trees twisted and coiled around one another as their trunks grew thicker and began occupying more of the basin. With the trees now occupying roughly half the space, Hana brought an end to their growth.

“Is this a water catchment pool?” Nadine asked curiously.

Hana smirked, made one final gesture with her right hand and dissipated the aura.

*Glurglelugluglug*

The unmistakable sound of water flushing through pipes drew my attention to the trees in the basin. A few seconds later, water began gushing out of holes in the trunks of the trees and splashing into the basin.

“How...” Nadine seemed lost for words, opening and closing her mouth in stunned silence.

“Water pressure,” I declared, much to my own surprise.

Hana looked surprised, but not nearly as much as Nadine and myself.

How did I know that?

The vague memory of a large tree gushing torrents of water drifted at the edges of my mind.

Oh...

It was a viral video. Apparently, the phenomenon wasn’t even that uncommon. When a sufficiently large tree tapped into a water source below ground, the pressure would draw the water up and out of the tree if it had a breach in its trunk. Obviously, Hana had just done it on purpose rather than waiting for it to occur naturally.

“You tapped into a large deposit of bore water or something,” I assumed, partially to provide Nadine with an explanation for what must seem like another source of magic, “The water pressure drives the water up through the roots and out of those holes in the trunk. Basically, the trees are just acting as pipes.”

Hana nodded, looking rather impressed that I had managed to figure it out, “I should have known that my Lord was knowledgeable of such things,” she complimented brazenly.

I shrugged off the compliment, “Just a coincidence. I really don’t know much about plants,” I deflected.

“Hrm,” Hana narrowed her eyes suspiciously for a moment before apparently deciding she had better ways to spend her time. However, a couple of seconds later, she stiffened and began running back to the tree fort, “The first of the eggs are hatching!” She cried urgently, already racing up the stairs.

“Eggs?” Toofy asked curiously, temporarily distracted from the alluring danger of the fountain.

“You want to see the eggs hatch?” I asked Toofy, lifting her up and onto my shoulder before she had a chance to refuse. I was now going to have to add swimming lessons to Toofy’s schooling schedule. Especially since there was no way a fence would be able to keep her out of the fountain once she was determined to get in.

No less excited than Hana, Nadine beat me to the stairs.

When we reached our living quarters, I saw Hana very carefully removing eggs from the chest I had received upon completion of the Labyrinth’s quest. Scrutinising each one intensely before either placing it back in the chest or setting it aside on the ground beside her, Hana was fully engrossed in her task.

“I wonder what kind of monster eggs they are!” Nadine whispered excitedly,

I was just as excited but far more apprehensive. The Labyrinth’s quest had not exactly been particularly accommodating. Sure, the Settlement was potentially a great boon in the long run, but it required significant investment, and something told me that whatever these baby monsters were, it would be a similar situation.

Apparently finished checking all twenty-five eggs, Hana had set aside three of the eggs and now presented them for my inspection. “These three eggs are very close to hatching,” she explained, one of the eggs wobbled slightly in response, “As Overseer, I will need to imprint on the hatchlings so they do not run amok,” Hana explained and looked at me expectantly.

Understanding that she was asking for permission, I nodded, curious to see what it would entail exactly.

Toofy slid down off my shoulder to take a closer look at the gently rocking egg.

“Careful,” I warned. The last thing I wanted was Toofy breaking one of the eggs, or getting into a biting contest with one of the hatchlings.

Toofy waved me off distractedly and laid down on the floor to get a closer look.

Letting out a sigh, I looked to Nadine for some support, but she was already following Toofy’s lead and moving in for a closer look. Unwilling to be the only one left out, I moved a little closer as well.

The eggs were reasonably large, around the same size as an emu egg or maybe a little smaller. All three eggs were now wobbling about, the technicolour patterns on the shells intermittently flashing in conjunction with the movement.

*Crack*

The first egg to hatch, unsurprisingly, was the first to show signs of movement, sporting bright green lightning-like patterns on its shell. A large crack now ran the length of the shell, like a jagged seam.

*Crack Crack, Crunch*

All at once, the egg was forced apart and a small mucus-covered blob burst free and onto the ground. “Gnnn, grrrr, raaaz, kriiii!” The small monster began mewling and growling as it slowly untangled its limbs.

Although just as surprised as we were, Hana was quick to act. Gathering the same emerald aura as before, she gently touched the newly-hatched monster’s head with her index finger.

All at once, the monster grew still, revealing that it looked like a very small child with small horns protruding across its forehead.

A black notification appeared at the bottom of my peripheral vision.

[Settlement Alert {Tim’s Settlement}: {Gric - Lesser Daemon} was recruited by {Overseer Hana} as a minion.]

Wait...What?!

Hana had a similar reaction, “Daemon?!” She exclaimed worriedly, quickly retracting her finger.

The tiny green-skinned Daemon, Gric, followed Hana’s finger with its eyes hungrily. However, seeing that it was now out of reach, it shifted its attention to the broken remains of its shell.

“Baby hungry,” Toofy declared. She hurriedly got up and retrieved a large chunk of the leftover meat we cooked yesterday evening. “Baby eat,” Toofy insisted, sitting back down and depositing the large chunk of croc meat next to the freshly hatched Daemon.

“Toofy I don’t think-” I started to say, but stopped abruptly as the little Daemonling scrambled into action.

Opening its mouth wide, Gric revealed a mouth of short lizard-like serrated teeth, which it then used to begin ripping off pieces of the roasted meat and swallowing them as fast as it was able.

Toofy nodded understandingly, and gave the Daemon a soft pat on the back, “Good baby.”

Gric ignored her and continued stuffing its face.

“Uh is this alright?” I asked Hana since she was the only one of us who had even known monsters lay eggs, let alone what would come after.

“Ah, I think so?” Hana replied distractedly as she watched Gric shred through the meat with increasing energy. “The newly hatched would normally eat their eggshells and absorb the mucus before becoming this...active...” Hana explained nervously before stopping to think for a moment, “Oh,” she sighed and shook her head, “I forgot about the Totem,” Hana apologised, “The poor thing must feel like he is starving.”

“He?” Nadine asked, beating me to it.

Hana nodded a little awkwardly and pointed to the Daemon’s hindquarters.

Previously covered by the mucus, the nub of a tail on Gric’s back was now visible along with the similar protrusion from his groyne.

“Oh...” Nadine blushed a little in embarrassment.

After about a minute, Gric appeared to have eaten his fill, the Daemon’s belly had distended to what had to be a painful degree. However, Gric seemed unfazed and just continued to stare at the remaining veritable mountain of roasted meat possessively with his black and gold eyes.

Now that Gric was relatively still, I quickly noticed that he was ever so slowly growing in size. He was already at least a half-inch taller than when he had first hatched. The trio of horns now crowning his forehead had grown a little too but still weren’t very large.

Both of the remaining eggs now appeared to be close to hatching as well, the purple and orange patterns each respectively flashing as the eggs grew more restless.

*Crack Crack, Crunch*

All at once, the purple egg was torn open, followed a moment later by the orange one. Two new Daemon hatchlings tumbled out and onto the ground, mewling and growling at one another. It was like watching a pair of kittens try to intimidate each other.

Hana promptly gave each a gentle tap on the forehead, immediately quieting both Daemon hatchlings.

Two more black status alerts quickly flashed into my peripheral vision.

[Settlement Alert {Tim’s Settlement}: {Qreet - Lesser Daemon} was recruited by {Overseer Hana} as a minion.]

[Settlement Alert {Tim’s Settlement}: {Dar - Lesser Daemon} was recruited by {Overseer Hana} as a minion.]

Assuming the status alerts were in the same order Hana had recruited them, then the light purple-skinned Daemon had to be Qreet, and the dark orange-skinned Daemon must be Dar.

“Are you naming them?” I asked Hana, more than a little confused by the strange names.

Hana shook her head, “No, the Labyrinth named them. But if you wish, it is possible to rename them at the Settlement Totem.”

“Really?” I guessed it made sense, in the same reasoning that the Labyrinth assumedly named all special monsters in the first place. But it was interesting to know that I could change their names through the Totem, rather than through enslavement and the status commands. That reminded me that I had pretty much forgotten about the Totem and had no real idea what it was capable of, if anything beyond changing monster names and allowing the Settlement itself to exist.

Before I had the chance to ask Hana a few questions, the curious behaviour of the two newly hatched Daemons drew my attention. Obviously hungry, Qreet and Dar had crawled over the short, but not negligible distance, to Gric and the comparatively large chunk of roast meat. However, instead of tearing into the food as Gric had done, Qreet and Dar had both prostrated themselves before Gric and were mewling pitiably.

Toofy hopped up to get more meat, but while she was gone, Gric surprisingly tore off a large strip of meat with his teeth and threw it to Qreet.

Expecting the two hatchlings to fight over the morsel, I was surprised again when Dar did little more than stare hungrily at the food his hatch mate had received.

Gric chittered and nodded his head approvingly. He then tore off another piece of meat and threw it to Dar. Who spared a moment to squeak in gratitude before viciously assaulting the roasted meat.

Toofy returned with two more pieces of meat for Qreet and Dar.

However, Gric did not seem happy about this, hissing and glaring at her.

Toofy was taken aback for a moment, “No mad at Toofy!” She reprimanded Gric, bopping him lightly on the head with a piece of meat. With Gric suitably cowed, Toofy gave Qreet and Dar each a piece of roasted meat of their own.

Again, neither Daemon made a move to begin eating, instead, they stared intently at Gric, clearly waiting for some form of permission.

Toofy seemed to notice this as well and frowned, “No greedy baby!” She warned, baring her mouth full of sharp teeth.

Far less intimidated than he should have been, given that Toofy could just about stuff him whole into her mouth, Gric hissed in annoyance before chittering at Qreet and Dar.

Evidently having received permission, the pair of Daemonlings began tearing into their pieces of roasted meat just as Gric had done minutes earlier.

Satisfied, Toofy nodded, “Good baby.”

“Are all monsters so hierarchical?” Nadine asked curiously.

Hana shrugged, “I don’t know, and while I also do not know much about Daemons, the one thing I know for certain is their rigid adherence to hierarchy. It is what makes them so dangerous. A Daemon will obey its superior without question, even if it means that they will die.”

“Was hatching first enough to make Gric the leader?” Nadine asked curiously, beating me to it.

“Well...sort of,” Hana agreed tentatively, “More likely, I think it has something to do with their rate of growth. The green one, Gric, hatched first because he developed faster, most likely because he has a greater aptitude for manipulating mana. The same goes for Qreet and Dar, who have hatched slightly later, but still well before the rest of the other eggs. I was actually surprised that these three hatched today. I was expecting the eggs to still need at least another day or two before I had grown the mana syphons enough to provide the necessary mana.”

“Wait a second, mana syphons?!” Nadine demanded, beating me to it again.

Hana fidgetted a little nervously, “Ah, yeah, this is what the ring of trees is for...” She explained sheepishly, “The trees gather mana from the surrounding soil and release it into the immediate area. It’s a core part of any Dryad’s Grove...”

Nadine was speechless.

“What does that mean exactly?” I asked, unwilling to let my expectations get ahead of themselves.

Hana was only too happy to explain.

Vindicating my expectations, it turned out there were great benefits to having increased mana levels. Firstly and rather obviously, it increased mana regeneration. But apparently, even progression towards rank and Evolution is possible if you stay in the area long enough.

Hana also explained that without the mana font effect, each individual egg would need to be either surrounded by manastones or be donated mana directly through prolonged skin contact with a monster that has excess mana. So the mana font, or Grove as Hana preferred to call it, was a great boon to the long-term growth and development of a Settlement.

By the time Hana finished her various explanations regarding the ins and outs of the Grove’s ambient mana-enriching effects and exactly what made it so important, and by extension herself, the others had returned from their first round of hunting.

“They look pretty weak,” Clarice commented glibly after getting a good look at the Daemon hatchlings, “Do they have any cool Abilities?”

The green Daemon Gric narrowed its eyes and glowered at Clarice, evidently at least able to understand her tone if not her exact words.

Similarly, Qreet and Dar did not seem particularly amused either, baring their small serrated teeth and hissing.

Apparently not having expected that response, Clarice shifted her attention to me while still keeping the corner of her eye on the little Daemonlings, “Uh, so how smart are they exactly?” She asked a little nervously.

The trio of Daemonlings had close to doubled their original size and were about a foot and a half tall, making it painfully obvious now that Gric and Dar were male and Qreet was female. I had sewn together some loincloths, but if they kept growing at the same rate, they would outgrow them by tomorrow.

“Not sure,” I admitted honestly, “They seemed to understand the insult well enough though, So I should be able to invite one into the party to take a look at their status.”

Gric shifted his attention from Clarice to me instead and immediately became docile.

“Since they are your minions, you can just call them into your party directly with a single command,” Hana suggested helpfully, “Just say Invite minion and the names of the minions you want to invite.”

Really? That’s pretty cool, “Invite minion, Gric, Qreet and Dar.”

The trio of names immediately appeared alongside the others in my group status.

[Gric - HP: 12/12 - Normal ], [Qreet - HP: 12/12 - Normal ], [Dar - HP: 12/12 - Normal ]

I saw no immediate differences between their HP, which made sense, so I figured I would take a closer look and see what stats and abilities the Daemons had, “Status.”

[Gric - Daemon Hatchling: 1 ] [HP: 12/12] [MP: 0/0 ]

[Tim’s Minion. Minion of Tim’s Settlement.] [Class: ???. ] [Exp:0/0 ]

[Strength: 6 ]

[Agility: 6 ]

[Toughness: 6 ]

[Intelligence: 6 ]

[Willpower: 6 ]

[Presence: 6 ]

[(Racial Ability: Natural Selection {Rank ???}): Consuming the fallen allows emulation of characteristics and traits by expending MP. Changes to characteristics and traits cannot be reversed, only overridden or progressed.]

Ignoring the parts I had already seen on other status screens, I was a little surprised by the trail of sixes for stats and wondered if maybe the Labyrinth had a sense of humour. But I didn’t have much time to dwell on it because the Racial Ability very abruptly stole all of my attention.

Woah...

Did the ability mean that the Daemons would change their biology after eating another monster? If so, were the changes simply cosmetic, or more practically oriented?

“What is it?” Clarice asked, now looking a little worried, like perhaps the tiny monsters were not so weak as they appeared.

I read the Racial Ability description aloud for everyone to hear.

“Woah...” Clarice exclaimed, just as surprised as I had been.

“So they copy Abilities?” Emelia asked uncertainly, scratching her head as she dubiously considered the Daemons.

“No, it would have said that it copies the Racial Abilities if that is what it does,” Nadine insisted, “The Labyrinth’s descriptions can be vague sometimes but never regarding core concepts.”

Hana nodded in agreement with Nadine.

“So something like chimaerism?” I suggested, “They find another monster with a better natural advantage and emulate it?”

“I think so,” Hana agreed somewhat uncertainly, “But we won’t know for sure until one of them decides to use it.”

The whole time we were talking, Gric had turned to look at each person as they took their turn to speak. “Griiiik!” The sudden screech caught everyone off guard, including me, despite the fact that I had been watching the little Daemon closely.

Everyone looked down at Gric.

Gric stared right back, pointing animatedly at the pouch on Hana’s waist and back to himself, “Griiik!” He screeched again, though much less strenuously.

“Baby wants shiny rock,” Toofy declared in sudden realisation.

Gric narrowed his eyes witheringly at Toofy but nodded.

“Should I?” Hana asked, obviously intrigued.

I wasn’t so sure about this, “They aren’t even a day old yet, is this safe?”

Hana shrugged apologetically, “I don’t know for sure, but I think so. They are already passively absorbing mana from the surrounding area, it isn’t like mana itself is harmful. At worst, he might fall into a coma until he is able to process the impurities out of the manastone. Which wouldn’t take long, since manastones are basically pure condensed mana.”

Well, that makes it seem pretty safe I guess. There was something else as well, the Daemon hatchling was obviously aware of everything going on and seemed to be reasonably intelligent.

So it would know if something was harmful to it, right? Ugh, I can’t believe I am rationalising whether a newborn has the intelligence and experience to know if something is dangerous...

“If it was dangerous, the Daemon would know right?” Nadine asked Hana, “Shouldn’t the Labyrinth have imprinted a whole mess of information into his head about what he needs to know to survive?”

Hana nodded agreeably, “It varies, but generally yes.”

“Wait a minute...” Clarice interjected, confusedly shaking her head, “How does that work exactly? Isn’t it just like a baby right now? How can it understand what we are even talking about? How would it know what it ‘knows’?!”

That was generally what I wanted to know too.

Hana sighed and took a moment to formulate a response, “I can’t really think of a much better way to explain it, but my mother...She often told us fantastical stories where the heroes and heroines were reborn into the world in the bodies of infants. Even though they were limited by their newborn body, they still had a lifetime of experiences to draw from. It isn’t a perfect analogy, but it is close. We monsters are not like your human offspring, we may lack emotional maturity for a time, but we are just as capable as our seniors intellectually.”

“...” Clarice did not seem to fully understand, but surprisingly didn’t want to fight over it.

Fully aware of the type of stories Hana was referencing, I understood what she meant, “So it’s like starting life as a teenager,” I suggested, “You already know most things you need to survive and how the world generally works, but you are still emotionally immature and need to physically develop until you would be recognised as an adult.”

“Oh!” Nadine nodded, “Alright, I think I get it now. That’s really strange but it aligns with the general observations of the documented nature of monsters,” she agreed while also giving me a curious glance, likely wondering how I was able to so readily understand Hana’s analogy.

Clarice grudgingly nodded as well, “I guess that kinda makes sense,” she grumbled, “It’s still really weird.”

I noticed that Emelia and Tobi had both stayed silent throughout the exchange and were actively avoiding eye contact with those who engaged in the discussion. I didn’t blame them, it was probably a difficult concept to get your head around from an outside perspective.

Seeing Toofy offering the three Daemons some more roasted meat, despite not having finished their previous portions, I couldn't help but reevaluate how I had treated Toofy herself. Some things had been obvious for her, while others were completely foreign.

How did the Labyrinth decide what was important and what wasn’t?

“Baby eat!” Toofy insisted, tearing off a shred of meat and pushing it at Gric.

Gric glowered, glancing warily in my direction before calming down slightly, “G-r-i-c,” the Daemonling rumbled, pressing its throat with one hand and gesturing at his chest with the other.

“Gric?” Toofy seemed confused.

“Toofy, he is telling you his name,” I explained patiently.

“Oh!” Toofy grinned and pointed at herself, “Toofy!” She then pointed at the Daemon, “Gric!”

Gric nodded, released a pent-up sigh and even smiled a little.

“Gric still baby,” Toofy insisted with a cheeky smile, immediately souring the Daemon’s mood.

“Are we gonna give it the manastone or what?” Clarice asked impatiently, “As fascinating as all this is, daylight's burning and we should probably get back out there. If any of those other eggs hatch and have close to the same appetite, we are gonna be in trouble.”

She had a point.

“Oh, that shouldn’t be too bad,” Nadine interjected, “Hana agreed to make a pond so we can just fish for those carnivorous fish.”

“We don’t know if they are edible yet,” Clarice countered, “Besides, we don’t really have the tools for catching them either. So even if we are just going to use wooden fishing spears, we still need to make them first.”

It was kind of strange seeing Clarice so serious, and not for the sake of an argument either.

Noticing my curious look, Clarice blushed a little and cleared her throat, “Look, I just don’t want us to be left unprepared, you know? Looking after kids is a lot of work!”

She had a point. I barely had the supplies to provide loincloths for just the three of them, let alone another twenty-two potential siblings. Keeping them all fed was going to be a real issue as well if their appetites continued at the same rate as Gric and the other two.

“Alright, could you please give Gric one of the more powerful mana stones?” I asked Hana, curious to see what would happen, but also hoping that nothing would go wrong.

Hana nodded and retrieved two manastones from her pouch, swallowing one herself and handing the other down to Gric. Noticing my questioning look, Hana smiled wryly, “I am still accelerating the growth of the trees outside,” she explained, “Once the tree reaches a certain size, it doesn’t need detailed direction and can be allowed to just grow.”

Concentrating, I realised that she was still faintly cloaked in the emerald light. Feeling a little guilty for suspecting Hana of feeding an addiction, I shifted my attention to the Daemon instead.

Gric did not disappoint. Less than half a minute after forcing the manastone down his throat, Gric began to change. Accompanied by the crackling of breaking bones, Gric’s jaw widened, the lower mandible thickening and forming into a pronounced underbite as thick sharp teeth erupted from the gum line. Opening his mouth, Gric revealed smaller but similarly conical teeth protruding from the upper side of his gum line as well. Despite the blood dribbling down his chin and the ejected teeth piled on the floor, Gric appeared to be very pleased with himself, grinning happily as he experimentally worked his jaw.

“Well, that was gruesome...” Clarice commented.

Tobi and Emelia nodded.

While I would normally agree with them, I was more distracted by the sudden change than the side effect. With his new teeth, heavy lower jaw and accompanying muscles, Gric seemed far more intimidating than someone a foot and a half tall had a right to be.

“Not as big a change as I thought there would be,” Nadine admitted disappointedly, “But I suppose if it is MP dependent, I shouldn’t have expected so much.”

Gric narrowed his eyes slightly at Nadine but otherwise did nothing.

Qreet and Dar, on the other hand, were now carefully eyeing the pouch at Hana’s waist.

Okay, that could become a problem. Better to try and nip this in the bud than deal with a tragedy later. “Gric, Qreet, Dar.” I waited until I was sure I had all three Daemonlings' attention, which took all of half a second, “You are only to consume manastones as directed by myself or Hana, understood?” This would be an important rule if Hana established a fishing pond later.

All three Daemonlings nodded vigorously in response, their expressions solemn and serious. It would have been rather comical if the implications weren’t so unsettling.

Excusing myself, I decided that it would be a good opportunity to at least try and teach Toofy the basics of swimming. There was water everywhere in the swamp, and the thought of her drowning while I was distracted, terrified me.

Besides, the swimming lesson would be able to double as a bath and opportunity to wash her clothes, which were definitely getting on the gross side.

Lacking proper bathers, I just made sure to retie the knot on my boxers and slip into the fountain. The water was crystal clear and I suspected that Hana had put more thought and design into it all than I had guessed earlier. The slight current I could feel at the bottom pretty much confirmed it. Somehow Hana had created a self-filtering fountain, almost like...magic...Right...I kept forgetting how ridiculous magic like this could be.

Toofy took to the water like a drowning cat. It took the better part of a couple of hours to even get her to try treading water, but that was mostly my fault. I had never tried teaching anyone to swim before, so my instructions weren’t very helpful, which only made Toofy more reluctant. In the end, I had to abandon the swimming lessons for the day because Toofy was too tired to continue.

Leaving Nadine to help Toofy get changed into her dry underwear, I set about cleaning my own clothes. The stains would never come out, but I didn’t really care about that at this point.

Walking around in my underwear surrounded by members of the opposite sex had initially been mortifying. However, at a certain point, my embarrassment peaked and I guess I started acclimating to it. It even made dealing with the humidity more bearable. However, when it came down to it, I just missed wearing clothes...It was harder to remind myself that I was not some sort of savage monster when I was just running around in my underwear.

After washing my tunic and pants as best as I could manage, I gave myself a rough wash after waiting for the water to clear up a bit.

Clarice, Tobi and Emelia had just about finished resting and were preparing to set out again. Their previous hunt had managed to fill a small pouch with mana stones, but they had not brought back any monster corpses for butchering.

To be fair, I hadn’t asked them to, and our supplies had seemed adequate at the time. With the understanding that meat would be a higher priority than the manastones, Hana had generously ‘grown’ a sled from woven tree roots so they would be able to make more efficient use of their time.

After bathing, I decided to investigate the Totem.

There was far too much I didn’t understand, and even though I could ask Hana for some answers, I still had a distinct impression that she was not coping nearly as well as she was letting on. Hana’s driven behaviour seemed motivated by either avoiding the source of her pain or preparing to face it. For the time being, I would wait and see if there was any way I could help her, but thus far, the best I could come up with was to give her some time to herself to process her grief.

Standing before the Settlement Totem, I sighed awkwardly as I now considered the rather disturbing pair of eyes and toothy mouth Toofy and I had carved into the tree. Able to think of no other way to interact with it, I pressed my right hand against the Totem.

I immediately felt a small jolt run through my hand, up my arm and into my head. A torrent of information began flooding into my mind in such a way that I was half reminded of the re-education facilities often depicted in movies. Unable to remove my arm and incapable of stemming the tide of information, I was forced to weather through it as best as I was able.

Stiffly drawing away my hand, I became aware of how desperately I needed to blink. Stumbling half-blind to the fountain, I splashed the water into my eyes as best as I could, glad for even the small measure of relief it provided.

I felt tired and glancing hesitantly toward the sky, mentally bracing for the pain the bright light would cause my abused eyes, I froze. The sun was already hidden behind the now fully grown wall of trees surrounding the immediate area. So what had felt like minutes must have, in fact, been hours.

Thinking about what had happened I vaguely recalled a myriad of status messages intermittently flickering in and out of my line of sight. Unfortunately, I hadn’t managed to get a good look at any of them and could only recall that they had been black. Glancing back towards the Totem, I briefly considered touching it again, but couldn’t work up the nerve. Losing a few hours and being unable to fill the gap was already quite distressing enough without repeating the trauma.

“I really should have asked Hana about it first,” I groaned, pushing myself up onto my feet again, now that my eyes felt mostly recovered.

Heading back up the stairs to enter the tree fort, I was surprised to see that the stairs continued up further around the tree. Curious, I followed the stairs upwards and found another hollowed-out alcove. More than twenty feet up in the air, I made a mental note to ask Hana to make guard rails of some kind to reduce the risk of potential accidents. I am not afraid of heights, but it wouldn’t hurt to be prudent about such things either.

Peering into the large hollowed-out area, I was a little surprised to see that Hana had taken the effort to divide the space into three rooms. Granted, there were no doors, just open arches, but it was not something I had expected. After inspecting the first of the three rooms, I was impressed even further when I found that there was a large bed on the far side. Or at least I figured it had to be a bed because nothing else would really make sense.

The bed was a large roughly rectangular raised surface covered in what looked like thick springy moss. Taking an experimental lie down on the ‘bed’, I was happy to find that the moss was thicker than I had expected and quite comfortable. Hana had even gone through the trouble to grow the moss thicker at the head of the bed to approximate a long pillow. It was sort of weird when I stopped to think about it, right up until I remembered that Nadine was likely the source of the suggestions.

Investigating the two other rooms, I found that they were a little smaller but otherwise identical. Well, the beds would make sleeping tonight that much easier and help keep up morale, so they were definitely a welcome addition to the tree fort.

Walking back down the stairs to the first floor, I found it mostly as I had left it earlier, with the noted exception that now the large alcove was supported by a single large wooden pillar in the centre. Since it had not been necessary before, I just assumed that Hana had erred on the side of caution. Theoretically, the weight above would have been reduced by hollowing out the new bedrooms, but it was still the best explanation I could think of.

Although now that I was looking more closely, I noticed that the Daemonlings were absent. I had already assumed that Nadine and Hana would have taken Toofy with them to keep an eye on her, but for some reason, I had also assumed they would leave the Daemonlings behind. Walking back down the stairs, I retrieved my now dry tunic and trousers from the branch I hung them on earlier to dry. Pulling them on, I then quickly made my way over to the arching gap in the wall of trees.

Thankfully, Nadine, Hana, Toofy and the Daemonlings were all safe and sound. Hana seemed to be in the process of terraforming the surrounding swampland. She was draining swamp water from the small ponds in the immediate area and appeared to have similarly drained the excess moisture from the ground as well. The ground still felt soft underfoot, but it no longer sank with every step I took either.

[Toofy has slain {Fleshripper: 1 } +100 Exp], [Toofy has slain {Fleshripper: 1 } +100 Exp], [Toofy has slain {Fleshripper: 1 } +100 Exp]

Taking note of the trio of status alerts, I had to assume that the Fleshrippers were the carnivorous fish and that Toofy was opportunistically culling them after Hana left them stranded.

Hurrying over, I found that there were more of the fish than I had expected. The small pond had been perhaps thirty feet in diameter, but there were easily forty or so of the Fleshrippers still flopping around in the drying mud.

Thankfully, Nadine or Hana had given Toofy a spear, so she was not really in any danger. Skirting the periphery, Toofy chose her targets wisely. Striking without warning, it was rare for one of the Fleshripper’s to survive the first strike. After receiving the status notification, Toofy would then retrieve the dead fish and toss it into a proportionally large woven basket hanging off her back.

As I had expected, the Fleshrippers bore a striking resemblance to piranha, with one notable exception. The Fleshrippers had no eyes.

Giving Toofy a smile and a wave, I joined the others.

“Toofy wanted to surprise you with fish for dinner,” Nadine explained somewhat apologetically, “We tried talking her out of it, but the best we could manage was convincing her to use a spear instead of that shiv.”

Glancing over at Toofy stalking her next target, I nodded in understanding, “I hope she wasn’t too much trouble,” I apologised.

Nadine shrugged, “I think she was just really worried about you,” she explained, “I mean, you were just standing there and we didn’t know what was going on until Hana explained you were attuning to the Settlement through the Totem.”

“...” I was about to ask what that was, but rather abruptly I realised that I already seemed to know the answer.

Attuning to the Settlement was a necessary step in exercising control over the myriad of settings and controls available to the territory designated under the Settlement. I intuitively understood that changing these settings only required clear directed thoughts of intention while within the Settlement’s territory.

I also understood that a few settings had already been altered by a designated subordinate, Hana. Her title as Overseer was not just for show, it gave Hana a level of control over the Settlement that was just short of my own.

There was something else as well. As Lord of the Settlement, if the population reached a sufficient size, I would be able to issue quests.

*****

Riding the sled atop a small pile of monster corpses, Tobi continued contemplating how he would ask Tim for his assistance. It didn’t help that Tobi already owed him his life. The prospect of begging a favour on top of it all seemed like he was tempting refusal on principle alone.

Even though Tobi had assisted in Tim’s escape from the first-floor Foothold, he knew that his own contributions had been largely negligible. Even hunting for food and manastones, Clarice and Emelia were both proving far more helpful than Tobi. Without proper equipment, there really wasn’t much he could do about it. Slinging stones was all well and good, but there were precious few of them in the swamp and Tobi was slowly losing them to the treacherous bogs and murky pools.

While he was not a bad swordsman, Tobi certainly wasn’t very good either. Worse still, he only had a shortsword and was in no rush to get closer to the swamp monsters than was absolutely necessary. Tobi still thought Clarice had ro be at least a little crazy to so eagerly charge into close quarters at the first opportunity.

Scratching behind Shady’s ears, Tobi wondered if Tim and the others would allow him to rank up the faithful Shadowcat and if possible allow him to Evolve. Unlike his own personal request, Tobi felt like they would probably allow it.

Letting out a sigh, Tobi scanned the surrounding area for hidden threats. Or at least, he had meant to. Just like the last time and the dozen or so times before that, Tobi’s initial intentions were forgotten as his attention lingered on Emelia.

Quickly looking away before she noticed he was staring again, Tobi swallowed hard and tried to ignore the rushing blood in his ears. Fairly certain that Emelia was not spoken for, Tobi did not want to overstep his tenuous position in the group to confirm it.

Perhaps once he had solidified his position...

After allowing his mind to wander for a while, Tobi became aware of Clarice staring at him expectantly. “Uh...” He wasn’t sure what to say and was worried she had seen him looking at Emelia.

Clarice rolled her eyes, “I was asking if you saw anything trailing us.”

Tobi gulped dryly, “Ah, no, nothing has been following us,” he replied hastily.

Clarice narrowed her eyes and after a few moments, she began to grin. Glancing between Emelia and Tobi, it quickly became obvious that she suspected something. “Hey Emelia?” Clarice called out happily.

“Mmm?” Emelia shifted in the makeshift saddle, looking to Clarice with mild interest.

“I think Tobi’s been toughing it out on that sled for quite long enough. You should let him ride on Beaky again,” Clarice requested sweetly with a devilish grin.

Emelia shrugged, “Okay.”

The sled came to a halt.

Clarice motioned for Tobi to take his seat behind Emelia, “Well? Come on, we don’t have all day!” She insisted, eyes sparkling with barely concealed joy at his discomfort.

Tobi gulped and climbed up onto the saddle.

“Just try to be more careful with your sword this time,” Emelia stated a little crossly, “It was a little uncomfortable feeling it digging into my back last time you know?”

Clarice snorted and stared knowingly at him.

Tobi quickly fit his boots into the stirrups and gingerly wrapped his arms around Emelia’s waist.

Soon they were on the move again and Emelia giggled, “You know, I actually thought that maybe it was your other sword,” she said jokingly.

“AHAHAHA!” Clarice apparently couldn’t hold it in any longer and burst out laughing.

Deeply embarrassed, Tobi shifted back a little on the saddle.

“Aww, I’m sorry Tobi! It’s just a joke, I uh, I think you’re a real gentleman!” Emelia apologised, obviously misinterpreting the cause for his silence.

Coughing to clear his throat, Tobi did his best to seem unfazed, “It’s fine,” he insisted in what he hoped came across as nonchalant indifference.

“Ah, oh! I know! Why don’t we trade places! I’ll let you ride in front to make it up to you!” Emelia insisted, bringing Beaky to a stop again.

“It’s fine, really!” Tobi insisted, beginning to panic.

Emelia didn’t seem to be listening and leaned back on the saddle as she made to remove her feet from the stirrups. Glancing back behind herself as she was preparing to hop down from the saddle, Emelia suddenly froze. Looking quite puzzled, she was staring at the shortsword strapped to his left hip. Wriggling her behind experimentally, she seemed confused.

Tobi dared not make a single sound or move a muscle.

Emelia furrowed her brow in confusion and she looked over her other shoulder. Hopping off the saddle, Emelia's eyes grew wide in surprise and she began to blush, “Oh...”

On the verge of tears, Tobi felt a mounting sense of horror as he realised that his embarrassment was just making things worse. Torn between fight or flight, Tobi sighed in relief as his vision turned black and he slipped into blissful unconsciousness.

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