Chapter 23: Chapter 20: Putting Down Roots

I curled my hands into fists. 

 

The thought of getting my monsters killed made my blood boil, even if they came back alive and whole afterwards.

 

Only realising the unnatural speed at which I became attached to them stopped my immediate outburst - that, and the affectionate behaviour of my companions did. Tama pulled herself close, while a few smaller ones were vying to gain some attention, too. It wasn’t unusual, though my mind was elsewhere. 

 

The prospect of increasing back and forth between us and the aggressive locals was both frustrating and infuriating, especially in the long run, if I hoped to benefit from the ability to communicate and find answers to this madness.

 

Luckily, there wasn’t any pressure on me to make any quick decisions on the matter. 

 

At least, there wasn’t one in this very minute, or even today, as it would take some time before another group was going to pick a fight with me and mine. It was, however, possible they would come tomorrow. Our current hideout wasn’t truly remote. The place we made our camp in was merely secluded in the hills, surrounded by mostly dense forest with only one access route from each side. It was relatively defensible, but it was not impregnable. 

 

And so far, our days had been relatively hectic, with our enemies showing little loss of equipment or morale. 

 

The combative nature of the natives upset me greatly. 

 

But I tried to rationalise everything. 

 

They didn’t strike me in retaliation for the attack on the caravan. The released captives were probably still stumbling from the forest half a day of walking away from civilization and wouldn’t be able to reach local authorities for a while. And even then, without the modern response teams, their action should have been slow, relying on the decisiveness of whatever official was governing the area. 

 

I didn’t have any actual knowledge of the local governance system, but I made a few assumptions. Judging from the ancient aesthetics of what I’ve seen, there was some noble, or whatever the actual title was, ruling over his fiefdom, with a couple of men-at-arms in his disposal. It was how feudalism worked. 

 

There were, however, far too many armed men for that, and even peasants were far too aggressive around here when I thought about it. 

 

Drawing a mediaeval army took a while, but the Romans used to have a professional standing army at some period of their history at their disposal. 

Chances that I was facing the massive retribution from the local ruler were almost equally likely as the possibility of people shocked with my arrival, acting randomly. Without a way to talk to them, I was left with musing rather than anything remotely close to facts. 

 

It was possible we sat near a fort where the local equivalent of the legion was stationed, battle ready and alert from fighting in the constant skirmishes.

 

Maybe they mistook us for the barbarian raiding party. 

 

Or the men at the shrine were one, and we just replaced them as another potential threat they would have to dispatch.

 

How many men could they have, and how many of those fighters had the nearly supernatural fighting prowess I saw in a few of the humans? 

 

Were they ready to move, or did I take them by surprise? 

 

Was there some kind of uprising against the local authority explaining the large number of armed men in the forest? 

 

Were there ever different factions?

 

There were far too many possibilities, which ‌created many more questions I had no means of answering in any satisfying manner. I didn’t know who was who in this crazy land, just that it was hostile to us.

 

And despite everything that happened, I didn’t truly want to go on the offensive. It would be a risky endeavour.

 

Or not - I had no way of knowing. I wasn’t able to learn the local language fast enough to gather intelligence. I could only send out my monsters scouting blindly through the unknown. Relying on them being reborn next to me once our enemies spotted them would be cruel.

 

“Miwah?” I asked. “Who were the men that attacked us? Can you describe them? What were they doing?” 

 

“A group of armed men, soldiers, wearing this kind of armour.” Miwah answered, pointing at Narita. She wore a lamellar suit of armour we salvaged. It was one of the better pieces from my layman’s perspective, though I wasn’t able to tell what significance it had, whether it was meant for common soldiers or the elite. This, like many facts about this new world, was a guessing game. 

 

“They noticed our presence when their horses sensed us, were cautious, attacked, but retreated immediately when we stormed them.” My werewolf explained. I had only a very vague knowledge of strategy, and no real military experience, but it still seemed to be like a probing attack trying to measure our strength. 

 

“Scouts trying to find out how many of us there are?” I wondered aloud. 

 

“It is likely, Master.” She confirmed. 

 

I looked at her; she returned my gaze with a warm expression in her blue eyes. I was comfortable with them; I found out, but my emotions had to be put aside.

 

“Could you transport what was left of the supplies, or whatever else useful soldiers left behind here?” I said, “Have someone climbed the pagoda and let us know if humans approach from that direction?”

 

“You already asked this, Master.” she reminded me, and I noticed the sort-of smile. 

 

“I am sorry. And that way?” I pointed out in the other direction the road ran.

 

“There is no such structure that way. It would take more than a day to settle if we continued further.” Miwah answered, her eyes briefly focused on the horizons they couldn’t see thanks to the bond she had with smaller ‘Eviscerators’ lurking somewhere in the forest. 

 

“The best vantage point would be this, Master.” Tama added, pointing to the upper points of the ravine we controlled. 

 

Up there, two ‘Purifiers’ idled, amusing themselves with their fire controlling powers. One of them almost slipped and nearly plummeted down the cliff, regaining her footing at the last minute. It startled me‌ a little. Even if they weren’t worried about their lives, I was.

 

“Be careful! I don’t want you to fall down!” I yelled up at them..

 

“Master! Master!” the two vulpine monsters at the top of the cliff waved at me. They obviously needed safety rails up there, and considering the ramshackle scaffolding left behind by the humans once quarrying the stone, there was next to no building we could do with barely a few tools and no infrastructure. There wouldn’t be planks and nails to build a proper platform. Unless…

 

“We could try to use Mai’s power to shape plants like…” I said aloud, realising something.

 

“Mai?” I called, looking at the anthropomorphic reptile already trying to delegate the task to her smaller kin. 

 

“Command me, my Master!” she answered, without hesitation. She didn’t seem shy at all when there weren’t any humans around, with the last and only captive being already shoved into one hut. 

 

“I need your Corruptors.” I ordered. It was a strange name to call them, I remarked to myself mentally, but there were more important things to care about at this moment than the system’s very specific naming convention.

 

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As we walked towards the treeline where my other monsters had already worked on gathering the potential building material. 

One tree collapsed down with a hustling sound, followed by a loud thud. The part of its trunk still burned as the result of the ‘Purifiers’ using their fire blasts as a cutting method after chipping it enough with primitive tools, proving we aren’t that bad at logging. It would be better if we had easy earthwork, or horses to drag the weight, but what I thought about didn’t require any of that. 

 

I waited for a while, getting used to the fact that wherever I went, a small entourage followed, but ‌it looked like monsters worked in a controlled fashion, and upon noticing my arrival, stopped their frenetic work. 

 

“Master! Master!” They chanted in welcome. 

 

After making sure there was no other immediate danger from another falling tree, I continued forward, looking around for what the surrounding forest offered. While it was relatively lush, dense, and appropriate for the overgrowth long untouched by civilization, it wasn’t by any means impassable. It was merely difficult to see in a straight line, better obstructing the view for both sides rather than preventing anyone from sneaking up on us as they did in the past. 

 

Sadly, I noticed no fruit-bearing plants, or shrubbery with berries, or anything we could adapt as a food source in the future. There were, however, quite a few thorny bushes around, which gave me some ideas.  

 

“Mia?” I asked.

 

“Master!” One of the anthropomorphic rats in my entourage perked up immediately. She was of diminutive stature, brown-greyish, mousy, true to her nature of the rodent-themed monster, always around yet hard to notice, dressed up in a mix of salvaged clothing and the vestment-like armour piece that barely fit her size. 

 

It, however, served as the perfect reminder of how erratic my naming convention was. I had monsters with very similar sounding names, Mai and Mia around, with both posed to follow me, possibly even at all times considering there were always a few self-appointed ‘guards’ around me since the last attack. I expected a lot of confusion in the future.

 

Despite my obvious mistake, I did have an idea, and it would allow me to measure what the smaller forms of each monster can do. 

 

I kneeled down, looped my hand around the rat-girl which welcomed the attention with almost a squeak, then gestured to one of the other monsters - this time a small lizard like ‘Corruptor’, who proved impossible to distinguish despite their lower number. They were very similar, with their greenish scales and yellow eyes.

 

“Could you try to grow the spiky shrubbery into a wall of sorts?” I instructed the reptilian one, “As much as you can. If you exhaust yourself, Mia here will give you a boost.” 

 

“For Master!” The lizard creature answered with resolve in her girlish voice and worked her magic in the most literal fashion.

 

With a brief look up, I found out that Mai and Narita looked quite satisfied. Perhaps they were happy I was interacting with their respective kin instead of petting the always affectionate and fluffy ‘Purifiers’.

 

In the meantime, the way the twisting powers affected a nearby plant made the ‘Corruptor’ an aptly named type of monster. The blue glow seeped into the plant, turning the small growing brush shoot up into a tangled mess of thick hedge and nearly knife-ling spikes among the sick green leaves with dashes of other colours. It would turn into a veritable wall of thorns with enough power.

 

My small reptilian helper, however, collapsed down in exhaustion, reminding me that their reserves were indeed limited. Her body twitched, and her breathing seemed rather irregular too, the first instance where my creature truly exhausted her reserves. I ran my hand over her smooth scales, and as much as I disliked the snakes, I found my small humanoid reptilian quite cute, and not only because of the liberties my power took in shaping them. 

 

“Mia,” I asked, “ now try to drain the other plants without damaging the changed one to make my little one fit again.” 

 

Mia, my confusingly named rodent, did so, proving that they were able, in fact, to choose the target. A small portion of the even present shrubbery withered and died, turning into green aura around the dozing, exhausted lizard-girl.

 

She jerked out with the sudden infusion of power and jumped up to give me a happy hug, nearly making me fall back. I also found out that, despite the feathered reptilian appearance, the ‘Corruptors’ were in fact warm-blooded. Quite shocking, I wasn’t sure one existed in nature, but it didn’t matter. This one was mine. 

 

“Should I feel jealous?” Tama remarked, but I ignored her for now.

 

“Do you have a name?” I asked my little lizard-girl. I had to. Even though I named a handful of their kind, there weren’t that many of them, and unless, or until, they started the show with diversifying personalities like Helmy, particularly crazy ‘Purifier’, I couldn't tell them apart. 

 

“Master…” she said, with a sad tone. I took it for “No.” 

 

“Then I shall name you Mirta!” I declared, albeit silently. The effect was immediate - the system, or whatever power lied behind it, considered giving names as a valid reason to reward - or curse - me with yet another batch of monsters. 

Unit named! Mirta, The Named Corruptor Skill “Green Hell lvl.7” gained.

The red mist erupting from the surrounding ground gave me more reptilian humanoids - perhaps, my ‘Corruptors’ were fantasy kobolds of sorts, but it didn’t matter right now. They were mine, and I had a plan for them.

 

I stood up. 

 

“I want to use the ‘Corruptor’ to make a barrier around the camp…” I gestured around, pointing to the stubby, thorn-covered abomination of the plant, and then waved to show the forest as I explained a plan. 

 

It was silent, if not for the occasional encouraging “Master!” from my monsters. 

 

“Like a layered circle.” I said, “Inner layer would be untouched plants for logging, and growing something edible. The layers after that would be converted to energy by my Defilers, to fuel the transformation on the outermost one by Corruptors. We don’t need to build a wall, we will grow one.” 

 

Narita looked at Mai, and then at me, and I could sense their comprehension of the idea. 

 

“Yes-yes, Master.” Narita said, with her few smaller versions seconded with “For Master!” 

 

“Our spike pits did work, too.” Tama offered with a sly smile.

 

“No spike pits inside the barrier.” I said resolutely, “I don’t want to fall into one just by taking a few steps out of our home!” 

 

“I wouldn’t let you.” She said, coming close to me, hushing away the smaller kin: “I will hold you most of the time, Master.” 

 

Strangely, I didn’t protest against keeping her close.

 

“I don’t want to fall into the spike pit with you, either. There are better things we can do together…” I said.

 

“Indeed, Master.” confirmed the vixen, with her typically sultry tone, not missing the opportunity to flirt. 

 

I didn’t mean it that way. This, although quite normal behaviour from Tama since the very minute she came with me into this world, produced its own share of mixed feelings, which I immediately pushed aside in favour of another deal of practical plans for our growing horde. I didn’t, however, push aside the vulpine companion. There was a certain assurance in her closeness. She, like Miwah, was with me from the very first hour of this journey - though with the speed they appeared, it hardly mattered from any sensible perspective. 

 

“I want you to send a few foragers … or notify the hunters at the very least, to try to bring in staples of edible berry stumps Mai can work with.” I said.

 

“Yes, Master!” Miwah answered, but I quickly held my hand up to prevent them from simply running away in all directions, as they always did. Perhaps they sensed it in me, since the personal entourage stayed around for my last words. 

 

“Before you go. Mai, Narita, I want to gather the unnamed Corruptors and Defilers in the camp, and…” I blurted, and paused. 

 

“We are going to have a little naming ceremony.”

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