One of the things Rex found somewhat interesting while traversing the cave complex was the cloth covers, that were used as a sort of doors to seperate different rooms. The snakemen were nowhere near sofisticated or civil enough to spend any time whatsoever on things such as non warfare crafting, adn even in terms of weapons all they had were things they had looted from some of their raids. Neo was thinking the best way to enter the first breeding chamber, and as a man of culture, he popped his head past the cloth and spoke in an excited way
"HERE'S JHONNY!!"
Sadly the response was alert and defensive postures of the women inside. An unknown entity had somehow infiltrated the village, and had even reached them. While treated roughly, and used by almost any of teh sucsesfull hunters, they were still considered important comodity in the tribe, since they were the main lifeforce of the new blood flowing in.
"Who speaks common." Neo spoke in common, to check if any here understood it. He saw a few shifty glances, yet not a single woman snake lady dared to speak, so he utilized his newly aquired knowledge of their snake tongue. Draining teh few hundred warriors was enough to learn the basics of it. And any appendages he didnt have to make it sound the way it was meant was solved with the help of mana manipulation.
"I will ask once more, and I expect a proper response, or you all will end up just like all the warriors in the tribe. DEAD." It was difficult to discern, what scared the women more- the fact that he was speaking snake tongue or the implication that all the warriors were dead. If that could be trusted.
"SPEAK!" Neo raised his voice, and what seemed to be the younger one among the twelve flinched, and in a trembling soft voice responded in snake tongue.
"Some barely understand common, just a few words, not enough for answering."
"At least someone speaks, snake tobgue will do as well. So lets start. What are the differences between this and the other two chambers with women?" he continiued in snake tongue. And to his question answered on of the pregnant snake ladies
"This as well as the other large one is for the birthing and hatching of their new warriors. The last room is where they have their next generation of mothers hatched and raised. Women of our kind need a lot of specific conditions to lay eggs that hatch into females, so only the true daughters of this tribe recieve that honour. Ones like us are used untill we are worn out by birthing new warriors."
"Hmm? What then of the ones in slavery? I heard only daughters are born to the few that are enslaved and every one seems to be a hybrid."
"Lack of our genes. No warrior can develop." this time responded the other one of the pregnant snake ladies.
"So all of you here and in the second chamber are not from this tribe correct?" Neo asked and saw all twelve nod.
"Warrioirs? All without exception?" he asked as he pointed at the pregnant ladies, and once again recieved nods. Then he gave a mental command and his cosmic ravens swarmed the two mothers, and and a few cries later the two women were left alone once again. They no longer had protruding bellies. Neo had used his drain with surgical precision, removing all traces of the eggs existance.
"Waste of space." Then his ravens flocked over to the remaining eggs, not sparing a single one. This was purge, Neo knew it very well, but much like with parasites, he could muster no remorse in his actions, nor would he ever even try. Some creatures should not exist. He then moved to the second room, and repeated the purge just like in the previous room, and he then moved towards the last room with living beings inside. The twenty four women had subconsciously followed after him, since they had no idea what was to be their fate. Once Neo arrived in front of the last room, he glanced back and asked
"What would you do with those inside?" he asked the women behind him, sine they had suffered at the hands of this tribe, and the ones ahead were a part of it, and even recieved quite a good treatment. The queen mother of the tribe is always selected from among these women. neo had slain the previous one who fought alongside a rather large sized snakeman. It was in the middle of the A class, and the queen was low tier A class, so they were no challenge, especially with Limitless being employed. And even the two mages this tribe had were far too weak to even give Neo some hints on ways to develop or modify his magic further.
"While part of our oppressors, the women of our race are gentle and not to blame, nor are the life in the eggs they are nurturing. We bear no ill will towards them." Spoke one of the older ones after the girls had conversed among themselves for a while.
"Can you tell how long till they hatch?" Neo asked. How different were his thoughts now. He could see the hypocrisy in his actions, but to be honest he also didnt think it was so black and white. The eggs he exterminated before would grow up to be just another batch of savage monsters- nothing more,nothing less. Here however, the future held gentle and beautifull ladies. It was an obvious strugle to even think of eliminating them.
Once inside he could sense the different temperature and air humidity in the room and he saw he the defensive postures the six women took, using their bodies to cover the eight eggs they were enveloping.
"Soon. Very soon." spoke the oldest one from the previous group "Just a few days, and they will hatch. Once hatched, they are just like any other hatchlings."
"Perfect." spoke neo as he withdrew collars from one of his space rings. These were simple curse collars. Nothing as sophisticated as slavery ones, since they cound not compell the wearer to the owners orders. They served as the stick, with which to beat unrully slaves. A simple command could evoke quite the pain, and this pain was the way one was made to obey. Rex would never stoop to such crude techniques, but Neo could not use blood magic, so compromises had to be taken, sine he had not yet decided if he wanted this group of snake women to become his slaves. While pretty, they were nowhere near breathtakingluy beautifull to rouse his interest.
"Do you consider yourselves beautifull among your own kin?" he asked as he glanced back to the larger crowd of teh women.
"Sir jests" the youngest spoke "So far on the outskirts of our territory only the tribes with the weakest blood resides. The purer the blood, the more beautifull the woman, and more powerfull the male."
"So I will find better women deeper in the desert is what you are saying. Wear those for now. You should know that they are." he spoke and gestured to the collars "Obey adn there wount be pain. Simple."
His commanding voice and his display up to know, and the fact they had not encountered a single warrior, or their corpse, indicated that the human was incredibly dangerous, and it was smarter to not incur his wrath.
"What will become of us?" the youngest asked in a meek voice, and then looked at the women still protecting the eggs "And them?"
"First, they hatch the eggs, then I will think. It would be a waste to just kill any of you. While not breathtaking, you are all still good looking, if a little ran through."
"Since we will be waiting for a while, I will just have you to tell me stuff I need to know. And to begin with, what purpose do the weird bugs in the lower levels serve?"
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
"They are our farms." Spoke one of the six who were incubating the eggs. "Unlike the males, we do not consume meat for the most part. Only when in incredible hunger do we stoop so low, or if the meat belongs to lesser creatures like cattle and such. The creatures below have symbiotic relationship with the moss and other plantlife growing in some caverns here. When not rearing the next generation of our women, we herd and tame the new ones. We also protect them from any greater predators lurking in such cave systems, since all underground cave systems are created by the grand worms and as such are connected, and a home to a myriad of creatures, many of which predate on the lesser beings."
While still aprehensive, the six seemed a bit less tense, nice the invader was not planning on killing their hatchilngs. At the very least for now.
"Some of you who have worn the collar may go and collect food from there. We will be staying here untill they hatch." Neo spoke as he pointed his thumb in the dirrection of the six.
"The smart one stays, since I need more answers." he then pointed to the older one who had answered the most of his questions. The next few days Neo spent there, waiting for the hatching and aquiring as much info from the women as he could regarding the way their society works and anything else regarding his objective. He learned a great deal. First, similar to dungeon orcs, the tribes warred among themselves, and only the women from the loosing tibe ever survived. basicly same rules applied to the snake ladies when turned into slaves, and Neo saw it in action firshand. Bigger tribes could have women of other races chained and used as breeding slaves as well, trying to attain stronger bloodline through such unions, but there would have to be a few shamans in the tribe to reach such sofistication. Since they were enslaved just a month or so ago, Neo attained a rather important information regarding the rumors of the warlord Al Merhads had heard of. It was true, and now he had a general idea of where to hunt for his snack and prize.
Besides a rather sizeable reward he would get from the merchants, he laerned tha tthe warlord would be collecting the most beautifull of the tribe women for his grand coronation ceremony. Once he unites the tribes he would be wed to dozen of the most beautifull concubines to start his dinasty. But he could not indulge till then. Ren-Sa, elder snakewoman was more than willing to answer all of his questions. While she looked no more in her mid fourties, she was more than hundred years old, and so she new quite a lot. She was also one of the pregnant ladies he had purified from the spawn of evil. Her seniority provided quite extensive adn deep knowledge regarding all things related to snake people. Women served as sages and wise elders, once they reached a certain age, yet the same fate awaited them if their tribe lost a war with another- as long as one could still be used to breed warriors, they would be used for it, if not, they were killed.
Three days had passed, since Neo started waiting, and the women were betting by. The six in the center of the room were feeding the newly hatched girls. They were joined by another few with the largest breasts. A notable difference between the genders were in the diet of the hatclings. The girls would be just like other humanoids, feeding on milk for the early part of their like, and they needed the assistance of the mothers to survive. The males however, once hatched could immediatly feast on any kind of living being, provided they could kill it. And they also were independant sicne the moment they were born. As for how did the motehrs started to lactace was quite interesting. When the girls hatch and break the egg shell ,a special hormone is released in the air. Any female snake woman in a close vicinity coming in contact with the hormone start to develop milk, so now Neo had eight newly born snake girls and a wooping thirty nursing options. And as a matter of pride, he did sample them all, picking a few of his favorites. Funnily enough, it seemed that the more experienced the woman, the better taste their milk had, so it was no wonder Ren-Sa was among the few of his favourites.
He had been thinking over what to do now, besides his need to murder the wrlord and claim his to be harem as his own, untill Ren-Sa had approached him and prostrated herself, asking him to take them with him, since there was no way they could survive for long before another tribe scouts them and they are once again in the same situation they were before, of maybee even worse. After a while of thinking, and realizing he will need staff to maintain his Holy whores, he accepted Ren-Sa's request, while warning her that theiy will become his property in every sense of the word. And after a small explanation of what they could expect from their future under him, he was confused seeing their response. All of them were relaxed, some even elated at the prospect of the future. Ren-Sa explained that their reaction was quite natural, since Veran women- the name they used for their snakepeople race- were quite peace loving and social beings, and they would have both under him. He was plenty strong and they would be living in a bustlting city, slaking their thirst for interactions with others and boundless knowledge.
Once they all had the collars on- a temporary measure untill they were brought to the capital where they would stay under the protection of Al Merhads, untill he was done with his hunt, and brought to Blythe for branding, they departed for the city. A couple days of travel later, Neo the group had reached the capital. There was quite the commotion when a group of thirty beautifull Veran women were entering alongside a single man, but the guards quickly let them pass since Neo showed them a pass he had recieved from the royal clan, clearing his entry instantly. No sane guard would try any funny business with Neo or the women following him, even if some have had such ideas beforehand.
Soon after Neo was leaving the women in a rather heavily guarded mansion under Al Merhads, since he had informed them that with the knowledge he had aquired from this group, he had enough to go on a bigwig lizard hunt. He had a funny thought of having had Crystal unleased upon the main settlement of the veran where the warlord's residence was, but he had a much better way to solve the current situation. He would create a boogy man for the snakes. One that would haunt the nightmares of their would be leaders of the future. So he set off to do what he had planned.
He spent another few days traveling to his current destination. He was also doing so in clear sight, not trying to hide whatsoever. Any Veran patrols he encountered he effortlessy slayed, cut off their heads, mounted them on a rather large pike, stored it and then moved onwards once again. Once he reached an interesting cage of sorts of large bone like structures ptotruding from the sands he pulled out the pike with the adorned heads, created a small barrier around it, so he does not have to deal with the stench as the heasd will eventually dry up, and entered teh area ahead. The protruding spikes indicated the beggining of the territory of the main settlement of the Veran, and such pikes were spanning all around the territory, something that had numerous legends passed down among the women of the tribes, explaining the significance and origins of them.
Not paying much attention he kept on advancing,encountering even more and more groups of Veran males. While still savage and bloodthirsty, these ones had reason, but they still attacked. This time it was because he was invading their main city. The pike was adorned with more and more heads, soon recieving tails of sorts that were made of more heads, and were pulled along with the pike. The rest of their bodies were scattered in mana dust as dozens of cosmic ravends were flying around in the sky, following the harrowing head hunter on his way to the city of Veran.
Half a day and half thousand heads later, no other group dared to attack the monster on his way to their city. He was followed by a bunch of them however, since he did not kill annyone who didnt engage him in combat, if one sided slaughter could be called that. The peculiar thing that was even more baffling to them was both that the man could speakd snake tongue, and was more than willing to converse with the pretty ladies who had taken the courage to approach, lured by the display of the monstrous might. What baffled them even more was his reason for his actions. The man had heard that they had a warlord in making, and said warlord was rounding up the most beautifull of Veran women to claim as his once he would unite their race. Then he would attack the humans and expand teh lands his dynasty would rule. And once teh few women confirmed his words, he continiued.
"THE AUDACITY OF THE VERMIN!." he exclaimed, then continiued in a more normal tone, yet arrogance and indignance clear in his voice "To lay claim on the beauties that are mine by right, and to imply he would conquer lands where people who enrich me resides. The arrogance and ignorance. So I have to show, who is the true warlord around these parts. Where he gathers the tribes and followers, I gather the heads of my slain enemies. Where he needs to muster an army, I AM AN ARMY. I will challenge and kill him, and all who stand with him, claim the beauties, who are mine, and then allow the rest of you to think over your war with the people at the edges of the desert. Do what you will, but ensure there is nothing worse than skirmishes, or I will have to come back once again." He lightly smiled at teh girl who asked the qesution, and answered a few other question some other of the fangirls he had near him as they kept moving forward to the city proper. Questions that included explanation to how there was no smell of the heads strung adn pulled along with his pole, what type of beauties he liked and so on. Untill by the evening he had reached a wall that encompased the city. A large crowd already gathered, sicne a few scouts had returned with all haste to report the coming storm. There was a promise of a battle of epic proportions between their warlord and the headhunter who had come to claim his head.