Although only a small amount of light filtered through the canopy of the Eternal Oak, the darkness took on a more dangerous edge as night crept across the forest. Outside our hub of activity, the silence became heavy. Shadows seemed deeper, capable of obscuring the sinister movements of monsters.

The environment became spooky, but I felt worried for a different reason. Of course, the parental Fae Squirrels probably will whisper stories about the lurking danger of Chimera Cores, who invaded their land, slaughtered their Champion and Protectors, and then demanded the surrender of their Kami.

Honestly, it felt a bit unfair, considering how hard I had plotted to avoid an even worse outcome. But as I pivoted around, I caught sight of Nightshade and his arm of sewn-on squirrel heads. My eyes developed a mild glaze. You cannot determine outcomes, only your own actions. If people wish to jump to conclusions-

Hah, who am I kidding? We are worthy of being the villains of this story.

Across the clearing, the morose cub Kami spoke in a hushed tone to his Shamans about the horrors visited upon their people at the hands of humanity for centuries. From their scrunched-up expressions, and the fact that they no longer cast glares in the direction of the Chimera Core expedition, they began to accept that an alliance with creatures of blight was a palatable option.

If humans on this planet were anything like the people from Earth, I could understand why intelligent animal life would resent them. And from the perspective from sapient land deities? Humans were truly demons of avarice.

Actually, should I be concerned about how monsters will respond to my economic plans? I felt almost exasperated. When I demonstrate that, rather than resisting the humans, I intend to borrow their methods…

A loud voice erupted from one of the shamans. “But still, Great One! These filthy humans are undoubtedly a danger. But to sacrifice your precious Plasm-”

“Heh, although these eyes of mine may close, a Plasm is the least important of the Kami’s aspects. So long as my people thrive, so long as the land flourishes…! Naught else matters to me.”

“Kami-!” The leader of the Shamans sobbed out the word, unable to prevent tears from forming in the corner of his beady eyes. All of the fae squirrels swarmed down out of the hole-riddled tree and swarmed the larger bear cub. Their tiny hands gripped the Kami’s fur, begging him not to take this course of action.

They were so numerous that they covered the entirety of the Kami’s muscular body. More and more squirrels swarmed down, another layer of flesh thrown across the squirrel blanket covering the Kami, until even the powerful cub staggered under their weight. As an entire species, the fae squirrels embraced their leader.

“You fools!” The Kami unleashed an emotional cry, seemingly swayed by their outpouring of emotion.

Or perhaps literally swayed by their weight.

The clearing shook as the Kami finally could handle his people’s weight no longer and crashed to the ground, covered in squirrels. The ‘tragedy’ of their display was somewhat undercut by the glittery squirrel tails and the overly muscled bear cub.

Meanwhile, I dutifully straightened when a still teary-eyed Shaman swam out of the mass of squirrel bodies and sniffed loudly at me. “Surely, your break must be over? Let us continue to talk about the wonders of the Kami’s magic circle.

“As you can see-” The Shaman waved vaguely over the middle portion of the magic array. “These are the most important aspects of the summoning circle. They concentrate the energy into a workable form. Ah, don’t even attempt to recreate this sublime arrangement; the consciousness of the Kami himself designed it. Such perfection in engineering is beyond you. The outer portion of the circle-”

He offered another half-hearted wave. “-connects our hearts and minds to the power of the Summoned Protector. For a selfish, blight being like you, this might be difficult to understand, but each of us fae squirrels appreciates and values the community. We collaborate and give, filling our warriors with the spirit of unity. As such-”

The Shaman meandered through his explanation, waffling between relevant details to vague overtones of anti-Chimera Core rhetoric. (There were several painful parallels with the way I had thought about crayfish in the past, so I couldn’t really judge). And really, with Nightshade’s squirrel head arm dribbling blood at the other end of the clearing, I didn’t really have any disagreement with the horrors he attributed to us.

While the Shaman continued his lecture, I tried to focus on the few substantive details he had given me.

…well, he might have a point about this central portion. After only a few seconds, I had to look away as I felt the familiar sensation of my consciousness beginning to tremble under the strain of understanding. But these energy concentration nodes… there’s something…

My energy sonar narrowed its scope. I ignored the Shaman’s words. I allowed myself to fully focus on the four points that gathered up power for the array. They almost seem to stand guard, arranged around the central concentration portion and the outer control portion. And to my great surprise, when I focused all of my energy on absorbing information from those four points, I began to see.

The array nodes are rotating.

Your Skill (Species) Lesser Array Knowledge has grown to Level 9.

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Your Skill (Species) Lesser Array Knowledge has grown to Level 10.

You have understood a new array: [Concentration Array]

Even after I understood what occurred in front of me, I didn’t let my focus waver. Because what my System-enhanced instincts told me didn’t make sense; somehow, the little nodes were rotating inwards.

So I kept looking. Gradually, my awareness sharpened.

Your Skill (Earned) Detection has grown to Level 25(+4).

Your Skill (Species) Lesser Array Knowledge has grown to Level 11.

I can actually see it, I felt almost entranced, all my awareness narrowed down to the small point of energy within the summoning array. Each node… they aren’t just points of energy; they are little hoops. Or pillars of stacked hoops. For this Concentration Array, which is just one little piece of the summoning, there are two hoops. The top one rotates top-inward, and the bottom rotates bottom-inwards, pulling the energy together-

Oh, the Foundational Array probably really is just a point of energy. Then the Barrier would be the basic hoop. Huh, I wonder then, if the rotations of these two hoops were reversed-

Your Skill (Species) Lesser Array Knowledge has grown to Level 12.

Your Skill (Species) Lesser Array Knowledge has grown to Level 13.

You have understood a new array: [Dispersal Array]

I sat back as my mind buzzed with a sudden surge of understanding.

Next to me, the Shaman glared. “Are you not taking this seriously?! This is exactly why foreign necrotic beings cannot be trusted…! Although we have extended such a generous opportunity to learn to you- Heh, I will unveil your laziness, blight spawn. Kami! Kami!”

The Shaman waved his tiny paws excitedly. The Kami, who had been engaged in a surprisingly enthralling conversation with Nightshade, raised his head. “Hm?”

“Please, look at this,” The Shaman pointed at me. “Examine this one’s true nature.”

Some part of me knew the Shaman of Retribution had done basically nothing to help me learn and now attempted to slight me in front of the Kami, but I didn’t have the spare attention to be mad; all of my focus was still on those wondrous little hoops of energy. My curiosity and wonder had revved my mental engine all the way up.

The Kami and Nightshade ambled over and I stretched out a tentacle. I concentrated Mana to the tip. The hoops need to be laid as close together as possible- actually, do they? The effects are probably different, depending on the space between them and the size of the energy…

How long had it been since I felt like this? Like I held the tiniest piece, but with it, I could build an entire world? Writing sometimes provided this thrill, but oftentimes I became too mired in the details to feel the rush. No, even before that-

It had probably been since Mimi decided she was too cool for Legos. I would have been about ten when she had changed her mind? She would have been fourteen. All of a sudden, she didn’t like them anymore. No longer could I sneak into her room while she was out with friends, approaching her immaculately assembled sets, trying to take them apart and reassemble them without any mistakes, so she wouldn’t notice.

“Go on then,” The Shaman prodded me, a sneering triumph in his small brown eyes.

I released a breath. I concentrated on the Mana and wrought the small glowing hoops of energy. Next to me, the Shaman’s eyes began to bulge as I created four nodes and assembled a basic Concentration Array.

Your Skill (Temp) Inferior Adrenaline Rush has grown to Level 22.

Your Skill (Species) Lesser Array Knowledge has grown to Level 14.

Your Skill (Earned) Mana Sensitivity has grown to Level 25(+9).

Your Skill (Species) Lesser Array Knowledge has grown to Level 15.

“A good first effort,” The Kami observed. Then he leaned closer. “Huh? Can you… already manipulate the ring size?”

“Apparently not,” I sighed as the all-consuming focus of the last few minutes faded, leaving me feeling hollow and faint. I raised my tiny squirrel hands and rubbed my temples. “I had… intended for all those to be the same size…”

I looked at the array in front of me. Already, I could feel how a portion of the natural energy flowing through the surroundings accumulated naturally inside of the barrier I had created. At the very least, there was a concrete benefit; it looked like there was a noticeable boost to my Mana regeneration.

Lesser Array Knowledge, you took a while to grow up, but now my expectations of the future are bright.

The Kami simply looked at me for several long moments. I felt my hackles rise from the intensity of his gaze, wondering if he really was disappointed. Today had seen me wring out a little extra from my body, first in terms of violence, then in terms of planning, and now for the creation of arrays, that I couldn’t follow the developments.

When the Kami finally glanced away, it was to Nightshade. “Is he often like this?”

“Brother Tallum has never allowed a small success to lessen his drive toward a larger one,” Nightshade looked at me with grins all across his headarms.

I felt vaguely insulted. “What are you talking about? Of us three siblings, I’m definitely the most relaxed.”

“When have Sage and I ever been so fixated on the endeavor to understand the nature of our new forms that we were rendered unconscious?” Nightshade shook his heads, somehow both exasperated and fond.

My jaw dropped. Really Nightshade? Leisure snobbery from you? Who probably sleeps on a king-sized bed… carved from the flesh of your enemies, by that cursed left hand (headtotem) of yours?

“You have talent,” The Kami lifted his chin and looked away as he spoke. “If I only… well, it matters not. Only one more Seed remains to be given the crystal isolation, yes? How much longer?”

“...not long,” I spoke after checking my Mana. Creating the array had depleted me by 20, but I would regain that soon.

Releasing a grunt of indeterminate meaning, the Kami turned away. I clapped my cheeks to refocus my attention. Then I began to stretch, forcefully overcoming the fuzziness in my mind by exploding force through my physical body. I pushed out with my bloodsoaked left fang and hit-

“Oh? Heh, Chosen Tallum…”

I froze; when I had flung out my fang, it had encountered a serrated foreleg. Violala considered me with glittering eyes. “I had not even realized you noticed my approach- indeed, you are one who cannot be judged by normal metrics. Rest assured, your message has been received; now that the Kami’s mission has been handled, the ambush games are reinstated.”

“Violala,” I blinked several times.

She waved a foreleg as she turned away. “Worry not, Chosen-- obviously I will wait until you are distracted so it is a worthy ambush; you have proven that petty tricks are useless against you.”

That… I felt too exhausted to even speak. That’s definitely not my concern…

Hah, maybe I just let her end this life? Aren’t I a failure, if even Nightshade thinks he is more leisurely than me?