Time marched forward. I slept early, after the previous night of zombie extermination.

When I woke, it was to the sound of rustling reeds as wind brushed the wetlands to wakefulness. After a long yawn, more out of habit than any physical necessity, I moseyed out of the stump and looked around.

The sun stretched above the horizon, illuminating the previous evening’s worth of concentrated labor, focused now on what I wanted, rather than what was necessary. And after a night not disturbed by zombies, but instead a night of sleeping with a tummy full of Anima, I felt a warm spring of satisfaction opening up and pouring relaxation into my very soul.

Just as I felt peace, the Mana of the surrounding land roiled.

Tonight, we will speak. Another summit will occur at dusk within my Temple.

Hidden with the announcement I could feel To and Fro’s satisfaction; It had claimed the Northern mudfields and would undoubtedly be swaggering around and oozing smugness. Tonight, we would discuss our next moves.

But while I stretched and considered, I found a small wrinkle in my heart. I had poured my heart into last evening’s efforts. Clearing reeds, marking out what areas would be pathways and what would be ‘green-space’... but then, this morning, I remembered the strange harshness of the last time I had seen Sage.

The wrinkle wriggled; I missed my new monstrous sister. Then I felt stupid. Hadn’t the source of her ire been concern? There was no way that this fight had been enough to create an uncrossable chasm between us.

“Wish anxiety would be so reasonable though,” I sighed. It didn’t work as well as I wanted it to, but I just tried to ignore the small fault line in my emotions.

After going to Mimi’s grave, slapping my squirrel hands together, and saying a silent prayer for her soul, I moved to examine the fruits of my efforts. My paving experiments, if I did say so myself, were a resounding success.

However-

“Hum… well, I really should have thought this through…” I grimaced and clacked my fang against the solid beginnings of my road. It was a small island of pristine, glittering white in the wetland. I could move onto it, first gingerly then with more vigor, without damaging the ‘pavement’ at all. With a surface like this, wheels became a very tempting avenue of investment.

However, beneath that layer, the necrotic seeds continued radiating out their power, thickening the layer. And I had no convenient way to remove them.

I released a groan. “Do I just need… to dig them out?”

The world didn’t answer. But, I had come to realize, the stoic, straight faced world was answering in its own way, by holding back a laugh. After another explosive side, I took off my leisurely land developer hat and once more became Tallum the day laborer.

“You take a man out of the brickyard, but you can never take the brickyard out of the man,” I awkwardly used my stained fang to carve up the mud next to my pavement. I pointedly did not reflect on how the crayfish mucker limbs would be exceedingly useful for this process. I also made a mental note to force the spiderlings to do this in the future.

But, I reflected, It builds character for the first time to be done by hand. Makes sure, no matter how high I rise in this fantasy world, I don’t forget my roots. My-

Your Skill (Species) Interstitial Body Structure has grown to Level 33.

Your Skill (Earned) Body Manipulation has grown to Level 25(+18)

My expression soured as I stretched a tentacle out underneath the pavement and wormed through the mud to pluck out the necrotic seeds. Any reflection on my roots in this world sent me hurtling back in time, to the rage, fear, and pain in Sage’s voice as she shouted at me for endangering myself.

I once more completely set aside the confrontation almost 24 hours ago.

“And what am I supposed to do?” I muttered to myself as I used my tortoise legs to stomp the disturbed mud back into flatness after my labor was finished. “Go to her place, beg forgiveness? Bring her a gift, to win back her affection. But I’m just trying-”

I cut myself off. That was the other awkward part of yesterday’s emotional turmoil. Nightshade had a point. When in doubt, especially after how my last life ended, in the fantasy world I defaulted to action. No matter the danger, because I couldn’t handle the prospect of missing my second chance.

Yet if I didn’t act-

“Damnit!” I threw my tentacles up into the air. Weak necrotic seeds flew in every direction. “How did I arrive at the point that I crave the simplicity of violence?”

“...is now a bad time?”

Your Skill (Earned) Detection has grown to Level 25(+23).

I froze. Once more Detection, which webnovels had always taught me to be one of the most overpowered Skills available, proved it was only a hindsight hero. After a long moment I pivoted to look at Takkle, the otter with whom I had danced. She had an armful of weak necrotic seeds and minor river opals.

Coughing lightly, I shook my head. “No, I’m just… just, uh-”

“Do not worry, even I occasionally crave the thrill of battle,” Takkle assured me, deepening the misunderstanding. “I just wished to turn in these for more of your currency discs. Definitely, the bounty of the land grows as the seals on Kamis continue to weaken. Although… I was unsure how much this would be worth.”

She dropped three minor river opals of the typical variety, but then one larger one. I leaned forward and pressed a tentacle against the sizable gem. Honestly, it was a relief to focus on something else.

Your Skill (Earned) Innate Mana Attunement has grown to Level 6.

Corrupted River Opal: A river opal grown in an area with the presence of significant necrotic energy. The river energy has been tainted by the presence, inverting the opal’s usual properties. Acts as a natural magnet to necrotic abominations in a small area. Can be used for magical experiments.

Even as my eyes twitched at the magnet status of the river opal, Takkle leaned forward and spoke in a whisper. “I also feel compelled to admit to you that… I have my suspicions this is a cursed object. The number of reanimated foes has been quite diminished, but while carrying this, it seemed I was constantly attacked.”

“Thank… you.” I managed to squeak out the words. I instinctively pinged out with energy sonar and Detection, but the Skill had proven so unreliable I wasn’t surprised I felt nothing in the surrounding area.

Usually, you would hide the lemon-like existence of a jewel, especially when it is such an impressive size… but I shouldn’t be upset my economic partners demonstrate a total lack of guile… won’t that mean my trading can be my source of leisure?

Almost to reinforce the thought, Takkle followed up. “I have also considered what I wish to trade for. I have noted your spiders have manufactured some excellent mud. Very fresh-smelling. Pukkle and I are considering moving our primary burrow closer to the Kami’s temple and would like to purchase much of this material to line the interior.”

Before I could answer, Takkle held up a paw. “Price is no object. I believe I have participated in the most trades, and am therefore the richest individual in the wetlands.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I couldn’t find the words to deny the otter, so I nodded. “...sure. I’ll send word to the spiderlings; go take as much muck- err, mud as you want.”

After Takkle left, I stood in the wafting fumes of her impressive economic arrogance. I couldn't help but laugh, my jelly trembling with amusement. Everyone is moving and investing in their lives. That's what it means to be part of a community. Both figuratively… and literally.

Your Skill (Earned) Innate Mana Attunement has grown to Level 7.

Mana flowed through my body, some clinging to my animating array, but the lion’s share tumbling through and becoming part of a vast sky river of Mana that had become increasingly obvious the past few days. The river ran its way through the air high above us, situated just a short distance below the day’s wispy clouds. Small tributaries of energy fell, almost like rain, down from the source to the ground beneath our feet.

I felt confused about the exact positioning of these energy falls for a bit, until the very visible presence of the largest one by far coincided with To and Fro the River Wanders’ temple. From there, looking out across the wetlands, it was easy to imagine that each represented a different Kami, serving as a bridge for the energy to cycle through land, living beings, and sky.

In our corner of the wetlands, a huge pillar of falling energy rushed down and joined the land. I raised a tentacle and pressed it against the ground, rather fascinated by how tranquil the exchange ended up being. Although huge amounts of energy made use of the Kami’s position to integrate itself with the land, there was no ‘impact’, like I had managed to achieve with Minor Realm Step.

“Curious,” I executed a few casual hand seals, studying the phenomenon. “There is friction between Mana, but no impact?”

I strained my senses to the limit, pushing my focus as deep into the ground as I could manage. Mud, it turns out, was pointlessly coy. I could just barely feel the way that the falling energy seeped down, layer after layer of the energy drenching the surrounding area. The effect was hard to witness here, but I guessed that if I headed to the edge of the Kami’s Domain, I would see the location where the energy beneath our feet sharply diminished.

Obviously, this energy had some effect on Leveling, but what else did it affect…?

Your Skill (Earned) Innate Mana Attunement has grown to Level 8.

Your Skill (Earned) Detection has grown to Level 25(+24).

The second notification, regarding Detection, caused my heart to stir. Is it possible… will Detection be like Mana Sensitivity? At +25, a useful option appears-

Dammit Tallum! I pivoted away and walked over to the reeds, busying myself with using my squirrel hands to rip them out along the path I had planned to pave. Mental discipline. The System is always listening. And if it knows your heart’s desire-

Your Skill (Earned) Monster’s Wisdom has grown to Level 25(+32).

The notification made my pupils dilate, but I didn’t show any other outward response; any small turbulence on my newly reclaimed leisurely path was exactly what the sadistic System was trying to accomplish. So instead I ceased my examination of the surrounding energy and continued with labor. With both my original plans for renovating the surrounding wetlands and the new discoveries of the paving methods, I had a pretty detailed plan for how the construction would proceed.

I ripped up a few more reed clumps, most of which had already been stomped to oblivion by frequent foot traffic, from the stump home to a central portion. Once there, I rolled up my jelly and began to rip reeds in earnest. I would create a large central plaza here. Spiderlings happily followed behind me to haul away the reeds after I ripped them up and tossed them to side.

While I worked clockwise through what would someday be a central plaza, my mind glittered with high-end daydreams of this plaza someday being anchored by an elaborate water feature. My jelly began to wiggle with pleasure. Obviously, I would demure, but if they insisted the central statue be of me, who was I to deny my fans? I would spew water-

“Out of my…” My daydream hit a small snag. My pleasure imaginings screeched to a halt. I saw my current self, armored Chimera Core monstrosity, featured on top of the statue. My torso would be lumpy with stolen organs. My silhouette would obviously be lopsided; I didn’t always obtain matching left and right arms.

My flesh tingled. The view was… less than stellar.

Tallum, don’t trip yourself up on problems you haven’t even challenged yet. The plan for this city will have both mundane concerns, and energy ones. If I can somehow anchor a giant node on the central plaza- Again, my plans stalled out. After all, wouldn’t I need to figure out how to create some sort of semi-permeable energy vessel for something like that to work?

The only example I could think of was a Kami’s Mantle. So now my construction project included some minor sacrilege?

Sighing, I left the clearing and walked back toward the stump. I gathered up an armful of minor necrotic seeds and planted them in the mud in the stretch between the stump and the central clearing. When I reached the clearing, I shook my head; right now, it was just a massive brown blob. Not scenic at all.

Turns out, when you rip up reeds out of the wetlands, most of what’s left is just… mud.

Who knows, though. Maybe brown is the new open concept in fantasy world interior design?

Even I found that thought to be too silly to entertain for long.

After the paving process had begun, I paused and checked the sun. Considering that the blight would grow at a rather consistent pace, it meant I had an exact window to finish the paving, by removing the seeds. It would take three hours, which would put me right before dusk, at which point we had the Kami’s meeting.

More than anything, I wanted to use this opportunity to find Sage and try and settle things between the two of us. Rubbing my cheeks, I felt-

I rubbed my cheeks a little more.

-like I really didn’t want to do it. I lowered my squirrel hands and looked at them. When I did so, I realized that my hands were covered in mud and I had just spent almost ten seconds intently spreading that muck across my ‘face’. Sighing, I walked through an uncleared stretch of reeds and reached the mud beach. The beach was occupied; With the zombies having been largely cleared out, the surviving crayfish had returned.

Considering all the other projects I tossed on the spiderlings’ plate, I couldn’t fault them for not filling back in their clay excavation site. So, even after experiencing a near-death battle against toad hordes, the crayfish were scuttling and throwing their bodies down mudslides, to rapturous clicking.

I ignored their pond-foolery and walked up to the water. I stuck my head under and cleaned myself off.

“Well, I can’t be perfect all the time,” I said when I surfaced. I watched sunlight glint off the placid ripples of the river. I needed to talk to Sage, to clear the air between us. But even after speaking with Nightshade, even after hearing her perspective from a calmer mouth, I was mad at her. I wasn’t quite ready to speak, especially when I suspected any sort of reconciliation would require that I be the one to apologize.

Since we have the Kami meeting tonight anyway, I don’t need to force the issue.

If want and need sometimes took separate paths, so too did Tallum-life and Leisure. And that was okay.

Instead of letting my thoughts dig up more anxiety, I moved back to the spiderling area and helped the thin limbed little critters haul some of their nutrient-rich muck over to the strawberry and cranberry locations to the South. We had to once more replant the fruit (hopefully fantasy elements would smooth the transition), but I used the opportunity to really clean up the area.

Your Skill (Earned) Body Manipulation has grown to Level 25(+19).

After the physical labor, with another hour remaining until the weak necrotic seeds needed to be removed, I settled down next to my stump and turned my focus inward. My senses gradually settled across my animating array.

Your Skill (Earned) Innate Mana Attunement has grown to Level 9.

With my new Skill, the flaws in my animating array became almost insultingly obvious. The spikes of colored Mana kept my flesh and array touching, but the more the array activated, the more power flowed through it, the more it created a sort of natural repulsion field that pushed against my body. Gradually, the pressure built, requiring another spike of energy to keep me from popping apart.

Your Skill (Earned) Innate Mana Attunement has grown to Level 10.

Your Skill (Species) Lesser Array Knowledge has grown to Level 25.

Uwah, and honestly I haven’t solved any of the issues yet, I’m just using nails to silence it, I shivered. What happens if I find an opponent that can somehow target my animating array?

As much as I would have loved to simply lay in my stump and dwell on all the ways I might get totally screwed in the future, the shift in the light toward red and oranges reminded me of my schedule. I went to my paved area and went through the annoying process of removing the weak necrotic seeds. Then I hurried back to my stump, to dump the materials in a dispersal array.

Just as I turned away from the stump, I paused. I pivoted back. I looked at the largest presence in my little treasure trove of necrotic- I mean, paving supplies.

Corrupted River Opal

“Let’s not let any easy monster evolution narratives lying around.” I nodded sharply, picking up the corrupted gem. It seemed almost inevitable that some poor fool would find and swallow this, becoming a dangerous villain, but that chance would be diminished if I had it on me.

With my dangerous cargo, I headed for the temple as dusk approached; it was time for the Kami meeting.