It hadn’t been a full day since my speech in the arena, even if my vague twenty four hour clock was undoubtedly failing somewhat. I generally trusted it, and so in less than a day, a transformation had begun to take place. It was already out of my control at this point, so I was just excited to see how far these newly freed creatures would go. Though most of them couldn’t talk, they all seemed to appreciate what had occurred in the arena.
The sounds of chopping wood, hammering of nails and hard work were infected with laughter and even songs as a village started to appear before my eyes. I was trying not to make a big deal out of it all, but the freedom felt by the dungeon creatures was palpable. Despite my own trapped nature in the dungeon, the immediate creation of a genuine community did a lot to soothe my soul.
After I had used Severance to free the five ambassadors of the forest races, my head was swimming. A lot of mana and Spirit had been used in the process, and while I wasn’t spent, the forces alone had left me cross-eyed as I tried to refocus. It hadn’t cost me Spirit to fend off the System, but it had taken all of it manoeuvred at once. As such, I barely paid attention to the brave procession which followed along. I even fell asleep without giving the situation a second thought.
When I awoke, the work was already ongoing and even if I wanted to stop it, I would have had a hard time knowing where to start. In a wide arc, an area of the forest was being cleared. In total, the width of the forest area was around ten miles, so there was room to work with but the scale of construction already underway was breathtaking. Most interestingly, it seemed as though the trees in that direction had been moved, not uprooted for lumber.
After peeling myself from the workshop's plush chair and wandering the newly stamped roads, I finally found a recognisable face. Merownis and Naea were nowhere to be seen, I could only hope they were organising some of this chaos but Naru was easy enough to spot. With “hair” of long, thin twigs spotted with leaves, the ent towered over the foundations of the buildings which were being erected. When she saw me coming, she waved her large arm happily.
“Good morning to you, too,” I chuckled, enjoying the ent’s antics. “I see you’ve all started without me?” Naru was, unfortunately, one of the creatures which couldn’t form words but she managed to convey a general apology. I hopped back as the willow tree sized goofball dropped to the approximation of knees her bent trunk created. The wind whistled through the reed-like bonnet atop her head as she prostrated herself over and over. “It’s fine! It’s fine,” I laughed.
She stopped, and the work in the nearby area could continue. Most of the workers nearby had given Naru a wide berth once she began flailing. Seeing the disturbance, another of my new allies came to assist. “Apologies, Grant Kaeron,” Ayseral gasped breathlessly, having sprinted from the far end of the construction site to here. I saw her coming, and it was still hard to follow her movements. I checked again, and she really was only level ten. “Lord Merownis said you would want operations to begin as soon as possible. As you can see, there will be many completed buildings before the day is through.”
I couldn’t keep the surprise from my face, but I did my best to play along. “Lord Merownis said that? Well, good then. You’re all doing a brilliant job,” I added with a smile, and some tension fell away from the Sundercat’s features. Naru wiggled a little, her leaves rustling in pleasure. I sighed, taking a moment to really watch what was happening. It was charming, in a slightly nightmarish way.
Dozens of goblins and gnolls were rolling around like a pair of gangs, yet instead of shaking down business or causing trouble, they were competing to be the most useful. The bulk of the workforce consisted of ents, orcs and a few Sundercats which handled the intricate tasks as the smaller beings raced around with supplies. I wasn’t able to follow exactly how, but multiple skills were in play from the forest denizens to make this a lot easier.
Ents were able to produce wood, which was especially interesting to watch through Manasight. Using as much mana as I could, I asked Naru to make a small plank to which she happily obliged. Though it was all far too complex to truly follow, an intense weaving of mana and Spirit occurred, bringing forth life. I resolved to learn how to do that as soon as possible, as it didn’t seem to require the wooden nature of Naru’s body to accomplish.
Other than lumber, there were a pair of orcs literally ripping nails out of the ground with a metal manipulation skill. Walking around slowly, they looked at the floor until they sensed a chunk of metal. A lasso of mana would then extend from one of them and plunge into the ground below. With a simple heave, the metal, usually iron, leapt straight into their waiting hands. The one who did the pulling then gave the hunk of metal over to the other who genuinely just tore nails out of it somehow. Grabbing and clawing at the ore, small pieces were shaved away and shaped in the hand before being passed over to the goblins and gnolls.
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Metal and wood were covered, and stone wasn’t much of an issue as there was apparently a supply line from the direction of the arena. That made sense, there was more than enough debris down there which could be made use of. Except, with the scorpions still around the area was dangerous. Putting two and two together, I said goodbye to the hard workers and went to find Lord Merownis.
Instead, I actually found Naea. She was fully lost in the role of foreman and was directing different creatures to move materials around. It took multiple attempts to snap her out of it, during which time she told me she was “workin’ here,” and to “move it or lose it, pal.” I dealt with her by pinching her wings and carrying her out of the tunnels kicking and screaming.
“Oh, hey Grant, what’s up?” Naea asked. When the sunlight hit her, she completely returned to normal. Part of me was sure she was acting, though I couldn’t be completely sure.
“I see you and Lord Merownis are hard at work. Or working hard to get others to work hard, I guess?”
“Mhm! Do you like it?” Naea’s large bug eyes looked up at me in askance, her eyelids fluttering quickly. I shrugged, to which she gasped.
“Well, it’s definitely interesting. I guess I don’t understand why, though?” Truly I didn’t. Even as the work continued around us and we walked back through the burgeoning village, it wasn’t clear to me. “Why are they doing this for me?”
Naea flew in front of my face, her own expression serious. “It’s not for you. It’s for them. Is that why you’re acting all weird?” Naea burst into a fit of laughter which made me feel embarrassed but I weathered it. “You told them it was safe here and now they’re making homes for themselves. Is that so hard to understand?”
Like a rug was pulled from under my feet and wool taken away from my eyes all at once, I saw the situation in a different light entirely. “Ah,” was all I could say. Wasn’t the whole point of this that I didn’t need to see them as beasts and monsters? For some reason, I had expected them to stay in disparate groups and keep to themselves. Instead, it looked like I was getting neighbours.
“Ah,” Naea repeated, landing on my shoulder and tapping my head. “You’ll catch up one day.” With new understanding, I joined the construction effort. Not only did it help raise my skill level, which was a euphoric feeling of its own, I had things only I could do. By the end of the day, I was a few thousand gold down but… it was definitely becoming a village.
Most touching, and not directed by myself at all, was the memorial. The area which had once been Clive’s was now cleared and the children’s park which had been surrounding it turned into a calm area of flowers and grass and tranquillity. The rest of the village fanned out from that central point. Barracks and a few houses were built, along with a mess hall, storage spaces and more workshops. By using the System and my vast amount of gold, once a building was mostly in shape and I knew what it was supposed to be, the System did the rest.
As I used and abused the mechanics of it, I had to wonder whether the System would retaliate in some way for how I was surviving. Whether my own abilities were fair or not, they were mine. In a very real sense, I felt like I just lucked into Severance and, by extension, the Party System. The relative peace its existence could afford me was worth more than all of the gold in the Xaverweave Pouch. Well, maybe not all of it. Once the monsters learned about the idea of a living wage… I dreaded the thought. “How quickly one becomes conservative when they hold the money,” I sighed, resolving not to be stingy with my coin at any point if I could help it.
As the day turned into a late afternoon, the sun dipping away, more and more of the organisation and planning became someone else’s job. I felt the last vestiges of tight sensations in my chest release. The tension of the forest had been relaxed, and thus so had mine. It was beyond me at this point, so I left the work in the capable hands of a pair of competitive foremen, one goblin and one gnoll, before making my way to the sands.
Lord Merownis was waiting, sitting on the lip of the forest area. I could now follow the trail of our connection to him, I just hadn’t thought to with all the commotion. I hadn’t added anyone else to the party proper yet, so it was just us for now. I wasn’t desperate to incorporate new elements in what might be my most dangerous fight yet, after all. Looking at his eyes, I made a bet that the Lord Merownis thing was a joke started by Naea. The Sundercat was staring out into the golden sea with serious concentration. I felt similar. “You ready, then, partner?” I asked.
“Born ready,” he answered, pushing off the lip first. His was a strident figure, a stalwart silhouette with the sword and armour he now wore. It wasn’t too surprising that others would call the tigerman a lord over me, and I dampened the draconic chagrin inside of me. I also let him walk a distance before rolling my eyes and hopping down to turn him in the other direction.
“You don’t actually know which way to go, remember?”