The abandoned farming settlement was less abandoned than he previously thought. Ever and Ashen weren’t the only rabbits scavenging the place clean of any remaining goodies. Ashen blew a monster horn and soon the rabbits hopped from all around to form a large party. The party had thirty rabbits in total with an addition of five tamed pets. The Tamed, of course, were juvenile humans, and as it turned out the rabbits treated them like some sort of loot goblins. The kids were helping the rabbits identify and find useful items and other types of goodies hidden or left forgotten. However, what a child saw as useful was rather questionable by itself; leading to the rabbits gathering a lot of useless junk. Ironically, they seemed to value broken and half-rusted junk just as much as the tamed children did; strange…
However, the rabbits were competent in other areas; their equipment was proof of that. To make a vest out of Drake Scales or Warg Pelt you had to slay such monsters. The naturally sharp tips of their DrakeFang Spears were a further testament to that. While of course, the gear was of common or even shoddy quality, the materials used were still sturdy and more than enough to consider the rabbits well-equipped. Moreover, they had Grenades at their sides to use for emergencies and Draining Nets to capture or immobilise the local predators.
The Spider King couldn't help but marvel at the ingenuity and crafting ability of the Ashen Rabbits; they were doing rather well for themselves. Did someone teach them how to, or were they just that smart? – Nah, it was probably the influence of the diligent spiders…
The rabbits were rather far from their original home and with the party gathered and safe Ashen gave the Spider King a quick run down.
“So you came here to make a new settlement.” He asked to confirm.
“Yes,” Ashen nodded, “we came to the promised land to set up a New Garden.”
Apparently, in the Magical Forest, they ran out of space to plant Ashen Clover. But also, as it turns out they experienced a sharp population increase, which consequently led to food issues. A few issues the Spider King didn’t account for. But how was he supposed to know that the rabbits would explode in numbers so quickly!?
“And your new settlement, the New Garden, how many rabbits are there?” He asked to wrap his head around all this better.
“We don’t keep the number,” It was Ever who spoke up, “but I think it’s close to 1000.”
That was way too many rabbits! The last time he remembered, he left only two of them in the Clover Garden. How did this happen? And inbreeding apparently was not an issue; huh, Monster System worked in mysterious ways… but perhaps the inbreeding was negated by the Blessing of The Great Ancestral Wisp boon all rabbits now possessed. The boon as a ‘bonus’ made them even more fertile. Jee! Rabbits be rabbiting – he shouldn’t have expected any less.
Ignoring the contemplative look of the King, Ashen added. “It’s mostly children, that’s why we have to work hard to provide for them.”
“That Wisp…” The Spider King wanted to complain, but what was done was done. “I’d love to see that new settlement of yours, the New Garden. Come, hop in my Galleon Whale I’ll give you all a lift.” He offered.
The rabbits readily agreed, the ship was loaded with junk and then flew towards the rabbit settlement. New Garden wasn’t that far away, only a thirty-minute trip from where they were; that was by flying, walking would take much longer. The settlement was hard to miss, it was surrounded by shiny silver fields of AshenClover. It was good to see the fertile land be put to use once again; the rabbits had a lot of fields going on, but with the rising population, they would need them.
The settlement by itself was surrounded by a thick and thorny wall made out of SpikeVine, it wasn’t something you would want to attempt to scale. The inside of the wall was dotted by rabbit huts, where there was a lot of space still left to be filled. the huts were made out of straw and clay and further topped by grass roofs, it was simple but it served its purpose. In addition to the huts, there were comparatively large tents made out of monster leather serving as structures for social gatherings or perhaps even large storage. It gave the entire village that rustic vibe.
Right in the centre of the village, if you stretched the meaning of the word, there was a large plaza. But instead of shopping, communal cooking and eating were done in the open space, but also a lot of crafting and resource preparation. The plaza was perfect to land the Galleon Whale.
Perhaps noticing the spiders, or just because they were welcoming people, the Ashen Rabbits greeted the landing ship with cheers of joy and warm waves. And indeed there were a whole lot of juvenile rabbits; If the Spider King didn’t know any better he would think that the entire place was run by children. The ratio was something like one adult to twelve children if not worse.
A whole lot of rabbit children heard about the spiders but never met them, meaning that there was a lot of excitement going on. Needless to say, the ship was soon swarmed by rabbits who prodded it with their paws and pestered the nearby spiders with endless questions.
Lucky to the rabbits, the spiders were a patient bunch and willfully indulged the rabbits' curiosity.
“Sorry about that.” Ever apologised pushing through the horde of miniature rabbits.
“It’s alright, kids will be kids.” The Spider King didn’t mind one bit, not even if they were currently rummaging through his pockets. Ha, jokes on you rabbit children! – those were empty, everything of value was in his Inventory Space.
With that said, the loot bags the rabbits brought with them were now lying empty. What was the saying? – one man's trash is another man's treasure. However, he didn’t think it was the best idea to let the children play with rusty knives, but then again, perhaps that was how they got their first Fighting levels; which to his surprise many of the young children had.
The Spider King was welcomed to a large tent and then offered a warm drink and some salad to eat. A nice gesture of the rabbits really, but he wanted something more hearty.
“By the way, I have Drake Meat in the ship. There might just be enough for everyone. Want to cook some?” He offered suggestively.
“Meat?!” Ever frowned. “Eww! We don’t eat that, that’s monster food.” She looked at her tamed pet.
The girl in question licked her lips, probably understanding what the talk was about.
“Meat!” She said in Spider Chirp.
“Oh! She can speak our language. You taught her?” He asked surprised.
“Yes, human monsters are more intelligent than they look. But she picks up only the strangest words…” Ever said as if complaining.
“Meat!” She repeated expectantly.
“Stay!” Ever commanded and the girl sat back down obediently. “See, she also understands basic commands. That’s why we are Taming them.” Ever reached into her pouch to retrieve some treats. “You’re a good little helper aren't you, here.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
The kid looked at the food somewhat unhappy, it wasn’t meat, yet still she took it and ate it.
“I see…” There was a lot to unpack here.
While walking to the tent he spied a few more human children following the rabbits but also cages housing captured humans presumably waiting in line to be Tamed. No doubt the rabbits were capturing stray humans during their scouting missions or other encounters; which wasn’t an entirely ethical thing to do. But who was he to judge? – It’s not like he was on the side of humanity or even human himself… However, mistreatment was never okay, so he would stay here and observe this for a little while.
Ever proceeded to show all the tricks her tamed pet knew. Some of them were rather impressive, even if of little use, like the handstand for example. Clearly she had spent a great amount of time training her companion. As entertaining as it was that clover salad was getting rather boring rather quickly.
“Nah, sorry, I want meat. You don’t mind do you?” He asked the hosts.
“We have a space for that outside.” Ashen offered.
“Yeah, might as well feed our humans.” Ever nodded.
“Meat!?”
A quick fire was made and some rather succulent Drake Steak roasted. The rabbits weren’t too interested however the smell attracted all the stray pet ‘monsters’ in the settlement. Girls and boys of various ages were salivating at large steaks. Luckily for them, there was enough. Actually, it would be best to show the rabbits how to preserve the meat. Even if they didn’t eat it, there was no need to let it spoil and rot, they could sell it to the humans either here or in the Aurelian Kingdom.
“Help yourselves.” He urged the kids after grabbing the steak he wanted.
The Drow Assistant came back just in time to give him the report while he enjoyed his succulent dinner.
“I’ll give you rounded numbers,” she said while looking at her notebook. “There are 1300 rabbits, 90 adults, 500 juveniles, 700 children. The juveniles will soon be able to bear children of their own and the gestation time is only a month.”
“A month?” That didn’t sound real.
“Yes, various perks and boons accumulated to that effect. Also, they grow and become adults rather quickly. If you allow me to be rude, I would say they are very much like monsters.”
Yes, she was right, monsters had that ability: to breed and grow quickly; the Ashen Rabbits were also of DemiMonster race.
“Will they be okay with food?” He asked slightly concerned.
“Surprisingly they are doing rather well. The amount they eat is little and it’s primary AshenClover. My estimate is that they gather 5000 units and consume only 3000 units at the moment; running a surplus.” She concluded.
And there was still plenty of land to farm and develop. Indeed, they were doing very well!
Drow Assitant continued. “I suggest they restart sending the excess AshenClover to the Spider Kingdom.”
“Yeah, that makes sense.” That’s why he evolved them to begin with – to grow clovers. “The Centauri will be happy.” He smiled at the happy memory of those girls. “How about the security and the captured humans.”
She flipped the page. “The settlement is fortified and they send regular patrols to dispatch the nearby monsters. I’ve heard Lamia Warriors used to help them but since they established the fortification the serpentines had left. However, all is well in that regard.”
He was surprised to hear that Lamia was involved. Then did the two become acquainted? Was his wife scheming to snatch another race under her tail as she did with Mer? – that was something she would do. Hmm… Not so quick dear wife! The rabbits were his!
The Drow Assistant misread his face. “My King, I see concern in your eyes. The rabbits are equipping themselves well, sure some will die to monster attacks but due to the sheer ability to reproduce they will prevail.” She tried to reassure him. “And the humans are being integrated well into the Ashen Rabbit society, even if their status is low they seem well looked after. I don’t see them beginning a revolt any time soon.”
She was right in that regard. None of them were either cold or hungry, and it seemed that the rabbits weren’t sending the little humans to die trying to fight monsters. It was quite the opposite, the rabbits were keeping the few humans safe.
“However…” Drow Assistant paused. “There were a few scuffles with the bandits. And it’s likely there will be more.”
“No doubt about that, the bandits had sacked that once large settlement we had just visited. The New Garden must look like a juicy target as well.”
“It probably does.” She agreed. “But unlike humans, even juvenile rabbits have Fighting levels.” She reasoned.
“I’ve noticed. But we're here to solve the bandit issue too, not just monster incursion.”
“Correct.” She agreed again.
“I reckon we should visit the nearest bandit camp and give them a warm welcome.”
Drow Assistant raised her eyebrow. “You want me to use Fire magic?”
“Ha, no, not that warm. Let’s try talking with them first. See what they’re up to.”
And for that, he didn’t even need to go and visit their camp, he had noticed some rough-looking adults in the cages; the surviving bandits the rabbits had their scuffle with.
The interrogation was rather short: the bandits were up to no good; he shouldn’t have expected any less. Due to circumstances, the bandit group had grown rather large and was now working under one of many Warlords. They were tasked with raiding local villages for resources and then trading the loot off to the larger city ruled by their Warlord. That was how the Warlords now supplied their cities, through raids and extortion from the lesser villages and towns.
The camp allegedly was fortified and well-staffed, it would be best to think of it as a small fortress. The gruff men he interrogated didn’t have the precise numbers, but they mentioned at least two hundred veteran bandits with another two hundred recruits, plus the servants they kept and the slaves they captured. Yes, slavery was back in business in the Fallen Kingdom, and from what the Spider King gathered it was becoming rather lucrative. Indeed, this kingdom had fallen very low.
“Thank you for your cooperation.” The Spider-King thanked still surprised at how easy this was.
It was very strange for the bandits to give all that information willingly. The two men were sweating profusely and shooting wary glances at his cute assistant.
“You won’t feed us to that thing, right?”
“We told you everything you wanted.”
“That thing?” The Spider King asked offended. “That’s my irreplaceable assistant, mind your tongue.” He scolded.
“I wouldn’t even eat you. You stink!” The woman in question replied in a human tongue.
Indeed, as every assistant should, she was versed in many languages and without a perk to aid her; she was a woman worthy of respect.
However, mercy had to be shown. “Since you were so cooperative, I shall personally return you to your camp.”
The two cages were loaded into the Galleon Whale. The sun was low in the sky signalling the approach of darkness, however, it wouldn’t be much fun if the bandits missed the approach of his flying ship. The show was rescheduled to the morning. But that didn’t mean that he couldn’t have some fun:
The AshenClover proved its worth and was due for a promotion. That’s why he was now standing in the open field. Dark Flame allowed him to see despite the darkness. His assistant was by his side, making notes of some sort; the two original rabbits Ever and Ahen were also at his side.
“It’s a great honour to witness this miracle.” Ashen bowed.
“I can’t wait to see it!” Ever hopped excitedly.
There wasn't much need to put a ceremony. “[Mutate],” the Spider King pushed his mana into the plant.
The silvery leaves remained large and silver, but the flower stalk grew tall and large. The seed pod grew plump to the size of a fist, its fat seeds were barely fitting in the large pod. This was the goal of the Mutate, the clover now was producing large and millable seeds, and hence flour to make baking goods.
The Spider King plucked the pod and extracted the seeds tasting one himself and offering others to his companions.
“Perfect.” He concluded, that it wasn’t oily or starchy, it was mostly carbs just like he wanted.
“Not bad…” The drow assistant said despite her displeased face, likely unwilling to disparage his effort.
“Meh.”, “Nuts are better.” The rabbits stayed honest.
“Tch!“ He clicked his tongue. “Just you wait until we mill this bad boy and turn it into bread.”
He was positive that they would change their minds then. Like really, who didn’t like bread? Well, okay maybe not bread but how about pies, either sweet or savoury?
And since he had the eggs now… He looked at the Drow Assistant with expectation.
“Will you bake me a pie?” He asked with big and sparkling eyes.
“A pie?” She asked somewhat confused.
Well, he’ll have to teach her. But before that, he pulled a gnarled staff, the Whispers Of Grandeur, and then scattered the rest of the mutated seeds.
“[Grow]”, he invoked magic previously inaccessible to him.
Little motes of light in the shape of squirrel faces sparkled out of the staff and flew towards the seeds. The plants grew twice the size of the parent with even larger pods and plentiful seeds.
The rabbits clapped entertained by the show this time, and his assistant made some more notes including drawings of little squirrel-faced motes.
“Hey, don’t just stand here,” he used the Seed Archive to magic more seeds and handed them to the two rabbits. “Let's plant these bad boys and once the field is done, we’ll celebrate it with a pie!” He declared.
Unbeknown to the King, a new tradition was born in the rabbit village: every time the field was finished it would be celebrated with a fresh and warm pie.