The power leveling exercise allowed the rabbits to gain valuable Fighting levels. And a few with Nature affinity had gained their Evolution.
Monster Race:
DemiMonster
Variant:
SilverShade Rabbit
Magic Affinity: Nature
🍃
🐰
🍀
HP:80
MP:80
STA:80
Active Perks
[Burrow], [Spring Step], [Hop]
Passive Perks
[Animal Affinity], [Energize], [Luck]
This particular variant was more zesty than its predecessor with two key perks: Spring Step and Energize. The former perk, where the contact with nature boosted their STR and AGI, it allowed them to literally walk on leaves and treetops, and the latter gave them an uncanny amount of vigour; combining the two enabled the rabbit to launch some devastating attacks.
With that, the number of capable fighters swelled in the rabbit population and the final solution to the monster incursion would soon be achieved.
Just as the Spider King evolved the last rabbit: *Ring-Ring, *Ring-Ring, – an incoming communication demanded his attention.
He picked up the imaginary phone. “Morning.”
“I’m BURSTING!!!”
He winced at the volume, plus an uncomfortable feeling of overwhelming pressure leaked through the communication.
“I am…” He began.
“Ha-ha! Got You!” Mirth washed over through the other end. “I’m Joking. I Took Care Of Myself.”
“Oh…”
“Huh? Is It Disappointment I Sense? How Peculiar.”
He tightened his mental barrier. “Please ignore that. So why did you call?”
“You Have To Urgently Come Back.”
“Why? Did anything happen?”
“It Didn’t Happen But Is About To Happen.”
“What? What is about to happen?” He tried to pry deeper into Johny’s mind.
“Mua-Ahh! So Forceful! Ha-Ha. No, I’ve Said Too Much. Just Come Back, Alright?”
“Come on give me something. Is it an emergency?”
“Something Like That. Your Presence Is Essential. Okay, Bye.”
Johny cut the Eldrich Telepathy short.
“I guess I have to go.” He looked east towards the direction of MegaFarm. “My presence is essential…” He paused to think about it. “[Summon Darkness].”
A slime manifested out of his shadow only to grow further and then take the form of a woman dressed in tight leather.
“Yes, Master.” It, or well, she looked at the Spider King expectantly.
“Watch over the bandits for me, okay?”
Darkness gave him an evil conspiratory grin. “With pleasure.”
The Spider King didn’t overthink that gesture: Darkness was simply imitating Roe; she always smiled like that.
But just in case. “Don’t bully her too much, Darkness. In the greater scheme, she is a paw we need.”
“I know that, Master, I do.” She said but the conspiratory grin grew only wider.
“Well then…”
“Master.” Darkness interrupted. “There’s a lot of bandits and only one me. Do I have permission to deploy my friends?”
Indeed, Darkness needed to monitor not just Roe, but also the other six bandit leaders.
“You have my permission, yes.” He nodded.
“[Summon Minions]!” She invoked loudly and with authority.
The otherwise mundane shadows, the ones which naturally were there, like a shadow of a tree or a rock, or just a spot of darkness in a corner, all of them quivered and rippled like disturbed water. Then one after another monsters began to rise out of the shadows, equally shadowy in their forms. If one looked carefully, and had the needed knowledge, they would recognise Shadow Wolves, Shadow Stingrays, Shadow Roadrunners and other shadowy friends of Darkness.
The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“Oh, I see. You made quite a few new friends.”
Darkness gave him a wicked smile. “I’m just that popular. And you can’t have too many Minions.”
That was exactly something Roe Banditessa would say.
“I think you’re hanging out with Roe too much. She’s clearly a bad influence.”
“What? No! We’re best buds now, BFFs!” Sensing something Darkness jumped to proclaim. “Don’t separate us, Master!”
Indeed, Darkness naturally copied the creatures it liked, first, it was the naughty Wyrmling and now it was the equally naughty Roe Banditessa.
“Is that so? Is that why you bully her so much?” He asked feeling dubious about the proclamation.
“Master, it’s just banter!” Darkness protested. “I don’t bully her!”
“…” Perhaps it was. “I’ll leave it to you then.”
Darkness gave him an odd salute.
Anyway, the Galleon Whale was just nearby, and with the Spider HyperDrive the trip back home won’t be long.
…
Even from above the Spider King could tell something unusual was happening. The spiders were moving hurriedly, filtering in and out of the streets. And by the looks of it the Drow were also there, and so were the Kobolds; weren’t the little dragonoids afraid of the open spaces? Strange but it didn't end there: there were even Fennec and Scorpionmen present, and so were the humans from the New Hope. It was as if the entirety of the Monster Realm was gathered for some reason.
The need to amass such forces meant only one thing.
“Are we at major War? Is it the Demon Lord?” After all, he worried about that guy ever since the Centauri embarked on their quest to free all Centauri slaves.
He didn’t wait for the ship to land and jumped out of it instead.
“Hey!” Warrior Leader Jr chirped not at all too pleased and then jumped right behind.
“[Transformation: Spider].” His body grew and morphed into a beautiful but formidable spider form. “[Spin Web: Glider].” A magical thread shot out of his fingers to form temporary wings behind his back.
And soon two spiders were gliding in the sky. Their descent was quick and the landing was met with cheers and applauses. Drow High Chief, attracted by the stunt, ran up to the Spider King.
“That was spectacular!” He praised clearly impressed.
“Yeah. Mind telling me what the ruckus is about?”
“What? You don’t know?” The High Chief looked at the bewildered King’s face. “King, it’s the birth of your child.”
“Eh?! Oh no! Did I miss it?”
“No, according to the program, your child is hatching sometime at night with the rest of the lamia hatchlings.”
High Chief produced a small leaflet out of his pocket and handed it for the King to see. There were a lot of events scheduled throughout the day. Brunch he missed, but he was in time for the concert, games, feast and then the final event.
The Spider King let out a relieved sigh. It wasn’t war, it was something more jovial, and he made it right in time.
“Come,” he gave the Drow a look, “accompany me to the Concert.”
High Chief looked up at the flying ship. “My apologies, King. I have business with Drow Assistant.”
“Ah, yes. It has been a while since the two of you saw each other.”
“Yes, we’ve only exchanged letters.”
A familiar voice rang out from behind. “I’ll keep you company, yes-yes.”
The Spider King looked at the bulked-up Kobold King, did he take an interest in pulling weights or something? The little kobold was not so little anymore, but still no taller than a dwarf would be, and yet he was just as buff. He walked up to the Kobold King, and his wife. Incidentally, the wife was a drow and she held a massive umbrella over the kobold.
“Hello dear friend,” he greeted, “what's the umbrella for?” he was curious, it wasn’t raining or anything.
It was the Wife who jumped in to explain. “The umbrella is there to protect the Kobold King in case the sky falls down.”
“Yes-yes. By the way, you should meet my other wives.” He pointed to one of the open tents nearby.
A bunch of multicoloured kobolds were surrounding one of the stalls in the tent, devouring the offered snacks.
“Wives, say hello to the Spider King.”
No less than two dozen kobolds waved at the Spider King. Surely not all of them were his wives, right? Right?
“Kobold King…” The Spider King looked again trying to confirm the count. “You surely have been busy. How many children do you have?” He asked somewhat curious.
“Ha! The kobolds are doing very well. We’ve just counted them before coming here, it's exactly 547, yes-yes.
Wow, maybe the gym wasn’t the reason why the kobold was so buff-looking!
The Kobold King continued. “And we have another 123 waiting to hatch.” The kobold gave a saddened look for some reason.
“Huh? Why the sad grin?”
“None of them are hatching today, no-no. It would have been nice if at least one shared a birthday with your child.”
“Is that so…” It was a strange reason to be sad. “But, Kobold King.” He addressed and proceeded in a whisper. “If the Lamia Queen asks about your kids, don’t tell her the real number, say it's ten or something like that, okay?”
“Why?” The Kobold King gave a curious look.
“She’s rather competitive…”
“Huh?”
The Wife gave a knowing smile. “it’s okay, Spider King. I’ll keep my husband in check.”
“Yes-yes, you do that. Now, let's go to the Dark Lake, I want to see it.”
That was the place where the celebratory concert will be happening.
“That’s right, you’ve never seen it. Did you even meet the Mer?”
The kobold shook his head.
“Then, some introductions are in order.”
Actually, this was a good opportunity for the various races to mingle with each other. As it was, the Humans never saw the Fennec, nor did the Kobolds saw the Mer, or Centauri – Kobolds, or so and such. That was so, but everyone knew the spiders, so perhaps they could be the medium to bring all friends together.
As the Spider King walked towards the Dark Lake he noticed the spiders doing exactly that; it seems his idea wasn’t original, someone must have thought about it already, likely the Trusty Advisor. And perhaps the birth of his child was the right excuse to bring all races together; in other words, they trapped two birds with one web. Nice!
…
The Spider King was sitting by his wife, the Lamia Queen. She was positively charmed by the flawless singing of the Obsidian Siren, or just Pearl as was her name. The young girl managed to captivate the hearts of the spectating crowd, of course, calling it just a crowd was an understatement. It was hard to tell the real number but perhaps there were 250,000 individuals, if not more; a scary number when you thought about it… Well, the number was nowhere close to Aurelian Dutchy, and especially not the millions of the Holy Empire, but still, the Monster Realm was growing at an unprecedented speed.
“Fertility Potion…” He muttered to himself ignoring the otherwise captivating performance.
While the siren’s songs were good, all of them were romance-themed, and he grew somewhat bored of it rather quickly. Yeah, but try and tell that to the Lamia Queen who was staring at the singing mer with sparkly eyes. Even if he left his seat she probably wouldn’t notice.
Someone patted his shoulder shyly and he turned around to see a little spider, a spider messenger as was their kind known.
“You got mail.” It chirped bashfully and scuttered away in hurried taps of its little legs.
Of course, not before handing a soggy note. He would scold the spider for ruing his mail, but well… Anyway, he opened the damp parchment; luckily the writing was done in Blue Ink, a derivative of Blue Dust and hence water resistant.
===
My Dearest,
How long has it been?
Listening to Pearl singing made me realise that it is you who is my siren, it is your voice I seek. I’ve missed your aura like a sailor would miss the sea. How long has it been?
You’re like a siren who took my heart captive. I find myself thinking about the time we spent in CreamKelp fields. About our last parting embrace. Your touch… well, let's say it had opened a tsunami within me. It was a tide which could not be stemmed, yet it feels so distant and I fear forgetting it. How long has it been?
Now I find that there is this emptiness in my heart which makes me feel like a fish out of the water. I can’t help but long to swim by your side, to have yet another underwater adventure. Let’s make some waves again! How long has it been?
To be honest, I’ve been waiting for the right moment. The moment which never came. I have something very special to give you. Please come and see me, that would surely make my fins flip in joy. How long has it been?
Too long, my Dearest. Too long… You know where to meet me. Don’t make me wait…
With all the love in the maiden’s heart,
Your Princess
===
“What a…” He crumpled the note as soon as he read it. “[Entropy],” the magic turned it to steam and dust.
He gave a quick glance to his wife, she was still enthralled by the performance. He wanted an excuse to leave the concert, and now he had one. But what was the saying? ‘Be careful what you wish for,’ – that one.
Either way, he had to go. And not because he was going astray but because he had to set this mer back on the path of righteousness! – You just can't send love letters to happily married men, and especially on the day their child is born. Was this Mer Princess evil or something? Did she want him dead? If his wife had taken a single glance at the note, if there was a whiff of any infidelity, that would be it, he would be eaten raw!
Of course, all around him were friends and acquaintances. So, his excuse for leaving was: ‘I’m going to the toilet’ but he didn’t even need to use that, because no one had asked; they too were enthralled by the siren’s song. And just like that, he sneaked away from his seat unnoticed. The destination was the CreamKelp fields.