He and what was apparently the High Chief went back to the top of the ancestral tree. Really, it was no fun climbing those stairs for the third time, but the elf was insistent. They were sitting in an oddly empty room, there was just a table and few chairs, but maybe the elven social elites preferred to live ascetic lives.

“I understand that for this alliance to work I have to pay some reparations.”

The High Chief was just sitting without naming a price.

“Since I damaged your wall and towers I am willing to borrow some of my spiders to do repairs.”

The elf shifted in his seat uncomfortably, likely desiring more.

“Look, I’m not exactly rich, but I can also give you some of my fruit and cloth. Consider them free samples and later you can offer me something back.”

“A tribute!” The High Chief pointed his finger into the air as if he had just figured something out.

“No, a trade. I want to trade with you. There is a great deal of things my spiders can’t make, but you can.”

“Oh a ‘trade’, I understand” The elf nodded sagely. “We will make some things to show you the next time you return.”

“Really? Thanks!” Finally, he was getting somewhere.

However, the elf still looked somewhat uncomfortable in his chair.

“What is it?” He asked.

“Our settlement is now weakened and without protection…”

That was true he had devastated their defences, but there were some towers left and at least six ballistas. He didn’t quite understand why the High Chief worried so much.

“The dryads will come to strike us down.” He said it like it was a fact.

“Oh!” He had forgotten about that. “I haven’t spoken with them yet. But I will.”

“Thanks, O King of Spiders. But can you leave some of your warriors here? We would feel more secure.”

That was an odd request but he had no reason to turn it down. “Okay, I will. I’ll tell them to cause no trouble, but how about the other elves? I don’t think they would appreciate my warriors after all that happened.”

“I’m the High Chief now, they will listen to me. And how do I communicate with your warriors, let's say if something bad is happening and I need their help.”

The High Chief was talkative all of a sudden, which was good.

“Just tell them what you want, they will understand you. I’ll tell my builders and warriors to listen to you while they’re here.”

The High Chief flashed a broad grin. “Thank you, O King of Spiders.”

“No, no. Thank you for being so understanding and willing to welcome my guys. It’s a good idea to let the two peoples mix and build friendships; I can see why you are the High Chief here. With that, I hope that our alliance will prosper.” He offered his hand for a shake, the kind gesture wasn’t lost on the High Chief, he shook it with a warm smile.

“I better go and wrap this up.”

He began the long descent.

On the ground, the elves were still waiting with their bated breaths. If he tried to talk with this group they would just misunderstand him again, so he just directed them to their High Chief.

He waved goodbye to the children, probably the only ones who didn’t look at him with prejudiced eyes.

“I’ll bring you some fruit, soon.” He promised and left towards the gate.

There was a small problem, the city gate was vacant and there was no one to open the sturdy structure. He could go through the small hole he came from, but that was so… he had to keep appearances here or else the elves will keep disrespecting him.

“Go and see if you can open it.” He commanded a warrior.

“Understood.”

The spiders climbed to the tower, and within minutes the large gate began to move. From the small opening he could already see the Great Dryad just standing there with the rest of its people.

“And, I wondered why you didn’t come sooner. Hi, I hope you are well.” He had seen the giant burning but now it looked fresh as if nothing had happened.

“Hello. Dryads are not spiders. We don’t climb walls.” It explained helpfully.

“Are you here to meet the High Chief?”

“We are. To set things straight.”

“I guess, you have your own grievances, but please go easy on him.”

The dryad didn’t reply and proceeded towards the ancestral tree. There was a nagging feeling that he was forgetting something. He turned and shouted at the Great Dryad.

“I owe you for saving me. Please see me later!”

The dryad turned its giant body around. “You owe me nothing. That’s what we Dryads do.”

“Then if you’re ever in trouble again, call for me.”

The Dryad simply nodded and continued on its path towards the ancestral tree, its people, or what remained of them followed their leader. Except for twelve Minor Dryads, there was one he recognised well, the intelligent dryad with a twisted human face. That group separated from the larger whole and moved towards him.

“You want to come with me?”

The lights in the dryad's eyes shone brightly; he figured that as a yes.

“The more the merrier.”

As he was walking out, more and more spiders followed from all over, but he made sure to leave some behind just like the High Chief asked.

There in the clearing, he saw the familiar face of the friendly lamia. She was laying on the mossy ground curled up around her long tail.

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He called trying to wake her, but she didn’t. Then he tried to shake her, her skin was very cold. He worried for a second but then relaxed after feeling a dull throbbing coming from her chest.

“She might be sick. That perk is dangerous, I should never use it on my allies again.” He put his hand on her head to pat it. “You too, had saved me.”

Then he turned to look at his people. “And you fought bravely and valiantly.”

The spiders chirped happily.

“I am blessed by good friends and allies.” He smiled. “Take the lamia and let’s go home, to celebrate the victory and mourn the dead.”

His spiders constructed a long stretcher to carry her equally long body. He wrapped her in cloth but that was probably not enough to keep her body warm. If his knowledge didn’t fail him, he knew that Lamia liked the heat. The spiders were poor as heaters but his human body was just right. So he kept her body warm with his during the journey.

…

By the time they reached the farm, the friendly lamia was back to her cheery self. He tried to thank her for saving his skin back there, but for one reason or the other, she would just blush and run away from him. She was still there to carry her job and even listen to his commands but if he mentioned a word of what had happened she would just run away. Well, he had an idea why, but she wouldn’t even listen to his apology, thanks or even an explanation.

That was that, but also there was another huge celebration. Needless to say, he was left without even a drop of slug jelly. By the way, for some reason, The Lamia Queen had developed unhealthy cravings for it. When he was out to make friends with elves her cravings were so bad that she attempted to milk Johny the Slug by herself. Needless to say, it didn’t end well. Despite the harsh debuff she had made past the BlueDust fields towards the slug, but Johny didn’t like intruders and fought her. She would have died if the spiders didn’t come to rescue her.

And conveniently so, the ores from the Kobolds had arrived. There was always an option to smelt those, he had plenty of cut wood to make charcoal. However, It was already a small miracle his dryad friends didn’t mind him cutting the jungle so he didn’t want to push his luck. The solution was simple, he fed ores to the evolved metal spider. Also, it turned out the guy made quite a name for himself during the battle. The elven arrows were unable to pierce his metal armour making him literally unstoppable, like a tank fighting spearmen. He hoped that this spider will lay eggs soon.

With the little things out of the way, there were other matters to address. His [Emissary Suit] was destroyed and he had lost the cane somewhere. By now he held a firm belief that it was the armour he preferred the most. He would craft one but he was all out of [Boar Pelt], the item he needed for the leather. This problem was not without a solution. He could send his spiders to hunt in the forest, but why would he agitate the dryads and the elves further? He had boars of his own.

No, he didn’t forget them; the little ones he had captured months ago. The boars were all in the pen, and every day they were engorging themselves on TomGrape fruit. That might or might not be the reason why the boars weren’t brown but blue instead. Also, they were quite huge, to put it mildly, they were bigger than the largest of his spiders. Thinking about it, they would make a good mount or a war beast, but to be honest, he preferred to ride his spider because that one was intelligent and didn’t need training.

He looked at the fat boars, they were already too large for their not-so-small pen.

“But which one will it be?” He looked at the stock struggling to pick the lucky one.

One of the boars gave him a nasty look and then charged at the pen. This was usual for them, unlike the spiders these weren’t cute or well-behaved. The wood was reinforced by his perk so it held no problem. The foolish animal had only harmed itself.

“I guess we have a lucky winner.”

He jabbed his spear right into the neck of the stunned boar.

[Fighting +50 exp]

“Oh, I didn’t expect to get exp.”

For some reason a random lamia slithered by the pen, and then another and another.

“Are you going to eat this?” The lamia was positively salivating from the mouth.

A behaviour unsuited for a woman, but it was not up to him to judge.

“Well, I was just thinking of skinning it mostly.” The meat was just a bonus.

“Shall we cook it for you?”

“That… That sound’s great.” He didn’t know they can cook.

But first, the boar had to be dressed and skinned. It was too large to handle alone, luckily the Lamia were very motivated to help. He had expected another [Boar Pelt], but instead, he had gotten [Enchanted Boar Pelt], which was weird because no one had cast any spells on it.

“Had it evolved on its own?” He asked himself. “Well, it did change the colour so…” It was plain and obvious.

He put the pelt down and looked at where a processed boar was, or should have been, the lamia must have taken it away to cook it. He was motivated by their work-minded spirit and went to work on his armour.

First, he made a vest using cloth and leather, and then he added spider eggshells on to it. He nested obsidian hexagons on top of each other making a scale plate. This was a design he had used before. He used a similar process to make a whole set of scale armour: plate, greaves, vambraces and a helm.

With the set complete he was granted a gear bonus and temporary perk.

[Gear bonus achieved: +25 Rep with Dragons]

[Temporary perk Minor Regeneration obtained.]

[Temporary perk Spell Deflection obtained.]

In many ways, this was the armour he once had, but this time adding [Enchanted Boar Pelt] gave him another temporary perk. He donned the armour and went to look for the Lamia. All this crafting had made him hungry.

He didn’t need to look hard or long, the smell of cooked meat assaulted his nose. It has been ages since he ate some good meat so he followed the scent. He didn’t know the Lamia had brought spices with them, and he probably would’ve never known if he didn’t slaughter this boar. Just like the lamias from before he felt saliva pooling in his mouth.

He had found the lamias gathered under a large gazebo the spiders had made for them. At some point, they managed to make fire and stew the boar. Each lamia had a small wooden bowl filled with oily and rich stew. They were slurping at it with no reservations. It wasn’t just meat he recognised the familiar fruits mixed into it, there were even dried mushrooms. The combination might be strange but it smelled divine.

He grabbed a spare bowl and went to the large pot. And…

“Hey, it’s empty.” This couldn’t be the only pot, the boar was too large.

He looked around but all he could see were discarded bones which were cleanly stripped of any flesh. Likely, this was the last batch of stew. He must have been crafting for too long.

“This is not right. That was my boar.” He felt cheated.

There were Lamia with full bowls of stew, so not everything was lost.

“Mind sharing?” He’d asked a random lamia.

Who just went and gulped the liquid in one go and showed him an empty bowl. Rude!

“Come on… just a taste.”

He asked the other, but the same had happened. He couldn’t understand this behaviour. Were they this starved? He always made sure there was plenty of fruit for everyone to eat, so this wasn’t it.

“You know…” He was about to make a tantrum.

“Here-sss.”

A bowl was pressed into his hands. He looked at his saviour, she was the friendly lamia.

“Thanks.” He beamed a wide smile.

“SSS.” She blushed and slithered away in a hurry.

He shrugged, he was done trying to figure out women, instead, he concentrated on the gift. The bowl was half empty with only a few tiny bits of boar. He poured it into the mouth.

“Mmm, so succulent.” He now understood why no one wanted to share.

He sat down with Lamia and enjoyed the rest of the evening. They were unlikely to approach him due to the difference in status but that was okay. He still was welcome here and felt included in the larger group, and as a bonus, he was allowed to eavesdrop on their juicy conversations.

He wasn’t left to sit alone and to his surprise, an intelligent dryad joined him in quiet camaraderie. It was surprising because the dryad didn’t mind meat being eaten in front of it, nor the fire burning. It was very tolerant indeed, the elves could learn from this pant creature.

And later, another companion joined the silence. It was his most trusted advisor, it took the spot by the right of him.

And even later, Queen Lamia slithered from behind and startled him with a sneaky hug.

“Jelly please-sss.” She hissed a cute begging whisper in his ear.

She knew well that the substance was now forbidden to her and he will not give her any. He didn’t want to break the silence and chose to ignore the pest.

It was nice to be surrounded by friends and allies. Everyone was so different but even then all were getting along so well. He didn’t want this moment to end, and maybe with time, there will be an elf and a kobold sitting idly like this in front of a fire.