It was almost an entire day of traveling before they had made it back to the camp, due to needing to match the pace of the slowest of the wolves. Surprisingly, Kenny had been as fast as the fastest night stalker, and according to Martin was stronger than any one of his other animals. They stopped roughly a mile from the camp, just as they had planned about halfway from the cave.

“I’ll go in, and let everyone know not to attack any of them.” Mike said. Each of the animals wore a collar made of wood Mike had gathered on the trek. It had been a bit tedious making so many collars while running, but it was a surprisingly fun challenge. The collars had originally been infused with Mike's mana, but that had the effect of alerting Martin that a hostile force was attempting to steal his animals. Mike had to teach Martin to infuse, and that solved the issue after each of the collars had the Beastmaster's mana coursing through them.

Mike continued running after the group had stopped, and made it to the town shortly after. He walked up to the building that had been setup as a town hall of sorts, and opened the door, not bothering to knock. Inside was Jonas, a pale looking man holding a paper, and Nema. They were all startled by Mike's sudden intrusion.

“I brought out a solution.” Mike said, with Jonas being the only one who had any idea what he meant. “But we need to warn everyone not to draw their weapons and kill them.”

That conversation was followed by 2 hours where the news of a friendly pack of animals spread like wildfire. Gossip among some of the nosier inhabitants worked to their advantage as soon, everyone knew not to mess with beasts that had wooden collars. Mike ran back to where the pack had stopped, informing Martin that he was good to go.

“Are you sure they aren’t going to attack, I mean what if one of the collars breaks off?” The man asked.

“If any of your animals are killed, then the attacker will be punished, I promise.” Martin clearly wasn’t very reassured, but still followed Mike back to camp. The two of them, plus the pack, walked through the front gates of the walls, drawing stares from everyone who noticed them. A crowd had gathered, since everyone wanted to see the new fighting force they would be trusting their lives with.

Some in the camp, the ones who had unlocked the identify skill, had their eyes focused on Kenny, who out leveled the vast majority of the camp. Mike found it funny, seeing the looks of people who were jealous of a bunny, and even funnier when the rabbit stood in a “I’m better than you” pose, nose pointed high to the sky.

The rest of the day was spent with the population getting acclimated to having them beasts around, and Martin talking to Otto for hours about how much his beasts liked the chefs cooking. Night once more fell, and the pack lined the outer walls, ready to defend their new home. Large groups of people sat atop the wall, watching curiously how the animals would fare against the raid.

Mike too watched, hoping the help would be worth the trouble the animals were likely to cause. After the raid had finished, and the jaws of the entire camp were done dropping, Mike concluded that it was certainly worth the trouble. The pack had ripped through the majority of the raid, with some defenders only needing to step in when several tarantula guards appeared from the tree line.

Even when the powerful spiders appeared, Kenny had taken one of them down all on his own. It was quite terrifying seeing the bunny shred pieces of the spiders off with his utterly ridiculous speed. Even Mike could barely track its movements, as the rabbit flew across the battlefield, killing with efficiency matched by very few in the camp. Mike would have loved to fight something of the rabbits strength just after his evolution, but it was too late to get a worthwhile sparring match from Kenny, as Mike would have utterly dominated the fight. The rest of the night was spent with the camp partying and celebrating the newfound safety.

The issues of the increasingly dangerous night raids had been weighing heavy on the minds of many, but seeing the massacre that took place just outside the walls had brought morale up significantly.

Stolen story; please report.

Jonas, more than most, was elated at seeing the camp so cheery. The complaints and fear of others had been a burden he’d had to face for weeks now, and seeing people happy made him feel he wasn’t doing too bad. He’d thanked Mike profusely, and Mike just passed the thanks on to Martin. On the subject of the Beastmaster, he had been the center of attention all night.

Everyone was grateful for the man that controlled the beasts, and showed their thanks by singing and dancing with him all night long. The man, who had been starved of human interaction for over a month, basked in every single second of the night, shedding a tear of happiness when no one was looking. The next morning, the camp got back to its normal routine, with the major difference being smiles on nearly every face to be seen.

___________

Jonas once more had his assistant read of the list of urgent complaints and requests. He smiled as he asked him to cross out each that had been solved in the three days since Martin's arrival.

“The miners now have protection, so they can work quicker and without fear. The lead miner also evolved, pushing the mines deeper underground, striking new and powerful metals. The smiths now had an abundance of resources, courtesy of the miners. The tool smiths of the camp had finally gotten a proper communal smithy, and were making tools the builders could use to construct homes faster. The walls still need expanding, but with the abundance of incoming metals, that should be taken care of shortly.”

The grin on his face, as well as the assistants, grew with each item on the list being crossed off. Their smiles faltered a bit as they got to the next item on the list. It wasn't one that was urgent, as most of those just needed time, but was one that had been put on their by the insistent demand of the camps most powerful inhabitant. The item on the list read, “Build Mike’s personal workshop.” It may not seem like much, but that workshop would need to include a forge, an anvil, workstations of various kinds, and would require the strongest metals they had on hand to construct. It was also requested that it be attached directly to his home, which Jonas did find a bit odd.

He sighed, writing a note on a piece of paper, which had been made by the camp's leading material expert, Soren. He sent the order for materials off with his assistant, and to the miners who would need to gather all the raw resources needed for the over the top home renovation.

________

Mike was beginning to feel like he’d hit a bit of a roadblock with his class. He hadn’t been going out and fighting any powerful enemies as of late, which was reflected in his lack of levels this past week. While he was still the highest level in the camp, others were beginning to catch up, which a competitive part of him didn't like very much. He walked into his house, knowing soon the barrier he had been facing would soon shatter, under the might of a brand new hammer. He walked into a side door, leading into the newly made workshop that he had been requesting for a while now.

He breathed in the smell of an untouched workspace, knowing it wouldn’t be long before that smell was gone. He looked around the room, noting the forge, anvil, armor racks, weapon racks, tool racks, and several tables that had various clamps, hooks, and holes. He had prepared for this moment in advance, creating various tools he would be using from metal available in the communal smithy.

He walked over to a container on the floor, which in it held the rarest metal the miners had yet to come across. Every scrap they had found had been saved for Mike, which in all honestly wasn't that much. He had been told only a few pounds could be found in the center of an already rare metal deposit. He identified the material, wanting to know what he would be working with.

Nonmium (Rare)

A powerful and unique metal, formed when Namium reaches a high enough mana density to gain physical density. Due to this ore's unique way of forming, this material gains weight and durability as more mana is infused.

Uncreative metal names, but very powerful. Mike could only imagine the possibilities that this could bring about. The only problem was he didn't know just how heavy the metal could get. He picked up one of the several chunks, feeling that it was already roughly 5 pounds. He infused half of his mana pool in just a second, nearly falling to the ground as the ore was nearly too heavy for him to hold. He quickly pulled his mana back out, feeling its weight return to normal.

“Got to be careful when crafting, got it.” he muttered, placing the ore back into the container. He let his mana regenerate before starting the process of heating the forge, bringing a roaring flame to life, with the smoke rising out through ventilation holes in the ceiling. He lifted the first chunk into the forge, using long metal tongs he’d made specifically to resist the heat it would be subjected to. He grinned as the metal began glowing red hot, ready to be formed into his new weapon of mass destruction.