“Du du dudu duuu!” I muttered a simple melody while I was collecting branches and twigs off of the forest’s ground. Was this the fastest way to get 100 kg of organic matter? Probably not, but I kind of did not want to meet the apex predator of this world yet by wandering deep into the forest, so this was the first thing I was going to do!
“Can you please stop with that annoying sound?” Rae said from on top of a branch she was sat on.
“Well, if you want me to shut up, you can come down and help me collect some branches lady, because I only have 1 pair of hands, so this is going to take some time and I don’t have my phone with me, only my clothes from before I died, which are feeling a bit tight right now, and my mind to keep me entertained. And singing a tune helps me calm myself too!”
“Urgh, what is collecting branches going to do for you anyways? Wouldn’t making a wooden spear be a better idea? After all, at the end of the day you are going to need to eat, and your new friend will do so too!... Well, unless you are planning on eating it, which might actually not be a bad idea...”
“Hey! Jonathan is not going to be food, he is going to be my first citizen!”
“...You named it already? It does not even exist right now, what’s the point of giving it a name?”
“Like what I said, I only have my mind to keep me entertained, and thinking about mine and Jonathan’s adventures as the first 2 intelligent beings in this uncharted world is entertaining.”
“I am here too? So, you won’t be the first 2 intelligent beings in this world.”
“Your concerns have been noted my lady, and promptly ignored!”
“Wha-“
“Du du dudu duuu!” I started muttering a simple tune again and cut of Rae, who grumbled a bit but let it go, and after half an hour or so of collecting twigs off of the ground, I started to just look at the trees, and break the branches which seemed weak, which hastened my progress. And after a few hours, I had 10 units of wood in my empire stockpile, and 1 unit being 10 kg, it was enough to bring Jonathan to life!
As I and Rae stood next to a considerable pile of branches on the ground, I extended my hand towards the pile and said aloud,
“Homunculi Creation: Homunculi!” and all the branches immediately started melting into a weird goop and started coalescing in the form of a man.
After a mere 5 seconds, in front of me stood a being with physiology similar to mine, the only difference being that its skin was dark red instead of blue, and it had dark brown hair instead of yellow like me.
As it opened its eyes, I saw that it had brown eyes, and it immediately started looking around, and after a few seconds turned towards me and just started at me.
*ding*
Quest First Of Many completed! Rewards, 10 exp and 1 Research Point have been granted in the Empire System!
“So... will I be able to turn Jonathan sapient in the future?” I turned towards Rae and asked after seeing the similarities between me and it.
“No. It simply does not have the things necessary for it to become sapient, think of it more like a dog that is really good at understanding your words and can do labour. If you want to really think of it as a member of your species, think of it as a really, really mentally challenged man.” Rae said with the normal tone of her voice, she wasn’t necessarily looking down on Jonathan as if he was an animal, because to her, he really was.
I was more than ready to order around a monstrosity that vaguely looked like a man, but it being seemingly the same species as me and her compering him to a mentally challenged man? That just... made me feel disgusting honestly.
“...Is there really no way for me to make him... you know have the things necessary to become sapient? Not now, but maybe in the future? It doesn’t really sit well with me that I created him basically to just be a slave. If possible, I’d like to give him freedom in the future.” I asked her, hoping that there was a way for me to actually turn him sapient in the future.
Was I planning on using him right now? Yes, I was. Did I feel bad for it? Yes, I was.
Would have I felt bad for using him as a slave if he was the grotesque monstrosity I hoped he’d be? Probably not.
But I didn’t really mind being hypocritical right now. If he looked like and acted like a monster, I’d just say it was a quirk of this fantasy world, and go on with my day, but because he did not look like a monster, I felt a responsibility towards him, a responsibility to make him a person.
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“Hmm... after you create the first sapient member of your race, I can probably make research to turn the non-sapient ones into sapient ones... and lets just call your race as Homunculi from now on just for the ease, you know?” I nodded at her idea to just call us Homunculi, and smiled a little knowing that Jonathan might actually become a friend of mine in the future instead of staying as a non-sapient.
“While we are talking about sapiens, when will I get access to sapient people?” I asked her, wanting to know how long I’d have to wait.
“...I’ll probably have to ask either mommy or daddy to make a sapient version of your people, but that shouldn’t take too long for me, but sapience is also a great tool for civilizations so... lets say you need to get to level 3 to start making sapient people, and I’ll either put the research to turn non-sapiens into sapiens into level 3, or depending on its hardness I might put it in level 4... oh, and sapiens will cost more organic matter to make.” She said and I just nodded at her once again, and opened my empire tab to see what my new quest was.
Quest:
A Gang of “Men” – Have a total of 10 Homunculi – Rewards: 10 Exp + 1 Research Point
“...Did you name this quest or...” I started, a bit anger seeping into my voice and confused, Rae just came up to me and looked at the quest I was talking about.
“O-oh I made that quest before I even met you! I’ve got a quite a few quests planned for you, you see b-but let me change that quickly!” And then with a swipe of her hands the quest’s name changed to A Gang of Homunculi.
I honestly didn’t know how to feel about this... I mean, she is a god, is she not? Couldn’t she have changed the name before I saw it? Or at least made the Homunculi actual Homunculi instead of my people?
...Sadly though, dropkicking the brat might cause more problems to me than it was worth it, so heaving a sigh, I ate up my anger and turned to Jonathan.
“Jonathan, can you hear me?” And the moment I called out to him, Jonathan stopped looking at the sky and put his right hand on his forehead, and the other to his back, and entered attention.
“No need to do that Jonathan, just help me find a few straight branches around here, you can go a bit away but stay at a distance where you can see me, and if you see a branch on a tree that looks straight, don’t be afraid to break it.” After I said that Jonathan left attention and started going around and crouching next to every twig and branch on the ground, and inspected them for a bit, and threw them away after he saw that they were not the straight sticks he was looking for.
“Well... can’t let ma boy do all the work himself now, can I?” I muttered and started looking around too, making sure Jonathan never left my sight.
After an hour, I found enough sticks that were straight and long enough for spear making and called out to Jonathan, so we could make a few wooden spears and start trying to hunt something, and when he returned, I saw that he had gathered at least a dozen sticks that were perfectly straight and were as long as me...
“Great job Jonathan! I was just collecting some firewood while you were collecting those sticks! Let’s go to the river, rest for a bit, sharpen our spears, and then hunt for a bit, what do you say?” After I said that, he just nodded a few times and followed me while we were going towards the river.
Then we just rested up, and I first started experimenting with sharpening our spears with stones using the sticks I had found, just to make sure that our actual spears wouldn’t be useless.
“While we are just resting here... Rae, can you tell me if there are any ore deposits around this place? Like copper, tin, iron and such.”
“I am planning on giving you the knowledge of how spot ores in a future research. So, you’ll have to wait until you level up your empire.”
“...Then it just means I’ll have to save up some research points like you advised it seems.”
After a bit more of sharpening the tips of the sticks I found, I got confident and turned all 12 of the sticks Jonathan found into wooden spears.
After resting for a bit more, we took 4 spears with us and left the remaining 8 near where we were resting and entered the forest.
And the first problem of the day showed itself, I did not actually know how to hunt.
I mean, I got the idea of what hunting was... I think.
See footprints on the ground, follow it, and stab whatever you found... well, humans actually don’t hunt like that now, do they?
I mean, I am no longer human, but I was one a day before and my current body is based on my previous one, so instead of trying to track down a hunt inside of a forest, going to grasslands and stalking some animals might be the better idea...
“Wait... are those footprints?” Well, might need to learn how to persistence hunt, but that’s for the future me!
Following the footprints with Jonathan, we soon saw a weird animal that seemed to be a mix of rabbit and mole with a fluffy body and large dirty claws, good for digging.
It was stood next to a hole in the ground, so I tried to stay low to the ground and...
*snap~*
Jonathan accidentally stepped on a twig, the mole bunny saw me, the 2-metre-tall Smurf, and a red blob masquerading as a man and went down into its hole.
“...Jonathan, I think it would be better if we just went around and looked for fruits and nuts instead of hunting, because I have a slight feeling that we are not built for it.” As I said that Jonathan nodded once and we turned back, and looked around the forest and picked any fruit and nut that seemed ripe and was easy to detach.
With after returning with arms full of a bunch of random shit, I gave the duty of protecting our stuff to Jonathan, made a little circle of stone, and managed to light a fire before the sun set down.
And at night, we further separated the random stuff we found in the forest, cut it up with some rocks and cooked it up.
Was it necessary to cook them before eating? No clue. Probably not, but cooking might... remove the poison?
Thankfully by the time I woke up, Jonathan was up and well, and neither of us had food poisoning or normal poisoning so I’ll take that as a win!
And we might need to memorize where we god those fruits from... except the one that looked like a pear... god, I never thought I’d have the misfortune of eating something that looked like a primitive banana with... so many goddamn seeds, but at least I know that they are definitely not poisonous... hopefully.