“So you can finally talk now? Also Darkclaw looks anything but yummy to me.”

“You know what I mean don't you? I want to eat him up.”

“Seriously? That is really gross to me.”

“Well, when you lock us in with only animals. I'm going to think of which is the most likely candidate to-.”

“Let me stop you there, I am NOT having sex with any of my pets.”

“Still… If you had to pick.”

“I thought conversations with Greed were bad.”

“If I were a guy, I would be very attracted to that fox girl. She has some big breasts… I wonder if you can milk her?”

“WOW! Please stop! Can you hold a conversation about anything else besides sex?”

“Oh, of course. Sex is just something fun to talk about. So, you haven't went through my memories yet because you didn't want to invade my privacy? I give you permission.”

“No, that isn't why. I wanted to meet you before I absorbed you into my consciousness. From speaking with Greed... I learned more about myself than I would have from just going through his memories.”

“Well I guess that makes sense… Somewhat… So do you want words of encouragement then? I would say just go for it with Leaf. She isn't the type to stop you if you make a move.”

“No, that isn't what I was wondering. Can you… Tell me if there is anything I should expect first... I don't want to go in there and get hurt again. Greed's… His memories left me with a scar on my heart for a person I have never met before.”

“Well… I guess you could say that. I went through Greed's memories also and it was nothing that bad. My life was pretty peaceful. That isn't to say that people close to me didn't die. I just accepted it better than Greed did… It didn't ruin my life.”

“Well. I guess that is okay then. It isn't as bad as I though-.”

“So if you could choose any two girls to have a threesome with, which two would you pick? I'm going to assume Leaf is one. What about Green? She is also named Leaf, maybe you want to bury yourself in a pile of leaves.”

“OH GREATER GOD! Please be quiet… Can't you read my thoughts?”

“I could, that would take the fun out of teasing you though.”

“Well please, keep the chatter down for awhile. I can't focus if you keep talking to me.”

All of my pets are looking at me. I guess I went back to making faces while talking to myself. It is hard not to.

I stretch and begin to practice my new classes. While summoning my shadow doppelgangers is easy enough, controlling them is far more difficult. It is far easier to have them mimic my actions, if I decide to control them. I have to add far more thought to controlling it. It takes too much to control both. Far too much. Aegis talks up.

“Hey, let me try to control the left one real quick.”

The left most doppelganger begins to move on his own. I hear Lust begin to talk next.

“Let me control the other one then.”

The remaining shadow doppelganger begins to move on its own once she says that. My two clones are moving at a far more proficient level than if I had controlled them myself. Soon enough though the shadows fade. Aegis and Lust both are giving off the emotion of disappointment. I think they both enjoyed controlling the clones. I feel sorry for them, that they aren't able to have their own bodies.

I check the dragon feathers I collected from Darkclaw. The three feathers are all around twice the size and width of a chicken feather. It fits comfortably in my hand. I only collected a limited amount for now. I need to make sure that Darkclaw's feathers can grow back.

Things I know for certain wont grow back I'll collect near the end of our time here. I'm going to collect a claw and fang from each of them. While I don't plan on making void claws for them. Each will have a void tooth made. They could store pills inside to buff them during fights without needing to spend time and a hand to put them in their mouth.

I also brought some sets of gear. The gnolls gear hasn't been upgraded for the longest time. So their gear looks far worse for wear than my other troops. I plan to fix them up, replace some of the more worn out parts and enchant them with set effects. I've decided on dexterity for all their sets because it works the best for the beast riders. Which the majority of them are.

I need to test out my new skill mana to matter. I begin to channel mana into gold. It is the first thing I'll try because, if I can make an infinite amount of gold... The army will never have money problems… All of my mana resulted in three grains of gold… I don't think I'll be able to use this to make gold. If that is all I focused on, I might be able to make a single gold every day… I still need to continue practicing this.

I try a few more things. Gold was the only type of material with the extremely low yield. Perhaps it is because gold is a good mana conductor and it messes up the ability to make it. I can conjure three silver coins with all my mana. Making materials is far better though. I make a few herbs that I can change into potions with barely half of my mana. So it seems to be better for making materials than money.

I brought in enough herbs to make around several hundred regen pills. Spending several hours making these items. It feels like it has been over two days of time. With the amount of sleep I've had, it could be possible that is how long it has been. I ask the tree how much time has passed.

“It has been 30 hours.”

… It has barely been a day in here and I've already done so much. I feel like I might not have brought enough things to do with how much I can solely focus on accomplishing things. It makes sense since the majority of my time is spent making sure everything is running smoothly for my army.

We have almost 13 days remaining in here. The only thing we can do with the remaining time is train. Many of my pets are still too weak for me to fight evenly with. Any that have just gotten classes are outpaced. Everyone besides Darkclaw that is. Even in his human form he is very strong. He doesn't resemble a human as close as any of my other pets. Dragon feathers still cover his skin, wings poke out of his back. His face is still dragon like in appearance.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Sock and him are very even in strength when it comes to fighting. At least until Darkclaw starts to use his dragon breath attacks. Avoiding them takes more effort than Sock can manage normally. Taking damage from his flames, his hair has been singed repetitively. The space around him stinks because of this.

Fighting each of my generals, I can sometimes surprise Sock and beat him in a fight. Darkclaw however is far more difficult to beat. Going all out normally ends in a tie. The few tricks I can use to beat him have quickly been learned. Only trumps could put me ahead of him but those are designed to kill. I wouldn't use trumps in a duel… Well… It depends on how mad I am actually. I'll have to design some more non lethal trumps... I think I might actually have a few already.

While Darkclaw is very strong. He barely trains besides fighting. With the effort Sock puts in training. He could eventually surpass Darkclaw and surprise him in the fights with his strength. We've been eating food we've brought ourselves… I haven't noticed any food that the greater god had promised. I ask the time tree how to get the food the greater god promised.

“You just have to think of food and a fridge will appear.”

I test it out… What exactly is a fridge though? I start to think about different types of food. Sauteed vegetables with a hunk of basilisk meat and some fresh baked bread with a cream spread on it. I nice dwarven ale to wash it down would be amazing as well. Thinking this forms a box in the corner. I head towards it. I've never seen a box like this. I poke it to make sure it is safe.

I continue prodding it… How does it open? The front of this “fridge” has a door on it. Is the greater god playing a trick on me? If I open this door, I half expect it to lead into another room of some kind. With how small this thing is, I doubt it would contain a single meal I've asked for inside, let alone enough food to last for two weeks. Perhaps it refills itself every time it disappears? I open the door.

The temperature drops as I open the door. It is like the entire room inside has been enchanted with freeze magic. I look at the food… It isn't what I would have expected, it isn't even close to what I asked for. On the top shelf of the fridge is several see through containers of… Different colors of liquid… They are labeled, it looks like some are tea, beer. One of the bigger containers is milk. One sticks out more than the rest. It is unlabeled, on it is a sticky note. The note reads “Greater gods own concoction. You are welcome.” I'm afraid to drink it.

On a shelf underneath the top is several brown plastic bags. I prod them and look at the writing on the package. Their are directions on how to get to the food. The food is called “food rations”… I've never heard of that food before. One is separated from the rest. I read the contents of the ration. It is the exact thing I had just thought of eating. Minus the beer and vegetables… The beer wouldn't be mixed in with the food though. I continue reading the contents of the ration… Most of the ingredients inside I've never heard of. What exactly is a “chocolate bar”?

Finally, on the very bottom shelf is a mixture of different fruits and vegetables. Some I know what they are. Some I've never seen before. Tasting all these new foods should be fun and enjoyable. The biggest problem I have is that the greater god has made it. Who knows what could be wrong with any of this food. I could eat something poisonous or toxic, maybe even something that will make me explode. I'll have to be very careful with everything I eat.

I start with all the unknown vegetables and fruits. First is a red orb, it looks somewhat like an apple. I'm not sure if it is a vegetable or a fruit. It is the only one with a stick note on it. “This vegetable/fruit is called a tomato. I cultivated it myself to make it large, more beautiful and more delicious.”… I take a bite. The liquid inside explodes in my mouth. It is indeed very delicious.

I continue trying the other fruits and vegetables. A orange stick that is fairly tasteless. A brown ball that is very hard to open, the liquid inside is tasty though. There was a fruit that was yellow. After biting into it I found that the outside is sort of like armor that is very bad tasting. After you take the armor off, the inside is mushy and very sweet.

I hadn't even noticed that on the door was more shelves with things on them. From what it looked like, they were full of some type of spices and another sticky note. “This is all the food you'll get for this week. While it doesn't seem like much, some of the food can be made more filling by re-hydrating it. If you leave and restart the week, the fridge will refill.”

I decide to experiment with my pre-packaged meal. I open it slowly, cutting the top of the container open. I take everything out of the container. Inside are more packages. Each package is labeled. Basilisk meat, dehydrated potatoes, crackers, strawberry jam, cheese spread, canned fish, mixed nuts, chocolate bar.

I sample everything, the basilisk meat tastes exactly like that, basilisk meat. I've had it before, it is as delicious as normal, slightly less than I'm used to eating every meal when it is available. I add water to the dehydrated potatoes and continue to stir. It isn't very good so I heat up the tray that was also in the package. It makes it more edible but still not nearly as tasty as the meat of the meal.

I take out the crackers next. They look like hard bread. I try a corner of one and that is what it tastes like, crunchy bread. Meaning I should try the other things first since it might be better to top these crackers with something. The packets for the strawberry jam and cheese spread are different than the other packets. I rip off the top of each and try them both. The strawberry jam is very tasty, it is another new flavor to my taste buds.

I've tasted cheese before, I knew it would be good with the crackers so I add some to it and it tastes exactly how I expected it to. I cut a piece of meat and place it on the cheesy cracker and enjoy it. I finish the crackers, jam, paste and meat. Opening the canned fish it is somewhat similar to what I've already eaten. Cut into bite size pieces, I easily finish that as well. I've had mixed nuts before in my previous life. I'll save that for later, if I start to get hungry before the next meal. Getting to the chocolate bar next.

I open the packet it came in… It is a poop colored bar… It doesn't look very tasty at all. I smell it, it barely has a smell and I can't get what it would taste like from its smell. I lick the corner of it… It tastes extremely sweet. I bite off a corner of the bar. It starts to melt in my mouth as I chew it. Almost sweet enough to hurt my teeth, it is beyond delicious none the less. Maybe even more than the basilisk meat. I finish the bar and am completely satisfied by the meal.

Lust spoke up.

“That meal was more satisfying than an orgasm. I feel so good right now, and the good part is I don't have that annoying full feeling from eating either. Sometimes, its good to be just memories in your head."