"Thanks Rocky! We'll try and buy some Orbs from you later. K byeee!" Poe shouted as he flitted out of the dark rocked golem's shop. He'd just started rumbling which meant he was about to talk, but Poe didn't wait around. His new friend could be such a chatter box.

From what he'd said, the attack should start soon and Poe figured he should get back to the house in case the Boss came back. He didn't have any interest in the attack since the fight with all the scary monsters in that forest had been so scary. Hopefully, he could sleep through this one.

Poe was just arcing down to fly back to the Underbridge when a familiar shade of blue caught his eye. A small goblin was being carried away by a group of almost otters. The lead one even wore armor and Poe thought he looked familiar too. The little blue goblin snapped iron teeth towards one of the almost otters and that's when it clicked for Poe.

"It's the stare stare goblin! Jalx's son! Or maybe they weren't related," Poe said into the wind. "They're both pretty blue though. Maybe they're cousins. Oh! Or Jalx is his uncle. I bet that's it. Jalx has big morose uncle vibes."

The scene seemed off for Poe though. Why would they be carrying the goblin away? He wasn't sure whether the little goblin was trying to fight them or if he was just bitey. With his big iron teeth, Poe kind of assumed he was just bitey. Still, the Boss probably wouldn't be back until after the attack already started...

"Seems like a mystery here and that requires information and THAT's my specialty!," Poe said, "...as of yesterday." Like a small buzz on the wind, he continued to chatter to himself as he followed the assortment of almost otters.

***

After Tiria appeared next to the crystal, she examined the strange Encampment of domed buildings made out of some kind of red rock. The bricked streets were worn, but still surprisingly in good condition considering they were under some body of water. She couldn't see the surface through the canopy of kelp that drifted over the encampment and seemed to flank it on all sides.

The emptiness of the place unnerved her. She'd felt that she was ascending to be assist her progenitor. The two of them were to pave the way for the rest of their Elites. Yet, he wasn't here.

By her second loop of the place, she was considering venturing into the water to find him when she noticed a creature that she hadn't seen on the last loop. He was an otter like herself except for the strange silver markings on his fur. He sat crosslegged with his eyes closed in prayer.

The Progenitor! She thought in awe.

His robe appeared much more fine than hers except that it was torn in several places as though he'd just gotten out of some combat. Despite the appearance of the robe, the progenitor himself was immaculate. He had no wounds whatsoever on him even in the spots where his robe had been torn.

He must have just bested some foe for the clan. From the distance, she could just hear him praying aloud and she didn't want to interrupt him. However, she could join him. That thought sent a thrill through her. She'd worked so hard to establish their place in the Playground. What must he have accomplished up here in her absence?

Quietly so as not to disturb him, she sat crosslegged just as he had and closed her eyes, listening to his quiet prayer.

"To you, Danna. I give up my weakness for it is not needed. For you, I give up my worries for they are not needed. For you, I give every ounce of my strength to your glory and to your light for that is required."

Tiria shivered as she listened to his words. She'd been born knowing about Gi and his devotion to Danna, but hearing his words felt somehow profound. Their clan could achieve great things under her watchful eye.

"You are the captain and the navigator, but I am just your humble vessel. All I need do is hear your desires and obey."

There was a momentary silence after the last line and he took a deep full breath that Tiria mimicked. The two of them exhaled together and they opened their eyes. He looked surprised. Of course, he's surprised. You snuck up on him while he was praying!

Tiria jumped to her feet and snapped to attention, one fist to womb and the other at her back, then bowed low.

"The sign of the Mother..." Gi said, thoughtfully.

Tiria rose and gave a curt nod in response. "I was born with some basic knowledge of Danna. We all were."

"And my Religion skill... The passive effect- hold a moment." Her Progenitor took out a little black notebook and started taking notes in it. She hadn't expected him to be so diligent, but of course that made sense. He had to be someone great to be the Progenitor of their clan. After a few minutes, he looked up at her.

"You're my Subgenitor."

"At your service," she said snapping off another bow in the Sign of the Mother. "I go by Tiria. Though I'll answer to whatever you like."

He gave her a quizzical look. "Tiria is fine. I'm Gi."

Tiria bit back an "I know" as that seemed rude and nodded instead. Her Progenitor studied her for a moment before glancing back at his notebook.

"What abilities do you have?"

Instead of answering, she simply opened her status and flipped it around.

Name: Tiria

Race: Gang Otter (Commander - E)

Job: Fighter

Level: 0

Squad: None

Stats

Strength - E+

Agility - E+

Vitality - E+

Wisdom - G+

Leadership - 3

Traits:

Intelligence(Inherited)

Arcane Bolt

Swim Speed

Trait Skills:

* Commander(D) - Summons a Fighter to fight for you for 20 seconds

* Skulk (E) - Improves stealth and deals additional damage if attacking from stealth

* Charge (E) - Rush towards your target and attack at increased speed

* Defiant Stand (E) - Increases resistance to damage and knockback while in use. Provides a small passive resistance to damage

Skills

* Religion (E)

* Light Armor (E)

* Blunt Weapons (E)

Gi quietly studied it and Tiria unconsciously began to squirm under the scrutiny. Her uneasiness only grew as he started taking notes. What was he thinking? Was she not good enough?

***

The appearance of his Subgenitor had been wholly unexpected and came with a whirlwind of new information. What were Squads? Where did the Leadership stat come from?

He paused as he took his notes, trying to poll the system. It sometimes worked and-

Leadership - This stat dictates how many members you can have in a Squad. It's calculated by the average of the top two stats of a monster.

Squad - A group of monsters with benefits based on the makeup of the Squad. Minimum of three monsters required. Clan affiliation required.

Interesting. Did it show up now because he had three monsters in his clan now? Or was it just a normal part of the Adolescent Stage? His own Leadership score was four based off the calculation and a quick look at his sheet confirmed it.

"What do you think?" Tiria's question brought his attention back to her. She looked uncomfortable and Gi realized that he'd just been staring without speaking.

"You've got a decent all-arounder martial build. It looks similar to mine when I first got here, but not the same. Your stats are different and while most of your skills seem related to mine. I'm not sure what Defiant Stand is. Did you have a Unique Opportunity in the Child Stage?"

Tiria shook her head. "That was just the [Iron Skin] trait that was upgraded."

[Iron Skin]? He'd picked that trait up as a slime, but it hadn't made the cut in the Child Stage. He'd ended with a lot of traits that he didn't take with him actually. Could his other clan members manifest those or was this simply a Subgenitor thing?

"Interesting," he said simply. Tiria looked like she could barely hold back some question that was driving her. She was eager, but thankfully not in the same way that Poe was eager. He loved his underling, but he could be a bit much. Still, Tiria looked like she'd explode if he didn't let her ask. "Go on and ask whatever it is you need to."

"What's your plan for the clan? How do we build the foundation for the others?"

That was a good question. Gi had been so focused on himself that he hadn't even considered the clan coming after him. So far, his mind had been swirling around what he needed to do, but he kept coming back to "I'm so weak." His Focus, Strength through Danna, meant that it was expected, but what did he offer her? How did he give back?

He wasn't sure how to answer her as he hadn't been able to answer the question himself. So he just laid out the facts. "We've got this Encampment here that's well hidden and somewhat guarded by the remnants of the previous clan. Up above, a war is going on between the two city-states and there is some kind of clans hierarchy in Igna as well." Despite him not giving an actual plan, she listened with rapt attention. He kept going.

"We've got to get the surface and then start to carve out space for ourselves within the infrastructure of the city. However, we've got an enemy up there who is strong. She wants to kill me because I killed her clan leader in the Child Stage. We also need to find Poe. He's been stuck topside since before the attack. Maybe he even has some good information for us."

"So how do we do that?"

Gi sighed and rubbed at his eyes. That was the crux of it. He was tired from training instead of sleeping the night before then fighting the Dragon Pike Progenitor and then wringing himself dry in the battle above. "I need rest first. Just a few hours and maybe some food if we can find some. Then we go scout out the situation and see what's happening."

She snapped off another bow with the Sign of the Mother and Gi marveled again at the fact that his [Religion] skill just seemed to have implanted knowledge into his brain. When Danna did it, it was expected, but this skill? The system was powerful. "I'll patrol the Encampment while you sleep. I just spawned after all."

Gi wandered off into the largest building that had been labeled Control. It was almost entirely empty other than a podium, but he didn't care, he nestled into the corner at the beginning of the dome and passed out before he could think of anything else.

He awoke some time later to an almost fishy smell permeating the air. Squinting, he opened his eyes to see Tiria standing at a counter that he hadn't noticed in the Control room or had it not been there before? She had a pot in one hand and a ladle in the other.

"What?" Gi said, blearily.

"Progenitor, you're awake! I've made us soup."

Gi rose stiffly to his feet and stretched, the motion feeling great as it loosened him up. His body and spirit still felt a little sore, but nothing that would stop him from fighting. He wandered over to where she was cooking and he could see some kind of strange clear soup that had kelp and some red cubes hovering in it.

"Where did you find this stuff?"

Tiria ladled them both out a bowl as she answered. "There were some kelp trees outside that were just laying on the ground. I pulled it out and they have some thick tuberous red root. Thankfully, this building had some cooking utensils along with the beds. So I just grabbed some lake water and boiled some of the kelp and kelp root."

Gi took a sip. It was salty like the lake water itself was, but either the kelp or its root had brought a spicy taste like a spicy seafood stew. It was much better than it had any right to be. "This is amazing."

Tiria smiled at the praise. "I just boiled it, but it did offer me the [Cooking] skill. I was trying to decide whether to take it as I only have three skill slots left."

"Don't take it yet," Gi said quickly. "We need to save some slots to adapt for how we fight together. It's good to know that we can pick up Skills by doing it. I wonder what the criteria are..." He opened up the Skills experimentation part of his journal and took notes about how she'd gotten the Cooking skill.

Tiria calmly ate her soup as he wrote. "You seem very meticulous."

Surprised, he glanced up at her. "What?"

"You're constantly writing down the things you learn."

Gi turned the notebook over in his paw. "Honestly if I don't write things down, I'll forget them. Missing key details in a plan is a great way to ruin it."

Tiria sipped the last of her soup and set it down. "Maybe I should get a notebook then..."

Tiria waited patiently while Gi finished his soup and then the two of them set to leave the Encampment. They got to the edge that pushed back the lake water and Gi checked his notebook again.

"You don't have the ability to breathe underwater. We'll have to go straight up, but it could be risky. I'll have to cover you... Hold on."

Gi sprinted back over to the Encampment crystal.

Residence Menu:

No Body or Heart Orbs.

Use Soul Orbs to increase Stats?

Yes.

Current Soul Orbs: 667

Choose a stat to increase.

He increased his Wisdom six more times, leaving him at D8. Hopefully, the increased firepower would help against any remaining Dragon Pikes, though he still had an issue with the refraction.

When he upgraded it to D5 though, he got a very welcoming popup.

You have leveled up! Level 5 milestone reached. Reward: Skill Upgrade.

Please select a reward:

Trait: [Rally] - > Skill: [Inspire] - Provides the Rally stat bonus to Clan members as well as worshippers of Danna.

[Bishop] -> [Head Bishop] - Summons two Clerics to fight for you. They may now use combat Skills.

[Merfolk's Blessing] -> [Quicksilver Assault] - Creates a strong current of water to push back foes. Maintains the passive bonus of Merfolk's Blessing.

All three options were pretty good. The first would have made [Rally] useful to him when it was just him and Poe, but it seemed that Tiria also worshipped Danna if less intensely than himself. He could use Rally with her now.

[Quicksilver Assault] stuck out to him. That might be exactly what he needed to fight off the Dragon Pikes on his own while he and Tiria ascended. He couldn't rely on Elizabeth or the Pikes being distracted for him to get down to his Encampment.

Assuming it was similar to the Dragon Pike Progenitor's attack, he knew it was exactly what he needed right now, but... it was also only what he needed right now. As soon as he got to the surface, Krayli still had the advantage. Even though any of the classers could kill him, he suspected that a good number of the jobbies could too.

He had to take a risk now so he could fight stronger later. He selected [Head Bishop]. Like when he upped his stats, he felt an itchiness that he couldn't quite scratch. Instead of being all over, this spread down to his heart where the skill for Bishop had been located. He turned his internal gaze to it and he could tell it was different than before but how exactly was beyond him.

With his higher Wisdom and upgraded Skill, he headed back to Tiria so the two of them could make the mad dash for the surface.