One of the Healers came over to heal Gi. Unlike when he was healed by the Angelic Mice, this wasn't a full heal. It closed most of the small wounds like the bite marks from the flowers. The wound in his side had been stabilized, but it was still incredibly sore.

His Elites other than Kumo were there beside him and he turned to Tiria. "We need to get any catalysts that may have dropped from their Classers, there might be some wounded that those suffering Soul Sickness can finish off, and... we need to do something with our dead."

Despite their success, the only thing Gi felt was weary, but adrenaline must have been coursing through Tiria still as she immediately started calling out orders. "Wax and Wane, get a couple of Templar Squads to find any wounded still alive in the cavern. Tala, get another Squad to help you organize those with Soul Sickness to kill their wounded."

Then Tiria pointed to another otter that looked familiar to Gi. "Chum, gather up any of our wounded that will need help and lay them off to the side. Samba, you take everyone else without a job and lay our own dead off to one side. Oh and I need a runner!"

One of the Hunters sprinted up to her and she kept barking orders. "Go get Grung and bring him up here. We're going to have to butcher our enemies here if we want to be able to transport them." The runner ran off. Tiria turned to Gi's own Squad of Inquistors. "Look through the remains of the Classers here and in the side tunnels. Gather any Catalysts that you can find."

Gi felt a wave of appreciation for Tiria. Danna must have been looking out for him when she sent her to him. He clambered to his feet. Though he was stiff, he didn't think his injuries would give him any issues in combat as long as he got a chance to rest tonight. There was still more to do though.

"Take the Progenitor's swords," Gi brought out two summons who picked them up and handed them to Tiria. She took the obviously magical swords, but she must not have had room in her [Expanded Pocket] for them. She'd figure it out.

With things well in hand, he moved back towards the cave the Progenitor had come from. Once inside, he noticed a bunch of small budding vines were laced across the ceiling with a veritable field of flowers coating them. Gi was surprised that they'd held so many of their number back and casually shot a [Divine Ire] into their ranks.

Possession Flower defeated!

0 Soul Orbs received because monster was a Child. Current Soul Orbs: 365.

After his blast, the Child Possession Flowers skittered away from him along the ceiling as their dead fellows dropped to the ground. Guilt ran through Gi's mind, but he immediately shoved it down. They were the enemy...

He didn't slay any more of them though and instead walked deeper into the cavern as the glowing blue of the mushroom was overtaken by a much brighter sheen from an Encampment Crystal. Gi stepped up and placed his paw on it.

Unclaimed Encampment Crystal. Would you like to claim it?

Gi took a second to check back through his notifications and he had received one when killing the Progenitor that mirrored the one he'd received after killing the Dragon Pike Progenitor all that time ago. It was interesting, but didn't change what he needed to do.

He claimed the Crystal.

Adjusting environment for new encampment leader...

The cave rumbled as soon as he selected it. The grating sound of giant pieces of rock shifting against each other rang throughout the cavern, but Gi didn't know what had actually changed. He took the time to run back to the main cavern and he saw that the wall of magma had been closed off and the underground spring on the other side had expanded into a large river that cut across the entire main cavern.

Samba was already in the water, pulling any bodies that had fallen in out of it while Tiria gave Gi an annoyed look. He shrugged. The water that had burst from the wall to form the river in their new encampment slowed until the river only had a gentle current. As it calmed, another notification hit.

Expanded Territory I Task complete!

1 Heart Orb Rewarded. Current Heart Orbs: 1

That would give enough for him to complete the Squad Empowering task as well. He also had enough Soul Orbs to get himself to level twenty six after the small amount of hunting he'd done during the monsoon season. He returned to the Encampment Crystal.

Residence Menu:

No Body Orbs.

Use Soul Orbs to increase Attributes?

Use Heart Orb to empower a Squad?

Establish Squads?

First, he poured three hundred Soul Orbs into Vitality which made his wounds bother him even less. It was amazing what increased attributes could do. What would a monster with a B look like? An A? He thought back to that battle where he'd seen Queen Siht battle the leader of the Myshk. A battle between shadow and flame that even now was well beyond him.

Stats

Strength - D

Agility - C

Vitality - D6

Wisdom - C

Leadership - 5

As soon as he added those in, another notification popped up.

You have leveled up! Level 25 milestone reached. Reward: Skill Upgrade

Expanded Pocket -> Expanded Armory - Weapons, armor, and shields take up only a third of their usual size.

Leadership -> Platoon Leader - Increase your Squad size by one and your Squad can have one Mob Trait;

Twilight Eyes -> Eyes of the Master - Able to view Domains and Auras. (Dependent on Soul)

Gi looked over his options, trying to decide what would help him the best. Being able to see Domains sounded good. He thought back to his fight against Slice-Slice and the weapons that he threw. That fight hadn't been difficult even as an Adolescent, but if it had been, seeing his range in real time could have been key. He didn't even know what an Aura was which made him want to take it then and there.

Increasing the versatility of his [Expanded Pocket] could be extremely useful as he could pop out summons in heavy armor with shields, something he didn't have the space for today. Hell, he could even make sure all of his summons and himself had weapons instead of having to snatch one up.

However, he knew what he was going to take as soon as he saw it. It was the whole reason he'd taken [Leadership] as one of his limited General Skills after all. As strong as he was, fights weren't being won solely off of his own strength anymore. If it weren't for the clan, he'd have been overwhelmed by jobbies in just this last fight.

He probably could have bested their Progenitor one on one, but that would never be the case anymore. The clan would always have his back. Without any hesitation, he selected [Platoon Leader].

Wanting to complete another Task, he opened up the Squad menu and realized that he had a new option. His Squad could have sub-Squads now, or more accurately, he would be in charge of a Platoon. He added his Elites into his Platoon.

Current Designation: Gi's Squad

Race: Gang Otter

Role: Infantry

Platoon: Gi

Squads in Platoon

Tiria's

Kumo's

Samba's

Wax and Wane's

Mob Trait: None Selected

Squad Traits:

Skirmish Specialist

Mobility

Leader Traits: None

Leadership Skill: Platoon

And now he had access to something called a Mob Trait which would allow him to apply one of his Squad Traits to his entire Platoon. He only had two Squad Traits currently, the one that provided evasion and the other that increased Move Speed, but maybe he should empower his Squad more before selecting?

He decided to empower his own Squad one more time just to see his new options.

Choose a Squad Trait:

(Traits available based on Leadership skill, Squad's achievements, and resources of the clan.)

Underwater Fighters

Ranged Specialists

Desert Fighters

Stealth Specialists

Junior Officers

Assassin

There were only two new options. The only one that still tempted him was Ranged Specialist as increased accuracy at long ranges. However with [Divine Ire] having an AoE effect, that was less of a priority.

Junior Officers increased the Leadership of each Squad in his Platoon. From this last Dungeon run, he understood the strength of larger Squads. If the Dungeon Run in the Individual Stage was the same, he'd definitely want to pick up the Junior Officers trait.

The other new one was Assassin. It provided a flat five percent increase to power. A secondary characteristic that apparently affected one's damage from either physical attacks or an Aether based one. Five percent didn't seem like a lot, but in an even fight, that kind of advantage was the difference between winning or losing.

Since none of his Elites were around and he didn't feel like gathering them for their advice, he just went with his gut and selected Junior Officers.

Expanded Strength Task complete!

1 Heart Orb Rewarded. Current Heart Orbs: 1

With another Heart Orb in hand, he first set the Skirmisher Specialist as his Mob Trait so that all his Elites could benefit from it. Then he used the last Heart Orb to empower Kumo's Squad with Stealth Specialist.

After this battle, he'd have to avoid direct conflict in the near future. However, this should show progress to Galvina that hopefully got them some more benefits. Krayli had also been getting frustrated with the lack of progress and he'd need her more than ever now. Her new Skill could help them hunt down the remnants of Noctua Dominus's followers.

Gi let his hand drop from the Encampment Crystal. While this needed to be done, he'd just been distracting himself from what he should really focus on.

The cost of this battle.

He turned and started trudging through the side cavern. The child Possession Flowers jostled each other to stay far away from him. It didn't take him long before he reached the main cavern, but he still hesitated before taking that step fully into it.

As Tiria had commanded, they'd organized the bodies and the wounded. On Gi's side of the river, a few otters walking like a puppet missing a few strings killed the wounded of the Possession Flowers.

Gi crossed the river until he found Tiria and a few others looking down at the bodies of the fallen. Tiria looked up as he approached.

"Three Templar, ten Hunters, six Inquisitors, and one of mine. Her name was Gale. She loved to draw and was the otter that had been helping me with blueprints for the clan."

He gazed down at the faces in front of him. He didn't know their names, but he recognized them. One of them was a Hunter that he'd accompanied to the Barrens for them to get experience. Another was a Templar that had tried their hand at wrestling his summon on that first night after the Dungeon.

When Gi looked down at them, it wasn't pain or sorrow that he felt, though he knew that he should. He felt guilt. Their deaths were due to his failure of not getting enough information. From Danna's perspective, he'd failed his family. From the Father's, he'd wasted resources.

As he stood there studying the bodies of his fallen, a vision came to him.

The dopey follower turned off his car and leaned his head back on the headrest. His thoughts were turbulent with stressors from his job and his emotions were clearer than Gi had ever felt in a vision before.

His boss had just heaped a lot of the conversion work on his team that was supposed to be handled by consultants. He'd then threatened his job when told they didn't have the bandwidth for that and their regular job. His team was going to kill him.

That was for tomorrow though. Tonight, all he needed was to talk it out with Danna. Then he could get through whatever he needed to. The dopey follower rubbed at his eyes before stepping out of his car and walking up to the house.

Danna was waiting there for him, holding baby Noah on the couch. Her eyes lit up when she saw him and then immediately fell.

"Where is it?"

"Huh?" The dopey follower looked around, confused. "Where is what?"

She got up from the couch, bags under her eyes, as she bounced Noah subconsciously. Her voice cracked like a whip. "Dinner! Tell me you didn't forget."

"Shit..." With the day the follower had, that had been the furthest thing on his mind. "I'm so sor-"

"You're always sorry!" Danna said, her eyes starting to water. "Why can't you just help me?"

The dopey follower stood there like he'd been poleaxed. He didn't understand why she was reacting like this. "It's just dinner... I can-"

"Just dinner? Just?!" Her tone raised in pitch as she started to get worked up. "It's not just dinner. The fact that you think it's just dinner means you don't even understand. I think about your needs daily. How often do you think about mine?"

"I don't know what I did, but-"

Noah started to cry and Danna's anger deflated. She handed Noah over to him. "Just watch Noah. I'll go get dinner."

She stalked past him. "I can-" The door slammed before he could say more. The dopey follower sat down on the couch, his child screaming in his ear, and all of the stress from work and now Danna just spiraled through his head.

Everything was just too much.

Gi snapped back to reality as Tiria placed a hand on his shoulder. "It's not your fault. The Brain Goblins, or I guess it's better to call them the Possession Flowers, hid their true nature well. We fought hard and were victorious. The clan understands that."

His thoughts were all jumbled as it was hard to unmix the feelings that the dopey follower had versus his own. Tiria must have completely misunderstood what he was thinking about. "Yeah..."

"We can hold a funeral for them back at the Encampment..." She took a look around the cavern. "The main Encampment."

Gi looked around, remembering that he was surrounded on all sides by his clan. Monsters looking to him for guidance, not just as their Progenitor but also as their spiritual leader except... he didn't know what Danna was trying to tell him.

He looked at Tiria and saw concern in her expression, but it wasn't something that he wanted to address right now. "I'll meet you back at the Encampment. I need some fresh air."

She nodded. "I'll handle things here."

Rain beat against his head as he exited the former base of the Brain Goblins. The commons was dark and empty as he started to make his way slowly back to the Encampment. He kept to the shadows, not wanting to be stopped by any runners from the clan that might be going between the two sites.

What was Danna trying to tell me? The more he thought about it, the less he understood. Was she that upset with him letting members of the clan die?

His thoughts spiraled like those of the dopey follower as he tried desperately to figure out the message that she was trying to give him. By the time he made it back to the lake, the only answer that came to him was the obvious one.

She was displeased. He wasn't doing enough for her or the clan.

He sank down into its waters and returned to floating around the Encampment within the dark shadows of the giant ferns there. As he did, he churned his Aether through [Danna's Conduit] asking her over and over to explain what he did wrong, but no more visions came to him.

Only silence.