"Stars... Hide your fires. Else they feed my deep and dark desires." -Macbeth
----------------------------------------
Day 5 (Continued)
This isnt good. Maybe if we were bigger, or at least had alot more numbers, I wouldnt be so worried... I have a limited amount of resources and people to use if they ever find us and decide to attack us! They would destroy us, even if we had double, triple our number! Why? Well, I just finished sending out a bunch of wasps to subtly scout them..
Theres not one clan. Theres around 30... And every clan has an average of 50 Dark Elvs. There are also several groups of "Adventurers" harvesting the corpses of our forefathers. On a side note, I should test out how far my mind sensing and reading can go, and if I can do it through my "hosts".
I... need to train everyone. Including myself, if we want any chance of survival in the long term. Need to test my current limits to see how I can improve, need to work on an actual fighting style, and need to train my extremely limited numbers how to weild weapons and use their psychic powers to at least basic degrees...
Its going to be a long day...
Day 6
So I found out something very very important early today... Something that may be vital in how I grow my clan.
Psychic powers DONT WORK on other Psychics. At all. The only possible thing we can do is telepathy, and only if they dont realise it (which means their unawakened) or generally consent to it. This means quite a few things, such as I cant use these guys with Mind Control if they get rebelious, I cant use them as hosts in any sense of the word, and I cant kill them so easily considering Im so much weaker than them...
And this may not even be all. Im sure that Psychics arent the only ones immune to mental manipulation. This means I cant only focus on my Psychic abilities, but may actually need to train or find other soruces of powers to make me stronger.
Mm.. Maybe I can kidnap some humans later on and learn how they get so strong. Even common knowledge would be better than no knowledge. However, thats something for the future, no matter how near. For now, I teach the others at least the basics of spear, sword, and such physical trainings.
Of the Eight of us, only 3 actually have Psychic Talent that seems unlockable by what we have. The other are dormant, but still have basic telepathy. Dont exactly know how that works, considering I was born active, but whatever.
As I trained them in such matters for a day or so, I did some experiments on the side. Like testing how far my Psychic range was, and if hosts can be used as... branches of my infulence, in an attempt to use my powers through them. Turns out my max range was around 100 meters in radius. And for the power through hosts thing, turns out its a yes. I can use them to extend my reach.
Which would be awesome, if I didnt seem to be at a bottleneck in my mind control. I can control who knows how many bugs, or small critters. Those are easy. But to progress, I need something harder. Sadly, sentients are apparently very very hard to even infulence without their notice, and very much impossible to control for me.
In order to control sentients, I need to progress this skill, however I cant prgress it without controlling sentients. As such, Im currently at an impasse. Its not immediantly important, but I do wish I wasnt so limited...
Sigh.. Guess I will just have to send out my Minotaurs to hunt some things like bears soon, or we will run out of food. Surprised we lived so long with so little food, but thats most likely because I cant eat much without my stomach cramping up and me throwing it back up.
Day 7
Cough Cough... Damnit, it looks like I caught a cold, despite being near a bonfire all the time... The others do seem to look up to me despite my sickness, due to how their able to take on beasts they thought too dangerous before. I can see their loyalty clearly from this little notifaction.
<< Acheived Title; Minor Horde Leader. You lead a small group of loyal beastmen. +100 relations with your clan, allows you to name your clan and clansmen, +15% Beastmen join your clan. >>
Not sure what I will name it jsut yet, will put it off for now. At least i can name them now though. Once they do something actually unique and worth notice, I will name them. Otherwise, they arent worth the effort to remember them.
Oh, I forgot to mention that I am now in control of a Hive Queen, so now Im controlling a couple hundred Poisonous wasps that I forced to make their hive at the top of our little undergroudn trench. Also found out that their poison is actually something of a paralyze sort of poison, but when stinging with one wasp on a large rabbit a couple dozen times, it can stop the heart and brain, killing it.
Thus, they are my main weapon for now. Hence why I hide at least 30 under my cloak at all times. Dont know if one of these guys will get overconfident and try to overtake my authority. While they are my main weapon for now, I started training myself in using a battle axe. It was funny seeing the expressions of shock that the minotaurs gave me when I easily picked up an axe almost as big as me.
Especially when they tried to wield it and almost cracked their bones with the strain. Such is the power of stats I suppose. Eating some strange(and sweet) crystal-textured white fruit called "Frostbite Peach", I used my power in an attempt to control a bird.
It was a simple small Snow Owl, yet it was much much harder to control than the wasps. The wasps ate things that were already long dead and rotted, or the occasional live invader (this also make the poison from the queen necrotic it seems, considering she eats the most of it). However, Snow Owls are smarter than hivemind bugs, very very perceptive, and they need to hunt small critter to survive, which means I cant get angry at it and mind wipe it.
After a couple of hours, I of course succeeded, and got my first scout-focused host. Petting the now mind controlled owl, It cooed in pleasure. A name came into my head, and I smiled as I . decided to name her something that for some odd reason felt slightly familiar and fitting.
"There's still much work to be done, eh Hedwig?" I say in a dry hoarse tone.
She hoots in agreement, and I feel slightly comforted by the fact that I dont have to mind wipe her. Not unless she becomes comprimised...
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
Cough Cough
Day 8
Im now offically more than a week old now, and it seems my physical maturity is near. I stand at a small (compared to the other minotaurs 18 feet) 9 feet tall. My body is still sickly pale, and unhealthily thing despite my many meals. I feel like some sort of spider with how thin and fast I feel and move.
A spider.. That would be a decent way to describe how I plan on being like. A fast striking creature, that sets up a web of influence around itself. So far I have a hand full of owls, and the number of hornets are growing by the day.
The Adventurers finally left the area, and the Dark Elvs seem completely unintersted in attempting to reach the surface. This is good. This gives us room on the outside to work with on the outside, without having to worry about invasions behind us. Just in case though, I made sure that the Wasps were vigilant in giving me useful information.
Good thing I found a way to filter out the unneeded things from our connection. It was actually a bit like ignoring your nose. Your always able to see your nose, but your brain just forces you to naturally not notice it, unless you go out your way to try.
Anyways, I think we should do something I really doubt clans of Minotaurs, or even beastkins in general, ever tried.
Herding, taming, and domesticating animals.
We will start small, with mountain goats that breed unbeleivably fast and would eat almost anything, they provide good meat, fur, and milk if its done right. The milk would be good cause its getting to the point where snow melted water isnt giving us enough hydration. The furs would be good for many reasons, the bones would be good for weapons or such, the meat for obvious reasons, etc.
Honestly, the hard part would be making sure that the Minotaurs dont accidentally kill the goats with their size, or scare them off when they get fustrated and kill one or two out of anger. The one who grabbed a goats head and smashed it with another goats head, blowing both their heads up, amused me enough to give him the name "Bob Goatbane".
Of course it did take a whole day just for them to get their anger, fustration, etc in check and are now able to actually herd them. Still unable to milk them, but they are breeding fast under our feeding and protection. Shouldnt take more than a day or so to have them learn the delicate process of milking a goat.
Sadly, that means the one who has to milk them for now is the one who has the smallest hands, aka me. Seriously though, If they dont get it by the end of tommorrow, I will paralyze someones leg in such a way that they have cramps all day, and will be forced to carry all the bonfire wood. By themselves.
Screw these guys, Im supposed to be the weak slacker in this group, not them!
Day 9
Most of them got it, but Bob didnt learn it before sundown. Of course, he got the cramp treatment. Id kill them to send a message, but considering how small of a clan we are, thats too extreme. While they were milking and treating the goats, I was training in using the bugs in combat, as well as learning to use my speed and momentum to my advantage whe using a battleaxe.
Of course my targets were usually some bears or other small predators that got too close, but I think that killing them within a dozen or so strikes is pretty good. At least considering what they have to go through just to live here. Their hide was made to make a new fur cloak for myself, kept together by the bears curled and very tough claws.
The bear skulls were used as shoulder armor, and the rest of the bones were made into mini fences for the goats. We now had a big 50 meter radius clearing, no stumps of trees anymore, in front of our cave.
Its strange how my blade never dulls, but I suppose thats just because of Age Negation. I suppose run down equipment wont be a problem anytime in the future. Just one small thing to not worry about I suppose.
Oh! Lets not forget these skills I got!
<< Two-Handed Axe Mastery(Basic) Skill Unlocked! >> << Volukinesis Acheived! Currently Limited to only Snow Poison Wasps >>
Not as much as I would like, but its way better than nothing. Heres how my skill list looks like, even if it isnt much.
----------------------------------------
<<
>Volukinesis (Limited to: Snow Poison Wasps)
(Able to control bugs in a more natural sense than mind control, and able to utilize in combat much better)
>Two-Handed Axe Mastery Lv. Basic
(Able to wield Two Handed axes. The description is literally the name…)
>Mental Nonexistence Lv. Max (Unable to be remembered by anyone outside of his minotaurs clan) (P-Unique)
>Mind wipe Lv. Basic (Wiping the mind of memories not wanted by the Psychic)
>Mind Control Lv. Beginner (Able to control minds… thats it.)
>Age Negation Lv. Max (Body, Clothing, and Weapons untainted with the Effects of Time; Rot, Age, Etc have no effect) ((Only stops aging once at physical maturity)) (Unique)
>Telepathy Lv. Beginner (Able to hear others thoughts and feel others emotions.)
>Language (Beast-men) Lv. Adequate (Able to speak/understand in the unique animal tongue of the Beast-men)
>Language (Human) Lv. Adequate (Able to understand/speak the basic sentences of Humanity)
----------------------------------------
Mm, I definetely need more skills, but it will do for now. Time to try and get our Minotaurs some children, considering they are mature and we definetely need the numbers. Luckily we do have a few females in our small group, two or three tops. not much, but will have to do for now.
Of course Im not going to participate in these breeding rituals. The noises coming from the caves sound simply... revolting to me. Not to mention I definetely need to get stronger to protect myself and our clan, before I ever think of trying to find a mate.
And so, thats how I spent my ninth night of this mysterious world. Training by attacking thick trees under the full moon and bright stars, the sound of howling and loud grunting ehoing from the caverns, giving nightmares to the poor goats who had nothing else to listen to.
Me? The cloth from those corpses a couple of days ago were put to good use as earmuffs.
Day 10
After that horrifying night, it seems our efforts to have our women pregnant was successful, at the expense of some of my (and the goats) sanity. Alas, our efforts definetely werent in vain, and now the men were much more confident with themselves, as well as determined to keep them protected.
Unfortunately, that also meant one or two of them got cocky and wanted to be chief. Mm, here I was minding my own business with my little wasps when some idiot came walking up behind me, roaring about how he wanted to challege me to be chief.
So of course, I didnt even look at him and sent a couple dozen wasps oneot his face and stung him so that he became paralyzed, before twirling my body, and swinging the axe to cut off one of his thick horns. You see, our horns symbolize how strong we are. The thicker the horns, the stronger others of your clan usually perceive you.
Im the only exception to this rule considering Im not completely Beastman, but imagine how bad it would be to have one of your horns cut off? Itd be as if a king lost half of his crown, they just wouldnt have the same... infulence as they could have or did.
This is why I did that. I would kill him, but I would prefer more minotaurs to protect me and the soon to be born beasmen anyways. Killing one will hurt me too much in short term. If it happens again later on, teh he will die regardless of what th situation is.
Considering he is the first to be rebelious, as well as the only one of us to have one horn, I shall dub him "Sparticus Halfhorn".
Now that thats been settled, I think I will take a short walk outside and enjoy the fresh air. Ah, yes the chilly wind definetely is soothin- Cough Cough Cough! Damnit!! Just whe I thought the fever went away..
Ah, its snowing. The landscape is mountainous, and so usually full of snow, but this is my first time seeing the snowflakes falling from the sky... Its beautiful, seeing how the delicate and complex snow going with the flow of the wind. A bit like myself. Fragile, Complex, and just going with what life throws my way.
Mm, thats not the worst name. Yeah. I think Its a bit nice to name the clan after something the creator relates to. The Clan of Snowflakes. Chuckles Man, we may give grown men heart attacks just hearing our terrifying clan name.
Ah well, if they underestimate us, all the better. Makes it so much easier to kill things when their caught unawares, rather than if they expect the worst. Well, I better get back inside to get warm. I feel a cough just itching to get out my throat, and I Wont Let It!