It was a no-brainer to grab Drain, even for an undead with an empty skull, and Sean chose it immediately. A sudden chill swept through his bones a moment later, despite the relatively still air. Apart from that however, there was no change.

Going to have to test this one out as soon as possible. Sean thought, before quickly skimming through the ‘attribute’ category of upgrades to find the toughness options.

There were two available. The first was a jet-black orb with a calming feel. A continuation off of the line of nodes he had been following for a while now, the last of which had been ‘Bones of the Risen’. There was another off-shoot from Bones of the Risen as well however, one Sean was surprised to see. A striped sphere of verdant green and void black that gave off an impression of impassive stability. Sean examined them both.

Hardened Structure

Description: Creates a hardened network of structural supports within one’s skeleton, connecting the various bones in order to mitigate the strain of applied stress. Provides a greater capability to resist forced movement.

Effect: Toughness attribute increased by 2.

Mana Aspect: Death

Bones of the Mourning Wood

Description: Reinforce one’s skeletal structure with natural growths of death-infused hardwood, primarily within the legs and core. Improves resilience against sudden impacts.

Effect: Toughness attribute increased by 2.

Mana Aspect: Death, Nature

Sean snorted, as best he could without lungs anyway. Of course ‘mourning wood’ is a material type here. Death-infused hardwood. What else would they call it?

Amusing as that option was, Sean went with ‘Hardened Structure’ instead. Both options seemed focused on adding structural support to his body, which the gelaton was honestly fine with. He had no desire to be part tree however, and there was always the chance some opponent or monster they faced in the future would be able to consume his wood. God forbid Gel tried. Their friendship might never recover, and he would probably lose the node’s benefits.

Better to just avoid that possibility altogether. Sean mused, though he was curious. That’s two new ‘nature’ options I don’t recall seeing earlier. Is it because we’ve been drinking from the oasis?

If it was, then he would have to be careful about what types of mana he ingested in the future. Sean had already seen that the manasphere seemed to react to what he did when providing him with new options, so it made sense that what he consumed affected it as well.

I wonder if we can guide our nodes and evolutions towards what we want later, if we prepare the right foods with the mana concentrations we want? Logic seemed to dictate that they could. Maybe we should curate our diet? Might be able to get some unique nodes that way.

Even if they could, Sean had the distinct impression Gel would not be on board for that. Or any attempt to curb the slime’s voracious appetite. While death nodes all felt like natural selections to the gelaton, almost regardless of the bonuses they offered, he wasn’t willing to try and cut their intake down to get better ones. Not yet at least.

More options is always better, anyway. Sean thought, just as his latest node selection finally took effect. Gel let out a startled oath and withdrew his whips as it began and Sean chuckled, having not told the slime ahead of time for that very reason.

“Woah! What’s– hey now!”

Dozens of small, cylindrical bones shot out from all over Sean’s body. They crossed over one another, layering and twisting to form multiple connections between each of his major bones. The largest change was in his ribcage, where he now had what looked like internal piping crisscrossing through his chest. There were no ‘welds’ where bone met bone, only seamless white merging with itself to form a single object.

To Sean, the entire process felt like he had small arcs of electricity running through him. He twitched, and his bones clattered – though not quite as much as before. As with his other node-based upgrades, this one ended within a few seconds.

“Well now, this is much more convenient!” Gel announced, oozing his way around Sean’s ribcage to examine all the new changes. “I have so much more to grab onto! You know, you have to appreciate a carriage that upgrades itself!”

“Pretty sure I made myself clear on what happens to you if you start referring to me as your ‘carriage’.” Sean half-joke/half-warned his friend. “Now spill, I know you’ve gotten something from all those giants. You’re not usually that quiet while you eat.”

“That’s fair, and I did.” Gel admitted freely, before flicking his slime whips over to the few bits of meat yet hanging off the bones of their last meal. “I just need a few more minutes to sort through everything, so let me finish up with this meat-sack and then I’ll be ready.”

“Sure thing.”

Sean headed over to Auntie Ta the second Gel was finished, figuring the slime might as well brief them all at the same time. The olive-skinned druid had washed herself clean at some point, and had done the same for Warabe and Rastegar. The former was leaned up against an unnatural lattice-work of branches from a nearby berry bush with bright pink flowers, while the latter…

… the latter still wasn’t moving. At least, not noticeably. Rastergar’s body was laid in a heap on a platform of grass that had grown around him, and it was only Sean’s improved pulse sense that allowed him to see the manticore was alive at all. Even the guardian beast’s blood was flowing slowly.

Is that because she’s healing him somehow? Sean wondered, as Auntie Ta removed her hands – each of which glowed softly with an emerald light – from the manticore’s side. It looks nothing like what Saren was able to do. Nature and light magic probably heal differently.

Curious, but not willing to derail the conversation for now, Sean let Gel take the lead as Auntie Ta’s still-fierce eyes fell on them. Dripping with water, sweat, and no few dribbles of her own blood, the powerful magic user reminded him of a cross between a battlefield medic and one of those martial artists from B-tier chinese films. The ones without subtitles because even the directors knew you were only there to watch fists fly.

“What have you learned?” Auntie Ta asked, and Sean noted from up close that several blades of grass were actually sticking into both Warabe and the manticore behind her.

Maybe I don’t want to know. Though in truth, he still did.

“Dune giants make great meals!” Gel said immediately, practically vibrating with excitement. “Not the best I’ve ever had of course, not by far since Sean here started cooking for us, but there’s so. Much. Meat! On all of them! Each one a feast! I can’t wait for more.”

Auntie Ta’s lips twitched into a small, amused smile. Her wild eyes glittering with the promise of violence. Her staff found its way into her hand, and again Sean didn’t recall it actually moving.

“That can be arranged.” She said softly, before showing that she had actually learned a bit about how to handle the slime’s attention span. “Now, what have you learned that will help me feed you to them?”

“Oh! Quite a bit, actually.” Gel said, easily swapping from his normal exuberance to a more serious tone. “I know the layout of their camp, how many they have gathered, how many they brought, what their defenses and patrols look like, and what they’re planning to do with the– with whatever they took. I’m not actually sure what it is, but I know what they think it is and what they want to do with it.”

Auntie Ta’s smile vanished in a way that was very nearly a baring of teeth. “Oh?”

“They’re planning on planting it at the top of an outcrop of rocks and geysers back home.” Gel shook himself for a second, crimson liquid wobbling as the slime corrected himself. “Back at their home. Their real one, where the rest of the giants live. I guess the ones here are just smaller parts of a larger tribe? The memories are still sinking in, but there’s enough there that I think I’m right on that.”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

“You are. They’re a splinter faction.” Auntie Ta explained. “One that disagreed with the views of the Giganto Baldio, the Wasteland Giants. A much larger tribe that lays claim to a large territory, albeit one quite a distance from here. That was some time ago, however. Have they come back to retrieve their lost lambs?”

“No… Not quite.” Gel said, sounding slightly unsure. Whether of himself or the memories, it was hard to say. “There’s a bigger one, the new chief I think. His name is ridiculous, Big Smash, I think. Sort of tongue-in-cheek, really. They all use clubs. You’d think they could all ‘big smash’.”

Sean suppressed a snort, which was easy enough given his lack of lungs.

“Maybe he drinks a lot?” The gelaton suggested helpfully. “Sure it wasn’t ‘Big Smashed’?”

Gel chortled, before relaying the joke for him.

“No, that will be his new name.” Auntie Ta interjected, a tugging at her lips revealing her amused smile was threatening its return. “That explains the attack, then. But it doesn’t explain how they knew exactly where to look. Nor the advanced tactics they employed.”

“Advanced tactics?” Sean butted in once, unable to help himself. “No offense to her, but a two-part attack with a distraction baked in isn’t the most complicated thing to pull off. The timing, sure… but it doesn’t take a rock– it doesn’t take much in the way of brains to come up with it.”

He had almost said “it doesn’t take a rocket scientist”, but had thankfully caught it in time. Sean wasn’t sure exactly how much Gel could accurately convey on his behalf while speaking ‘Beast’, but otherworldly references were probably out. When the slime conveyed his question however, Auntie Ta just shook her head.

“That’s because you only saw half the battle.” She revealed, and Sean’s respect for the woman climbed a few more notches at her next words. “There were more wurms underground – those mounts you saw some of them riding. They were concentrating their attacks on the foundations of the oasis below, trying to drain it out into the sands. It took me no small amount of time and effort to build up a barrier of earth to prevent excess drainage of the oasis through the ‘soil’ around here. That, my undead would-be chef, is where the majority of their attack was focused.”

“Is that why you moved to the water?” Gel inquired. “I thought you were just using it for mana.”

“I was.” Auntie Ta admitted. “But it also made it easier to fight below the surface. Believe it or not, water is a better conductor for my magic than even the soil. At least, out here.”

Sean had been curious about this before – since the moment they had first seen her, actually, and again when they had seen her fight. But now he had to know. He knew she had been fighting multiple opponents on multiple fronts during the battle. That had been obvious. Not just fighting either, but beating them. Literally. Sean was pretty sure she had helped them more than once during their own fights, and he knew she had helped Warabe and Rastegar with theirs.

Hell she was probably fighting damn near every giant on the field, if you count whatever she was doing with the trees. Which he did, considering they were all still as could be now. And now she drops that she was fighting them below, too? The whole time?

The gelaton stared down at the druid before him, finally asking his friend to ‘voice’ something that the pair of them had only been guessing at this entire time.

“Just how strong are you?”

The druid’s small smile returned, and she skipped right over the question. As she spoke, a hard look entered her eyes, and the smile slowly faded.

“Unfortunately, I suspect the forces arrayed out here were a ploy to draw me out. The real treasure of this oasis was never beneath it, but back at my home.” Her eyes met his burning orbs for a brief moment of consideration, before Auntie Ta continued. “Beneath the very cottage where we were cooking earlier, in fact.”

“I knew it!” Gel exclaimed suddenly, and Sean felt the slime physically resist the urge to point at him. “I knew we should have gone back and finished our stew first! We might have caught them!”

Sean sighed mentally, not arguing the point.

“I doubt you would have noticed them.” Auntie Ta said, cutting the slime off. “The very fact they made it out of here at all means they never broke the surface of my home. Which means…”

“They knew exactly where to go!” Gel blurted out suddenly, and Sean’s burning orbs slid over to both Warabe and Rastegar as he caught his friend’s meaning.

“Who… else knew?” The slime asked delicately. “It can’t be that many…, can it?”

Auntie Ta readily caught the direction of their suspicions, but she waved them away with one hand.

“While you two are indeed a special case, I have brought many travelers back home for a meal over the years. Our list of suspects is long, but it does not start here.”

“Then we’re back to the main problem.” Sean muttered mentally to his friend, his quick mind and instincts already working through the information they had. “Hmm.”

“Main problem?” Gel asked. “Sorry, I thought our main problem was how to find the giants and feed them to me. I’m thinking bait and huge pot, respectively.”

“We need to get there before they leave for wherever this ‘wasteland’ tribe is.” Sean explained to the slime. “We’re already behind, but assuming they have to pack supplies for the journey first… we might not be terribly so.”

“Oh.” Gel responded simply, before sharing Sean’s thoughts with the druid.

“I know where their tribe’s encampment is.” Auntie Ta said, then grimaced. “Or at least, where it was last. It’s not terribly far, but I can’t just leave. Rastegar wouldn’t last the day, and those wurms did more damage than you might think. The side-effects of which…”

The druid jerked a casual thumb up at the still-darkening sky, which had begun to gather more clouds to it. Thunder rumbled, though Sean hadn’t seen any lightning flash.

“Are already unraveling what I have built here. It will take some time for me to stabilize the region.”

“That’s time she doesn’t have.” Sean pointed out to Gel. “The giants will know she’s coming for them. If they’re smart enough to plan all of this out, they’re smart enough to know she won’t take this lying down.”

“Right on both counts.” Auntie Ta acknowledged, after another round of translation-telephone.

“We’ll go!” Gel shouted, rather cheerfully. “We have a track record of helping our fellow monsters, and you’re pretty monstrous yourself. You count in my book.”

“That is kind of you, Gel. But I don’t think–”

“It won’t be for free, of course.” Gel added immediately, cutting her off. “But we don’t mind working on a results-contingent basis. We have before.”

“We also won’t be fighting them head-on.” Sean added in, more surprised by how Gel had used the phrase ‘results-contingent basis’ than that the slime had volunteered them. They were already in sync on that point. Besides, what better way did they have to get more recipes out of her? “All you need back is whatever they stole, right? If Gel already knows their defenses inside and out, we just need to sneak in and take it back. In and out. Easy.”

It wouldn’t be that easy, and everyone present knew that even as Gel relayed his words. Still, Sean could see Auntie Ta was beginning to consider it. Or at least losing her resistance to them making the attempt.

“I will join you.” Warabe’s voice called out, the turtle-man forcing himself up on a pair of still-shaking legs.

“No.” Auntie Ta said at once, her voice full of iron as she turned. “Warabe, stop. You have to rest. You can’t leave the oasis for long on a good day, and now–”

“I will leave it on a bad day.” The turtle man asserted, standing up to his full height with considerable effort. He nodded in Sean’s direction, and the gelaton noticed that they were actually the same height. “Our new friends will need my help.”

Auntie Ta went quiet for a moment, and her right hand gripped her staff tightly.

“You’re a stubborn bastard, you know that?” The druid said after a long moment, and Warabe grinned. His teeth leaked blood from some internal wound, but the turtle-man quickly swallowed it back down. “Fine. If you three are so eager, then I can at least honor your foolishness before I leave to avenge you.”

It was Sean’s turn to grin this time, and Auntie Ta turned back towards the pair of them. Whatever else the woman was, she wasn’t one to waste time.

“If you’re going, then know that I will pay the pair of you for three things.” She raised the fingers of her left hand, and three floofs rolled down her shoulder to stand on them. As she ticked them off, the floofs plopped into a seated position on her knuckles. “For the return of what they took, for accurate information on whoever it was that betrayed my secrets, and for the death of all in that tribe who raised arms against us.”

“I do not expect you to waste your lives securing them all.” Auntie Ta added, stepping to the side and throwing a meaningful look at Warabe. “Get what you can, and get back here safely. I will handle the rest.”

“Fair enough.” Sean said to Gel, glancing over at Warabe who nodded back at him. The gelaton looked the still obviously injured creature up and down, his meaning clear: You really up for this?

The turtle-man’s only response was another vicious grin.

Good enough for me. Sean decided, before turning back to face Auntie Ta. “Now ask her what they actually took. We’ll need to know if we’re going to go searching for them.”

The druid told them, and though he had promised himself it wouldn’t happen again today, Sean’s jaw dropped. Gel whistled. The slime actually whistled. With Sean’s old lips and everything.

“Oh-hoho, yeah.” The slime cackled. “ We’re definitely going to eat them all for that.”