*(mood song: "Katy Perry - Dark Horse ft. Juicy J")

As the monstrosity was dragged away, Erik entered one of the refinery rooms out of curiosity, a wave of warm water escaping the room, and in the middle of the room, a cauldron suspended over a weird glowing mushroom.

Erik: "...a fire mushroom?" [have you seen anything like that Rose?]

Rose: [actually yes, but they feed on minerals and as a subproduct they generate heat, and that also scares away predators]

Erik was amazed and looked around, finding a funnel by the side "seems like they just cook everything in the cauldron and cover it with the funnel and add the potion container at the end... a wonder how it heats enough while submerged in water..." he came closer to the mushroom and could easily feel the enormous heat [how do you think they reproduce? spores?]

Rose: [well, you are their queen now so just call for another alchemist]

Erik: [you are right] he turned and signaling a soldier to get close "go call for another alchemist soldier"

It saluted and quickly went away.

It came minutes later with a crab woman wearing robes who bowed to Erik "greetings my queen, I'm Ingreham, sage and alchemist, I heard you had... problems with your previous guide..."

Erik: "Yeah, he's been taken care off-"

Ingreham: "may I know... how he will be taken care off?"

Erik: "...was he something to you?"

Ingreham: "n-no, of course not my queen!, but he was the top sage and had lots of potion formulae inside his head..."

Erik: "don't worry, I will squeeze all knowledge out of his mind and then improve his recipes in my lab"

Ingreham seemed surprised then "do you know alchemy my queen?"

Erik: "I call it differently but yeah, and while these labs are primitive I do wonder one thing" he pointed at the glowing mushroom "how do you grow those?"

Ingreham: "oh, that... they were picked from the lower tunnels long ago, where they feed on glowing stone rivers, the fire tribe also use them for different purposes, we just feed them rocks and they keep hot that way"

Erik: "interesting, prepare a small one for me to take away, along with some seeds from all the different plants and a parchment with their names, growth, and uses"

Ingreham: "...as you order my queen, we will deliver in a box to the palace, the parchments might take a day or two though"

Erik: "it's fine, just get it ready"

Ingreham lightly bowed "I understand my queen... may I ask a question?"

Erik: "go ahead"

Ingreham: "you talked about ours as primitive but... how could we improve them?"

Erik: "the water, you need to take away the water as it's too reactive, and fill a room with air"

Ingreham looked at him strangely "the bubbles? but that would be impossible, how would we carry so many bubbles?"

Erik: "well, that's not my problem, just yours so just move on if you cant do it."

Ingreham: "...could I see your lab, my queen?"

Erik chuckled "maybe in the future, for now, I hereby appoint you as the new sage leader alchemist of the alchemy school"

Ingreham was surprised as she quickly bowed "thank you my queen!!!"

Erik waved her away then.

Rose: [shouldn't you check on her and interview her?]

Erik: [well, she gave a servile vibe, and most importantly, I don't really care what happens for them when they just call my new family demons]

Rose: [...that's a good point]

Erik: [yeah, and I can always appoint someone else anyway, now we will carry all this back to base and get ready for taking down the fire tribe]

--- 4 days later ---

All the seeds and the fire mushroom were ready, and Erik had chopped off Beritkan's pincers and claws again as they had grown again, and put everything, including all the armor, weapons, and giant halberd into a cart covered with a cloth to take back and chained it to Beritkan to use him as an ox.

Beritkan: "what did you put in there? it's too heavy to be alchemy materials only- ouch!"

Erik lightly stabbed him in the back with his vibrosword "slaves don't talk, start pulling!"

Beritkan gritted his teeth and started pulling thinking 'I will have my revenge, they clearly need my knowledge, once they lower their guard... hehe~ I will have my revenge' then looked at the device on his waist 'I just need to learn how to get rid of that...'

Erik, the Elders, and all of Rose's puppets except one, left behind as a temporary leader, walked behind.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Erik: [have an octopeople team ready to take all of this up and escort us]

Rose: [what if Beritkan sees? (¯―¯٥)]

Erik: [I will pump him full of explosives and could even install the ultimate restraining device, locking metallic joins, if I give a command his joints will lock in place from the inside. Back on earth, synthetic bodies with these installed are used to keep the minds of criminals inside while their principal bodies are stored in stasis until they pass their sentence]

Rose: [that should work, I will get everything ready┏('▀ω▀')ノ]

--- 5 days later ---

They advanced slowly as they worked the hideous abomination of Beritkan to near death, barely feeding him some hunted game and no more, and finally came out of the hill.

A team of 60 octopeople armed to the teeth waiting for them and stunning Beritkan, but he was left even more speechless when he saw them talking respectfully, he couldn't understand what they were saying but he was becoming increasingly scared.

Erik then turned and pointed at him, the octopeople getting close, thankfully much to Beritkan's nerves they went for the cart and pushed it onto a platform that started going up 'this is too scary... the new queen is working with the demons... if another war starts again the crab people would be exterminated...'

Erik looked at the platform with balloons going up and dragged Beritkan to another as he and the elders boarded another, the balloon bags filling and compensating automatically [this is really well designed]

Rose: [well, it was easy, I also prepared a lab prison for Beritkan and a garden protected from currents with granite blocks, that way we should be able to plant the seeds, I will scan those documents too]

Erik: [thanks Rose]

Rose: [ no problem (✿◠‿◠)]

As they arrived up Erik noticed one major difference, sphere droids installing torpedo launchers, and the super armor in the middle acting like an antenna, hundreds of the drones working all around, even the elders were surprised, with Beritkan almost pissing himself from the gruesome spectacle, hundreds of drones simultaneously stopping and seemingly nodding at them.

Erik: [wow... you really made a lot]

Rose: [yeah, it has a drone controlling module for a reason, now construction is way more efficient ¯\_(ツ)_/¯]

--- back at the base ---

Anhuka was giving the final touches to her masterpiece, an abyssal bone dagger with pieces from a vibroknife she had installed thanks to Jana's help, careful carvings of mountains, rivers, and trees around the blade to make Erik remember his home.

Finally with the finishing touches polished Anhuka smiled and thought 'I'm sure he will like it'

--- greenhouse ---

They brought Beritkan inside, the interior dry with a pool by the side and a chemistry table, the walls reinforced with nanobot coated steel.

Erik: "now you will live here, better get to write those potions of yours fast or you won't eat" pointing to pen and paper on the table, made with vegetal fibers bleached.

Beritkan nonetheless looked at the white led light on the ceiling "how... such a small jar can give so much light?"

Erik: "pfft jajaja that's not a jar"

Beritkan made an ugly confused face.

Erik: "sigh, you are so primitive... it works with electricity, when you pass a charge through it, it produces light without wasting energy on heat, now get to writing"

Behind him the elders thinking 'we also didn't understand at first...'

Beritkan nodded as he went close to the table, his clawed hands almost completely regrown as he grabbed the pencil.

Erik: "ah! I almost forgot!" he quickly grabbed 3 more collars near the entrance and put them around Beritkan's waist "now you have no chance at escaping at all, get to writing so I can improve your potions"

Beritkan: "...ugh... alright" and started writing.

Erik and the elders then walked out and went back to his base using the underground tunnels, the walls carved in the stone and properly illuminated, to leave their avatar bodies there while Rose puppets stayed guarding Beritkan.

They arrived back at the base and were greeted by an eager Crabina and Anhuka greeting Erik.

Anhuka hugging him as her face sunk between his breasts, and then looking at his eyes "is the business finished?"

Erik sighed "not really, we just found precious things and came to drop them, we are gonna show them off in the octopeople city later so we came for our real bodies"

Anhuka: "oh... then..." she took the dagger from her back and offered it to Erik with both hands "I made you something to keep you safe.

Erik grabbed the gray bone dagger, noticing the carvings and also vibroknife circuits "...impressive and beautiful, did you do this alone?"

Anhuka regretfully shook her head "regrettably I had to ask Jana for help with the circuits"

Erik nodded in understanding, getting closer and kissing her in the forehead "thanks, it's a really awesome gift"

Anhuka reddening quickly "Erik...-" when Crabina interrupted the moment "daddy! I'm also here hmmm!"

Erik bent over and picked Crabina in his arms "haha~ how could I forget about such a sweet girl~" tickling her sides.

Crabina giggling uncontrollably "*giggle*hahaha daddy... *giggle* stop... *giggle* hahaha I will... *giggle* get mad hahaha" and Erik finally stopping as she punched his chest "hmph! bad daddy! I don't like this body daddy, it hurts when you tickle me!"

Erik examined his fingers and realized this body was rougher so he might have used a bit more strength than necessary "daddy is sorry sweety, now go get some pretty clothes on, daddy has to inaugurate something important" and put her back on the floor.

Crabina: "okay~"

--- 30 minutes later ---

Erik, the Elders, Crabina, and Anhuka arrived then at the octopeople city, dressed with refined abyssal leather suit jackets and skirts shiny from the silvery blue scales, except Erik and Inky that were wearing pants.

In the central plaza now there were some steel mannequins with the octopeople armors and weapons as they were better as antiques, as even if they were harder the one's made by Rose were lighter and came with speed boosters, among the mannequins there was one twice as big as the others, with the damaged general armor and the enormous halberd.

The armor decorated with carvings of big octopeople and their octopus ancestors, with the halberd too full of tentacle carvings and still shiny after some cleaning.

Erik and the Elders walked in front of the mannequins as a crowd had gathered, Erik pointed at the big mannequin as he had the attention of the crowd "today we see the remains of artifacts left behind by the octopeople's ancestors we recovered, as a society, we have come far and definitely advanced in ways they could have never imagined, and we will keep on growing! we will expand beyond the seas! WE WILL EVEN EXPAND BEYOND THIS PLANET ITSELF! just do your part every day and be sure that soon enough WE WILL RECOVER AND IMPROVE UPON WHAT THE ANCESTOR LEFT BEHIND! THE FOUGHT AND LAID DOWN THEIR LIVES SO YOU COULD ALL SURVIVE! and I... you have my word... EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU IS A PART OF MY FAMILY! AND AS SO I SHALL NOT REST UNTIL THIS WORLD IS OURS! but for now, we need better defenses to keep the family safe so we need to install more cameras and missile launchers, as for the new younger generation" looking at dozens of young and spirited eyes, more and more would be born soon enough "learn as fast whatever you like or are good at, the colony will need you to grow stronger!"

He then retreated as the octopeople cheered, Shana coming to the front "my people, as the Fifth elder expressed, we have come a long way since we were just kids running away from death, leaving behind their families and parents, worried and afraid, not with Erik's help and everyone's determination and efforts, I'm sure we will keep growing more and more!" she pointed at the armor "that armor and halberd belong to one of the 12 generals of the octopeople, halberd general, she along the others fell in that cliff along the cliff, cutting down hundreds of crab men demons to give us the next generation a better chance of survival! AND WE WILL MAKE THEM PROUD! TO A BETTER FUTURE! FOR OUR ANCESTORS!"

The crowd echoing "TO A BETTER FUTURE! FOR OUR ANCESTORS!"