As payment for the equipment, he told her to bring him some more meat the next time they hunted an abyssal, she nodded eagerly and accepted.

Once she exited and was back in the water, she could control the thrusters like if they were part of her body, and the armor and everything didn't feel heavy at all, she was way faster now!.

Back at the tribe, she told everything about the armor and progress with his tools to the other elders in their communal house that were way bigger than the rest and made of stone and bones.

First Elder:" well, with this speed of progress, building that village inside the mountain could even be feasible, the weaker castes could also breed and raise their young children safely too"

Fourth Elder: "I wasn't sure when the second elder brought the news the first time and we all agreed to decide once we saw the progress using the alien tools, now we shall decide the future of our tribe, we have been nomads for some generations, now this decision could change the entire future and past of our species... let's vote, who agrees to build that place?"

all four of them expressed their agreement.

Third Elder: " since we all agree, we will need to first stock on food for the long time of continuous working".

Second Elder:" we should ask for help storing the meat to the alien though, you all saw the meat on there, it was all frozen inside those cold rooms, and she could easily unfreeze it and make it so savory and warm!"

(in case the readers wondered, they use "she" to refer to him to emphasize that they don't know what genders mean since they are all hermaphrodites, also their language would be similar to dolphins with graver and longer tones).

First Elder: " I agree, the alien wants something from us with how much she's helping us, she should take responsibility all the way and help us store food, if we could preserve food like her, that would diminish tremendously the amount of prey we must hunt and we would be able to work more time"

Second Elder:" then since we all agree I will ask her tomorrow, we might even be able to preserve an entire abyssal instead of just a bit"

They all flapped their fins eagerly to that.

First Elder:" by the way, let's go out and try the weapon the alien gave you"

They all agreed and came out of the village, the second elder with her thrusters being the fastest.

They found a fortress crab not that far away from the village, they were slow and the size of a big car, but their shells were impenetrable, they also had spikes and a poisonous tentacled anemone growing on top that's shot venomous darts, it was a fortress.

Second Elder:" okay, I should point the tip to the enemy, then hold this side trigger pulled, and once it's bright blue... release!"

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

the moment she released the trigger a magnetic discharge shot the plasma bolt forward that went through the crab, leaving a charred hole from one side to the other, it never knew how it died.

Second Elder:"...this is it... this is the future of our tribe!"

Fourth Elder:" it would make hunting a bit too easy though, but I agree, this would increase our race's chances of survival, we will recover our glory!"

Back at the base, Erik was reviewing the 3D model of the underground city for the octopeople, he had based the entrance in an S shape bunker stile with shooting holes at every corner, any big enemies wouldn't fit and those who could would be shot or poked to death, and at the end a guillotine style kind of door sets that close like scissors, severing any invaders, with a buff string door that when enemies bash or hit would make scissor blades descent and cut anything in front of the doors hallway, then there would be a way up, to create an air seal were air pressure would keep the water at bay, he could just pump air from the surface into tanks and release it inside and also oxygen from the water using electricity, then there would be a big central plaza and wide tunnels to other areas, the living area, the military are, the food area, the entertainment area, and these could be increased in the future, the biggest one needing to be living area, which would be nice to also have a school for the small octopeople... sigh, he had so much to do.

--- a day later ---

The elders had come to Erik's house and were seriously discussing with him using Inky as a translator.

First Elder:" we would like to request your mate to build a big cold storage and give us more of those weapons, if we could hunt more abyssals, even small ones, and store more of their meat, then that would be an incredible achievement, we wouldn't even need to search for injured or sick ones to attack, we could take some of the smaller ones directly head-on!"

Inky: " Erik is willing to give you such help as long as your people help to excavate that said room, as for the weapons, he wants something in exchange"

Second Elder:" what is it? she can have me again if that's her wish~~~" she said with a flirtatious literally shark-like smile.

Erik shuddered a bit at Inky's translation and clarified.

Erik: "no, that won't be needed, what I want is to see how you hunt an abyssal, to see if the process could be improved"

After Inky translated it to them they were surprised, that was no problem for them, it was basically helping them for free!.

First Elder:" well, we can certainly do that, but are you sure you don't want a reward for your work~~~?" she said flirtatiously.

Second Elder:" hmph, don't listen to her, her cunt is the loosest of the entire tribe, you could even fit your body inside her not just your arm!"

First Elder: angrily said, "and whose fault is that?!, I'm one of the only ones who can endure your girth after all! and giving birth to your abundant and big children stretched me even more, when we were younger you kept filling me and breeding me over and over again!"

Second Elder:" well... it might be a bit my fault, but my statement is still valid, your cunt is too loose and your tentacle is flaccid" she said matter of factly. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

First Elder: she narrowed her eyes and said "fine..., if you are gonna play like that... (she smiled radiantly as her fins stood), isn't the Third Elder way tighter then?"

Third Elder:" hoho... I wouldn't mind some good action myself~~~"

As Erik read a translation of what they were saying, he said " stop, ladies stop... there will be time to mate together if you want, but another day, right now we need to start setting up all the workforce, please get some meat to fill the big freezer outside and feed the workers as I put them to work on creating more freeze rooms, you can all try the onsen before going though" Inky quickly translating for him.

The Elders nodded and after some pleasantries, the discussion was concluded, with the Second Elder quickly leading the other Elders downstairs to the Onsen excitedly, she had already told the others about it, and they were eager to try it too.