Day 22
With every swing of my chainsword and death of a gator monster, I looked back expecting a betrayal. A part of me yearned for a reason to be alone, and then I would have no excuse but to indulge in wrath until nothing was left. My blades’ hunger increased as they dined on meager meals of cold-blooded monsters in a blurring dance of death. As I carved my way through a tribe numbering in the thousands with warriors plenty armed with makeshift armor and high-caliber weapons, I felt the tempo continue ever onward. I danced to the tune of the heavens, not as a puppet but as a guest enjoying the music with a confident partner. There were twists and turns aplenty as the world faded into a series of slashes, feints, and so much blood.
Reality was slow to return, and I fought it every step of the way until there was no more fighting, and the slight smirk on my face died away. My wrath had to slink back under the surface as boring reality took me back to the present. I made peace with the fact that I would have to endure it. I was a victim of my own success.
Societies were fragile things; one minute, I was slaughtering my way through an army of anthropomorphic alligators the next, their tribe’s obedience was 100. In all my spinning and slashing, that was the twist I had not expected.
Ping!
Blood Lake Tribe Obedience 100
New Skill
Reptile Command lvl1
It was a confusing feeling when the growls, grunts, and bellows became language. Massive 12-foot-tall killing machines fell on their knees.
“Kill us no more, great one; we know you for the weapons you wield.” The Priestess said.
The Priestess was a large gator woman with a short snout, shapely hips, a flat chest, and a long fat tail. Bones of foxes decorated her body, including a fox skull painted black on her crotch. The rubies, in its eyes, were an excellent addition. Strapped to her back and sheathed in a fox skin harness was a trench gun that had seen heavy use. By the smell of gun oil the Priestess kept good care of her weapon, something that I felt we had in common. Many of the other females stood defensively around the Priestess armed with rifles too small for their hands.
“Why haven’t you destroyed the foxes above?” I asked.
The Priestess somehow understood my question.
Once again, I was confused because I didn’t know how I knew she was the Priestess. Each of the gators felt psychic to me. Some fell spawned around them, but for the most part, they were psychic beings. Living in their environment, I expected them to be more blood-related.
Fu gathered a mighty haul of skill shards and a few leather hide robes, but nothing that caught my eye. The green chainsword that dropped and the odd Dao sword didn’t interest me. There was a small green pill kept in a case that Ms. Birdmask looked intrigued by, but nothing really fancy.
By the Eastern-style drops, I expected either they lost one of their bags, or they meant to corrupt my dungeon with their useless crap.
The Priestess spoke. “We take tribute every cycle. In the winter, we use their warm tunnels to spawn and thrive.”
I checked over my dungeon farmer skills.
Drop Crop lvl1
Monster Husbandry lvl1
Harvest Theme lvl1
Type Implantation (R) lvl1
There were tons of water-type skills mixed in with the drops from the gators, but nothing caught my eye. I wasn’t a water guy. While there were tons of powerful water users, I didn’t feel confident in going in that direction.
Cold Blood (UC) lvl1
It was a good addition to this campaign. Blood fell, and psychic energies were quickly becoming my go-to skills. Having a lake of blood to use and cold storage so time didn’t reduce my blood supply too quickly was great.
“The foxes have grown fat and lazy. The time has come to eat your fill not on scraps but on the fat of this empire.” I said, channeling every would-be conqueror I remembered.
All I needed were numbers, and I slaughtered too many of the large beasts. Thousands lay dead in the blood lake, and I understood something that the others were still processing.
My arms weren’t tired, and my chainswords were still ready to continue the slaughter. Having my own band of barbarians sounded like exactly what I needed.
“What are you doing? How can you trust these things?” Meng Bai asked.
“I have a skill that allows me to communicate with them. They have surrendered to me, and I am merciful.” I said.
“That is a very Easton way of looking at this situation. What’s the plan? Your quest from the dungeon is clear: scatter the Kitsunite empire to the four winds.” Meng Bai said.
“There is a weapons factory just beyond the wall. Through the aqueducts we can enter and take it over. Then we’ll use the workers to create weapons fit for my new soldiers.” I said.
“Have you ever led before?” Meng Bai asked.
“No,” I said.
“Alright, the first thing you need to do is establish a chain of command and then teach them how to march. Wait, what about logistics? How are we going to feed these monsters?” Meng Bai said.
Ms. Birdmask tapped her master on the shoulder and pointed up.
“Ah, that explains everything.”
“I don’t understand why you want these monsters; we could gather some gunpowder and blow the place up. It’s only a few miles from the city.” Martin said.
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There were 20 miles of the city with skyscrapers in the center towering above the clouds of smog. Nestled between them was the imperial palace, where the empress held court and gave edicts. A council of ministers who led thousands of minor officers enacted her will. There were hundreds of gator tribes beneath the city, towering battle chicken hatcheries, and chimera bunny farms. This was an undertaking that should last for months.
In reality, all I had to do was arm a few thousand gators and let them invade the surface. From there, I planned to watch and make further decisions.
I stepped forward between the angry, if terrified, gators, sat my backpack to the side and sat in the Priestess’s lap. “Well, Meng Bai, you are my lieutenant,” I said.
I pointed at two of the biggest meanest looking females among the tribe. Scars covered their scaley hides, and one was missing an eye but looked no less fierce for it. “Guard him and ensure his will is carried out. Your people will learn discipline.” I said.
“So, you know we can speak your language.” The Priestess said.
I had no idea, and their mouths were unsuited, but then I felt a broadcast from the Priestess through telepathy. They were natural telepaths in a land where fell energy degraded all long-range telepathic communication. Nope, they were too useful for my homestead to waste here.
My hand reached out and clasped the Priestess’s clawed oven mitt of a hand. She had slight webbing behind her first knuckles, but her scales were softer than I imagined. Attributes were really making me superhuman.
That wasn’t always a good thing. To use an out-of-date gaming term, attributes were normally pay to win. Items like fruits, elixirs, and inhalents were needed to increase them in humans. Mages worked as enchanters to gain enough Westons to increase their key attributes to make themselves more powerful in their specialized fields. Superhumans were normal people who stumbled upon a rare find and, regardless of their class, became something. In either case, they required capital.
My box substituted money with work, and what else does a farmer do but work. Skills that were normally hard to get off the ground were a breeze for the Farmer class. Once I got going, it was fairly easy to keep up the momentum.
I hesitated to spend my skill points because I was scared of what I was turning into. Would more skills and attributes push me further down this path? I naturally gathered more skills and learned them without a second thought. Before, I had headaches, but after increasing my Endurance and Vitality, those went away.
All the concern I felt melted in the face of more options, power, and that dirty sin of Pride that Eastonites were famous for suffering from. Pride and the feminized men were the greatest downfalls of Easton civilization. That’s what people said when I looked into the culture.
I forgot about it. Meng Bai, the shaky, possibly fallen young master, had begun organizing the remaining men of the Drake Gator Tribe, and they were beginning to march. Ms. Birdmask snuck off, and together, they were fulfilling the task I assigned them. Meng Bai volunteered more, but he brought some Easton know-how to my barbarian army.
Fu returned with a massive amount of chainswords bundled together and ready to be distributed. That’s what I liked about her. She was a real go getter and reliably reclaimed the loot I let fall to the wayside after fighting my way into the tribe.
“You are trusting.” The Priestess said.
“Don’t get used to it; we are scouting you to join our people,” Fu said.
Was Fu jealous? That was adorable. I would have to tell everyone when I got the chance. The gator looked like she was about to do anything but comply.
“I thought we had already joined.” The Priestess said.
“You have. I’m not sure about the others. I do like my seat.” I said.
I patted the Priestess’s cute green thigh. Visions of doing naughty things with those thighs came to mind, but I let the anger fill me to keep them away. There weren’t many reasons to be absolutely livid and the emotion would push me to make rash decisions like accepting to wipe out an entire empire without knowing how large they were.
The only guarantee I had was that everything on the first floor was rank 2 and below. Several skills told me that was the truth of the matter. While the dungeon could use infinite variations, it couldn’t break that rule. So I relaxed even in the lap of a monster.
“What makes you so confident?” The Priestess asked.
“Power,” I said.
It was simple but right. Power gave me options that a weaker person wouldn’t have. Strength might not be everything, but weakness was the greatest sin in the world. That was a little combination of some poorly remembered Weston and Easton sayings combined.
“Will teaching us to march, make us more powerful?” The Priestess asked.
“Do you have a name, tall, green, and scaley?” I asked.
“No we have no need of such frivolities. We call ourselves by our purpose; those without something to call themselves are a liability.” The Priestess said.
“How about I name you then? I said.
I stood up from my act of power in the face of a bloodthirsty reptile that only respected my ability to kill her people in massive numbers.
“Only if that name is my position.” The Priestess negotiated.
“I think I’ll make you my big mean diplomat. That’s right, I’m going to fill your head with laws and procedures, and you’ll grumpily make deals with people for me.” I smiled, and I felt the thrill of a challenge. Turning this big gator full of teeth with thighs to crush melons into an ambassador or diplomat sounded like fun. If I loaded her up with lots of skill shards, then this could be great. “Amby will be your name, Amby, the ambassador,” I said.
Amby gave me a stern look, then opened her mouth wide until I could see the red of her throat and the way her tongue flickered out. I spat at her mouth, and she slammed her mouth closed and dodged my spit.
“You seem to have some self-respect; remaining good pride is the most valuable thing a person can own,” I said.
Anyone who turned their belly to me and showed they had no line wasn’t worth much. Surrendering after more than half of her forces were destroyed was understandable. I didn’t blame her for that. Obedience was a powerful skill. It let me see what it took to beat someone into line. Affection, on the other hand, hadn’t gone up, and my reputation remained at -40 hated. Having little meters to determine how they really felt was handy.
“How about you plot that butt of yours in my lap?” I offered.
Affection +1
Priestess Amby Affection 1/100
It seemed the ruling class liked being wanted by those with more status than them. My position made me attractive to even Amazonian gator women. That wasn’t too much of a surprise, but wow.
What kind of skill would I get when affection reached 100? I’m sure it would be individual-focused and far less about subjugation.
Meng Bai approached again with a look of disappointment on his face. “I think we need more time. This tactic is possible we need months to put it into effect. Otherwise, we’ll be sending these monsters to their deaths.”
For their plan, they needed more time, and winning here wouldn’t do much for them. We had a contract, but with Tony gone, what did it matter. Even my quest with the dungeon didn’t really matter. It gave me the quest to make playing the first floor again more fun.
“I was thinking about giving up on this active quest or, if possible, postponing it. We could leave for a month to let this place settle down and tackle it again. I don’t think society will move forward without an inciting incident like losing a war or a calamity shattering them. So what if we leave, buy some fliers, steal one of their planes, and drop them for the public.” I said.
Meng Bai nodded. It was a plan that I had no intention of following through. Natural disasters didn’t erase empires or destroy a people. With two chainswords and a dream, could I do it, wipe out 20 miles and several skyscrapers worth of people?
“Or I could go to the city and start cutting down skyscrapers and killing hundreds of thousands,” I said.
I shrugged at the looks they were sending my way. Kitsunes were mid-rank 2 monsters. Given enough time, they could become rank 3 Kyubi monsters, but that rarely happened. Floor 1 wouldn’t allow them to rank up, so there was nothing to worry about.
“To leave the field feels like it would set a bad precedent,” Scout said.
I stared at the tamer and couldn’t help but wonder what his game was.
“We stayed longer than we needed to, and adding over a hundred gators to your numbers will only make integration harder,” Martin said.
“At least someone is thinking about the logistics,” I said.
“What is the plan then?” Ms. Birdmask said.
“We take them with us; they can eat monsters that invade our territory. Martin and Scout will register as a mage and tamer working on my farm. That will open our ability to purchase and sell skill shards. From there, we sell in moderation so no one gets suspicious. Once things settle down, I’ll head West to Cainite and search for specialists to fill some positions. I think the nearest city is either Eden on the Pishon River or Bavilim.” I said.
Everyone, even the gators, looked at me like I was insane. Maybe I was, but they followed my orders.
A mountain of gator sat in my lap and I realized I needed to increase my weight training if I wanted to handle her properly.
“You claim we are leaving. What happened to eating the fat of the foxes?” Amby asked.
“There is too much fat to eat; we would drown in it before we made a dent in it. So we’re pulling out and focusing on home matters for a month. I’ll just scare the local leadership before we leave.” I said.
With a flick of my hand a portal appeared to the outside.
“Troops march in pairs of two forward.” Meng Bai bellowed.
Meng Bai Reputation 20/100 Excited to have a purpose.
The man seemed to be in his element, so I let him do his thing and tried to learn by his example. I also noticed that no one tried to stay behind or even go through the motions. Maybe it's my fault. Tony’s assassination was a rousing success, so maybe I should try and learn more about these people.
I wanted a friend who would tell me when I’m going too far or when I’m about to do something stupid.
Once I was alone again, I spent some skill points.
Skill Points 495
Black Wings 75/75
Embers of Fallen Heroes I 250/250
Maximize Growth I 75/75
Black Rage II 100/100
Break and Grow 50/50
Skill Points: 16
New Skills
Rising Valor (R) lvl1
Starlight Burst (R) lvl1
Blood of Malice (R) lvl1
Specialized Workout (UC) lvl1
+20 Willpower
+15 Strength
+25 Constitution
+21 Agility
+10 Focus
+15 Vitality
+10 Intelligence
+10 Wisdom.
“That was dumb; you could have used them for intimidation alone. Why didn’t you give them the choice to stay?” Fu asked.
My body was currently settling after gaining a massive amount of power. So, my words were a little too truthful.
“I wanted them to choose me,” I said.
“They won’t unless you give them a reason to.” Fu crawled up to my shoulder and kissed me on the cheek. “Are you really going to wipe out a city by yourself? Is that possible?” Fu asked.
“Watch, I know the secret to destroying an empire,” I said.