《The World Crystal》 Bun Conscious Mmmh. Red light. Virtual Boy? ¡°Hey, you¡¯re finally awake.¡± ¡°Was I trying to cross the border?¡± ¡°Huh?¡± I rubbed my eyes and sat up. Couldn¡¯t see anything but dim glowy red everywhere. Were the emergency lights on? ¡°They must¡¯ve hit me on my head pretty hard this time.¡± ¡°Um¡­ miss? What are you doing here?¡± ¡°The macarena? I don¡¯t know. What are you doing here?¡± ¡°Hm. The air¡¯s more stale than I thought. Lemme see if I can open a vent and get some fresh air in.¡± ¡°Push push push until the baby comes out!¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Wha?¡± ¡°Okay, you¡¯re physically healthy, no signs of concussion or malformation. So why are you babbling nonsense phrases?¡± ¡°Nonsense? I werd gud!¡± ¡°Oh, your vocabulary and sentence structure are fine. It¡¯s the fact that absolutely nothing you¡¯ve said makes sense in context that makes me worried you might have brain damage.¡± ¡°Mom said something about going super saiyan on an evil turtle while pregnant with me. What¡¯s a saiyan?¡± ¡°I have no idea either. Ah, there we go. Let¡¯s get you some fresh air.¡± Hm. Yeah, that does feel nice. ¡°How ¡®bout a nice Hawaiian punch?¡± ¡°Pass, thanks. You¡¯d only hurt yourself.¡± ¡°Might be surprised. I¡¯m super strong.¡± I punched the wall, causing everything to shake. ¡°Ow!¡± ¡°Warned you.¡± ¡°Wait, huh?¡± ¡°Oh, the light¡¯s bothering your eyes a bit. Hang on, I¡¯ll intensify the wavelength.¡± ¡°Wow. Now I can¡¯t see any red at all. Virtual Boy again?¡± ¡°What are you¡­ Ah. Gaming console from another dimension, known for causing temporary colorblindness. Don¡¯t worry, that¡¯ll wear off.¡± ¡°Wait. How did you know about that?¡± Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°I¡¯m cross-referencing with a multiversal database called the Encyclopedia Cosmica. Turns out you¡¯ve been speaking in non-stop pop-cultural references from a particular time and place. Which is weird, because the data says you¡¯ve never come in contact with anything close to either¡­ oh. Something about qi overload during fetal development causing slight neurological issues. You¡¯re perfectly fine, just not entirely connected to the reality you¡¯re in.¡± ¡°Wrong channel.¡± ¡°I¡¯d adjust your rabbit ears, but I don¡¯t have hands.¡± Oh. Wait. ¡°Where are you, anyway?¡± ¡°Two answers to that question. But first, can you see red again?¡± I looked at my fingernails. The polish was chipped, but plenty of my favorite red still on them. ¡°Yeah, but if Chiaki stole my nail polish again-¡± ¡°At this point, I think your guardian cousin is welcome to any of your cosmetics she likes. By my estimation, you¡¯re about 300 light years from your former home, give or take a few astronomic units.¡± ¡°Wow. But that¡¯s not so far, she¡¯ll still be there if I started back now.¡± ¡°If you were travelling as fast as you conceivably could, the trip would still take several centuries.¡± ¡°Yeah, my family lives a long time.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no air.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± ¡°Yeah¡­ what I¡¯m reading is ridiculous garbage, but I can attest firsthand that you¡¯d still need to breathe, and even your mother couldn¡¯t teleport this far¡­ though she¡¯d be the fastest to get here. But back to the point of who, and more importantly, what I am. My name is Rhys, and I¡¯m the dungeon you have inexplicably found yourself inside the center chamber of.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not into that sort of thing.¡± ¡°Good, because I¡¯m not that sort of dungeon. Basically, I¡¯m everything solid around you. Walls, floor, ceiling. Big hunk of sentient geology.¡± ¡°You¡¯re a talking country?¡± ¡°Geology, not geography. I¡¯m not that big yet. And there is a focus point, if you¡¯ll look at the stalagmite pedestal in the middle of the room.¡± ¡°Huh.¡± Okay, struggling to my feet. Bit wobbly, still not sure how I got here. The nice rock is definitely helping me remember myself a bit more. Guiying Tuzi, daughter of the great hero Xiang Tuzi. Not that mom likes it when people call her that. Daddy¡¯s an emperor, but not the sort to spoil his kids. Plus they only officially founded the empire four years ago, so I don¡¯t really think I¡¯m a princess. Lots of siblings, older and younger, plus honorary cousins from an honorary aunt. Ooh, that¡¯s a shiny ruby. ¡°Don¡¯t touch my brain, please.¡± I pulled my hand back. ¡°Sorry, didn¡¯t mean to mess with teh head.¡± ¡°It¡¯s fine. You¡¯d likely have done more harm to yourself than to me, but either way I¡¯d rather avoid us having that problem.¡± I nodded. ¡°So, we don¡¯t know how you got here, and there¡¯s no way to send you home. And since that¡¯s the case, I¡¯ll have to take care of you for a while. Are you alright with that?¡± ¡°I can take care of myself.¡± ¡°And how well did your oldest siblings do with that at your age?¡± ¡°Oh.¡± ¡°And are you half as responsible as they are?¡± ¡°Not really.¡± ¡°Yeah. I¡¯m looking out for you. Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ve done it a time or two before.¡± ¡°Did it work out?¡± ¡°Um¡­¡± I looked over, and saw a fossilized aquarium. ¡°Alright, so the trilobites kinda went extinct the last time I took a nap. It¡¯s hard to keep pets when you have a geologic lifespan. At least you¡¯re sentient, and it won¡¯t be that long until you can reasonably fend for yourself.¡± An audible gurgling rumble sounded in the cave, and I realized Rhys¡­ might not be the best of guardians. ¡°You¡¯re gonna have to start by making sure I don¡¯t die of starvation or thirst. Bungirl needs food badly.¡± Setup and Tutorial Crap, living things need food and water. Crepe? Bah, trying to keep up with the memetic rubric she speaks in is such a pain. Well, at least it¡¯s easy enough to get her some water. Little energy, a touch of pressure, minor circle along the pipe to purify and provide some minor healing effects and¡­ bingo. Dungeon spring. Even remembered to put a lip around the fountain. ¡°Um¡­ where¡¯s the drain? I don¡¯t wanna drown.¡± ¡°Why do you living things need so much air?!¡± Crap, did I just vocalize that? ¡°Well, fish don¡¯t, but rabbit girls do. Thanks for the water though, I know you¡¯re doing your best. Just put in a way for the water to go down so it doesn¡¯t overflow the tub, and make sure the universe doesn¡¯t go down the hooole.¡± Why did she¡­ ah. Another memetic slip. Probably a very good thing her mother worked hard to prevent someone else being exposed to a massive surge of cosmic energy in-utero. One of these is annoying enough, even when you can cross-reference what she¡¯s saying with the proper database. Can¡¯t imagine how hard it was to deal with her in her own world, where none of it would have made any sense at all. Anyway¡­ food. Food. Would be easy enough, except¡­ ERROR: Unable to generate organic matter. Reasons: *Insufficient source materials. *No templates found. *Insufficient energy source. *Dungeon unguided; all growth functions locked. Well¡­ how to explain this to the rabbit girl currently trapped in a hemispherical chamber about a hundred meters underground? Not quite sure¡­ oh. ¡°Uh, Guiying? I¡¯m getting a 404 error on food creation, and we¡¯re a long way off from the nearest MacDonnell¡¯s.¡± ¡°Oh. Well, gimme the exact error message. Maybe we can figure something out?¡± I did, and she sat and thought about it. ¡°Can¡¯t do anything about not having anything in the fridge and an empty cookbook. Might be able to upgrade your reactor though. Know how to summon¡­ no, wait. Can¡¯t bring in anything living, and I don¡¯t wanna get too close to the fairy. Guess I¡¯ll have to do for that part. Right! Time to touch the brain!¡± Wait, what? Guiying came over, and reached her hand toward the small ruby that served as the core of my being. No. Nononononoonono¡­ Entity Guiying Tuzi (Species: Lepus Sapiens) is offering to contract as your guiding force. Rejection of this contract will annihilate invasive entity. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. Her hand was getting closer, and I panicked, pressing the button marked ¡°Okay¡± in my sensory interface. I didn¡¯t wanna kill the girl! Contract established. Mutual annihilation averted. Guiying Tuzi (L. Sapiens) is now contracted dungeon guide for Rhys (G. Loci Minor). Life forces now synchronized, starting tutorial. Wait¡­ tutorial? What? Hold up, hitting ¡°Cancel¡± would¡¯ve killed us both?! Welcome to the wonderful world of dungeon management! As this is, inevitably, your first time, let us start by providing you with some free gifts! Suddenly, an interface popped up in my vision, with all sorts of things I was completely unable to understand. First, let¡¯s provide your dungeon guide with some food. They¡¯ll be your advisor and companion for the entirety of your mutual existence, so be sure to treat them well! To feed them, please select ¡°Create.¡± A floating arrow bounced over a highlighted option, and I got the sense that I wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything else until I selected it. So I followed along. Turned out I now had a moderate selection of cooked dishes I could create, and a resource called ¡°Organic Matter¡± that could be converted into all sorts of things. I couldn¡¯t create anything that was truly alive, but a plate of something called ¡°curry rice (extra spicy)¡± was easy, and Guiying seemed to take to it with gusto. I also had a small selection of drinks referred to as ¡°tea,¡± and opened the menu to the selections, then got a temperature choice when I picked one. Apparently Guiying rather favors a cold barley tea, and thanked me for it. A few other steps had me setting up waste disposal for Guiying, with everything that went into it being cycled back into my resources, minus a small amount. Entropy was a constant, after all. And this concludes the basic tutorial! For more help, please consult your Dungeon Guide. Have fun, and best of luck! And suddenly, the interface shut down. I could call it up at any time, but I was back to my own base senses, such as they were, and nothing was being forced on me. Wait, if I wanted more help I had to ask Guiying? She had no idea what I was doing either! ¡°Mmm, thanks for lunch Rhys! But is this little room all you have?¡± It was, and I was feeling a bit annoyed that I hadn¡¯t been given more advice. ¡°Your influence goes all the way out to the surface, right?¡± Influence? What? ¡°I was managing a download while I ate. Your influence is basically the part of our surroundings that is, for lack of a better term, you. Mostly the solid stuff because liquids and gasses move around too much for you to be part of them. Extends in a sphere from your core a set distance, though this distance will expand with time and energy. Since you made a couple air holes to keep the bunny from dying in the box, you can reach out to wherever the sky is. Right?¡± I could, but I felt like it was a bad idea to do that. Not sure why. ¡°Well, a true entrance breach is inadvisable until we can develop a layout and plan some starter mobs. I just want an apartment of my own. Tired of sharing everything, no offense.¡± Right. She was a member of a ridiculously massive family, and a touch neglected even as a favorite. Hand-me-downs and shared space were just part of her life. Fortunately, I had some idea of how to develop space now, and the system had given me templates for things she was used to and things she liked. In no time, she had a studio apartment off my core chamber, with an attached bath and small kitchen. It wasn¡¯t exactly what she¡¯d come from, but our contract had us reading into each others¡¯ minds a bit now, and this image came to me from something called a ¡°manga.¡± She didn¡¯t know what that was either, but she liked the look of the space and made it into her mental dream home. The squeal she made would¡¯ve shattered other forms of crystal from the resonance, and she immediately thanked me profusely. ¡°Even a kotatsu! Not that we need one down here, but it¡¯s the aesthetic that matters.¡± Such a strange girl. Well, we were stuck with each other pretty much permanently now, barring very specific events, so I¡¯d just have to get used to her. ¡°Right. Gimme a bit to sort out my stats, then we¡¯ll talk mob types.¡± Mob? When did she develop ideas about organized crime? Looking for Tenants Need to go over the character sheet quickly, Rhys has no idea how to dungeon. Let¡¯s see¡­ Guiying Tuzi (L. Sapiens) Monk 3 Strength 10 Agility 10 Dexterity 10 Constitution 10 Intelligence 10 Wisdom 10 Charisma 10 Luck 10 Okay, stats are all ten and I have three levels in Monk. No idea what any of that means right now, but I guess that¡¯s good? Bunch of skills unlocked, a few mastered. Mostly stuff everyone knows, basic math, reading, fitness, that sort of thing. Also some bars on the display, not sure what they¡¯re about but I think it¡¯s bad if any of them are completely empty. So keep the bars full and make the numbers go up. Simple enough. ¡°Okay Rhys, let¡¯s talk mobs before we go much further.¡± That same sense of confusion¡­ and a pin-stripe suit and tommy gun? ¡°Not those mobs. Dungeon mobs are different. Monsters, NPCs, treasure chests, that kinda thing.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± ¡°Well, let¡¯s start by figuring out what our options are.¡± I opened an interface for him, and got a few categories. ¡°Well¡­ can tell you right out we¡¯re not starting with goblinoids or slimes. They always get out of control or do disgusting lewd things to women. Hard no.¡± ¡°I understand and accept, and will add the undead to our list of rejected starter¡­ mobs.¡± ¡°Good choice. That leaves us with insectoids, beasts, constructs, and¡­ cobalts? Shouldn¡¯t metal be a construct thing?¡± I looked at the options. Oh. Ohhhhhh¡­ ¡°Kobolds, Rhys. They¡¯re either a type of gnoll or a weak dragonoid, depending on culture. I think we¡¯re looking at the dragonoid type. Weak individually, but a highly dangerous threat in their home turf thanks to their ingenuity as trapmasters and advanced group tactics. Bit silly more often than not, but that¡¯s part of what makes them fun. Plus we can throw in some lesser beasts and plants to round things out. There¡¯s a few other options, but I like the kobolds if you do. Their resourceful nature makes them good candidates for a startup like us. Plus we might get access to stronger dragonoids if we stick with them. Dragons are awesome.¡± Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. I could feel Rhys thinking it over when his mind hit a skip. ¡°How do you know all this? None of these monsters existed on your world.¡± ¡°Oh, Monstrous Manual v5. I think the Encyclopedia Cosmica has a version that would be accurate to this world¡¯s biosphere.¡± ¡°Huh. So it does. Kobolds, draco habilis. A minor species of dragon known for building large and highly dangerous warrens near civilized areas. Though technically capable of forming symbiotic relationships with dungeons¡­ oh.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± ¡°It says here that few dungeons can maintain the contract.¡± ¡°Leave that to me, I¡¯ll charm them.¡± ¡°That¡¯s what I¡¯m afraid of. Fine, I¡¯ll select the option.¡± And with that, a beacon was activated that would hopefully attract any nearby kobolds to our little home. ¡°You¡¯ll want to build a cave on the edge of your influence, put a dungeon spring in it and a few futon for guests.¡± ¡°Already done. Anything else?¡± ¡°Well, the kobolds will do most of the work for us when we contract with them, so you just need to make sure the lights stay on.¡± ¡°You¡¯re talking in memes again.¡± ¡°Power, Rhys! Energy! Everything¡¯s gotta use some, and you can¡¯t build or maintain anything without a reserve. You got a little as a freebie, but we must construct additional pylons!¡± ¡°Pylons?¡± ¡°Well, something like that. What do you use for qi around here?¡± ¡°Roughly the same stuff, just a different label. Also, direct cultivation like you¡¯re used to isn¡¯t possible.¡± ¡°Well drat. Could¡¯ve just given you actual plans for those pylons if it was that easy. Guess we¡¯ll need to do it the hard way.¡± I plopped down at my kotatsu (so comfy and warm!) and used the interface to draw up a toy I¡¯d been playing with to refine my cultivation ability as soon as I¡¯d learned my affinity. Coiled wire, magnets, central shaft, easy enough to make. Just have to figure out the way to keep it spinning. ¡°No wind, and keeping a strong enough water current going would cost more than it would generate without a natural source. Too far underground for solar¡­ hey Rhys, is there anything really hot in your influence?¡± ¡°Hot?¡± ¡°Yeah, geothermal. Magma, geysers, even just really warm solid rock. Your radius is what, 300 feet?¡± ¡°100 meters, which is actually a bit larger, and no. The only geothermal hotspot I know of in this area was the one I was formed in, and that cooled off and shifted away two geologic eras ago.¡± Hm. ¡°Well, we need a way to make this motor go vroom. I can do it, but bunpower is very finite and would cost you more than you¡¯d make from the deal. As would pretty much anything you could make to do it manually. So unless there¡¯s a seam of coal nearby, I don¡¯t think we¡¯ve got any options.¡± ¡°Coal? There¡¯s a massive seam of anthracite running just above us. Could probably get the kobolds to mine it out while they make their home here.¡± Oh. ¡°Well, that works. Not exactly carbon neutral, but brown always comes before green. Plus it¡¯ll be good for starting up forges and foundries, if we can get some metalworking started. Know what iron is?¡± ¡°I¡¯m a rock, please don¡¯t insult my understanding of geology. Yes, I¡¯m familiar with iron, tin, lead, zinc, copper, and other base metals. But the only stuff around here that¡¯s any kind of common is aluminum, so we¡¯d have to convert or generate the rest.¡± ¡°Alu¡­ min¡­ um?¡± ¡°Yes, it¡¯s a particularly common base mineral that is almost impossible to find in native form. I¡¯m actually mostly aluminum by mass, though technically I¡¯m an oxide and my coloration is caused by a certain percentage of chromium in¡­ nevermind. Making heavier minerals like gold and silver would be difficult, but I think I can convert the local rock to more useful materials with a minimal energy cost.¡± I nodded. ¡°Okay, so we get our monies from the outside. Any kobolds yet?¡± ¡°As a matter of fact, a group just showed up.¡± ¡°Awesome. Shut down the beacon, and let¡¯s give them some time to settle in.¡± Pride and Humility Zgk growled. His tribe was having the worst luck this season. The tribe¡¯s memory-keeper told them that they had once been a stronger people, but then the humans and elves stopped wandering. At first, this made them easier to hunt by the other thinking peoples of the world, the goblins, slimes, and kobolds like themselves. But very quickly, humans discovered ways of making weapons that held edges better than brittle flint and obsidian, and the elves harnessed the power of the world to cast spells against their enemies. Sometimes together, often separately, but the result was the same. Humans, elves, and a cave-dwelling race known as dwarves came to dominate the world, while those who chose to remain wandering hunter-gatherers were reviled as ¡°monsters.¡± Many such peoples were vanishingly rare, or subjugating themselves as dungeon slaves. There was stability there, but at the cost of one¡¯s pride. You and your people would never again be free. To kobolds, cousins of the mighty dragons that ruled the skies and the peaks of the great mountains, there was no greater humiliation than to bow the head in servitude. But some pull had their chief guiding them into the foothills of the ancient mountains anyway. These lands were sacred to their people, never to be trod upon except to die. To seek food in these lands was forbidden by ancient custom, for it was said that it was here that the sacred Dragon Goddess lay down to birth their people. Still, the gifts of the Primal Goddess were lean this year. The golden path promised by the God of the Civilized was sorely tempting, as were the whispers of the forbidden, saying to simply take what was made by others. But Zgk held his pride. He was a son of the Goddess of Life, who commanded all to take nothing from another unfairly, and brother to the Primal Goddess, who would not allow any to be beholden to another. His soul would join the Eternal Hunt should his body fail, and he would stand responsible for all his actions without guilt. Such was what it meant to be a warrior of the tribe. Though as they entered the cave, Zgk knew the tribe was doomed. For what else could they be when sleeping mats, fire pits, and drinking fountains were all so conveniently arranged? There was even a pit for the disposal of waste in the wall, and a separate pair of rooms where they could bathe and excrete as needed. And, Zgk thought as he challenged their chieftain for the leadership of the tribe, only a dungeon would be so convenient in its welcome. A trap, meant to enslave them with kind welcome. Zgk¡¯s knife, fine obsidian from the burning mountains on the coast, was already out and sharp when the rabbit-human appeared. Prey¡­ but not prey? She smelled like rabbit, but was almost entirely human in appearance. Light brown skin like the more tanned people of the far eastern lands, with hair of a¡­ dirty pink coloration? Brownish, but as if someone blended ochre mud into the light red of edible flowers. It was unnatural, like the ears of a rabbit coming out of the head of a human. Shifting his attention, Zgk chose to screech the call of challenge against the rabbit instead. ¡°Huh. Alright, I¡¯ll throw down.¡± Zgk didn¡¯t even ask how he could understand her. The words of humans were meaningless to him, and their tongues were incompatible. All that mattered was that the challenge was accepted, and this rabbit-human was standing ready. Zgk held his knife out in response, and the memory-keeper signaled the fight to begin. When he came to, hours later, the mark of subjugation was already on his people. They were dungeon kobolds now, and he could do nothing but bow his head in shame. He could not even remember how he had lost, or what weapon the rabbit-human had used. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Said human appeared now, and¡­ bowed before him? ¡°Your memory-keeper says you were the greatest warrior your tribe has known in five centuries, and that I could best you unarmed was a remarkable feat. I can only feel shame that I didn¡¯t hold back more and preserve your dignity.¡± Wait¡­ unarmed?! The interface opened to show her stats to him, a measure of unspeakable arrogance¡­ or impossible naivete. Yet¡­ ¡°Ten¡­ in all stats¡­¡± It was shocking, and he felt himself soil the bedding he was in. As his memory-keeper had said, he was the greatest warrior their tribe had known since they had formed some four hundred and ninety-seven years ago, and his physical stats were barely over half that! Furthermore, he had to work constantly simply to keep them there! Standing to remove himself from the puddle he¡¯d made, Zgk stepped forward, and bowed until his head reached the stone of the floor. ¡°Mistress. I beg you to forgive my impertinence.¡± She merely knelt, and drew his head up. ¡°You stood for the pride and independence of your people, Zgk.¡± She mispronounced his name, making it sound like ¡®Zuk,¡¯ but a human tongue couldn¡¯t have managed it correctly anyway so he ignored that. It had been a good effort. ¡°You fought with honor, and take defeat with dignity and grace. There is nothing I need forgive you for.¡± ¡°You¡­¡± a voice sounded from¡­ everywhere? ¡°You¡¯re actually behaving like a well-mannered cultivator?¡± ¡°Well I was raised as one! You don¡¯t have to sound so surprised, Rhys!¡± Rhys. So this was the sound of their new dungeon-master. It was¡­ neither kobold nor human. Nothing really living, just some disembodied voice that seemed to speak without speaking. Zgk raised his head to the ceiling, and spoke what honor demanded of him. ¡°I swear my fealty to you, great dungeon. How may this humble warrior serve?¡± ¡°Maybe drop the formality? Having Guiying talk like anything but a weird teenager is making me uncomfortable for some reason.¡± The rabbit-human giggled. ¡°Don¡¯t mind him, Rhys hasn¡¯t gotten out in a while and doesn¡¯t know how to talk to people. You¡¯re the first people we¡¯ve had in here since I showed up, and I think his last inhabitants were really old roly-polies.¡± ¡°Trilobites, Guiying. They only resemble pillbugs superficially, and have no living descendants that I know of. And the aquarium was doing fine before I fell asleep!¡± ¡°Uh¡­ I am confused.¡± The dungeon¡­ smirked? How? ¡°Sorry. Guiying is a bit odd, and as she noted I¡¯ve been living alone for a few hundred million years. I took a nap shortly after I first gained sentience, and was pretty thoroughly underground when I woke up. Rocks don¡¯t need to eat or breathe, but we tend to lose track of time if we don¡¯t have enough to do, and our time is¡­ different¡­ from the mortal perspective.¡± Zgk nodded. ¡°So you have lain dormant for time uncounted, before the Goddess of Life laid the first eggs of our people in these lands. Perhaps it is truly fate that we stand here now.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not the sort to believe in fate,¡± Rhys said, ¡°But it makes a nice narrative. I don¡¯t ask that you forsake the Goddess of Chaos for her twin altogether, but this would be the perfect birthplace for a kobold civilization, wouldn¡¯t you agree?¡± Zgk¡­ no. It was indeed time to set aside their pride as a people, at least a little. Zuk agreed. ¡°From your dungeon, I would hope our people become a mighty nation.¡± ¡°From your nation, I would hope to become a mighty dungeon.¡± And so the contract was sealed, and the Ruby Scale Dungeon was born. Feast of Settling An extremely pregnant kobold woman stood on the platform just outside of Rhys¡¯s main entrance. Before her were two symbols: a circle of branches and two squares of equal size, drawn to form an eight-sided star. Within the star was an offering of grain, within the circle the heart of an elk felled in the valley outside. And in secret, a small stone box was buried beneath them all. Though the Stillborn God refused any form of worship, it was still a quiet sign of respect to acknowledge Him, and the tribe had as much reason to mourn as to celebrate with this offering. The bones held within the box were fresh this year, and came from many children born without life. The tribe¡¯s memory-keeper approached, and spoke prayers to the gods. He asked forgiveness of the Goddess of Life for choosing Her lands to settle within, and prayed to the Primal Goddess to keep the spirit of change within them, even if they could no longer be free. To the Wyrm of the Golden Path he asked for guidance, as they learned to farm and craft. And finally, as he burnt the offerings given in sacrifice, he spoke in warding against the forbidden, who would only lead their people to ruin. As the tribe gave their ritual responses, Guiying spoke right alongside them. These gods were hers as well, though they had been forgotten for most of her life, and her mother and aunt were their champions in her homeland. A tear fell, hoping that her mother knew where she was and that she was alright, but she supposed homesickness was normal at a time such as this. From here, the feast began, with the kobolds celebrating the founding of their new home. Contests of strength, agility, dexterity, and stamina were held among them, and Guiying learned a lot about each stat from the contests and how well people did. Strength was about slow-twitch musculature, primarily. One¡¯s upper limits in the ability to lift and push. From there, Guiying could extrapolate that each point was about¡­ 10 kilograms? This metric stuff Rhys used was annoying to convert, though she could see the mathematic benefit of a consistent base 10 rubric. But she knew her upper limit was about 220 pounds, or three fully-grown kobolds of average weight, so she could use that combined with her own strength score to estimate how much a point was worth. Agility was more about fast-twitch musculature. It could be about how fast you could dash, to be sure, but it also marked your ability to quickly change direction and the speed of your reflexes. Little harder to establish a baseline, but Rhys said he could figure it out based on the game of ¡°basket ball¡± the kobolds played. Dexterity marked one¡¯s hand-eye coordination, and Rhys said he had to wait on figuring out the baseline here because he couldn¡¯t be sure. The kobolds were throwing knives at a massive section of log, then using which ring it landed in to keep score. The problem was distance, because the log section was out of the dungeon influence range at the moment. Rather by necessity, because Guiying and Zuk had been showing off. Zuk could consistently hit the center of the log from 100 meters off, but Guiying consistently put the knife in the exact center of the point he struck, and was a bit frustrated that it was too easy. But if they tried to move the target or her any further apart, they ran into terrain issues. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. Stamina, or constitution, was an easy one. It measured one¡¯s physical durability and ability to withstand pain and/or discomfort. Most of the contests were the type seen almost anywhere, sitting too close to the evening bonfire, pain games like Mercy, and drinking contests. Guiying didn¡¯t feel the need to participate in those, though the warriors were more than happy to jeer at her about it. Reminded her of a few of her brothers, really. Boys are boys no matter the species, I suppose. The weapons exhibitions were more interesting to her. Zuk and a few of the other warriors showed off spear drills, or participated in mock hunts with only their knives. She could see that this was as much training as play, and could see why so many of the kobolds were second-level in the Warrior class. She wondered to herself what it would take to push their levels further, since it seemed to be different from how she leveled up as a Monk. The food was rough, but definitely worth eating. The elk had been well-butchered, and she¡¯d been offered the liver alongside the chieftain, the memory-keeper, and the finest warriors. Was actually pretty good, though she was used to slightly less-gamey meat. She¡¯d also had some of the front haunch, alongside a pancake of sorts the women made from wild grain milled into flour, water, and sweet berries. Helped cut some of the meat¡¯s unpleasant undertones, while the meat¡¯s savory aspects helped make up for the otherwise bland flatbread. Then came the singing. Well, it was one word for it. The kobolds didn¡¯t have the same mouth or throat structure as a humanoid creature would, so their ¡°singing¡± was more of a multi-tone trill coming from their throat. She¡¯d heard something close a few times, as people from her home village sang in harmony with themselves, but she¡¯d never mastered the trick of it herself. She figured out it was only the male kobolds who were singing when the females, slightly larger than the males and many of them noticeably pregnant, began dancing. She started to see a story in the dance, a history of sorts of how the Goddess of Life birthed the first kobold tribe, and lived alongside them for many years. It went on to tell of the kobolds becoming numerous and strong, and splitting off to cover all the land alongside the other thinking peoples. Then she heard the tone switch to melancholy, as the memory-keeper led the chorus in singing the story of how men and elves chose to stop wandering, settling in lands and raising plants and animals to eat instead of taking what they needed from the land before moving on to let it recover. It spoke of the dwarves, emerging from their hidden caves and teaching men how to work metal, creating tools that did not readily chip or shatter, and letting them build walls and cities. It spoke of kobolds suddenly being ¡°monsters¡± to those who had once treated them as equals, reviled and shunned if not openly hunted. It spoke of lands becoming sectioned off, as kobolds sought new hunting grounds in places not as welcoming to those who merely wished to live as their goddess had taught them. And suddenly, she heard her own voice speaking of the Goddess of Life awakening an ancient being of her own creation, among the first of its kind. Of guiding one from a distant world who knew of strength and of wisdom to teach her children new ways. Of bringing them back to where she had first birthed them, that they might become a people equal to men, elves, and dwarves in their great empires. And she spoke¡­ of all tribes now being Called. Of the Kobold Gathering as tribes that once only held council every two or three years as they crossed paths now being brought to a single home. And, in an aside only Guiying could hear, of Rhys being very busy for a very long time and not to let these pets starve just because he got bored of them. Guiying giggled, and asked the Goddess to send her love home. She had a lot of work ahead. Homesickness ¡°So that¡¯s what this is about?¡± ¡°Seems to be. I haven¡¯t been that close to a god before, but I can¡¯t sing in triple pitch, in the kobold language, about things that are happening so clearly and plainly. Mind conjuring up something sticky? My throat hurts.¡± Rhys did so, generating something called ¡°ramune¡± from his selections. ¡°Ooh, that¡¯s nice. Always wanted to try one of these, especially with the marble stoppers on the bottles.¡± Guiying opened the bottle surprisingly well, then took a swallow before sitting back against the entranceway to the kobold lair and sighing in relief. ¡°So. Population of about fifty kobolds, with twenty of them in one stage or another of pregnancy. No healers or apothecaries among them, and I¡¯m really wishing I knew half of what my mom did on that front. But she¡¯s got a natural gift for being an alchemist and midwife, and told me flat out I¡¯d do more harm than good trying. Damn, still feeling homesick. Curry please.¡± ¡°Not this time, Guiying. I¡¯m sorry, but I¡¯m getting a little worried about our food reserves. As you said, we¡¯ve got a present population of fifty-two, with a potential population of seventy-eight. Multiple births seem to be relatively common among kobolds. In addition, you just gave a prophecy that every free kobold tribe is going to be on its way here. Not all of them will make it, and not all of them will be willing to bend the way your friend Zuk did, but I expect we¡¯ll easily have a population of five hundred in this valley when all is said and done, bare minimum.¡± ¡°Wow. They really are a threatened species.¡± ¡°Beside the point, Guiying! We need enough food to last until we can develop a steady agricultural system!¡± ¡°Oh, that.¡± Guiying looked out at the celebrating kobolds, the party finally winding down as they began to gather up the mess they had made and readied to put out the bonfire. ¡°It wouldn¡¯t be the first time I¡¯ve gone hungry for a few years for a better cause, Rhys. I¡¯d rather enjoy my curry tonight, and worry about where the next plate is coming from in the morning.¡± Rhys sighed, and relented. She was right, one extra plate of food wasn¡¯t going to make a difference on the scale he was anticipating, and they had a bit of time to build a reserve before it was tested. Guiying took the ¡°elevator¡± down to the core chamber, and from there to her apartment for some rest. Parties were fun, but took a lot of energy. Reminded her of her older siblings¡¯ wedding, actually. Heh. Mom was so annoyed that day. Not sure why, but she mostly calmed down when the food started being served. She held tears back, even here where no one but Rhys could see her. There was no going home, he made that pretty clear when they met. Her mother could get here in three centuries if she teleported¡­ and would be long dead because she could hold her breath for about five minutes. Also, she¡¯d never make it because of radiation scattering. Some of the weird stuff in her head she wished she didn¡¯t know, sometimes. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Tears escaped in spite of herself, and she woke up to a damp pillow and an unusual lethargy. And no one¡¯s interested me enough for baby-making, so thankfully it isn¡¯t that. Tired, she plodded to her kotatsu and ordered breakfast. ¡°Tea>Matcha>Hot. And just some rice porridge in miso broth today, I¡¯m not too hungry.¡± ¡°Not too¡­ oh. Seems you¡¯ve caught a cold. Wrong season, but the kobolds are likely carrying a dormant strain your body¡¯s not¡­¡± A light fwumph sounded through the room as Guiying fell on her back. Breakfast forgotten, Rhys went over the kobolds as they started their morning. No signs of illness or lethargy, even among the pregnant females. All 24 pregnant now. Microscan, microscan¡­ Ah, no good! Why can¡¯t I get that low?! ¡°Because you¡¯re not the core you were three hundred million years ago, Rhys.¡± Okay, that was scary. But the flame-wreathed portal that appeared near Guiying¡¯s door was scarier. ¡°So this is where Ara-¡± ¡°Best not to speak names here, Xiang. Rhys wouldn¡¯t survive the experience.¡± ¡°Ah, of course. Sorry, too used to high-level cultivators, I suppose.¡± ¡°Yes, and we¡¯ll need to talk about that later. You and Kaoru both, really, but for now your daughter and her new people need your help.¡± ¡°Why would they need¡­ oh.¡± The distracted-seeming woman finished coming through the portal, and rushed to Guiying¡¯s side. By her looks, Rhys could only guess that this was Guiying¡¯s mother. Darker skin tone, more vividly pink hair with red tips at the ears, soft maternal features¡­ but the same basic profile, especially in the eyes. But where Guiying¡¯s were always wide and soft, full of wonder, this rabbit¡¯s were determined and challenging. This was a bun of war. Offhand, Rhys tried checking her stats, only to be bounced off. ¡°Don¡¯t bother¡­ Rhys, is it? I¡¯m too strong for your world¡¯s system in every respect. Part of what ascendance literally means, that those who accomplish it escape the boundaries of their world¡¯s limitations. We¡¯re a highly monitored and regulated bunch as a result, and pray your world never spawns one. Do you have any green tea and miso rice porridge? Those are her favorite sick foods.¡± As Rhys hurried to spawn Guiying¡¯s breakfast order, she stirred. ¡°Mama?¡± ¡°Shh. Don¡¯t worry baby. The gods found out you needed a healer, and sent the best they had available. Your immune system isn¡¯t used to the germs on this world yet, so I¡¯m gonna give you a boost there. Beyond that, it¡¯s just an ordinary cold. You¡¯ll be fine in a week, and back to full energy in a month. Bet the red bar on your screen¡¯s gone down a touch.¡± ¡°Huh¡­ yeah. How¡¯d you know?¡± ¡°I¡¯m stronger than the system, but that just means I can see it and work out what you don¡¯t understand a little. The red bar is your health, roughly estimated in a percentage. Green bar is stamina, same deal. Blue bar is your mental fatigue. They¡¯re just a visual aid, don¡¯t try to quantify them overmuch. Same with your stats, really. Skills and class levels are what you should pay attention to. One¡¯s attached to the other, and I¡¯ll help your new people gain a few basic ones so they¡¯re not as dependent on what you still lack.¡± Guiying¡­ just nodded and leaned against the wall of her room, eating her porridge and drinking her tea. ¡°Poor thing, you¡¯re not even well enough to talk back. I¡¯ll head upstairs and let the kobolds know what¡¯s going on, see what I can gather for medicines. Better if I work with what you have here first, both for Rhys and for the kobolds. The fewer ingredients come from another world, the less damage done to this one. And don¡¯t worry about conveying me, Rhys. I can find my own way around.¡± And with that, Guiying¡¯s mother was suddenly in the alcove typically reserved for Guiying¡¯s ¡°elevator¡± to raise and lower, and she was briskly talking to kobolds about what was going on and what she would do about it. By that evening, Guiying was settled into her futon, sweating out her fever, and every kobold in the tribe had at least one level in the healer class. Goals and Distractions ¡°So we just hear each others¡¯ languages due to being contracted to Rhys? Makes sense, kobolds don¡¯t have the right face or throat structure to make humanoid sounds properly, and speaking in their tongue left me with a sore throat.¡± ¡°That would¡¯ve been because you were starting to feel sick, but yes. There¡¯s a couple of skills that will work around those limitations, though. And you have the ability to pick them up with some practice.¡± Guiying listened to her mother, feeling stronger but still not well enough to leave her room. Zuk sat in the corner, having insisted on visiting her when he¡¯d learned she was ill. ¡°So the legends of those who could speak and understand every language are true?¡± ¡°Yes, and the skills are called ¡®Gift of Tongues¡¯ and ¡®Interpretation of Tongues.¡¯ Learn them, and language barriers are no longer an issue. But you need to have a very well-rounded set of mental skills before advanced sets are unlocked. As-is, Guiying¡¯s the most well-educated permanent resident of this planet, just by having our world¡¯s basic literacy, philosophy, and mathematic skills.¡± Zuk stared, jaw open. He¡¯d known his mental stats were only half of Guiying¡¯s, but that there was an entire world of people at least as smart as she was? ¡°No, Guiying¡¯s brighter than most, if a bit tuned out of our reality. Education doesn¡¯t directly connect to intelligence, it just gives you more potential ways to use what you have. Guiying¡¯s ability to identify plants is abysmal, for example. Study would improve it a little, but she doesn¡¯t have the right mental knack for telling which plants can be eaten, which used as medicine, and which would simply kill her. Which is why I never taught her my own trade as an alchemist and midwife. You¡¯ve got a good knack for hunting and fighting, and a true talent for leadership, but you don¡¯t have the right mindset to fully learn the oral traditions and genaeologies of your people. So you¡¯re an excellent hunt leader and will be a strong chieftain one day¡­ but the path of the memory-keeper isn¡¯t for you.¡± Zuk nodded. This he¡¯d known about himself and understood. Much like he¡¯d learned a great deal about dealing with hunting injuries from Mistress Xiang, but had no skill for learning the medicinal herbs and potions she had described. Still, knowing a little about what she called ¡°first aid¡± would make hunts far safer, and the skills he had picked up had advanced him closer to the next level in Warrior. ¡°So¡­ getting another class level in Monk?¡± Guiying winced and held her forehead as Zuk blinked. He hadn¡¯t even seen that strike. ¡°Hasn¡¯t changed in the slightest, and you¡¯ve been slacking off. You have three younger siblings who are approaching their Mastery, and you¡¯re still an Expert in only one element.¡± ¡°Well, I just don¡¯t-¡± ¡°Energy is energy, Guiying. You use elemental attunement to ground yourself in the early stages, but you won¡¯t get any further if you limit yourself to electricity the way you have. Consider Rhys¡¯s power issues to be a good learning experience on the subject. Elemental Attunement is a whole set of skills here, so work on collecting them until you¡¯ve mastered them all. From there, you should be able to break into the next level.¡± The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Guiying pouted a little, but it was clear she was mostly just getting tired. Zuk offered another bowl of the porridge, but she just pushed it away and crawled into her bed. Zuk quietly gulped, and was grateful that the species difference damped some of the attraction he had for the young rabbit girl. Shaking his head, he put himself in the small alcove set aside for transport between the core chamber and the main dungeon and let Rhys return him to the surface. Things were changing here. It hadn¡¯t quite been a full week since their tribe had settled into the dungeon, but the original cave had already been turned from a welcoming new home for tired kobolds into a proper series of death traps against invaders. The real entrances and exits were scattered across the mountain, sized mostly for kobolds and camofluaged against all but the most observant of invaders. Only the main entrance, several meters below and to the left of the obvious one, was large enough to allow most hominids inside. They needed a place to bring in food and supplies, after all. The caves were tunneled out, creating a proper warren with plenty of room to expand the chambers and tunnels as needed. Plans were already in place to essentially hollow out the entire mountain, starting with the seam of hard coal directly overhead. And the more they touched, the further Rhys¡¯s influence spread. From his original 100-meter influence range, he could now reach out half a kilometer in any direction, almost the entirety of the mountain and the valley the kobolds were clearing out for agriculture. Speaking of¡­ apparently Guiying¡¯s mother knew a few tricks there. She was having them build terraced fields, reservoirs, and talked about something called ¡°permaculture¡± to drive home how to maximize the efficiency and longevity of their growing space. She also helped them set up hidden sentry points at the valley¡¯s approaches, and was every bit as quick as the kobolds to set up disarmed traps on the roads and within the fields, so they only needed a moment to turn the entire valley into a hellscape in the event of a war. She even used designs that were disturbingly effective but easy to maintain, earning the kobolds¡¯ respect and trust on her engineering sense. Zuk relaxed a little, knowing that they were as secure as they would get, and would be ready for a full thousand kobolds to join the Ruby Scale at the gathering of the tribes. He knew Rhys only expected half that, and was inclined to agree, but it never hurt to be overprepared. Besides, the hope was that they would grow into the space quickly, as new generations were born and came of age. Ideally, these new generations would only rarely become warriors or gatherers, instead producing raw materials or processed goods through the higher professions. Of course¡­ such ideals were never perfect. Zuk knew there would always be those like himself, called to protect the tribe from enemies with whatever weapons they had. There would always be a need for those who could gather herbs, berries, and mushrooms from wherever they were at, and know what was safe to eat from what wasn¡¯t. He laid in his bed, now given a personal room as a hero of his kind, and let his mind wander. It was good to have goals, but Mistress Xiang was also teaching him how to let go, to reach beyond his mundane needs and constant thoughts of others into what he personally wanted. A brief flash of dirty pink hair and a bright expression crossed his mind, but he shook his head and set that aside. Right now, it was just a distraction. ¡­Wasn¡¯t it? Meditating Story Progress Xiang meditated fitfully in the guest room this strange sentient rock had provided. Normally she¡¯d just go ahead and sleep, but she never felt right doing so without her husband next to her. Technically neither of them had to, but it was nice to have that relaxation time with their constantly busy lives, and it was hard to work properly at night anyway. Besides, she thought, rubbing that quiet fullness that was just starting to show over her pelvis, it¡¯s not like we spend much of that time actually sleeping anyway. Guiying was getting better, and had asked when she¡¯d be going back. Xiang had mentioned she was going to stay for about six months, and that was when her daughter had noticed and groaned. ¡°Can¡¯t you and dad keep your hands off each other for ten minutes?!¡± She chuckled at the memory of the exasperation. And thought quietly about Zuk the kobold. Strapping young male of his species, stong and fairly well-focused on his duties. Too focused, by his chief¡¯s estimation. Fifteen summers old and has never so much as mated for fun, the only male in the tribe completely unattached. And isn¡¯t it amusing that he¡¯s only a year older than my sweet little goofgirl? She smiled, and didn¡¯t try to question kobold mating practices. Hunter-gatherers rarely lived long, and kobolds came to full maturity around twelve years of age from what she¡¯d seen. Still, if Zuk did manage to break through enough¡­ well, she¡¯d enjoy the surprise. Some of the nearer tribes of kobolds had recently arrived, meanwhile. Their gathering had begun, and soon there would be a solid population of their kind in the dungeon¡¯s domain. Hopefully the tribes that formed from rejecting the offer would make for a good backup population. Part of the reason she was staying so long was to make sure this group wasn¡¯t wiped out by the inevitable plagues that would follow a gathering so large. Disease was just a part of life, but one particularly deadly strain could easily wipe out a civilization in its cradle if not addressed quickly. And, as a non-kobold presence pinged on the edges of her senses, there were other things to watch for. Human¡­ no, not quite. Feels more feline than ape, though there¡¯s no fur or tail to speak of. I suppose these are the ¡°elves¡± spoken of by the memory-keeper. Well, middle of the night and Guiying¡¯s still too low on energy to play diplomat. Guess I¡¯ll have to. She teleported to a point behind the small scouting party, and watched one of them start to draw a bead on a kobold sentry. ¡°Nice night, isn¡¯t it?¡± The scout startled, his shot thankfully going wild and missing anything that could¡¯ve otherwise been hurt. The others turned to look at her, drawing their own weapons. ¡°Hm. Jadeite arrowheads. Nicely carved, but I think the knapped flint these kobolds are using is far sharper. Not that it would matter, even the best weapons in this world are far too crude to harm me.¡± And just to make things clear, she let them see a mockup of a character sheet she¡¯d built when their apparent leader scanned her. Xiang Tuzi, Agent of the Stillborn God Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Ascendant Monk Stats: Over Mortal Limits Skills: Unfathomable Species: Carbuncle (L. Nobilis Evanes) Can Teleport at Will ¡°So,¡± she began, after all parties looked appropriately voided of waste, ¡°Here¡¯s how this goes. We talk things out peacefully and you leave the kobolds alone, or you run and warn your people that this valley is protected by the God of Annihilation. Understood?¡± They nodded, and scarpered. Xiang teleported back to her guest room, and let Rhys know that the tribes were being tailed. ¡°So we¡¯ll be expecting company?¡± ¡°I scared off that group, but I¡¯m sure their leaders won¡¯t listen to sense. Haven¡¯t met a single politician that ever has.¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t you married to an emperor?¡± Xiang smiled. ¡°I should tell you that story. It¡¯s quite entertaining.¡± And for the rest of the night, she did just that. -- Guiying woke up around the part where the Tiger King turned out to be nothing more than a particularly mean house cat. ¡°Mom was annoyed for months because that fight was so lame. I think she only fully snapped out of it when Dad managed to ascend and beat her.¡± Xiang smiled. ¡°I was so proud of him, finally reaching his potential. The mating afterwards was-¡± ¡°No! Ew! No thoughts of parent sex!¡± Xiang just smiled again. ¡°Well, I¡¯ll just say I was annoyed when his next appointment limited the duration to a few days. Your father bragged to me later that he would¡¯ve kept going for a year and a half, bare minimum. I believe him, and look forward to when we can dump this whole empire mess on your older brother and disappear back to the old village to live as rabbits.¡± ¡°Not listening, can¡¯t hear you! LALALALALALA!¡± Rhys laughed, surprised at this turn of events. It was hard to imagine Guiying being embarrassed about much of anything, yet here they were. ¡°Oh, that reminds me.¡± Xiang rose to her feet and stretched out, popping her back and showing the slightest hint of what lay under her belly. ¡°How are those furnaces doing?¡± ¡°Quite well. I set them up like you said, running those catalytic converters over the chimneys and a pipeline through the upper edges of the hot zone to boil water for the generators. Highly efficient, plus the potters are thrilled with the even and consistent heat. The people learning to work with metal love it too, saying the forging process is almost too easy with the setup provided.¡± Guiying¡¯s ears perked. ¡°Pottery? There¡¯s clay around here?¡± ¡°Oh, that¡¯s right. You did pick up your father¡¯s hobby, didn¡¯t you? Actually, I think you¡¯ve got more of a knack for it than he did. Yes, this area¡¯s saturated with the right blends of aluminum and silicon to produce kaolin, and the river bed is being dug out and expanded for irrigation anyway. So we¡¯ve got lots of clay to work with, and a high demand for storage urns and eating dishes.¡± Guiying nodded. ¡°Do they have wheels, or are they just hand-building?¡± ¡°You¡¯d have to teach them, I think. I never got into it enough to learn the finer details the way you or your father did.¡± Guiying nearly dashed for the elevator¡­ only to be stopped when it didn¡¯t go anywhere. ¡°Sorry, your mother still hasn¡¯t authorized your departure from the core chamber. But you¡¯ll be amazed when you can wander out and see all that¡¯s gone on, I promise.¡± Guiying huffed, then pouted at her kotatsu. ¡°Gimme biscuits and gravy, then. And some manga to read. The Cosmica lets you pirate a few, right?¡± Rhys inwardly rolled his eyes, but filled the food part of the breakfast order along with a thing called ¡°orange juice.¡± Telling her that the Encyclopedia Cosmica did indeed abide by copyright law wouldn¡¯t help her mood at all. Thesis Guiying ran around a bit, bouncing randomly in a nearly gymnastic manner. Finally, she was free again! Xiang merely smiled, and shook her head. Her goofy bun wasn¡¯t at a hundred percent yet, but two weeks of enforced bedrest would¡¯ve had her doing binkies the moment she could get outside again too. After burning off the excitement and pent-up energy, Guiying finally settled on the odd bottle-shaped furnaces just above the river¡¯s floodplain. ¡°Hm¡­ ah, the fuel is fed into a ring around the middle, air pushed in from beneath at pressure, mhmm mhmm, precious metals used to catalyze the particulate out of the smoke and generate extra heat in the process, water pipes placed inside to heat up and pressurize steam for generators which are wired into lead-acid batteries that can be used to draw power directly into the dungeon! Wow, highly efficient. Good way to make the most out of fossil fuels, especially since we seem to be drawing the hot water from the generators into tanks for use on demand. How¡¯s the power rating, Rhys?¡± ¡°According to my display, we¡¯re currently generating a surplus of 10 megawatt hours, and I¡¯ve been using it to build influence range and refine my core. Says I hit the next upgrade level when I reach a full kilometer radius, reach five centimeters in core diameter, and have a permanent population of one thousand.¡± ¡°Upgrade level?¡± ¡°Yeah, there¡¯s a progress menu for it when I look at my resources in finer detail. There was more to it, but I¡¯ve checked off a lot of boxes already.¡± Guiying blinked. Did she have something like that? ¡°Check your stats and skills,¡± her mother prompted. ¡°Oh.¡± Yeah, there it was. Monk: Advancement Requirements *[ ] Reach a minimum of 15 in all stats. *[ ] Master the elements! **[ ] Fire **[ ] Ice **[X] Lightning **[ ] Air **[ ] Water **[ ] Earth **[ ] Light **[ ] Shadow **[ ] Life Inflated, but not really that different to what it was before. Master the use and refinement of elemental qi, build yourself up to a certain threshold. Looking at a quantified list just bugged her, though. Only one item checked off?! This would take forever! ¡°Don¡¯t worry about the quest, just do what needs doing for a while and think about the steps. Try following all the energy going through the furnaces, for example.¡± She did, and could feel the air and water flowing through. Wasn¡¯t just by chance things moved the way they did¡­ no¡­ heat. The heat of the fire drew in more air, which was pressurized by the shape of the airways above and below the furnace. The result made the fire hotter than it would otherwise be, helping the difficult-to-ignite anthracite burn at its full potential the moment it was tossed into the firebox. Warm. Yes, warm. The cool water had to follow gravity to enter the boilers, but the manifold system they were shaped in quickly brought the thermally-stable liquid up to a boil, and the steam escaped through pipes much smaller than the ones the water entered. Then it spiralled up, until it was shot through the kinetic spinner of the generator, where it rotated magnets on an axis around copper wiring before the spent moisture was distilled out into a cistern, which retained much of the heat still. Warm¡­ warm¡­ fire? Fire wasn¡¯t technically an element, just a chemical reaction caused when sufficient heat was applied to rapidly change materials on a chemical level. So if she chased the warm far enough, wouldn¡¯t she start understanding fire? No. Not just fire. Because where that energy wasn¡¯t, there was cold. Cold was just the lack of warm, a reduction in stored energy either intrinsic or as it moved from one point to another¡­ This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. Skills Learned! *Fire Affinity Level 1 *Ice Affinity Level 1 Guiying blinked, but went right back in. She could figure it out more. Yes. How much energy was stored in something was directly related to how warm or cold it was. If it had too much energy, it would change states to dissipate it. This was how most substances went from being solids, to liquids, to gasses. There was more to it, because something could hold more energy in a state if kept under pressure, and some solids simply went straight to gas form under normal conditions¡­ huh. So that was what air, water, and earth were about. Skills Learned! *Fire Affinity Level 2 *Ice Affinity Level 2 *Air Affinity Level 2 *Water Affinity Level 2 *Earth Affinity Level 2 Skipping a step? Well, it only made sense, all of this was integrated. All of it was integrated¡­ ¡°Of course!¡± Yes, lightning was what happened when energy went from one point to another really really fast! She¡¯d already learned that part, but why hadn¡¯t she made the connection before? It¡¯s like her mother said, energy is energy! Everything connected to the same source, even if it did so through different means! And when you put enough energy into something to undo it at the smallest level¡­ ¡°Light.¡± Skills Learned! *Fire Affinity Level 3 *Ice Affinity Level 3 *Air Affinity Level 3 *Water Affinity Level 3 *Earth Affinity Level 3 *Light Affinity Level 3 *Shadow Affinity Level 3 She reached out to the wheel in front of her, not even seeing it. She had no idea when it got there, or why it was perfectly adapted to her. But the clay sang between her fingers as she shaped it, putting everything she¡¯d learned into the pot. Except¡­ it wasn¡¯t a pot, not really. ¡°Fire, ice, lightning, just forms of energy! Well, lightning¡¯s half-energy, half-matter, but that leads it into the matter categories! Solid, liquid, gas, plasma! Light and shadow exist beyond these, but they¡¯re still just the presence and absence of specific things around you, and behave by their own rules! But life¡­¡± A second set of hands guided Guiying¡¯s, and she felt her mother¡¯s qi. Yes¡­ life. Who would have a better handle on it than her own mother, who dealt with life on a daily basis? From the smallest things, undetectable by normal vision, to the largest she had ever seen. Xiang Tuzi knew life on an intimate level, and had saturated her very being with the power to wield it. She gave life as a mother, as an alchemist and apothecary, and as a midwife and healer¡­ but she had also taken more than her share as a warrior, as a housewife¡­ and even as a farmer. That which lives must die, and to live even an hour required the sacrifice of others. You only hoped to give as much as you took, in one fashion or another. The spark took, at once from all of the elements, yet distinctly no element in its own right. The power surging through her hands instantly bisqued the clay she¡¯d shaped, then¡­ transmuted it? And suddenly, she had a beautiful living egg in her hands. Congratulations! You have successfully created a new life-form! Mystery Egg: Created by Guiying Tuzi. A compilation of her thesis on life on a quantum level. Contents unknown. Proof that the creator has fully mastered every element and integrated them into her actions and physical nature. Skills Mastered! *Fire Affinity *Ice Affinity *Air Affinity *Water Affinity *Earth Affinity *Light Affinity *Shadow Affinity *Life Affinity All elemental skills mastered and integrated! [Elemental] Affinity skills are now Elemental Mastery! Skill Mastered! Elemental Mastery All stats increased by 5 as a result of your efforts. Congratulations! You have reached level 4 of the Monk Class! Monk Advancement Requirements: [ ] Reach 30 in all stats. [ ] Attain Cosmic Equilibrium state. ¡°Whoa. Okay, head rush.¡± And as Guiying collapsed backward from the sudden influx of power and understanding, her mother caught her and eased her to the floor. ¡°See? It¡¯s a lot less work than you realize when it all comes together.¡± Guiying smiled, nodded, then felt an odd surge coming from within the dungeon. ¡°Who broke the scouter?¡± Xiang smiled, but didn¡¯t even try to understand what her daughter was talking about this time. ¡°Zuk wanted to learn a bit about cultivation. Feels like he just did. Let¡¯s go see what it was.¡± And with that, Xiang teleported them to the dungeon¡¯s entrance, egg and all. Guiying really wished her mom would walk like a normal person sometimes... Confusion Zuk sneezed, and clutched his head with his left hand. Something felt off, but he couldn¡¯t quite place what it was. He¡¯d figured out how to draw¡­ something¡­ directly into his stats and skills that kept them from passively decreasing over time without constant training¡­ but that was yesterday, when he¡¯d unlocked the Monk class to the first level. He¡¯d been reviewing some of the things Mistress Xiang had given him to study. They hadn¡¯t had a written language before, but the memory-keeper was the first to adopt it, and encouraged everyone to do the same. So they had letters to learn now, along with numbers and the arts of combining both to make sense of the world and communicate nonverbally. Guiying had come to mind, but he¡¯d dismissed that. He had other responsibilities. His tribe, his people. They needed him as a defender, and he needed to be as strong and smart as possible to do so¡­ no, that was only part of it, though an important part. Xiang had told him he had to strip away any lies he told himself if he wanted to reach the second level of Monk training, so he¡¯d admitted to himself he wanted to be worthy of that rabbit-girl¡¯s attentions. Even if she never saw him as a potential mate because of species differences, he could at least earn a spot in her life for¡­ what? Strength? Cleverness? Dedication? He had all of those already and all he had to show for it was an empty bedchamber, however well-appointed. So he¡¯d given up. And suddenly, he heard a pinging noise and everything hurt. When everything stopped hurting, he was on his back on the floor of his room, head throbbing and feeling¡­ off. He still wasn¡¯t sure why. ¡°Oh¡­ oh wow.¡± Zuk stood, but even that felt a bit off. And wait, why was Guiying suddenly so much shorter than he was? ¡°5¡¯6¡± if he¡¯s an inch, and very well-muscled for a stripling only a year older than you are. Congrats on reaching the second level of the Monk class, Zuk. I won¡¯t ask what you learned, the core of one¡¯s dao is often a private matter. Seems the transition of species is rather permanent in this world, or at least physical limits are an issue. I imagine you¡¯re feeling a bit off right now? Look at your hand.¡± Zuk did¡­ and fell back to the floor in shock. His hand was¡­ human! Mistress Xiang laughed a little, and Zuk found himself annoyed by it. ¡°Yeah, some shape-changing is normal once you hit the second level of Monk. By knowing what you want and why you fight for it, your body responds and reshapes to help you reach your goal. I was an ordinary rabbit before I got to your level, and that was when I first reached the shape you see before you.¡± ¡°Minus the constant pregnancy.¡± Zuk stared in minor shock as Guiying was smacked upside the head by her mother. ¡°Yes, that bit came a little later. But I can still be a rabbit whenever I¡¯m not pregnant¡­ well, sort of. I kind of evolved when I ascended, turning into a creature of myth. So I turn into that, instead of the ordinary rabbit I used to be. Unless I focus a little harder, of course.¡± This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work. Guiying just shook her head. ¡°Rhys, we need a mirror up in this place. That aluminum stuff¡¯s shiny enough, right?¡± It was, and a full-length mirror materialized in front of Zuk, complete with stand. What he saw¡­ huh. He had to agree with Guiying. Wow. He wasn¡¯t fully-grown yet, by his estimation. But while he was a touch lanky in the arm and leg, his musculature was already well-defined and heavy, with just enough fat padding over it to indicate good health. His skin was now a bronzish tone, reflective of his long hours spent in the sun when hunting or working. His eyes remained the same greenish tone, with the same slit pupil, but were now surrounded by visible whites. Claws on arms and legs became fingernails, and his tail was gone¡­ but there were other things. The wings, for example. They¡¯d vanish at will, he realized, but stretched out well beyond his height when fully manifested and extended. Instinctively, he knew how to use them, and that he¡¯d be capable of true flight. Also, his scales were still present in patches along his body, emphasizing his physique and skin tone, as well as protecting his vitals as a natural armor in places. His hair (and that would be a thing to get used to) was a slightly brighter shade than his scales, and curled in a way that he thought some humans might kill to emulate. And his genitalia, well! ¡°Yeah, clothes please. I don¡¯t want grandchildren from you two for at least another two years. Rhys! Pants!¡± A pair of sturdy linen trousers dropped on Zuk¡¯s head, along with a comfortable shirt in an unnaturally tight weave. These fit perfectly, hugging his skin in a way that made them feel like he wasn¡¯t wearing anything at all¡­ except between the legs. Just as well, his sheath didn¡¯t make the transition, and the exposure of such parts to too much pressure was¡­ uncomfortable. ¡°And Guiying still wants to eat you for lunch. Can¡¯t blame her, the clothes are flattering. You¡¯ll probably want some shoes as well, humanoid feet are a bit sensitive and vulnerable on the soles. Lack of fur underneath them. Rhys?¡± A pair of boots dropped beside his right foot, and he pulled them on right away. They were made from something like the elk leather the tribe made, but far more refined¡­ and the shape was weird. ¡°Cowboy boots? You¡¯re just torturing me, Rhys.¡± ¡°That¡¯s what they are? He seems to be a little too good at finding all that odd stuff that¡¯s in your head and making it real.¡± Huh. Well, that explained the oddity of the clothing, at least. Looking at himself in the mirror, he had to note that he looked rather nice. ¡°And to think I was worried you¡¯d end up unmarried, once upon a time. Do try to wait until you¡¯re eighteen, Guiying. You know what nearly happened with your oldest sister and her wife. Now, let¡¯s go back to your pottery wheel, shall we? I don¡¯t think you saw it while you were fuguing in your own breakthrough, and I want you to see your present. And keep the egg close and warm until it hatches, alright?¡± Wait, breakthrough? Egg? Huh? ¡°How long have I been out? Who mated with Guiying?¡± The two bunnies merely stared at him, before shaking their heads and teleporting off. Still confused, Zuk could only follow them to the workshops on foot. Class It took everyone a week or so to get used to the idea that Zuk wasn¡¯t exactly a kobold anymore, but he took to his new form rather quickly after the initial confusion, and was soon back to his regular duties as a tribal hunt leader, thinning out the local wildlife inside the dungeon¡¯s influence. Meanwhile, the gathering of the tribes began in earnest. More scouting parties from the other sapient races showed up, but were quickly scared off by Xiang before they caused any trouble, and the security holes that allowed them to sneak up on sentries patched. Thankfully, this became unnecessary when a few kobolds had an odd encounter with a talking rat-like humanoid. It spoke mostly nonsense, they said, but had taught them several techniques about misdirection, sleight-of-hand, and knifework, as well as how to move through shadows as if they were part of them. These new skills combined with the younger warriors to create the Scout class, which seemed to outmanuver human Explorers as easily as breathing¡­ though the elven Ranger class was still a bit harder to pinpoint. They hadn¡¯t encountered any dwarves, but that was unsurprising. Dwarven lands were on the far side of the continent, with elven and human lands in-between. And speaking of new classes¡­ ¡°Rise, Guiying Tuzi. You now hold the memories of the kobold tribes. Our history, genealogy, and stories are forever yours to listen to and pass on.¡± Guiying rose, and nodded solemnly. After recovering fully from her cold, she¡¯d asked the memory-keepers if she could be trained as one of them. They¡¯d considered it, and some of the more conservative kobolds had argued that a non-kobold taking on such a role was sacrilege. These voices were argued down, noting that the Goddess of Life had spoken through Guiying, that their change of lifestyle necessitated a change of ways, and that Guiying was not only the bonded guide to the sacred dungeon of the Goddess Herself, but would be functionally immortal as a result. The former two arguments could be disputed by many of the thicker heads, but only the most stubborn would argue against having a way to rebuild their knowledge and ways that would be almost impossible to destroy by conventional means. And those who still disagreed were of the inclination to continue wandering once the gathering ended anyway. So Guiying was taught the oral traditions of the kobolds, along with the mnemonic tricks that would allow her to remember everything precisely as it was taught to her. This involved every step being repeated for months on end, before she was examined on everything by as many memory-keepers as were available. She was far from the only one learning the skills though, as the gathering was a perfect opportunity to train and cross-check those who aspired to become the living memory of the tribes. Xiang sat among the memory-keepers at night sometimes, though Guiying knew her mother wasn¡¯t trying to learn the history. It seemed more like she was seeing if she could shape their memory-keepers into an actual class based on the skills they learned, plus new ones she brought. Most were eager to pick up literacy, and wrote down the stories and genealogies on metal plates Rhys kept in deep storage. Another backup, and Guiying was happy not to be the only potential there. But the real fun began when the songs were sung. Simplified for non-kobold voices, but accompanied by instrumentation, with parts and balances. The chanted histories became ballads, the written histories and living memories helping to avoid details being lost or blown out of proportion. The devotion of the memory-keepers to the gods led to dispensations of priesthood among them, which combined with their musical inclinations and shamanistic memories to create an entirely new class, the Speaker. When Guiying picked it up, she found that every word of truth she spoke held extra weight, her music and stories had a more fascinating draw to them, and¡­ well¡­ Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. ¡°I don¡¯t like this idea, Guiying. This could very easily kill you.¡± ¡°I know. It¡¯s a horrible risk, but I want to try.¡± Xiang caressed her belly. Her latest children (twins again) were fidgety, as if they knew what was about to happen. The two had moved to an abandoned valley, far from the dungeon. Guiying had asked Zuk to stay in the core chamber that night, explaining that she was risking her life for the sake of vital knowledge. He nodded, and solemnly did so¡­ though his face read that he would have words about this when she returned. She¡¯d be happy to hear them, if she survived. For a mortal to hear the true name of a god was to risk their own destruction, and only the strongest of faith and fortitude managed it. At least she wouldn¡¯t go down in history as ¡°the brother of Jared.¡± Xiang looked at her daughter, fear and concern in her eyes¡­ but her time on this world was up anyway. She¡¯d already helped too much, and the kobold civilization would be off to a solid start. She would¡¯ve had to call upon a god to send her home, and the Goddess of Life was the gentlest in such matters. Her eldest son¡¯s touch had left Guiying unconscious, dazed, and disoriented. She could only imagine the insanity she spoke while waking up, especially if the air had been stale. A calm, still voice relaxed her, letting her know that things would be alright, and Xiang was speaking before she even realizing it. ¡°Maskanwyn Emberoak.¡± Guiying was laid out on the floor like an anvil had flattened her. Xiang moved to check her, but she merely waved a hand and sat up, remaining supine on the ground. ¡°Anyone get the license plate number on that truck?¡± A booming, growling, feminine laughter filled the valley, before the ruby-scaled dragon that hovered above them came to land, transforming into a flame-cloaked humanoid figure. Guiying couldn¡¯t see the woman¡¯s face or skin, but the massive swelling of her abdomen told her all she needed to know. She stood before the Goddess of Life, whose name she had heard with absolute clarity. Fires of creation, passion, love, desire. Arms of a mother, warm and soft in their embrace¡­ funny, she couldn¡¯t remember the name. ¡°Nor will you, Guiying. You can survive hearing it, if only just, but you won¡¯t be able to speak it until you ascend.¡± ¡°You really are like a more intense version of Auntie Kaoru.¡± The Goddess laughed again. ¡°A point your mother is constantly exasperated by. Thank you for taking care of my children here, Guiying Tuzi. I have to take your mother home now, she¡¯s very sorely missing your family and they are sorely missing her, but she can bring home assurances that you are well and you can live your best life here.¡± Guiying nodded, mostly dumbstruck. Xiang gave her a deep hug, knowing they would likely never see each other again. ¡°You know everything you need to move further on your path now, and those around you are building a community you can be proud of. Keep them safe, my funny bunny. And do try to keep your hands off Zuk until you¡¯re a bit older.¡± Xiang kissed her daughter¡¯s cheek, damp with tears, and vanished along with the overwhelming presence of the Goddess of Life. Guiying travelled home, feeling sad¡­ but happy to share what she now knew of the Speaker class. She could not speak the names of the gods¡­ but she could echo their power, as could any Speaker who knew them. Seeds Bear Fruit ¡°And that¡¯s about as close as we can approximate. Even the written forms are a bit off, and I can barely remember a syllable of the names.¡± In front of Guiying, four truncated names were written: Wyn, Rawn, Eto, and Nima. The Goddess of Life, the Stillborn God, the Wyrm of the Golden Path, and the Primal Goddess. Not one of the names was the true one, but each held enough of the truth to give them the weight of Invocation when used by a Speaker. ¡°It wasn¡¯t worth the risk of your life, ¡®Ying.¡± Zuk leaned against a tree outside the circle the Speakers of the tribes were sitting in, looking cross. He might understand that a nascent prophet might want to see their god in person, but that didn¡¯t make him happy about the state she¡¯d been in when she¡¯d staggered back to the dungeon. Without her mother. ¡°Wish you could¡¯ve seen her, Zuk. Majestic, beautiful, intimidating, radiating heat, life, and raw power. And that was in her humanoid form! As a dragon, I thought I¡¯d burn away even as I wanted to cuddle with her!¡± Guiying¡¯s eyes were still a bit distant with the memory, it seemed. And considering how out of it she usually seemed¡­ Zuk¡¯s head suddenly took a lump, as the rock he¡¯d subconsciously thrown at her had been carelessly caught and thrown back at three times the force without Guiying even seeming to move. One of these days, I need to get an edge on her physical abilities. Preferably before she ends up walking over a cliff into a volcano. Zuk rubbed the slight gash over his eye, applying a light healing spell to disinfect the spot and seal the wound. ¡°Interesting as this conversation is¡­ and I do mean that, it¡¯s truly fascinating¡­ you¡¯ll want to head down to your room, Guiying. The egg is hatching.¡± Now, Guiying couldn¡¯t teleport. Zuk and Rhys both knew this, even though they¡¯d seen her mother do so with her in tow so often they just got used to the vanishing act. But seeing how fast Guiying moved¡­ you had to wonder. She was into the core chamber of the dungeon and sitting in front of the incubator she¡¯d had Rhys set up in the same amount of time it had taken Rhys to notify her. Zuk, exasperated, at least appreciated her waiting for him to reach the elevator to follow. Last time, she¡¯d just dropped through the shaft¡¯s usual area, using her own energy to shift the earth around herself instead of letting Rhys do it. Rhys, for his part, had figured out the trick and reinforced himself against it. Couldn¡¯t have earth mages redecorating through structural walls and fortified spaces at will, after all. Autumn had arrived, and the harvest was in full swing in the Ruby Scale Valley. Plants they¡¯d barely managed to cultivate in time for planting were now being collected and processed, hunters were bringing in the best game of the season, heavy with winter fat and thick fur. And some of those animals¡­ well, they¡¯d kept the rabbit hutches well away from where Guiying usually roamed, and were careful not to include that meat in her food. Rhys still provided a lot of exotic ¡°isekai food¡± for her, but he really would prefer if their little civilization were self-sustainable with what their own world provided. Maybe in a few more years. ¡°C¡¯mon out, little one! I promise mommy will only eat you if you¡¯re tasty.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not a good incentive, you know.¡± ¡°Oh hush. And now that my mom¡¯s gone, don¡¯t worry about those rabbits you¡¯ve been trying to hide. It¡¯s only half-cannibalism for me, so it doesn¡¯t count.¡± ¡°I¡¯m so very reassured, but still taking precautions.¡± ¡°You¡¯re way too overprotective.¡± ¡°I-¡± Rhys suddenly got shushed as the mystery egg in front of them cracked open, revealing¡­ This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°SQEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!¡± Another healing spell, this time to repair his ears from being a mere thirty centimeters from a squealing rabbit girl with volume ranges just below mortal standard. Guiying had glomped whatever had come out of the now shattered eggshell before his eyes had fixed on it, and was cuddling whatever had come out with a frenzy. ¡°You¡¯re going to smother your new pet if you keep that up, Guiying. Give her some air, dry her off.¡± Guiying pouted (why was that so adorable on her?) and listened to Rhys, letting the creature onto the floor before pulling off the tunic she¡¯d been wearing and rubbing¡­ her¡­ dry. Once dried, it was a little more obvious what it looked like¡­ but still confusing. ¡°It¡¯s¡­ a winged snake?¡± ¡°One moment¡­ ah. Interesting. Apparently, it¡¯s a dwarf species of Queztacoatl. They¡¯re a specific type of feather-winged serpent, though not seen on this world before. The Goddess of Chaos has been known to take the form of one, and they¡¯re sometimes seen as a sign of Her favor. That said¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t need to go further, Rhys. I know some turn to the sacrifice of their own in lean times, but our people would sooner sacrifice themselves to hunger.¡± ¡°I¡¯m honestly glad for it. I get sacrificing the heart of your finest trophies, even doing so in ways that ruin the carcass for dressing. But extending that to sentient, sapient life is a touch far.¡± The serpent tasted the air, seeming to nod as she rose her forward half upward. Downy wings flapped to dry themselves, but it was clear said wings were unable to support their own weight as yet, let alone provide the lift needed for flight. Guiying just stared in awe and wonder, all sparkle-eyed from Zuk¡¯s perspective. ¡°Any ideas on a name, rabbit-brain?¡± Zuk didn¡¯t think the rock hit him any harder this time. But it was hard to tell, because she¡¯d nailed the exact spot she¡¯d hit earlier, and it was still a bit tender. ¡°Well, since you asked¡­ how does Lin sound?¡± ¡°Jade/Forest? How could it mean both?¡± ¡°Context, mostly. Though there was a forest I liked to visit that had a beautiful jade color to the foliage in the summer. Especially the really big tree in the middle. Mom hated the place for some reason. Something about bad memories.¡± ¡°Well, back on topic, I think Lin is a nice name¡­ if a little uninspired. A green snake and you¡¯re naming it for its color?¡± ¡°Actually, there is a slight distinction between feathered serpents and snakes. Technically, Lin¡¯s more closely related to a kobold than a common field constrictor. Just a different species of dragon.¡± Zuk still didn¡¯t think much of the thing, but decided to hold his tongue. He got the feeling the third rock would leave an exit wound out the back of his skull. -- ¡°And you dare to return with your lives?¡± The elven rangers, a half dozen of the most well-trained and well-equipped people of their civilization, sat before the king in his palace grove. He seemed sagely and regal with his refined features and shoulder-length hair¡­ but this belied a man who unified their society by ruthlessly slaughtering any who had sought to contest him. His will among the elves was Law¡­ and only the fact that an envoy of the gods had intervened had stopped the rangers from exterminating the monsters they¡¯d found. And now that they¡¯d passed the ultimatum said envoy had given them¡­ their lives were forefeit. Three new skulls adorned the back wall of the grove palace, where a world tree drew deeply from the remains of all who¡¯d faced the elven king, a living testament to his power¡­ and his wrath. He would prepare the army this coming spring, and face this new threat personally. -- The human king, while no less a ruthless tyrant, was more measured in how he treated his explorer teams and their news. Killing a messenger was a good way to make sure warnings didn¡¯t arrive in time to take action, after all. ¡°Yes¡­ yes. Have the disposables sent out. We can have them kill each other over scraps this winter, and take the starving remains come spring. Have word sent to our cousin among the elves, he¡¯ll no doubt want to participate as well and we would do better to cooperate over this endeavor.¡± The explorers bowed, and travelled off to carry out their king¡¯s will. One to the subhuman pens where those who collected and ate the city¡¯s refuse were kept, another three to the elven king to inform him that their own wished to make a joint effort of clearing this valley of monsters. The remaining two travelled to the Guild of Ventures, where young Fighters and Slingsmen trained for the summer war campaign. There would be a slaughter come springtime. Ice Cold Blech. I hate throwing in winter. Cold water, colder clay. Everything takes more effort, and that¡¯s if your fingers haven¡¯t been lost to the cold. But¡­ we need more bowls and cups. Even under ideal handling, such things chip and wear, and we have a lot of little kobolds wandering around as the women give birth. I¡¯m so tired of kids, and I haven¡¯t even had any of my own yet. Part of me wants to take measures to make sure I never do. ¡°AAAGH!¡± Damn it. I had a blowout while forming the rim of the bowl. Obviously, I need a breather. I pull the batt I was using off the wheel and storm off, a crooning Lin following me in worry. I¡¯d reach back to stroke her, but I¡¯ve gotta clean my hands off first. She doesn¡¯t deserve my frustrations being worked into those beautiful scales. Which, I discovered, weren¡¯t green. Well, not a pure green. They seemed green at first glance, but dried into this polished iridescent color. Rhys said her species was often noted for having rainbow-colored scales and wings, but she was still just a baby. Hard to know what she¡¯d look like as a grown dragon. At any rate, I dumped my tools into the washbasin, and proceeded to clean everything off. Clay in the recycling basin to be re-wedged, batt and rib cleaned with my hands, along with the leather I used to wipe things down and polish finished pieces with. I was frustrated today, and that was throwing off my work. Better to just walk away from the new workshop we¡¯d made in the dungeon and come back later¡­ or at least find something less prone to being messed up with a disordered mind. Reluctantly, I switched to the glazing area. I wanted to crawl under my kotatsu until midsummer, but Rhys and Zuk would yell at me if I tried. Besides, I couldn¡¯t keep myself from trying to be constructive. Habit of needing to work to make sure everyone had enough to eat. Starving sucks. I nodded to a few of the kobolds mixing our glaze compound. I wasn¡¯t quite sure what was in it, aside from it being heavily toxic to breathe in. Anyone who handled the stuff wore special masks Rhys made that covered their entire faces and pumped fresh air in from an outside source. Made a very pretty blue, though. And Rhys assured me that it was safe enough once it was mixed with water. I arrived in the glazing room, only to find it was time to load the kilns. Well, I had hands. I walked into the first kiln and took the ware from kobolds loading in to rack up on the shelves. Cups, bowls, urns to store things in. Less of that last one since demand is low in this season, but there¡¯s always some demand. A few planters were mixed in as well, which I rather liked. A nice herb or flower garden helped to brighten up a room nicely, added some freshness to the air, gave off a mild but pleasant aroma¡­ and was handy when you wanted the right flavor for your food. Rhys has a nice selection going, but his red sauce needed a fair amount of basil and oregano. Thoughts like this occupied my mind while we loaded the kilns, then fired them up. The bisqued ware hadn¡¯t cooled enough to be glazed yet, so I just helped stoke the coal until it was burning blue-white and basked in the warm a little. A tiny lizard joined me, as Lin curled around my shoulders in the fire. I¡¯d been working on skills to enhance my senses a bit more, and came up with something called ¡°Eyes of Truth.¡± Sounded fancier than it was, at low levels it just let you see someone¡¯s apparent stat sheet. Lin (D. Serpentes Aves) Baby Strength 5 Agility 7 Dexterity 6 Constitution 8 Intelligence 3 Wisdom 3 Charisma 15 Luck 30 This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Special Attribute: Universal Elemental Affinity Apparently, her nature of being created during my mastery breakthrough gave Lin a slight edge with elemental control and resistance. I petted her warm scales, and smiled quietly to myself at her class. I¡¯d seen other babies, that was not normal. An irritated head poked into the cubby I was starting to doze in. Really, had to get Zuk to stop making that face before it stuck that way. ¡°Got a problem upstairs, Ying. Could stand your personal attention.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t wanna. Warm in here.¡± ¡°Seriously? And I¡¯m supposed to be the one with a natural fire attribute. Still, if you¡¯d rather these refugees-¡± And that was all it took. Bad enough I had to suffer the cold, but others dealing with it without shelter? No. Hard no. Time to give these people a home. Well¡­ okay, maybe if they¡¯d been more kobolds. I was a little more hesitant to deal with a couple hundred goblins with half-frozen slimes in handcarts. -- Two centuries. Goblins might be considered solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short¡­ and a lot of that was true. But they did have their societies, and those societies had long memories. And the slimes their people had long been forced into a symbiotic relationship with were even better at remembering. Onze was young for the position, but she remembered well what happened two hundred years ago. In short, betrayal. The elves were on a warpath, as their king became increasingly arrogant and selfish, taking their ancestral lands for his forest kingdom. Humans had offered a kind hand, saying they would shelter the goblins, and help them re-take their ancestral homes. Humans, goblins learned, were natural liars. Within a year, their people were fettered as a slave race, scattered across human kingdoms where they were considered beneath even livestock, fit only to shovel garbage away and make more of themselves at the convenience of humans, sometimes even for their entertainment. Onze clutched at her belly, even now cursing the human who¡¯d forced her into bearing a child. And now, at the order of the human king, even what little protection they¡¯d once had was forfeit. They were burdened with the other ¡°monster¡± race the humans had enslaved, and turned out with orders to attack some empty valley well outside of human and elven lands. Well, good riddance. If they died, they were free. If they lived, they would be free to finally show these ¡°civilized¡± races what two hundred years of grudges kept alive through careful records and teachings, mother to daughter, father to son, would reap. But it likely wouldn¡¯t be something Onze would see. The cold was taking her warmth and strength, and soon she would take the eternal rest so many others on this march already had. She would die soon, as would the child within her. But she would rest well, knowing that the Stillborn God would take her child without judgment, as he did any who shared his fate of dying unborn, and she would speak her own grievances before the gods as her people prepared to speak them before their enemies. -- The pregnant goblin awoke with a start, looking frantically around at her surroundings before her eyes met mine in a panic. I simply set the tray of light broth beside her, and stepped back to the door. My¡­ previous assumptions about slimes and goblins might¡¯ve been a touch prejudiced by the stuff in my head. For one thing, the goblins were pretty much evenly split male and female, same as most species I knew. Also, they were all abuse victims. Even the youngest among them had signs of malnutrition, scars from being beaten, and were warier than anyone I¡¯d seen in my life¡­ and I¡¯d seen my fair share of refugees. I¡¯d wanted to ask their history, but they said the only memory-keeper left was the girl in front of me. ¡°She¡¯s stable, and should recover fully. Even managed to save her baby, with praise from the Stillborn God.¡± I nodded to the healer as she spoke to my ear and continued down the hall. Not everyone we¡¯d managed to take in had been so lucky, and they were apparently a tenth of what had been sent to us. I could guess why. Looking at the girl who was cautiously sipping the soup, I spoke as carefully as I could. ¡°First, I¡¯m not entirely human, nor was I born on this planet. Second, I would like you to recount your people¡¯s history, so it can be added to the records of our own. And third¡­¡± I paused. This part would be the hardest. ¡°I want your people¡¯s help. You were sent to try and weaken us before an upcoming invasion, and I¡¯m guessing we can expect the humans and elves to invade in force this spring. We can probably deal with them ourselves¡­ but I want your help. You¡¯ve suffered under somebody¡¯s cruelty for a long time now, and-¡± ¡°Two hundred years.¡± I stopped, as the goblin woman spoke. She recounted the whole story as best as she could, every grievance, every broken promise, every injustice. I¡¯d heard stories about this sort of thing¡­ but that¡¯s all they¡¯d ever been to me before. Looking at someone no older than I was, who had every bone in their body broken at least three times, who was a mass of scars across the surface of her skin with more beneath, whose heavily pregnant belly stood out from a frame so skinny I could literally trace her skeleton through them¡­ I¡¯d never seen it first hand. And I never wanted to again. ¡°We can¡¯t promise retribution for every grievance, Onze. In fact, I won¡¯t make promises at all. But I will fight to defend my home. And as long as you are our guest, you will be free to do what you want. ¡°Huh. Guiying? Something interesting.¡± ¡°What is it, Rhys?¡± ¡°I think I know what¡¯s fueling the elven kingdom¡¯s expansionist policies.¡± Oh, don¡¯t tell me¡­ Preparation for War Deep within the core of the elven grove palace, beneath the roots of the world tree that anchored it, the dungeon chuckled to itself. Bending the will of the elves to his own was laughably easy, and he¡¯d puppeted that weak meat sack they¡¯d called a king into doing what he¡¯d needed for centuries without detection or care. Was honestly too easy. Take those wandering tribes of knife-eared fruit eaters, load one of his parasite mobs into a promising young warrior, have him turn into the perfect candidate to expand his influence over the entire planet. All without anyone being the wiser. ¡°Oh, wow. Howdy neighbor. Geez, you are a piece of work, aren¡¯t you?¡± Noise. Intrusion. What? ¡°Let¡¯s see¡­ polished jadeite, buried about 100 meters directly beneath the elven throne¡­ snrk. Really? Your name is Evan?¡± How dare! ¡°Yes yes, evil ranting. Pretty much completely subsumed by greed and hunger. So¡­ yeah. Fair warning. My name is Rhys, and you¡¯ve just come into contact with my dungeon. Even if you hadn¡¯t been sending people out to exterminate ¡®monsters¡¯ in my land, I would¡¯ve come after you when seeing the mess in your head, so have fun this summer. I certainly intend to.¡± Evan (and how the hell had that ¡°Rhys¡± learned that name?) went from a deep and vibrant green to a pale near-white. He¡¯d known there were other dungeons. He¡¯d eaten a few. But this one¡­ this one was different. A dungeon so small shouldn¡¯t be anywhere near that smart. -- ¡°So, let me sum up. The elves are controlled by a dungeon.¡± ¡°Always have been.¡± ¡°Right. And this dungeon is basically evil incarnate, dedicated to consuming this entire planet and everything on it.¡± ¡°Basically.¡± ¡°And you gave it a cheerful hello and a warning that we¡¯d be coming to take it out?!¡± ¡°It¡¯s a pity we don¡¯t have faces or excrement, because I¡¯m pretty sure he would¡¯ve completely voided the latter when I pulled that on him. And I would¡¯ve loved to see the look on his face.¡± Zuk just went red, and started cursing in every tongue he knew. Rhys was rather impressed by the vocabulary and variety. ¡°It would¡¯ve made no difference, trust me. The moment this ¡®Evan¡¯ detected me, it would¡¯ve-¡± ¡°No. No, it makes a difference, Rhys. Because now the elves will be ready for a counter-attack.¡± ¡°¡­ Oh.¡± ¡°Oh! Yes! And even if they¡¯d known you existed, they would¡¯ve underestimated you! Now you¡¯ve demonstrated that you¡¯re dangerously intelligent, unusually powerful for your size, and have openly declared war against the entire elven kingdom! And that¡¯s before we talk about the threat coming from the human lands, even as they continue to flood us with refugees!¡± ¡°Ah. Well, if it¡¯s any consolation, that¡¯s why I¡¯ve been expanding so aggressively.¡± Rhys turned, murder still in his young eyes as he glared at the ruby now the size of his fist. ¡°Simply put, we needed more resources. Food, minerals, energy. And knowing we were going to war, I wanted to work on upgrading myself. Which, I¡¯ll note, I now have.¡± Rhys still glared, but snatched at the cup of black tea that magically appeared before him. ¡°Now, I¡¯ve got a few things set up as part of the process. First, you¡¯re all registered to my core as dungeon mobs. I can recreate you from a designated save point, provided your soul is intact and willing and I have enough organic matter and energy. Second, I¡¯ve managed to tap into the lower lithosphere. Not deep enough to start drawing on magma, but enough for a real source of geothermal heat and energy. Combining this with a few special mineral panels I¡¯ve been constructing in isolated areas outside and improved storage batteries, we have a lot more power coming in. I¡¯m trying to work on ways to harness wind energy as well, but the moving parts will take a few more technologic advances on your part.¡± The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°Okay. So we¡¯ve got basic logistics handled, and anyone fighting on the front lines can be preserved in case of death.¡± ¡°Essentially. I¡¯ve also got molds completed for aluminum armor and shields, plus a special alloy I think you¡¯ll like for weapons.¡± A bar appeared in front of Rhys, and his smithing skill automatically broke down its composition. ¡°95% cobalt by weight, with traces of carbon, iron, and nickel¡­ wait, isn¡¯t this-¡± ¡°I still don¡¯t have a steady supply of iron or nickel, but we¡¯ve got plenty of cobalt in the area for some reason. So, I improvised. Not sure how it¡¯ll hold up to the dwarven equivalent, but this ¡®Kobold Steel¡¯ should behave similarly enough to function. I could¡¯ve just used aluminum for your weaponry, but I figured the extra weight and hardness would be more useful on the attacking end.¡± Rhys nodded, holding the ingot carefully. ¡°It won¡¯t be easy to work with. We¡¯ve barely figured out bronze.¡± ¡°Fortunately for you, most of what we¡¯ll be facing is just that. Humans have iron and a touch of steel, elves have their jade, but we have flint, aluminum, and now this.¡± Rhys nodded again. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll have the molds set up so we can get armor and shields going. Our bowyers and fletchers are already working overtime, to say nothing of the tannery. Thank the gods you know how to camofluage ventilation, so much of this dungeon needs fresh air. As for our weapons¡­¡± Rhys hefted the kobold steel ingot again. ¡°I¡¯ll forge the prototypes personally. I want the first blades to be my own.¡± -- Onze feasted. It was still light food, the healers said her digestion needed time to build itself up, but she¡¯d never been so well-fed in her life. Meanwhile, the healers said they were removing parasites, clearing scar tissue, and fixing her bones up. Already her skin was clearer than she could ever remember it being, she didn¡¯t feel nearly as lethargic, and¡­ alright, re-breaking some of those old fractures hurt. But her joints moved better and a lot of the old aches were disappearing. She even seemed¡­ cute, when she looked in the mirror. Well, still very gaunt and disturbingly grey. But she was starting to notice tinges of healthy green in her pallor, and maybe her bones didn¡¯t show through her skin quite as badly? She couldn¡¯t tell if that was her imagination or not. But her health bar was above an eighth for the first time she could remember, and her stamina and mind bars were slowly building from the low ebb they¡¯d always seemed to be at. Meanwhile, a friend of hers had dropped by. Slimes didn¡¯t communicate through sound, so their names were incomprehensible that way. This one always smelled faintly of lilacs, so Onze had called her that, and it was apparently a close equivalent. It had lost a fair deal of slime mass, but the core fungus was thankfully intact, and Lilac had been one of the lucky half-dozen of her kind not to freeze to death. To a fungal species that grew a protoplasmic mold layer around its core to protect itself and feed on its surroundings, freezing temperatures were a particular danger. Onze tried to stand, but Lilac raised a pseudopod and shook it, indicating no. ¡°The healers say our conditions are both too fragile to be allowed too close to one another. I¡¯m just glad you¡¯re alright, Onze.¡± She blinked. Lilac could speak? ¡°Oh, you¡¯re confused about my ability to communicate audibly. Rhys is translating everything we say to each other using his influence. I¡¯ve always appreciated that you were so sensitive to our pheromone signals, and so willing to meet us halfway with signs and gestures. Even the past grudge-holders weren¡¯t always so good at communicating with us.¡± Onze sighed. ¡°I¡¯m not a grudge-holder anymore. Another has lifted the burden, and I won¡¯t be well enough to join them in the fight.¡± A bit of wetness on her face. Tears? Goblins who didn¡¯t learn not to cry or weep died young, though. Why? Lilac edged forward, then back as she remembered she couldn¡¯t approach her friend. ¡°Don¡¯t feel sad, Onze. You¡¯re healthier than you¡¯ve ever been before, you¡¯ll give birth safely, and your child will have a chance at true freedom. Also, I was told to leave this on the tray. Something the dragon-man and bunny girl said would make you feel better.¡± And with that, Lilac moved away with the surprising speed of her kind. Onze stood, still weak and extremely awkward, and stepped to the tray they usually used to bring her meals and take away her bed pan. On it, lay a gleaming rod of some strange metal, wrapped at the base in leather and tipped with a deep-blue sapphire some five centimeters in diameter. As she held it, the metal felt almost alive through the leather, and the sapphire glowed with her power. Her mind was instantly flooded with a full understanding of what it was: Sapphire Rod ¨C Aluminum While lacking in conductivity compared to copper or silver, aluminum is far more durable than either, and resonates with the sapphire focus gem. And a new class: Potential unlocked ¨C You are now a War Mage. She could feel the power, and the beginnings of her path. Yes, she¡¯d probably miss this war, but there would be others. And as the flames began to dance around her, she swore to herself that she¡¯d never let others suffer as she had for as long as she drew breath. Training Onze (Simius Emulato) War Mage 2 Strength 2 Agility 1 Dexterity 2 Constitution 2 Intelligence 7 Wisdom 8 Charisma 6 Luck 9 ¡°Well, your physical stats are a mess, but they¡¯ve already gone up a touch from our healing efforts. Once you¡¯ve given birth, I suspect most of your stats will double. Though if I¡¯m estimating right, your agility is being reduced by more than that¡± ¡°Helpful. I¡¯m big as a house so I can barely move. Clearly, the dungeon knows all.¡± Onze sat on the sidelines in their new training arenas, watching over her new war mages and giving them what pointers she could. She hadn¡¯t been the only one to unlock the class naturally, but she¡¯d been the first, and seemed to have the deepest insight on how to develop new spells and train this brand-new class up. She hadn¡¯t quite figured out how to reach the third level yet, though the bu- Guiying- had suggested she work on developing spells in every element, and applying them to as many uses as she could. She¡¯d gotten no more advice from that source after she¡¯d learned how to create a toxic cloud of bacteria that effectively devoured all living matter within the spell¡¯s radius. Blessedly, it had a natural limiter that sterilized the cloud after it did its work¡­ but even she¡¯d admit the results were a touch grisly. Mostly, she¡¯d been launching small bolts of flame out of the end of her focus, and had all her recruits do similar until they could reliably and efficiently cast the spell without a second thought. Monotonous work, but a good way to ground them in focus and control. A hiss, as the gob inside her landed a critical hit to her left kidney. She honestly feared giving birth in her state, but that was part of why Rhys was constantly monitoring her and had a healer squadron constantly attending to her. Shaking off the hit, she looked over past her trainees to the scouts. They still favored flint arrowheads, but to be fair they¡¯d be quite nasty against light armor, and the scouts did train with some kobold steel arrowheads designed specifically to punch through heavier designs. The supervisor there was, surprisingly, a goblin she knew named Ilm. Nice enough girl, but¡­ well, those who passed their grudges on did so in secret, and even those who kept them weren¡¯t supposed to know their origin. But it wasn¡¯t that hard to connect a few dots when you paid attention, even if you didn¡¯t ask questions and kept your mouth shut. Ilm had a lot she didn¡¯t let show beneath the cheer. ¡°Stop slacking off, you brain-dead lizards! I don¡¯t have to be looking to know when you aren¡¯t putting effort in!¡± Her charges (and to be fair, there were a few goblins in the mix, even throwing out the ones who hadn¡¯t been slacking while she was looking elsewhere) renewed their efforts, and she looked behind her into the sparring rings. Axes, spears, knives, and swords were wielded with a hunter¡¯s efficiency. The swords were new, based on a design Guiying had provided and called a ¡°jian,¡± but were basically just straight knives that were about three-quarters of the wielder¡¯s arm in length. Fairly simple, but she was fascinated by how light they looked. Apparently, the pommel was weighted in such a way to make the blade and tip of the sword feel lighter in the hand. In Zuk¡¯s, the blade felt like a natural extension of his body, though the kobold still said he preferred a good spear or a solid axe. In the off hand, many of the kobolds were using one of two shield designs. Those with spears were using a large rectangular shield Onze herself had mentioned the dwarves seemed to favor, and Rhys had apparently referenced some cosmic library to make a few improvements on the design. Those with smaller, lighter weapons carried a shield Rhys had called a ¡°buckler,¡± which was designed specifically to deflect attacks instead of absorbing them, and worked better when you needed mobility and weren¡¯t in a heavy formation like the spearmen tended to be. Actually, a divergence between the warriors was starting to develop, with the ones favoring spears, swords, and large shields becoming ¡°hoplites¡± and the ones that favored axes, knives, and smaller shields becoming ¡°skirmishers.¡± If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. And somehow, the kobolds who went down that road were learning to spit fire. Nothing spectacular, but it made for a good point-blank attack for the skirmishers, while the hoplites turned it into a light barrage. Her war mages hit harder, and the scouts had more range¡­ but there was plenty to learn and share, and no one said you had to lock yourself into one class or role. Speaking of which¡­ ¡°You lot bore me. I¡¯m gonna go check on the engineers. Make me waddle back, and you¡¯re target practice. I¡¯ve been trying to figure out how lightning works.¡± Her war mages gulped, and redoubled their efforts. She¡¯d followed through on that threat just often enough to keep them on their toes. After all, having to move was a hassle right now, and did leave her cross if someone forced her to push herself. Outside, there was mayhem. Her people had always had a knack for tools and mechanical gadgets, and the kobolds were born trap-masters. Combined, it turned them into a class called siege engineers¡­ and just about made Onze wet herself when she looked at their masterworks. Well, she kinda did anyway, but that was because she currently lacked a bladder. But that was what the pads were for, and the healer squad always had extras. Guiying was sitting in a black-painted ¡°stealth¡± catapult and trying to convince the boys to launch her. Thankfully, they weren¡¯t that stupid, even if they thought painting something black would make it sneakier, or red made things move faster. Tough as their resident rabbit-girl was, no one was going to humor her for something she called a ¡°classic gag,¡± even if odds were higher than average that she¡¯d survive. Aside from boulder slingers, they had some nasty toys designed for the more direct approach. Nothing too heavy, since they didn¡¯t have a way to haul anything without towing it with their own bodies¡­ but the arrow scorpions threw a nasty cloud of ¡°stingers¡± into enemy formations, every pointed projectile contained some random poison or another, and¡­ oh. Oh no. ¡°You figured it out.¡± Mik and Tzed, a goblin female who¡¯d lost her mind a little to the grudge and a kobold who liked fire a little too much, were grinning together as they hefted the carefully-sealed jug between them. ¡°First batch, right here!¡± Mik exclaimed, her manic grin showing hints of pride. ¡°Ignites on contact with air, near-impossible to put out, burns through a few materials we even thought weren¡¯t flammable! Rhys had to make up a special glaze when our first urn kinda¡­ well, melted. Says to call it ¡®kobold fire,¡¯ and¡­ well¡­¡± ¡°Told us we¡¯d wish for something as simple as death if we ever shared the formula with anyone but him, and said he¡¯d be the only one making it from now on.¡± Tzed finished sheepishly. ¡°For good reason. This stuff is¡­ well, you don¡¯t know what rocket fuel or napalm is, but it takes the nastiest qualities of both into something disturbingly easy to make and nearly impossible to contain, especially once it ignites. I plan on burying this stuff the moment we take down Evan.¡± Onze nodded, and readied an ice attack to throw Guiying off the catapult with less damage than being used as ammunition would cause. She jumped down on her own, looking cross. ¡°You¡¯re always such a grumpy little thing, Onze!¡± ¡°Horomones.¡± ¡°No, I¡¯ve seen horomonal emotion swings. You¡¯re just angry that you can¡¯t take the fight to the enemy.¡± ¡°I¡¯m angry that you¡¯re not taking this seriously?! Have you ever had to suffer through a war?!¡± Ice. And not the kind she was threatening to conjure. Guiying glared at her, rage seething in a way that she¡¯d never seen before. ¡°My mother was pregnant with my oldest siblings when the war began. She had to flee for her life and saw her mentor murdered before her eyes and everything she¡¯d known to that point destroyed because of a petty tyrant who treated those beneath him like disposable playthings at best. When she took her revenge on that tyrant, she was pregnant with me, and the power she drew on to kill him left permanent marks on my mind before I was even born. I grew up missing meals, working hard from the moment I could walk, and dealing with refugees who weren¡¯t anywhere near as badly-treated as you were, but were so used to their oppression that they often demanded to go back to it. Things had only just been resolved when I found myself here, but they¡¯re still trying to clean up the mess, and my dad estimated it would be centuries before the land recovered entirely. You have the grudges of your people, and shared them with me because you didn¡¯t deserve to hold that burden alone. But I have my own weight to carry, and it includes seeing a city of millions turned into a ruin because of a house cat who wanted to be a god. Those small skeletons¡­ just children¡­¡± Guiying broke down for a moment, pain and rage filling her eyes in equal measure. ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I-¡± ¡°How were you to know? I only just told you. But yeah, keeping good cheer during wars is the only way to keep yourself from breaking sometimes. And you¡¯ve seen it in your people, it¡¯s often just another way to break.¡± Onze froze, as Guiying gave her a firm hug. ¡°You don¡¯t have to be afraid anymore. Zuk and Rhys wanted you here even if you¡¯d been fit enough to go on the front lines, just because you have a talent for keeping everyone motivated. Zuk¡¯s a hunt leader in his heart, and barely translates that to being a general. Rhys has his hands full keeping the resource bars full and making sure the liminal zone between himself and this ¡®Evan¡¯ stays where it is. And I¡¯m¡­ honestly best at keeping the industry going.¡± A small croon, as Lin entwined herself around Guiying for scritches. ¡°Can¡¯t heal, can¡¯t sew, can¡¯t even manage laundry or cooking. Damn I¡¯m useless on the domestic front. If my mother hadn¡¯t been brought in on loan for six months, we wouldn¡¯t even be in the shape we are now in this little valley. Why did They pick me?¡± Onze couldn¡¯t answer, just stay there as a shoulder to lean on. ¡°Well, at least I can teach hand-to-hand fighting and basic stat training. But that¡¯s after lunch. Care to launch me before then?¡± ¡°Guiying¡­ I have half a dozen people behind me who do not want to patch your broken bones when they¡¯re supposed to be eating. And it¡¯ll take me that long to get to the eating hall anyway, so let¡¯s just get started. I¡¯m thinking ramen.¡± As Onze walked back into the dungeon, Guiying smiled. She hoped the two of them would become the best of friends, given time. Ready The nursery was packed, as usual. Onze felt like one of those sheep the humans raised, constantly being milked. But as grumpy as she always was¡­ she couldn¡¯t help but love her son. The boy had nearly killed her coming out, but that was expected and planned for. The faint scar where they¡¯d pulled him out was almost a memory, even. It honestly could¡¯ve been with their healers¡­ but she¡¯d wanted to keep it. Ponze was a good memory to keep on her skin. Other goblins like herself were among the new mothers. Kobolds didn¡¯t breastfeed as long, but she found it interesting that they did so at all. She would¡¯ve thought they just laid eggs and left them to fend for themselves like lizards, but they apparently gave birth to live young themselves. It was an interesting education, though she wanted as little to do with the healing class as possible. She¡¯d gone through too much pain, both her own and that of others. Which also kept her from trying to expand her old role as grudge-keeper of the goblins and integrating it into the Speakers of the kobolds. It was a clear upgrade (being an actual class), but she was done with leadership, religion, and memory. She¡¯d fight for her people, and would lead them in times of emergency¡­ but the small green person in front of her, swaddled in soft linen as he fed from her breast¡­ that was what she wanted now. One of the kobold nurses reached out, and Onze handed off her son while she stood. Feeding time was over, and she needed to train the war mages some more. A lot of progress had been made there, with many of them reaching the second level and Onze herself reaching the third. Conceptualizing mana into every energy type she could understand had resulted in potent destructive spells, and now that her students were reaching the point where they could work on understanding the same, she left a few second-levels to train the basic drill. The sound of them yelling at the trainees who hadn¡¯t yet mastered basic proficiency was music to her ears. It¡¯s so nice to know a few of them understood the actual lesson and took it to heart¡­ Her own lessons were on hold today so she could train her own skills. Now that she had the basics down, she wanted to develop more advanced techniques. Skills that could hit larger areas, strike single targets harder, or even damage an enemy while leaving an ally unharmed. For that last one, she had the perfect target in the form of a certain rabbit. They¡¯d reached a better accord now that Onze knew more about the girl¡¯s past, but her personality still grated a little sometimes. Though she was fine with that, she knew most couldn¡¯t handle her own attitude and Guiying was¡­ well, she always tried to make the best of things. It was a quality she could appreciate. Even if it meant she wanted to set the bunny-girl on fire sometimes. But since Guiying was basically immune to elemental damage at her level, she was alright with that. Besides, the girl needed toughening up for the front lines. Rhys was sending her out to deal with his counterpart personally, and they were pretty sure the elf king would be a Level 5 in at least one class. So they trained her up. Speaker was tricky, but Guiying had three levels there and some thoughts on how to train it further. Apparently, guides didn¡¯t exist for classes that were still being pioneered. Monk had an easy guide because Guiying¡¯s world had developed a really solid path for advancement on it. Though speaking of which, that particular class was still only Level 4. Guiying had brought a few people to the third level, and had reached the stat threshold for the fifth¡­ but the last step involved finding a way to become one with mana. Well, Onze and the war mages started calling it mana. Guiying referred to it as qi, and Rhys insisted on calling it ¡°cosmic energy.¡± Was all the same stuff, just tapped a different way¡­ she thought. Hard to know, maybe she¡¯d figure out more as she progressed. ¡°You¡¯re miles away, Onze. Sure we should be playing right now?¡± A deafening explosion of sound, as several bolts of lightning landed in the field they practiced in. And not one lick of the cascade touched the trees, grass, or rocks, all landing harmlessly on target patches of glassed soil. Well, three hit Guiying, but it didn¡¯t harm her in the slightest. In her own words, she¡¯d mastered lightning even before the prologue¡­ whatever that meant. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°Not bad. Good power still, and your aim is disturbingly accurate. How are your stats looking?¡± Onze blinked, and checked. Onze (S. Emulato) War Mage 3 Strength 5 Agility 6 Dexterity 5 Constitution 4 Intelligence 11 Wisdom 9 Charisma 8 Luck 9 ¡°Mostly recovered from lugging Ponze around, though I doubt I¡¯ll ever have double-digit Agility again in this lifetime. Mental skills going up, mostly through study and developing some force of will, I don¡¯t doubt. You doing alright learning the human language?¡± ¡°Oh yeah, the spoken part¡¯s easy. Still working on the hieroglyphs, but my native language¡¯s written form was similarly complex. Hopefully the elven script won¡¯t be quite as bad.¡± Onze nodded. The kobold alphabet was so simple in comparison, with just a letter for a sound, divided between what sounds only a kobold could make and what sounds only a hominid throat could produce. Whatever unique tongue her own species once possessed was lost during their subjugation under the humans, but it was nice to have a way to communicate that wasn¡¯t so easy to lose as spoken words and living memories. ¡°How are Lilac and the others doing?¡± ¡°Quite well! Rhys has them isolated still, but mostly because he wants to help them¡­ evolve a bit. Says they have a fair amount of potential outside of the class system, but need to be preserved until they can build their population up and start reaching that potential. But as to boosting your physical stats¡­¡± And that was how Onze spent the rest of her afternoon fidgeting with other would-be monks, trying to grasp meditation. She really didn¡¯t understand Guiying¡¯s approach, mostly thinking it was silly nonsense. Chop wood, carry water? Everyone did that, it wasn¡¯t so special. Working yourself to death without any sleep? Happened all the time, you bore through it or you died. Even the meals she described were an absolute feast to her mind, and she could tell that the other goblins around her thought the same. [ ] Reach a minimum of 5 in all stats. [X] Develop sense of true humility. [X] Open your mind to cosmic energy (qi). Huh¡­ What was humility? On her way to feed Ponze, she asked that question to Rhys. ¡°Oh, Guiying has you trying to develop Monk too? You¡¯re not the first to ask. Basically, it involves abandoning all sense of pride. Common issue among a lot of species that have built something they consider valuable, but most kobolds and goblins seem to find the concept almost foreign, and easy to set aside. No, I¡¯d have to guess that your issue is still being relatively weak in Constitution, thanks to a lifetime of malnutrition, physical abuse, and your recent pregnancy. Your son has a natural 5 in the stat, which is pretty baseline for most.¡± ¡°Okay¡­ so how do I increase it?¡± ¡°Physically? Develop a form of cultivation, which means taking at least a level in Monk. Since that¡¯s not gonna work, and we¡¯ve done about all we can to bring your body up to its best, you¡¯ll have to work on your mental health a little.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°Feed Ponze, for now. He¡¯s waiting for you.¡± Onze nodded, and sat in her usual chair, taking her son in her hands. As he nursed, she went over some of the mental circulation exercises Guiying was talking about. She guessed the point of the heavy labor was to break you down, get you to stop thinking about¡­ huh. What should one think about? She had the connection, she had the mindset¡­ but what was hurting her so badly now? The grudge held a bit of her still, she supposed. So many hurts, so many voices, so many of them silenced. Two centuries worth of an entire people¡¯s desire for revenge¡­ but would that solve anything? Yes, the elves needed to pay, but the goblin and slime lands no longer existed, long divided and changed by humans and elves. The humans themselves? Most she¡¯d met were the cruelest of the lot, but that was teaching. They weren¡¯t born callous, and weren¡¯t particularly mean to goblins until they grew older and followed the examples of their elders. Most didn¡¯t even realize that goblins were a sentient race, and avoided slimes like they carried some sort of plague. Which just demonstrated what little they knew, really. The only refuge their cities could take solace in would be the fact that it was still cold outside, so the refuse didn¡¯t stink that horribly. Without goblins to remove the garbage and slimes to clean the streets and purify the water, humans would be lucky to have a functioning military now that it was starting to warm up a little. Ponze bit down a little, as if telling his mother to pay more attention to him. She shifted him a little, and stroked his head as he ate. She¡¯d been far too busy lately. Probably time to focus on what was really important, and let the outside world go. When it came, she¡¯d be ready. But until it did, this little miracle in her arms needed his mother. And with that, mother and son relaxed into a comfortable post-dinner nap.