The simulation that Mal'Thorn was creating, of the summer forest, was full of birds, rabbits, dear, and other forest creatures. The warmth and humidity came through into the room, followed by a rich earthy smell.

"I don't remember seeing any of those animals in the forest," I said.

"They went into the summer realm for midwinter," Mal'Thorn said. "Though some of them are sheltered at the start of winter as well."

"Isn't that where the monsters go as well?" I asked.

"It is," Mal'Thorn said.

He frowned in concentration and there was a roar from the forest, followed by the sound of something leaping from tree to tree toward us. A moment later an enormous black cat dropped down in front of us, three meters long not counting its tail, its ears went back and it roared again. It was a very convincing simulation. I stepped forward and stared it down, and it reacted by spitting at me, directly at my eyes. I could have dodged, but I could control the simulation myself and I simply willed the attack not to effect my model.

"An interesting creature," I said.

"It is one of the more dangerous creatures that hunt in the Forest during summer," Mal'Thorn said.

"It hunts by roaring and spitting?" I asked.

"No," Mal'Thorn said. "That was a territorial display, how it acts when it is trying to drive other predators out of its claimed area. It hunts by stealth, and it can use its acidic spit to blind larger prey. The majority of Forest Keeper deaths on patrols in the summer are from them."

The large cat disappeared as Mal'Thorn banished it, returning the smaller forest creatures that had scattered at the first roar.

"Should we be heading back out?" Mal'Thorn asked.

"There's no rush," I said. "Chantelle and I have spent hundreds of hours talking and no one has noticed. When I am out running around I'm in near constant pain, I take breaks for a few hours between seconds to relax. We've even figured out how to make a simulation that matches reality pretty closely, the key being that you have to disallow interacting or even seeing the rules and variables that govern the simulation. That way you can't automatically adjust things to remove or avoid effects, makes for a much more satisfying and fulfilling experience."

"You're implying that I should bring my wife here?" Mal'Thorn asked.

I hadn't even known that Mal'Thorn was married. We talked for a few hours after that, about life in general. I showed him the feeds from the digital presences, and I gave him read access to the stream from the presence on the Forest Keeper floor.

The conversation eventually made its way to fighting against The Instructor.

"Any Forest Keeper that wants to fight with me will have to be made a Demi-AI," I said.

"Oh," Mal'Thorn said. "Why is that?"

"Demi-AI are immortal," I said. "So long as I have a full scan of their body, and they have a digital side, I can recreate their entire body if required. Their consciousness would tie back into their body over their Mind Link the same way as it does on their digital side when they become Demi-AI."

"I'm immortal?" Mal'Thorn asked.

"Practically," I said. "So long as I am alive then it is very difficult for you to die. If I die then I think you would revert to being a Forest Keeper. But I am immortal myself. It is what made me think of offering you the race change, I don't want to lose any more of our people."

I sent Chantelle an invite to the simulation and introduced it as a common area. Chantelle immediately added ambient mana and magic to the simulated space with various gestures of her hands, and Mal'Thorn and Chantelle got into a discussion about how magic works. Mal'Thorn added his own tweaks to rules of the simulation to reflect what he knew of magic.

While they were doing that I was considering who else should be Demi-AI. It would be useful if the leaders of the other people in my fortress were Demi-AI, as a start.

I created a quest for each of them, offering a race change that would benefit them and the fortress. The quest listed out the negatives, pain of the conversion and possible personality changes, mostly. And I added that they would still be responsible for their original race. Dael for the druids, Veya for the humans, Primary for the Mountain Keepers, and Ailfrid for the leprechauns. I didn't trust the matriarch of the leprechauns enough to offer it to her.

Quest Preview Description Tell Lord C.C. that you, or someone in your place, wish to become a Demi-AI. The process of becoming a Demi-AI is incredibly painful and may change your personality. A leader of a people within the Fortress must be a Demi-AI, if you pass this offer to another then they will become the leader of your people as recognised by the Fortress. Assigned to Dael, Veya, Primary, and Ailfrid Quest type Progression Reward Race Change to Demi-AI Submit Quest Remove Quest

The requirement of a leader being a Demi-AI was something that the System added entirely by itself, and it made my not offering the quest to the matriarch more insulting to her. Which didn't bother me so much, really. I submitted the quest.

"I just offered the race change to the leaders of the people in the fortress," I said. "So there should be more people here soon. I should get Mal'Thorn and his people back to his floor, and I need to check on what the Plains Keepers are doing. We can meet up later whenever we need to."

Chantelle nodded and gave me a half-hug before disappearing. I showed Mal'Thorn how to ping either of us and then returned to normal speed. I walked over to where I had sunk the portal into the stone and raised it up to make a doorway back to the Forest Keeper floor.

"Amazing," Mal'Thorn said.

He had a shimmering blue barrier, about the size of his hand, that he was moving around, growing, shrinking, and splitting. I cleared my throat and he nodded to me, letting the barrier fade.

"We're heading back now," I said in the Forest Keeper language.

The five Forest Keepers turned slowly to look at me.

"He just talked," One of the healers said, quietly enough that I wasn't supposed to have heard.

"I did just talk, yes," I said. "Come on, we'll get you back to your floor. I'm sure your people are worried about you."

The Forest Keepers filed through the portal followed by Mal'Thorn and then myself. I made a solid stone backing for the thread portal, which I was going to leave here in case I needed to return quickly to fight off more snow men. Mal'Thorn had gone over to the fence of roots and placed his hands on them, quickly forming them into an arched doorway. The seven of us were the only ones outside the fence and we entered through it to find the rest of the Forest Keepers kneeling around and under the Heart of the Forest tree.

I nodded to Mal'Thorn and headed off to the floor portal at a jog. After a few steps of dodging around Forest Keepers they began standing up, turning towards Mal'Thorn. A repeated whisper in their language swept through them in front of me, 'Thorn of the Forest'.

I made it through them and to the portal with no issues, some of them even moving out of the way for me. The portal room was already cleared of the rubble that I had made when crashing through the wall, and the wall was fully repaired. I moved through it and into the open space of my Pocket Dimension.

I had moved the plains portal against the cliff of stone left by the excavation and placed a presence in front of it. From outside the Pocket Dimension it would look like a thin stone slab with some designs and shapes on one side, bordered by thread with symbols carved into it. I could have moved the presence from in front of the portal and stepped through it, but it was still being carried by two Plains Keepers, so I decided to speak through that.

"Hello," I said. "Excuse me."

There was a startled sound from both sides and the portal was dropped onto the ground, landing with the presence side facing into the grass covered ground. I stood it back up again, anchoring it into the ground.

"Do any of you speak this language?" I asked.

The Plains Keeper that I was talking to before I had to leave approached.

"I speak your language," He said. "What are you?"

"I am a Champion," I said. "Speaking to you through a presence that is attached to the portal that you were carrying. I apologise for leaving so abruptly, my people were under attack by snow men. Like those that are in the army coming here."

"We were taking you to our leader, as you requested," the Plains Keeper said.

"Good," I said. "If you are happy to carry the portal I will return when we arrive."

I shrank the portal down to a more easily carriable size and he picked it up.

I set about designating more processing and memory for Mal'Thorn, the common simulation, and new platforms for future Demi-AI. I was part of the way through doing that when Mal'Thorn sent me a list of candidates for conversion to Demi-AI. There were one hundred names, fifty spear users and guards, and fifty mages with their specialities.

"One hundred is too many to begin with," I said, sending it to Mal'Thorn. "I want to try setting up a small squad made from the members of all of the species in the fortress first."

"There should be at least two Forest Keepers then," Mal'Thorn said. "A guard and a mage."

"Two of each species, then," I said. "Even with the Mountain Keepers being exclusively support, a squad of eight with the coordination and reaction time of Demi-AIs will be able to contest an army of thousands."

"More will want to join the fight against the enemy Champion," Mal'Thorn said. "But I will pick the top two."

Mal'Thorn closed the communication. A few minutes later I got a ping for attention from the portal carried by the Plains Keeper.

"Ah, Champion?" He asked, holding out the portal. "We are there. How does this thing work?"