"...I had to come down here to confirm your claims with my own two eyes... but it... really is true...It seems like. This thing can really clone elves..."

"But...but this is... blasph-"

"-It's revolutionary!"

"What are you saying?! You're going out of line here, guard elf. Go back to your post this inst-"

"-But, Martriach! This could effectively create a stopgap measure against the increasing need for labour to mine the Inpathium from the World Tree!"

"Silence, you lowly elf! Know your place!"

A few guard elves began to prepare themselves for the order to restrain the unruly elf who actually dared to interrupt someone of higher social position than her. But she was relentless.

"Think about it, Martriach! If we hesitate, the Inpathium will start to disappear after the end of this season and we won't be able to secure a consistent supply in the future...!!! Who knows when the Inpathium fruits will appear again?! We need manpower to create dedicated cultivating and harvesting stations for it... the sooner the better!!!"

"..."

"You-! Guards, get h-"

"-No. She's right... It pains me to say this as an elder who have watched over the village for so many years..., but this may be what is needed to bring our village to greater heights. The new mineral that has the potential to change our standards of living dramatically for the better, must take precendence over our own rigid and traditional ideals."

The old lady who was referred to as the Martriach looked down coldly at the disfigured woman in chains, devoid of any emotions on her face. She had a large gaping hole on her body where an elf detached itself from.

The artifically-created elf was covered in a slimy liquid just like a newborn but looked just like a full-grown adult elf. It was breathing erratically to adjust to the new atmosphere it was exposed to.

"Times have changed. ...We need to make use of this monster."

"Martriach...!"

"...Enough. And you, girl. What is your name."

"Tricia, my name is Tricia, Miss Martriach!"

"...Tricia... is it? Follow us to the Council Hall later, we will discuss about plans for your promotion. But not before settling the case of the dead heroes and the implementation of these artificial workers first, understand?"

The young female elf grinned ecstatically, as if she had already anticipated this to happen. She was clearly confident in her own abilities.

"Of course, Miss Martriach! Leave it to me...!"

"...How many more elves do you need? I don't think I need to remind you, that her life is still in my hands?"

"..."

"Don't test me."

"...Th... three..."

Tricia snapped her fingers. Two guard elves immediately responded and stepped forward, carrying three large bags. The contents seemed to be wriggling, as if there were conscious beings inside trying to struggle to escape out of them.

"Okay, here. It wasn't easy to get them without being noticed. So I expect results now~ You got that? I want this number multiplied as much as possible with working-standard homonculi in 3 days. I need them to keep up appearances before I get appointed as a Diet Member officially... If they fail to work when the time comes... you know what's going to happen~ Ufufufufufu~"

Tricia left the room with a high-pitched laughter, leaving behind Lestia who was shaking and cowering on the cold floor. Her body was full of whip marks and scars. The torture tools and equipment that had left them there were all over the room, bloodied by the flesh of her human body she had been ordered to acquire to keep up appearances.

It took her a few minutes to collect herself again. The two elves stationed outside of the room ensured that she would not escape, but she could take liberties to escape from this place if she tried to. Unfortunately for Lestia, her friend was held hostage, and she had no choice but to obey and hold her head down while following the unreasonable demands of the female elf.

Her orders seemed to escalate each time she visited Lestia. The fact that Tricia was beginning to figure out her physical limitations and was actually finding ways to exploit them frightened Lestia. She was unsure if she could stay sane any longer from the torture and the painful process of creating an artificial elf through one of her Alchemy Concotions.

Maybe not. Maybe... she had already turned insane a long time ago. And the 'humane' consciousness of the elf body she had currently assimilated into was keeping her Monster Instincts from two monster types in check.

One from being a Slime. And the other from consuming a powerful necromancer, which further increased the potency of her Monster Instinct. The Instinct came in the form of many echoing voices, creating hypnotic suggestions ceaselessly in her head, struggling to force Lestia into accepting her murderous urges as a Monster.

She was in a very sensitive bubble, and she felt like it would pop from this pressure any moment now.

Looking at the bags which contained the materials for the creation of homunculi to hit her quota for today, she put her hands together and bowed down.

"...I'm sorry, I bear no ill feelings towards you lot... but then again, I don't have feelings left at all."

The two guard elves outside grimaced when they heard screams of agony and cries for help for an entire hour after that.

And just like that, words of the Master Craftsman spread around like wildfire, until Tricia eventually made another rumor of monsters appearing to prevent people from going to the Stalite Caves without proper authorization.

A year passed, and Tricia had since relocated Lestia to a larger area to work in.

The lifespan of homunculi created by Lestia also decreased consistently during this time frame, which began to reach the ears of Tricia who had now enjoyed her new and luxurious lifestyle as a member of the Diet.

Of course, this wasn't a pleasant piece of information that she wanted to hear. Hearing that from a homunculus placed under her just made her mood worse.

"And... what? There is... another situation...? ...Alright alright, I'll take a look later. Book an appointment."

But what greeted Tricia back down in the Stalite Caves, was something...

Monstrous.

A malformed-looking colossal being with body parts protruding out of every part of its skin. Eyes, mouths, the exposed view of a brain, stretching arms... all stitched together like some sort of freakshow. And on its chest, laid the body of the elf Lestia was using. It had its lower half merged into the putrid meat of the monster.

It looked extremely hostile too, as Tricia noticed a few of the male grunt workers sliced apart in half and others missing an arm or a leg.

Clearly, it took them a large number of casualties to contain this creature.

And it was now being constantly confined by a push lever operated by the manual efforts of about a few hundred banished male elves. The men pushed wooden stakes around a metal ring in a clockwise manner, as the rotation of the 'wheel' constantly moved the circular platform in the center around like a corkscrew. It looked like the Wheel of Pain*. This way, the seemingly unintelligent creature that had a height of over 100 feet would continue to stay tamed through a dizzy spell which apparently worked out. The equipment was supposed to lift the creature out of the caves through the hole on top, but they improvised when they saw the titan unmoving when the platform was spinning around. "...?! Wh-... what is this...?"

Her expectations were immediately blown out of the water as Tricia laid eyes upon the hideous-looking entity.

Something truly horrific and repulsive to the eyes; the fact that this creature existed made her shoulders shudder slightly when she realized that it would relentlessly haunt the memories of people who'd seen it.

And thus, she immediately took action.

"Where is she right now...?"

Tricia immediately questioned, while her eyes continued to stare at the abomination.

"She had escaped from her cell using another body of a guard elf when we were trying to contain this thing..."

"...Search. Figure out her new identity and gather up a search party Immediately."

"I hear and obey!"

Syriel quickly left as per Tricia's orders.

Tricia slumped her back against the nearby wall, as many other elves around her worked to suppress the creature.

"...What... ...have you created... Is this... another anomaly... of your accursed alchemy...?"

Muttering to herself as she began to calm down from her initial shock, Tricia looked at the deformed monster while scratching her neck agitatedly.

The monster. Which the higher-ups would literally call...

The abomination. Contained in this place.

The reason it still existed was because they could not kill it, so they doubled down and continued feeding it livestock as they groomed it to become a stronger piece of war potential for the village's last resort against intruders like the previous party of heroes and the knights who accompanied them.

Name E̷̪̙̝͂̌̐̉̕n̷̢̠̺̼̍͋͘̕ţ̸̛̇͂͝r̸͖͕̝̗̓ǒ̷̱͆͝ṗ̷̘̩̗́͜͝y̵̪͒̈́͌̾͘ͅ Level 84 Unused SP Rank 8 Race H̶͇̘́̏u̵̦̿̔͑͑̆m̵̜͓̌ǎ̸̡̗̪̼̖n̸̨̰̮̓́̄

"Big brother...?"

"...Hm?"

"I... I don't feel... so good..."

"What's... wrong...?"

"I feel like... there's many people inside of me... All of their emotions... scraping the insides of my skin... Help me... What do I do? What do I do...? I don't, I don't think I can keep them inside anymore... They're crawling inside of me like ants... It's itchy... big brother... I feel like I'm about to burst into many tiny pieces... What do I do...? What do I do, big brother? I'm scared...! I'm scared!"

"Okay, let's take a deep breath and calm down, alright...? Now, hold my hand... Hold my-"

-SPLAT.