The underground lair that I consider my new base isn’t really as fortified as I’d first hoped. Not when considering the specialties of our newly found enemies, at least. What I’d at first thought a bargain home, is now just a glass home constructed in the middle of a busy golf course.

I don’t expect that it’ll take long before Loekan and his minions come knocking on these walls, and I’m not entirely convinced they’ll hold for long. If the self-proclaimed king holds grudges half as well as I do, he’ll definitely be coming for us.

“It’s better this way.” Red says, as I question her on the topic.

“How?” I ask, trying to wrap my head around whatever twisted logic she runs on.

“He won’t bring all of his forces, and what’s more we can prepare in advance of his assault.” Red says. “Being on the defensive has its advantages.”

“What advantages?” I ask, “As far as I can figure it, we’re surrounded by the roots that his magic works best on.”

“With good plans, and traps, we should be fine.” She says, sounding relaxed though I’m sure she’s strategizing some great victory in her mind.

“So, what plans?” I ask, looking at the solid seeming wall and giving it a few solid kicks to test it. My foot will break before the wall will.

“Whoever made this place did reinforce it well.” Red says, hitting it a few times herself “It’s made to resist attacks, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be broken down. Honestly a talented war enchanter would be wonderful right now.”

“You can talk with Ria about it.” I suggest.

“She doesn’t have the experience or the passion.” Red says firmly. “She’s fine working on the projects she is. A few of those with us have taken an interest in the study, it’ll just take time for them to train.”

“The new Chip is rather useful for that.” I say, “If we could make the Skills more generalised so they’re not such a pain to use when we steal them, that would be great, too.”

“Sure, but not immediately critical.”

“Right, plans. What’s our defensive situation?” I ask.

“The wild beasts won’t likely bother us. Our main concern is Loekan and his wood weavers, though we must also consider the possibility that he’s smart enough to threaten us in other ways.

“With these reinforced walls everyone should have fair warning when one is going to fall. With everyone on the lookout and ready to call for support, we should be able to deal with any threat relatively easily.

“Unfortunately, that leaves us constantly on the defence. I like it when an enemy attacks one of my fortified positions, but I don’t like being locked in here waiting for an attack to come.

“Due to the nature of the enemy and the battlefield, quite simply we cannot seize the offensive as things stand. Not until we can reach the stone city they call home.”

“To think we’d have an actual justification for my little war project.” I say with a long sigh, “So this changes little then? We defend and get strong enough to take the city?”

“It means less training outside, less resources gathered, and less freedom to move.” Red says. “We should consider moving to another hide out. There were others that the lord of Frey knew about.”

“Do you think that would be for the best?” I ask.

“We should consider it, but… I think that the gremlins have lived here long enough that they’ll have some advantage over us, whatever we do.” She says, “Fortifying this location would probably do us well.

“The fact that we can retreat to the lord’s colony should things turn sour means that we needn’t worry too much about securing a retreat.”

“That’s true,” I say. “Better to impose on our friends than end up dead because we tried to fight an unwinnable battle.”

Barry is drilling a few soldiers, setting their stances and getting them cycling their mana efficiently. “How’s the training? Did we lose any during our clean up?”

“Only wounded, you were the first to fall into the traps and gave us fair warning. As for everything else, we don’t have enough weapons and armour, and what we do have is awful quality.” She says simply. “The warriors are doing their best, but it will take time for even the most talented of them to be battle hardened.

“Thankfully, we have an enemy close at hand, we have time, and we can spare the resources to feed them good mana.” Red says. “Not a perfect situation, but so long as we don’t throw their lives away, they’ll make for decent soldiers.”

“I’m glad that you’re here.” I say, “While I personally know that you’re not the best teacher—we have Barry for that—I’m quite sure you can lead people into battle better than anyone I know.”

“Was that your attempt at a compliment?” She asks.

“What do you want me to say, you have a nice ass or something?” I reply. “I still remember the ‘training’ you gave me.”

“Yeah, yeah.” She waves her hand, “That was a while ago and things were rough for all of us, no need to hold a grudge.”

“I’m sure I still have a few fucked up traumas rattling around in my brain that I’ve yet to figure out.” I grumble, “Eating meat still makes me feel funny.”

“That’s a lot of whining? Are you going to say anything more important my empress, or are we done?”

“Fine, fine. Is there anything else I should know about?”

“Ah, the feast is in an hour.” She listed off. “You have to suck the mana out of the guts before it completely spoils, and I’m sure the others want to talk with you about trade and laws or something.”

“Great.” I say, perking up. “Nel, what’s this about trade?”

She leads me towards the gut pile as we talk, though it’s sounding largely like she has everything well in hand already.

“To begin with, after taking stock of all our repossessed items, I’ve allocated around 10% of our resources to the crafters for experimentation and development, and another 40% to trade, which I’ll go over in more detail in a minute. There’s…”

The guts are squishy under my feet, as I walk through a large container filled with waste and guts. I feel a little like I’m trying to make grape wine back in the old days, except it’s not grapes I’m stepping on, and I’d be loathe to try the ‘wine’ that comes from this.

Nel continues listing dry boring facts to me while I try my best to pay attention, pushing my excess mana into the storage crystal, that’s come to be quite useful.

It feels good that Nel is coming to me with all this. My brain however is just blanking out in the face of it. Most of what I’m doing is just affirming the answers that she’s already come to, giving her the approval and improving her confidence in her decisions.

Giving the mana dense, hardened bones to Sele rather than bringing them to the markets down here sounds sensible enough, though I don’t really understand why.

When Nel rounds up the last of her problems, the twins come charging into the room.

“You made it out, and you kicked butt!” Leai says, pulling me into a close hug with completely zero regards for the guts covering me. Her sliminess isn’t nearly as bad as the guts that I’m currently squishing underfoot, but it’s still not entirely welcome.

“You’re mincing the meat for me?” She asks, looking down at the fouled organs and organic goop.

“For you?” I ask.

“I requested it, no one else was interested.” She says, poking at it.

“What are you using it for?” I ask, keeping my voice relaxed so she knows she’s talking to Kyra, not her ‘boss’ so to speak.

“Chum!” She declares. “I need to catch that big fish, and I have a plan.”

“You think you can kill it?” I ask worriedly.

“We can.” Seia says, looking at me with as much worry, “It’s just that landing a lethal blow puts us at more than reasonable risk.”

“Which is why we set out the chum, wait for the big boy to get close, then slam into his head from above. The perfect plan.”

“No plan is perfect.” Seia says.

“But a simple plan is less likely to go wrong.” I say, leaning towards Leai’s side of thinking. “So long as you’re prepared to retreat if things go fucked side up.”

“No one can run as fast as I can.” Leai says, rather proudly.

“Well, that makes me feel a little better. Are you two joining the feast?”

“After all that killing, we’re not missing out on the second-best part!” She cries in apparent offense, likely feigned, but I can’t always read her clearly.

“Well, I’ll see you in there.” I say waving them off.

I swap out my filled storage gem—or at least it’s as filled as I can get it—with an empty one that Nel acquired for me. Unfortunately, this one isn’t as well accustomed to me and while it accepts my mana, it isn’t as easy to move mana about or to work with.

When all is finally done, the mana churned and the talks dealt with, I clean myself up and follow Nel into the feasting room. Or that’s what it’s been called when training is called off. Barry seems rather miffed that we’ve filled his sacred training space with large tables and assorted foods.

I can tell already that the food hasn’t been cooked by that lovely lady back in the colony, but I won’t complain, especially since it seems that much of it was made here. This is home cooked, by my people, for my people.

These are the meats of our labour.

I slowly take in the room and those gathered here, and they look to me with some respect. Some bow and address me with ma’am, some flick their eyes between their food and me, as if pretending not to be looking, others seem grumpy, or even scoff as if offended by my presence.

Yet, there’s still something there. Some recognition that I’m the one who made all this happen. I’m the one who pulled their collars off, like it or not. I’m the one who ordered the raid of their prison.

I’m the one who freed them, or I’m the one who jailed them here. Either way, it was me who drove their fates to this point.

Our drinks are poured in short time, a little something that Korgan mixed for us. A light drink, spreading our booze thin to share it fairly. I know well just how thinly it’s being spread, Nel informed me just how much we paid and how much we got.

There is no throne here, no chair to set me above the others, but that feels more right for this moment. I look around and still feel their gazes clinging to me, so I stand and decide to say something in the respectful silence that’s filled this room so far.

“This feast”, I say looking over the meals. It’s something more than a dinner, there’s almost too much here, but I know that if we stuff ourselves, we’ll find a way to manage it, and with how much the others here need their mana, it’ll be gone by the end of the night.

“This feast is more than just a celebration of a good hunt. It is more than celebration that we’ve made it back home safe.” I wave to those who I met in the healer’s office later on. Our investment with the healer was worth more than I could’ve realized earlier.

“It’s more than the new allies we made.” I say waving to the slayers who have joined us, and Tkarn who gazes at the meal in apparent confusion.

“This feast is to celebrate the new Skills that you’ve gotten today. Gluthir, I heard that you managed to develop mana surge step, and Mary, you’ve developed a Skill to aid in your memorisation of beasts.”

A little conversation with Slan keeps me informed on some of the strangest parts of our little tribe.

“We’ve all led different lives to get us this far, and we’re all walking different paths, but we’re together here. We’re eating together tonight, working together tomorrow and trying to build new lives together.

“So, this feast is for us, for our continued success. For the Skills we’ll learn tomorrow, for tomorrow’s hunts, tomorrow’s friends, and tomorrow’s victories. May we always stand together.” I say, feeling flush in the moment.

“And if anyone comes after us, we’ll kill them and put them on the table for the next feast.” Red adds, getting a loud roar from the soldiers, and a quieter chuckle from the rest.

I take a long drink, shaking my head and accepting Red’s addition. She’s what’s keeping us alive, and if that gremlin king ends up on the menu, then I won’t refuse a cut of the meal.

“That was a good speech.” Vii says, sitting beside me. “Could’ve been more inspiring, or powerful. Or you could’ve leaned into the great empress shtick a little more, but it was good.”

“Thanks?” I say in confusion to her critique.

“It was workable.” Eshya says, lifting Shen to the table and slicing up some meat for her. It seems like her mouth hole is on the lower half of her body, so in a macabre sense, when she’s face hugging, it’s actually a sort of kiss as well.

Not a pleasant thought.

Moving on.

“The words I said don’t particularly matter.” I reply. “It’s the fact that I stood up and said something. It’s that I’m here, and that I’m taking responsibility.”

“You’re mostly not here, though.” Eshya replies.

“That’s the reason this matters.” I reply.

“It’s better like this.” Adler intervenes. “If you’re too close they’ll see you as the person and not the leader. Look at what happened to me when you saw me as Adler and not a welfare officer.”

“Ah, there’s certainly a case for that.” I reply, thinking of how things were with her to begin with.

“Exactly, now at how things are.” She says, sipping at her own slightly alcoholic beverage.

“Better than they were before.” I say, meeting her eyes as she sets her drink down, unable to respond.

Food, drinks, and good cheer fill through the room, making it feel far smaller than it is. We enjoy ourselves as we can, feasting and talking. At some point, Red gets into an argument with Barry, which they settle when she shows off her moves, and he shows his.

Everything is good, and we’re more than we were. We’re not an empire, but we are something more than the misfits that we were leaving the prison above, and given time, and shared experiences, I’m sure that we’ll become something more.

“To the day we take the city of stone.” I say quietly, looking at those who stand with me, looking at those who will stand beside me on that day when we prove ourselves worthy of a better life and a better home.

“That’s just the first step.” Vii says, the alcohol taking her, “The whole universe comes next.”

“We’ll need a fleet of those ships to even consider it.” I say.

“Nuh-uh.” Vii says shaking her head and laughing. “You’ll need a legendary war world. Teleporting through space using more mana than most people will ever have in a lifetime, seizing worlds and destroying enemies. The stuff of legends.

“War world?” I ask, looking between her and the others, they don’t seem to know what she’s talking about either.

“Esleheim.” Vii whispers, smiling distantly as she drops her face to the table. “The throne of the empire. Where oh, where is Elseheim now? Roaming the void, lost in the wars? Or does she still war out there, in some distant land where we know not.”

Her voice takes on a nearly sing song quality, but fails to quite catch any particular tune, it’s like she’s retelling a song but forgotten how it goes.

“Well, I think that’s been enough for you.” I say, wondering how it is that she’s gotten tipsy off of this little alcohol.

“It’s the stress.” Nel explains, anticipating my thoughts, as she runs her hand through Vii’s hair. “She said that you two would survive, she was sure of it, but that didn’t keep her from worrying.”

“For once I can’t even say it was our fault.” I say, with a sigh, watching our little bird sleep. “We were taken by complete surprise and by the time we realized what was going on, there wasn’t much we could do.”

“If we could fly, or walk on air…” Eshya says, shaking her head.

“We’ll get to that point, but training to the point where it’s economical is…”

“Red’s team back then, they weren’t that much stronger than us mana wise, no? But many were still able to fly, we couldn’t be that far off?”

“Learning to fly and finding a way to do it without draining all of your mana is something entirely different.” Red says, floating over to the table. “Everyone tends to find their own tricks, but for now you have more important things to be learning.”

“I suppose.” I admit, with a long sigh. “Any tips before I get sent off to deal with the dungeons pest problem?”

“Refine your ranged attacks and focus on killing things from a distance.” She says, “You can dedicate most of your mana into a single attack, if your fireball or annihilation magic was actually used genuinely efficiently, you could easily do more damage than I can.”

“Really?” I ask in disbelief.

“You spend most of your mana in a single attack, and that’s a power level that no one else can readily compete with until they reach mana crystallisation. It’s around that point that most mages can cast as large a magic as you can. Problem is, your magic technique is total crap.

“Imagine the strongest person in the world wielding a wet noodle in place of a sword. He can certainly swing hard, but the impact? The damage? Nothing consequential.”

“Why haven’t I been learning that, then?” I ask, grumpily.

“I can’t teach you, the Unified States evidently hasn’t been teaching you, and most mages here are talent driven, and self-learned.” She says, “I’d suggest you keep practicing.”

“Fuck.” I sigh, summoning a spark of flame to hand as I wonder why it is that I’m still so weak, when I should be so strong.

Shen looks over at me from atop Eshya’s shoulder.

“Together!” She cheers, seeing me retreat into my own mind.

“Together.” Eshya says, smiling joyously at me as she walks over and holds out a hand. An invitation for a dance, and I won’t refuse her.

“Together.” The word travels through those around us, spoken simply but with passion. A cry that pulls those in the dark corners closer and brings a little added warmth to the room.

We’re not alone. The weak, and the strong. The loud and the quiet. None of us is alone anymore.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Skills & Stats

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 820 units

~Mana distribution:

Catagory Current Max. Defence 0% 32% Offense 0% 57% Mana Sense 0% 72% Recovery 0% 30% Gluttony 0% 26% Misc. 34% 34% Efficiency 34% 82%

~Favourited Skills:

-Chip Shredder

-Multi-mind

-Tag

-Mana surge movement

-Mana surge punch

-Reactive mana skin

-Infused delayed Casting

-Fire burst punch

-Annihilation magic

-Mana form flow fixer

-Rapid fire casting