I got bored as Robur's party was still far from returning home so I decided to check my stats.

(Show me my stats.)

Name: Red

Race: Heart Core

Level: 1

XP:1/10

Mana: 124/125 (-125)

Mana Regeneration: 1 per minute

Tiles:22/30

Gold: 140

Minions: 3

Rooms: 2

Spells: 2

"Now that I remember, I think I got something unlocked before, uh, what was it?" I mumbled in the heart room.

(Show me traps tab!)

There are no traps available.

"Strange, oh wait! Theres another one!" I shouted.

(Give me that extra...object tab?)

Wood Door

Cost:10 mana

Basic Info:

Wood door can be used to close off rooms and serve as basic protection against outsiders.

Can withstand more attacks than regular doors due to the mana used on its creation.

(Since I got all of my mana back, let's try getting some doors? Three should be enough for now.)

For me, it seemed like a waste to not use mana when it was fully restored, and if possible, I would always spend just a bit of it.

(Yeah, 3 doors, give me one at each room entrance.)

Each Wood Door will cost you 10 mana, a total of 30 mana will be used to produce the 3 doors at the desired locations.

Do you wish to proceed? Yes? No?

(Yes, please.)

In that moment, 3 fire spirits left my heart core, moving with haste towards their separate places and immediately formed 3 doors.

After the doors were spawned, I could open and close them at will, but then, there was nothing much to do, the ratman matriarch remained on my heart core room for now, as it's major cut by Robur made impossible to hang the body on the walls without making a bloody mess.

My level 2 Imp would be on guard duty while I would wait for the rest of my minions to return.

"Wish I had a few maids to clean the bodies and remove the furs.. Wait.. What were maids again?" I mumbled about random things as I waited for them to return.

(How about I send my level 2 Imp to dig a new tunnel? Wait, no, thats a bad idea, what if he finds another ratman nest? Or something worst!)

(Its seems like they safely reached the starting point of the mountain path.)

Looking again at my mana, it had recovered half of what I had spent on the doors, this made me realize something.

"I hope those mutts don't cost as much as the Imps!"

More time passed and Robur's party finally reached the entrance.

(30 minutes to return, that means 1 hour travel to get some "loot"?)

My level 2 Imp ran trough the tunnel, reaching Robur.

(Give him the corpses, you and the first Imp shall bring me those cubs!)

"Yes Boss!" Robur roared at my command.

Robur and the level 3 Imp kept walking to my heart room with the cubs, while the level 2 picked up the 3 corpses and ran past them.

"Show off..." Robur released a smile as he mumbled at the speedy Imp.

After walking a bit more, Robur and the Imp reached the door of the heart room.

"Boss made doors?" Robur asked his Boss as the door opened by itself, allowing them to come forward.

(Yes, doors can be useful.)

As they entered the room, the wolf cub that Robur carried, locked his yellow eyes on my monstrous red eye and made no sound, he simply seemed to wait for a reaction from me.

(He doesn't seem afraid?) I asked Robur.

"No Boss, this cub good!" He told me as the Imp started to pick up the cubs from his back and putting them slowly on the ground one by one.

Unlike the first cub, the other four laid down on the ground, trembling of fear at seeing me while my Imp blocked their path of escape as well as the door that had closed.

(Bring that cub closer.) I ordered Robur.

"Yes, Boss!" Robur nodded as he walked the altar's stairs.

As the pup was put on the ground, Robur descended the stairs, resuming his former position.

(So, how do I do this?)

The gray pups kept staring at me and 10 seconds later, a pop up appeared.

A wolfpack of 5 wolves wishes to become your minions.

Each wolf will consume 25 mana, costing a total of 100 mana, do you accept them? Yes? No?

(That was easy! I don't even need to talk to them? Cool! Yes, I accept them!)

Warning!

These new minions are still on their infant age, mana cost of each wolf shall be decreased to 15 mana, they will not receive the recruitment level bonus and name function will not be available until they leave this stage.

(Uh? I guess it's fair...)

Five fire spirits left my heart core, dancing around me for 3 seconds, then, each headed to a cub.

The cubs made painful barking noises, as each consumed a spirit, with their tiny pawns, they released their claws, trying to scratch the floor, trying to maintain their posture, trying to maintain their consciousness.

As they closed their eyes, from their bellies, part of their fur started to burn, showing part of their skin, wich turned black, forming an 8 tattoo.

Once the pain was gone, the cubs opened their eyes, wich were now bloody red and released a long howling as a tribute to their savior and master.

"THAT IS ENOUGH!" I commanded my new minions.

"Great Patriarch!" The young cub on top of the altar spoke. "Thank you for saving us, if it's your wish, we will follow you from now on!"

"I welcome you to my house, gray wolves, I am interested in hearing your story in these lands."

(Robur, go get some food to your new comrades, and they must be starving.)

"Yes Boss!" Robur immediately punched his chest and ran out to the food storage.

"Great Patriarch, I don't know much as I am still young, when I was born, our great wolfpack had a great territory, we lived well, our big brothers and sisters protected us, but 7 days ago, our patriarch told us to run away into the brown wolfpack territory!"

"Until the fourth day, no troubles occurred." The small cub growled, angry at his next words. "But then, our wolfpack was broken, many were displeased at the patriarch, and a battle begun... We could only watch as many of our family died at the hands of each other!"

"The patriarch's side managed to win, and we kept moving, two days passed and many more died to their wounds or by the ambushes of the brown wolves, on the sixth day the patriarch died to protect us, a day after another brown wolf group ambushed of what was left of our wolf pack and you know what happened next!"

"So, you are the only survivors?" I asked the cub.

"Some gray wolves disappeared on these 7 days, but I don't know if they are alive..."

"Boss, I brought food!" Robur shouted as he entered the room, caring a small pile of slimes on his arms.

"Ah! Good! Little cubs, you must be starving right? Do not be afraid, eat the slimes."

At my words, the four cubs below ran towards Robur as he dropped the slimes on the floor.

"Are you not hungry?" I asked the cub.

"Great Patriarch, I thought this was brown wolf territory, am I wrong? Is this your land?"

"Like you, I only arrived recently here and plan to make this land my own, perhaps I might have to remove the brown wolves later on."

"Great Patriarch! Then we will follow your orders and if the brown wolves get in your way, we shall bite their necks off!" The cub proudly stated.

"Yes, but for now, eat and rest, you must replenish your strength!"

"Yes Great Patriarch!" The cub bowed his head to me and with haste joined his brothers to feast upon the slimes.

Meanwhile, Robur walked the stairs upon the top of the altar, and he looked at the cubs for a few seconds then turned to me, slowly whispering.

"Uh, Boss, you speak mutt?"

(Mutt?)

"Yes Boss."

(Didn't you hear that cub just speaking?)

"No Boss, Robur only heard it barking while Boss spoke normally!" Robur whispered.

(Normal? I can understand them very well.)

"Boss! You really Great Boss! You even talk Mutt language!" Robur spoke with pride as he punched his chest.

(Once the cubs finish their meal, show them around their new home then get some rest, eat if you're hungry, afterwards I want you to start skinning the furs of the dead bodies in the sleeping chamber.)

"Yes Boss!" Robur punched his chest again and returned to the cubs position.

While Robur was doing his new tasks, I ordered my two Imps to leave, they would return to the previous location to bring more brown wolf bodies.

(I think I will ignore the gray wolf corpses, the last thing I want is for the cubs loyalty to drop upon seeing Robur skinning their family!)

The night went smoothly, Robur showed the rooms to the cubs, once they entered the sleeping chamber, 5 baskets of the same size of Robur's bed spawned and compared to the cubs, they were really big as just one of them could easily be the bed for all 5 cubs.

The Imps also brought several brown wolf bodies, once the sleeping chamber's walls were filled, they were put on the hallway's walls and also on my heart core room's walls.

I had now total of 26 brown wolves, 4 ratman, 1 ratman matriarch and 12 ratman cub corpses.

I had also spawned a new slime everytime my mana reached 124 as I wanted to abuse my mana regeneration to the max and as that room was not used for a while, the slimes started to stack on each other saving a great deal of space.

First Robur focused making one ratman fur, cutting it into pieces, turning them into gloves and shoes for him to wear.

Then he focused on the brown wolves, and 8 brow fur coats were made, once I tried again, the food storage walls accepted those bodies without fur, it seemed that from now on, I would have to remove the furs if I wanted to fill the food storage walls.

As the second day was about to begin, I used the possession spell on my level 3 Imp and ran towards the entrance and there, I watched my first sunrise.

Day 2, 1st Month of the Winter Season, 600.AC