Wrath Farmer

[Ultimatedaywriter]

Day 21
My smile remained in place despite Tony's hostage attempt. The look in his eyes reminded me of Rong Da. Even in this battle, there was a chance I could lose, and it wasn't that exciting. Veronica was my next selection Gwen didn't change that. She would kick Gwen until the doe stopped moving. I felt my heart clench, and a pit opened in my gut, but I refused to show weakness.

Gwen appeared when Tony tapped his monster bag, and it was like no time had passed at all. She was so close, but her eyes were set, and Tony's filthy tamer skills were psychically in her mind. I felt them like slimy tentacles slipping through flesh and bone to invade her thoughts and memories. To think I wanted to be a tamer.

Across from me, the team of mercenaries had moved away from Tony, positioning themselves as if to say they weren't with him. I wanted to say they were lying, but Scout had the decency to keep his skills to himself. Tony's skills were all over the place, sneaking beyond my wall and searching for more targets.

If this was what a tamer was, then what was I even fighting for. A part of me wanted to cut Tony down and never give him the chance to hurt one of my monsters again. The logical part that planned and had an idea of the best outcome wanted to lead the group into the dungeon and kill them there.

Veronica jumped over the gate wearing a full-body robe of spider silk covered in small runes. Ada had come through with her enchanting. When the tendrils slithered toward Veronica, they melted upon the battle chicken's telepathic barrier. Boosted Willpower helped.

Fu's sisters were busy filling the needs of thousands while I stalled outside the gate. No matter what I did, short of killing my guests in cold blood, the tamer skills would infect the crowd. Getting Gwen back wouldn't remove the damage done. That would take telepathic finesse I didn't have. It was easier to destroy than create.

"My skill isn't working; you did something. That monster isn't a maneater or a chimera rabbit; it shouldn't have telepathy or any psychic skills. Most of them are meat heads or chicken tenders." Tony said.

"Sandy make this guy's life a nightmare and struggle to the bitter end. Don't let him knock you out, win, or force him to kill you." Tony said.

Gwen's eyes hardened as the tendrils of Tony's skill wiggled and pressed, forcing Gwen to obey the order. Every twitch sounded off my Telepathy and Psychic skills, showing me a mental image I didn't want to see.

Words escaped me. I wanted to throw my chainsword and impale the tamer. The wind picked up, but I refused to be baited. Turning this into a fight to the death would ensure the Graves family sought retribution. Tony had a grandfather, the first tamer in his lineage, who became a Senator. With that man still alive, I didn't like my chances of getting off if I killed him outside a dungeon.

From what I could tell from Tony's reports and the letter from the research center, everyone thought Tony was only doing his job. Win or lose this confrontation Tony has set me up to come out of this smelling like roses. At a casual glance, I was only a farmer who lucked out on a dungeon surge with intelligent monsters who had no desire to kill me. There were historical precedents for my situation.

Veronica stood tall, nearly 7ft in her robe, wide hips swaying and tail feathers up. A swift blow tossed Gwen in the air before she could bring her skills to bear.

"Don't give up; make this painful for him. Remember who he is to you and then forget again."

"Atom," tears dripped down my cheeks, but I never lost my smile. "I felt like I've been trapped inside my head." She crashed hard against the ground.

"I said remember why aren't you bleating. Show this peasant that winning against me comes at a cost."

"You're right," I said.

"Too late to beg, but if you get on your knees, I'll let you hold her; just call off your monster and forfeit this battle," Tony said.

No one would bat an eye if Tony Graves, the mediocre tamer who lucked out with a lab assistant job, died taking on a task he wasn't trained for. His job was only to take readings of the dungeon, not steal it out from under the owner or steal monsters from my land with tamer skills. Unfortunately, this was par for the course for a farmer. The class was used to punish nobility and toughen up members of wealthy families.

My telepathic area had expanded greatly since leaving the dungeon. Skill levels helped and so too did training my Willpower with Isobel. I learned how to use my skills in ways I would have never thought of before.

Tony's tentacles were only lightly inside Gwen when I used fell energy to cut them. My mental shovel became a blade.

Blood poured from Tony's nose, falling on his official lab assistant coat. Fell-type monsters were naturally immune to all but the highest-level tamer skills, and Tony wasn't close to level 50 in his skills, I was certain. He looked at me, shocked and, dare I think it, terrified.

"Don't let him," I took hold of the tendrils and gently pulled. "Forget him; you love me and only me. I'm your only tamer; you'll never get over me. You would die before letting him be your anything. Hate him with all of your being." The last of the tendrils fell away and I cut the rest that came Gwen's way with fell blades.

Gwen met my gaze. Her mind felt so fragile. "I forfeit," Gwen said.

Tony wasn't dead, Gwen might be fine after waking up, and I learned tamer skills could be cut with fell energy.

"You can't. I won't let you." Tony said.

"I accept. As part of hospitality, no tamer skills may be used on my property."

"That is acceptable; now, can we leave this nonsense behind us."

"Let's accept guest rights and leave Tony behind. I don't think he'll be much use to us anymore. After all, we are here to dive your dungeon." Meng Bai said.

"No, I hired you to help me take the dungeon for the research center. We have a contract." Tony said.

"After this display, I must remind you of an exit clause. So long as you ask us to do nothing dishonorable, we will remain loyal to our contractor. I believe you have broken the spirit of that clause with your actions, if not the wording. We have no use of iron if silver works better." Ms. Birdmask said.

"The deal was for hospitality for all of us. You said property, but no one owns the inside of a dungeon. I'll recruit a monster inside to fight for us. I'm still useful." Tony said.

I looked between Tony and the distant group. It was clear he had shown himself to be a liability but didn't want to go back empty-handed.

"That was the deal, or will you give Sandy back to me," Tony said.

"Come and take her," I said.

My smile dropped, and I saw it; then Tony believed he had won. The other group looked like they came to a realization about the situation and I couldn't be bothered with them. Gwen needed my care and attention. They apparently wanted to do multiple runs, so I was willing to let them.

"We will keep our skills to ourselves while behind your walls." The bowman gave Tony a hard look before facing me again. "That was an impressive battle are all monsters in the dungeon that strong."

"Only on the first floor. I haven't explored the second floor." I left off the word yet, and Scout only nodded in confirmation.

"My name's Martin Luther. I'm not sure if we were introduced. I'm the battle mage of the party; those are some impressive enchantments. Did you hire a certified enchanter? I would like to talk shop with a fellow practitioner." Martin said.

It hit me then that I would have to play host to these mercenaries from Easton and three of my countrymen.

"That will have to wait until the bread-breaking ceremony. I'm afraid the only thing I have in abundance is corn and peppers. So, I hope you like your bread spicy." I said.

"Corn, do you make any whiskey." Meng Bai asked.

"I'm afraid I haven't had the time to explore everything I can do with rank 2 corn," I said.

Tony snorted but said nothing. Gwen rested in my arms, protected from any hostile skills. There was no way I would allow any further harm to come to her.

"Open," I said, and the gate swung open with little fanfare."

"Even the monster gate is a telepath. You are certainly free with skill shards. Do you run teams of battle chickens into the dungeon to retrieve the loot?" Martin asked.

"It is an effective way to gather loot."

Tony's teeth ground together; it was a shame I couldn't grind his guts into mush with my chainsword.

The money went over easily to my account. It hardly mattered 50,000W wasn't much to me after selling so many battle chicken eggs. The market was still in high demand. I had been too optimistic that selling our small shipment of eggs would make a dent in the market. Our sales were just another drop in the bucket for the rising demand. As it turned out, rank 2 chicken monster eggs could grant certain monsters 2 attribute points from a single meal by adding the ingredients by a chef. If prepared by a chef, even humans could benefit at around 1/10 of a monster.

I had an idea where I could find one since I was free to leave my property with my debt cleared. We needed a building planner, architect, stone mason, and a cook. That was just to get started. I knew just the place, a city named Babel in the Canite territory West of here. Big cities were filled with talented people with crushed dreams struggling to find work and burned out in the big city. A few Westons to the right, starving homeless higher education graduates would get me everywhere. All I had to do was take care of my current guests.

"This is it: leather tents, chicken feces everywhere, and corn. You are the worst; my monsters might never recover because you think your room and board is worth 10,000W a person."

When we passed by a massive sun-yellow-leaved tree with sky-blue bark and low-hanging golden fruit, no one could keep their eyes off of it.

"Well, over there, you can see some peach trees coming in, and if any of you touch my Seelie tree, I will take the offending hand."

It was the seed from the dungeon, and it was a rare and powerful tree if given the opportunity to grow. Each fruit it bore could potentially increase an attribute if eaten at the right time. Fortunately, when eaten at the wrong time, it inflicted a curse on the offending target; only silver unicorns and other monsters like them could reliably pick the fruit. They had to be specially trained for the task.

"My teacher would say to pick one and let fortune decide if you are right." Ms. Birdmask said.

"That is such an Easton thing to say; could you say it in your native language." She repeated it. "I wish I could hear it without the mask and voice scrambler. Do you sing? I know that it's rude of me to ask of a guest. I had to leave my personal possessions, and I only recently gained enough money to think about restoring my collection." I said.

"What makes you think he is a woman?" Martin asked.

"She tries too hard to be mysterious. Women love being mysterious and keeping men guessing." I said.

"So you like Easton music; what kind of artists do you listen to? I bet I've been to their concerts." Meng Bai said.

We fell into chatter as we approached my tent, and my telepathic field slowly encompassed my territory. I gently laid Gwen down.

"Isobel, guard her and inform me when she wakes. I have guests to entertain." My bunny girl nodded and I was free to once more focus my attention.

Some of these mercenaries didn't seem like bad people. Bad company aside, I could get along with them, even Scout, if he kept his slimy tamer skills limited to his own monsters. Not every monster could be reasoned with, and my family was full of tamers. I wanted to be one. Being torn between an ideal and common sense was tough.

Tony was definitely going to die in the dungeon that was set in stone. Even if the silent sour, faced man turned whatever charm he might posses to max, I would still take his head and mount it on a spike. I was itching to make a move.

"Will you show us the dungeon now?" Ms. Birdmask asked.

"Sure, that was the deal, and you already paid. Remember to eat and drink your fill before entering the dungeon. I saw a lake of blood inside, and I doubt it's safe to drink." I said.

"A whole lake of blood. Was there a castle and a low-hanging moon?" Meng Bai asked.

"I found the aesthetics pleasing if a bit edgy," I said with a shrug.

Fighting atop the bloody lake's surface was a blast. "Anything we should know about the monsters in that area. Or do you hope we kill ourselves inside?" Tony said.

Imagining Tony getting skewered by a giant mosquito was not as satisfying as doing the killing myself. We walked down the path to the dungeon.

"The lake is filled with giant lamprey, and there were monsters everywhere." I shrugged. "It's a dungeon; what do you expect. Don't separate your party, keep your head, and don't take on more than you can handle, and you should be found. This isn't new information; who hasn't read the basics of dungeon diving at least once?"

Meng Bai raised his hand and smiled even as it shook. "Put your hand down. I was being sarcastic. Was there an Easton equivalent? Ms. Birdmask seems to have read it."

"Our dungeons are called hidden realms, and our instructions were different. They say to break apart and find as many hidden treasures as possible before our rivals get the chance. We should only team up with those far beneath us and use them to harvest more treasure but never trust them not to sneak the best for themselves." Meng Bai said.

"Huh, that will get you killed in our dungeons. Going in alone means you are never safe. The moment you stop moving, you will die." I said.

"Don't worry, we know how to work as a three-man team with Scout's monsters to fill any role we need. With Tony, we have more opportunities to adapt to the dungeon by recruiting monsters inside. Could we borrow a monster from your tribe?" Martin asked.

"There are plenty of battle chickens inside if you need them. Some even have armor, weapons, and mounts." I said as the dungeon entrance came into view.

I wasn't sure if I would kill them immediately or let them fall into a false sense of security. Soon, the feeling of my telepathy would be as normal as their own heartbeats.

"What in the Kaiju is that?" Tony asked.

"The dungeon entrance seems to have grown lips," I said.

"I'm more concerned about the hair," Martin said.

"That isn't a monster; it really is the dungeon entrance," Scout said.

I noticed that more strands of muscle had grown along the dungeon's jaw, its tongue was a healthier color, and the teeth growing from its gums were a little straighter. Otherwise, not much had changed since I last entered.

"Dungeons don't look like this; they are holes in the ground, grand entrances, or staircases into the heavens. This is a head; did someone bury a giantess." Tony said.

"I'm not going in there. I need to report this to my superiors. Sell it to us. I don't care about the price; this hasn't been seen before. I don't know if it was the fell energy or sudden influx of mana to a barren land, but this isn't normal." Tony said.

"So now you want to do your job," I said.

"This is bigger than you and me," Tony said.

How could this fool continue to babble and search for common ground?

I grabbed him by his lab coat, lifted him off his feet, and shook him. "This is what your feces-spewing mouth has bought you. Go in or don't. I've been paid. Enjoy the dungeon; I have cornbread to make." I said.

"I know this is sudden, but we would like a guide." Ms. Birdmask said.

My hand released the annoying tamer.

"Hosts are not expected to guide you through a dungeon; besides, it wouldn't do you any good," I said.

"Who are you to say that farmer?" Scout asked.

I sighed and closed my eyes. "You're right; all of you have already waived liability; go nuts, have fun in the dungeon. The first floor only has a few tens of thousands of monsters on it, about 6 mid-bosses, and a single main boss. Clearing it shouldn't take a team more than 6 hours if you're careful." I said.

"You seem so experienced; why do you think you won't be any help?" Meng Bai asked.

"Because this dungeon is young." Ms. Birdmask said.

I nodded. "Look at you, solving life's great puzzles. I've been in the dungeon four or five times, and it's never been the same. It has been settling, I think, but not by much. Bosses are the only part of the dungeon that has any sort of consistency. But don't worry since I'm playing host. If you aren't out in, let's say, 6 hours, that's twelve inside, then I'll come looking for you." I said.

"Today, I only plan to scout a small area and retreat. Again, your presence would make us feel safer. Why wouldn't you go in with a team at your back unless this is a trap," Ms. Birdmask said.

"Fine, if you really want my help. First dibs on loot drops." I said.

Chapters up to 34 are free on my patreon
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[Ultimatedaywriter]

Day 21

"You go too far." Ms. Birdmask said.

I tapped my foot on the dungeon's tongue and watched it wiggle in response. Saliva lined the hard pallet, dripping down slowly, keeping the mouth nice and moist. Hot breath blasted my face from a set of lungs that could work a steel foundry. Some of the back teeth were coming in straighter than I imagined. There was a slight crookedness to one of the front teeth that was concerning. Could a dungeon get braces?

The ludicrous thought brought me back to the situation. A smile threatened to spread across my face at the thought of new and interesting loot. I hadn't tried out floor 2 yet, and floor 1 was most likely altered after our encounter. While the Blood Lake may survive, I'm sure the dungeon has taken steps to limit where the secret boss could be taken. Fighting that monster on the Blood Lake would be incredibly difficult. I felt my lips curve upward and couldn't help feeling the anticipation.

Another run already when I had only taken a day out in the real world to readjust. I didn't know if I could handle it.

"Atom, don't go yet; we made something that we think you'll need," Veronica said.

I turned to see Veronica running over with a massive backpack made of leather and stitched with spider silk. Runes were etched into its surface, and the system gave me the details.

Atom's backpack of friendship
Description: A backpack made of freshly cured hides, sewn with maneater spider silk, and enchanted for durability, it boasts 1/10th​ weight and tripled interior space.

I fully planned to load it entirely with skill shards. The backpack was easily my height, and when the straps were tightened, it would rest a little taller than me.

"Veronica, this gift is incredible; thank you." I hugged my favorite bird, and she surprised me by pushing her beak against my lips. A quick kiss made her fluff up her feathers.

"Disgusting, but what else can I expect from a farmer. No one else would want to sleep with you." Tony said.

I pulled Veronica back before she could throw a kick and take Tony's head off.

"If that's your opinion, you won't have many friends; monster porn is popular even if most are scared to indulge in the flesh for a good reason. But there is something I don't understand. Why would you say something like that in front of a man's monster?" Scout asked.

Veronica fired a kick that popped the air; her talons were only an inch away from slashing Tony's throat. I wrapped an arm around her midsection and pulled her back. She was being adorable, so I couldn't get mad at her.

Tony looked like he was about to loose his bowels, and the others looked concerned. I rolled my eyes; it was only a light kick that easily dodged or blocked.

Still, I was the host; I had to go through the motions and chastise Veronica. "These people are under my hospitality. We can't kill them unless they do something to disqualify themselves as guests."

Tony smiled, only for Ms. Birdmask to speak up. "What did you mean by first dibs? Do you mean the first choice on every drop?"

I had hoped Veronica's display would have distracted her from that. Leave it to an Eastoner to keep her eyes on the prize. Instead of taking them for everything they were worth, it was time for damage control.

"No first dibs here means the first choice on boss drops that I participate in. If I don't fight, then I don't get anything." I said.

"I thought it meant the first choice among all the loot we gather after we leave the dungeon before distribution. Cultural differences sure are confusing." Meng Bai said.

"I like that one better," I said.

"Let's flip on its heads; we do it the Weston way, tails we do it the Easton way." Meng Bai said.

He took out a coin shakily and flipped it after I agreed. The coin landed on heads, and I was stuck on the first pick in every boss fight I performed in. Fu flipped open the top flap of my backpack and peeked out.

"It's not like we would share the loot in our backpack anyway," Fu said.

"Your name is Fu, right; does this mean you're coming with us?" Martin asked.

"Someone has to gather the loot," Fu said.

"Lets all go in together, less chance of getting separated that way," Scout suggested.

"I guess I have to act like a guide then. The dungeon will swallow us when we enter and drop us in a free fall." I said.

"So you really have been in the dungeon, and you weren't bluffing," Scout said.

I gave the tamer a harsh look. Before I said anything, I was interrupted.

"I'm not great at flying, but I can hover for a few seconds; if I flap fast enough, maybe I can slow your fall," Veronica said.

She was so eager to be useful I couldn't take advantage of her like that. But if she wanted to help me by flying, maybe I could snag some skills to help her out. I could load her up into a flying specialist with psychic bombardment or blood skills for the eventual Blood to Flesh, Blood of Souls, and the other rare to legendary skills.

I honestly forgot most of the names for skill ranks. It was the kind of thing I learned for a test and forgot it afterward. After rare I believed it was epic or was epic after legendary. No, the rank after rare was O for obscure. Then it was legendary, mythic, forgotten, and unique. These rarities didn't actually have much to do with skill power. Epic came from the system that established that, but it was less important to the system than skill rarity, so there wasn't any text for it.

Reality called voiced by the other tamer. "Well, my Red Hawk Hank can't carry more than 5 people; how did you manage it last time?" Scout asked.

"Don't worry about me; there are some nice soft trees to break my fall," I said.

"How high is your endurance at level 10? Did your family raise your attributes illegally?" Tony asked.

"I don't think I'm going to incriminate my family today. Besides, the Graves family should get ready for a legal battle soon over the illegal attempt to seize a farmer's class's property through physical coercion." I said.

"A judge will throw it out," Martin said.

The mage and everyone else missed the point. I wouldn't have a legal battle against Tony Graves but the Graves family. Then again, what would I win if I beat Tony. I doubt he would have much money left if he somehow made it to a big city to heal his monsters. How much of his family's money could he possibly have access to as an assistant researcher.

"My family tried something similar a century ago, and the laws are no fairer now," Martin said.

I smiled as we approached the throat leading into the abyss. Muscles expanded, saliva dripped, wetting the throat, and the tongue stretched to get a taste of us.

"This doesn't feel like a dungeon. How can we be sure this isn't some giantess?" Tony said.

Gulp!

The swallow was sudden, and darkness took us in its embrace as limbs flailed while contracting and relaxing muscles pushed us down through the long tunnel to the first floor. It had changed again, becoming more textured under my hand, and the smell was terrible.

I debated reaching for Tony and snapping his neck. That would feel good but not satisfying. I wanted to eat my cake, but I would miss having it. I decided to settle for something petty. I reached out and grabbed his wrist, snapping the bones quickly before letting go. We were in the dungeon; my hospitality no longer applied here since this was not my land; it was the inside of the dungeon.

The darkness opened to a vast interior darker than what I remembered. Castles dotted the land, crumbling and ancient. Towns appeared in the distance, glowing with structures rising to the heavens, pouring smog into the air. Time had moved in the dungeon swiftly after I had last been here, and floor 1 had greatly expanded. Few trees remained as we fell. Hank appeared and swiftly grabbed the others as Crow Step lightened my body while Fell Wind helped slow my descent. The ground flexed and bulged, spilling a foul-smelling liquid on the ground that swiftly melted the stone of ancient castles.

Floor 1 had changed. For better or worse, I was here again. I landed on a broken tower with barely a bend of my knee as the red hawk flew blindly in the low light. While I told them I would be their guide what was I going to tell them. From what I could tell, the age I had entered the dungeon had ended a long time ago. Who knows, maybe it was my blade that ended the lines of kings.

I turned and saw a statue of myself holding my chianswords battling Isobel. My bunny girl stood proudly, and I looked like a villain. The statues were so adorable I wanted them. Since I wasn't in battle, that was an option. I opened a portal to the outside and tossed both out before it shut.

Dungeon Message
Moderator Atom is not allowed to take objects out of the dungeon, excluding willing monsters that aren't carried on his person or in a back satchel. This is a warning any further acts will result in an infraction and loss of privileges.

I held up my hands in surrender. "I won't do it again. I just really wanted the statues." I said.

There was no answer from the dungeon, so I guessed that I was forgiven. I ducked into the broken tower as it sank into the acid and found a prayer room. Old cloth made of familiar spider silk frayed at the edges, exposing a pink chainsword on a green field. I drew my weapon and compared it to the banner; it was a good attempt but not quite right. Still, it gave me an idea for a symbol. I needed something to distinguish myself from the greater Walker family.

I drew my other blade, shining silver in the glow of my other weapon. A fell weapon would have been a cool balance with my psychic one. Too bad it wasn't to be. A greater theme of the dungeon had inflicted itself on the first floor, consuming others. Grinding forces from the ground crushed the tower's foundation, threatening to topple it.

Since when was the first floor more flesh and bone than monster habitat? An age had clearly ended, and I missed out. The dungeon might be reabsorbing this period. Maybe it would come again. I've heard floors could recycle events; there was a precedent.

A light shown from one of Martin's skills. The hawk looked a little worn down from the high winds in this place, something I didn't have to worry about thanks to Fell Cyclone. Wind Mastery would be a good addition to that skill, along with Wind, so I could begin creating a specialized build. I would turn myself into something like a bird monster that specialized in bird.

A chuckle left me, and my guests gave me weary looks.

"Sorry, I thought of something funny," I said.

An impatient voice roared out of Meng Bai. "What could be funny in this situation?"

"Nothing, the moment passed. Let's get to the city; my blades are hungry for blood and guts." I said.

They didn't look excited or pleased. Weren't we here to kill and plunder what was their problem.

"I think we should head back and come up with a plan; we came here without proper preparations." Ms. Birdmask said.

"Prepare today and be unprepared tomorrow," I said.

"This place has to develop a theme eventually," Scout said.

It seemed he had some dungeon knowledge. Unfortunately, I had a feeling this place would continue developing into the next age. Maybe if we waited a few weeks, they would wipe themselves out and start over, or the dungeon could keep the current time period.

"Maybe if we leave the dungeon will believe this level of technology is too daunting and move to find a level closer to the Renaissance," I said.

"Monster enchanters can't become that advanced. They rely on their bodies, and we rely on tools that's the natural order." Martin said.

This world had a theme of tools. Instead of developing strange new variants of monsters, powerful mixed breeds, and higher ranks, this floor developed an industrial age. Maybe I could collect some skilled workers and managers for my growing population. My guests called them a tribe, and that felt insulting.

I rolled up the banners for my weavers to copy the designs. The symbol was of my chainsword, so mine.

Something crossed into my telepathic range, and I jumped on the broken peak of the tower. The others stiffened after I passed them by. Enhancing my body was second nature at this point with both Telekinesis and Lingering Will. Light pink light wrapped in fell energy shrouded my body as I moved briefly dying down as I focused on the incoming monsters. High in the air, a kite like aircraft with a propeller flew down toward us with two barrels of steel with sights aimed at us.

"Get to the air we have incoming," I said.

"What's going on?" Scout asked.

More planes came into my range until over a hundred dotted the smog-covered sky. They were almost invisible if not for my Perception attribute. Small flecks of light from my psychic energy were all I needed to make out our foes.

I turned to the stunned mercenaries and a frozen Tony. Had they never been in a dungeon? By their words, they seemed to have some experience.

"Farmers shouldn't be able to move like a peak Pillar Formation adept." Ms. Birdmask continued to lose valuable seconds and stand up on Hank when she should have made herself small to its body to assist it in balancing their weight. "Apologies for our earlier disrespect and for allowing this fool to poison our first meeting. I would give myself to you as an apology if you let off my young master."

I decided to throw them a bone. "Negotiations, before offered hospitality, will not be held against you so long as you're alive to enjoy them. Scout, get Hank in the air; we have incoming." I said.

Repeating myself in a dungeon was beyond annoying. "Amateurs," I whispered under my breath and moved.

Stone shifted as I kicked off a wall and used Crow Step and Fell Wind to shift in the air and ran up an unattached castle wall. At the peak of the displaced wall, I sucked in a breath and let it out along with my frustration. Most likely, they couldn't see the enemy, but I could hear the engines atop the castle wall. The bones of a chimera rabbit fell over, covered in the rusting armor.

Close to 300 aircraft had entered my range, and they all had enough Willpower to resist my mental attacks. Fell energy flowed through their bodies and rejected the touch of my mind. They weren't chimera rabbits, but I couldn't tell what they were. My smile hadn't left my face.

I bent my knees, enhancing myself and lighting my body and pack at the same time.

"What are you about to do?" Fu asked.

"You might want to hide. I'm about to cut loose." Rumbling shook the ground, and massive spiders touched my psychic field. They were all massive, far larger than Rond Da, and moving easily through the acid. Heavy metal covered their bodies, leaving only the joins open. On their backs were massive fortifications covered in canons. More of the fell beings were inside them, moving to do innumerable tasks, upkeeping the mobile bases.

"I want one," Fu said.

"You want a fortress on your back," I said.

"No one of those giant spiders. They are probably dumb as bricks and only rank 2, but think of their silk production. Grab two, and my sisters can make clothing without wasting their own silk. Think of all the uniforms I can make for you." Fu said.

"Fine, since I can't beat your argument, I'll try and snatch a few up. I don't know if the dungeon will let me take them out."

Dungeon Message: Moderator can annex any monster that goes willingly, and the portal size can be increased to accommodate. Enjoy the new first floor. Please remember that Floor Two needs to be stress tested. Inquiry: Would dungeon quests with rewards improve user experience?
Y/N

A second when I'm in the zone, ready to unleash Armageddon on my enemies, could feel like minutes. In that time I tried to weigh out the advantages and disadvantages of giving up some freedom in the dungeon in exchange for rewards and direction from the dungeon. No longer would I be a free agent; this would put me under the dungeon's lead. There were consequences to that. If I went against the dungeon, it could unleash monsters from lower floors and be in the right to do so. While these rules were unwritten, they were mutually followed to ensure a beneficial relationship between the adventurer and the dungeon. We fought for treasure and the dungeon killed us for everything we were. In exchange for taking on the risk, the dungeon made things somewhat fair.

Saying yes would see the dungeon actively guiding me and rewarding me for services rendered. It created a deeper relationship between us and put me securely out of the category of adventurer. Doing so would, in a sense, ally myself with the dungeon. There were benefits to those quests and real tangible benefits, not including the drops. I might be able to communicate and better influence the dungeon which was the ultimate goal as a dungeon farmer.

I imagined there were also strings attached unwritten as the official unwritten rules were. Humanity had to find those rules and write them down. Putting myself truly in the position the dungeon gave me would take me from the comfortable rules discovered and written down into an unknown position. Some rules may transfer, and new undiscovered rules would apply. It was exciting.

"Yes," I said.

Floor 1 Quest
Publius Aelius Hadrianus
Abstract: The Kitsunite People were uplifted, inspired, and freed by the dungeon in the guise of the great fox spirit breaking away from the land of Rabilim and settling in their promised land of Kudzu. Hundreds of years later, through trickery, kidnapping, and espionage, they have become the first floor's superpower and subdued all other races. They build their technology to conquer lower floors and break free of the dungeon to seek more resources outside. As my Moderator, it is your task to discipline them. Destroy the superpower and scatter their people to the four winds.

Reward:
5 Attribute Fruit Random
25 Common Skill Shards
10 Uncommon Skill Shards
5 Rare Skill shards
1 Obscure Skill Shard
1 Weapon Upgrade Workbench
1 Bag of Material Holding Warehouse Size



Patreon
Chapters 36 1$, 37 5$, 38 39 10$, and 40 41 20$

 

[Ultimatedaywriter]

Silver Thread could be as sticky as spider silk and as strong as mana and psionic ore alloyed steel. It was the main building material she used in her castle because it had the flexibility stone couldn't provide. When the dungeon rumbled, her Silver Thread flexed but didn't break. Using it as mortar for stone blocks had been novel once. After crushing her own castle once and witnessing it fall again she had looked into solutions.

Architecture was what humans called designers for buildings and structures of all kinds. Engineers were the people who figured out how to make crazy designs possible. Builders did the grunt work of actually putting in the foundation. Isobel wanted to be all three. Every structure she had ever built was a point of pride, and this would be no different. She had hours to build a home fit for her mate and a few workers.

While yes it was important to build apartments for their populace, she was a firm believer in worrying about themselves first. Tents were nice when there was no other option, but with the amount of land they had access to and would have in the future, it was time to build their first home.

Clearly, Atom wouldn't build a home until the stars aligned and he had enough virgin sacrifices to consecrate the land in the name of his ancestors. She was certain he would consider it his job to build their home by what she read from his tablet. Weston's cultural traditions imposed by law to ensure a productive society free of envious neighbors and wasted genetics were clear.

The man was the head of the family, champion of tradition and culture, and the primary breadwinner. He would have one woman to bear his offspring, and she had no say in when or how many. As monsters, they weren't considered equals. Isobel was property along with every monster on the farm. Atom clearly didn't want to treat them that way. He even gave them rights and responsibilities, delegating power like the Easton Emperor himself or a monster king.

Rank 8 monsters aside, Atom had to have a Weston wife to be taken seriously by society and to have human Weston children. Any children he had with her would be of her species with a single skill of his. The rarer and higher the level the skill, the more likely it was to be inherited. Their children would come out as dumb rabbits a little better than animals and try to rank up. Few rank 2 rabbits had her intelligence, though they would have a disposition to follow her path. By her estimation, it could take up to 3 months for a rabbit monster to rank up for a low rank 2 with little intelligence but high Agility.

"Lady Isobel, we have cleared the area for building. What is our next step?" Big Jon asked.

"I will use my telekinesis to lay the foundation." Clearing land with her mind was something she had lots of practice in.

Her ears twitched at a slurping sound. She turned to Veronica, who was slurping the guts out of a downed Ferret monster. Despite herself, Isobel licked her lips as her mouth watered. She had the mind of a sapient species, and still, she craved to consume to raise her attributes to further her rank. Monsters grew from rank 2 to 3 massively and from rank 3 to 4 was more still. If she only focused on mental attributes, she would only need to consume the flesh of 33 rank 2 monsters. That was only if she didn't care about her next rank itself.

Veronica was lucky she had already picked her next rank. She was already working toward it only waiting for Atom's approval. It was a big jump and a complete species change, and Veronica knew it was worth it. Terror of Sky was not a monster that tamers added to their teams lightly. Intelligent, wise, willful, and charismatic. Veronica needed 150 in every mind category, 150 in every physical category, 5 wind, 5 lightning skills, and 5 cloud skills. Mastery wasn't included but required in all three categories. She would become the backbone of any team. Tamers who trained a Terror of Sky use monsters to supplement the few areas the monster doesn't cover. In the wild, they were able to fight some rank 4 monsters on even footing.

Obviously low bar to rank up wasn't good enough, and she wanted Atom's opinion. She wanted a form pleasing to the eyes that would also give her kittens better attribute growth than her own. Higher-rank monsters can pass down traits like sapience to their young. Immunity to tamer skills would be a trait she would like to pass down.

The only monster types truly immune to tamer skills were the fell, abyss, and demonic pure or duel-type monsters. Of those, she had the option of Black Hat Bunny, Hare of Darkness, Jackalope Imp, Succubun, and Angel Thumper. As a breed closest to rabbits, though she was more a chimera, rabbit genetics presented strongest. She was sure to have fox, spider, and crow in her ancestry. Leaning heavy into the rabbit side would make her ranks stable. At rank 3, anything with chimera in its name, according to the rank compendium, was insane. Whether that was due to tamer skills or other factors, she wanted no part of it.

Getting to rank 3 soon with an appropriate mid or high was the key. Monsters of the second rank were still only testing their defenses. It wouldn't be long before a rank 3 or worse, a group of them came to investigate this pen of food. So far, Atom's presence stopped them. Even rank 3 monsters knew to fear the monster. That wouldn't last forever.

Rank 3 monsters were cautious, not cowards. A prize like Atom's farm couldn't be left to its own devices.

…

Quest
Romulus Augustulus
Abstract: Time and a lack of enemies have caused the culture of the empire to fray until hedonism has consumed the once hardworking and innovative spirit of the Kitsunite Race. After striking down those who once rode your people into battle and slaying the great cock of the east, no more mountains were left to climb. Even the great Rong Da has been turned to the empire's ends, birthing dumb Ancient Iron Tarantulas to become tools of war and luxury. A test was decided to determine if the empire could pool what nationalist pride and hardworking people remained and expand once more. A calamity has come to your lands, wielding the weapons of your ancient enemies. Block and this flail will crush your bones, deflect, and your rot will do you in. Only by overcoming this powerful foe will the empire earn its right to survive.

Reward:
Portal to Floor 2 or the outer world.

Akane read the abstract a second time to fully let the situation sink in. She had only picked the flesh from her father's bones, so to speak, a year ago and still hadn't finished stabilizing her rule. Generals were replaced, weapons of war scrapped, and the military budget slashed to make way for programs to better the lives of her people. Health care, schools, and new roads were her way of standing out from earlier emperors. Her father's Shogun Ryota had cautioned her against decreasing her military power in favor of civilian programs. In her defense, her father had ruled for 8 decades, handling only small uprisings from their client states, such as Rabilim and the renamed Battle Chicken territory of Aomori. Until she received the message, she prepared herself to rule through one meeting at a time, slowly making their client states more Kitsunite than the generations before.

Roads were the secret; she knew it and felt it in each of her long, fluffy tails. Three was a good number for her age and training. Akane's father had 5 before he died, and former Shogun Ryota had 5. Tails meant power beyond war gear and drug enhancement. With only three, she would be considered a weak ruler by her people for some time. This crisis wasn't doing her any favors.

One of her handmaidens knocked on the door of her private room. She hoped there wasn't a riot; that was the last thing she needed.

"Empress, Minister Farnsworth is here to see you." She said.

The one-tailed kitsune looked away as Akane's three tails flicked back and forth as she struggled to keep her cool. Military spending wouldn't help them, no matter what any advisors told her. They didn't have time to build factories for war gear against an enemy already at their gates.

"Let the bird inside," Akane said.

A tall white feathered bird with a bright red waddle strode in on bright orange legs. "My lady, it's terrible the Shogun has gone rogue. The 23rd​ fighter squadron and the 44th​ Death Walkers have left their base toward the old kingdom of Rabilim. Are the bunnies rebelling again?" Farnsworth said.

The kitsune stood to her full height of 9 feet, towering over even the battle chicken. A cold wind blew around her as her tails flicked. She wanted to be a just and wise ruler. Peacetime would have allowed so many changes. It was unfortunate.

"Call a meeting of my ministers; we need to discuss the future of our nation.

…

My quiver had many arrows, and speed was the one I most enjoyed. The wall collapsed under my feet as I launched myself at incredible speeds. Lightening my body and then launching myself allowed me to accelerate quickly, though I was less aerodynamic than a brick. Planes flew up above at low altitude, unprepared for an enemy like me.

I landed on the first plane and stabbed the pilot and copilot. Blood drained from their wounds into my blood temple. The imaginary temple of sacrifice could store blood in an imaginary shadow avatar. Like a mana pool, though tied to a life force instead of the mind, my physical attributes, particularly Endurance, Constitution, and Vitality, decided how much my blood temple could store. Since the skill could level, that number would increase with time. The planes could only fire in front of them and were slow to maneuver.

400 planes were minutes of work to destroy. I stood atop the last one smile stretched across my face in the blistering wind as it carried me into the nearest fortress-mounted spiders. I jumped off right before my plane blasted through a window. Two Fell Slashes took me into the interior of a carrier. There, I met a massive fox man with three tails wearing a military uniform straight out of the Weston warring states period. I sensed the fell energy in the monster's body and knew how they might have an advantage over other monsters.

A blood spear appeared from within an imaginary temple and fired as if from a crossbow. The fox's tails raised, stretched, and hardened like steel. Blood hardened like iron scraped, cracked, and flew in multiple pieces. A tail speared through an afterimage as my chainsword found its home in the fox's chest. Blood drained from the corpse, leaving a petrified sac of flesh behind.

I raised a hand, and small drops of blood appeared, slowly circling one another. Blood Temple was strange; it was the source of my Blood Manipulation. Blood skills required blood to be used and burned blood when in use.

My next move was slow and meticulous. I swept through every room and killed every enemy combatant. Minds were easy to sense even if I couldn't destroy them at a distance. Fell was the problem, and the only solution I could think of was learning more psychic skills. Rounding out my skills and then fusing them together was probably best.

I cleared the other two spiderwalkers with no trouble. The foxes had firearms and, more surprisingly, thumbs to hold the rifles and fingers to pull triggers with tiny clawed tips, but I always knew where they were, and I was faster than them.

"It's not that they're weak; you are so much stronger than them. We are also in an enclosed space where you know exactly where they are. Then there is your blood trick." Fu said.

"It's worth the expense. Guns become useless at rank 4. The disparity of rank makes firearms obsolete." I said.

That wasn't the whole truth. Firearm skills were too expensive for anyone without Rank 4 resources. It wasn't that I couldn't get damaged by bullets; this dungeon didn't support firearms with skills. Some marksmen are incredibly powerful, even in the higher ranks. Dungeons with skills to support them were rare. An archer was vastly less expensive to train than a marksman because all firearm skills started at uncommon. The military had first pick and rarely left anything for civilians. Psy Bolt bordered on Psy Bullet, a skill that can either create bullets of psychic energy or give bullets the ability to deal psychic damage. I might never see Psy Bullet in my lifetime.

For the price of one marksman, 1000 archers can be trained. With range and power alone, a fully trained marksman was worth 2000 archers.

Fu gathered skill shards for me the whole time while we trudged through the structures. After clearing out the last one, I made my decision. I found a bolt action rifle with a scope and spotted Tony.

"Fu, I want you to convince one of the giant spiders to leave with us if you can," I said.

"What are you doing?" Fu asked.

I liked that she could ask me questions without fear.

"I've decided to eat my cake. Having it will only let it rot until it's not good anymore." I said.

"What," Fu asked.

I found Tony hiding behind a boulder through the scope. I saw he had fallen off Hank and was alone. Confronting him was tempting. Gun ranges were all the rage in big cities and small towns. Most monsters had bones thick enough to shrug off the rounds sold to civilians or could heal from the injury itself. There were exceptions. Fu could be killed by a rifle easily enough. If she was in a position to be picked off like that, then something had gone horribly wrong anyway. I squeezed the trigger slowly to a loud bang.

Tony's head shot to the side, and pink mist appeared in my scope. A sport had given me the tools I needed to take my revenge, and it felt like I checked off a chore.

That was the worst part about it, I hated Tony, but he was dead the moment he entered the dungeon. He could have lived if only he had left to report the dungeon. All he would have had to do was his job.

"How do you feel?" Fu asked.

I tossed the murder weapon on the ground and blasted it repeatedly with Psy Bolts. Only a mangled hunk of slag remained when I was through.

What was the Weston thing I could say? The answer hit me then. "I feel like I need a woman," I said.

Fu chuckled. "You'll be fine then; maybe ask Veronica when we get back. I'm sure she'll be all over you."

I sat in the captain's seat of the fortification and stared at the city in the distance. Killing so many would be difficult. There could be millions there, and I was expected to scatter them to the four winds. I checked through the skill shards for anything interesting. There were a few changes to the first-floor line up I could see. We found well over 50 skill shards and a single attribute fruit from nearly 2000 deaths. My dungeon melancholy hadn't subsided. I needed weeks to recover, and I had a day.

What could I do to completely take my mind off my problems and blank out? I went through the fortification and found the living quarters. A poster of a fox with three tails standing tall and regal in her coronation was impressive. Despite being a fox, she had human hair and stood with human poise. The writings were translated by the dungeon, but there was a lot of information.

I found maps of roads, diaries, and, best of all, propaganda. After my investigation, I had a good idea of the capitol's layout. Getting into the royal palace wouldn't be hard. The aqueducts under the city let out into the blood lake. If I entered through there and fought my way through the alligator monsters. There was an entrance near an alleyway adjacent to the palace. From there, I could investigate further and see if there was anything I could do to further my goals.

How do you eat a dragon? One bite at a time. Before I could begin scattering the Kitsunite people, I had to get into their city.

I picked out the skills I wanted.

Ping!
Fell Blitz lvl1
Fell Manipulation lvl1
Psy Lance lvl1
Fell Lance lvl1
Wind Lance lvl1
Blood Lance lvl1
Lightning Strike lvl1
Avatar lvl1
Ride lvl1
Affection lvl1
Obedience lvl1
Leadership lvl1
Skill Sight lvl1
Behind the Curtain (R) lvl1

Moving forward, I needed to be more than a single warrior, and if skills could help me get where I needed to be faster, then all the better. My head throbbed from all the new skills and the memories that came with them. I could feel my sanity tear at the edges of my mind and knew what I needed to do to compensate.

I took the experience I gained from selling eggs and spent it on my level.

Ping!
Farmer lvl50

The burning sensation was gone, and in its place, I could feel every cell in my body alight with its own miniature star chamber within. My skin toughened up to a level I could barely comprehend, and I felt the beginnings of an unending amount of energy move through me. My agitation melted under a new high, a better high than melancholy. It felt like winning after taking losses for so long.

Stress melted, leaving me with a warm soup of happiness. Then, the skills hit me, and I knew I was in for a fun time. A shadow of my former feelings returned, and I knew this would be the final time in this dungeon for the full 100-day month of summer, if not until spring. A full 400-day year without going into the dungeon felt completely reasonable to me.


Up to CH36 is on my patreon for free.
CH37 1$, CH38 5$, CH39 CH40 10$, CH41 CH42 20$

 

[Ultimatedaywriter]

Day 21

I sat on the head of a giant spider while it shivered under me. Steel-plated legs shifted nervously from their nervous movements the corpse of a Kitsunite fell off the platform behind me. In my peripheral, a spy wearing black with two tails with a small camera crew was sneaking away. My blades remained sheathed, and no skill tore them apart just before they crawled on the ground like maggots out of range. Watchers from a nearby castle were sending a report through a clicking device down a large set of wires. A sniper far off in a nest shook as their fingers struggled to move.

Bang!

My head rocked back to the side, only for a heavy flat disk to fall in my lap. Blood welled up from the wound before Regeneration closed the flesh wound, leaving no scar. Wrath boiled in my blood, hungry to be unleashed. There was something about the dungeon that shortened my temper.

Chemicals flowed out of chimneys and filled the air with smog. The beautiful medieval fantasy world I was just starting to like had been tossed in the trash to be discarded. Mounts that chimera rabbits once rode had taken over and become the dominant monster in this dungeon.

I missed my chance to take Isobel here and get her reaction. I slashed my blade and sheathed it. Fell Slash crossed an insane distance and cut the sniper in half.

"Are you alright? You seem different?" Fu asked.

I closed my eyes and let the feeling of invincibility wash away, leaving only embers left of my anger. My finger twitched and a slash of fell energy cut through a cannon. Fell was by far the energy I was most familiar with. Kitsunites had it in their blood, their weapons, and their building material. To them, I might as well be a natural disaster.

"Sorry, I'm just having a pity party for one here. The dungeon made this actually winnable, or maybe I'm overthinking this. Maybe the Kitsunites specialized their technology too much. Fell energy is practically filling the air. Psychic skills are weak here, but fell is easy." I said.

"Would you rather fight my mother again?" Fu asked.

Fu's smirk was cute. She kissed my forehead where the bullet hit me. "You need to take better care of yourself. You're already covered in blood again."

Being nagged at by her felt ok.

I turned my attention to a plane making an escape and pointed my finger. A lance of fell energy blasted out from the structure, half covered in steel. Dozens of lances followed, firing at subsonic speeds at the fleeing aircraft.

Fell energy was also psychic, but the other half of an equation. When psychic power impacted the world, the force of its existence created a reaction. By pressing on, reality fell pressed back. That was my hypothesis from repeated use of both fell and psychic energy. I could be wrong, and there were probably articles about the topic.

One of my lances struck a wing in a burst of purple light.

"The plot thickens," I said.

"You already wiped out hundreds of them," Fu said.

"They exploded with purple light every time I hit an engine or a fuel line. When my fell energy gets near them, the skill homes in like its targeting the fuel lines and engines." I said.

"Where does psychic fuel come from? Wait, they fly with telekinesis." Fu asked.

I danced the Gemini Waltz atop the giant spider's head. Hank, the red hawk, flew down and landed behind me.

"What are you doing?" Ms. Birdmask asked.

"I'm dancing to the tune of the cosmos. The stars are my partner." I stopped mid-swing and turned off my deadly partners. Twins were always great dates. Another thing I may never get to enjoy. "Have you found what you were searching for?" I asked.

"I can't figure out this dungeon's theme." Ms. Birdmask said.

Dancing put me in a mood, and I felt like expressing it. "We're in the ruins of the old one, and the current iteration stands in all her glory. She is a dirty wench wearing a see-through dress of smog, with skin of steel, and burning coal for blood. Look upon her with pity; her time is up, and no one will mourn her passing. To be great, she must tear down tradition and honor to exploit and enslave." I said.

I had options, and my mapping skill absorbed the maps I looked over, which would help me in my one-man campaign to see this city fall and its people scattered. The longer I stood in the ruins of the floor before, the more certain I was in my actions.

"While that painted an interesting picture with your words, I meant, what role are we taking. We found no artifacts here in these ancient ruins or inheritances. I saw no herb gardens kept for millennia or pill stores. Only skill shards, chianswords, crossbows, pieces of armor, and unidentified fruits had dropped so far." Ms. Birdmask said.

I tossed her a healing potion.

Meng Bai caught it. "This is unexpected."

"Alchemy here rarely turns their ingredients into pills. We prefer inhalants, potions, or crystals. How about we see what's in the city? I'm sure our resident tamer is dying to tame a nice foxy girl." I said.

"I'm not interested in getting my dick ripped off," Scout said.

"Do you know who got Tony?" Martin asked.

"Was he cut into pieces with his guts steaming in a pile, with his head resting on top, and with a horrified expression on it?" I asked.

"No," Martin said.

"Then I wasn't the one who did him in. Can you tell me where his corpse is? I would like to take some selfies and maybe make a poster for my wall." I asked.


"Let's focus. I've heard of this scenario before. Time flows normally until the society is destroyed. For the dungeon to hasten the passage of time, we must bring this city down, and tomorrow we will see a new, better world." Ms. Birdmask said.

"I love assumptions." The group stared at me like I had a screw loose.

…

In black and white, the calamity seemed to vanish only to appear to cut down loyal soldiers. Death followed the monster, and it was glorious.

Farnsworth was a battle chicken born in a Kitsunite-run hatchery. As a rooster, he was destined to be culled and turned into meat for the very monsters he served. That didn't happen as a stroke of luck; he displayed a rare skill to manipulate the wind.

He was taken from the farm and given an education. After learning of the watered-down nonsense of the empire's history, Farnsworth gained a hunger for the truth. In his journey of enlightenment, he learned that the ruins outside the great city once housed the kingdom ruled by his people. The foxes were once nothing more than beasts of burden ridden by chimera rabbits.

There were battles between the battle chickens and the chimera rabbits over the honor of the once most superior weapon of war, the chainsword.

So when he saw the calamity wielding a chainsword in the ancient make of his people, he knew this was destiny. The Kitsunites would fall for what they did to his people, and when the dust settled, there would be a new order. Only one woman made him second-guess himself. His savior was also his greatest enemy.

He still remembered the first time he met the emperor in person. The Kitsunite was making a meal of the hen that laid him. Akane refused to eat because it upset him. She was different; at least to him, Akane showed respect.

"Minister Farnsworth, do we have the finances to pursue this war?" Akane asked.

The treasury would be full of the former emperor's clever planning and frugal spending. Teams of Kitsunite accountants once worked tirelessly to audit and limit military spending to get the maximum outcome for their coin. Blackmail, scandals, and so much poison had culled their numbers until the treasury lay unguarded. A few clever booking tricks he learned from the very accountants he blackmailed helped him siphon the empire's wealth and hide it in a number of dummy accounts and research institutions. Time and patience had allowed him to set the empire up for a knockout blow it would never recover from.

"I will find the money; we may have to go into debt with some of the well-off corporations, but we can expect a massive return soon. We can borrow with high-interest rates since we are guaranteed to make the returns. I don't think we will have a shortage of capital."

"Are civil programs so expensive?" Akane asked.

Farnsworth looked around but none were willing to look him in the eye. Win or lose, Kitsunites would not rule at the end of this.

"We can not fight this foe like we have others. He is not an army, and we can't treat him like one. We need heroes that can defeat this monster." Akane said.

"Did you say heroes?"

Farnsworth nearly broke his own neck to look at the crackpot head scientist of the defunct superior soldier program. He had no eyes; only scarred tissue remained on his head, with only one ear remaining unburnt. A single black orb with a purple iris floated over the man's shoulder, seeing for him.

"Dr. Raito, you came to save me," Akane said.

She broke decorum and rushed to the broken Kitsune's side. On the inside, Farnsworth seethed. The Shogun was killed by the calamity not in a mighty duel but as an afterthought. Planes fell like gnats before a gale, and the last true ally of the empress had come with strange fell powers not seen since the empire's founding. It was an upset he wasn't expecting.

When he caused the scientist's accident, Farnsworth assumed that would be the end of the man's career. Through darkness and pain the man returned to duty a true fell fox if there ever was one.

"I had created a jell that, when rubbed into a subject's brain, will induce the evolution of their latent full potential." Dr. Raito said.

It was completely insane rambling. A statement with no proof.

"Nonsense, you can't believe this. He's obviously insane from his injuries." Farnsworth said.

"I understand you do not like my friend. But don't be jealous, Minister Farnsworth. I'm not replacing you; my heart is big enough for more than one friend." Akane said.

"Indeed, it is good to have many friends. You never know what they might tell you about friends of friends." Dr. Raito said.

It was telling that the man didn't have the guts to oust him in this meeting. Either national pride took precedence, or he had no evidence. Either way, while Farnsworth controlled the finances and the accountants informed the empress of those finances, it would be easy to blame embezzlements on the man. In less than a month, he would turn Akane against the man, and then it would be time to get rid of their dear empress if the calamity didn't end this empire first.

"You will have whatever you need to help save our empire. Farnsworth writes Savior a blank check. I don't care where the money comes from. We need to win." Akane said.

…

In a hidden room in the bowels of the royal palace, she watched a replay of the massacre of the 44th​.

What kind of being could so callously slaughter her soldiers like a kitsune in a battle chicken nursery? Her answer was a sad one. There was no smile on his face when he slaughtered; it was a chore to him as he waved his blades and unleashed death in a beautiful dance. Akane found her mind wandering picturing herself dancing with the only male with the status to be her superior. As she was the leader of her nation, he was the destroyer.

"As you can see, he wields the very fell in our atmosphere as a weapon. The dungeon has set against us a terrifying foe. I believe we have barely seen the tip of the bayonet with this one." Dr. Raito said.

"Calamity wasn't just a fancy name the spirit gave him," Akane said.

"I have worked in secret for decades on this project for your father. While others will believe my work is only now rising from the ashes, my results are ready for deployment." Dr. Raito said.

50 soldiers were all that stood between her nation's annihilation and a prosperous future. She watched the men march, each a Kitunite with 5 tails and some with 7, the most she had ever seen. They were the strongest she had ever heard of.

"Their bodies are enhanced with alchemic elixirs designed to improve muscle growth. Procedural injections of liquid fell turned them from one-tailed kitsunites into the warriors you see before you. While it stops their growth completely, they have become more powerful than most do in their entire lifetimes. Bone marrow injections have made their bones more flexible and harder than steel. While most can expect to only live for 5 years before tumorous growths ravage their bodies, a few have a chance to live full lives. Allow me to be the first to introduce to you your praetorian guard." Dr. Raito said.

"The emperor is the empire." She whispered.

"I have no doubt the calamity will target you to decapitate our empire. So I suggest you find a nice young noble and have children without delay. None of your cousins remain killed by assassins to isolate you from anyone who might counsel you. I fear we have let outsiders too close to the levers of power." Dr. Raito said.

"Thank you, Dr. Raito, but Minister Farnsworth is trustworthy. I know it because I protected him from being culled when he was a chick. There is no one more loyal than him." Akane said.

The old fox snorted, but she paid him no mind.

…

"How are we going to destroy an empire?" Martin asked.

"I was also curious," Scout said.

We waded through the dirty river leading into the city. Blood filled the water as I cut gator monsters into pieces. No one guarded the entrance, thanks to the hundreds of monsters attacking anything that twitched wrong.

A smile slowly spread across my face. It was a good question.

"Honestly, my go-to method in this situation is a windstorm," I said.

"That sounds dangerous to the rest of us." Meng Bai said.

"So, what is your current plan."

"I thought I would find the Finance Minister and force him to cause a financial crisis. That's how most empires fall well that and foreign wars." I said.

"I assure you no dynasty fell for such methods in our country." Ms. Birdmask said.

"No, just rampant alcoholism." Meng Bai said.

"Young master, whose side are you on." Ms. Birdmask said.

I thought about it but shook my head. There wasn't enough time; I wanted to be back home in time to cook supper. Ration bars were weapons of mass demoralization.

"So what if instead I seduce the empress and have her turn the empire into a true democracy."

"No offense, but she's a fox," Martin said.

I noticed none of them questioned if that would destroy the people. Actual democracies were nightmares that often failed in bloody revolutions, scattered people, and a complete collapse of society. Really, all I had to do was throw in a little propaganda, hand out some weapons, and wait.

I nodded my head, but it seemed he wanted to make a greater point. "Aren't you scared she'll rip you apart?"

"Oh, and here I assumed you were talking about whether our parts would match up," I said.

"That's what I'm talking about," Martin said.

"Oh, I should up my Constitution just in case," I said.

Martin and Scout rolled their eyes at my little joke.

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[Ultimatedaywriter]

Day 22

With every swing of my chainsword and death of a gator monster, I looked back expecting a betrayal. A part of me yearned for a reason to be alone, and then I would have no excuse but to indulge in wrath until nothing was left. My blades' hunger increased as they dined on meager meals of cold-blooded monsters in a blurring dance of death. As I carved my way through a tribe numbering in the thousands with warriors plenty armed with makeshift armor and high-caliber weapons, I felt the tempo continue ever onward. I danced to the tune of the heavens, not as a puppet but as a guest enjoying the music with a confident partner. There were twists and turns aplenty as the world faded into a series of slashes, feints, and so much blood.

Reality was slow to return, and I fought it every step of the way until there was no more fighting, and the slight smirk on my face died away. My wrath had to slink back under the surface as boring reality took me back to the present. I made peace with the fact that I would have to endure it. I was a victim of my own success.

Societies were fragile things; one minute, I was slaughtering my way through an army of anthropomorphic alligators the next, their tribe's obedience was 100. In all my spinning and slashing, that was the twist I had not expected.

Ping!
Blood Lake Tribe Obedience 100
New Skill
Reptile Command lvl1

It was a confusing feeling when the growls, grunts, and bellows became language. Massive 12-foot-tall killing machines fell on their knees.

"Kill us no more, great one; we know you for the weapons you wield." The Priestess said.

The Priestess was a large gator woman with a short snout, shapely hips, a flat chest, and a long fat tail. Bones of foxes decorated her body, including a fox skull painted black on her crotch. The rubies, in its eyes, were an excellent addition. Strapped to her back and sheathed in a fox skin harness was a trench gun that had seen heavy use. By the smell of gun oil the Priestess kept good care of her weapon, something that I felt we had in common. Many of the other females stood defensively around the Priestess armed with rifles too small for their hands.

"Why haven't you destroyed the foxes above?" I asked.

The Priestess somehow understood my question.

Once again, I was confused because I didn't know how I knew she was the Priestess. Each of the gators felt psychic to me. Some fell spawned around them, but for the most part, they were psychic beings. Living in their environment, I expected them to be more blood-related.

Fu gathered a mighty haul of skill shards and a few leather hide robes, but nothing that caught my eye. The green chainsword that dropped and the odd Dao sword didn't interest me. There was a small green pill kept in a case that Ms. Birdmask looked intrigued by, but nothing really fancy.

By the Eastern-style drops, I expected either they lost one of their bags, or they meant to corrupt my dungeon with their useless crap.

The Priestess spoke. "We take tribute every cycle. In the winter, we use their warm tunnels to spawn and thrive."

I checked over my dungeon farmer skills.

Drop Crop lvl1
Monster Husbandry lvl1
Harvest Theme lvl1
Type Implantation (R) lvl1

There were tons of water-type skills mixed in with the drops from the gators, but nothing caught my eye. I wasn't a water guy. While there were tons of powerful water users, I didn't feel confident in going in that direction.

Cold Blood (UC) lvl1

It was a good addition to this campaign. Blood fell, and psychic energies were quickly becoming my go-to skills. Having a lake of blood to use and cold storage so time didn't reduce my blood supply too quickly was great.

"The foxes have grown fat and lazy. The time has come to eat your fill not on scraps but on the fat of this empire." I said, channeling every would-be conqueror I remembered.

All I needed were numbers, and I slaughtered too many of the large beasts. Thousands lay dead in the blood lake, and I understood something that the others were still processing.

My arms weren't tired, and my chainswords were still ready to continue the slaughter. Having my own band of barbarians sounded like exactly what I needed.

"What are you doing? How can you trust these things?" Meng Bai asked.

"I have a skill that allows me to communicate with them. They have surrendered to me, and I am merciful." I said.

"That is a very Easton way of looking at this situation. What's the plan? Your quest from the dungeon is clear: scatter the Kitsunite empire to the four winds." Meng Bai said.

"There is a weapons factory just beyond the wall. Through the aqueducts we can enter and take it over. Then we'll use the workers to create weapons fit for my new soldiers." I said.

"Have you ever led before?" Meng Bai asked.

"No," I said.

"Alright, the first thing you need to do is establish a chain of command and then teach them how to march. Wait, what about logistics? How are we going to feed these monsters?" Meng Bai said.

Ms. Birdmask tapped her master on the shoulder and pointed up.

"Ah, that explains everything."

"I don't understand why you want these monsters; we could gather some gunpowder and blow the place up. It's only a few miles from the city." Martin said.

There were 20 miles of the city with skyscrapers in the center towering above the clouds of smog. Nestled between them was the imperial palace, where the empress held court and gave edicts. A council of ministers who led thousands of minor officers enacted her will. There were hundreds of gator tribes beneath the city, towering battle chicken hatcheries, and chimera bunny farms. This was an undertaking that should last for months.

In reality, all I had to do was arm a few thousand gators and let them invade the surface. From there, I planned to watch and make further decisions.

I stepped forward between the angry, if terrified, gators, sat my backpack to the side and sat in the Priestess's lap. "Well, Meng Bai, you are my lieutenant," I said.

I pointed at two of the biggest meanest looking females among the tribe. Scars covered their scaley hides, and one was missing an eye but looked no less fierce for it. "Guard him and ensure his will is carried out. Your people will learn discipline." I said.

"So, you know we can speak your language." The Priestess said.

I had no idea, and their mouths were unsuited, but then I felt a broadcast from the Priestess through telepathy. They were natural telepaths in a land where fell energy degraded all long-range telepathic communication. Nope, they were too useful for my homestead to waste here.

My hand reached out and clasped the Priestess's clawed oven mitt of a hand. She had slight webbing behind her first knuckles, but her scales were softer than I imagined. Attributes were really making me superhuman.

That wasn't always a good thing. To use an out-of-date gaming term, attributes were normally pay to win. Items like fruits, elixirs, and inhalents were needed to increase them in humans. Mages worked as enchanters to gain enough Westons to increase their key attributes to make themselves more powerful in their specialized fields. Superhumans were normal people who stumbled upon a rare find and, regardless of their class, became something. In either case, they required capital.

My box substituted money with work, and what else does a farmer do but work. Skills that were normally hard to get off the ground were a breeze for the Farmer class. Once I got going, it was fairly easy to keep up the momentum.

I hesitated to spend my skill points because I was scared of what I was turning into. Would more skills and attributes push me further down this path? I naturally gathered more skills and learned them without a second thought. Before, I had headaches, but after increasing my Endurance and Vitality, those went away.

All the concern I felt melted in the face of more options, power, and that dirty sin of Pride that Eastonites were famous for suffering from. Pride and the feminized men were the greatest downfalls of Easton civilization. That's what people said when I looked into the culture.

I forgot about it. Meng Bai, the shaky, possibly fallen young master, had begun organizing the remaining men of the Drake Gator Tribe, and they were beginning to march. Ms. Birdmask snuck off, and together, they were fulfilling the task I assigned them. Meng Bai volunteered more, but he brought some Easton know-how to my barbarian army.

Fu returned with a massive amount of chainswords bundled together and ready to be distributed. That's what I liked about her. She was a real go getter and reliably reclaimed the loot I let fall to the wayside after fighting my way into the tribe.

"You are trusting." The Priestess said.

"Don't get used to it; we are scouting you to join our people," Fu said.

Was Fu jealous? That was adorable. I would have to tell everyone when I got the chance. The gator looked like she was about to do anything but comply.

"I thought we had already joined." The Priestess said.

"You have. I'm not sure about the others. I do like my seat." I said.

I patted the Priestess's cute green thigh. Visions of doing naughty things with those thighs came to mind, but I let the anger fill me to keep them away. There weren't many reasons to be absolutely livid and the emotion would push me to make rash decisions like accepting to wipe out an entire empire without knowing how large they were.

The only guarantee I had was that everything on the first floor was rank 2 and below. Several skills told me that was the truth of the matter. While the dungeon could use infinite variations, it couldn't break that rule. So I relaxed even in the lap of a monster.

"What makes you so confident?" The Priestess asked.

"Power," I said.

It was simple but right. Power gave me options that a weaker person wouldn't have. Strength might not be everything, but weakness was the greatest sin in the world. That was a little combination of some poorly remembered Weston and Easton sayings combined.

"Will teaching us to march, make us more powerful?" The Priestess asked.

"Do you have a name, tall, green, and scaley?" I asked.

"No we have no need of such frivolities. We call ourselves by our purpose; those without something to call themselves are a liability." The Priestess said.

"How about I name you then? I said.

I stood up from my act of power in the face of a bloodthirsty reptile that only respected my ability to kill her people in massive numbers.

"Only if that name is my position." The Priestess negotiated.

"I think I'll make you my big mean diplomat. That's right, I'm going to fill your head with laws and procedures, and you'll grumpily make deals with people for me." I smiled, and I felt the thrill of a challenge. Turning this big gator full of teeth with thighs to crush melons into an ambassador or diplomat sounded like fun. If I loaded her up with lots of skill shards, then this could be great. "Amby will be your name, Amby, the ambassador," I said.

Amby gave me a stern look, then opened her mouth wide until I could see the red of her throat and the way her tongue flickered out. I spat at her mouth, and she slammed her mouth closed and dodged my spit.

"You seem to have some self-respect; remaining good pride is the most valuable thing a person can own," I said.

Anyone who turned their belly to me and showed they had no line wasn't worth much. Surrendering after more than half of her forces were destroyed was understandable. I didn't blame her for that. Obedience was a powerful skill. It let me see what it took to beat someone into line. Affection, on the other hand, hadn't gone up, and my reputation remained at -40 hated. Having little meters to determine how they really felt was handy.

"How about you plot that butt of yours in my lap?" I offered.

Affection +1
Priestess Amby Affection 1/100

It seemed the ruling class liked being wanted by those with more status than them. My position made me attractive to even Amazonian gator women. That wasn't too much of a surprise, but wow.

What kind of skill would I get when affection reached 100? I'm sure it would be individual-focused and far less about subjugation.

Meng Bai approached again with a look of disappointment on his face. "I think we need more time. This tactic is possible we need months to put it into effect. Otherwise, we'll be sending these monsters to their deaths."

For their plan, they needed more time, and winning here wouldn't do much for them. We had a contract, but with Tony gone, what did it matter. Even my quest with the dungeon didn't really matter. It gave me the quest to make playing the first floor again more fun.

"I was thinking about giving up on this active quest or, if possible, postponing it. We could leave for a month to let this place settle down and tackle it again. I don't think society will move forward without an inciting incident like losing a war or a calamity shattering them. So what if we leave, buy some fliers, steal one of their planes, and drop them for the public." I said.

Meng Bai nodded. It was a plan that I had no intention of following through. Natural disasters didn't erase empires or destroy a people. With two chainswords and a dream, could I do it, wipe out 20 miles and several skyscrapers worth of people?

"Or I could go to the city and start cutting down skyscrapers and killing hundreds of thousands," I said.

I shrugged at the looks they were sending my way. Kitsunes were mid-rank 2 monsters. Given enough time, they could become rank 3 Kyubi monsters, but that rarely happened. Floor 1 wouldn't allow them to rank up, so there was nothing to worry about.

"To leave the field feels like it would set a bad precedent," Scout said.

I stared at the tamer and couldn't help but wonder what his game was.

"We stayed longer than we needed to, and adding over a hundred gators to your numbers will only make integration harder," Martin said.


"At least someone is thinking about the logistics," I said.

"What is the plan then?" Ms. Birdmask said.

"We take them with us; they can eat monsters that invade our territory. Martin and Scout will register as a mage and tamer working on my farm. That will open our ability to purchase and sell skill shards. From there, we sell in moderation so no one gets suspicious. Once things settle down, I'll head West to Cainite and search for specialists to fill some positions. I think the nearest city is either Eden on the Pishon River or Bavilim." I said.

Everyone, even the gators, looked at me like I was insane. Maybe I was, but they followed my orders.

A mountain of gator sat in my lap and I realized I needed to increase my weight training if I wanted to handle her properly.

"You claim we are leaving. What happened to eating the fat of the foxes?" Amby asked.

"There is too much fat to eat; we would drown in it before we made a dent in it. So we're pulling out and focusing on home matters for a month. I'll just scare the local leadership before we leave." I said.

With a flick of my hand a portal appeared to the outside.

"Troops march in pairs of two forward." Meng Bai bellowed.

Meng Bai Reputation 20/100 Excited to have a purpose.

The man seemed to be in his element, so I let him do his thing and tried to learn by his example. I also noticed that no one tried to stay behind or even go through the motions. Maybe it's my fault. Tony's assassination was a rousing success, so maybe I should try and learn more about these people.

I wanted a friend who would tell me when I'm going too far or when I'm about to do something stupid.

Once I was alone again, I spent some skill points.

Skill Points 495
Black Wings 75/75
Embers of Fallen Heroes I 250/250
Maximize Growth I 75/75
Black Rage II 100/100
Break and Grow 50/50
Skill Points: 16

New Skills
Rising Valor (R) lvl1
Starlight Burst (R) lvl1
Blood of Malice (R) lvl1
Specialized Workout (UC) lvl1

+20 Willpower
+15 Strength
+25 Constitution
+21 Agility
+10 Focus
+15 Vitality
+10 Intelligence
+10 Wisdom.

"That was dumb; you could have used them for intimidation alone. Why didn't you give them the choice to stay?" Fu asked.

My body was currently settling after gaining a massive amount of power. So, my words were a little too truthful.

"I wanted them to choose me," I said.

"They won't unless you give them a reason to." Fu crawled up to my shoulder and kissed me on the cheek. "Are you really going to wipe out a city by yourself? Is that possible?" Fu asked.

"Watch, I know the secret to destroying an empire," I said.

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[Ultimatedaywriter]

Day 22

My feet dangled off one of the tallest skyscrapers in the city above the smog and planes. I sat on the roof, looking down into blackness under the light of the dungeon's false sun. The abyss of smog below looked back at me, questioning. Blood dripped from my clothes down through the dark clouds. Bloody footsteps followed in my wake, and my clothes clung to me little more than strips of fabric soaked in blood and gore. My skin had gotten used to the sticky feeling, and I was already nose blind to the smell. Behind me, a five-tailed fox dressed in a strange steam-powered suit of armor with magic runes carved in the metal stood. I counted six effective runes that either enhanced the suit's workings or helped enhance the wearer.

He must have tracked my scent or found my footprints leading out of the sewer. Even if I couldn't shatter his mind, that didn't mean I was unaware of it. Finding someone to fight with was something I liked. I wasn't talking about cutting my way through a civilian population.

Killing was something I hadn't dreamed of being good at. While monsters lived in a kill-or-be-killed world, I was supposed to be a monster tamer, and I would have only killed to feed my monsters. My opinion on my actions was always changing. Seeing the smog-filled sky didn't sway me one way or the other. The Kitsunites had done well from my point of view. They were the upper class, the winners in this game of survival. Maybe I would snag one of their engineers along with the empress on my way out.

Unlikely, I was bound to find something more interesting if I kept my options open.

A sudden shortness of breath worried me. Something was wrong and it didn't have anything to do with the guard that tracked me here. The world spun, and I struggled to keep focus.

I was here for treasure; being greedy was not a bad thing. Power was on the table in vast quantities, and after this fight on the first floor, I wouldn't come back for a full 100-day month. I needed to get my house in order. If anything, I might send small bands of adventurers from my population down to work on their skills and collect loot.

As for my guest I dodged a tail covered in fell energy and countered a gust of wind with one of my own. Two more tails joined in, and the air pressure changed.

"Calamity by order of the empress, you will be destroyed." The soldier said.

Steam billowed out of the power armor as a fist the size of my chest encased in metal and riveted up the arm flew at blinding speeds. It swept through, and afterimage, I ducked under the attack, planted my foot on the would-be hero's backside, and pushed. The power-armored fox stumbled forward, its tails twitched, blasting its body with updrafts, but it seemed the fox was untrained in wind manipulation. No, it was more that the monster wasn't prepared to use wind on itself.

A man standing twelve feet tall, made from blood, with iced-over crimson skin, ten-pack abs, and a black halo sitting over its head raised its palm. This Avatar, Blood of Malice, Blood Temple, and Cold Blood are used together to form a far greater whole. I was prepared to use Skill Fusion to create a skill proper for it but held off until I managed an Avatar for my mana.

I watched the fox regain his balance and turn with his tails whipping about. Blades of biting wind tore open the concrete roof, all stopping before my own Fell Wind.

The creature I created had its own will, an angry, brutal thing without mercy.

A Blood Lance fired from the creature's hand, impaling the fox through the chest before closing the distance. The monstrous Avatar thrust its hands into the wound, and blood quickly flowed out of the monster.

The Avatar of Blood screamed a silent roar before returning to my side and vanishing into the dimension of Blood Temple.

Having only a single Avatar skill felt like a mistake. It was a skill meant for Skill Fusion. Creating a humanoid creature for my Avatar wasn't required. With some more study, I was sure I could make more fitting forms for my skills. Before I contemplated Skill Fusion, I wanted to get more skills of the type I wanted to use. There was something I was missing about the skills themselves.

I picked up a skill shard from the fallen body.

Skill Shard
Steam Punk

When I focused on the skill, I saw tiny groups of symbols inside the crystal. I couldn't begin to decipher them, but it was important.

I thought about kicking the body off the roof, but that would be rude. Letting whoever the guy was with find the body would hopefully bring more of them out. The guy wasn't a terrible fighter; he was just green. Killing enemies in their thousands helped me fine-tune skills the fox was only touching on.

Holding two fingers together, I created a small, highly pressurized stream of air and used it to cut the armor off the monster. From what I could tell, there was a coal-fueled boiler in the chest of the suit. Despite the armor, a single Blood Lance ripped through it easily. While the metal of the suit was of a descent alloy, it wasn't anything compared to my swords. Either the steel-making methods of the Battle Chickens were lost, or the people arming and armoring the foxes didn't want them to survive for long.

Parts of the boiler near the chest had running metal, meaning the heat from the boiler was slowly eating away at the metal. Sooner or later, it would have burst and shot hot steam into the fox's chest. Someone set these guys up to fail. By the way, the guy moved; they were only around four times faster than a normal fox soldier, which was disappointing. I checked the pelt, but the Blood Lance ruined it with all the internal organs in the chest and spine. The body looked freeze-dried like the mummy monsters found in the Kamet Desert near the Green River far to the West.

With all the rune work etched in the armor, I expected to see some runes to protect the user from blowing up, but there were none. That was concerning. With a little better outfitting and deployment, the foxes could be better opponents.

I didn't go out of my way to kill this one. My attempt to merge my skills into a form that used all of them showed a lot of promise. Its first appearance was a little extreme, but I would get used to it with use.

…

One of her Praetorian guards hadn't checked in after his patrol. Later investigations found his body atop Neke tower, implicating them in a conspiracy to assassinate her, according to Minister Farnsworth. There weren't many signs of a struggle and no camera crew to catch the fight in their medium. Pictures taken by Dr. Raito's team show an investigation into the armor of her guard. In other words, the Calamity was learning how best to hunt her protection.

She debated adopting a promising young individual among the engineers and scientists in her palace; hopefully, they could keep the empire together if she died. Akane nervously fiddled with her tails as she sat at her desk. Then she heard fighting in the palace. Akane looked outside, and the weather had betrayed her.

…

My Avatar punched through a set of ornate double doors that made me cringe at their destruction. Anything I could carry out was mine, and the oak doors carved with foxes painted in the colors of imperial royalty looked like perfect additions to my home. I could put them in my house after I built it or maybe in a building for my dungeon.

I envisioned a set of staff, including some merchants, to sell weapons and buy off items found in the dungeon. After all, I didn't plan on being isolated forever. Soon enough, I would have tamers and mages coming to try their hand at exploring my dungeon for a fee.

While I didn't personally do pay to win, I wasn't against using it to my advantage. A smirk sat on my face, not from the challenge, as my 12-foot-tall friend blasted apart the foxes. Heavy weapons fired down a hallway when I tried to cross through. I shook my head at what could have been a death on my part. Fortunately, I had my own ways of doing things.

I found the wall where the gunner stood, separated by a foot of concrete, and let my Avatar thrust his lance through it and the gunner. My blood Avatar pulled the gun back through the hole, ripping it from its installation and taking the ammo belt with it.

My right eye pounded from the effort of micromanaging the blood avatar. It had little intelligence and was hard to control but incredibly useful. Besides, I needed to get some kind of training from this fight. Rank 2 monsters stopped being a challenge after Rong Da.

I felt that if none of them could give me a fight like that, then I wouldn't treat them seriously.

More guards in power armor fell to me as I made my way down a hall of cameras to the office of the empress. Instead of a sexy fox, I found a half-burned mad scientist in a lab coat standing beside a guard outside his armor.

"So you are the Calamity come to ruin our nation. The Kitsunite nation will never surrender to the likes of you." A small smile spread across my face at what the doctor had in his hands. "Do you see the instrument of your downfall? The nation that raised me is stronger than Rong Da and stronger than you. It's already too late to stop us."

I sat my backpack in a corner where I hoped Fu would be safe.

The doctor pushed down on the plunger, shooting the black substance into the neck of the guard.

"Don't make promises you can't keep. I thought you would ask why no reinforcements were coming. Nationalist pride is always welcome. At least someone has a nation worth being proud of. It's a shame I was tasked to destroy it." I said.

Fiery blue fur pushed out of the fox's body as two new tails grew from his backside. His face elongated, forming a long snout; his body fell on all fours, and his hands turned into paws. Flames gathered on the tips of his tails before he crossed the distance and slammed them down on me. I blocked rapid, heavy attacks with my blades, deflecting the tails as the monster leaped and slashed with its claws. Bloody slashes ripped through my chest, and it dodged my kick, follow-up slashes, lances, wind blades, and Lightning Strike.

In a single exchange, I fell down my list of options until I realized that what I was dealing with was a peak rank 2 existence. A smile spread across my face, bigger than ever before. My heart, which had been at a steady rhythm, pounded in my chest as adrenaline poured into my system.

The monster shot forward, crossing the room in a single bound as blood stakes formed a wall around me. It jumped, somersaulting backward to bleed off its momentum before its tails flashed and it opened its mouth. A ball of flames formed bright enough to blind me before blasting the ground in a long white laser of death.

I shattered the floor under me, settling a floor down as the ceiling above melted into slag. A fell slash sliced up through the ceiling as flaming paws dug down onto my floor. Its head moved in, and I slashed with my blade slicing through its nose but doing nothing more than pissing it off. Molten rock fell like rain, and sparks flew into the air as I blocked the monster's claws.

The air burned, and the fell energy went with it in a phenomenon I hadn't seen before. I paid attention; it was one point in dozens that I kept track of in the fight. While it wasn't useful in this fight, there would be others.

Despite the substance in the fox's body, its flames tore at fell energy, thoroughly negating it. I shook my head at my first observation that wasn't right; otherwise why wasn't the fox's fell energy weakening. While I could feel it burn fell energy like coal as bloody steam exited the monster's wounded nose the fell energy wasn't burned by the flames.

Somehow the monster was absorbing the fell energy to fuel its powers. In a world drowning in fell energy the monster would never burn out.

The carpet under my feet burned as the monster shot down and slashed as it grew larger with every breath. I choked on the air as it burned everything away. My lungs burned, but I continued fighting. My blade countered not only its foreclaws but its tails as well.

The monster continued to drag fell energy into itself, condense it and burn it slowly. It shot forward with both paws fully willing to commit as I choked on a lack of air. My lungs burned, but my vision remained the same.

My blood avatar appeared and melted like a man made of wax before an open flame; it threw lances of blood that dissolved before they hit the creature. I let my smile continue growing larger as I burned through the fight.

I opened my mouth and laughed silently when I wasn't passing out from a lack of oxygen. Truly, I had charged in the direction of superhuman.

Strategy was unpracticed, besides tactical decisions. For the first time since fighting Rong Da, I began thinking about how I would achieve victory. I could see in my mind's eye the path of victory based on the fox's own tactics and attributes. While it continued to gain energy for attacks, the building was cut off from the outside so it only had so much fell energy to absorb. With that in mind, I made a series of long-reaching strategic objectives I had to reach to win.

All I had to do was hit it in the right places to ruin its chances of pulling a win. The monster couldn't win, so its loss was inevitable.

Beating it with my chainswords was a win in 200 moves. Any other tactics would only lengthen the distance between myself and victory. I licked my lips as I counted them down, carefully turning my footwork into a dance of death as one of my slashes necked one of its paws. I turned my blade just right to draw blood and then turned the way I needed to. A slash would barely graze the flesh above its left eye. The cuts were hairline almost useless against such a big, powerful monster. I laughed again as I counted down adjusting the number by the mistakes either of us made. With slight twists and the right timing, I nicked the monster in many different places. Strikes it perceived to have won out in were actually paving to way to my victory.

I nipped the joint of one of its elbows twice in our exchanges, relying on my after images to survive long enough to barely scratch the beast. My mouth was so dry I couldn't wait to quench it on the monster's blood. Steam or not, I would find a way to quench my thirst.

The monster stumbled after 190 exchanges, and I capitalized on it. A clean under the arm severing tendons before I moved back into position. Blinding by its own steaming blood on its left side. I took its speed down as it kicked with its back legs but lost its maneuverability. I could taste the win.

I threw my dominant chainsword and watched it embed itself in the monster's chest. Steaming gore flew out of the beast as the saw continued to spin, pulling the monster's insides only stopped by ribs until I shot forward, gripped the handle, twisted it, and plunged. Between ribs, I dealt a mortal wound and leaped back as the monster collapsed while swiping with its good paw and trying to bite me.

Silent laughter left me in great heaving fits as the monster tried to bite at my embedded weapon, only to catch a mouth full of steam. In its distraction, I moved to its side and cut its hamstrings. When its legs collapsed, I stood at the base of its tails and slammed down with my chainsword. Intense heat burned at my face, but the pink saw blades would not be denied. 9 tails fell, leaving stumps behind. Steam poured out of the monster in great spurts as its head shot at me as its one good forelimb moved. I cut the final tendon as it tried to turn in my direction.

I kicked the monster over on its back, impaled it from under the jaw to the brain, and grabbed the handle of my other chainsword. With an easy pull, my weapon was free.

That fight worried me. The fox shouldn't be a threat with the skills I had, but it almost killed me. There was something wrong with me and my skills. Was there some truth to monster skills being incompatible with humans?

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[Ultimatedaywriter]

Day 22
Engineers, chemists, alchemists, and Dr. Raito watched with her from the safety of the bunker as data filed in as they worked. Her army's R&D worked with injected amphetamines, working on real-time data to conjure a miracle if brave Saito, her 9th​ strongest praetorian guard, fought with a bestial cunning against the Calamity. Real-time data from engravings on her guard's bones connected to machines told them what was happening behind the scenes. Her Minister Farnsworth shook beside her as the reality of their situation sunk in. There was no way out, and as a battle chicken born of common stock, her minister struggled against his natural instincts to flee from a mighty predator. On 8 operating tables, her strongest guards were operated on by a team of doctors cutting open their bodies. At the same time, enchanters engraved their organs before using imperfect healing potions to ensure the cuts were scarred. The smell of antiseptic filled the air as all of Dr. Raito's staff worked tirelessly while he gave commands to prepare their bodies for the changes. Even they were only used to buy time for her to go under the knife. Every second the 9th​ bought them was another moment to prepare to take in the evolution solution. Vats of inky black substance waited in various ways of administration to test and see what gave the best results.

Dr. Raito burst into the command bunker of the imperial palace. "Intelligence must be preserved to prevent the 8th​ from falling the same way the 9th​ will."

"He hasn't lost yet," Akane said.

"I like your optimism, young lady. When the 8th​ finishes, it will be your turn to go under the knife as more hands are freed. We must prepare you to be the final defense of our nation. I wanted more time to perfect the procedure, but all I could do was test my hypothesis 8 more times. We will better the process before we get to you. Our understanding of the substance has increased in recent years. My staff has only improved this mixture touches upon the limits that our floor allows." Dr. Raito said.

"Isn't there some way to get out of this? We can find a body double to take her place." Minster Farnsworth said.

Akane shook her head. "I will be the final defender of our nation as the Empress."

"I admire your sense of duty. You shall be the strongest. And the Calamity may be stopped long before you must fight." Dr. Raito said.

Her long, fluffy tails wagged at the man's words even if she knew it was only to keep morale alive. One of the doctors was losing his fur, and some of his teeth were falling out as the stress ate him alive. The drugs pumping into his system were the only things keeping him moving. If not for his steady hands, she would have had him removed already.

"You don't have to do this." Minister Farnsworth said.

"Everyone else is putting their lives on the line for me and the empire. I know you were always more loyal to me than our nation. You have to let me go, little chick. This is for the best." Akane said.

The rooster crowed out of his frustration and anguish and tore had his feathers. Akane watched as the Calamity cackled while burning alive fighting the 9th​. He wouldn't die, not when the ceiling dripped molten rock or when claws met primitive chainswords.

Slowly, the minister put himself back together and focused. "He relies heavily on his weapons, but the old models were prone to breaking without regular maintenance. Can we destroy them?" Minister Farnsworth said.

"200 moves," The Calamity said.

She felt a chill run down her spine as a wound appeared on the 9th,​ then another. It looked like they were dancing as the air lit on fire while the Calamity counted down. Bloody steam shot out of the 9th​'s wounds until the Calamity took a tendon. That she knew was the end of the fight. Burned skin peeled away to reveal new pink flesh underneath the Calamity's body. Like a gator shedding, the monster seemed invigorated as his snarl split his face upward. Laughter ran through the audio as the Calamity took the 9th​ apart before finishing him.

"I don't know." Dr. Raito said.

"We finished closing on the 8th;​ vitals are recovering we're ready to administer the substance."

The firm hands of the medical staff grabbed her shoulders as the Calamity cleaned and sheathed his weapons. From different perspectives, cameras showed him reclaiming his bag.

"You need to drink this before we begin to operation." An alchemist said before practically pouring a red mixture down her throat. The 7th​ finished then and another doctor joined the team working on her while the other moved on to the 6th​.

"Drown him in the substance until his lungs are full, then resuscitate him."

Before Akane blacked out, she prayed they didn't choose the drowning method for her.

…

My nakedness was a cause for concern. Skin flaked off of my body onto the expensive carpets of richly furnished rooms. Staff fled before me as I yanked down a curtain and tied myself to a kilt from the Verdant territory. I remembered the video I watched once and managed to tie it right. Luckily, my belt and sheathes survived the battle. The heat had been intense, and I could only really protect my eyes. Burnt hair fell off my head, leaving me bald at age 16.

I bet I was quite the sight, but at least I wasn't completely covered in blood. That was something, at least. Well, most of the blood went to my blood temple skill. I shook my head. My blood skills had been useless in that fight. My Regeneration was also moments from breaking, and my Avatar melted like a snowman in a volcano.

There were weaknesses I had to deal with, and I didn't want to use the solution I knew was obvious. My ultimate weapon wasn't my amazing skills; it was my skill block. Regeneration, Training, Adapt, and Berserk formed a tight combination of skills that empowered all my other skills. Some of my skills could be replaced with the dungeon, but with the changes, some couldn't. What kept me in the fight was my Regeneration and Berserk. Everything else played second to those two skills. From what I could tell, I needed to use Skill Fusion on my Regeneration and blood skills to tie them into something more powerful than either.

Blood Temple was tied to my Vitality, Constitution, and Endurance attributes; the higher they were, the more blood I could store. If my Regeneration was tied to my blood, then I could fuel it to reach greater heights. Instead of merely keeping me in the fight, I could heal faster than the fire could burn me.

Skill Fusion was the equivalent of breaking skills and making something new out of their pieces. From what the skill memories told me, the dungeon and my system would help when I used Skill Fusion. More importantly, I could learn from it. Skills were still a mystery to me, and learning what made them tick was a step in the right direction.

Doing this held some risks: I would lose my Regeneration for a new, if similar skill that relied on blood. Parts of my other skills would be lost, but the combined skill would be much stronger than the sum of its parts. I would have to rely on Scout's access to get a Regeneration skill shard. My block would become a triangle if my new skill didn't fit right.

On the other side of this my new skill could fit the role of Regeneration better than the original skill. A fuel source like blood would allow the skill to use resources to heal instead of manipulating my body's metabolic rates based on my Vitality, Endurance, and Constitution attributes.

My stomach growled, but the quickly rotting corpse of the nine-tailed fox didn't look appetizing. Ash rolled off of it as whatever protections it had against its own flames in life disappeared in death. I went through a few doors and found a kitchen in the servant's quarters and raided their pantry. A few dried blood eels in a can be good if a bit salty. Bread wasn't a thing here, but they had a kind of cracker made from chicken meat that paired well with the eels.

I sat on the kitchen counter while I ate and thought out what I wanted to do. Skills gave memories and brief descriptions of what they could do. This was a big undertaking, but I was confident I could pull it off. Taking a lvl1 Regeneration skill shard after this felt like it would be a hassle, but clearing up some skills for better ones felt like the right thing to do. Combining my skill square was an option, but Regeneration had a fuel problem.

I tore off the top of a large can and smelled water. That was lucky I was feeling thirsty after the fight, and all I had to drink was blood from Blood Temple. Berserk could keep me going on anger alone, and I wanted to pair it with my fell skills. Adapt would work well with psychic skills, and training would go with my cosmic or relationship skills. I haven't decided.

There were too many skills to keep up with despite the use I had for the skill points and extra attributes that came from skill trees. My skills had become too complex, and my mind was having trouble running them all, even if my body could take it. In a sense, I was an overclocked computer with nanites replacing parts as they broke down. Nanite cooling was very useful in extreme temperature environments. Still, it was better to be in a situation where it wasn't required. That's why I felt it was necessary to completely overhaul my skills until I had less than 10 that didn't come from my class. Until I could greatly raise my Intelligence to handle far more skills, that was the best decision.

My skill points were going to take a hit, but my mind would become clearer than it had been in a while. I sucked in a breath and let it out. I opened a file in my system interface and began moving skills until I had less than 10 in total.

Skill Sight and Skill Sight were left out of the fusions, and I chose to add every offensive and weapon-based skill to Berserk. Regeneration would take Avatar, Silver Strings (UC), Blood Drain, Blood Lance, Blood Manipulation (UC), Cold Blood (UC), Blood Temple (R), and Blood Malice (R); then, for added flare, I added Lightning Strike.

With that list done, I created the list for Berserk. Before I started Skill Fusion, I needed a plan. Since my enemies were happy to leave me alone for the time being while my Fell Cyclone tore a perimeter around the palace, I used my time wisely. Berserk was going to be my largest fusion by far. Lingering Will, Chainsword Mastery, Blitz Kick, Crow Step, Final Blow, Drill Spear Mastery, First Strike, Rising Valor (R), Fell Slash, Fell Wind, Fell Blitz, Fell Manipulation, Fell Lance, Fell Whirlwind (UC), and Fell Mastery (R) would all become a single skill.

Adapt was the key to fast leveling my skills, and somehow I felt that it kept my mind from falling apart. It could have Counter, Telepathy, Psy Lance, Psy Bolt, Telekinesis (UC), and Psychic (R). This one would be the second skill I fused after Regeneration.

After giving it some thought, I decided to combine all my relationship skills together by themselves.

Training would have Specialized Workout (UC), Gemini Waltz, Gemini Blitz, Cosmic Tempo, Behind the Curtain (R), and Starlight Burst (R).

Even while my chainsword ran hot and I killed with impunity, I knew there was something wrong with me. Humans weren't supposed to adapt and recover like I did. Not just with my skills but my mind. The skill square worked better than I imagined, and if I were to start getting better, I would have to keep using it.

I activated Skill Fusion and felt the world slow to a crawl. The world around me vanished, and I felt my system and the dungeon itself turn their attention to me. From me I pulled free Regeneration and all the skills I wanted to fuse with it. From there, I studied the various fractals, mathematical symbols, and connections that allowed the skill to function. There was so much information that went far over my head until all I could do was rely on my system and the dungeon to see me through the process. I began cutting parts of my skills and fitting them into place, learning by doing only for my system to tell me the effects. Dungeons could dilate time in local areas, and it seemed that as a moderator, I had premium access to that phenomenon.

Time slipped away as I studied and focused on each fractal, resetting my work repeatedly and starting again, always checking to see what action changed what. I opened multiple screens until they filled my vision with data, illuminating the blackness.

I spent over a week bumbling my way through, understanding not what skills were but how they functioned. Skills appeared as 2d circular planes when removed from my body, and they could be fused in multiple ways. Any skill with similar words in their names or connections could almost be stacked by design, becoming singular skills with the added effects of multiple skills. Avatar was the opposite; it could pair with nearly anything because it was like an empty vessel. If I wasn't careful, I would create a regenerating avatar of blood and lightning. While useful, that wasn't what I wanted.

Parts of the Avatar skill had to be removed to make it less of a body independent of my own. I had to figure out which part of Regeneration connected the skill with myself. I chopped the skills apart and reset them repeatedly until I got it right and ran a simulation. When I saw my blood turn into frozen lightning and my body stretch to proportions like the Avatar, I knew I needed more work. The knife was the most useful tool, after all. This was one of the easier skill fusions.

I learned to merge my blood skills together first since they were the easiest to combine, leaving only Regeneration, Avatar, and Lighting Strike as the odd skills out. My Berserk fusion was going to be a nightmare, I could tell. Fortunately, I could tell my blood skills would remain mostly intact. When combined and no longer each using up their own separated spaces, I could tell my mind would be far less taxed, and there was a measure of continuity with the blood skills. Even the memories from them would fit better in my head.

The problem remained the same, and if I wanted to make Avatar and Regeneration cooperate, I had to, in a sense, keep the form my Avatar wanted to become. Avatar was a skill that was ultimately an empty vessel; it was the blood skills that gave it shape and my own preferences. The skill even fused wanted to become the 12ft tall behemoth. Mind death was a certainty before the transformation finished. I could live with being a 12-foot-tall behemoth just fine, but I couldn't survive the process if it was instant.

I studied the fractals around the activation of the skill. They were on nearly every skill, but some activated instantly while others had to be activated. Regeneration would simply regenerate any problems with the skill. I had already connected the blood supply with the energy requirements of the Regeneration skill. As it worked, my pillar skill was integrating well to the point I could hardly tell they had ever been separate.

A month flew by before I believed I figured out how to solve the problem. I could have thrown away Avatar at any time. Still, instead, I extended the time it would take to become the giant. I connected it to the cut-off metabolic rates from Regeneration. This would change an instant transformation into a process that could take decades to complete. By the point it became a problem; hopefully, I would understand skills much better.

Lightning Strike took even longer. I had to eventually break the skill into individual fractals and place them individually in the layers of blood skills. Simulations cleared showed blood lighting connected by forced electron changes in blood. It would turn my blood supply into something of a battery.

I ran multiple simulations and looked over my new skills. Then, I slowly began condensing it, marveling as the pieces fit into place until it became a tiny disk no larger than the tip of my finger. Still, I shrank it more until it became a tiny drop of blood and let it sink back into my body.

Reality slammed back hard and fast as my heartbeat raced. I was back in the servant quarter's kitchen, sitting on a kitchen counter after what felt like a year.

Ping!
New Skill
Sky Fiend Apotheosis (O) lvl1
Rank: 3
Description: Almost Legendary but only Obscure from the days of powerful female blood drinkers raping young sky gods and bearing divine offspring. The demigods born were blights on mortals with their endless hunger for blood and control over lighting; they were a sign of the Sky Father's displeasure. The shame often kept the Sky Fathers from defending their worshippers. This powerful blood belongs to you; it will show signs of what skills are needed to further enhance it down this path. While none of the species between blood drinkers and Sky Fathers reached their full potential, perhaps you will do what they could not and survive.

I blinked at the skill and rubbed my cheek. The difference was night and day. Also, what did Rank: 3 mean? I haven't heard of that context before. Did I receive a new update from the government, or did the dungeon do something to my system?

Even with my mind feeling far clearer than before, my work wasn't done; there were 4 more skill fusions to complete, and the easy part might be over.

Patreon CH41-46

 

[Ultimatedaywriter]

Day 22

New Skill
Reputation Applied (R) lvl1
Rank: 2
Description: Reputation, Affection, Obedience, and loyalty are factored into this system application for people, groups, and organizations to track and benefit from all relationships. From leading armies to leading lovers to your bed, this is a rare but valuable skill. No longer will you see raw confusing numbers their opinions will be known from -10 to 10 for all scales. Skills and other rewards can be acquired from certain individuals or organizations by reaching the highest or lowest numbers.

Kitsunite Empire -10 Archenemy
New Item
The Substance: An elixir of concentrated fell energy used to stimulate a rank to change into a higher tier in the same rank. Without the proper dosage and preparations, using this item will stop the growth of the user.

A vial of a black chemical fell into my hand. My second Skill Fusion lasted less than 30 minutes, which was good; all the skills were generally the same type. I even learned a little more about the symbols and mathematics of skills. Not enough to make my own yet, but I was getting better at understanding what I was working with. I was still hesitant to work with my planned Berserk fusion.

Many of my skills were like pieces from very different jigsaw puzzles. I would have to edit them thoroughly to get anything good out of them. Berserk would be saved for last if I could help it. From this point on, I needed to plan out which skills I learned and what I planned to do with them.

For the first time since finding out about my class and gaining my skills, I felt mentally in the driver's seat. I wasn't completely back to what I would call normal, but with a few more skill fusions, I should begin recovering.

Even as sane as I was confident I had become, the smell of loot was too tempting to stop me from finishing my work. It could have been my skills still altering my mind like narcotics, but I felt more than a little confident I could finish this fight.

…

Dr. Raito felt his old heart hammer into his chest as he carefully cut off slivers of a glowing green pill. He called the substance Laminarian, and it was the secret to bringing out the full power of the substance. Using slivers from the green stone, he mixed it with the substance and boiled down the substance to combine it. He ran the Laminarian through electrical currents and exotic acids, all to test out his remaining six tries before the Calamity finished its break.

6 enchanters worked tirelessly to use cutting-edge techniques invented during lessons learned from this procedure to add less invasive engravings on Empress Akane's bones and organs. Using the natural staining of the substance in the etching, they could prep the body with low doses. Slightly discolored tissue grew in places etched, causing less damage to the organs than scar tissue. Given only a few years or a decade, they could have safely perfected the process and achieved the true heights of their limits.

Parts of the surgeries on 6 through one were finished with the new method 1 would have most of his internal organs free of scars. He had learned much from these experiments, and his staff knew what to do moving forward. Even his second in command could finish this operation. Dr. Raito knew it was the right time to make his escape. The only one capable of giving orders left was the minister.

The only question was, with no one left to witness the Minister's act, would he remain a nationalist servant of the empress, or was he like Raito, a survivor.

"We are lucky." Minister Farnsworth said.

Pale pink skin showed in places on the battle chicken's body as stress wore him down. He was truly useless hear and would serve better as food.

"I want to go under the knife as well." Minister Farnsworth said.

"The dangers for you are far greater, and our surgeons aren't trained for your species." Dr. Raito said.

"The butchers that evacuated in time are waiting with their families in the bunker between us and the Calamity. They know my anatomy, and surely, in my genome, there is the possibility of falling within the ranks. What did you test your substance on before you used it on the guard? It could only be chimera rabbits or battle chickens." The minister said.

On the inside, the doctor felt like victory was at hand. Even in this failure, he could still manipulate nationalistic fools. "Both, but your kind had only a 30% chance for success before the operation was optimized for Kitsunites." Dr. Raito said.

He saw it in the bird's eyes, the fanatical desire to be at Akane's side. After the 1st​ rose from the table, Akane would only need so many doctors. Too many cooks in the kitchen were a hindrance. Dr. Raito knew of some procedures that hadn't been used yet that could show promise. Before Akane rose, this rooster would allow them a final test of what they had learned. Akane would awaken with the best chance possible.

…

Hachi, the 8th​ Praetorian guard to the empress Akane, did not remember his name. This was the second time he lived through one of the doctor's experiments, and the results were disconcerting. Fell energy clung to his body like a cloak of darkness as he stared at himself. Part of his head had changed losing his natural golden fur replaced with pink flesh and bone shaped like the Calamity's. Was this their fate to reach the strength of their opponent? Did they need to become them, and then what was the point?

A fist of hardened fell crystal lashed out, shattering the mirror before he could raise his arm. That was something he needed to get used to. He wasn't only stronger than before. The fell was so dense in his body, and around it, he could condense it into a hardened substance. The possibilities were endless, with every breath fell poured from his lungs and charged through his blood. It was the kind of power that legends were made of.

"No, fair. I wanted to look at myself."

Nana's once perfectly foxy skull had changed, elongating into a shape like the Calamity's and growing long dark hair contrasted with her red fur. She had another set of ears on either side of her skull, and her body was immense. Her arms had elongated and grown sharp talon-like claws. A pair of fly wings stretched out of her back, and her tails merged into a single jagged thing with a stinger at the end. Long pincers stretched out on either side of her jaws, casually cleaning her teeth as she smiled into a broken mirror.

This was for their nation; no matter what the cost, they would see the Calamity defeated or die trying. "I'm hungry. Do you think we could stop by the kitchens and get something to eat?" Nana asked.

Her tail whipped back and forth, spraying small drops of a clear substance that did nothing when it touched leather and fabrics. It was a fell liquid of sorts since the substance was given to her orally. Hypothesis ran rampant as the meth-addled scientists tried to make sense of an acid that was completely subjective. The acid only dissolved what Nana wanted it to and lubricated everything else, like mineral oil. It was frightening to see the speed and power she could deploy in her horrific body.

They tracked the scent of the Calamity to Minister Farnsworth's office. On a blackboard were drawings of strange images and mathematical equations. The Calamity continued to draw with chalk, uncaring of their presence. Nana did the unthinkable and coughed loudly.

"I'll kill you both in a minute; this is more important." The Calamity said.

Hachi felt stunned, and Nana unexpectedly chuckled. Then she reached for a can of blood eels stacked on the desk.

"Oh yeah, help yourself. I definitely brought that food for you."

"Let him work. Time is our friend; the cyclones can't last forever." Nana said.

"You look like a learned individual," Hachi said.

It was a lie; the Calamity was wearing a curtain and didn't seem to mind the breeze between his legs.

"Feces, this isn't working." The Calamity said.

"Maybe go back to the basics," Nana said between mouthfuls of eel. The spike at the end of her tail widened into a clenching monstrosity of acid and flesh that she used as a funnel to pour more canned blood eel into herself. "These taste amazing."

"Surrender, and I'll not only let you both live I'll make you members of my tribe. You won't have to fight anymore unless you want to, and you'll have all the food you can eat." The Calamity said.

"We are loyal to the nation your offer is disgusting." He would never say it aloud, but freedom was tempting, if only for a moment.

"What if the food I wanted to eat most is you?" Nana asked.

Then you're doomed. Hachi threw the first blow with a spear made of condensed fell, piercing the Calamity. Then the Calamity vanished, and four blades seemed to come at him at once. He blew a stream of fell from his lungs and lunged to take the offensive. A spray of acid from Nana followed behind his attack.

He felt pain in his arm then nothing before hearing something drop on the floor.

…

My opponents lacked the last one's animalist ferocity and didn't make up for it in tactics. While their skills were impressive, I wasn't the same. Sky Fiend Blood Apotheosis was a complete improvement over the previous skills. The Avatar skill mixed into it gave me a passive boost that would only grow more powerful with time and the more blood I stored in my Blood Temple.

I raised my hand, and blood from the fox's wound drained faster than before as I pulled it out of him. They were on par with the fox I fought last and smarter. The only problem was I had already improved again.

"Are you sure you don't want to change sides? I could offer you a whole new world. You can't beat me; all you're doing is ensuring your suffering." I said.

I punched the insectoid fox. She fell back too slow and frail to stand against my blow. That was the reason I felt comfortable offering deals and mercy.

Nana Obedience -10 to -9

"What exactly are you offering?" Nana said.

"You can't be serious." The other one said.

The fox clutched at his still bleeding stump as I pulled blood from between his fingers. It vanished into my blood storage. There was also the substance that flowed with it, but it broke up and diffused among the vast quantities of blood in my possession.

"What choice is there? We were sent to our deaths to buy time. I'm tired of being used by a country that doesn't value me." Nana said.

"All you've ever cared about is food and fighting for our country." The other fox said.

"Hachi, it's nothing personal, but I see the way the wind blows. We're isolated, and he defeated us with no effort. We were rushed jobs, and I want to live. My name is Nana, Mr. Calamity; what's your offer." Nana asked.

"I'm open to negotiation, and you seem well worth your weight in information. While I don't mind waiting for my enemies to send your people one at a time until none are left and then cleaning up, I'm on a time crunch. So what do you think saving me time is worth?" I asked.

"I want to be your minister of trade or the closest command position that resembles it. Are there benefits to joining besides your promises? Breeding rights, land, and building privileges must be decided here. What about skills? There was a ban on us restraining the number and type of skills we could acquire. Are you more liberal with skill shards?"

"Tamer skills are banned, and that is the only restriction. If you want a skill and we have it in stock, you can have it. Purchasing skills on the open market but receive my permission unless you use your own money. Breed with whoever or whatever you want, I have tons of land, and I would love it if you built your own home, no matter what it looked like. How does a 50-acre lot sound to you?" I said.

"I see. Are you willing a write a contract now and seal our cooperation."

"This is a mistake; he'll betray you; this is the Calamity. You are being controlled; you've never been this cold before." The other fox said.

I produced a contract through the system AI and quickly produced a holographic copy.

Nana
Reputation -10 to -5 Better than child kidnappers
Affection -10 to -9 A Useful Tool
Obedience -9 to 1 Under Contract
Loyalty -10 to 1 Bought not Forced

I walked over to my back and pulled free numerous skill shards. "These can be yours free of charge and restriction. But first, use your tail and consume your partner." I said.

"I see you want a demonstration of loyalty," Nana said.

"No, I want you to take his power and into yourself and finish more of your transformation," I said.

"You're suggesting cannibalism," Nana said.

She looked at him pensively and licked her lips. This wasn't really about loyalty; I wanted to see how powerful she could become. Monsters consuming other monsters was just par for the course.

"This is natural for what you've become, I think," I said.

I smiled as the fox's eyes widened as her tail opened to consume him.

…

Dr. Raito understood that his creations were liable to betray him no matter the strings attached to them. As he watched Nana devour Hachi, he looked on at 6th,​ a powerful brute with an aura of fell energy following him around like a cloak. He sent out the most powerful Praetorian guard yet. He began the long process of collecting the battle data before leaving for the secret elevator while everyone was distracted.

There was, in fact, a single item in the treasury that could see a single individual free of the dungeon. In the explosion that killed the emperor and cost him most of his face, fur, and ears, Dr. Raito secured it. With his current battle data and blueprints, he could set up anywhere.

…

From the guard's drop, a token appeared made of bronze with +1 Affection placed on one side and +2 Obedience on the back. The instructions that came with the coin were clear. So I flipped it. It landed on affection.

Nana Affection -9 to -8 Reliable Tool

Her body changed; the wings on her back grew a little more, her tail thickened, and her face took on a more human appearance.

Nana Obedience 1 to 2 You Bring Dividends.

"Traitor, I've come to bring you down, feces-eating rabbit lover." A guard with a 6 on his shoulder said.

Acid sprayed, and the two fought.

"The nation betrayed me first. I remember who I was before." Nana said.

"Well, now you're nothing." The 6th​ guard said.

The two fought in a battle of pure strength until Nana used her tail and stabbed him in the leg. "You horrible shrew."

"Use your acid to blind him, then attack him one joint at a time until he falls." Nana spat in the other fox's eye, and I watched the organ melt out of the socket.

The other fox looked normal except for an aura of fell wrapped around him. I thought about stepping in but decided to let Nana handle it. This was her job as my monster, after all. A sudden devastating punch sent her reeling before her tail pierced her opponent's chest. I watched as she injected wave after wave of acid into the shallow hole she made in his body.

The fox started shaking before he punched Nana with all his might, dealing blow after blow. Her tail rose up and slammed into him while she played defense with her arms. When the fox died, another coin dropped, giving her +2 Affection.

Nana Affection -7 Favored Tool

I liked this new skill better already.

"Do you want me to eat this one too?" Nana asked.

"It's for the best. You need all the help you can get." I said.

"I'm strong; why should I continue this barbaric act."

"This is your best chance to grow into the best you can become before rank 3. We should backtrack and let you absorb the remains of the other one." I said.

She looked positively mutinous, and if I didn't handle it well, I was going to lose some reputation points.

"What does this mean to you?" Nana asked.

I tapped my chin in thought for a long moment before snapping my fingers. "It's an important step in my development. Learning when to adopt a monster and when not to is important. Before, I thought I would snag the empress, but then I saw your tail and appearance. I think you're a much better peak rank 2 than whatever she ends up becoming. If I'm wrong, then I guess I'll take her as well." I said.

"We signed a contract," Nana said.

Without having access to courts in the Rasputin territory, it wasn't very binding. But it was the spirit of the thing that mattered.

"It is binding; I can't break it without consequences. Taking Akane doesn't mean I don't take you as well." I said.

Personally, I think I liked Nana.

Nana
Reputation -5 to -4 Good Faith
Affection -7 to -6 Stranger




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[Ultimatedaywriter]

Spring 43, 11M 495Y
Cainite Territory
Bavilim Outskirts

Gabriel clutched at the stinging brand on his arm hidden under his gambeson, expensive chainmail, and ruinously more expensive runed plate. The six weeks of training with steel swords, his rifle, and grenades were every boyhood dream he every had rolled into one, and at the end of his journey, he was going to slay vampires. They and six other companies marched silently to their destination, kitted out with over 300lbs of gear for a decapitation strike. His boots were silent even when he nearly stumbled over holes and kicked a hole through stumps. Beneath his armor rested an amulet containing all the reason he needed to sell his life away to the Canite's Governor Charles A. Bel.

His squad leader, a 15ft tall Mountain Troll, pulled two wagons of siege equipment and wore a set of black steel plate mail with runes that glittered like the night sky when he wasn't in stealth mode. First, Seargent Prog was a dangerous beast, even among Trolls. If not for his training, they wouldn't be marching, let alone moving silently through miles of terrain to their destination.

The smell of smoke hit them hours before they arrived in a burned-out town. Bodies were raised high on stakes, bleeding out while women danced around them, collecting drops of blood in their mouths.

One man raised their rifle only for the Prog to force it down. "We were tasked with killing only the male vampires. Every female vampire killed will be a dock to your pay and a lash. Do you understand me, Smith?"

Gabriel watched a motherly woman with brown hair, pale perfect skin, and large breasts hold a teen only a year younger than his 18 to her chest lovingly. A teenage girl with sun-kissed skin, black hair, and shiny red eyes gripped the teen's hips while one kissed his neck. The sight caused a stirring in himself and he felt like the teen defenseless among those monsters was lucky. It was a thought that made him feel foolish and guilty.

His sister was taken by men, beautiful specimens of these monsters in the night. Gabriel heard them; the one with a white hat and purple hair called his sister bitch. He held her down, and through a crack in the door that night, Gabriel saw him kiss her neck while forcing himself on her. She was so young and innocent, and he took her. When Gabriel touched the door, something paralyzed and silenced him. His heartbeat slowed to a crawl, and it felt like he was asleep and paralyzed. Through the crack in the door, Grabriel watched his sister Anya be taken by the white demon naked, all except for a white hat fedora over his purple hair. She said no, and the vampire took everything.

"Why should we spare them? They are," Gabriel was interrupted.

"Victims who can't control their nature at such young ages. The vampires in charge placed them here to trap us. Soldiers don't look good killing women."

"They are feeding on a boy. I think he's only a little younger than me," William said.

"We have our orders. Don't question them; you are paid to kill male vampires. Female vampires are only victims of rape." Prog said.

He remembered his sister's teary eyes and knew he couldn't kill her.

…

Nana felt a sharp pain in her tail from Yon's spikey hair. Little particles of fell covering her former comrade's body only kept the quills pinned while her acid worked on him. The same crystals of fell that protected her from the quills also soaked up her acid, prolonging the experience as her victim struggled, causing her tail to ache from various stabbings that were slow to heal.

She took her time; there wasn't a rush; the Calamity seemed preoccupied with a set of papers pinned to a cork board covered in symbols and algorithms she didn't recognize. They were noticeably more sophisticated than the ones she saw earlier like the Calamity needed very little time to advance in his understanding. He reminded her of Dr. Raito in that way.

"Will you fight any of them, or am I to fight all of my former friends as a sign of loyalty?"

"When you find someone you can't handle, I will step in." The Calamity said.

While his hands were preoccupied with tapping the wall, hands made of blood extended from his shoulders and did the writing.

"Are you nervous?" Nana asked.

"Yes, I only have so much time to finish my combination before we need to leave. It's hard stepping into a new field and being completely untalented in it. What did you do before becoming a guard?" He asked.

The being before her was a terrifying existence. She had no idea what the equations and symbols were for, but seeing them made her eyes blur and her thoughts cloud up.

"I meant, are you nervous about the quest."

He looked up at that but hadn't turned his attention to her. Hands made from blood blurred as they quickly filled out sheets of paper before stabbing them into the cork board with sticky notes. The Calamity surveyed his new mind-breaking creation before shaking his hand and ripping one of the papers away before tearing it up.

"That one won't balance no matter what I try, so it's best if I don't use it at all. It would fit better in another pillar. Maybe I should combine them in parts and see if I have better connectivity that way." The Calamity sighed and turned around, giving her his undivided attention. "This quest is done turning you has made it impossible for them to win. Our victory is only a matter of time at this point."

She would feel flattered if she wasn't the cause of her nation's destruction. Honestly, she considered them even after they made her into a monster and set her to die for a bigger one. Her head no longer resembled a fox's. While she maintained her ears, her face had morphed into something similar to the Calamity's. Her tail had grown longer, and its end had grown a lewd opening under her stinger. The wings on her back were tough, vibrant things that felt stronger than steel and more elastic than rubber. Every time she devoured one of her former comrades, she gained a small part of their strength, and her appearance refined more.

Small eyes had grown at the end of her tail, complete with a second consciousness subservient to her own. Her slanted eyes were the only parts of her that kept their foxy nature along with their amber color. Long, silky black hair fell down, parting over a small set of spines growing from her back and flowing over her shoulders to cover her breasts. She had no idea how her digestive system worked and sometimes imagined she heard two heartbeats in her chest instead of one. Between Nana's legs, her privates were more tucked away than before and less, if that made any sense at all to anyone except her. Her skin didn't have fur on it anymore; it had taken on the color of paper. On her back was a small layer of carapace protecting her wings.

Nana felt powerful in indescribable ways, but whenever she looked at the Calamity happily scribbling his notes, a shiver of terror ran down her spine. He was a monster and didn't apologize for it. There was no doubt in his mind that between them, he was no only stronger but significantly stronger.

The 3rd​ hadn't arrived yet, and she began to prepare herself to fight with the potential of the 4th​ breaking free, injuring her horribly, and turning the fight into 2 on 1. Would the Calamity move in to save her, or would he offer a deal to the 3rd​ and tell him to eat her?

Warm hands grabbed ahold of her tail, and she panicked. Had the Calamity seen her weakness? Was he going to rip her apart? A powerful force squeezed down, angled to keep the spines from poking up. Bones snapped inside her tail, and for once, they were not her own.

"It's important for a tamer to see to their monster's needs and support them. If that means rubbing elasticity lotion on a pregnant Ravage hyena's privates for months before it gives birth so its canal doesn't split, then I will. If that means giving my monsters jobs to do so they feel like they are contributing, then that's what I will do. And if that means crushing some food my monster is having trouble digesting, then that's what I will do." The Calamity said.

She felt a little better after his statement and would never tell a soul. Nana also was sure he could do the same to her with his bare hands if she rebelled. It was a show of power and a reason to be loyal. This creature that she looked more like as she grew in strength would help her to the best of his ability. Maybe she could get behind that anyone was better than Dr. Raito.

…

I was too ambitious in my estimations of myself. 3 attempts lasting years wasn't enough to combine my Berserk, fell, and martial skills. Taking micro naps while in the skill creation zone was the only reason I wasn't dead to the world. Years in relative time gave horrible medical conditions. Time displacement syndrome was a very real and deadly disease, killing 4% of veterans that's adventurers that survived a decade.

My mind was already fraying at the seams, but combining my skills was helping a great deal. I had no idea what rank would do, if anything, to my skill points, but I felt hopeful. Combined skills were more than the sum of their parts and were optimized to take far less mental energy to sustain. If I could get under 10, I would be much more sane. From there, I could only take skills that I meant to combine immediately and keep myself from displaying too many monster-like qualities. Murder sprees and grinning when I finally had a challenge felt very monster-like to me. Or my personality could have become twisted, and I could permanently desire to fight challenges. Fortunately, I was able to trick my instincts by using Nana as a measuring stick.

If they couldn't push Nana, then they weren't worth my time. The sounds of heavily padded paws made my blood race, and it was all I could do not to draw my chainswords and rush to action. Only by almost hypnotizing myself into believing it would be a boring fight could I stop myself.

My needs were becoming hard to distract myself from. Seeing flashes of Nana's breasts and watching her crouch made it clear to me that I was still a teen in all the ways that mattered. My libido wouldn't be denied forever. I sucked in my breath and let it out, filling my sinuses with the scent of my monster.

I flipped over to the Skill Fusion workbench and decided to see to my Training Skill combination next. I even moved an incompatible skill from my Berserk combo to it for retooling. A part of me debated combining my martial skills together, separate from Berserk. My pride wouldn't allow it because even if I was a novice in Skill Fusion, I believed I could figure it out if I worked and used every resource available.

My first move had been to combine all my psychic skills, and they easily broke apart and combined into a single-layered skill. I only needed to cut out a few parts to make them work for better optimization. Common skills, which were mostly rank 1, worked for a wide variety of entities. Because they worked with monsters that could change into entirely different species given time and resources, they weren't human-friendly. Since I wasn't going to become a spider, snake, dragon, or troll, some parts could be taken out with no issue, increasing optimization and reducing the strain from the skills. From that point, they aligned perfectly. All that was what I predicted and worked on in another time stop to master.

When I tried to combine them with Training and Specialized Workout, I hit a snag. They didn't fit anywhere with training at all. That wasn't to say I couldn't fit them together; they were just not right for each other. I took Crow Step and slotted it in easily, which made it annoying when a combined Training and Specialized Workout couldn't even connect to Crow Step. They were entirely incompatible unless I wanted to create a subpar skill. It would still be better than if I didn't make it at all, but it would feel like a rusty nail sticking out of a post.

So, I did the only responsible thing I could. I saved the possible psychic combination and tried to combine my Cosmic Skills with Training.

While it was better than Psychic, I didn't like the look of the new pattern. I moved on and tried fell skills.

I watched in awe as the training skills slid into place like they belonged to fell all along. Maybe blood would have been better with Berserk, but I would neve know. I combined the training skills with fell and tested it for a month to be sure my new skill was a powerful and useful as I imagined it should be.

Ping!
New Skill
Black Umbilical (O) lvl1
Rank: 4
Description: Fell withers, corrodes, and destroys in its efforts to rebound psychic energy from this reality. What survives the path of fell is the strongest substances reduced to the hunger of the undead; they seek life to fill what was lost, growing stronger so long as they have life to fill them.

I felt it was a chord invisible and intangible but attached outside our reality. Somewhere where it led, fell energy poured into me, different from the fell energy I touched before. It flowed into my stomach, pure and completely different than what I had touched before. My entire understanding of fell energy shattered at that moment as I felt something curious within the pure darkness flowing into me.

Pain hit me then, and I pulled at my stores of blood to heal from the damage the cord inflicted. I tried to turn the skill off, but it ignored my attempts. My control of the fell energy was clumsy what I was used to touching was the diluted mess that was dragged in when someone used psychic power.

The ground shook, and I looked up to see a fox centaur. Out of a massive fox body, the torso of an Anthro fox armed and wielding a repeating rifle opened fire. I shifted my position, and it felt good. Bullets flew still too fast to react to, but I could predict where they were coming from and move before the shooter lined up his shot. I felt the new fell energy flowing into me and gathered it between my fingers. More fell pushed into my body, causing a huge chunk of my saved blood supply to vanish as I compensated. As it turned out, the more I used the more fell would pump into my body.

I didn't know what it was doing for my attributes, but that wouldn't matter until I left. The lance slowly formed, not because my skill was terrible but because the new fell energy was so much denser. Normal fell was air while this was cement.

The lance formed, and Nana tried to pull from it like the nine-tailed fox she consumed, but it was too pure for her automated absorption to affect. I grinned and launched the weapon.

Number 3 looked shocked when the massive, dense lance of fell energy carved its way through his flesh and bones when he stood still.

"How am I going to eat him?" Nana asked.

I tossed her my chainsword as I watched bits of my lance dissolve, slowly becoming in steps what I considered natural fell energy. From what I could tell, it would take hours or days for it to fully dissolve.

A smile spread across my face like I was about to face a powerful being, and I realized that I enjoyed a challenge. To get my control good enough to use my new fell energy like I'm used to could take years. If it was really a 4th​ ranked skill, then I would need that time to get to the attributes needed to master it.

Ping!
Nana
Reputation -4 to -2 Helpful
Affection -3 to -2 Less of a Stalker
Obedience 2 to 3 Reliable Commander
Loyalty 1 to 3 Bought with Bonuses

I picked up a coin that was gold +4 Affection on one side and -1 to highest rated on the other. While it was a gamble, I decided to hold on to it for when I had more to use. Fighting together really seemed to help form a relationship. All I needed to do was talk a little more, and we were sure to be even closer.

…

Patreon Only Lemon

"What was that?" Nana asked.

I looked over the damage my skill had done and shrugged my shoulders. My mind felt lighter than it had been in days. My smile, for once, didn't have anything to do with fighting or a difficult battle. Nana was my type, and she probably wouldn't break if I touched her. Maybe that's why I approached her while she was feeding with her tail.

"What are you doing?" Nana asked.

"I would like to kiss you," I said.

"How can I refuse? You can do whatever you want with me?" Nana asked.

My eyes devoured her. Her large breasts were heaving, covered only by black hair, and her lower lips only had enough fuzz to be enticing. Nana sucked in a breath, and her chest heaved, doing things to me that were impossible earlier.

"This is a mistake," I said.

"Then stop; you aren't an animal," Nana said.

Her amber eyes were vibrant, like pools of flames, and mesmerizing. I reached out and touched her flat stomach. She was bigger than me, standing a good 16ft from all the mass she had put on. Her crotch was at eye level, and it was intimidating in another way. She clenched, and my eyes were drawn to her dark clit as it reddened and swelled.

I gulped at the sight, feeling my mouth suddenly full of drool.

"I reached out and grabbed her waist." She gasped when I pulled her in close.

"What if I say I don't want this?" Nana asked.

"I'll think about letting you go." I leaned in and kissed her on her throbbing, ridiculously swelling clit. The soft skin tickled my lips, and she shivered as I ran my tongue up and down her hood as it swelled and glistened with spit.

"I'm too big. I doubt you'll feel anything." She was big enough to fist like a sock puppet and have room to spare. I slid a hand over her warm, soft thigh before pressing between her still-dry lips. "I'm not wet either; this won't be fun for you even if getting me wet was a good idea." I pressed between her lips with my fingers and felt slickness.

"Treasure chest," I said.

I slipped one then two fingers in while giving her clit my full attention. Not all girls liked being touched; they were sensitive in one way or another. Some liked their hood to be raised while others found it terrible. Nana liked it when I sucked on her clit when I pushed my shoulder underneath her butt and lifted her off her feet.

"What are you doing?" Nana asked.

A little lubricant slipped out from her surprise and definitely wasn't anything else. I lapped at her labia while she felt what it was like to be carried and serviced by someone stronger than them. She hardly protested when three and then four fingers slipped into her. My legs spread to give a good base as I worked to press my hand into her massive opening. Her juices flowed, splattering my chest with affection while I licked and lavished her labia with all the care I could muster. I concentrated on slow, deliberate licks that made her shiver. When she was all into shaking, I breathed heavily on her clit before slipping my lips over it. She spasmed while I pushed my fingers around her hymen, easily able to avoid it. I could almost fit my thumb into her urethra, thanks to the size difference.

Ping!
Nana Affection -2 to 0 One Night Standoff

I released her after only a little time exploring her body; still a complete novice but more than happy to learn more about her.

"We should do that more," Nana said.

Rewrite CH online for Super Multiversal patrons

 

[Ultimatedaywriter]

Spring 43, 11M 495Y
Cainite Territory
Bavilim Outskirts

The night was late, and the full moon had risen. Bat monsters fluttered off of trees like hawks were on their heels. All of them flew with the wind to the same destination they marched. With the flight of bats, Gabriel knew their element of surprise was lost, and the silencing enchantments on his armor became a waste of Westons.

He saw the first spire of the castle peek over the trees and felt the amulet beneath his armor grow warm. Anya was there; he knew it. Before the night was done, he would drive his sword up that vampire's poop chute. He clutched at the leather-wrapped handle of his weapon. Revenge would be his.

First Sergeant Prog let go of the wagon and drew his sidearm. The big barreled monstrosity was more akin to a siege weapon than a handgun. It could be used against the enemy, but that wasn't its primary use. Instead of drawing his sword, he raised his rifle and attached its bayonet. They grouped up into a tight formation, but no vampires came, so he looked up. Above the tree line, vampires with red eyes, beautiful faces, and better clothes than anything he had ever worn flew above them.

"12 o'clock tree line." Someone said.

Together, they fired, doing as they were trained, and focused fire on the weakest vampires. His system displayed their levels, making it easy to pick off the newly turned vampires with levels in their teens. Gabriel saw the monster still wearing that white fedora floating in range.

Clouse Vanraven lvl170
Rank: 3
Nosferatu: lvl20
Vampire lvl100
Class: Courtier lvl50

Clouse had at least 500 attributes in either physical or mind. The levels were like nothing he had ever seen, what was a Nosferatu. Turned Humans retained the skills and attributes from their class and gained the monster characteristic to gain attributes through consuming humans and other monsters. Rank 2 was his original turning, and rank 3 was Nosferatu.

He fired and watched a screen of darkness swallow the light from the full moon and stop his bullet. Only a spark showed that Gabriel's round fired at all.

"That is against the rules of the game. We will retreat here; welcome to Castle Carmilla. Mother will be happy to take in so many young men." Clouse said.

Gabriel moved to chase but was stopped by a strong hand. Over the sound of cicadas, Prog chewed him out.

"Of all the stupid, irresponsible things to do, you wanted to challenge Clouse Vanraven of all vampires."

"I didn't take you for a coward, sir," Gabriel said.

The troll sucked in a breath, and his finger inched closer to his weapon's trigger. "If he had committed, he would have broken our line and freed his men to attack our supplies and bring prisoners back to their castle. If that happened, their numbers would increase."

"Then why don't we kill the female vampires? If they are dead, they can't turn more." Gabriel said.

"We have our orders; follow them, or I'll punish you for insubordination," Prog said.

Gabriel looked around and saw the veteran soldiers in their squad were ready to pin him down. If he couldn't even rely on his own squad mates, then he was alone against the troll. He did the only thing he could think of to de-escalate the situation. Gabriel saluted the First Sergeant.

"That's what I thought. We don't have the manpower to wipe them all out. Governor Charles doesn't have the funding to arm us well enough to handle this. He had a meeting with Carmilla, one of the rank 5 vampire queens, and made a pact with her. We only kill their boys; in exchange, they hold back and allow us to continue to live our day to day. All we have to do is thin out the number of male vampires and kill off the ones who don't follow the rules. We play this game not for some political reason; it's our survival." Other members of the squad were saluting the 1st​ Sergeant.

This had to be a joke. Bavilim had a population of 20 million living in the city and another 5 million in the suburbs around the city. Hundreds of thousands more people were spread in the rolling grassy hills around the city until they crossed state lines into Eden's rich farmlands, the breadbasket of Cainite, and some say all of Weston. The city, with towers stretching into the clouds stacked so high that people lived beneath the spires their entire lives without knowing the sun, had to play a game with monsters to survive. Where were the great armies? If every man was drafted and armed as Gabriel had been, they should have been able to wipe out this scourge in a day. He loved his Bavilim; fighting for it was a dream come true. How had it grown so weak? Did that mean there was no hope for his sister?

…
Day 22
Ping!
Luminaria High Evolutionary (O) lvl1
Rank: 4
Description: The light of the purest psychic power flows through the user's mind, body, and spirit. Subconscious simulations are used to gauge the best use of skills and advance them with minimum repetition. Discovery will lead to the greatest skill advances and using those skills in trying environments grant bonus gains.

My mind had cleared up so much that I started to remember important things, like my attribute fruit planting. They sprouted but hadn't done much more. I remember boxing them off from the rest of my farm and giving them a healthy watering. The soil around them should still be damp enough to keep the growing sapling alive. Mixing some battle chicken feces with some of the soil and spreading to would go a long way in helping it in its early stages of life.

I recalled some farmers went with Druid for their second class. Once completed, the next class should allow them to reach the equivalent of rank 4 at level 50. Most people were considered adults in society with attributes at rank 3 equivalent. A rare individual had attributes at rank 4, and it was almost unheard of for a human to have attributes near rank 5.

For the Eastern equivalent, rank 4 was the Nascent Soul realm, and a 5th​ rank equivalent would be Spirit Tilling. A holdover from the farmers that achieved this realm prepared the soul for seeking a Dao; the more furrows dug, the more Dao seeds could be planted. From what I understood, not many Easton cultivators reached that realm. It was maybe 1 in 100,000 cultivators, not counting the population used to support that class.

With that in mind, I was led to the fact I needed my own support structure if I wanted to explore the world. My farm would take that role, but it would also have many envious people coveting it. Defenses were needed along with deals with higher powers while we were weak.

The moment I became a tamer, even if that wasn't my class, I could contact my family again with their help and my status as one of the few farmers who made it in record time. I would be welcomed back into the fold with open arms. All the resources denied to me in the last 22 days would be awarded, and this place would become a new powerbase for the Walker family. My father might move some of Kaito's cute daughters to my farm for the fresh eggs alone.

I built my farm in the dangerous wilderness. Insane from monster skills, I slaughtered monsters, survived having my hands crushed and being left for dead, and my family would take that pride away from me.

My instinct was to continue struggling alone without a big name to protect me. Summer was still powerful even in our republic's 200th​ year of existence. Many remembered the time of our oligarchs and the divisions that made us weak. Our King, who was replaced by the grand champion, was exiled.

Even in the North near the Easton's the Summer Family name could protect me from a lot of trouble. I could make the betrayal of my mother pay something back.

3 quarters back to sane wasn't sane.

Knowing that and incorporating it into myself wasn't the same thing. The careful thing to do would be to contact my family and make use of their resources.

While we rested in an office, I began working on skill structures on whatever paper I found. Forming the patterns was becoming easier with every failure. It was something I was getting good at. Nana gave me looks and her lips twitched upward as if trying to hide a smile. My imagination, like my connection to my family, was too hopeful.

Skills were easier than family and forgiveness. I wanted to forgive my family, even my mother, for what happened. It was cold, but I missed our house, Kaito's family, and Mai. She was probably more brainwashed than Gwen had been.

I wanted the red-skinned girl that I made mudpies with and carried piggyback so she could pick the peaches too high for either of us to reach alone. I miss poking at her cute horns coming in and how she teased me about cutting myself from shaving.

Something approached, tearing my attention away from more important matters. "What should I do against this thing?" Nana asked.

I glanced up at a towering creature with a fox skull atop a feminine face. Long twisting tentacles slithered all over its body, and covering its torso was a collection of squelching openings hungry for anything. Fell energy oozed from its many pours filling the air with a mix of fell and something else mixed with the energy. It stood even in height with Nana, and when it moved, lights dimmed, and its tentacles glowed before cutting through everything around it.

"Betrayer, come face your doom. I will tear your flesh apart." I sliced off a tentacle that veered too close and watched its stump wiggle in the air before another grew from Ichi's body. "Wait your turn, Calamity. I must see justice done first," Ichi said.

"I've been patient, but I don't think you're taking this seriously." Small blades of fell flashed out, severing tentacles with my swings easily cutting through the creature's lower energy. Blood leached out from wounds and flowed into me. "It seems stronger blood equals better fuel for regeneration." I raised my hand and gripped it with what appeared to be telekinesis.

"What have you done this can't be right?"

"This might be hard to understand, but rank trumps type advantage or even immunity." I didn't add that my statement had many caveats. I made sure to use some psychic energy to really sell my act. "While I hold her, consume her body," I said.

"Are you sure? Ichi's tentacles are dangerous." Nana asked.

"Do it now," I said.

Most monsters she absorbed were less fresh, and I wanted to know if that had an effect. These monsters were experimented on to help them reach the highest peak possible at rank 2. While they weren't rank 3 their bodies and minds used their attributes more effectively than my own. Nana had strength and flexibility to the extreme. She was a mean fighting machine with Easton features. Her next rank was going to be incredible. Having a rank 3 on my team when we left for the qualifier in Bavilim was going to be fun.

My opponents would have to use rank 1 monsters against my own for the qualifier. We were going to sweep. I couldn't wait to see Nana's sturdy rear in action.

Reluctantly, the massive rank 2 raised her tail, revealing a snake-like mouth with two wide human-like tongues sticking out of it but no teeth. Fell energy leaked from it like a broken facet, and Nana looked so self-conscious of it. From this, she would grow a little stronger than before. I didn't know what the limit was in rank 2, but Nana was fast approaching it. Maybe there was no limit, and so long as the scientists could pop out guards, she could keep becoming a little stronger. Her body was massive to compensate for attributes that couldn't be increased anymore. Size and muscle mass seemed to be the workaround.

I watched her victim slide into place and remembered those times I watched my sister's naga swallow prey whole. They were much less self-conscious about it. I moved forward and ducked a sudden kick as Nana fled with her meal.

After a moment, she blinked and looked stunned. "Don't worry, I think it's an instinct. We'll train you not to be so guarded with your food. We can't have you hurting any of my villagers when they get too close." I said.

"How do you plan to train me?" Nana asked.

I waited for her to finish her meal and watched fell energy contained in a pattern slowly mixed with Nana's own, seamlessly adding to it. It was crazy. The sight alone freaked me out in ways I wasn't bothered with earlier. All the fearlessness I displayed earlier had been because I didn't have enough mental space to fear. It was terrifying to see something consume another being alive, but I let it happen out of curiosity.

My question was simple: would this make my monster stronger. I didn't think about the sight I would see, and I nearly slipped my control of the monster at an inopportune moment.

Then I watched in disturbed awe as a lump of monster almost as large as Nana dissolved while sliding up her tail, carried by numerous powerful muscles. My next thought was how well that tail could suck the thing between my legs. My cheeks burned in abject embarrassment at the thought of asking her to do that for me. I wanted to, and it terrified me in equal measure. I had the most confused boner of my life and didn't dare mention it.

Fortunately, my toga of curtains shielded my modesty.

Ping!
Nana
Obedience 3 to 4: Obedience Equals good things.
Affection 0 to 1 Reluctant Admiration

"Will I also consume the Empress?"

Seeing her relationship data was a life hack I hadn't expected. When I had appreciated what, I had fallen to the wayside. Maybe it was when I added 4 monster skills to myself and lost the ability to think out the consequences. Then I kept drinking deeply of that poisoned well until I made a wise decision.

I had a sudden realization. Nana respected the insane monster I had been, the Calamity, not the human slowly regaining his mind. I had to be him, or she might think I'm getting soft or some other crap. The question was how he would have responded.

I thought about the most insane thing I could say to an alpha predator like her. "Only if you can make the kill before me. Do you have a grudge against your former leader? What did she do to piss off such a majestic creature like you?" I asked.

What was I saying?

Nana giggled. Something snapped, and I thought I might be going insane again. My foxy behemoth of a monster gave me a girlish giggle. I smiled, and she returned it, flashing rows of sharp needle-like teeth. It was like staring into the mouth of a woodchipper.

Maybe I needed to take in more skills and let myself go back into blessed insanity. Skills numbed my mind and turned me into a badass while their unoptimized formatting for humans. I wasn't fully sane, and my anxiety was through the roof.

She squatted, showing me a quick flash of the view between her legs, sending me deeper into a heart-fluttering spiral of want and affection. I was supposed to be the one seducing her; how was this fair?

Nana kissed me and pressed her massive, lovely breasts against my chest in every guy's monster girl dream come true. It was heaven, and when her arms wrapped around me, I kissed her. She was much larger than me, so my lips practically melted into hers, and it was so much better than I thought. Meat grinder teeth aside, her lips were welcoming, plush, and smooth. Her tail slipped around and pulled me tighter to her body.

"What would happen if I tried to kill you?" I looked up to see nothing.

"I would discipline you, and then we would be on our way," I said.

She giggled, and I had no idea what I was doing. "I worked as an accountant for my father before I was inducted. Money is what I'm best with, so if you could hook me up, I will do my best to make us rich." Nana said.

I rubbed her fox ears and sighed at those words. Even if being sane was scary maybe it was worth it if I got to be with monsters like Nana. I still had another skill to create and didn't know what would happen when it finished. We also had an empress to kill.



Rewrite CH online for Super Multiversal patrons

 

[Ultimatedaywriter]

Spring 43, 11M 495Y
Cainite Territory
Bavilim Outskirts

They were given leave within spitting distance of their destination. 5 of Gabriel's squad mates had already left, with locals abandoning their armor and weapons for life under vampire rule. Gabriel spat on the ground. How could they betray humanity? He gazed at the town and despaired.

Human children littered the roads, slowly making their way back home in the dead of night. Vampire female minders sang to them songs that taught history, vocabulary, and mathematics. Massive group homes dotted the castle's surroundings, filled to the brim with families. Undead abominations tended fields instead of farmers or druids. They worked tirelessly at all hours to support the vampire's true food supply. There were so many children on the roads led by female vampire teachers. He counted a hundred as they marched, and they made him feel like everything he knew was a lie.

The vampires all held amusement in their glowing red eyes. Gabriel felt less like a hero avenging his sister and more like a lamb led to the slaughter. Sure, their weapons were effective against weak vampires, but they did nothing against the strong ones. What tool did he have that could pierce the vampire's shield? All of it, from recruitment to training, and finally, the march felt like a trap.

If he fled in battle, Prog would put a bullet in his back, and his armor would do nothing against Prog's hand cannon. Why send humans only trained for 6 weeks instead of squads of trolls? Attacking during the middle of the night sounded like a horrible tactic against vampires.

The more he thought about the situation and the inconsistencies, the less he felt in control. Then again, hadn't he sold his control away for a chance at revenge. He gained a level in Knight for killing one of the new vampires.

At level 18, he was nearly a 5th​ of the way to mastering his class and gaining his second one. He had planned for something like marksman to round out his attributes. More perception could help gain back sensation and fine motor control.

He felt a hand grip his arm, and he turned to see one of the vampire women looking up at him. The rest of his squad continued walking.

She started talking in a husky voice. "You look like a strong young man; why don't you spend the night with me, and you could stay to help teach these children. Isn't teaching the next generation better than throwing your life away. I could give myself to you, and I doubt you'll even need to be turned. Knights have 7 attribute points instead of the normal 5 per level, and that is very handsome. Take up the Dark Knight, which will give you 9, and Dark Paladin with 12, and you could equal a 5th​-rank master vampire. Dark Knight gives 5-point Vitality bonuses every 5 levels, so you could live much longer than normal humans." Gabriel had tensed under her hold and slowly inched his other hand to his sword. "What I'm trying to say is you are a nice young man with potential. Don't waste your life in this mad pursuit for revenge when you could be happy." She said.

"We've never met. How could you know why I fight?"

"I've been a vampire for 20 years. So, tell me if you heard this story before. A young man's sister, lover, mother, or daughter was bitten in their home and taken. So, the young man seeks to get revenge and throws himself into training. He happens to have the knight class, and instead of going for the lucrative job of an adventurer or some rich guy's guard, you joined the governor's Vampire Hunters. I see boys just like you every year. They are all so handsome. I love your blonde hair." She smiles sweetly with her lips closed, hiding her fangs. "Everyone like you dies or is turned and killed before they grow too strong. If you go into that castle, I will probably taste your blood when it's sold on the market in town tomorrow night. Well, number 20, what do you say, stay or go?" She asked.

Gabriel felt like this was his one chance to leave the death march. Prog hadn't turned back or raised his gun while the men marched to the gathering point. The others only looked back at him when they passed him by with a sneer on their faces.

"How many have stayed?"

He felt his amulet heat up as he looked at the black stone towers. For his sister, he would risk his life.

"That's not important."

His heart hammered in his chest in indecision until he remembered the smirk on that vampire's face. Gabriel couldn't stop. He was on the path; there was no going back, whether he lived or died.

"Then I can only go."

"Fool, my brother tried to save me, and he was turned in that castle. He rapes girls like me every night. It's in his nature to rape. That's what you become if you don't die; you'll become the thing you're fighting. I will do it to you or someone else will. We'll rape you again and again until you turn." The woman snarled.

"I can't leave this path anymore. What's your brother's name?"

"Private Gabriel, get back in line, or we'll list you as MIA," Prog said.

"…" He heard the name and remembered the terror in his sister's eyes.

"If I become that man, I'll kill myself before I do what he does," Gabriel said.

He heard her laugh as he marched to join the others.

…

Day 22

More practice was needed than I originally planned. Once against, I was in the blackness constructing a fused skill in the stopped time. Months flew by as I studied the intricacies of skills until I gained a greater understanding of them. It was to the point I didn't think I would need the system for many more decades. The more I studied the intricacies of skills, the more I realized the system might be one big skill in itself.

It was a theory one I wouldn't write any papers about or debate with people online about. Voicing that the Weston system was just a skill, something that could be farmed in a dungeon, was ludicrous. I would have to be off my rocker to even think it. With that in mind, I decided to take the next obvious step in skill fusion.

My farmer skills needed to be merged into something more usable. Having numerous skills sounded good, but I needed to know. What was the difference between dungeon skills and class skills generated by the system?

I knew the answer in my heart, but I refused to accept it. The system was one of the pillars that separated men from monsters. While even some monsters had access to it, they were formerly human. Monsters in dungeons could receive messages from the dungeon but not from the Weston system.

From the safety of the timeless void, I pried open a system-generated skill and found it half-optimized. No, it was optimized for humans but not for me. That distinction was frightening.

There was a hard limit on the number of system-generated skills a human could have. Attributes helped expand those limits, and limits by level helped limit that further. I wasn't fooled. There was a soft cap around level 250. Lvl100 and lvl1 granted 4 skills. Not all classes could deal with it. People would eventually go insane given enough time, even with the low number of skills. Maybe that was why few classes gave Vitality other than farmer one of the most useful classes for civilization and a hard one to level. Food would always be necessary, and farmers produced it in abundance thanks to their skills dedicated to altering the land to produce ever more food.


Farmer was also light on skills. I should gain two or three skills every 10 levels; instead, I gain 1. That had to be by design. Since farmers had vitality increases from the beginning and would live longer, those in power didn't want them to go insane. At lvl100 I should have 203 to 210 Vitality. That could put my lifespan at 200+, not counting any lifespan pills or attribute fruit that increased Vitality.

With that in mind, I optimized my system-generated skills before I even thought about merging them. I was leaning heavily into my Wisdom attribute when I did that; it was far easier to optimize before fusion than after. I might have saved myself a week of work. Agility helped my hands race faster to put together an Avatar-like frame for the skill connected to my body, something I couldn't only do after nearly two decades of practice in time stop.

The fun had only just begun. Dungeon farming and farming skills fit together like a glove, almost snapping into place. It seemed so long as they shared a theme it didn't matter what field they were used on. Even Dungeon Manager was more like Field Manager as far as the skill was concerned. It was a part of the greater structure optimized for a particular type of field called a dungeon.

Monster Husbandry might be the same as Animal Husbandry only with a bent toward intelligent monsters. Through these skills, I could infer far more than I could have before, making it easier to find points of connection with my skills. The goal at the end of the day was to make something that could fulfill as many tasks with the least energy possible. Skills could be incredibly specialized, but fused skills were practically the opposite.

The more I looked into skills, the more I learned there was more to learn. How long until I could do this without the skill guiding my hand. Levels didn't expand a skill. Skills increased their efficiency as they became tools more suited to their users. It was different from optimization, but I didn't know how. There was so much I didn't know, and I didn't think I would figure it out even if I spent decades more looking at skills. Why the system existed at all was something I couldn't begin to answer?

What was the purpose of the system, skills, and attributes? Why did monsters exist, and why could they become more human as they ranked up. These mysteries plagued my mind. And the only way to answer them was to reach the top. The grand champion could alter the system, and the grand champions before him were the reason we were in our system's current iteration. I wanted to know why our current system existed in its current iteration. I wanted access to the changelogs for the system.

Free of most of the mental corruption caused by my own skills, I finally had a goal to aspire to. I wanted to know the reason why the world was the way it was.

With my mind made up, I created my new skill.


Green Lord (O) lvl1
Rank: 4
Description: The power to grow following the natural order from a single seed is within the user's hands. Till the land, plant, and harvest any land no matter how strange or what resources are available. Through type modification and careful planning, green life can appear even in the most barren of worlds. All that lives grows in power under your care.

I could feel the skill interacting with Sky Fiend Apotheosis, boosting my regeneration further. Only the final skills were left, and I had put off Berserk for too long. I hoped that what I learned would be enough to create a skill that felt like a mix of very different pieces. Some skills would need to be shattered and taken apart, and I might lose a lot of function from others from my task.

Time resumed, returning me to the bedroom with a hidden door leading to the labs below. The tornadoes outside were stronger and more devastating the ever soaking up fell energy from their surroundings and devastating the city. I didn't know the death toll, but it had to be steep. I hadn't been exactly myself when I used the skill, but I found it hard to regret it.

Fu called me kind, and when I looked out the shattered window at the whirling dark cyclones spinning around the imperial palace, I couldn't see it. I used an arrow from my quiver to take care of the problem uncaring about what it would do to the civilians. Why would I? They weren't my people, and I had orders from my employer.

I shook my head. My actions were those of a mercenary. The promise of payment was too good to pass up, never mind the dungeon being on my property. Its seed germinated here, making it mine, and it had the gall to limit my access to a moderator. Well, I suppose the time stop sessions to let me indulge in my newest and greatest passion was payment.

The imperial bedroom was a nice place, and Nana looked both intimidating and adorable sitting on the Empress's bed. Red silk sheets inlaid with gold bunched up under Nana's glorious behind as her tail curled around a thick bedpost. Paintings of dour-looking Kitsunite royals covered the wall, along with a black and white picture of a family on the nightstand. Newspapers were stacked beside a desk in the room next to the servant's entrance. Bits and pieces of a gun sat on an oiled workbench, and some tomes on enchanting lined a bookshelf completely untouched. I picked up the bookshelf and tossed it through a portal.

"Is there anything else you want to take, maybe something a little softer?"

I looked over the bed. It had a sturdy frame, soft pillows, and a mattress big enough for a harem. Imperial size was a thing here, and the Empress's bed was big enough for the 18-foot-tall Nana to sleep comfortably. She was getting annoyed at nearly bumping her head on the 10ft doors separating the 20ft ceiling rooms that the imperial palace had for reasons I didn't understand. I figured it was a grandeur thing.

She waved her long tail about as thing thicker around as her own waist.

Its stinger had grown longer than my arm and dripped with venom. The eyes at its end and the way they looked at me and the mandibles beneath them moved was disconcerting. Her tail was a weapon that couldn't be denied in any tamer battles. Her stinger didn't kill, but it could paralyze prey to make consumption easier. Her mouth had lost its nightmarish teeth after her last victim and gained the blocky appearance of human teeth. She had become far more attractive to me after consuming Ichi, and somehow, she scraped by at rank 2 despite being near my strength before I fused my skills.

The lab door was closed and locked, but that wouldn't stop us. Nana's acid could eat through it and I could pierce the metal with fell easily. No, the only thing stopping us was the news from Ni that soon, the Empress would be more powerful than we could possibly imagine. Since she was obviously not ready to come out, I thought we had time to take a break. I wanted to continue my intimacy with Nana before we ended this.

…

I climbed up to Nana's shoulders, stripped of my loincloth with a growing hard-on. A little breeze and lightening my body let me stand on her shoulder without falling off. I grabbed fists full of her hair and used it to climb to her large, red, pouty lips. Nana narrowed her amber eyes down at me in utter befuddlement.

"If you wanted to play with my hair, all you had to do was," I shoved my dick between her lips. She licked my tip with her massive tongue, sending me into bliss as she leaned back on the bed. The massive emperor-sized bed creaked as her tail adjusted, turning as she got comfortable. While adjusting, she gripped my backside and licked my hard cock while her plush lips climbed higher.

Never before had mouth pussy felt like an apt description until I was balls deep between Nana's lips, and her heavenly tongue was slurping my cock. I grunted as I tried to get deeper, and Nana removed a hand, and I glanced back to see her touch her clit gently like she was trying it out for the first time. A slurp regained my attention. Her amber eyes narrowed, and her tongue poked out to slurp my balls between her lips.

My eyes widened at her actions. I felt it then, and for the first time, I came from a blowjob. It was quick to start and lasted longer than it ever had from doing it myself. She lapped at me the entire time, completely unbothered like human girls from porn. I felt her swallow, and the suction on my dick was incredible. My dick was already hard again, and I gripped her ears as I fucked her face. My legs couldn't even fully wrap around her face.

This was wild and completely out of character for my old self. I was sure before my skill fusions that this would be the point where I killed or dumped her at home before I finished off the Empress.

I pulled my cock and balls from between her sexy lips and turned my attention to her massive breasts. If I was going to really pleasure her, then I needed to gain some sex-based skills soon. At this point, I was a sex toy to her and not a very good one, considering her fingers were around the same size as my arms. I rolled my eyes. I could stuff my dick in her urethra.

She was such a troublesome girl. I pulled her hair away from her massive breast and felt my heart skip a beat. Her massive dark areolas were a thing of beauty, and the little inverted nipples. I could do all sorts of devious acts with them.

Was this why Monster Porn was frowned upon? I nodded my head at a new decision. A dungeon needed to be altered into a pure-sex dungeon. Type adjustment wouldn't be difficult. There were more sex toy websites online than stars in the sky.

With my plan decided, I moved to her massive, inverted left nipple. I lowered my weight and climbed up on her pillowy, soft breast. It was like walking on a sexy cloud. My every step caused a little jiggle, only stopped by her chest muscles. It seemed plenty of monsters went to her chest.

I grabbed the closed lips of her inverted nipples and slowly pried them open. Her tiny nipple greeted me, large enough for me to see all the little pores and holes for her milk to one day flow through. I pushed my hands inside, gripped the tip of her nipple, and massaged it. All around me, the flesh reddened and expanded as her nipple rose, and I felt her shape from the gyrations. I looked back in time to see her going to town on herself. She had not popped her own cherry yet, but it was a close thing. Her clit had swollen from all the attention bobbing to her heartbeat, still hidden by her dark-skinned hood.

Nana's hand closed around her breast and pushed it up to her lips. I dove off as she brought her nipple up for a suck. I heard a pop, and her nipple was fully erect and being sucked on. Dripping lubricating spit flowed down from her breast like a geyser as she lost control of herself to the stress-relieving pleasure. As she sucked on her breast, she moved her hand, slicking herself but unable to reach her peak.

I rolled my eyes as the answer came to me through my psychic empathy. Fell energy could only block out so much when it was radiating like waves from a radio tower.

With a quick dodge of her arm, I made my way between her very open legs and landed on her tail. From there, I had a very good look at her sweltering dark-skinned pussy and puckered black pit below. I would name it the Abyss, but that name has been taken by much darker holes than it.

At 16, I was around 5' 10," and about a third her height, and her thighs nearly came up to my ribs when I stood up on my bed. I looked back to her feet, and they had reached the end of the bed. Before, they were more like 4 inches away, and her head had moved up. I blinked; she was still growing. I sucked in a breath and let it out.

I approached her hand, and her fingers weren't quite dipping into her; they were more focused on her labia, avoiding her inner depths. That was fine. I had a feeling I knew what she needed to make this a much better experience. I stepped up, using her gap to get into position.

Her wrinkled throbbing hood barely held her clit in check while a thump touched it while the other rubbed up and down her labia. It wouldn't be enough. Nana needed to be fucked to really enjoy it. Doing it herself had its limits. I raised my hands and slipped under her hood. She spasmed as I groped it, sending her legs to spasm. I leaned in a licked the massive cluster of nerves, sending her into the shaky depths of a growing orgasm.

It wouldn't be enough, and what good were powers if I couldn't use them for the right reasons.

I gave her clit a lick and decided to give her a proper fucking.

Black and purple light filled the room as I formed a cock measured in feet instead of inches. The head was purple, and the skin was black, with purple veins running through it. Liquid fell dripped along its surface, and experimental addition that should be harmless to a fell-type monster like Nana. The firm flesh of the projection should bend in places like a real cock, and best of all, I had complete control, including the neurons of psychic energy running through it.

I decided to call it the giantess fucker mark 1.

My hand waved down, and I roared as it slammed between her lips. Her hymen was barely a barrier, and I took her virginity and drained the blood on reflex.

Nana gaped at the sudden intrusion. Her body spasmed as I decided to show her the power of fell and telekinesis mastery. My hands reached out, and I yelled, and she yipped as I flipped her over on her hands and knees. Her tail shattered posts off the bed, and I tossed the debris aside with more telekinesis. I pressed my hand forward, feeling the phantom pleasure from my skill-forged Giantess Fucker. The path of Telepathy seemed to have powers that some would find unusual.

"Show off," Nana said.

She groaned as my giantess fucker eased out to the tip and slammed into her hard enough to make her butt jiggle and crack the walls. Somehow, the bed survived the initial assault. She fell onto her elbows, letting her butt hand high in the air while her tail encircled a bedpost. I let my mark 1 continue slamming into her, dripping a trail of lubricant onto the bed while I made my move.

I climbed from her elbow, where her hands were busy pinching her nipples. Her tongue hung out to the side, and her eyes had a glazed expression on them, only focusing on me for a second as I climbed up. From her back, it was an uphill march between shakes until I reached her tail. From there, I climbed down and jammed my construct to the base to give myself a platform. There wasn't enough room between her tail and the toy to stand on. She was around 18 to 19 feet tall not much more yet.

Her puckered black cherry was calling to me. It was small and covered in her juices. The flesh continued squeezing shut, and I wanted to put my dick into it. I touched it and felt it tighten in response, and I knew at that moment that the right hole was her A-hole. I pushed her tail a little higher and spread her cheeks before using the grip I had on her new dildo to push myself forward. It was tight, even with our size difference. I felt her ass grip and moved as I humped it rigorously. I wasn't like the phantom pleasure from using a psychic and fell forged dildo. This was the real thing, and I loved it. The grey and black skin tightened as I came hard and felt some of my stress vanish with it.

She collapsed on her side, tailing the bedpost with her, leaving us connected. The dildo faded away, leaving her hole gaping in my face. Nana's hymen was torn but fully healed, and all I could do was watch it clench in my face. I held myself up by her labia before shrugging and letting my face fall into her cavernous pussy. We stayed like that for a good 20 minutes before we returned our attention to the task at hand.

"Next time, I get to choose the shape. I'm insulted you didn't add a big juicy knot for me to pull on." Nana said.

She clanged my face with his hungry cunny to bring the point home. I couldn't help but wonder how Fu would feel if I fucked her face.

Ping!
Nana
Obedience 4 to 6: Obedience Equals Inspired Things.
Affection 1 to 4 You are her first sexual partner

Patreon up to ch47 and rewrite up to ch3
The rewrite is 10k per chapter posted on saturdays now. After chapter 47 is posted to the public the next saturday the rewrite will be posted. That will mean 70k words on my patreon.

 

[Ultimatedaywriter]

Spring 43, 11M 495Y
Cainite Territory
Castle Carmilla

The siege equipment opened a hole into the castle, and Prog led them on the last leg of their disastrous campaign. Gabriel endured their decline as they suffered casualties by various monsters they were ill-equipped to handle. They climbed stairs, crossed bridges, and battled the castle's guardians in a breakneck march, leaving friends behind. Prog fell to a minotaur, and Gabriel avenged him, stabbing the distracted minotaur in the back of the head and gaining the silver whip skill at level 50. There were less than 50 of them at that point.

"This is your last chance to leave. If you stay here, I expect we're going to see more fighting before we're done." A bat flew down, and he sliced it in two with his whip. "This won't get any easier," Gabriel said.

No one retreated; running away alone would only get them killed. The castle's inhabitants had taught them either all retreated or none of them would.

"Where are all the male vampires? We've only run into other fell-type monsters." Brendan, his acting second, said.

Gabriel recalled giant bats, gargoyles, skeletons, suits of armor, and the minotaur. Not a single vampire had come out to fight them. He had to say something to keep the morale going. There weren't many of them left, but they were the strongest remaining.

"We'll find them soon," Gabriel said.

They crossed through more rooms filled with undead, gargoyles, and a werewolf. Gabriel's silver whip made short work of the last boss monster, allowing them to kill it with only four casualties. The remaining men had become veterans after surviving so many monster encounters. Gabriel reached lvl75 from kill after kill. His body felt too big for his armor. Soon enough, he would reach level 100, and then maybe he would have the skills to take on the vampire that raped his sister.

"Your sword has seen better days; you should use mine. I've been using my rifle more."

Gabriel nodded and traded his weapon for one that looked practically new. Most of them had traded weapons and armor with the dead when necessary. Bendon had become their quartermaster, carrying all the munitions.

They entered another floor where imps, goat demons, and succubi blocked their way. Half of their squad fell to subterfuge, cutting their number from 46 to 23. It was the succubi who dragged his men into the towers to the sounds of giggles and then silence. Scouts found the desiccated corpses of their men, and Gabriel traded for his sword back. Infernal blood blunted their swords and caused cracks in the metal from the high heat.

While there were fewer, those that remained were stronger than ever, and Gabriel couldn't stop them from pushing on. They would mutiny if he called a retreat. Really, they should have turned back when Prog fell.

A boss room greeted them, lit with braziers lighting a giantess of a succubus sitting on a throne in shifting flames surrounded by others of her kind. Gabriel watched, stunned, as the succubi fed the titanic lust queen with their stolen lifeforce. Lewd squelching noises and pleasurable moans echoed through the hall as the smaller succubi worshipped the massive demoness. His hand trembled. At level 80, he had grown by leaps and bounds faster than he ever should have. His squad had similarly improved. But could they take on a rank 3 monster in the higher realm of rank 3?

With the attribute fruits and levels, Gabriel barely scraped into the same rank as the succubi. Weapons and armor put him comfortably above them, but the monster on the throne was a completely different creature.

"I wish Prog was here," Gabriel admitted.

"Your troll minders rarely reach my floor. The mayor's pet monsters are useful only to ensure the game doesn't end too quickly." The succubi queen said.

She spread her legs, and half the men dropped their weapons and dove into the waiting arms of the succubi. Gabriel only stayed on his feet by closing his eyes. He raised his silver whip and began his work. Only his sense of evil skill allowed him to target and strike. Still, most of his attacks were misses as he made his way through the mob. More of his men fell by the second as he attacked and struggled against the inevitable. A blow caught him in the chest, knocking him into one of the pillars leading to the throne.

He felt ribs crack and blood spill from his lips. His level sat at 85, but he was nowhere near strong enough. More power he needed more power. He turned his attention to one of his own men struggling. At the end of the day, experience was experience, and he had to live if he was going to avenge his sister.

Gabriel slashed his sword, taking his squad mate in the throat. Lvl90 wasn't enough; he lashed out with his whip, killing friend and foe alike as the great evil clapped. Lvl100 gave him 5 new skills, and a haze clouding his mind, one he didn't know existed, vanished.

Blood dripped from his blade, and all his men were dead. None of them had been taken by the succubi queen's trance but himself.

He saw the bodies of knights, some dedicated others slowly being consumed by the succubi, and then there was the queen still sitting on the throne, her legs spread. She smirked at him, and truly, she was a statuesque being of utter beauty and brilliance. Choices for his next class appeared in front of him.

Dark Knight 9 APL
Gun Knight 8 APL
Dark Slayer 7APL
Dark Rune Knight (R) 15APL

It seemed that after stepping into this castle, his only choice was to fall into darkness. Gabriel no longer saw himself as a hero, only the avenger who would do whatever he could to avenge his sister.

Dark Rune Knight (R) lvl1

He moved in, killing succubi and the few living knights, slowly increasing his level. Gabriel's armor stretched, struggling to hold his growing body. He had crossed completely into the 3rd​ rank and would soon be beyond it. He lashed out with his skills, severing the heads of friends and foes to gain the experience needed to take on the evil sitting on the throne in front of him. Before he reached the 9th​ level in his new class, there were no more foes to fight with, leaving him to stagnate.

Lilim lvl380
Succubus Queen lvl80
Lavish Succubus lvl100
Succubus lvl100
Imp lvl100

A pure demon who worked her way up from the darkest pits of hell wasn't what he expected to face long before his blade slew a single vampire. He hadn't been ready for what he could do.

"There is a weakness to the human system that I am more than happy to exploit. You can not gain strength by consuming flesh like monsters, leaving most experience on the table. Do you know why?" Gabriel searched for a way out while keeping his eyes on the succubus queen. There was a door to the side, and he shifted his weight in its direction. "Your system was made to support monster tamers. The administrator of your system is the grand champion. Do you understand what that means for everyone else?"

Gabriel shifted and ran until a hand slammed into him. His armor dented inward, and his ribs shattered. His body slammed hard into a pillar, nearly taking his life then. He watched through his visor as the blood from succubi and his squad mates leaked into trenches rent into the floor leading to a drain. They never stood a chance; all of them were fed to the machine to further empower the monsters. It didn't matter how many gargoyles they killed when their blades couldn't touch a single vampire. He had felt his promise of revenge slip away.

The pendant on his chest warmed as the side door opened, and Anya stepped out. "This one belongs to me," Anya said.

He had never heard her voice carry such a commanding tone before.

"No human who enters Castle Carmilla may leave with their humanity intact." The Succubus Queen said.

His sister stood over him, a peerless picture of beauty with lovely white skin and a red dress that flowed when she walked. Her blonde hair had paled to moonlight silver, and her once-green eyes had become red. While there was no color in her cheeks, her lips were a shade of red similar to that of an aroused sex.

Anya lvl209
Carmilla lvl9
Nosfuratu lvl100
Vampire lvl100

She smiled gently, exposing the same fangs as the man who raped her. Anya was stronger than that bastard; why was he allowed to keep breathing. She was so much stronger in only 4 months. It didn't make any sense.

"I want you to understand, big brother, why I'm about to do something, only I will enjoy to you. Listen, because I can only hold myself back for so long." Anya crossed her legs and moaned before biting her bottom lip. "Vampires, we turn, give us some attributes every time they have a meal. We receive less from each generation after ours, gaining the most from direct generations. Every vampire we turn is an important part of our power, and it's in our best interest to ensure they survive and kill the newly turned of our rivals."

She gripped his armor and wrenched it, tearing it down the middle. Gabriel caught his breath as she kissed him. Her cold lips stole his breath before she ripped his britches away.

"I don't want this," Gabriel said.

She bit his neck, and he felt himself grow aroused. Anya bit him repeatedly, draining him little by little as she used him more brutally than the succubi. Tears rolled down his cheeks as she pulled on his knees to force his cooperation.

"Look at me," Anya said.

Gabriel looked away. "Look at me." Her voice compelled him, and their eyes met. All resistances shattered, and his body moved, and she moaned in delight. She was validating him as a lover or more like a tool that finally did its job. Anya, his own sister, fed on him slowly, taking only a sip of blood at a time while his body worked, and all he could do was weep internally.

She pulled her lips away from his throat as she lifted herself and slammed back down on his beaten form. "You wanted to be my hero and save the princess. This is your chance to save me from poverty and take many maidens. If you do well, you may reach my level of strength." She ground her hips down on him and closed her eyes. "I'm going to give you my blood and put you in a room with a virgin I captured. As you rape her, you will turn, and I want you to drink her until the last drop. It will make the turning feel so much better and teach you how to be a vampire."

She bit her finger and placed it against one of his many neck wounds. Lightning flooded his veins, and his heart started beating rapidly. From his toes to his scalp, he felt warm, and a terrible heat awoke in the pit of his stomach.

"Make her look in your eyes, and she'll do whatever you say. It's the best part of the job. Welcome to conversions and acquisitions; drink your fill and grow strong, and soon, you'll be turning little girls like me all across the territory." Anya said.

She was lost to the darkness, and she had dragged him down with her.

…

The battles I was most proud of were the hard-fought ones that took all of my attention. Rarely were they against monsters or my fellow man. My hardest won victories, and the majority of my losses came from skills and the difficulty that came from fusion.

9 times, I stepped into the ring with my Berserk fusion, and 9 times, I was left reeling from a knockout blow. Tens of thousands of resets and so many exploded skills had left me with the feeling of an old plow horse. The cosmos didn't care about how angry I could get or how well I understood my chainsword. Every attempt to meld them failed when Berserk was added, even as a seed. Avatar, even as a blanked-out frame, failed time and time again. Decades had flown by in time stop, leaving me feeling drained even as I scribbled symbols on walls engraved by telekinesis. Rank 4 fell energy made excellent ink covering the palace walls in intricate calculations, fractals, and symbolism.

The dungeon environment had become a source of experimentation. I tried things in the dungeon I wouldn't dare on the surface with the full confidence no one would see it.

Most symbols I've found were only meaningful to the system, and the system itself most likely used another set of symbols for its own inner workings. I tried to make sense of the system language, but it encrypted itself when I looked at it for too long or gained any kind of ground in understanding it. I had no idea what attributes were and how they were different from skills.

At first, I thought that without the system, humans wouldn't be able to use skills at all, but that wasn't true. The skills I made could work just as well when optimized for buildings, and buildings definitely didn't have the system.

I stared at the Berserk skill written to encompass the wall with an avatar border that functioned. Only the attributes made a difference, and the interface, which I was confident I could eventually replicate. My understanding of the Berserk skill had increased and changed completely since I somehow enchanted the wall with it. While it wasn't quite my original skill, I had optimized my own until it didn't quite resemble the original either. That meant something, surely.

The palace was soaking in the emotion of anger and changing slowly. It was an odd sight. The border encompassed the palace while only taking up a single wall.

"Why does the palace feel angry?" Nana asked.

"Thank you, I thought it was too subtle to notice." I looked through my Berserk skill's internal makeup and saw something I hadn't before. "I can feel its anger flow through me."

I wasn't the only fuel for the skill. If anything, it thrived when surrounded by anger. That understanding changed the way I looked at the skill, making me feel like a caveman pounding a square into a round hole.

Berserk had been a phenomenal source of forward momentum. It kept me moving forward, training and fighting no matter the odds. I understood it better when I was putting my skill block together than after I gained experience with it.

I shook my head and entered the time stop for the 10th​ time. Berserk was no longer the seed. It became the water, sunlight, and nutrient-rich soil for my new skill to grow. It needed lots of help. Pieces of symbols learned from the system itself fell in as I absentmindedly ripped skills apart and put them back together, running multiple simulations at once. Things like Rider and Silver Strings were cannibalized for parts to fill in a lack of connections.

Even Blitz Kick was shattered when it failed to mesh. If I didn't need it, the skill was removed until I found something viable. It was an ugly thing at first, and I spent what felt like years editing and prettying it up until something beautiful appeared.

Cosmic Slayer (L) lvl1
Rank 5
Description: An alien force flows through your body, growing stronger with each enemy slain with weapons that defy convention. Bursting Stars unleash their payloads with your every cut as the cosmos turns in time with you as above or below.

To Rank Up
Slay Enemies Rank 5 0/5000
Slay Cosmic entities 0/5
Use Spine of the Cosmos for a chain 0/1
Use Teeth of the Cosmos for blades 0/1
Use Blood of the Cosmos to oil the blade 0/1

With Mapping, Skill Fusion, and Skill Sight intact, I had 8 skills to my name. I felt good, clear, completely sane.

I wanted to stick my male genitals into Nana to celebrate, but we spent enough time fixing me.

We tore our way down the long elevator shaft into the bowels of the palace, where all the fun happened. Blinking lights were our only source of light as we descended and demolished the elevator at the bottom. Metal crunched under Nana's weight, and she looked almost entirely too pleased with herself. I stepped out of the elevator shaft while Nana ripped a bigger hole.

A distant voice called to us. "You've come. I've waited so long."

Fu crawled up from my backpack. "Are you going to wrap this up or let the monsters fight?"

"I thought I would give Nana a chance to try her luck," I said.

A skeletal hand ripped through the entrance to the underground lab, destroying valuable equipment and shaking the facility. If the building collapsed, I might die, and the empire would win. The hand lashed out as openings erupted along its joints, releasing long-reaching black tentacles. I studied the limbs, and the bones were very much alive. Masses of those tentacles lined the creature, leading up its arm to a massive creature made of wiggling black tentacles and massive bones. Two glowing eyes stared down at us from colossal sockets. It was the kind of view that made my heart beat in excitement.

"I guess liking a good fight wasn't all me being crazy," I said.

"Once a loon always," Fus said.

"Thanks for your vote of confidence," I said.

"Boss, I will fight it, but how can I beat it," Nana asked.

"We are the empire. How could we be defeated." A sinister voice called.

A battle chicken that looked like he had been under a heat lamp for too long approached, dripping with grease as his skin parted and cracked. Black tendrils spread over his flesh and closed the broken skin. A scientist made a run for it from behind a projector, and the battle chicken caught him.

"How sweet dark meat." The battle chicken said as he ripped the fox's leg off, and dark tendrils reached out and absorbed the other monster.

I snorted. "Is it because you also have dark meat, and they eat you most of the time?"

The looming shadow of the Empress overtook us as the skeletal jaws opened, and an orb of fell energy began to charge.

Nana lunged for the battle chicken, and they erupted into a clawing, biting fight, monster against a monster. During the battle, the battle chicken's flesh took on a more living appearance from the devoured scientist. It was incredible.

A hard blow from the battle chicken took her off guard and threw all 20ft of Nana's rear up and tail, uselessly flailing for something to hold onto. At the cost of the body's vitality the scientists were able to preserve a smaller body with all the benefits from the fell infusion.

I blocked a kick with my sword and felt my body shoot back despite my increased strength. Stopping in front of Nana, I had to face facts.

"I'm sorry, Nana," I said.

"We will fight together for as long as we can," Nana said.

I shook my head. "You don't understand. We can't beat them." I sat my backpack down as the blast shot forth, and the air screamed. "But I can," I said.

I waved my hand forward, and the elevator shot from the shaft and impacted the battle chicken. Tables, a printer, and even a coffee maker slammed into the monster to distract him as I charged an attack of my own.

A slash from my blade split the concentrated blast in two as I reveled in the fluidity of my skills. The hum of my chainswords sang my favorite battle cry; its soothing hum to the cosmos bade me dance. The Empress shook her body, crashing into the side of the underground cave, distracted by my strike.

Tendrils lashed out as I launched a repulsion mixed with fell energy removing the attempt to consume me before taking an arm from the rooster.

"Maybe you'll be faster." Inwardly, I clicked my tongue. There was no blood to drain and bolster my regeneration. Sky Fiend Apotheosis needed blood to help my regeneration. I had plenty, but I wasn't rich, so I wouldn't mind gorging on a city's worth before I left.

I had no idea what I was thinking. An empire was its people simply kill enough of them and they wouldn't recover. Obviously, I wasn't thinking right; I was insane from unoptimized skills. Complicated plans like leading an army of gators into a city or influencing the youth with democracy were a year or decades-long plan.

The rooster struck with a kick covered in tendrils that I ducked under and then sliced him in the knee. I gripped the fell energy in his body and slammed him into a wall. His own fell mastery was practically nonexistent. I shook my head at the monster's weakness.

My hand reached out a hand and squeezed. The monster struggled to resist with its extreme physicality alone. The back of my right eye throbbed, a sign I was straining beyond my limit and dumped more regeneration at the problem. Blood was a currency I was happy to spend.

With a grunt, the battle chicken's chest caved in, taking his breath away. From there, it was all downhill.

Its body began to turn on itself and roll into a condensed meat and fell ball. Bones popped as it took on a mirror-black finish. I squeezed it until it was less than a foot in diameter. I dropped the ball on the ground, where it lay unmoving.

The fact remained this floor had a rank cap. No matter how big, floor 1 monsters were all rank 2 at the end of the day. While they were freaking out and trying to maximize their chances within their limits, I shattered mine. My battle had not been won against the mysteries of the system and skills far from it. I managed to find my way to the beginning of a long road.

Shaking my head, I gazed at my remaining opponent. Then, an item appeared.

Baseball
Rank: 2
Description: A device used to capture, store, and return monsters to base at the 2nd​ rank and up to unresisting rank 4. Once captured, monster loyalty becomes neutral. This technology has been developed from a fusion of Easton and Weston methods.

"I will end you." The Empress screamed and launched herself. I did the only thing I could think of and slapped its face with the last and only construct I had created. The monster slammed into a nearby wall before it threw itself into another attack. I waved my hand and smacked it hard in the jaw. "Stop humiliating me."

"No," I said and threw my baseball.

The white and red ball covered in stich-like fractals flew true and hit the creature between the eyes. A light shot out, and the monster turned into fractals before flowing into the ball.

5 more balls appeared, and I added them to my bag. I took Nana with me back to the surface after finding the remaining scientist I sensed and capturing him, stealing the research and taking anything I thought was useful.

We emerged to the surface, and I silenced the cyclones, and together, we rampaged through the streets, restocking my blood supply. Hours later, after we cleared piles of the dead, I received a message saying my quest was complete.


Patreon up to ch47 and rewrite up to ch4
The rewrite is 10k per chapter posted on saturdays now. After chapter 47 is posted to the public the next saturday the rewrite will be posted. That will mean 70k words on my patreon.

 

[Ultimatedaywriter]

Day 24

I sipped some whiskey I bought online and looked over my farm. Two days of my full concentration was only the start. My fields were plowed, my orchard of attribute fruit was aligned, and the makings of a town were coming along. The limestone quarry was more than large enough to make use of some of the stone for myself. A few hundred tons were cut into 5yrd blocks and stacked for later use. In two days, the rank 2 egg shortage hadn't settled down, and my bank account looked quite fat. My girls had a few problems at first, but nothing time couldn't fix. I only had two meetings to deal with, one to assign responsibilities and the other to deal with my guests, and I would be free to play with Gwen.

There was a Meeting Hall for our meeting, a squat stone building with a newly installed HVAC near the pond, completely out of place and in need of my full attention to move it. Most of my farm was a mix of haphazardly placed buildings, borrows, and shanty houses. Isobel handled most of the organization. Thankfully, she was already respected enough to take over building administration duties. At least until I had the time to travel to Bavilim and find a proper architect, town manager, and many others, I had a list.

I'm sure I will have time to talk about it in my next meeting. Meng Bao was still organizing the gators, who were surprisingly little trouble thanks to Isobel being a complete boss. My rabbit had taken to wearing little black hats with holes in her ears it was completely adorable.

She floated beside me, completely ignoring the pull of gravity as she let me stare at my farm and have myself think.

I glanced at her, and she turned away, unwilling to make the first move. Not because she was shy but because she wanted to train me to be her dominant partner. Isobel had a type.

"Advise me," I ordered.

"You're learning. Accept no advice thrust upon you, only what you ask for; otherwise, it will make you look like a follower instead of the badass who jumps off a crumbling castle to take the win."

I sighed but smiled because she meant well, and Isobel was completely sweet.

"I meant for you to give me advice about my trip to Bavilim in the fall," I said.

"Don't go. Put out ads, join the qualifier next year, and see to your lands. You are our lord, and this territory is yours for the taking." Isobel said.

I couldn't hide the thrill that shot through me at her words. Maybe I deserved a break. There were plenty of girls and who needed the League anyway? Given time I could make my own system built for me.

Reality didn't care about my pride. A tamer who did moderately well could apply for mayor of any town I created and would be voted in automatically. They would win thanks to a lack of qualified opponents.

"You lack information."

"Regardless, my advice isn't changing. There are rumors, and I felt something two nights ago that added to their credibility." Isobel said.

"I'm up to date on the local news on tamers online," I said.

Vampires are dangerous. Tamers can't control them and they can control weaker monsters. Add their skills like hypnotism and turn, and it's a recipe for disaster. We still have a problem. I can't even train to deal with them until I max out my farmer class. It appears I am more like the monsters on the first-floor dungeon than I thought.

I found out when I left the dungeon that my attributes can't increase beyond 499 physical and mental attributes total. The only way forward was to max out my class in a single go if I wanted the attributes that came with it. When I managed that, I would get to choose new classes depending on how my attributes appeared.

Status
Atom Walker lvl50
Class: Farmer +3 END +2 VIT per LEVEL
Attributes
Physical:
Vitality 121
Constitution 80
Endurance 160
Strength 50
Dexterity 38
Agility 50

Mental:
Perception 50
Willpower 100
Focus 59
Intelligence 100
Wisdom 140
Charisma 50

Skills
Rank 5
Cosmic Slayer (L) lvl3

Rank: 4
Green Lord (O) lvl2
Black Umbilical (O) lvl3

Rank: 3
Sky Fiend Apotheosis (O) lvl9, Reputation World (O) lvl4


Rank: 2

Rank: 1
Skill Fusion lvl50, Skill Sight lvl50

I fused mapping with Reputation Applied to create the obscure Reputation World. My reason was incredibly simple higher ranked skills gave more skills points.

Skill Points: 723

The only flaw, if it could be called that, was higher rank skills took far longer to level than lower rank skills. Having higher rank skills than my attributes didn't seem to strain me like having multiple skills. I was also looking forward to purchasing more skills trees after I maxed out my farmer class. A new class would also offer new buying privileges.

After looking at my status I couldn't help the feeling of pride I felt. Sure, I wasn't quite at rank 3, but I could hit like one, thanks to my skills. With a few hundred thousand Westons more I was certain to max my class out.

We made our way into the Meeting Hall and sat around a table while a battle chicken quickly brought out drinks. Fu, Gwen, Isobel. Veronica, Big Don, and I waited for our drinks to be placed before the meeting began.

"I suppose the first order of business is the need for housing and plumbing. Many hens have complained about stepping through feces and corn husks making poor nesting material. We wish to start building an apartment complex with weatherproof piping. I have also received serval requests that we begin expanding our numbers instead of selling valuable eggs. Hens can only lay so many during their lifetime." Big Don said.

That sounded like an interesting project. I wouldn't mind trying out my telekinesis to see if I could put it together without touching a single bolt. Big Don sent me a blueprint. Most of what we needed we already had on hand, the piping would be a few hundred Westons in all, barely an inconvenience. I gave him a budget of 20,000W and signed the request.

"Hopefully, we'll have it up, and my people moved in before Summer," I said.

The entire table looked at me strangely.

"With Lady Isobel's help, the project should only take a few days. How many should we build and, more importantly, where?" Big Don said.

"Good questions I have set aside some land for housing in the hills since the land is unfit for farming. Water will, of course, be piped over." Isobel said.

I tossed the Empress's baseball in my hand while contemplating the water pressure problem. We should probably build a water tower. We can connect a single pump to the water treatment plant, and the water tower will use gravity to handle the rest. A power grid was out next step in turning my farm into a town.

"I believe further discussion can be between the two of you. What are we going to say to the Graves family about their scion's death?" Fu asked.

Gwen turned away, unwilling to meet my gaze it had been too long.

"That can wait. He wasn't supposed to return for another week. I can claim he never arrived and have changed my mind about selling the dungeon. Few can say differently. Let's talk about cows." I said.

"Any we buy, you'll have to leave, and the nearest farm is in the Bavilim outskirts. There is talk of a travel ban with how bad the problems are getting. Can you really handle a rank 3 monster as powerful as a vampire?" Fu asked.

I scratched the back of my head. The thought of taking on such a powerful monster was exciting. Before that, I had preparations to make.

"Big Don, you spotted the horse herd on the satellite camera near Mt. Red," I said.

The Aurora Mountain range was filled with all types of monsters. Mt. Red was said to be the territory of a powerful psychic, one strong enough to jump ranks and ignore typing. It was at least rank 5 or a mid-rank 6. Seeing it would be incredible.

"Were you asking a question or confirming a fact?" I flicked the monster with telekinesis. "Good to know you haven't gone soft." Big Don said.

I rolled my eyes and focused back on the present. "How many of your boys can ride a horse? We should capture some of the horses from the herd, break them, and buy up all the cows we can before spring's end. I smell a deal." I said.

"With the ban on travel and decrease in the living population, we should be able to buy the cows on the cheap in about 14 days. It's hard to take care of a herd when there are so many predators lurking around. Most farmers are going to weigh the odds, sell their herds, and move to the city until this blows over. They'll be practically giving away the cows they don't slaughter for the meat.

"What about the transfer device? Don't they have one?" Fu asked.

I snorted. "No, the average farmer doesn't have a transfer device." My advisors looked at me strangely. "Let me add some context. Say you're a farmer and you couldn't survive going into monster-infested land. In that case, everything becomes far more expensive. Safety has a price tag. That means you can't afford such a luxury on top of your land, seeds, farming equipment, and protection fee. It's more cost effective to take harvests to the nearest town to sell. Out here, land is the cheapest in all of Weston, which made buying a transfer device cost-effective. No one can protect me so no fee." I said.

"You're insane, master," Fu said.

"Not anymore, but I'm too powerful to tell the difference," I said.

Nana groaned, leaving me with all smiles.

…

Day 30
Spring 51, 11M 495Y
Rasputin Territory
Walker Farm

Leatherworkers, my transfer machine, and blueprints meant we had saddles, silk rope, halters, and reins. Our corral for the horses looked like a dream come true, and someone found an iron ore vein two days ago, making me a very happy farmer. Money wasn't really an issue but I didn't have enough sales to max out my farmer class. Corn, while plentiful, wouldn't continue producing during Fall and Winter, so we decided to store it immediately. Once dried, it was added to a newly built silo for storage. Various oats, grains, and berries were planted for later storage to feed the farm through the winter. An outbreak of smoked meat enthusiasts had swept through the farm with recipes completely unfit for human tastes. Gators had a thing for intestine flavoring that I stayed far away from.

The egg demand crashed below normal market prices, and it wasn't because of us. A new hatchery opened somewhere in Southern Weston. There was nothing like massive supplies to shatter demand.

2,890,233W

The number put a smile on my face every time I looked at it. I wouldn't call it rich, but I felt like I made out like a bandit. The silk trade had become a part of the farm's income from the spoils that Fu declined to make clothing from. She had become a prima donna when it came to what silk she would use. The giant spiders were restricted to a strict diet of only certain types of insects and giant birds to keep up the quality of their production.

I sat in my tent in my favorite chair while Gwen ran around on a sugar beat high. She had increased her attributes by leaps and bounds thanks to the diet provided by my farm. Monster corn, beats, and radishes made excellent opponents for her since they rarely had any way to defend themselves. Once she reached her second rank I would feel safe about letting her come with me on the raid tonight. Gwen decided that her body would digest her foes faster if she ran to speed the process up.

"What form am I getting again? It isn't something lewd, right."

"Where did you hear that word from?" I asked.

Gwen turned away from me. "I don't understand why you can't ride me instead of some dumb horse. I'm stronger, faster, and smarter than them. I have a strong back, too I've practiced with your sandbags." Gwen said.

"Try not to hurt yourself. I'm guessing Fu helped tie them on." I said.

"Don't be mad at her. She can't resist my sad doe eyes." Gwen said.

I smiled. It was almost like Tony had never happened. Her nightmares at night said otherwise. I sipped from the bottle of whiskey on my nightstand. A full bottle wouldn't give me a buzz with my attributes. The image of drinking my worries away helped more than actually drinking my worries away.

The whisky didn't burn my throat, but I practiced my grimace.

"You're making funny faces, and you haven't answered my question. What do you think I'll become when I rank up?" Gwen asked.

My thoughts went to the rain deer form Tony had wanted to force onto Gwen. It was a poor choice. Tony didn't have the resources to make Gwen a water-type powerhouse. I could it wouldn't be hard to load her up with a dozen water skills. She wouldn't enjoy that. Gwen was a psychic who liked to freeze things in place when she fought and fling objects at them.

We had a little spar and her first step was always to make me stumble before falling back at throwing rocks. It was adorable.

It was even more fun watching her dodge waves of force, dust devils, and random pressure bubbles. Time away from the dungeon had helped me start using my skills for more than destruction. Flight alluded me with telekinesis alone, but I could hover with little effort. The apartment I built only needed to be fixed half of every step of the way by Isobel.

She let me take the lead on half of them, and when she finished, she guided me through correcting my mistakes.

We had 10 of the seven-story apartments with plumbing, water, and electricity. Access to the Weston web was a work in progress. My tablet's satellite link wouldn't work in a vast area.

"I chose Sage Deer because it had many branching options for rank 3. Nature and spiritual skills should help your delicate psychic work. Better detection can't be a bad thing. There was a reason why most Sage Deer survived to rank 3 more often than not.

"What about Lunar Deer and the 3rd​ rank form Cosmo Deer? That last one would give me tentacles so I can grab things."

"4th​ rank form would see you turned from a deer into a Cosmos Leech," I said.

Her ears fell, and I sucked in a breath. "You know, with Sage Deer, you could become a Sage Satyr at rank 3.

"Aren't those more goats than deer?" Gwen asked.

I checked my watch, and I heard Gwen give a mental groan. Mana from the ground, air, and water pooled in her direction. A green light filled with purple fractals gathered around her as I watched Gwen raise her rank.

Sage Satyr was better than Sage D Taur. Taur monsters were known as a randy bunch and were hard to train without some unorthodox tactics.

Her body became larger, pink fur mixed with white with green highlights, and there was a feeling of oneness radiating from her. Even her hooves had turned from black to white. Gwen looked more like a yearling but would grow even larger.

…

Day 35
Spring 56, 11M 495Y
Rasputin Territory
Walker Farm



Patreon up to ch47 and rewrite up to ch5
The rewrite is 10k per chapter posted on saturdays now. After chapter 47 is posted to the public the next saturday the rewrite will be posted. That will mean 70k words on my patreon.

 

[Ultimatedaywriter]

Day 35
Spring 56, 11M 495Y
Rasputin Territory
Walker Farm

The horses were grumpy, wild, and sturdy. When they weren't biting each other they tried their best to bite their riders and thought it was funny when they managed to get a nibble. They saved the biggest, meanest mare around for me. An inky black mare well on her way to becoming a rank 3 nightmare turned her head back and forth, keeping every rider in sight. Roosters, Rabbits, and gators lined the fence, ready to jump in if something went wrong. The black mare was named Kate, and we branded her with a star-shaped spur for Walker Farm. The red scar showed on her rump even through the black fur, and the mare was twice as pissed because of it.

I reached out to pet her, and she bit my hand. The horse met my gaze with one of her large orbs and started barring down on me. When our eyes met, I smirked. She was more likely to break her teeth than my hand. Kate shook her head but failed to move me. I patted her neck with my other hand until she gave up and let go.

Not a mark scuffed my hand. Kate was the boss mare of the rank 2 horse monsters. While she wasn't much smarter than a normal horse, she was still the boss, and if the others saw she let me ride her, maybe the others would, too.

"This won't help the rumors." Big Don said.

I patted Kate's neck. There were rumors I was sleeping with the monsters on my team. It was only true for one of them; Isobel was still in the kissing stage, and Fu was more head than anything. Gwen didn't have a body conducive to that kind of relationship. Veronica was more of a hugger. Nana was the only one I had sex with, and it was more than I could handle.

"Who else am I going to be with?" I asked.

Heads turned my way.

Big Don started whispering quickly. "Sir, I have been on your forums and seen what humans think of monster-human relations. Is it wise to flaunt such deviance?"

"You don't have to whisper. I already said the important bit out loud. I'm not ashamed of my relationships." I said.

I heard wood crack and turned to see Kate leaning closer with her teeth aimed at my nose. When our eyes met, and I didn't make a move to stop her, she froze before slowly edging away. She was clearly a troublemaker. I turned my attention to a very nervous-looking Veronica holding up my tablet and recording our first try at horse breaking. The videos would also make great blackmail for Kate in the future. Nightmares were extremely intelligent. Some could write with shadows to get their desires across.

My eyes met Kate's, and I leaned in to whisper in her upright ears. "I'm going to record every embarrassing detail of the start of our relationship. You are going to fear the cringe when you rank up." I said.

"You are evil," Veronica said.

I turned to the camera. "I know I am," I said and climbed up on Kate's back. Her ears flattened before Big Don opened the gate. Dust exploded as 2 tons of horse galloped out, kicking out her back hooves and screaming her displeasure.

The entire time, I laughed as she shook me back and forth and tried to smash me into the fence. It was the sort of play that would only work when the target was significantly weaker than the material. Kate at least had the stamina to throw a fit.

After 3 hours of bucking, headbutting, and pushing her weight around, Kate decided it was time to pretend to give up. She didn't know I saw videos of tricky horse monsters pulling her act. The gate to the corral was open, and she walked me under it just when the arch above would crack my head when she bucked. I ducked and kicked her side.

She shot out, shaking her body. I was out of breath. My lungs were completely empty as I laughed silently at the sound of pounding hooves. I drew back to only holding her rein with one hand and flicked it. Kate ignored my command to turn and ran through a barbed wire fence. It hadn't slowed her down, and she made her way toward my attribute fruit orchard. She trampled over peanut rows and stopped at the two-foot-tall saplings covered in tiny blue leaves.

When she tried to graze on them, I pulled her back. Kate dared to look back at me with a betrayed expression. I flicked the rein again, and she screamed at me. Another flick, then a hand gestured, and the mare turned her head in that direction. After a minute of turning her head and listening, she tried to eat again, and I pulled on the rein. That continued for hours as I struggled to convey what I wanted, and she struggled to eat all the leaves off my saplings.

Then I had an idea and kicked when I popped her rein, and she turned before trotting in that direction. It was progress. Moments later, she stopped and started grazing on the leaves of pepper plants.

I decided to devote a few hours each day to training her after that.

…
Far Ming prepared herself for a meeting with their benefactor a man who spilled more blood than any demon cultivator she had heard of. The smell of blood filled her nose every time they met, and it practically radiated from his spirit. She had held off further dungeon exploration and let her contract run its course. Leaving this venture behind would set them back a decade. Still, once her young master regained his cultivation, time would no longer be a rare commodity.

It was unfortunate her young master didn't want to leave.

Her young master had gone native. Well, that wasn't completely true. It was more that he brought Easton's military tactics and culture to the burgeoning monster society. Meng Bao had only taken a group of brutal sewer-dwelling spirit beasts and turned them into a refined march of death. With a little work and far more numbers, they could potentially turn this territory into an Easton province. Such dreams were possible to realize.

Meng Bao had cousins of age to be used to bind Atom Walker to their family. That was one direction she hoped to steer their meeting toward. Another was to stop this failed plan to acquire skilled employees and cattle from Bavilim. A vampire surge was coming, and their benefactor would be even harder to control if he was turned into a vampire.

Her young master was enthralled by the idea and had taken to practice his riding to surprising results. The food in this place has had a beneficial effect on Prince Bao's health. His shaking, which was supposed to get worse with every passing day without his meridians, had shown signs of receding. There were still no signs of recovery of his meridians but Meng Bao seemed healthier every day.

The door to the meeting room opened, and the room filled with the scent of blood. A man with skin like marble, muscles like steel cables, and bones like mountains strode in with a boyish smile on his face. The smell of treated leather and horse sweat clung to the man dressed in a flowing robe of spider silks. The robe wouldn't look out of place at the imperial court another change made by her young master. The owner of this place reveled in the Easton additions practically in love with every facet of her country.

Only his eye shape, skills, levels, skin color, and gate separated him from fitting in with the ministers of her land. She stood up and gave a deep bow which he returned with a slightly shallower bow as was custom. Far Ming preferred it to the handshake Westons were known for.

"Were the roofs your idea or Bao?" Atom asked.

He gazed out the window to the rows of apartments with Easton roofs mixed with Weston walls.

"It was the young master," Ming said.

The man nodded and let the moment stretch.

When the silence became too much, she spoke. "Is there any problem with it, or have we overstayed our welcome?" Ming asked.

"No, I have something to ask you about, and I'm having trouble finding a path to ask it during a meeting about roof tops, clothing lines, and plans for the cattle." Atom said.

He gave her a smile before Veronica stepped in carrying a tea tray with fluffy corn biscuits. Most farmers, even in her homeland, could only grow rank 1 rice at the best of times. Cultivation took most of the chi from the world to ensure their military power was always at its peak. Sect disputes and clan wars notwithstanding, there was only so much energy to go around. When a cultivator found a monster, they didn't bury the corpse back in the earth. They used it and refined pills to further their cultivation.

She nervously sipped at her tea to wet her dry throat before speaking. "Ask away. I will help you any way I can, benefactor."

Farmers were most often the same, selling corpses to alchemists for a tidy profit. Instead, Atom buried the bodies, trapped the mana in the land, and gave a dungeon the kickstart it needed to build its own inner mana farms. There was chi in the air thanks to the pills, weapons, and scrolls she dropped in the dungeon. It would soon develop into a mix of Weston and Easton power, much like this territory could be. She ruined his dungeon, making it into something that would benefit him less and less as it evolved.

She may have to fight for her life and flee with Meng Bao. It was obvious he figured it out.

"Can you explain demon cultivation techniques to me?"

It was a blow to the gut she hadn't expected. Demonic cultivation techniques were outlawed cultivation techniques that promised power in exchange for human life. They transformed mortals into cultivation pills, extracted blood and souls, and perverted the soul of the wielder. There was no reason for him to ask such a question unless he found a cultivation scroll that contained one within the dungeon.

A chaotic dungeon running the fine line between Weston and Easton's power could very well have created a demonic cultivation scroll.

"Can you show it to me?" Far Ming asked.

"I see. I guess I couldn't fool you." Atom said.

Her eyes widened. "Have you been practicing it?"

"It was hard not to." This was a nightmare scenario where Weston and Easton would work together to purge such an aberration from the world. A Weston as powerful as Atom with a demonic cultivation technique could become unbelievably powerful and corrupted. "I guess skills and cultivation techniques are rather similar."

Those words ground her thoughts to a halt. Did the dungeon create a demonic cultivation technique in the form of a skill? Was it truly doing the impossible and fusing the two cultures into a usable form? Did she want to risk it and give her young master a second chance at being who he was always meant to be? This place had been good for his health; maybe he could recover completely.

"Is it possible to grant my young master a similar skill? Not a demonic technique but a cultivation technique in the form of a skill. Do you have such a skill in your collection?" Ming asked.

Atom tossed a biscuit in his mouth and chewed quietly before knocking back his tea. "I love these biscuits. Their sweetness goes well with bitter tea." Atom said.

"What is your price?"

"You're asking for something that doesn't exist yet." Atom said.

She understood it wasn't that he was unwilling, but the dungeon itself may not have created the skill. In time, with further dives, they could collect skills and find what she was looking for. Atom's cosmic bag could certainly carry many skill shards. Unfortunately, he was unwilling to enter the dungeon again for an entire year. 400 days was a long time.

While her young master's health was recovering, winter was a harsh month. Silos of corn meal would keep them alive along with smoked meat, but if something gets into their food reserves or rank 3 or higher, monsters attacking this growing settlement would fall. The tyranny of rank was nothing to scoff at. Each rank was exponentially higher than the last until things like immunities no longer held meaning outside the same rank.

"Your demonic cultivation skill, what is it called?" Far Ming asked.

"Sky Fiend Apotheosis, you know I can feel it, refining the blood contained within, preparing to drip-feed me. If I concentrated on the process, it would happen sooner. I wanted to know if I would explode from it. My attributes are already at the edge of rank 3. We are weeks away from selling enough goods to max out my farmer class."

Far Ming remembered legends of the Sky Fiends. They were Devilish deities that gained power from refining the blood of their opponents, increasing their physical cultivation with every enemy drained of their blood. The strongest of them could regenerate from a single drop of blood and shatter mountains with their bolts of blood lightning. She shivered at that creature being turned into a skill for anyone to absorb.

Any sane woman would have called this in and had the entire settlement and dungeon wiped. The smiling Weston knew it, too, and as his ally, it was her duty to answer and help him.

"No, you won't explode. Think of it as gaining a second set of attributes that comes from your soul. I will retrieve a guide on chi condensation, pillar formation, and core manifestation. Beyond those realms, I am ignorant; I am, after all, in the pillar formation realm. That is the equivalent of a rank 2." Far Ming said.

"Then why doesn't everyone combine the powers?" Atom asked.

She snorted. "Is that a joke? Exploding can happen if they do not have the greatest recovery cultivation in the world. You picked up a dragon scale. Be sure not the anger the dragon by keeping it." Far Ming said.

The boy of 16 had the balls to chuckle at her warning. "I can't believe I get to cultivate. You could say it was one of my secret desires. Everyone wants to live forever and be one with the heavens." Atom said.

In his case it would be the hells. The heavens despised demonic cultivation techniques and struck down their wielders. The heavenly tribulations often made the surviving demons stronger and more ferocious. The blood-soaked monster in front of her smiled like the fox that ate an entire henhouse.

"If you will give me a few copies of different cultivation techniques I should be able to create an optimized skill for Meng Bao and yourself. Think of them as bonuses for joining up with Walker Farm." Atom said.

Her eyes widened as the man stood up without talking about the rest of their business. Isobel walked into the room with a folder in hand. "Am I late for the meeting?" Isobel asked.

"No, you're right on time. Give me the footnotes. I have the skill to design I'll be in my tent for the next six hours. Have a good day, ladies." The monster walked off with the biggest smile she had ever seen.

"Atom and his hobbies," Isobel said, shaking her head.


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