Master of the Hoard - Chapter 8 (Patreon)

"We should focus on food first."

The words snapped me out of my reverie. I had just been considering how my old boss would have reacted if he had found a way to make constructions appear from nothing. He would’ve probably had a heart attack for sheer avarice. It was all I could do to remember that I needed to respond mentally. "What?" My head swiveled downwards to see Aelis standing before me, paws folded before her, all business.

"Before we focus on the matter of exploring or even defense, we should focus our energy on food. We have trouble enough securing food for ourselves during our outings and, my pardon, Sire, but with your appetite the task will be even harder. We need to become self-sufficient. Also, if our energy levels are low from lack of food it will slow everything down."

Geez, take a man to task because he had a single snack or two. I was still unsure about the whole "eating raw food" part of being a dragon, but fried with mushrooms, those giant flies were delicious. Aelis' words were a bloody annoyance - it'd set back the time schedule I was juggling around in my head by a lot for my grand design. Still, her words rang true. "How would you propose we go about this?"

"We need a cave. A large cave, where we can grow plants. Mushrooms, taber roots, godets, whatever we can get our hands on that grows quick. As long as we have the space and soil, we should be able to grow these with minimal efforts. The trouble lies in encountering good soil and ensuring a large enough batch of material to start the production."

I gave nothing away, but inside, I was jumping with joy. Aelis was a gift - a helper with a penchant for these kinds of mental challenges was a godsend. "Mmhm. That sounds doable and I like the way you think. We should expand our horizons a bit, however." She had me thinking in directions that I hadn’t thought of before this discussion.

"A... larger cave, Milord?"

Hah. "No, Aelis. My initial thought is that we would need to add three rooms. A farm for mushrooms, roots and other crops and growths is a brilliant start, but we would also need a storage room or cold room of sorts, where we can keep food that would otherwise spoil. Additionally, I would want your help in locating a bunch of creatures that we would be able to keep and breed for food. Preferably something docile, but failing that, an animal that we would be able to keep trapped, fed and breeding with the right kind of defenses." Yes, this was progressing even better than I had initially thought, despite the potential setback to my tentative original schedule.

Aelis looked doubtful. "A docile animal within the mountain? Something we would dare keep around? I... will think on it, Sire."

"Please do so. I'm no expert, but with the right kinds of animals, we'd be able to use their dung to enrich that soil you'll want as well."

"Really? That does not sound like something I would enjoy eating."

I nodded. "If Arthor has some information from past tribes who have grown crops, he might be able to add something to that. We've basically exhausted all I know on the subject anyway. You're right, though. Food will be the first issue - but we shouldn't aim for complete self-sufficiency right off the bat. Once we have the basics constructed, we can move on to defense and exploration." I looked at her askance. "Speaking of those, what are your thoughts on my other questions?"

She straightened, placing her paws behind her back. "First, as to professions, I believe we should focus on builders first with Arthor being the sole shaman to have his skills improved. Mostly–"

"What, no fighter improvements to you or the hunters?" I interrupted.

"No. As you stated yesterday, our days of being able to constantly hide from our troubles are numbered. We need to be able to hit back. For what flaws he may have, Arthor's affinity with the land holds the most potential for damage. Still, even before that, I would focus on traps and defenses that allow us to hit without the enemy being able to strike back. We are not stupid or bereft of talent, Milord, but we are frail." She looked straight at me, a challenge obvious in her eyes and from what she put off mentally.

"Well argued." I didn't disagree with her decision, but wanted to hear her reasoning. "How about digging out the existing rooms?"

My lack of arguments took her momentarily aback. "I - well, it depends, Sire. We will have to look at both the stability of the structure where we will be digging and the severity of the damage. If a cave-in has already taken place, the digger will have to take extra care with the supports."

"Sounds fair. Guesstimate?"

"... I beg your pardon?"

"What is your best guess? And how many diggers would it take?"

"Oh. I am not the best to answer this. I will ask one of the diggers. At least, once we have carved out the initial space, we have enough diggers to work on two or three rooms at the time. "

"You get back to me with that. Also, we'll probably want another person with sharp eyes to go over the existing rooms to look for any surprises. Hidden doors, traps, nasty monsters and the like."

Aelis just stared at me, confusion radiating off of her in waves. "Why would we do that?"

"Why? The guy in charge here was a necromancer. Soul Carver. Whatever. If they’re anything like our Necromancers at all, it's pretty much what they do. Raise the undead, leave nasty traps and curse shit. And try for world domination, obviously." Okay, my bias from the games I used to play might be shining through here. "Check it over with Arthor to see if I'm right, but regardless I prefer that you take extra care. How about defenses?"

"I - of course, Sire." She looked around herself, before waving me toward a puddle of sludge near the wall. Crouching, she used the end of her spear to draw a bewildering maze in the dirt. When she started including a couple of straight lines, I belatedly recognized it as a map of the winding tunnels leading down to the domain. "You will note our current position. Now, I would riddle all tunnels with traps - as many as we can afford. The ones leading here, as well, otherwise any enemies would know where to go right away. Here and here," she indicated two tunnels, "would be good places for traps to collapse tunnels. Apart from this, anything goes. We are excellent at crude traps and ambushes, but we do not have the skills or the magic for anything too technical or sophisticated." She moved the spear along the tunnel leading towards the entrance, "Here, I would aim for smaller traps and nothing else. The tunnel is too narrow for any real defenses or any fights where you need to move - and mobility is key to my kind."

"I like your thoughts. And inside the domain?"

She grimaced. "I don't rightly know, Milord. My kind has never been one for entrenched battles and Arthor could not help. Maybe we should focus on creating a hiding place first and combat later on?"

I glanced at the scrawny creature beside me. "I am sure we will be able to come up with something. Your ideas leave me no doubt that we'll be able to come to an outstanding plan together - great job, Aelis." She bowed low, the very image of servility. I continued, "So, let's get down to the nitty gritty."

Thus began a thrilling session set in a danger-filled dog-eat-dog fantasy world, where I spent a handful of hours doing... exactly what I did back on Earth. Discussing timelines, tasks, capacities, material and the trustworthiness of the various employees - erm, minions. This time though, I had a chance to actually accomplish something I never even dreamed of in my old life. A chance to improve the status quo. Or at least I hoped to.

It all seemed perfectly natural, until we started going into details. Still, we were discussing an entirely different level of sophistication, technology and available material than I was used to. I'd lie if I said I didn't enjoy the challenge of it - having to find the optimal solution for a shitty situation with sub-par items and crew. This was something I could relate to in this new world. Back at the old 9 to 5 I had often longed for the "good old days" when I was just a worker bee. The paperwork and planning ended up dominating the hours of the day and the actual work had become distant. But here? We had no fancy planners or schedule managers to help us - hell, we didn't even have paper. Not that I had hands to actually be able to write anything. Stupid claws. This meant we had to be damn sure that we agreed on what had to happen and everybody had a fairly good idea of what to do if things went south.

The one thing that managed to sour my mood even more was the fact that I didn’t have hands.  It wasn’t just the aspect of not being able to write, but throughout my entire life, physical work had always been my one go-to distraction. Whenever my mind was overtaken with frustration back on Earth, I always had the house. It was an old, three-story wooden beauty that we bought back when the ex and I were still head over heels. Both our signatures were on the mortgage, but we both knew that it was mine. Cait had her book club, margarita Wednesdays and golfing trips. I had the house. It was a horribly, run-down mess to begin with, but I loved it for the potential. Good neighborhood, large, airy rooms and a decent-size garden to boot. I almost thanked the sellers for being such horrible slobs and neglecting the maintenance enough that the price plummeted down to where we could afford it. When the divorce was finalized, there was no real discussion. I kept the house, Cait got... everything else. And it really had been my refuge. Even after three decades of living in the same house, I always had a half-dozen small projects going on in and around the house. Now... I suddenly couldn't - build - anything. The pent-up frustration of not being able to use my hands to distract my mind from whatever I was trying to avoid thinking about was overwhelming. It took all the calming exercises I knew to get back to the job at hand. At claw. Grrr.

After taking an expansive look at the work force we had, their skills and capacities, and the actual work we could depend on them to deliver, we ended up with a rough sketch of a map and decided that we could get away with starting in on several of the tasks at once. I would lead almost half the tribe on the foraging expedition. It would be a diverse group, consisting of all of their hunters, the majority of the scouts, and two of the workers whose talents were mostly in the 'carrying heavy stuff' department. Oh, and one of the two shaman apprentices, for sniffing out our surroundings. Meanwhile, Aelis would remain at the domain with everybody else. The rest of the workers would be put to work on excavating the foundations for what would become the Farm – where we would plant and grow edibles and fungi of all sorts. This room would undoubtedly be the largest of them all and we settled on placing it as an offshoot to the initial hallway, before the throne room. According to Arthor's earth-sniffing capabilities, there was a good-sized cave beyond the walls, minimizing the work involved to hollow everything out. Arthor and one of the two apprentices would help with the excavation, gifted as they were with sensing the structure of the earth surrounding him. As soon as the actual excavation was done, they would split into two teams. The majority would work on preparing the Farm and Arthor would instruct everybody on the finer details. Meanwhile, a few of the talented diggers started digging into a cave farther away from the throne room that looked promising for an enclosure to keep animals. Defenses and excavating the rest of the lair... would simply have to wait. Their backup plan was simple. If they were discovered, they should do their best to escape and meet us at an agreed rendezvous point.

I would need to have a chat or two with them regarding soil, water and the like. I was no expert on the subject - we usually had landscapers to handle that part - but had picked up a few tricks regarding how to create a garden in environs with little to no soil. It was probably far removed from what the Talpi knew about plants. As a matter of fact it was impressive they knew what they did about the idea of farming, just from observing and harvesting plants around the mountain.

While I wanted to stay to protect and supervise the constructions myself, it just wasn't realistic. We settled on an agreement where any workers sent back to the base with provisions would carry status updates back and forth. We were just starting to focus on the final details, when a notification interrupted me mid-conversation. I let my point peter out, reading the notification. A smile slowly grew on my face until I realized Aelis was standing right in front of a nightmare of killer teeth. "Game changer. Be right back."

"What? What game?" Aelis' question was lost to me as I ran back towards my hoard.

Within seconds, I was sitting on my haunches, staring at the newly created Mana Crystal. Where, the day before, the crystal had mostly been a promise of beauty, today it was the real deal. The refined mana had been compressed into a gem of crystallized, living mana. However, where even the most awe-inspiring gem on Earth was a cold beauty, this wonder seemed alive. It was the size of one of Aelis' paws and looked for all the world like a huge diamond, masterfully carved and crafted. However, it pulsed with life - small pinpricks of shadow ran beneath the surface, enthralling my attention. Not to mention the tendrils leading from the crystal down into the ground. I was forced to consider the theoretic possibility that both the Earth and this place were equally real. At least, it would explain how the world's workings seemed to explain some of the myths back on Earth - like why the dragons of stories always kept a hoard. Heh - and why people cared so much about that damn Arkenstone. Aelis' repeated question dragged me away from staring at it. "Huh?"

"What game?"

"Oh. I meant, this Mana Crystal might improve our options." I brought the notifications back up.

[You have completed the construction of: Mana Crystal. Current Mana Crystals: 1.

- Mana regeneration rate within your domain is increased by 50% (total current regeneration rate increase=150%)

- Possibility of items in your hoard gaining or improving magic abilities improved slightly.

Two times a day, you can consume a Mana Crystal to fully replenish your mana and health. Warning: This will permanently remove any current bonuses you and available constructions gain from that Mana Crystal.]

"My mana regenerates a lot faster now. 75 mana a day. Say. Would you guys be alright with not setting out for additional food for..." I did the math, "a little less than two days?"

"That should be doable for us. We have weathered worse. Could I ask why?"

"With my increased mana regeneration, it'll take me less time to regain mana enough to create a Shadow Door in front of the Farm. A Shadow Door is basically... well, any of you can activate it and it'll work as an illusion to hide the door. If enemies arrive, you can activate it and, hopefully, hide behind it until they leave or we return."

"That would make for a splendid security measure." She looked at me with a neutral expression, but her whiskers quivered and a soft sensation of curiosity got away from her.

I smiled. "You're allowed to ask, you know. I don't bite. Heh."

"Milord, I cannot believe I am about to say this, but why? Why would you waste resources on our kind? Use your skills to strengthen us? We are the lowest of the low and you would be able to subjugate far stronger creatures than us."

"I see. Well, that is a matter of perspective. Some would likely see you as weak. I see you as the perfect complement to my own skills. In addition, I'd rather a fruitful cooperation between allies than have a bunch of powerful, bloodthirsty backstabbers at my back who cannot think for themselves." Relief flowed from her, and I added, "Mind you, I still want some powerful, bloodthirsty creatures under my thrall, eventually. And I want you to help me choose them. But the decisions? They're going to be made by us. Together."

We got on with our planning session, and eventually concluded. Aelis would get to thinking and planning, and I could in good conscience start thinking how I wanted to arrange my lair. Heh. "my lair." That sounded really weird to me - like I was some sort of bloated spider. Maybe "dungeon?" Nah. Too BDSM. I'd stick with lair - and if I managed to survive, it might someday upgrade into "home."