Master of the Hoard - Chapter 15 (Patreon)

Nobody spoke. The silence was oppressive. The blood on my body and the disabled Talpi arrayed on the ground behind me spoke volumes.  I finally faced the crowd. The sensations reaching from them were to be expected. Fear, outrage, doubt and more fear. Oh, and a side order of guilt. My mental voice reached everybody present. "Moments ago, these five tried to kill me." I paused, letting the words sink in as I observed. The stench of fear grew stronger - they were clearly expecting me to punish them. "Some of you wonder why. A few already know. They thought I was a danger to your kind - and of course, they also wanted to keep the new home, food and weapons to themselves." I growled, standing up with both front claws on the back of the throne, letting my gaze scan over the crowd. "I am not going to kill them. I could, mind you. I could also easily find those who knew what they were going to attempt and punish them. This is not how I want to rule, however. No. I have said it before, but this time, I believe you are going to listen. If you are not satisfied with my decisions, talk to me. I may change my mind. If you have any suggestions, comments or ideas, by all means, come see me." The words "I don't bite." almost escaped me, but I managed to change it in the last second. "If you believe you cannot live with my rule, by all means, leave. You are not prisoners. However, as long as you stay here, you will abide with my final decisions. As for those who move directly against me? This is what happens." I turned to face the five Talpi behind me, focusing on the single conscious person among them. "As soon as you come to your senses, you are exiled. You may take food for a day and your own weapons - and that’s it. I will not kill you - but the mountain may. That is upon yourself. If you come back, you will not be spared. Now, leave, everybody. There will be more work for the rest of us with these five gone. Arthor, Creziel, Jazinth, Aelis and Roth, you stay."

I waited in silence as the tribe dispersed, quietly chittering among themselves, thinking about the path I'd chosen. It was a bit like walking a tightrope. In my years as a foreman, I'd seen all kinds of examples of leadership. Gary was a good friend and as nice as they came. As a foreman, he tried so hard to be one of the guys.  In result, workers would step all over him, shirk work, come in late and basically do what they wanted. It was no wonder the company had him replaced after a while. Craig, on the other hand, was an example of the opposite. He ruled in fear, heavy-handedly, punishing even the slightest transgressions while doing his best to instill a feeling of competition and distrust among his workers. He got results, but his workers had a tendency to quit or succumb to stress, and the ones who stayed on were right bastards or bootlickers. As for me, I'd opted for the middle road. I stayed friendly, but kept a certain distance from the workers privately. I had few rules, but those I had, I practiced religiously. Work safe. Show up on time. Do your job. I encouraged autonomy and independent thinking, as long as it went in line with my rules.

I didn't know if I could continue like this in a world with entirely different rules, but I sure was going to try. The difference being, of course, that disagreements back on Earth led to a pink slip and here  a more terminal solution.

The following conversation was not worth repeating. Basically, I just wanted to be reassured that none of the Talpi I really counted on were in on it  - they were not. Also, I wanted to ensure that we could handle our responsibilities with only 36 Talpi, which we could, if barely.

The following week was one of repetition and hard work for everybody. I spent the majority of my time scouring the nearby cave system, looking for monsters and edibles. Together with Arthor, we managed a rotation that ensured that everybody would form part of these outings and gain experience and levels, builders and diggers all. I also, finally, got comfortable with my wings. They had bothered me immensely at first, but now, I didn’t really think of them. Their weight was just a reassuring presence on my back.

Truth be told, it suited me just fine. I really wanted to be able to get started on some actual defensive constructions and my curiosity cried for the necessity of knowing what was hidden in the collapsed rooms in the necromancer's lair. I returned twice a day to use my Weakening Fog on the Clenchers, keeping them nice and subdued. My Improved Spell Control made everything easier, making the effect of my breath attack last slightly longer. It was not an accurate science, but it looked like it lasted at least 25 percent longer. The newly created wall and Stone Door keeping them in looked like they would hold up to any attack, especially once the mortar dried completely. Until then, they looked kind of lost, constantly kept in a state of weakness by my breath attack locked inside a depression large enough to hold a group ten times their size.

I invited Arthor to create a tiny addition to my chamber. With his help, we merged the items and rock types we already owned into one of the walls, creating our own visual Mohs scale. I invited all shamans to try their best at creating a spearhead, marking their progress on the scale. Unsurprisingly, Arthor was the strongest, with his ability to almost rival iron. Jazinth came right after, able to create a spearhead harder than copper, but not iron. The other apprentice, Creziel, barely registered on the scale.

I also spent some time each day playing around with my newfound illusion skill. I decided not to go completely overboard, though. At this point, I was up to 175 mana/day. Maintaining any sort of illusion, I would be able to burn through all that mana in half an hour. I preferred spending my hard earned mana points on something more permanent, like constructions. Even so, I'd be a fool not to recognize the sort of lifesaving tool I had been given. The possibility of distracting a ravenous monster that was looking for you was just too good to pass up. Hence, I allowed myself the luxury of spending 30 mana a day on illusion practice. My initial conclusion? It was hard. In order to get any sort of believable result, I was forced to create only small illusions. A vase. An amulet. A sword. That level of intricacy I was able to create with little challenge and the detail held up pretty well, even when I moved closer. Slowly, I improved at larger illusions, but it was hard work. Visualizing what a restored ceiling would look like when you were done wasn't that hard for me. Maintaining that image in my mind, unchanging, for longer than a couple of seconds, or making the illusion move? Yeah, hard work.

My newfound mana regeneration rate was incredible. Just a day after the Stone Door completed, I started production of another Mana Crystal and soon thereafter watched it improve to 200/day. Just one day to create a Mana Crystal now – amazing.

[You have completed the construction of: Mana Crystal. Current Mana Crystals: 2.

- Mana regeneration rate within your domain is increased by 100% (total current regeneration rate increase=300%

- 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.]

The day after, I created a Stone Door to my chamber. I didn’t sleep much, but from now on, I was closing the door when I did. No more nightly ambushes for me.

When two days had passed, Aelis finally woke up. Sitting on her haunches in the invigorating energy field of the Habitat, she looked as good as new, as long as you didn't look at her paw. Jittery with energy, she wasted little time complaining about the wound. "I do not need a paw for scouting, Sire. Also, I appreciate your suggestion that I increase my Toughness, but my speed is my real weapon. I am more than tough enough."

I wanted to berate her for almost dying, but seeing the fire in her eyes, I changed my mind and smiled at her. "That you are, Aelis. That you are. Now, rest up until you feel better."

"I need no rest. I need to get to work. Brothiel told me that you still haven't found a place for growing food? You need me."

I had trouble arguing with that. As it stood, I had too many demands on my time and little trouble filling the hours of the day. I needed to train the Clenchers, gather food, kill monsters, teach Creziel about the fundamentals of construction and come up with ways that the earth manipulation of the shamans could assist us. I decided to tone down the training until we had a slightly more permanent solution for food.

Day three got me a nice, protective Force field, throwing a nice blue shimmer over my hoard. I would love to see people steal from me now!

On the fourth day after the incident, I created a Training Chamber inside the room next to the Habitat. I wanted everybody to improve, not just myself, and this seemed like the safest way to ensure their growth.

[Training Chamber.

This construction transforms an area of 30 x 30 feet of room into a Training Chamber. Inside this area, physical training will allow your minions to improve their physical prowess. If they spend enough time here, they will be able to improve selected attributes. Progress will be relative to the original attributes of the creature and dependent on the efficiency of the training.]

The room was larger than 30 by 30 feet, and I made a mental note to create a second Training Chamber inside it if ever we needed more space for training. For now, however, the real question was how to best utilize the chamber. Exercise wasn't really my thing. Asking around, I wound up talking once again to the Talpus named Roth.

The creature was built differently from most of the others. He was more squat, with a wider, bulkier chest and, for a Talpus, muscled arms. He was also, according to Aelis, their best fighter and absolutely barmy. "What's the point? You need combat. Jumping around won't do you any good. Leveling is the only way to get strong, like me. I’m level 9 and can beat anybody here in a fight, fair or unfair." He hit his own chest with his fist.

I shook my head. "That may have been the case before. No more. I have enchanted this room. As long as you train in here, you will improve your physical attributes. My problem is that I don't know how to teach you people how to train. Should they lift heavy rocks to gain Strength? Or run around the room for Agility and Toughness?" I looked around the room again. Maybe we could outfit the room with some mannequins of some sort, equip them with armor? If hitting training dummies worked in games to increase skills, it might work here. I suddenly noticed a weird sound coming from my side.

Roth was staring at me, taking short, huffing breaths. His eyes were wide and he looked like he was about to jump me. His squeal pierced the silence and his mental shout rivaled it for sheer noise. "Do you mean that? We can become strong? We won’t have to flee from every single creature out there. We-"

I smiled. "Whoa whoa. There are limits, Roth. Your progress depends on your original attributes. I'm afraid you'll never be able to rival a red dragon for sheer strength. In fact-"

"You say that now. I’ll show you. This? A chance to become stronger without risking our fur? That’s exactly what we need. Also, don't worry about training. I will make sure that everybody works until their fur’s hanging on them like a Blanket Bat off a corpse. I’ll pound those sorry Talpi into shape. You did say Strength, Agility and Toughness, right? I’ll make ‘em behave."

Eventually, I did talk him into starting out with just blunt weapons and limiting the training to an hour a day for everybody. The action-happy Talpus looked like somebody who might inadvertently hurt some of his trainees otherwise. I left him to figure out a training regimen and we would start the day after. Then I went off to let Aelis and Arthor tell everybody the happy news of how they would finally be able to become stronger without real risk. The complaints started pouring in a while later. "Not Roth." "We don't have time for this. We'll starve." "Seriously, why Roth?" "Do you want us to stop working on the rooms?" "Spirit below, anybody but Roth."

Over the next few days, the complaints only increased. I spent most of my time getting the Clenchers accustomed to my presence, and the rest of the time overseeing the training. I watched Roth drill a couple of scouts on avoiding blows and understood the complaints - but didn't give in. He was harsh and perhaps a tad more violent than necessary, but they needed the increased chance at survival. And two days after the first training session, Roth reported that the first increases were starting to appear, to Toughness, mostly. Following that, the complaints mostly died away, as people realized the gains were real. I told Roth to report progress to me once a week and keep up the hard work - and then poured my focus back to all the other issues at hand.

Six days after the Talpi had tried to kill me, food scarcity was becoming a real issue. We were reaching a point where our outings were producing fewer results and taking longer and we had to walk faster and longer each time to keep all mouths fed. Especially the Clenchers, and myself, admittedly, were going through the stores fast. We would have to do something drastic soon in order to ensure our survival. It was either killing some of the Clenchers or... I summoned Aelis and Arthor.

"I need your honest opinion now. We have a couple of options before us, but neither of them are looking really good." The reed-thin scout and the sarcastic shaman looked at each other before nodding at me. "You both know how the food stores are looking. We've almost eaten all the Clenchers we killed and finding food in the tunnels is becoming harder. How are we on finding a place where we can start growing plants?"

"Not that good." Arthor spat. "Before we get into that, however, I need to check your wits. You want to be called Onyx? Onyx is black.”

I grinned. “I do. And Onyx isn’t black. That’s a common misconception. Besides, I’m a shadow dragon. Shadows are dark.”

“I know the rock. However, I am also aware that - pfah. Why do I care? Just know that you will be enjoying this conversation repeatedly in the future with anybody else who hears your name and thinks it’s stupid. Now, if we move on from your sorry choice of designation, I believe we have a good cave near the end of one of the other tunnels. It's got a stream running alongside the entire area and it's large enough that we can shape it in any manner we want. The earth is also soft and malleable - but apart from the stream, it needs to be expanded, from one end to the other. I can sense that most of the area inside is earth and gravel, but there's bound to be other forms of rock included too."

I drummed my claws on the ground. "So good area, but we'll need some time to excavate?"

"Exactly. At least a week, if we ignore everything else. And afterwards, we'll need additional time for whatever it is you want to do to the earth before we start planting. That includes adding Jazinth and Creziel to help with the work. Jazinth is both talented and strong – Creziel, not so much. Then we need a couple of months after that before the Talon Rot grows enough to start eating. Longer for most of the slower plants."

"Good. Good. That... could be worse. We can probably reduce the couple of months quite a bit." I enlightened them on the details of the Growth Boost construction.

"The way I see it, that means we need food for maybe a month and a half. We should be able to add on to the plants continuously and then I believe we can keep you guys fed afterwards. Thoughts?"

Aelis' whiskers twitched. "Sire, it might look a bit darker than that. Basically, the Clenchers and yourself eat almost as much as our entire tribe. I don't see how we can create or gather that much food. And not just food - meat."

"See, that's what I wanted to talk to you about. I have an idea. It might be a little crazy, but I think it's a good one." I didn't miss how Aelis glanced down at her missing hand at my words, but she stared attentively at me, even as her every pore oozed apprehensiveness. "So, the backup plan is to kill the Clenchers. If we're ever in real trouble and starvation is setting in, that's what we'll do. And I need the two of you to tell me if we've reached that point. However, as we've discussed, I want those ugly, tough animals in order to have a bastion of defense we can put between us and any invaders. So it's a last measure, understood?"

They both nodded and I continued. "Good. In that case, my plan is to take what we just did with the Clenchers and repeat that with every single enemy within reach."

Talpi, in general, do not show their emotions through their faces. It's more, I've learned, a manner of interpreting the movement of their bodies, whiskers and those weird claw-fingers they had. That, and probably some pheromones of some sort. Still, this time I really got to them. Their mouths flapped open and they stood stock still, just staring at me.

Arthor was the one to break the silence. "This is a little crazy? Killing the Dweelers might be done, but you want to take on the Earth Furies yourself? And those fire dwellers? And you want to do all of this even as we're struggling to expand the domain, grow plants, suffer in training - that is something we should speak on another time, by the way, and  keep ourselves from starving?" Aelis didn't talk, but she clearly agreed with his assessment.

"I'm glad we're on the same level. That is exactly what I want to do. Now, I can see you both want to spend a lot of time telling me just why it cannot possibly be done. Instead, we're doing this: My mana reserves have just replenished. This means I am going to start creation on a Mana Crystal right now that's going to expand my mana regeneration rate and improve the hoard. I would ask you to leave and return in twelve hours when it's completed and spend the time to consider exactly how you would handle my request." I raised an admonishing claw. "Not why it cannot be done. There will be plenty of time to mention issues, reservations and the like later. For now, think only on how to do it."

Fuming and talking among themselves, the pair left. They were pretty annoyed with me right now, but it was a strategy I'd employed over the years. Take an opponent to a problem and have him come up with his own approach to it. Sometimes, it backfired, and they would only come up with reasons why it couldn't be done, but quite often they would surprise you.

I relaxed in my lair, staring at my hoard. It was still small, but was about to grow larger soon. I noticed how one of the Clencher teeth had received a +1 Agility boost. That would be a great gift for a talented scout. The next half day, I would allow myself to chill and ponder my own plan. They were right that this was not an optimal situation, but if we handled it right, we would be able to pull ahead and end up stronger than every other wannabe dragonling overlord out there.