Master of the Hoard - Chapter 24 (Patreon)

We shape our buildings, thereafter they shape us. - Winston Churchill

Right now I had the ability to send for anyone I wanted, all the way to the entrance tunnels. This was due to the huge boost I had received to my Mental Power since my last level gain. It was nice, but given that I had essentially died from lack of exercise the last time, I wasn’t risking my life given this second chance. I walked through my domain gathering the people I wanted to converse with, Arthor, Jazinth, Creziel, and Aelis. It also allowed me to see the continued progress in my domain. It was lovely. The whole dragon overlord thing might be getting to my head. I'd have to make sure I didn't end up a dictator, benevolent or not. While the Talpi might expect it, it wasn't what I wanted... at least for the long haul.

The gathered Talpi looked unnerved. Well, Arthor and Creziel not so much. I had warned them that their assistance would be needed. Aelis, however, looked like she had ants beneath her fur and Jazinth looked more puzzled than anything. I decided to get Aelis out of the way first. "Yes, Aelis, I changed your class from Warrior to Scout. No, it's not permanent, but I figured it would suit you abilities better."

"I-"

She started talking, but I interrupted her. "Try out the changes, see whether you prefer it like this. Oh, and the rest of this session is going to be about construction - you can stay if you want to, but it's not necessary."

She gathered herself and nodded. "As you wish, Sire." She turned around and left. The sensations from her were those of curiosity, however, so she wasn’t too put out.

That left the trio of shamans staring at me. Jazinth looked even more nervous, uncertainty oozing from her pores. Why had I included her, when I initially hadn't said I wanted her to take part in the construction business? "Good news everybody. I have some really bad news." The trio looked at each other in confusion and I couldn't help but laugh. "Apologies. It's really good news all round, but you may not like it anyway. See, your days are about to become a lot more busy." I told them about the new Sorcery Chamber and the effect it would have on them. "In short, once it's constructed, I am going to require you to spend at least an hour a day training in there."

With a grimace, Arthor shook his head. "No."

I raised an eyebrow. "No?" A slight growl may have escaped here.

He sighed, gritting his teeth. "Yes. We will require even more time. Maybe two or three hours. More. If it has the same potential as this Training Chamber of yours. This could be a dramatic change for us. We are already on a level with Dweelers in mental capacity – soon we will be able to outclass them. The issue, as we discussed before, is that I struggle with finding the time for everything."

I smiled. "I'm glad you see it like that. Also, I do have something to suggest that should help with that other issue. Jazinth?"

The haughty Talpus stared at me expectantly. Below the surface, however, she was all insecurity and doubt. I smiled. "First, I needed to commend you for your actions in the red dragon's domain. You did well. I'm happy to say it comes with a reward too." I engaged my interface, found the spot and pressed [Apply profession], grinning at the look on her face when her new Mage Profession kicked in.

"Your... Onyx, you didn't have to do that." The tiny flicker of happiness blossoming belied her words, however.

"Oh yes, I did. Obviously to reward you, but also because I'm throwing additional work at you. You will need the additional Mental Power, if you want to be able to keep up."

That damped her enthusiasm, but only slightly. "Oh. What would you have me do?"

"Create weapons for everybody. Experiment some. I’ll throw the details at you later on. For now, however, just do like Aelis. Go, play, have fun and learn the limits of your powers."

She was practically skipping when she left. The well-groomed Talpus could be unbearably cute when she was taken by surprise.

I shook my head and turned to Arthor and Creziel.

Arthor shook his head, amusement bubbling to the surface. "Did you just pile my most arduous tasks on the shoulders of Jaz?"

I nodded. "Yup. We'll have Jazinth take over. Well, unless we need something of exquisite quality. You are the strongest we have and it may be necessary at some point. For now, however, you will have more than enough on your plate."

Creziel jumped. "Does that mean we are going to hear about your building plans?"

I smiled. It was nice to see that he could forget his shyness when the topic was something he liked. "In a bit. First, there's something we've been neglecting. Tell me about your young, Arthor."

The frown was instant and his voice was cold. "Why?"

"Simple. We need to make sure we don't forget about them in our plans. If we ignore them, we'll waste all chances of creating the best possible place for them."

He chewed on the comment for a while. "That's... surprising. I apologize for my outburst. I will respond. What do you need to know?"

I waved a claw in the air. "Everything that's second nature to you. Like, how many kids do you have right now? I hardly ever see any, unless they're hanging off a female. And how do you treat them? Are they just allowed to run around... anything, basically."

"You have spent all this time with us and still learned nothing?" His sarcastic comment was softened by his grin. "I should have known you would need everything explained. I believe we have eight pups under the age of two right now."

"Eight? Really?" I'd seen one or two smaller Talpi here or there, but not that many.

"Yes. It's understandable if you haven't seen them too much. We have no nests, currently - those are only for the first handful of weeks. Right now, they stay in the Habitat a lot, helping with crafts and learning from our mothers. The moment they are large enough to stop hanging off the mothers - that's after three months or so - they are put to work – and soon, the eldest will be large enough to join us out and about. Our young usually accompany their parents wherever they are - with the exception of the scouts.“

I nodded. "Good. That's exactly the kind of information I need. Wait. Three months? That can’t be right. How do you teach them anything when they’re that young? Are they even able to retain knowledge when they’re younger than three months? Human kids aren’t even able to stand until they’re a year old, let alone think or talk."

He smirked. “You are aware that I’ve told you about the Introduction, right? We may lack in attributes, but we aren’t stupid. Our young are gifted with the inherited knowledge of our tribe. The influence of the Mountain helps with their gaining control over their body early on, but a lot of things, they are born knowing.”

I shook my head. “That’s… okay, you may have mentioned it before, but it didn’t click for me, that’s for sure. Please tell me it’s just Talpi that share knowledge like this.”

“Don’t be daft. I already told you Deyra introduces every creature to our world.”

I let my head sink. “Dammit. I heard it, but it didn’t sink in. I believed I was ahead of the curve, with all the newly hatched dragons needing to learn their way. But if you’re telling me they’re ready to move from the get go… that’s a kick in the face.” I sighed. I was getting a bit annoyed that I hadn’t gotten the same Introduction as everybody else. Again, I could only wonder which essential knowledge had passed me by. Would I as a human, essentially, even be entitled to any information or did my presence here break some of the rules? What the hell had brought me here? “Alright. Let’s focus on what we can do something about. Are any of your females pregnant right now?”

Arthor scratched his nose. "Right now, we have at least four females pregnant  and they usually have litters of seven or more pups.” A hint of smug satisfaction escaped him. ”One other may be joining them soon.”

Oh. So Arthor was seeing a girl himself? I almost teased him with the knowledge, but decided to let it slide instead.

He continued, oblivious. “This past month, while hectic, has been beneficial to us. The majority of us have not experienced having our own place and plentiful food for this long at a time."

"So you're telling me that half a year of peace and plentiful food could double the size of your tribe?"

He nodded. "More than that. That's one of the advantages of our people. We may not be strong, but we are survivors, and we are prolific."

"That's incredible. It also makes it even more important that we become self sufficient with food. If the first farm becomes a success, we probably need to start on a second one shortly after. That's for tomorrow to worry about, though. For now, we have something more pressing - namely training. I'm guessing that the first few years the pups are mostly for learning and not so much for the actual help they give you?"

Creziel interspersed, "Erm. That, and for developing their understanding of the earth."

I nodded in understanding. "Good. Then hear me out. I suggest that we dedicate a large part of the day for all pups to train instead, both in the Training Chamber and in the Sorcery Chamber when it's done. It probably wouldn't mean much when we're talking about lost labor - but this way, when they are finally let out on their own to find their way and discover their classes, they will be twice as powerful as pups used to be."

Arthor looked at the floor for just a second before staring up at my eyes. "Yes. I will inform the tribe today."

“That was fast.”

He shrugged. "We're a pragmatic people. We have to be. And the inconvenience here is as nothing compared to the promises. Also, with the way Roth has been raving about the results of your Training Chamber, we would be fools not to take advantage of it from an early age."

"Yes. The future of you shamans also looks pretty bright. Let's not get ahead of ourselves, though. Allow me to introduce you to my new toy." I projected the Domain Map onto the floor in front of us and I enjoyed the look of amazement on their faces as they realized what they were looking at. We spent a while familiarizing ourselves with the map’s controls. Compared to the program, Buildertrend which I used to use quite a bit, it definitely fell flat, but it was still an amazing improvement to, say, drawing on the floor like a caveman and what it could previously do.

Creziel took to it like a natural, forgetting his nerves in the excitement. "That is wondrous! So you can spin it too? And make it appear larger? But not change it? Never mind. It's still incredible. Okay, let us keep it at this size. Then we can scratch your plans on the floor as we discuss them."

I had a mental chuckle at his exuberance. "Okay. First things first. Before we handle anything else, we need to agree on the priorities. I know that our fights gave us an unexpected windfall of some additional food, but it also landed us with more mouths to feed. So, food would be my first priority. Then defenses, in case anybody else attacks, I want us to be able to defend properly and not just come up with a last minute scheme. And finally expansion with additional constructions.  Thoughts?"

Creziel thought about it. "We have been postponing the construction of that place for growing you requested. From what I gather, it will be quite a task, too. You needed very loose soil, right? That would take several rounds of going over the dirt to crush rocks, have the cavern reasonably leveled and amending the attributes of the place to ensure the water flows where we want it to. There are probably more details to it as well."

I nodded. " We would also add manure from the Clenchers to enrich the soil. Still, the possible benefits make this a priority. And you will have Crawls assisting you with the heavy lifting."

Arthor huffed. "That won't be necessary, lizard. We're perfectly-"

"I wasn't asking." I ignored the burst of anger from him, "I spared the Crawls for two reasons. They’re tougher than you and stronger than you. So you are going to accept their help where they can drag earth or carry boulders faster than you can."

Gritting his teeth, Arthor tapped the dirt below the map where the fields would be. His shoulders sank. "You are right. By my estimates, the most efficient approach would be Creziel and me working exclusively on the fields to begin with, along with some of those filthy animals. Then, when the rough work is over, we can divide our attention to defense and expansion." He went silent for a moment. "I think your remaining priorities need to be swapped, though."

I raised an eyebrow and lay down to face the tiny creature from a more comfortable height. "I'm listening."

"Now, you have yet to inform us about your plans. Still, whatever you're planning for the defense, it's bound to be a huge undertaking, right?"

I frowned at the map. "Well, we can do it in several stages, but-"

"Exactly. This is why we need to at least start with expanding into one additional room where you can create the Sorcery Chamber. The increases from our training should be able to hasten the entire plan in the long run."

I frowned... when he put it like that. Still, to risk additional attacks without being properly prepared... "Say I agree - where would you expand?”

Arthor scratched his chin and then nodded to Creziel. “Any suggestions?”

I held myself from smiling – just barely.

Creziel knelt over the map, poring over it eagerly. "I’m not sure. I mean, some of this is a guess, but… I have been looking over the other side of the throne room. This collapsed hallway is our best bet. There is bound to be additional rooms in there, and the time spent in excavating the hallway and shoring it up is nothing compared to creating entirely new tunnels." He grimaced. "You could also just create it here next to the Clenchers - we do have the space even though it reeks."

I shook my head. "No - we will want somewhere less central for you. If you want to improve your Mental Power, you will need to be able to concentrate. And I will need that space for training the Clenchers too. Alright - then that is the plan. We start with our fields and then move on to the Sorcery Chamber before we concentrate on defenses. I should be able to create it…well, any time, really. At this point, my mana recharges fast enough that it takes me less than a day to regain everything."

We went over a couple of additional details regarding the excavation before Arthor nodded. "I see no reason to waste any more time here right now. We should get to work on the fields right away. We have a number of walls that need to be collapsed to open up the place."

I held up a claw, stopping him in his tracks. "I agree. We'll handle the defenses later. For now, I’ll just erect a Shadow Tower near the entrance tunnels so we at least have something. We still have two more issues we need to handle. If Aelis was still here, she would've pointed it out already. The food isn't going to last us if we attempt this. I asked you, before everything went crazy, what you would do to help us with the issue?"

Arthor grimaced. "Oh. I believed we had moved past that."

I shook my head. "Nothing much has changed. We have gained some additional power, gained some food and removed an opponent, but the challenges remain the same. So what would your approach be?"

He bared his teeth at me. "I would slaughter the Clenchers. With them gone, our demands would lessen and we would be able to survive off their meat until we had everything in place. Simple."

I glared at the defiant Talpus. "Arthor. You know very well that's not what I want or asked of you."

"It is the wisest approach, however. You will not move me on that."

"I don't need you to. What I do need, however, is for you to apply your considerable brains to the challenge I put you to. How do we handle this in a way that allows us to still keep everybody here alive and win us the month or so we need to finish the first crops?"

He looked like he had swallowed something poisonous - or venomous, I never could remember what was what. "It would slow down our constructions here and put a lot of our people in danger - but even so. Should you insist on this crazy venture, I would hit our surrounding enemies, one at a time. Their demise would make our surroundings all the safer and add to our stores as well - and they are all close enough that a half day should take us both there and back. I would bring our strongest fighters, several scouts and a shaman each time. I would probably stagger the ambushes so we don't spend too much time solely on these outings and give ourselves a chance to recuperate between fights."

While we disagreed, Creziel had put his back up against the wall, making himself small. He was clearly uncomfortable with the argument, clenching his fur in his paws. Now, however, when the discussion turned practical, he jumped in. "Erm. Onyx. Even with our constructions here, we should also be able to spare some people for carrying - and the way you handled the attacks last time, it sounded like you were able to have people increase in level without putting them in real danger. Oh, and a few builders should help you be able to set up some good ambushes."

I nodded, grinning. "There we go. You're both forgetting a few details though. First off, we need to make sure that we use all the resources we have. That means I want half of the Crawls with us each time. Every hit they take is one less for you." It would also mean that the Crawls gained levels, making them more useful later on. I fought down the desire to launch an evil laughter and continued. "Next off, we need to swap who goes with us. I want all our people to gain levels. Leaving just a select few to gain levels is too risky. That includes you shamans too. We need you all to be able to help in battle - even you, Creziel."

Creziel's fur stood on end, but he managed a timid "I'll do my best." Fear and indecision started to ooze off of him.

"Now, I know that this might backfire. We may end in a struggle that's too hard for us to handle. We might also end up fleeing or having people hurt or killed. However, consider this. If we pull this off, we will have a trained bunch of Clenchers and Crawls to take the brunt of every attack. We will be self-sufficient as regards to food for all Talpi and Crawls and we will have a large area surrounding our domain where we can walk everyday, for the most part - without fearing for our life. Then, when we have control over our own domain, we will all be stronger, higher level and better equipped."

Arthor looked down at the ground, silent for a while. I could feel the indecision within him, along with a glimmer of hope. "I cannot accept it as possible. We have always been hunted and must always remain vigilant. That's just how it is."

"So you refuse to consider even the chance that I could be right?" He grimaced. He clearly wanted to, but... I felt that pushing him on this wasn't the right approach. Sometimes, forcing through your plans could cost you the goodwill of your workers. "Alright. Arthor, this once, I will bow to your will. You give me one chance. We try my approach on one of the groups surrounding us - and if it works, we do it my way."

"Acceptable. But I want you to explain your plan first. I am not going to go along with this if it's a suicide mission."

"Deal. Who are we attacking?"

His answer was immediate. "The Salamanders."

He clearly thought that was a good idea to make me back down. And with good reason. On the surface, the fire creatures were clearly the most dangerous group. Untouchable, even, with the way the fire surrounding them would stop anybody from attacking them up close. I merely grinned, however. "So be it. Let me tell you how we'll handle them..."