Change

There are apparently some problems in my little community, but what exactly am I supposed to do about it? Will anyone even respect my sort-of-real-sort-of-not authority, or will I have to find some way to talk these issues away without it?

Suppressing a sigh, I open the entrance and step into the light of my little basement.

There are small lanterns on the walls, glowing golden-blue, large wooden shutters hang from them, likely so they can be closed of a night. Their light reveals the nervous warriors standing in the entrance hall, defending the door to the rest of the facility. The door is one of the many new additions to this basement, and fits so well that it’s strange to think that it didn’t exist a week ago.

The warriors, just as new to the title as the door is to its frame, carry spears that have been bought from the local lord’s colony. They relax when they recognise the two of us.

“Welcome back.” One of them says, a small smile forming as he turns to me and bows his head.

A bit strange. I’ve been gone a whole week while they were struggling down here, I was more expecting complaints rather than respect.

“Is Red back?” I ask. She’s the one who raised the complaints, it might speed things up to have her point out the troubles for me.

“She left with the trainees a few minutes ago.” The nearest guard replies. He’s a tall, slim creature wielding a spear that’s clearly too short for him, the patchwork of armour he wears isn’t enough to cover his wiry fur.

“Good, good.” I say. “How’s life treating you down here?”

“Good, ma’am.” He replies, “We have everything we need. Red’s been training us up real well, too.”

Red’s name comes from his lips as the same ‘captain Lefue’ that I’ve heard before, she’s clearly earning their respect. At least, she is among the soldier types. I’m glad she’s so easy to work with, because her playful threat of a coup seems a little more real after hearing how they address her.

“Then take care. I’m going to go look into a few things.” I say, heading inside and leaving the guards to their duty.

The place is completely changed from when I last saw it, the light lends the main hall a warmer atmosphere, and the people here seem to carry some of that same warmth with them.

Smiles, laughter, and good cheer fills the space. Compared to the dark, cold basement it was before, it feels like too much has changed too quickly. Is there something in the water? Are we drugging them up, to make them this happy?

Looking for familiar faces that might be able to answer these questions, I quickly manage to locate Slan standing—if that term still counts for snake-people—by the side of a large counter. There’s an oven of some sort radiating heat from behind him, and large cabinets lined up against the wall.

I get a small peek inside of one as he opens it to take out some food. On the inside is a wide selection of various fruits, vegetables, and meats, arranged neatly on the shelves. A wave of cold air washing out from it suggests that it’s acting in place of a refrigerator.

A few people wander over to the counter and he promptly throws together a couple of dishes for them, before heating the food in the oven. Another, who was here before the others, gets served his meal on a wooden plate while Slan pours glowing waters from a large wooden keg, serving a mug of it beside the meal.

“Slan, it’s good to see you again.” I say, satisfied to see that he’s actually wearing a shirt now. He smiles cheerfully, showing his white teeth yet again, I can even see a hint of some fangs in there.

“You’re back.” He says. “It’s been a busy week, and it’s all just flown by. Things are only just starting to settle down.”

“And here I missed all the excitement.” I say, “We have plenty of food, do we?”

“We’ve been getting more meat and beast parts than we can use, Nel and Rudolf have been out trading it for fruits, vegetables, coins, all sorts of things.” He says shaking his head, “I just don’t get all this trading stuff. Someone comes for food, they get fed. It’s much easier.”

“You’re handling the work well?” I ask, gesturing to the table. “You don’t need any more help?”

“I’ve already got a few extra hands,” he says. “Shell, come say hello.”

A large insectoid being walks over to us, overly careful of everything around him, reminding me of a particular bug from the first Men in Black movie. Though, this one isn’t wearing human skin, and I doubt that he’d be able to unless the person was particularly obese before their flaying.

“Hello.” He says simply, speaking using pheromones or something of the like. At the very least, I can’t hear a sound coming from him, yet Chip still manages to find something to translate.

“Good day to you. You’re helping out with the food here?” I ask, waving at the large cabinet behind them.

“Yes.” He replies simply, looking back over the cabinet filled with food.

“He gets a bit nervous around people he’s not familiar with.” Slan says, snaking himself over to the other end of the table and handing out a meal to another hungry settler.

“Well, so long as you’re living your best.” He does an insect equivalent of a nod, something only Chip can understand, before carefully arranging a salad for a nearby flower-girl.

“Say, I heard that not everything down here is quite perfect yet. Have you come across any trouble?” I ask Slan, leaning forwards on the wooden counter. It itches a little because, like almost everything down here, it has more mana than I do.

Slan returns with a rather difficult expression.

“There are two big problems really.” He says, leaning against the table and keeping his voice low. Others can likely listen in, but it doesn’t seem to be a dangerous topic, just something that could bring down the mood.

“Red is…” His expression sours again, “She’s not the most gentle with her words, and well, she has good intentions, I know that, but she’s just… she’s been ‘encouraging’ everyone, saying that they need to learn how to fight.”

“Okay, what’s the problem?”

“By telling them that they’re all going to suffer and die, that their families will be slaughtered right before their eyes, and their children will become the food on someone else’s dinner table. It gets even worse, and rather more graphic, but you get the issue.

“She hasn’t hurt anyone, but… there were a few times when she got close. Everyone can tell that she’s barely holding back from taking things to a worse extreme.”

“Okay,” I grit my teeth and smile. “What’s the second problem?”

“There are people who can’t handle their new lives down here.” He says, his face turning down as he thinks over his words. “You don’t see them around here, it’s… they stay in their rooms and just come out for food and water, sometimes not even that. Some of the others were like that earlier on, but they all settled in with a little time.

“I don’t think ‘a little time’ is going to help those still struggling.” He says, “Some of them come from alien worlds and are frightened by everyone they meet, others seem to be working through some kind of trauma.”

Two problems that I can’t easily deal with.

“The first issue you brought up,” I start, “You talk to a lot of people living here, no? Are they against learning how to fight, or do you think it’s just Red’s attitude turning them away?”

“It’s the latter for most.” He says without hesitating. “Most people want to learn how to fight, if not before, then certainly after Red’s lectures, but… they’re not strong. They’re, rather fairly, convinced that if they go with her, they’ll die before they even get a chance to start learning.”

“She’s better at training people who are already soldiers… Even then, she’s really not the best teacher around.” I say with a sigh.

“It’s probably something like that. It’s what makes her cute, but…” He replies, using a cleansing stone on one of the dirty dishes to clean it up.

“Cute…?” I ask. Her violent attitude doesn’t put me off, but I wouldn’t really consider it ‘cute’. “Nope, let’s not have that conversation right now. Any ideas?”

“Could Barry be useful, maybe?” Eshya asks, sitting by my side. She’s a little too energetic and it’s clear that she wants to get out and start training again. I think of a dog eagerly waiting for its master to let it out for a walk, but I suppress the thought before I start laughing at the idea of it.

“Alright, there is a large room in here somewhere, isn’t there?” I ask, looking around.

“There is, people have been using it to exercise.” Slan says.

“We can dump Barry down there.” I say, “We’ll encourage people to train with him. Hopefully they’ll develop themselves to the point where they can start training with Red, or at the very least, by training with the robot they’ll hopefully show enough spirit that Red will drop the issue.”

It’s unlikely that’ll fully solve the problem in one easy step, but I’m sure it’ll have us moving in the right direction. Barry might be a bit abusive, with all his strange insults, but if we shove him around a little to show everyone that he’s harmless, the weaker people should be willing to join in. We could even set up group classes and make a habit out of it, that way even those who are hesitant should feel pressured to join.

“We’ll bring Barry down either tonight or tomorrow.” I say, already planning to work it into our training. We can focus on running errands and fight the beasts that we come across along the way. Like leveling up by completing side quests rather than by grinding.

I doubt this will be enough to make Red happy, but at the very least it’ll make her feel less responsible for their training.

Is that why she’s so grumpy about all this? Is it because, as the strongest of us, she feels responsible for us?

I think I actually might get what he means by ‘cute’.

“I’ll have to find another Barry, I don’t think the one will do.” I grumble, remembering just how close to breaking the old machine is. “Tomorrow’s problem. Can you point me towards the troubled settlers?”

“Lui would be better for that.” Slan says, pointing to the man. “He’s been running around trying to help them out when he’s not in training.”

“Well, he is my little bringer of light, or whatever it was that I called him.” I say, heading over to the shifting, nearly mist-like form of Lui.

“How are you doing?” I ask, getting his attention.

“I am well, but others are not.” He says. “I’ve tried to help, but they’re not…”

“I know.” I say, “Can you bring me to them?”

He nods, it must really be eating at him if he skips all the small talk this easily. Or maybe that’s just who he is. I haven’t really had the chance to get to know everyone yet.

He leads Eshya and I through to the quieter rooms where the troubled settlers are hiding. The first person he brings us to is an insect the size of a small dog, with her dark chitin she’s difficult to see when she moves into the shadows of the room. She doesn’t say anything to us, but slowly shuffles away while watching us closely.

“Is she intelligent?” I ask, stepping closer for a better look.

She has six legs, and a long tail that curves around behind her ending in a sharp point. I can’t see any eyes on her, but I’m not sure if that’s because they’re small and she’s hiding in the dark, or perhaps she just doesn’t have any.

She’s uncomfortably similar to a creature I’ve seen in an old horror franchise. If she tries to hug my face, I’m frying the little alien until she’s reduced to ash.

“She only speaks in simple phrases.” Lui replies, thoughtfully. “She does become more friendly when it comes to mealtime, and she is smart enough to use the bathrooms.”

“So, she’s either incredibly shy, or she’s of lower intelligence.” I say, watching her for a reaction that she doesn’t give me.

“I don’t know.” Lui says.

“It’s fine.” I reply, walking closer to the creature.

“How are you?” I ask, sitting down on the ground near her.

She doesn’t reply, simply shifting around as she looks between everyone gathered in her room.

“She’s unintelligent.” Eshya says with a strangely sweet tone, walking closer to the insect, “Aren’t you?”

The insect steps away, and she stops.

“Safe.” Eshya says, tilting her head and kneeling down.

“Safe?” The insect says. Through some strange magic Chip is able to translate the fact that she’s confused.

“Safe.” Eshya repeats, putting some feeling into the word.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

“The translators should be working just fine, but how do you feel when you’re in class and none of what the teacher says is making any sense?” Eshya asks. “It’s great that it translates the meaning, but if it’s translating a complex idea…”

“Huh…” I mutter thoughtfully, as she continues to talk with the bug.

“Survive together.” She says, her eyes watching the insect.

“Together?” The bug asks.

“Together.” Eshya nods. “Hunt together. Eat together. Strong together.”

“Together.” The bug replies, apparently satisfied with the explanation.

“Together.” Lui says, echoing the others.

It’s starting to feel like a cult.

“Together.” I begrudgingly add, settling things.

“I think this should be enough for now, no?” I say, seeing that the bug has settled down. “We’ve got plenty of others to visit.”

Eshya nods, and Lui begrudgingly looks between his new friend and the door before leading us out.

The little insect follows us, and I turn to give her a strange look.

“Together.” The bug chants, and I shrug. So long as it’s not trying to impregnate anyone’s face, I guess.

“What are we naming her?” I ask.

“Name?” Eshya asks, looking down at the creature.

“Name?” It asks in confusion.

“Shen.” Eshya says with a warm smile rising to her lips. Her impatience has faded away as her attention has become focused onto little ‘Shen’.

“Shen.” The creature answers. It’ll have to be perceiving the name differently to us, but Chip is wonderful for moments like these.

For the next hour, we move from room to room talking with a few traumatised people, who, even with their collars gone, are unable to properly deal with the new lives they’ve been given. I ensure to tag each and every one of them, setting them aside into a list.

There are a few who, like our little Shen, are of lower intelligence. Sometimes the simple conversation tactics work, sometimes they don’t. Lui is picking up on it, and he’s excitedly rushing to engage with them before Eshya can make her move, but Shen is already keeping her busy enough.

“I didn’t know you liked animals.” I say, forcing down my anxiety as the elf lets her new acquaintance crawl up onto her shoulder. Shen’s long tail lets her keep good balance by wrapping around Eshya’s shoulders.

“I…” Eshya tilts her head as she thinks. “I didn’t? I don’t? I’ve never really interacted with simple beasts much. At least not unless we’re tying to kill them.”

“A hidden talent, or a hidden passion. Probably both.” I conclude, putting aside my own worries as I see Eshya warming up again. A guilty pain hit’s my heart at the sight of her like this, or more accurately, as I realize that she’s not smiled properly like this since… since we first came to the academy.

I’ve been pushing everyone too hard lately.

With a long sigh, I focus back onto the task at hand.

Most of those we visit are struggling through one trauma or another. Some are unresponsive, huddled in the dark corners of their rooms, while whispering or rocking back and forth. Some spit abuse at us, and others glare, but none attack us. I’m pretty sure we’ve already killed all the violent ones.

Only around half of them are willing to have a proper conversation, and even they’re struggling. Not eating or drinking properly; not going to the bathroom, but instead going in the corner; talking to themselves. Some of them I pressure into talking to Frey instead, because at least she’s real, even if she’s not much of a conversational partner.

To think that this early on in my empire building, mental health is already a key issue that I have to work around. Chip doesn’t have a single class or Skill in the art of therapy, so we’re going to have to build this one from scratch.

Even then, it’ll take time. Time, that I’m not sure we can afford to spare.

A few, dark whispers in the back of my mind remind me of Red’s threat.

It would be easier if they were all gone.

From what I can tell, no one here besides Lui would even notice, since they don’t leave their rooms anyway.

Just throw them into the lake, and all their traumas, and all our troubles would be washed away.

I bite my tongue and shake the thought from my head. I’m trying to make an empire that’s worth living in. I can’t keep depending on the easy, and cruel solutions, especially not with my own people. Even the evil in me feels the solution to be unpleasant, though mostly because it’d be giving up and admitting that I can’t help these people.

“In here are the last of the ‘troubled’ beings that we have with us.” Lui says, waving me to the door. “I’ll head out now, I have my own training to attend to.”

“Thanks for your help.” I say, truly meaning it.

He bows his strange, misty, and unclear head my direction before leaving.

In the week that I’ve been gone, all the people that I knew are showing new sides to them. They’ve gone from being two dimensional characters that I can use for this or that, to being actual people with aspirations and feelings of their own.

They’ve stepped up the moment they were given a chance, and now they’ve made this basement into a home while I was away.

I head into the room while Eshya is playing with Shen. Hopefully she’ll stay distracted for now. We’re going to have to return to training soon, regardless of what we want.

We can’t afford to stay weak.

“Hello, fancy meeting you guys here.” I say, seeing the three humans sitting on their bedding in the corner of the room. The beds are more like Japanese futons than mattresses, made of some sort of fibre and only a finger’s length thick. Oddly, the blankets that they’re huddled in are thicker.

“So, you haven’t abandoned us then.” Aalia spits, sounding less energetic than last I heard her. She shakes herself a moment and slaps her cheeks as if to wake herself up before speaking up again.

“Sorry, I’m just… being locked down here is not doing my manners any favours.” She says, as she smiles stiffly at me. “I am grateful that you’re feeding us and watering us, but we’re not just plants… it’s… difficult down here.”

“I’ve heard that you haven’t been leaving the room much?” I ask, heading a little closer and sitting on the ground to address them at equal height. It’s something that I’ve been doing with the other troubled settlers, and I shouldn’t treat these guys different just because they’re human. They’re hanging on by a thread, just like the others.

“Well, yeah.” Guy says, stepping in. “Have you seen the monsters out there? I get that they’re not… probably not going to kill us, but there are bugs bigger than people, and snake people, and… and…”

Ah, a dose of well-deserved xenophobia. Not in the way the term is generally used on Earth, but genuine and reasonable fear of the ‘other’. Most people would be scared to see all the different species of alien wondering around down here, especially when there’s no easy way to tell apart the violent beasts outside from the sapient species that’ll give you a meal and a drink down here.

“Have you looked through some of the classes.” I say, tapping at the side of my head. “I don’t really care about your supposed talents, but there’s surely some magic that you want to learn, right? Isn’t that the dream of every little boy and girl?”

“I’ve been studying healing magic.” Anna says, sounding a little excited, even though her voice warbles a little. “I always wanted to be a doctor, but I didn’t have the grades.”

“Oh, a healing mage? That’s awesome. You know I still can’t find any good healing mages around. A whole planet full of weirdos, and yet all the ones who know how to heal people, seem to be sane enough to keep a distance from me.” I say, trying to keep the atmosphere light.

“You can be pretty scary.” Anna says, muttering into her blankets.

“It’s my face isn’t it. I’m too beautiful, and it’s intimidating everyone.” Aalia snorts at me.

“You killed a lot of people.” Anna says, “When we were all waking up. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but you and the others were all running around killing people. I was scared you would see that I’m weak, and kill me too.”

“Oh, that.” I say, struggling to smile and set aside the fact that I was only recently considering how much easier it would be to do just that. “Sorry about that. Some of them were rather violent and we had no other way to restrain them.”

She nods quietly, still not meeting my eyes.

I turn to Aalia and Guy, but they seem a little less bothered by it. I guess to them I was just slaying monsters, since they don’t really see the other species as people.

A wave of nausea hits me as I put myself in their shoes and find the experience frighteningly familiar. I went through something not entirely unlike this.

The ship crash.

Red choosing who of us were worth taking, and who was too dangerous to let live.

Leaving the wounded behind, like I left countless collared beasts up in the prison.

Red is even now pushing them into learning how to fight, perhaps a little less aggressive than she was with us, but…

I even joked about using the collared beasts that we killed as snacks for those who lived.

A certain goat-girl floats into my mind. She was hiding in a closet, running, trying to survive before she was thrown into an arena to get slaughtered.

I recall too well the taste of dinner that night, the meat I chewed down to the bone.

I shake the thought from my head and see the frightened children before me. Unable to cope with everything that they’ve gone through, but not yet fully broken.

They’ve suffered through gaining their mana, the same as I had to.

They’ve suffered through being collared, and now here they are hiding in a basement hoping that nothing comes for them.

“I’m sorry.” I say, starting off. “I’ve not been the best, or the most caring leader around.”

They look away from me, clearly agreeing with the sentiment.

“Regardless, we’ve all got to keep trying. Keep surviving.” I say, “Find something that you want to do with your life. Magic, crafting, or even fighting. Get out of this room for once and try to talk with some of the people out there. I don’t care how scary they seem, they’re mostly good people.

“Slan, the snake-man, is easy to talk with, just have a small conversation the next time you go and grab a meal.” I say, “Get to know the others around here, and do something to help out. Even if it’s small.

“I’m going to be bringing a training robot down here sometime tomorrow, go visit it for training. Maybe you can make friends while you’re down there.”

“I’m not going to fight for you.” Aalia says, “I’m not a soldier.”

“Whatever you want to be, you need to be strong enough to stand up for yourself.” I say. “Learn to fight, not for my sake, but for yours. We all have to get stronger if we want to survive.”

She calms down, but still seems a little conflicted. It’s not surprising considering everything they’re going through.

“Oh, and if a scary, red-skinned, demon-like woman comes down and harasses you about not training. Make sure to tell her you’re training with the robot, unless you want her to make you into a soldier. She’s a good person, but a bit rough on people who aren’t putting in a proper effort.”

I imagine a parent feels much the same as this. ‘You’d better eat your carrots, else your father is going to be very angry with you.’ Or something like that.

They seem conflicted as I leave them, and I have to hope that my words are enough to make a difference.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Skills & Stats

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 820 units

~Mana distribution:

Skin: 0/49%

Muscle: 55/55%

Mind: 0/72%

Cardiovascular: 0/34%

Misc.: 0/29%

Efficiency: 55/82%

~Favourited Skills:

-Chip Shredder

-Multi-mind

-Tag

-Mana surge movement

-Mana surge punch

-Reactive mana skin

-Infused delayed Casting

-Fire burst punch