After a while, Lia found overseeing the looting…boring. She was basically just sitting in one place and waiting for things to be brought to her, so…why was she bothering being in the goblin camp? The burrowers had just about finished digging up the feeding station, so she figured she might as well go back with them.

She felt a little bad about leaving Lily alone there, but she tried not to let it show. There was just something…different about Lily when compared to Rose. Rose had the aura of…well, a big sister, someone who Lia could talk to and rely on. She just…made Lia want to let her guard down.

Lily, on the other hand, felt like a subordinate. She was someone who Lia felt confident in commanding, but not someone Lia really felt compelled to confide in. Lia was a boss giving orders, Lily didn’t need to know about Lia’s personal doubts. Besides…it wasn’t like she would be in any significant danger; Lia had made it clear that, since Lily had no combat prowess, she was to stay with one of the groups of soldiers at all times. And if one of those couldn’t protect her, then she was probably just as much in danger back at the base.

So, Lia left as soon as the burrowers had finished, joining their escort in taking them back to the home base. Once she arrived, she oversaw the placement of the food dispenser, then set off to find Rose. It had been almost an hour since she had last seen the girl, and she was more than a little curious as to how close her evolution was to being finished.

It wasn’t even that Lia was worried, she knew that this would take a while, she was just…lonely. Rose was the only person Lia could really talk to, since communicating with Amelia was hard and Lily was…well, more akin to an acquaintance.

She located Rose after only a moment, and turned away just a breath after that, giving her just enough time to confirm Rose’s general size and shape. She wanted to let as much of it as possible be a surprise, but from what she saw, she was guessing Rose was getting close to being done. Rose was clearly humanoid now, and by the looks of it was…roughly the size of a young teenager.

Lia was guessing it would take another hour at the most to finish, so, until then, she had to figure out something to do. Well…the tunnel to the burrow had been completed and she hadn’t yet checked it out, so that was something that would probably eat up a bit of time.

She made her way to the tunnel and through to the old burrow. It was…almost exactly the same as she had left it, save for there being no exit to the outside. It was a bit darker than before, though that didn’t really mean anything to her with Night Vision.

…She wasn’t really sure what she had expected. It wasn’t like she had ordered any remodeling aside from the entrance, so of course it was going to be the same as it had been before. Still, between walking down the tunnel, taking some time to poke around the burrow just in case, and walking back, she wasted a solid thirty minutes, so she was that much closer to Rose’s evolution being completed.

But she could feel that it hadn’t yet fully completed. Rose’s presence in the back of her mind was…thin, and, if she pressed that presence and looked for more details like she would with a non-enlightened member of the swarm, she just got an “evolving” in return.

Well…she had received a lot of Blood Money from that siege, enough to get her that Dimensional Search Engine Skill, and she was in a safe place, so she might as well get that taken care of while she had the time. She activated the Skill, and began to read the window it made.

Lia nodded. That’s why I’m here, actually.

 What’s wrong with page two?

But –

Wait, has there been other people with this Skill?

…No, actually, how do you know it’s popped up? I’ve never heard of anything like this before, and you’re…wait, are you someone that I sort of…made myself when I got Dimension of Discounts?

Yeah right, you don’t recall obscure stuff like the number of times page two has been useful and have a fuzzy memory.

So that means you don’t have memory loss and are going to tell me, right?

Lia groaned. Alright, fine. But, in return, I want your name, if you actually have hands or if that earlier was a figure of speech, and if you are something made just for this Skill.

Fine, fine. Though, I must point out that I am your only customer, unless Amelia is also using this Skill.

Wait, I have more questions, and she’s not my girlfriend! Lia mentally called out. But, after a moment, there was no reply, so she double checked the effect of leveling up the Skill. It just added an extra item to her selection, and decreased the Skill’s cost, so she dismissed the window and began to move.

Apparently, Rose was about to wake up. Lia wasn’t sure how Connie knew that, but Connie was still an enigma to her, and Lia only had more questions about her now. Still, she was…probably trustworthy, so it wouldn’t hurt to go check on Rose anyway.

So, she made her way over to where she had left Rose, and sat down to wait. It only took a couple more minutes before she heard a light groan, and then Rose sat up, head barely visible over the counter of the stall she had been laid in. Rose paused for a moment, reached a hand up to her lips, then broke into a grin.

“Awesome, I’ve got a proper face again! And the voice seems to be working fine, too. Let’s see…what else…” Her voice was a sort of deep, womanly voice that was not dissimilar to what Lia had grown accustomed to “hearing” in her mental communication with Rose.

But…Lia didn’t want to be a creep and keep watching without Rose’s knowledge, so she mentally cleared her throat to grab Rose’s attention.

Rose jumped, then turned to look at Lia. “M-my Queen!” She said, a blush rising to her pale green cheeks. “W…why are you here?!”

I was told you were about to finish evolving, so I came to greet you. I didn’t want to just watch you like a creep, though, so…

“Y-you know you’re free to watch as much as you want!” Rose replied quickly. “But…I appreciate the thought.” She glanced downwards, then breathed a sigh of relief. “I seem to already be clothed, fortunately.” She stood up and walked out of the stall, and Lia was finally able to see her in full. “So…what do you think? I can try and remove these ‘clothes’ if you want, just let me know.”

She was much bigger than the goblins or kobolds, standing at roughly six feet tall by Lia’s estimation. She was probably a few inches shorter or taller than that, but Lia only really had the stall to compare her to, so “six feet” would have to do until she could actually find a good way to measure her.

Her skin had turned a pale green, and she was wearing “clothes” that seemed to be made of leaves that only really covered the important bits, leaving quite a bit of skin showing. Rose was also stacked, with an even bigger chest than the knights. The rest of her body was slim and elegant, from the tips of her fingers to the contours of her face. Her hair was a darker shade of green and reached down almost to the floor, with leaves seemingly sprouting from it at random.

Rose fidgeted nervously. “So…how is it?”

Lia shook her head. Good. Really good. Um…do you know why your clothes are so…minimal?

Rose blinked. “Um…” She paused, then nodded. “Analysis is telling me my skin is more efficient at photosynthesizing than the coating of leaves. I think I can…” She focused for a moment, and there was a rustling as the layer of leaves expanded until Rose was wearing something more akin to a shirt and trousers. “Ah, handy. Well, it’s not like I’m photosynthesizing much in this place anyway, so I’ll just stay like this unless you want me not to.”

I see. Um…as I was saying, you’re absolutely beautiful.

Rose blushed once again. It was really easy to see, too; the red contrasted against the green skin and highlighted the abnormality. “T-thank you, my Queen. Um…what should I do now?”

There’s something I want to try. Lia said, eyes locked on Rose. Pick me up.

“Y-yes!” Rose said, walking over and bending down. She placed her hands out in front of her, forming a platform that Lia could step onto. Once she did, Rose lifted Lia up so she was at eye level with Rose. “N-now what?”

Place me on your chest.

“W-what?!”

You heard me. I want to see how resting on-slash-in your chest feels. I’m only going to have this opportunity briefly, and I’ve heard tell of people trying it before, so now I want to try it.

“U-um, of course!” Rose gingerly brought Lia to her chest, and Lia disembarked onto the admittedly large landing point.

It was…soft, soft and warm. Delighted, Lia quickly nestled into the space between the breasts, getting herself into a comfortable position and then poking her head out. It was a little tight, but the knowledge of where exactly she was made it much better. Feels amazing. She said, satisfied. Thank you.

Rose fidgeted in place. “U-um, you’re welcome.”

Is this uncomfortable for you? I can get out if it is.

“I-it’s a little strange, I’ve never felt anything quite like it before, but I think I can get used to it. Stay in if you would like.”

Lia gently made her way out of her resting spot, then jumped off of Rose and onto a nearby stall. I might go back in there later, but for now I need you to experiment with your new body and magic and get a feel for it. I’d just be in your way in there, so I’m going to go…well, honestly, I’ll probably just watch. There’s nothing else happening right now that’s that interesting, anyway.

“What…is happening right now?” Rose asked. “And how long was I out?”

About an hour and a half, and right now we’re just gathering the loot from the goblin base. I moved you back to our fortress because I figured it would be safer, but Lily and most of the combat-capable members of the swarm are over there. A team should be coming back soon with the food dispenser, so you can have something actually good to eat once they get here.

“Ah, um…good.” Rose replied. “How is that, by the way?”

Well, it gives out a lot of food. Decent food, too. But, more importantly, it can give out things like jars, which I think could be really useful in the future.

“Good to hear. Do we have people working on setting up the rat farm yet?”

Oh, I totally forgot about that, no. I’ll get some drones and burrowers on it, though…well, I don’t really know what would really be necessary for a rat farm. I was thinking of just a pit in the ground, but that probably won’t work, huh?

“Probably not.” Rose giggled. “I’m no expert myself, but I have seen some breeder’s kennels in the past. Perhaps, before I start experimenting, I should help you get that going?”

Yeah, let’s do that. Lia responded. Pick me up and put me on your shoulder, it’ll be easier for us to stay together that way.

“A-are you sure you don’t want to go back on my chest?” Rose asked bashfully, picking Lia up again.

Yeah. We’re about to go do work, that’s something that should be saved for when we’re not doing anything particularly important; it’s too distracting otherwise.

Rose nodded, and deposited Lia on her shoulder. “How is it? Have any trouble hanging on or anything?”

Nope. Lia replied. Spiderclimb takes care of that.

“Good. Shall we be off, then?”

I think so. Let’s pick a spot, and then we’ll go round up some workers.

“Got it. Do you have anything in mind or…?”

No. I was sorta thinking we’d walk around until we found a good place.

Rose nodded, and began walking. “I’ll let you know if I see a place I think looks nice, and, of course, you just tell me to stop if you see one too.”

Lia nodded. I don’t know if there’s any one place that’s significantly better than another, but it can’t hurt to look around, right?

“I think so too.” Rose agreed. “Plus, we can always just move the farm if we end up hating the spot or if we find a better one.”

So the two set off, neither quite sure exactly what they were looking for, but ready to find it, together.

Fighterman481

Well, the chapter ended up being a lot more meandering than I intended, but I got to write more Dimension of Discounts so that's always good.

That's really all I have, though, next time we'll most likely see a bit more detail on Rose's evolution, so look forward to it!

And, as always, thanks for reading!