Part 1: Hard Choice

 

Wind and rain battered the walls and in silence, Ubel sat in a watchtower. He leaned forward on his hands and stared at the overgrown jungle. Except for those on watch duty and those tending to the fire, everyone was inside the cave taking a much-needed rest after these past few days.

It's been a hectic time for us. With Urist in a coma and most of our army either killed or put into a weakened state had greatly burdened the rest of us. Man those healers and white mages saved a lot of lives keeping those seriously injured from dying of blood loss or disease. And thanks to Yri and Uria who woke up quickly we had enough food to stave off hunger.

At least she isn’t completely useless without sight. Mused Ubel as he thought of his next move.

If Urist doesn’t wake and dies I’ll have to take control of the crystals and masses. I don’t want too, but other then Urist no one is better in leadership. Although he’s a dreamer and has had barely any experience in leadership he’s done well in the position. 

Everyone else lacks that aura to lead and if someone else picks it up it’ll lead to our ruin. Which means I’ll have to kill any who don’t take kindly to me usurping leadership. Uria, Unicy, and the blood mage who gave Urist the Rat King's heart will have to be killed. 

Who else… I bet those healers won’t take kindly to such a thing and might rebel. With them saving most of the military they should have good sway and might set up a religious faction. You can never trust light mages, always wanting to go on holy crusades. 

Of course, I can’t forget about the mage faction lead by that powerful Spirit Charmer. Just her summon alone had saved many dwarven lives making her quite respected here. Another faction would be those blood mages, I don’t know about anyone else but I saw the hesitation of using that heart to save Urist. 

And thanks to the battle he and his fellows have collected quite a bit of blood crystals and can be considered a powerful force. He might have a change of heart and pull a power play with the other blood mages. Might even summon a demonic being who knows with blood mages.

Then finally there is that old dwarf that's a magic swordsman. Probably the most powerful person inside the base except for Spirit Charmer. If he wanted to he could’ve gone on a rampage and killed us all by himself with the bases current weakened state. 

With a sigh, Ubel felt frustrated that that idiot Urist had put him in this stressful predicament.

To move or not to move. To kill or not to kill. 

These were the thoughts that rang in Ubel's mind. When he felt exhausted of thinking he took a drink of his woozoo tea, leaned back and closed his eyes. How much time did he have before he had to make a move? 

Although Urist had eaten the Rat King’s heart that held huge amounts of energy he had expended much of his life force thanks to overtaxing his body. At most, it should sustain his body for four days before dying of dehydration thanks to dwarfs needing less water.

Since three days had passed Urist had at most one day left to wake thanks to a dwarfs constitution needing less water then a human. Meaning that Ubel had to choose a course of action.

So the question presented itself once again.

To move or not to move. To kill or not to kill.

When he started killing there was no turning back from traveling the path of hell. He would have to become a demon once more. To become brutal, cold, and calculating to all his fellow dwarven brothers and sisters. To kill his emotions as he killed those that were innocent.

Foot tapping against the stone, hands combing through his hair and a line of blood dripping down his bitten inner lip. A struggle of past and present crushed for ownership of the future. And then all of a sudden his hands fell on his lap and his foot stopped tapping.

“Half a day.” 

Was all Ubel said before getting up from his seat before walking into the heavy rain. Closing his eyes he raised his head to the sky and let the water soak him from head to toe.

And as he stood in the rain an annoying voice called out to him. “Hey, brains why you standing in the rain like a dumbass? Did you finally lose it?”

Instead of raising to the taunt Ubel just sighed, opened his eyes and started walking towards the fire pit. He looked to see Unicy sitting with a smug face seemingly quite pleased by her remark. 

Annoying.

Ubel didn’t say anything as he sat down on an opposite log. He reached forward and took one rat skewers that had finished cooking and started eating. 

Unicy picked up on Ubel’s unusual behavior of not being a jackass and got the idea of what he was thinking.

Looking down into her tea she declared, “Don’t worry he’ll wake up and everything will be alright.”

Ubel kept a natural face as he nibbled on rat meat. “You don’t know that. No one knows if he’ll wake.”

To his reply, Unicy shrugged her shoulders and took a sip of her tea. “I know he’ll come around and that crazy blind bitch also knows that he won’t die here. It’s just expected that he’ll live.”

And to that Ubel’s left eye twitched at such naivety and baseless hope that he wanted to stab her right then and there.

His voice was filled with ice as he replied, “You think he’ll survive when greater men have died against lesser odds. That fate hasn’t taken those who were deemed important to civilization. That great generals haven’t died in the battlefield thanks to a freak arrow? That naivety to believe in faith is going to get you killed like all the rest. Why am I surrounded by idiots who can’t see the truth.”

At Ubels outburst, Unicy looked at him thoughtfully and chose her next words carefully.

“A dwarf with no hope is a husk that walks on two legs and dies a meaningless life. Those that don’t strive to make their hope a reality end up dying unfulfilled. And those that don’t know when to quit will lose everything in their greed and die remorseful. 

“I don’t know what kind of person you are Ubel, but I know who I am. I’m the kind of person who will fight to the last breath for what I believe in. I’m the type of person that will rage, shout, and dig my nails into the ground towards hope until I die. So even if I am a fool, I believe that Urist is like me and would do the same thing If I was in his position.”

Ubel scorned, “Oh? Please do enlighten me what you would do. Let me guess. Die?”

She shook her head, “No I’d beat the shit out of this coma and come back.”

Without another word, Uria got up from her seat and headed over to the watchtower. Leaving the even more agitated Ubel to his thoughts once more.

And this is why I have to kill you muscle brain. An idiots faith is too dangerous a weapon.

 

Part 2: Thinking

 

After warming up near the flame, Ubel waited for the next relieve to take his place to watch the fire. He became somewhat dry before another person took over allowing him to head into the cave and get changed into some dry clothes.

He went into a changing room the earth mages made and stripped out of his military clothes into basic clothing. He put his clothes into a basket and would leave them here for water mage Qrtia to dry. Finished changing he got out of the room and headed over to where Urist currently lay. Walking down the hallway, he came to the civilization room then took a right for a bit before turning left. Down this path, he came to a small carved out room laced with oxygen crystals that made the room brightly lit.

Inside the magically hardened room were three individuals. The two kneeling were Uria who had had a cloth bandage covering her eyes and medicine maker Briana currently reading a book. In the middle of the room lay the shallow breathing Urist.

Looking at Urist one could see that he had changed vastly over the last few days. His hair that had gone from pure white to a now peppered with scarlet hair mixed. By opening his eyes it revealed that one eye had turned blood red and the other milky white.

That wasn’t all, looking lower one could see that the once hairless chin had grown a lush wild beard. And when they removed his clothes to check for injuries they noticed that his once toneless body had gained muscle definition. Although it didn’t hold a candle to a regular male dwarfs buff body it was a start in the right direction.

The two girls had already noticed Ubel footsteps and Briana had already looked up from her book with a bored expression plastered on her face.

“What do you want Ubel?”

“I wanted to check and see if you noticed any change in his condition.” 

Scratching her cheek Briana responded, “A little bit ago his body started twitching so he might wake up soon. Other than that he’s in stable condition, now get out of here. I’ll give you a shout when something changes.”

Seeing the annoyed expression plastered on her face Ubel decided to leave and decided to not talk with Uria. Ever since losing her eyes and finding out Urist had gone into a coma she hadn’t spoken much to him. But he knew she was a dangerous person that controlled origin flames and was extremely loyal to Urist. Although blind she could easily fill the hallways full of flames and kill everyone except maybe the earth mages.

He also knew about her outburst of trying to kill her fellow dwarfs for leaving Urist to fight by himself. 

A dangerous person. She must somehow be killed outside of the base or I’ll have to get an earth mage to seal the room and have her die from the lack of oxygen.

Such thoughts passed Ubel mind as he inspected around the base seeing how everyone was doing. As time passed by he was inwardly planning the order of how to kill the faction leaders. He talked with each dwarf he came across and felt them out to see if they were useful in his planned coup. He had marked twenty that he was certain would support him and thirty more on the fence with the rest he marked as loyalists to Urist.

With his rounds done he found a place to rest and started planning out his coup. The easiest method he could think of was grabbing the poison the medical girls had gathered and spiking the food given to the targets. Those that didn’t die would have their throats slit he could also buy berserker potions and add them to the soup. 

Such a combination should easily deal with the targets the only flaws he had were a few. One was needing the cook to be on his side; the second being to make sure no one else ate the poisoned soup until the targets had finished theirs. And the third that all of them ate at the same time to be none the wiser the soup was spiked.

Having so many holes in the plan Ubel threw it away without a second thought and moved onto the next.

What about killing them in their sleep? No that won’t work we all sleep in dorms.

I could maybe kill them off one by one with different methods. No wouldn’t work since new dwarfs come every day and they might shift the power balance. Using such a plan would make it hard to cement my leadership.

How about...

And so Ubel sat in deep thought thinking about what was the best way to take command with the least amount of risks. When there was only one hour left of his time limit he had decided on a plan which was simply.

Wait.

He had gone through countless scenarios and each one had a flaw and a good chance of failing. The reason being his power alone counted for nothing and could be easily taken away from him. And factors that he had no support in taking leadership his options of assassination were limited to himself carrying it out. Coming to this conclusion made him frustrated with his uselessness.

I do need to gather a trusted force huh. It’s going to be a chaotic but if I play my cards right I’ll--

“Guys! Guys! The boss is awake! He’s Awake!”

“The boss is awake? About damn time.”

“Man how long was he planning to laze around. We can finally work on something interesting again.”

Hearing the various happy replies throughout the tunnels Ubel leaned back his head and sighed in relief.

That bastard really had to cut it close. Still...

Even though Urist had woke up this thinking had deeply affected Ubel.

I need to get stronger and have people under my control.

After this scare, he knew that something like this could happen again and the next time Urist might not just end up in a coma.

He could die and cause a chaotic chain reaction.

Now the question became who could he control and he knew right away the right person to start with.

That hunter should be a fine start.

Part 3 - Catch Up

 

A figure in white robes stood against the tide of rushing towards the final bulwark of humanity. The man held a staff in one hand and a black book in the other. On closer inspection, he had gray hair and a face full of wrinkles.

How many years have I been fighting? While the figure thought such as he moved his staff in the air to create a sevenfold magic array. 

Why do I keep fighting? 

He rambled within as he began to chant. “Holy light. Pierce through the darkness that lay before me. One Hundred Thousand Holy Spears.”

I don’t want it to end like this.

Thought the old man as he watched the rain of holy spears descend across the battlefield. The stench of demonic blood assaulted his nostrils as his spears impaled the incoming demonic horde. Despite the massacre of millions the demons climbed over the dead and kept charging.

What do you think you can do? You are but one man. The last hero of humanity.

The world is already… Just give up and…

Die.

---

Urist woke up in a start as sweat drenched his body. His breathing was heavy as tried to calm his mental state. As his head felt like it was splitting apart as his dream began to fade away bit by bit.

No, you can’t take it away. That's! That's… What was it again?

Like the memories that came before, it slipped through his fingers once again. He would have yelled in frustration if he didn’t notice others inside the room. In the room to his left was Briana who gave a quick smile before exiting the room.

His eyes followed her until his gaze fell onto Uria who sat to his right. He didn’t pay the girl who left any more attention as he stared at Uria not sure what to say. He had seen the Rat King rip her eyes out and now she wore cloth bandage over her eyes.

“Uria…” Urist had the urge to reach out and touch her but couldn’t bring up the spirit.

With a slight smile, Uria grabbed a nearby bamboo water bottle and held it up to Urist. 

“You finally decided to wake up dummy. Here drink this slowly you’ve been in a coma for three days.”

“Uria I--”

Uria blindly felt around before being able to touch his chest and moved it up to his face to put a finger on his lips.

“Come on dummy I made my choice. You do not need to regret. Lifes just a bitch sometimes.”

Holding back his tears Urist grabbed her arm and pulled her in for a hug, “I’m so sorry. I should’ve made a better plan. I should have tried harder to get stronger faster. I should’ve --”

Patting his back Uria whispered in his ear, “Come on you big lug you tried your best. Don’t blame yourself over this little injury. It’s not like I died now is it?”

“No, but--”

Pulling back from the hug Uria put on a stern face. “No buts. Pick yourself up, people need you to take command. The quicker you stop feeling like your useless the quicker you can start getting stronger. We can fix my eyes eventually.”

Those last words threw Urist for a loop, “Eh? Fix them? How?”

Shaking her head in annoyance Uria sighed. “You didn’t check the marketplace well, did you. While you have been messing around in dreamland I’ve been studying it for the last few days and I found some interesting things. Although I can’t see I can see the menus inside my head so I’m not as useless as you think.”

Urist laughed bitterly, “Oh course the market place why didn’t I think about that?”

“Cause you're a dummy. We can talk about it later, for now, I need to fill you in as to what has happened since you’ve been out.”

Turning serious Urist took a small drink from his bamboo water bottle and listen intently to Uria’s lecture.

---

It took twenty minutes before Uria finished her report and by the end, Urist was massaging his forehead and mumbling under his breath. 

“How troublesome. Are you sure Ubel is thinking about rebelling? It would be a waste to lose such a strategist.”

Snuggling inside Urist’s arms Uria shrugged, “It’s just my instincts, although he hasn’t made moves to recruit a rebellion. From the knowledge, my informants gathered they told me he’s been alienating himself. I guess that he was waiting for you to die before making any moves.”

Hearing that last line made the tense Urist relax and let out a sigh of relief, “Then he isn’t thinking about rebelling. More likely planning just in case I die which is fine. You don’t know this but we once had a talk on the wall and he said he didn’t want to lead. I guess that he was trying to figure out who was the next best choice to lead our brothers and sisters.”

“But that bastard--”

Urist hugged her closely and whispered in her ear, “I know what your thinking. But I know what type of person Ubel is. He’s a cynical dwarf to the tenth degree, he’s one most foul mouth, and cares little for dwarven life. He does the job he’s given and tries to fulfill the requirements to the best of his resources and ability. 

“If the leader cannot trust his generals to fight wars then those generals will rebel against the leader and so I shall trust Ubel. I wish not to repeat history and doom us all.”

“Whatever you say, dummy. If he betrays you I’ll kill him.”

Outside the room, Ubel smiled and shook his head. 

Why am I surrounded by such hopeful idiots?

Although he wasn’t the kind of person to eavesdrop he felt glad that he overheard Urist and Uria’s conversation. One he learned she had spies and already knew of him starting to scheme. Two that it was good he hadn’t started making moves to take control. And most importantly he had Urist’s trust to lead which warmed his icy heart a tad. 

Guess I’ll have to try my best to meet those expectations.

Part 4 - Evolution 

 

Urist and Uria chatted a bit more before she fell asleep in his arms.

Poor girl must’ve not gotten any sleep while I was out. I’ll have to try hard and get her eyesight back.

Carefully he lifted Uria into his bed and tucked her in. They could talk later. For now, he had to go over the rewards he had gotten from the event and talk with his people. Opening his mailbox Urist found he had seven messages. The first was about clearing the Rat event and gaining two gold boxes. Next another gold and silver box for killing the Rat King and event time finish. Those were boring compared to the next few messages he read.

Dear civilization leader congratulations on acquiring the Rat King Bloodline!

Dear civilization leader congratulations on unlocking the Dwarven King Bloodline!

Although he knew a little about King bloodlines from the blood mage Vlad he could guess what they were. Right off the bat, he could tell since he woke up that his body felt stronger, lighter, and more solid. He had noticed he had grown a bread and felt happy about it. He also noticed the color which made him depressed to see white.

He had the urge to test out his body right then and there but he still had to go over the rest of his mail. Also on doctors order, he had to let his body recover more on doctors and also deal with internal problems that had arisen while he was gone.

One step at a time, thought Urist as he opened the sixth message.

This one surprised him where there wasn't a box or an announcement. Instead of an email, it was more like a document then went into detail about dwarf and rat bloodlines and what they meant. At the bottom of the document was a signature signed anonymous and a Green Crystal.

After reading through the document wanted to yell, “This is practically highway robbery!”

But restrained himself since he didn’t want to wake Uria. The contents were pretty simple for him to understand. By using the crystal attached in the mail a sentient creature part of the civilization can be enhanced, mutated, or evolved by the civ leader or those appointed.

Enhanced allowed a sentient creature to increase their skills and various parts of their bodies. Mutated allowed for the mutation of the body such as adding gills to breathe underwater, adding scales to the body, size and many more physical or mental changes. Evolved allowed to increase the rank of a bloodline and one's race. Which Urist found out that every dwarf beside him was that of the lowest rank.

Although it’s tempting the prices to do such things is immense. 

He had to get these things called evo points and the only way to get them, for now, was to convert regular points to Evo points. The cost ratio was ten points for one Rat Evo point and fifty points for one Dwarf Evo point. Checking his current points he could do some heavy spending but decided to wait and catch up before committing.

Of the three options Evolved had a flat cost and it was the simplest to get an idea for. It would increase the bodies genetic foundation and how many skills a person could have equipped. This would go up to rank 10 and currently restricted to rank 2 which cost two evo points to do right now. 

Enhanced depended on the sentient races bloodline rank and affinity. For example, a higher bloodline rank would reduce the cost by a flat amount and the affinity could increase or decrease the amount points needed to be spent. This school mainly affected skills what Urist considered basically cheating to increase combat power forcefully.

Finally, there were mutations which depending on the species base template and external forces could cost as little as a few Evo points into the millions. The big catch was there could only be one mutation for each bloodline rank except for king bloodlines that could have two. 

But of the three, mutation demanded the most to work effectively. Without the correct base to work with a mutation had a high chance cripple a person's body or kill them. And the more different the mutations were the higher the chance that the host's genetics would collapse under the strain. 

I should experiment later with rats to truly understand what I can or cannot do. Heh. Even in this life rats are used in R&D. I should look for an assistant later to help me research this topic. Maybe, Vlad, he seems like a good choice for this type of work. It’s a shame I can’t do it right away with how much we got to do. 

They needed to get back to fishing, mining and exploring the surroundings. Also fixing up the base's defenses that were damaged from the rats. Not to mention the idea of base expansion he had floating around inside his head. He wanted to get farming to reduce food costs to save up on points.

Urist sighed, So many things to do and so little time now let's check that last message then open up those boxes.

Congratulations your patron has gifted your civilization a divine card! Generating divine gift now please wait one moment.

Bewildered by the message Urist wondered who this patron for a moment before the ground beneath him started to tremble and shake.

Really? A fucking earthquake? Hope I don’t die from a cave in after waking up from a coma. 

It took five minutes for the rocking of the earth to settled and in another minute a dwarf appeared in front of Urist out of breath.

“Boss I wish not to interrupt you but a gate has appeared in the civilization room. What do we do?”

Great another headache to deal with. At least Uria is still out cold. Man, this girl can sleep if she wants to.

Rubbing his neck Urist got up and sighed, “Alright, alright let's go check it out.”

 

Part 5 - The Growth Dungeon

 

“So this is the gate? How plain.”

Standing in front of the gate Urist had his arms crossed as he studied the wooden double door. No matter how he looked at it it seemed like a simple door that had planted itself into the wall.  

“Hey did was anyone here to see what happened?”

With a shrug, the airheaded Uon replied, “I was the only one here since I was practicing my dancing. By the way boss can we have a more room? It’s getting pretty crowded here.”

“It’s on my list of things to get done. Anyways can you tell me what happened?”

“Sure, sure boss. Ya see the there was a blinding pretty light. Then the rumble came and I watched as the dazzling light fade to see a door come out of the ground like a plant. Can I go dance now boss? The light gave me such inspiration for a new dance.”

With a sigh at the low explanation, Urist waved Tänzer off, “Just make sure not to hit the civilization or armament stone.”

“Kay~”

Turning his direction away from Tänzer, Urist stared at the door and began to think. 

Did it just gift us a simple door? No that shouldn’t be it. I should examine it and wait for Ubel and the others before opening it.

So for the next minute, Urist inspected the door from different angles and couldn’t see or feel anything strange from the door.  No markings, words, or information could be gleaned from the door. 

It wasn’t until Ubel and Co. came inside the room that answers were given.

Ubel had a faint grin carried on his face “How unexpected. A growth dungeon appearing right in our home we’ve got good fortune.”

“Growth dungeon? Please explain Ubel.”

Ubel sighed and combed his hair back with his hand.

“That’s right I forgot you and I didn’t live in the same kind of world. Ok, listen here Urist, growth dungeons are pretty rare types. Usually, dungeons stay to one element once created, but the one before us is a legendary growth dungeon. In the beginning, a growth dungeon is super weak to the point that any person that had some knowhow of a sword can easily slay it. But if it’s fed good materials it can grow to become a treasure for the nation. Though if it isn’t handled with care such dungeons can wipe out countries and make areas forbidden zones.”

Urist stoked his bread with interest, “So what does it need to grow?”

“Matter, mana, qi, or any other type of energy. Will change the properties inside of the dungeon and use it to create floors. Living things must be killed inside the dungeon to allow those to grow inside to harvest and nonliving matter just needs to be thrown in. As for energy, people just need to spend time inside, pref mages or high energy beings. For the first being to enter I recommend it to be you Urist.”

“Oh? Why’s that?”

“You see Urist since you are our leader you should be the one to make the first contact with the dungeon core and write up the contract. And before you ask a contact is something of ages-old that dungeons and kings have done to ensure peace and prosperity with both parties. Although it’s young you should give it some face for the deal. 

“And don't try to cheat it, once it gains more knowledge it’ll hold a grudge and try to find loopholes to get revenge. Trust me that even if it takes hundreds of years it WILL get it’s vengeance since I know of such things happening in my history. So don’t bully it to that point, be fair and just with the agreement and it’ll be content. 

“Once you go in and make contact I, Musclehead, and Vlad should go in next as your advisors to help you negotiate. And although it was just born it has some innate memories to use so it’ll know how to talk and know of its importance. Any other questions you have on your mind Urist?”

“Nah I get the gist of it then I’ll meet this ‘Core’ I’ll see you guys on the other side soon.”

“Sounds good.”

Now knowing what this door was Urist had a budding expectation when he opened the door and entered inside. As soon as he entered the door closed behind quietly which Urist wasn’t too worried about. Surprisingly the inside was well-lit thanks to strange crystals embedded in the ceiling and the glowing crystal in front of him.

“Yo man I must have smoked some great hash. I feel all floaty man and I can see a dwarf bro. Man, I’m getting the munchies bro. Bro where are you at? I can’t even see you bro this stuff you got is top tier man.”

Urist was instantly thrown for a loop, Is this a stoner in the core? Ugh, why can’t anything be normal? First being a dwarf, next fighting an army of giant hulking rats and now this? Ha… My life will never be cut and dry will it? Fuck it. Like I always say one thing at a time.

“Hey bro you come from Earth?”

The crystals light shuddered in shock, “Bro this dwarf talked bro! Did he ask me where-- Eh? This isn’t my bro's house. Hey imaginary dwarf bro where am I?”

Having already composed himself Urist calmly replied, “You’re from Earth right?”

“Yah dwarf bro why wouldn’t I be? I mean bro this is Earth right?”

“I’m afraid not bro, you got reincarnated like me and have been transported to this world like me. I came in here to make a contract with you bro.”

“Reincarnated? Did I die? Damn was about to shag the fine girl from down the street. Nevermind, what is this about a contract bro.”

“Ya see my brother from another mother. Like you and me other people have been transported to this other world. You have become a dungeon core for reasons I’m not sure of. And about the contract, you should get the details from the memories you got transported, bro.”

“If you say so dwarf bro I’ll check them, by the way, bro my name is Josh, Josh Williams what is your name, my dwarf bro.”

“My name is Urist.”

“Like the video game character people shit on?”

“Eh… No. No correlation whatsoever.”

“Ok bro it’s a fine name. Give me a bit to figure out my thoughts and I’ll get back to you.”

“Take your time John. I’ll be waiting.”

 

Part 6 - A talk in the rain

 

A few hours later…

With a dark face, Ubel walked out of Johns Dungeon with Urist, Unicy, and Vlad walked out not soon after.

When the door closed behind them Ubel usual calm demeanor seemed to crack as he held his hands upwards to the sky wishing to scream at the heavens. Instead, he took a few breaths put his hands to his side and turned around with his usual soulless demeanor. 

“Well I have dealt with idiots before, but this takes the cake of the dumbest core I’ve ever talked with. What was up with that strange way of talking? And how could you understand him Urist? It almost seemed like a foreign language if you didn’t translate it for us.”

Holding back a chuckle Urist shrugged, “When you travel the world a lot you pick up a few things. It’s just another form of English is with a lot of metaphors, anyway I’m glad we finished up that meeting with a contract.”

At the mention of the contract Ubel a bitter smile, “Yes I’m amazed that he requested us helping him get a body within ten years. As long as we feed him enough mana and matter he should reach the tenth floor in no time. Still, it’ll be a long time before we can start harvesting items from it. Though I wonder...”

Unicy popped in. “Wonder what brainiac?”

“It’s nothing, just a random thought. Hey, Urist you got some time? I wanna talk to you alone about some things.”

Raising an eyebrow Urist nodded his head, “Yah let’s talk here at the table but why alone?”

“I rather we talk outside it’ll do your body some good to get some fresh air. And I have reasons why we must speak alone.”

Although it felt strange how insistent Ubel was about being alone Urist was pretty confident that he had no evil motives. 

“Sure let’s talk it’ll be good to get my legs moving. Unicy we’ll talk about how the army is doing later and Vlad thanks for saving my life. We’ll talk later about how you and the mages are doing.”

“Understood Boss, brains make sure you keep the Boss safe.”

“You accepted me and for that, it’s payment enough I’ll be in the dorm when you wish to speak with me.” Said Vlad as he left.

Walking out of the base Urist and Ubel walked out into the dribbling rain and made their way to the wall.

“Rain? Well isn’t this a first. So what did you want to talk about Ubel?”

“Well, I thought I’d inform you what you missed since you been out.”

“Oh? Uria has already caught me so I don’t think you need to.”

“Although she woke up earlier than you I bet she missed out on the announcements and plans I wish to talk to you about. First of all, is the announcement of larger animals and more dangerous plants coming into the world. Second would be the enabling of the basic weather system which you guessed was correct that it wasn’t changing for a reason. 

And finally the last and probably the most interesting would be these so-called level 1 treasure stashes. Such a topic intrigues me, I've wondered what it could offer us and I wonder what your thoughts are on these matters.” 

Placing his hands on the railing looked out into the forest. “So the world will keep getting more dangerous as events get cleared. What kinds of weather will come next? How powerful can we become? 

“Worry. I’m filled with worry Ubel. Will we get strong enough to face these challenges? How many will be killed along the way for us to survive?”

Leaning on a pole Ubel looked up at the cloudy sky starting to part revealing rays of faint fading sunlight. “That’s the curse of staying alive. Choose to carry the souls of the departed on your back or throw them away. So, after all that death are you still sticking with your foolish ideals?”

“I’ll keep carrying my mistakes and won’t shy away from them. I owe all those who died to make a brighter future where when I bring them back to life that they can lead a safe and happy life.”

“Foolish to a fault you are, well at least you can admit our people can and will die so that’s a start. I can at least admire that about you. Though remember unlike you I won't care about useless commoner lives I send to their deaths and that will never change. If you want to keep using my services in battle you will have to accept that aspect.”

Urist tightened his grip into the wood and replied. “Then I’ll try my best to minimize casualties so you won’t have to. Now let’s talk about something less gloomy.”

“Let me guess you want to talk about the treasure stashes. I got an idea of how we can search for them.”

“Oh? Do tell.”

Moving away from his pillar Ubel went over and leaned on the wood next to Urist. A with a shit-eating grin told his thoughts. “Remember you going on your scouting and how you almost got killed?

Urists rolled his eyes, “Yes I remember that, what about it.”

“Well let’s do that but without you. While you’ve been out of commission two hunters showed up. I figure we can build a team around them and they can scout out the area while looking for treasures.”

“How dependable are they?”

“One isn’t much to sing praise about, but the other. Now the other is quite something. His name is Vaikus and stands even taller than you. Although you haven’t met him, you might miss him if you don't pay good attention to your surroundings.

“Eh? What do you mean by that?”

Scratching his cheek Ubel took a moment to put his thoughts into words. “You see although he’s built like a shit brick house and his size is large. He has no presence if you’re not actively looking for him. You’ll understand once you meet him later. I recommend him being the leader of the new hunter division.”

Urist gave a firm nod, “I’ll have to meet him but if you speak so well of him than it shouldn’t be a problem. Since you picked out the leader then we have to pick out the squad members don’t we? You won’t mind If I put some of my suggestions in right Ubel?”

“Ha. I’m not shameless enough to put together a new squad without your consent. Let’s plan shall we?”

“Indeed, I suggest first…”