I felt suddenly pressed to make up a quick solution.

Around me, the frantic crowd of monsters did everything that in their mind classified as securing the camp, from disposing of the bodies of the assassins to trying to fell a tree. Perhaps they would seriously try to build the palisade, perhaps they just wanted to get rid of places enemies could hide in. Or simply disliked the scenery, anything was possible.

I left this up for their consideration

I only wanted for this nightmare to end, find the answer, and stay alive until it did.

To not let my monsters go hungry was another goal. They were already very aggressive as they were.

They hunted. It meant they still needed to eat, even if death was something of a vague concept for them. Whether it was merely to stave off the unpleasantness associated with starving, to fuel their magic, a combination of both or any other unimaginable mechanic, I didn’t and didn't want to..

Selecting the right skill seemed to be a solution to the most pressing matters.

Last time, when I first discovered there was this status screen, I was too confused, too scared to think in terms of skills, powers, and their implications. Back then, I hesitated, and the cursed system behind this nightmare made a selection for me. Miwah and her shadowy canine kin were brought to this world based on the logic I couldn’t comprehend.

Even if she wasn’t what I wanted, I owed the black werewolf my life.

I still wanted to have a choice in this whirlwind of violence.

Haunted by the flashbacks of both my monsters and humans dying, I was immediately attracted to the element that promised the means to minimalise the suffering through some form of healing power - Life - and even if the wording of the skill was ominous at best, or contradictory at worst, the element part was sufficiently vague to cover the wide variety of effects.

I needed something that wasn’t inherently offensive skill in nature. Source of sustenance. Even ones in the category which system called ‘Element: wood’ didn’t seem to be an all-encompassing resolution. I felt there is a better option. After all, what was the biosphere with plants and animals than the life itself? There was a slight possibility that there was entirely benevolent power hidden behind the ominously sounding skills. There was always hope.

Tama, still affectionately hanging to me, gently beckoned me with her muzzle. I assumed she could see the screen floating in front of my eyes too, or was instinctively able to sense it was there. She, just like other creatures, creatures, never questioned the fact I was inspecting them.

I tried to ignore her, I had other things to worry about.

Now the adrenaline of the imminent danger was gone, the ache of my chest, spine, and entire body even, reminded me of how battered and bruised I was, and the ability to heal felt more like the answer too.

I was sold on the idea of preventing the loss of life, and within the broad sense of what something as vague as ‘life’ could cover there was a chance, it might sort all kinds of problems into one.

After giving myself brief mental encouragement, I spoke my choice:

“Select skill Great Devourer.”

It flashed through my mind that it wasn’t a correct keyword to prompt the selection, but it reacted momentarily, with yet another notification popping out in my light of sight. Satisfied it worked, I waved it away.

As many times before, a new monster was born to the world from the red mist.

Remaining true to the pattern, it took the form of another anthropomorphic animal, this time it was a rat or some similar rodent with grey-brown fur, unmistakable large ears, a typically shaped snout, and quite noticeable red eyes. Of course, the monster was once again, female. Though smaller than me, and more petite than the ones like Tama or Miwah, she still has elegant feminine curves, which her fluff even accentuated. Like the others, she stood on digitigrade legs, had a long bare tail, and her feet and hands sported sharp grasping claws.

“Master.” She acknowledged me with a bow and a smile. I was still a little amazed at how familiar, human-like expressions they were able to show. Her stare was uncomfortable, there was something uncanny about the eye colour.

“Master?” She asked, and put on a questioning look.

“Oh, sorry. I was…” I answered, paused and immediately switched to a different topic as I felt a certain awkwardness. I never questioned them about their abilities before: “Do you have the ability to heal, I assume?”

There was no way of telling what they could do - but thinking of it now, perhaps they expected me to know.

“Yes, yes, I will make you feel better, Master!” The rat woman replied immediately and eagerly. She, like the others, had a pleasant voice that didn’t fit her form, as seemed to be a pattern behind all of the creatures.

She offered me her hand. I took it.

“Come, Master!” she squeaked out, her liveliness filled me with great expectations for something positive this time.

What surprised me was that she didn’t use any clearly unnatural ability on me directly, instead grasped my hand almost like she wanted to show me something instead. Unsure of what to expect, I still let her. She lead me to the edge of the camp where the forest remained untouched by the magical flames or other attempts to destroy the forest.

There, she made a grasping gesture with her free hand almost as if she wanted to violently squeeze something unseen in between her claws. I could only watch as the trees around us started to rapidly wither and die in front of my eyes, choking under the sicky emerald glow that suddenly engulfed them, draining them of all their life. Monsters in the vicinity briefly paused in their frenetic work to laugh giddily as this had the clearly opposite effect on them, almost like they revelled in the jolt of energy. They resumed what they were doing even with greater enthusiasm, and their occasional screechy chants.

Tama was even more cuddly, and the new monster seemed pleased with herself.

I felt much better as well, rejuvenated even. At least, physically. The fact we now stood in the large patch of dead, blackened vegetation did crush my mood, along with the hope for benevolent power that could be used to build the bridge between us and the locals. I suddenly didn’t feel like inspecting whether the bruises I suffered earlier were still there.

“Thank you. I feel much better” I said, truthfully, but cautious not to encourage further environmental destruction, or not to show any discomfort.

Deep inside, however, I felt somewhat guilty that I didn’t foresee this. It was more than obvious. How could I think that anything good would come from the skill called ‘Devourer’?

I took a deep breath.

“I hope this won’t hinder our ability to hunt for food. We need to eat, and there is no better food source just yet...” I said. It wasn’t difficult to come up with the pragmatic sounding line to say, especially after I noticed Miwah eyeing the devastation caused by something I could describe as life-drain. I started to hate myself for it, but being in the middle of the bustling camp of a hundred or so aggressive monsters set a certain kind of peer pressure.

“...Miwah said we would have food from hunting for days,” I added, subtly suggesting that it would be unwise to use this on a larger scale as it would inevitably lead to total destruction of the local ecosystem, and with it, the sources of food. It was significantly more distributive than overhunting would.

“Yes, yes, it will not, Master,” the rat monster said with a vigorous nod, and provided a surprisingly bookish explanation: “I am confident I can sustain us once prey becomes scarce on the life energy in the environment until we find better sources of nourishment.”

It wasn’t the way out of the trouble I was looking for, but I didn’t object to what was being said with a mental note of what I should pay attention to when selecting a skill. After the awkward silence, I directed the conversation elsewhere.

“Excellent. Thank you. What should I call you? What about calling you…” I said, with another long pause to think of some entirely random name, then breathed out: “Narita!”

 

 

The system answered faster than the monster in question had the chance to show her own opinion on the matter, with three more of her lesser kin formed out of the outburst of the bloody haze. I didn’t want to name them as well, not only as my imagination felt seriously diminished at this moment, it didn’t feel like the wise choice. It could only end in another population explosion, and with it, a sliding scale of destruction caused on everything around us

”Narita,” a freshly dubbed creature tasted the word and with another nod, confirmed, “Yes, yes. I like it, Master.”

“Master! Master!” Her only slightly smaller versions seconded her speech with the chant.

“Thank you,” I said, mostly in an attempt to be polite, without much thought put into what I was saying. I was, in fact, quite out of the possible lines I could have thought of. I could already feel the mental exhaustion set in and I found it very difficult to think, but there was no running away from this at the moment. The thought of running did remind me that in the foreign land, with a hostile population, there was nowhere to go.

If only I had the time to think, to get my bearing.

“Any ideas what to do so we aren’t jumped by more enemies?” I tried.

“I don’t think there are any more humans nearby anymore,” Miwah said and sniffed the air, almost like she wanted to use her much sharper senses to verify the claim.

“We will keep you safe, Master,” Tama added, keeping herself close. She was, as many times before, creepy, though slowly, I felt a certain sense of safety from their presence.

Instead, I tried to work my brain towards what felt like the proper, leadership decision, to address yet another outbound crisis with a load of associated dangers involved.

“If we aren’t close to any settlement, from where those guys come from? We aren’t here for long, even.” I waved my hand in no direction, in particular, referring to the black-robed assassins that came. Then I realized something.

“Unless they didn’t come for us.” I said. I freed myself from Tama’s embrace and looked at her, the fiery vixen still wore that fancy dress which certainly couldn’t belong to most people we met - those were almost universally men, ranging from the dirty-looking bandit types to ones that looked like proper soldiers, at least for the certain time period. Aside from the prisoners we released, we didn’t meet a lot of women.

Perhaps there was something of value there, in this blasted camp, we didn’t have any idea even existed.

Tama noticed my gaze and remarked in her sultry tone: “Oh, Master.”

I wasn’t in the mood for the game.

“You said that humans collected a lot of things in there,” I said, “Anything valuable in there? Could you show me?”

“Oh, yes, Master,” she confirmed. Tama took my hand under my shoulder, in a quiet ladylike manner and Miwah, not going to be outdone, did the similar on my other side. I silently reminded myself to rather not protest.

Narita, and her three kin, opted to trot behind us, in some form of retinue.

I briefly glanced at the small horde of monsters running their seemingly chaotic, but somehow purposeful chores. Attempting to cook the meat from the deers they hunted previously made sense. Sharpening sticks did not. Or blasting trees, attempting to use their fire to make cutting easier - I flinched when the tree collapsed down with the rustle of leaves followed by the loud thud. I opted not to question why they do certain things, relying on their judgement. I was too tired for that.

Tama and Miwah led me through the camp and into one of the remaining buildings I never had the time or mood to inspect for whatever was hidden in there. In addition to the looted pagoda proper, and the makeshift prison which certainly wasn’t the intended part of this strange place, there were two more houses built in a similar style that evoked vaguely Eastern Asian design stereotypes.

I left it be and stepped inside the house.

It was mostly one large room divided into two with barely present thin internal walls, with windows mostly made of what I assumed was either paper or loosely knitted fabric, in line with this vaguely Chinese, or perhaps Korean or Japanese, mixed aesthetics of everything around here had.

I assumed it was originally intended as a living space, there was still that sleeping pallet, a large futon in the centre.

This wasn’t quite a peasant hut, I imagined, but definitely not a resident of the rich either. Perhaps the priest was supposed to live here originally, there used to be a shrine, after all. It was also quite clean, which was certainly positive.

Clean, however, meant the notable absence of dirt or stench, not the overall tidiness of the place - the rooms were a mess. Whoever originally slept before we came in converted it into something of a storage area for somewhat valuable items.

This strange stash has a little bit of everything: from makeshift crates, hiding the pottery containing who knows that, to a few painted valuable-looking chests, to various clothing haphazardly scattered around. A couple of armours and various weapons as well.

It wasn’t hard to guess someone gathered seemingly expensive stuff here, but I didn’t care about it properly, almost like it belonged to some rather obsessive hoarder than a truly rich individual. Or monsters rummaged through it already, turning this into absolute disarray. Or a combination of both, which was the most likely scenario.

Once again, I freed myself from the clinch of two of my monsters and tried to go through all the trash gathered there. There were some pieces which must have cost a lot of money in this world - a few torn-out ornaments made of gold and silver wrapped in the buddles of cloth were such a thing. Perhaps they were stolen temple decorations.

“And other buildings?” I asked while inspecting what seemed to be a symbol made out of poured silver.

“A pantry and the tool shed, then that room with the cage,” Miwah answered this time/

I went through several other items I found and put them back when they were. While some of them would probably cost a lot of money on the proper market, I didn’t need any of them really.

When I got my hand on another, gold-coated piece hidden among the cloth, it wasn’t hard to guess it was a letter, or symbol, used in their writing, even if I had zero ideas what it actually read. It wasn’t hard to speculate on the origin of the broken pieces either - which made me think if one could really make money out of the stoled religious items without accusation of sacrilege.

“...why looting the temple, and just stashing it nearby?” I said, speaking to myself after, “Why pry it away and don’t go to sell it?”

“We still need to find out where humans congregate, Master.” Miwah offered a quite reasonable answer, though I could feel from their tone of voice she found the idea of humans somewhat repellent: “Trade should be concentrated around the large population centres.”

“If the artwork cannot be sold, they would bother…” I continued my tangent, “There must be someone willing to buy the pieces of gold and silver. There could even expect someone to come by and buy those from them in exchange for something else…”

Which reminded me of the bodies left there on the road, left to rot, which would certainly discourage people from trading with someone who was ambushing travellers or caravans.

“…which doesn’t matter because we can’t speak the local language!” I growled, “We can’t reason with them, because we can’t understand them!”

Suddenly, a pent-up frustration flared and I couldn’t help myself but slam the useless object across the room, grabbing another thing in reach, a small piece of metal I didn’t even look at, before dropping it on that futon in the middle completely frustrated by the whole situation. The shiny treasures and baubles were entirely useless unless I knew what they meant, they didn’t bring me any closer to home.

“Master?” Tama asked lowering herself to me, sounding concerned, “You can’t worry so much about humans. They aren’t like us.”

I sighed, I almost wanted to retort something, but I couldn’t - it was rather hard to argue I was a human if I couldn’t even talk with the people of this land any more than the random critter would. Frustration was replaced with sadness.

I looked at the foxy face, into her yellow eyes which showed her surprising concern, then looked at the shiny bracelet - an item which I grabbed and still didn’t throw out, even during my outburst.

“Here,” I took Tama’s hand and passed her the bracelet, “It will match beautifully with your eyes.”

“Really, Master? Thank you,” she said, in a more teasing tone.

Then I looked at the others that came with us, at towering Miwah and slightly confusing Narita with her three kin.

“Use the armour, weapons, or whatever you think is useful from there,” I told my companions, spread myself on the sleeping pallet and looked up to the wooden ceiling.

“If some human who looks like a merchant or something similar approaches, I want him captured alive!” I ordered. I detested giving orders - I was hardly a brain behind the operation.

“Yes, Master!”

I hated all of it, the helplessness, the lack of answer, the role I was pushed into without any idea how to perform it, the chaos, the violence, this world even.

I sighed, but it was pointless to rage against fate, or whatever really brought me into this twisted, ancient-looking world I gathered myself once more and got back on my feet, and with all false confidence I didn’t really have, I convinced myself to say:

“So, what I should do to help you with to make his place livable?”