Empire Builder 1: Breed, Populate, Conquer

by Dante King

  “I will always be here for you when you need me most, Benjamin.” Melody gazed earnestly at him, her bosom still heaving from the exertions of battle. “This is my purpose, and it is an honor to serve you.”

  The way she emphasized “purpose” made him wonder why this was so important to her. Was there some reason she hadn’t told him of, that made her so dedicated to this cause?

  “I hope you’re not only here to serve me, Melody. I mean, you’re more than just a guide to me.” He stroked her cheek with his hand. “If what you say is true, you and I are going to be parents together.”

  With a warm smile, Melody touched his hand, then turned toward the overgrown gravel path that led into the forest. “Come, I have not finished guiding you for one day. We must make haste if we are to find shelter before the day grows too long.”

  She was right. The sun was already rising into the sky, showing that it was approaching mid-morning. Ben didn’t know how far into that forest they would have to venture, but he didn’t like the idea of being stuck in it without proper shelter once night fell. Especially if there were other kinds of monsters to be faced inside—like cantankerous walking trees.

  He hurried after Melody under the dense growth of the forest canopy. The gloom swallowed them up. He couldn’t see the clearing with the settlement he had spotted from up on the cliffside.

  “Does this path lead toward that village we saw?” Ben asked as they padded along, the sound of their footsteps swallowed up by the undergrowth.

  “It does,” Melody replied. “It may take half the day to reach it though, assuming we don’t run into any trouble along the way.”

  Trouble? What kind of “trouble” was she referring to? Ben and Melody had dispatched the werebats handily, and while she’d broken a sweat, Melody didn’t seem to have too much trouble whipping up some lightning bolts and turning the monsters into BBQ. And not only that, but Ben was still a newbie to this world and even he’d managed to do some damage.

  What else was out there—or here, in the woods? Ben went through my mental encyclopedia of monsters from Dungeons & Dragons and fantasy novels he’d read and video games he’d beat and movies he’d watched. He was in a new world—any number of beasts or monsters or demons could be lurking.

  And all he could do was get as powerful as possible as quickly as possible. Maybe it was the last traces of courage he’d sucked from those werebats, but he was feeling ready to take on the world, to rip a demon knight’s head off with his bare hands.

  He was ready.

  The fight had been a hell of a rush—totally exhilarating, like nothing else Ben had ever done in his life. Sure, he’d come close to taking a tumble off the bridge or ending up with some werebat teeth in his neck. But even so, he couldn’t wait for his next fight, his next challenge. A tingle of excitement ran up his spine as he considered what other kinds of spells he might be able to master, to use to obliterate his foes, or different applications of the Drain spell.

  He shook his head, getting his attention back into the moment.

  “Is a horde of flying werebats your idea of trouble?” he asked. “Or was that just an appetizer?”

  Melody turned her head and smiled mischievously. “The Forgotten Ruler must be ready for all adversities he may face.” She sprang lightly down the path without waiting for his reply.

  “Wait!” he yelled, his voice muffled by the forest undergrowth. “What are you leading me to?” He ran a few paces to catch up. “What are we looking for in that village? Why are we going there?”

  Melody slowed her pace enough for him to stay at her side. “I don’t know much.” She held out her hands apologetically. “All I was told is that the ruins surrounding that village are very important.”

  “Important how?” He was intrigued.

  “Archmage Kamila told me that these ruins were once the central point of your original empire. I don’t know exactly what awaits you there, but I was assured that you would need to access this site of magic in order to regain some of your former power.”

  OK—that was certainly an answer. If the magic Ben had gained access to already was anything to go by, he could only expect even better things to come. He almost felt impelled to hurry, to get to these ruins, but he knew they still needed to proceed with caution.

  As they walked, he observed the nature of the forest. Although the bright morning sky was largely blotted out by the thickly intertwined fir branches overhead, he could still see clearly. At first, he couldn’t determine where the light was coming from, but as his eyes grew accustomed to his surroundings, he noticed unusual colors and patterns all around.

  The whole forest was illuminated by soft, glowing fungus. Along the sides of the path and around the roots of the trees, multicolored toadstools popped up out of the pine needle groundcover. Ranging from bright hot pink to cool blue and every color in between, the light of the toadstools faded in and out, almost like Ben’s Razer keyboard back home. These colors were reflected by lichen and fungal growths on the sides of the trees as well. It was all pretty cool, actually.

  Ben wasn’t sure why, but his mind was racing with potential uses for these growths. Maybe the fungus could be used as a portable light?

  “What sort of magic causes the light from these mushrooms?” he asked Melody as they walked.

  She glanced down at the fungi on the ground beside them, causing her purple hair to flick to the side as she did so. “Magic? There’s nothing magical about these mushrooms, they glow like that naturally. I believe botanists refer to this as ‘bioluminescence.’”

  Interesting. Ben would have definitely said rainbow-colored glowing mushrooms were magical. But then again, nature had clearly evolved differently in this world. For all he knew, magic had a perfectly logical scientific explanation in this world. He felt like he was going to have to go through high school all over again, so much was new and unexplained.

  In any case, he made a mental note of these mushrooms. Who knew when such a thing might be useful later?

  Melody glanced at him from the side of her eye as they walked side by side, her hips swaying alluringly, in a way that reminded Ben of what she’d done with those hips only last night before. She smiled at him with curiosity written on her features.

  “Much is new to you in our world, yes?” she asked. “You have forgotten much.”

  “That’s certainly true,” he agreed. “Another question—what was that stuff you were harvesting from those werebats on the bridge?”

  “Oh, that was mana crystal.” Melody fished in the satchel at her side and pulled out a black lump. “This is unrefined mana.” She put the lump in his hand.

  It was faintly sticky, and hard like a rock. The substance was translucent, allowing trace amounts of the glowing light of the forest to gleam through. But the substance itself was quite dark, almost black.

  “The crystal is black because it came from the werebats?” Ben surmised.

  “Because it came from a monster, like those werebats,” Melody explained. “When I have refined it, it will be totally clear, but there will not be as much crystal left as what you see now. I must remove the impurities. When that is done, it will be clear as day.”

  “How long does that take?” Ben asked, wondering why she hadn’t done it already.

  “Not too long, perhaps half an hour for a piece like this, but I would prefer to wait until we are in a safer place than here. If we are interrupted, it would spoil the crystal.” Melody took the solid lump from his hand and put it back in her satchel. Surprisingly, there was no trace of the crystal on his hands.

  “And what do you use this stuff for?” Ben had played enough video games to have a good idea what “mana” would be used for—magical energy for casting spells. But he wanted to hear it out of her mouth to be sure.

  “You eat it.” Melody grinned. No doubt she found it amusing having to explain such basic concepts. “It will replenish your strength, your magical strength, to be precise, as well as strengthening you
r mana pathways over time. Mana can regenerate by itself, but it is a very slow process, while eating crystals is instant.”

  “So, can I just munch on a mana crystal when I’m fighting and keep right on casting spells?” That would make combat a lot easier.

  “Well, yes. But you must be careful,” Melody warned.

  There was always a catch. “What happens if I eat too much?”

  “The same thing that happens if you eat too much food at once,” Melody explained matter-of-factly. “You will feel sick, you will not absorb all the mana, and you will waste good crystals.”

  “Good to know. How do you know when to eat it then?” Ben asked. “I don’t feel ‘magically’ hungry right now.”

  “You will.” Melody had a knowing look. “You would not have noticed earlier, when you were so full of courage, but the spell you cast on all those bats must have used a lot of mana. Even as the Forgotten Ruler you would not be able to cast such a spell without consequences so soon. I have some refined crystal still left in my satchel in case it becomes necessary.”

  “Great. But keep in mind that spell saved our lives, consequences or not. You ought to show a little more respect for the returned ruler of this world.” Ben flashed her a grin to let her know he was messing around, then elbowed Melody in the ribs. The push, to his surprise, caused her to lightly stumble sideways.

  “Hey!” She shoved him in return. “You would not want your guide to trip and walk through a spider’s web now, would you?”

  That made him pause. What kind of spiders might inhabit a seemingly enchanted forest like this one? He shuddered. Werebats were bad enough; he did not want to face down Shelob just yet. He thought back to the skeleton in the canyon. He had power, sure, but he needed to be careful if he didn’t want to end up as some spider beast’s snack.

  They continued on for some distance. The glowing mushrooms eventually disappeared, and the cover of the tree branches above thinned, allowing more sunlight through.

  As the sun sank toward the horizon again, they reached a hilltop with a vantage point. From there, they could see further than usual, gaining a view of the surrounding forest. Only a few hundred yards below, Ben spied the village in the clearing they had seen from the clifftop.

  He recognized the collection of huts as well as the ruins, but these were much larger than he’d noticed earlier. Dotted around the hillside below, and extending into the clearing, were stone structures, some of them little more than piles of rubble. The ruins were reminiscent of a mix of Celtic and Mayan architecture. Ben wasn’t quite sure why they reminded him of such since, to his knowledge, the Celts didn’t actually leave a lot of ruins behind. But they did leave Stonehenge behind, and these remains looked like versions of that—massive stone blocks arranged in various formations.

  Great square stone pillars rose from the ground in symmetrical formations, carved with swirling figures. The stonework was clearly made with great craft, though it had since crumbled into disrepair, eroded by wind and time.

  Melody had said she would lead Ben to a site where he had once ruled. This wasn’t quite the sort of site he pictured as the Forgotten Ruler’s seat of power, but he had to start somewhere, right? How would this place look once he could restore it to its former glory? His mind was filled with potential possibilities, of great towering structures and impenetrable fortifications.

  “You did a good job leading us here,” he commented with a smile.

  Melody shrugged. “Forest craft was an art I had to master at a young age in order to survive. I couldn’t get lost even if I wanted to.”

  That was certainly a handy ability. Ben wasn’t a total stranger to the outdoors himself, but he couldn’t have said he’d be able to navigate such a dense and peculiar forest with such accuracy.

  There was movement in the village. That was a good sign; he’d been hoping they would meet some hospitality for the night. He wasn’t keen on the idea of roughing it outdoors on his first evening in a new world.

  “How friendly do you think the people in the village will be?” Ben asked.

  Melody shrugged. “About that, I know as much as you. I do not know who inhabits this village now. We must watch carefully and observe.”

  As they stared in silence, a light flared up in the middle of the clearing. A couple of figures were hunched around a pile of logs. Within moments, they had a small blaze going, a campfire in the center of the village.

  Melody gasped when she saw them. “Mountain ogres,” she said.

  The two figures by the fire were big. Ben assumed they were male, but he wouldn’t have said they were men. They must have been seven feet tall, and they were hairy and muscular.

  “Mountain ogres?” Ben asked, keeping his voice low. Until he knew if they were friendly or not, it wouldn’t do to give their position away.

  Melody shook her head, a frown forming on her face. “Yes. They are also bandits, as that is their chief occupation.”

  “Oh, I see.” He nodded. That didn’t sound so good. He badly wanted to enter the ruins and find whatever magical site he was meant to find here. But getting killed before they even got there by savage bandits would have put a dampener on ever recovering his former powers.

  As Melody and Ben watched, he spotted several more mountain ogres moving about between the huts in the clearing. He counted at least five of them, but he couldn’t be sure there weren’t more. They looked formidable.

  In stark contrast to the hulking forms of the mountain ogres, three figures by the campfire caught Ben’s eye. They were far smaller, petite even, and seemed to have more feminine forms. From the way they were sitting, they appeared to be bound, hand and foot. They also appeared to be very lightly clad, wearing only small bits of clothing. Their skin gleamed in the flickering firelight.

  “Who are those creatures?” he asked, pointing at the three figures.

  Melody looked a little startled as she spotted them. “Those are nymphs. The nymph on the right with green hair and dark skin is a dryad. In the middle is an undine, with blue hair and skin, a water nymph. And on the left is an oread, a mountain nymph, with hair and skin the color of granite.”

  He could see that all the details Melody had observed were accurate, though the dying light made it difficult to identify the exact colors of the nymphs’ skin and hair.

  “Why are you so surprised to see these nymphs here?” Ben asked. From what he’d seen of this world so far, he wouldn’t have been surprised to see a hippopotamus crossed with a giraffe sitting in the clearing.

  “These women are of the monstrous races.”

  Ben stared blankly at Melody and she went on, apparently taking his dead stare as a sign he needed a little more information.

  “I am a Beastkin—a catgirl to be precise. In the more civilized regions of the Xurian Realm, they may call me a monster girl as an insult, but that is not technically true. Beastkin are different from monsterkin. These women,” she waved her hand in the direction of the village. “They are monster women. They are not hybrid humanoid races like me, they are truly a different kind of creature. They are incredibly rare. For reasons that don’t bear speaking about...the Realm is not kind to such folk.”

  And here they were, seeing monster girls in the place where Ben was said to have once ruled. He wondered if that was merely a coincidence.

  “What do we do?” Ben asked. “You said we needed to enter this village so I could get back some of my lost power. These ogres don’t exactly strike me as being the hospitable type.”

  “We must wait for the ogres to leave,” Melody said, with a nod and a note of finality in her voice. “We have to search these ruins for any remnant artifacts left by the Forgotten Ruler. But it is too dangerous while these ogres are still present.”

  “What will happen to the monster girls?” Hiseyes stayed on the strange women. Something about them was almost hypnotic.

  “Nothing good,” Melody replied.

  Ben didn’t like this sound of this.

&nbs
p; He assumed they would either be sold into slavery, or abused and then sold into slavery. His blood grew hot as he considered the idea.

  “We have to do something,” he said, shrugging the rucksack off his back.

  Melody turned sharply to look at him. “Are you mad? We cannot take on so many adversaries alone.”

  He rose to his feet and hooked the rucksack on a high branch of a large tree on the hill. He didn’t want the egg he had been carrying to be damaged, and if he had to head into a fight with these ogres, he couldn’t afford to be slowed down.

  “But we are only two people,” Melody protested softly, not raising her voice too loud.

  Ben narrowed his eyes and spoke. “I know the odds are against us, but we both have spells we can cast—right? With the advantage of surprise, I’m sure we can kick their asses.”

  Melody opened her mouth to speak, her brow knitted with worry.

  Ben held up a hand. “If I’m going to be ruler of this region, I’m not going to start my reign by allowing these shitheads to do whatever they’ve got in mind with these women.”

  “Monster girls,” added Melody.

  “Right—monster girls. If I’m going to rule, I’m going to do it right, and starting now with showing these pricks what happens when they try to take advantage of the innocent.”

  Melody smiled with pride and wonder in her eyes as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “You will be a great ruler, I am sure of it.”

  “Then let’s plan how we’re going to win this fight.”

  They turned to face the village and make their plan of attack.

  It was time to mete out the justice of the Forgotten Ruler.

  Chapter Four

  Ben paced back and forth, trying to gather his thoughts.

  Was he really about to do this? Was he really about to lead an attack on a village against a non-human band of slavers?