The metal covering on his boots clanged against rock as Milo stumbled from the smooth floor in Lilith’s throne room onto uneven rock. He immediately dropped the supplies he was carrying and looked back. The rift was already gone and instead he found himself looking up at a giant mountain. His gaze travelled down and then to the sides of the valley. The place looked identical to the map drawing Beldan had shown him aside from a river which originated from the mountain and ran down the entire length of the valley. He followed the river to its conclusion and saw that it ended where a seemingly endless forest began.
The valley might be the same, but Beldan map hadn’t shown any type of forest nearby. Of course, that map was based on information that was hundreds of years out of date.
“Mother nature will not be denied …”
He felt sort of silly talking to himself, so he decided it was time to get the plan moving. He cleared his throat and was about to speak the access command for the interface when a giant vortex of flame and shadow appeared further up the valley. The vortex was static and vanished after a few seconds, leaving behind a statue of some sort. Milo dropped the rest of his things and went to check it out.
The statue in question was a giant representation of Lilith made from a glossy black metal Ivy had told him was called demonsteel. According to her the metal was just steel which had been fused with demon blood and then enchanted. It was supposedly extremely durable and could hold basic enchantments like increased durability. Beneath the giant statue was a ring of stones with magical runes carved into them. The stones circle a large hole. He went closer to take a look at the hole and discovered that the sunlight only reached about a meter in before disappearing into pitch black nothingness.
When Beldan had spoken about sacrificing people and creatures on the altar of Lilith, Milo had imagined some sort of Aztec stone altar upon which the victim would be tied and then slain. Instead, it looked like they simply had to throw them into the strange dark hole. It did make the act seem less gruesome, and yet he still had serious reservations about using the altar.
He took a few steps back and then spoke aloud.
“Interface, show me how to summon… err, everything?”
The words had barely left his mouth when a giant list of translucent red letters appeared in his vision. The list included everything from food, horses, clothes and buildings to various types of demons and hybrids. He decided to narrow it down.
“Interface, show me a list of summonable beings from Lilith’s realm.”
The translucent red letters reorganised themselves into a much shorter list.
Troops current available:
Demon worker – 50 Spirit essence
Demon soldier – 250 Spirit essence
Elder demon 0/2783 – 2500 spirit essence
Ancient demon 0/1 – 1 000 000 spirit essence
Hybrid warrior – 1000 spirit essence
Hybrid elementalist – 1000 spirit essence
Hybrid leader – 1000 spirit essence
Hybrid shadow stalker – 1000 spirit essence
Hybrid order master 0/4 – 10 000 spirit essence
He scanned the list and quickly realised he had no frame of reference for how cheap or expensive something was. Still Lilith had said he would be starting with at least some spirit essence. He decided to try another interface command.
“Interface show me in a separate window how much spirit essence I currently have.”
A line of translucent red text appeared beside the other list.
Spirit essence currently available to your faction: 3000.
Which meant he could summon three hybrids if he spent all he had. Of course, that would leave him without any spirit essence to use on supplies. Rather than pondering further he decided to summon his advisor.
“Interface, summon one shadow-stalker.”
“Would you like to summon 1 shadow-stalker for 1000 spirit essence? Yes/no.”
“Yes.”
Another much smaller vortex of shadow and fire appeared a few meters away from him. Again, it vanished after a few seconds leaving behind a familiar face. He nodded at Ivy.
“Welcome to Archeus.”
Aside from her leather armour Ivy was unarmed, apparently the rules for what the people he summoned could carry was even more restricted than his own had been. Ivy returned the nod with a smile and then swept the landscape taking in every detail. After nearly half a minute of silence she finally turned back to face him.
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“The river and forest are both unexpected, I’d say we got both lucky and unlucky at the same time.”
“Elaborate please.”
She looked up at the mountain and then down at the river which ran down the valley.
“The river will give us access to fresh drinking water which means we don’t have to waste manpower on locating and transporting water. It will also make any city we build here nearly impossible to starve out as the defenders will have access to water and can supplement food stores by spending spirit essence.”
She shifted her attention to the forest.
“Now the forest might seem like a boon, and it might be in the beginning, but in the long run it will be a problem. As our city grows in size we will need to clear back a significant portion of the forest to maintain logistics and security. Right now, the forest not only keeps us from growing crops and expanding a future city, but it also obscures any potential threats. Furthermore, travelling trough deep forests with an army is slow and risky.”
“You’re saying clearing the forest should be a priority?”
“More like a future goal, right now our only priority is amassing enough spirit essence to summon fortifications and troops enough to defend the altar. We are in an unknown world full of dangers, for all we know we could be attacked tonight.”
He nodded and then read down the troop list for Ivy since only he could see it.
“We’ve got 2000 spirit essence left, what do we do with it?”
“Neither you nor I know healing magic, which means any injury might be fatal, we’re going to need an elementalist for certain. I’d also like a hybrid leader since they can handle both hybrids and demon troops, unfortunately that would leave us without any manpower.”
“What do we need manpower for?”
Ivy pointed at the forest.
“That forest might be problem in the future but right now it offers an ideal hunting ground close to our base. There are bound to be all kinds of animals in there and while I can certainly hunt any animal we come across, I can’t hunt and carry the kills at the same time.”
“Makes sense, I’ve never actually seen a demon worker before, how many do we need?”
“Ten, I’d like more but I think that’s the most me and you can handle. Neither one of us knows the demon tongue, we will have to rely solely on body language…”
“Which leaves us with 500 spirit essence.”
Ivy scanned the valley once more before replying.
“We’ll still need somewhere to sleep, I suggest we keep 500 in reserve just in case our hunt proves unsuccessful.”
Milo nodded and then accessed the interface again. A few seconds later 11 vortices appeared nearby. When they vanished, he found himself looking at ten squat demons and a woman he had frankly hoped never to see again. With a sigh he walked over and greeted her.
“Welcome to Archeus Lizbeth…”
Like Ivy Lizbeth was unarmed wearing only a robe that looked far less impressive than the one she had worn back in Lilith’s realm. The old hybrid greeted him with a faint nod.
“Champion, you have need of my services?”
“We needed a healer, we’re about to go hunting for resources.”
“Very well, I shall accompany you.”
Then she turned and to both Milo and Ivy’s surprise started shouting something guttural and nonsensical at the squat toad like demons. After a few seconds they formed up in a line behind the old hybrid. When she turned back to face him, he thought he could detect a hint of smugness on her face, but it vanished as soon as it had appeared.
They walked back to the spot where Milo had dumped his supplies and started distributing them. The bow, quiver and brace of throwing daggers went to Ivy. He offered Lizbeth her pick of weapon, but the old hybrid refused everything but a dagger. As for himself he decided to stay light and so kept only a pair of daggers and the claymore strapped to his back. He eyed the distant forest.
“Let’s go hunting.”
They followed the river down to the forest where it ended in an overgrown swamp. The journey only took them five minutes after which they had to spend another few minutes getting around the swamp. The forest itself looked a lot like the ones he had occasionally hiked back on earth. Every now and then Ivy would stop and bend down to inspect a plant of mushroom. Still, none of them were fool enough to try any of the unknown fruits and mushrooms they encountered, at least not voluntarily.
It took a while for Milo to pick up on it, mostly because Lizbeth and her troupe of demons were in the rear. But he eventually caught her in the act of feeding one of the unknown mushrooms to one of the workers. The demon workers were the very definition of expendable lives, and yet this seemed outright cruel. He must have been glaring because Lizbeth replied to unvoiced accusation without a hint of emotion.
“Pure blood demons are mostly immune to disease and toxins, as hybrids we are highly resistant to the same. But we could still die if we eat the wrong thing, a demon on the other hand will merely get ill. I am keeping a record of what I fed to which demon, assuming they don’t fall ill we will know that it’s safe for us to try a small amount of the same.”
He noticed that each demon was carrying a sample of what they’d eaten. He hated to admit it but Lizbeth’s taste test made a lot of sense no matter how cruel. He nodded and went back to following Ivy’s trail.
The shadow-stalker had explained to them her strategy for this hunt. She would scout ahead with her superior stealth skills and shadow magic so that she could more easily hunt without scaring prey away. To mark her way, she would break a twig every dozen meter or so. Following her wasn’t exactly easy but she had explained that she could always find them again if they ended up getting lost.
They were about half an hour into the hunt when Ivy returned with her first kill slung across her shoulder. At first glance Milo would’ve called the creature a deer, only deer didn’t have razor sharp teeth or clawed feet. Judging by the red ruin of its left eye socket Ivy had hit the deer in its eye. She dumped the carcass in front of them, it had to weigh at least a hundred kilos. Milo was happy to have some meat to go with the sacs of grain Lilith had sent with him through the portal. He bent down to study the creature and then looked up at Ivy, the hybrid was smiling, clearly pleased with herself.
“Nicely done huntress.”
She looked like she was about to reply when Lizbeth’s cold voice cut in.
“Indeed, now stand back and let the workers do their work.”
She had given her dagger to one of the workers, the worker in question walked over to the deer creature and then started gutting it with great enthusiasm. Milo was wondering why the creature seemed so happy until it pulled out the creature’s entrails and started eating them. Within seconds the other works swarmed around the deer gorging themselves on its innards. For a moment he feared they might eat the entire creature, but they clearly knew better than to touch the creature’s meat.
Ivy left them to it and went ahead once again. Milo was feeling a bit green by the time the demons finished their feast. Still, despite their hunger they’d butchered the big animal to perfection in only ten minutes. The demons cut down a sapling and then used its soft branches to make knot around the deer’s hooves. Two of them carried the suspended carcass between them as they set off once again.
Another half an hour went by before Ivy returned next, only this time she wasn’t carrying a kill. Her face wore a serious expression he immediately associated with impending danger.
“Find something?”
“Yes, follow me and stay quiet.”
They followed Ivy for another 15 minutes until they reached a hill bordering a cleared field. The first thing Milo noticed was a dirt road which meant someone regularly travelled trough this area. The second thing was the smoke. Ivy put a hand to her lips and whispered.
“Stay low and only whisper.”
Then she crept up to the top of the hill a motioned for them to follow her. Milo did his best to keep his armour quiet as he mimicked the way she moved. Lizbeth’s with her robes had zero problems copying the younger hybrid.
Once they reached the top of the hill they could see the source of the smoke. A large group of tall furry humanoids were sitting around a large campfire. A ring of what looked like abandoned wagons and carriages surrounded the camp. At first, he thought they belonged to the furry humanoids but then his eyes landed on a what he thought might be a patch of dried blood across the side of a wagon. He was trying to piece things together when one of the furry humans walked over to one of the carriages and opened the door. A loud shriek that sounded far too human erupted from the wagon as the humanoid creature reached inside the wagon and dragged someone out before closing the door.
Milo had trouble making out the struggling figure who was being dragged by the furry humanoid towards the campfire, but Ivy had no such problems.
“Human male, early thirties.”
“What about the furry creature, do you recognise it?”
Ivy shook her head.
“No, but their fur hides excellent musculature, they are probably far stronger than a regular human.”
A scream erupted from the struggling man beneath as he was yanked up into the air by the furry creature. The creature shouted something in a guttural voice and then smashed a large wooden spear trough the struggling man’s chest. The furry creatures around the camp were shouting in glee as the impaled human was placed above the campfire to roast.
“Man eating furries… looks like we’ve found something to kill.”
