Chapter 208

◈ Chapter 208:

Getting a hundred monsters to do anything of any purpose was like trying to direct a herd of particularly violent and angry cats.

Especially as all of them were evolved monsters in some small or large way. They were used to being 'more' than other monsters, they were used to bullying or using their evolution given abilities to get what they wanted and damn the rest.

There was one thing that was quite effective however, that is, Rain giving them a look, that instantly obliterated any thought of misbehaving from a monster's mind and they practically jumped to do as they were told, at least for a few moments.

It had taken some time to get going, but the crowd of monsters, most of them carrying sacks of gold of one size or another, now drifted along in Rain and Opal's wake as they walked, following as instructed.

Emptying Quistis's treasure vault hadn't taken long as it could have surprisingly, mostly because Rain had gotten tired of watching the monsters bag it bit by bit, and so had picked up Lyra and dipped her black wool into the coinage.

As her wool passed through the surface the coins simply vanished, and in that way he was able to steadily scoop through most of the coin collection using an increasingly outraged Lyra scoop.

By the time he was close to being done there were coins shooting out from half her wool and she was forced to switch back to her white wool as it was spilling out faster than Rain could add it. He'd set the fuming sheep girl back down and the monsters had snatched up the last of the gold at the bottom of the sloping pit, until everything that Quistis had built up over the years had been taken. Together with the loot Red had collected from the dead levelers it was an astounding amount of wealth… that Rain really wasn't sure what they were going to do with.

But maybe it was enough to establish a monster town… A particularly wealthy monster town…

At opal's direction the herd of monsters was led away, away from the collapsed arena, away from the sands and into the dark stone ruins. The crumbling and torn walls rose above their heads, broken spires like desiccated fingers, darker yet darker, the place spoke of some horrible catastrophe lost to history, buried and forgotten, and through this they walked.

But that was not where they were headed, and Opal prodded Quistis in the tail with a finger.

The tall lamia looked down at her, a vaguely annoyed expression on her face.

"It's here, make a tunnel here that goes straight in that direction," said Opal gesturing at the cavern wall ahead of them.

"If you don't know where we are headed then I would hardly recommend this as a course of action. Getting lost and emerging out in a panthara hive would be poor for my good health, what little of it is left after— after, th-the—" The lamia seemed to lose her words for a moment, dropping her thread of thought, her eyes becoming unfocused.

"Are you sure Warwick's house is in this direction Opal?" said Lyra.

"Mhmm! I'm not a scout gobbo for nothing. If I know where something is then I know how to get there, more or less. I was born with a feel for it."

"Useful in a dungeon, I guess," mumbled Lyra as Quistis raised her hands in the air at Opal's prodding.

The sheet of rock seen through the crumbled street shifted, and at Quistis's command came apart, disintegrating and forming a smoke that blew above their heads, and where that smoke was taken away, was left a staircase, one that rose up into the cavern wall.

Lyra raised an eyebrow.

Quistis, her mind gathered, made a humph sound. "What? Did you think the ruins simply ended here? I assure you that they are spread out below the entire city from end to end. It would be a pain to traverse the underground directly through them, thus we shall rise to the layer above and I shall tunnel through there instead."

Hesitantly, Rain followed the lamia as she slithered ahead, and the others after, stepping up the stairs and emerging into a tunnel, the occasional dotted glowing crystal set in the walls lighting the way.

The tunnel had no limit, each step taking them deeper, but ever more tunnel being created before them, earth and stone being dissolved into smoke at a continual pace and the walls being replaced with thick stonework and the floor with paving. Comfortable to walk on, but the river of smoke that clung to the ceiling and flowed back behind them was a little disconcerting.

Rain looked up at it warily. It would be easy for Quistis to turn it into solid lead, and all those monsters trotting along behind him would be crushed to death in a second.

She seemed to notice his wary upward gaze.

"There is no true destruction of a material. I cannot truly remove a block of stone from existence, thus what I dig out has to be removed from where we tread, in this case it flows back toward the cavern."

Rain frowned. "Does that mean that cavern was filled in at one point, and you created it?"

"Quite. Disposing of so much earth is quite impossible within the city of course, at least not without being noticed, but simply disguising it as chimney smoke and slowly releasing it into the sky is trivial. No doubt it turns back into fragmented earth and dust and showers down after some weeks, but by then it has drifted far from the city. I did hear some amusing rumours from travellers, stories of raining dirt."

That was interesting. Especially as it was relevant to getting into Brax's estate.

"And you will do the same for this… new town cavern?"

"Hardly. It will be far simpler to simply backfill from the new space into the older as it is of no use any more."

"And if there are any nasty sneaky levelers who are hiding back there then they will all get buried alive," said Opal cheerfully,

As they walked Lyra caught up to Opal and caught her attention, drawing her back. She lowered her voice to a whisper.

"I'm not done with you you know, don't think for a moment that I didn't just hear that, our talk is far from over." She drew in a breath, trying to figure out the right words. "Listen Opal, inside you there are two wolves, one that wishes peace, the other hate. The one that wins is the one you feed and you'll never have peace if you let hate consume you."

Opal seemed to consider this for a little while.

"And him?" she said, nodding at Rain's broad back ahead of them.

Lyra glanced over.

"Inside him one wolf ate the other wolf and is looking for more."

The goblin girl snorted in amusement.

"I don't hate every leveler, I don't hate you, for example."

"That's… good."

"So all levelers just have to become like you, or die."

"That's… less good."

"But they aren't like that, they love killing monsters like me, and there's not much I can do about that right now, so instead I'm doing something else, something positive."

Opal looked up suddenly.

"Stop! We're here!" she said, slapping Quistis on her tail which slithered behind her. "Let's begin! Make me a really big cavern thing snakey, just like the last one!"

If there ever was a look that could kill then Quistis was giving Opal it, the Lamia's ire rising at being so talked to by a mere goblin, dark thoughts crossing her gaze, a desire to ki—

Opal casually flicked a small metal dice like object into the air and caught it in her fist when Quistis didn't make a move.

"Just as you say," the lamia ground out from behind gritted teeth, turning and thrusting out her hands.

The tunnel was enclosed, but as Rain watched the walls started to unravel around them. Everything was turning to smoke now, not just the walls ahead, until he found himself standing in a tunnel made of twisting churning smoke that billowed and flowed back the way they had come.

Bit by bit the lamia extended the space outward, cutting away at the walls and funnelling the endless miasma back above their heads, streaming it down the tunnel like an upside down river.

The small monsters gathered close as the smoke filled the tunnel behind them, blocking it with the sheer amount being spewed through.

It grew in quantity until the tunnel back behind them was just a wall of smoke and they were left stranded in a dome, a dome of smoke, one that was steadily getting larger, the flagstones beneath their feet spreading outward as ever more were created, a grand space expanding before them in real time, an almost ethereal space in the crystal light.

Opal patted the lamia's scales and began to give more specific directions.

The flagstones started to rise with distance, creating slight levels, shallow sloping roads cutting up between each, forming concentric circles from where they were standing.

Of course with such expansion the little light cast from a few scattered glowing crystals on the ground failed to go far. But not for long as light began to penetrate the smoke from above and Rain looked up to see the vague outline of cathedral sized crystals emerging far far above, casting illumination down on them as if through a volumetric fog.

And then, of course, buildings began to rise, a town could not be a town without such things, and white stone rose like cresting ships, windows with actual glass, balconies, curlicue wrought iron railings, outdoor tables and chairs with canvas overhangs, Rain found himself standing in a town square as impressive multi-storey town houses rose around them at Opal's direction. Behind the houses could be just seen more rising up and up on the slightly higher ground, and then even more, more buildings rising from the ground, spreading out from where they stood as Quistis scowled with concentration and sculpted the earth. Then before the houses a small market was made, at Opal's insistence, and then at the head of the square rose a house grander and larger than the others, a mansion.

It was an impressive sight, a town made within minutes, able to house far far more monsters than the hundred or so they had here.

Opal spun around.

"This is all yours now!" she said, beaming at the huddle of monsters with bags of gold clutched in their hands.

The group of monsters stared at her, then they stared around at the buildings and the market, seeing over the rooftops how the town rose out in the shallow bowl bottom of the enormous cavern.

"This… might be a bit much," mumbled Lyra, looking around in awe at the sprawling town.

"Why? It's just like the city right above us, are you saying monster's aren't good enough for the same!?"

"W-Well- I mean— N-No b-but—"

"Then it's fine!" said Opal. She tapped her lip in thought. "But I think I know what's missing,"

Quistis made an exasperated sound.

"I have given you everything you desire goblin, and far far more."

"I want a statue."

The lamia paused, and then tilted her head.

"A statue?"

"Yes! You gave me the idea with all your smug muscled leveler statues used to trick levelers into killing monsters at auction".

Quistis sniffed. "It is not a trick, it is advertising."

Rain could admit that was true enough, and probably effective too, the abattoir seemed to pull in quite a large clientele willing to pay out the nose for their services.

A circular dais was made under Opal's guidance, and Rain watched as a statue rose from it. Black stone, harsh, rough, a great hulking slab of granite that slowly formed recognisable shapes, great limbs, a tall menacing lupine form, then from below, more grey stone, a fallen panthara held up under one foot as its head was ripped from its body by a paw, then above, a screaming leveler in white stone, being bitten in half by shadowy teeth, a pair of yellow gemstone eyes the only thing breaking up the black.

It was a horrible statue to look upon, equal parts frightening and intimidating.

Rain raised a paw and pointed at the statute.

"What the hell is that???"

"It's you!" said Opal "Or a reminder of you, a reminder for monsters not to do bad stuff or much much worse will happen to them."

Rain squinted down at the goblin, then returned his gaze to the statue. It was… admittedly intimidating, and judging by the utterly horrified expressions of the small monsters looking up at it they apparently agreed.

"Trust me it's needed. There were a dozen fights and a gobbo getting his ear cut off on the way here. I dealt with that, but ya know, they aren't going to fear me, but you…"

Rain frowned. Still… it was a little much. There was now a life sized statue of him in the middle of the monster town.

He watched as the monsters cautiously explored their new home. The kobolds quickly shuffled over to the market stalls, (After helping to stow the bags of gold they had all brought with them of course), although the other monsters didn't seem particularly interested in buying their Quistis made wares, mostly examining the buildings and becoming increasingly curious.

Giving a small monster who had likely spent their entire life either sleeping on the cold dirt in the dark, or in a shitty makeshift tent an entire house each seemed like it was going to take some time for them to grasp what they had been given, or have any real understanding of it at all in Rain's opinion. He watched a goblin hesitantly push through a door and stare into the room beyond. Yeah, maybe a very long time.

He looked down as Opal tugged the fur on his thigh. Perfectly clean and not plastered in blood fur of course, he'd made it a priority to locate and use a cleaning potion as they had cleaned out Quistis's vault.

"Hey, you know, I haven't forgotten."

Rain blinked. "Forgotten what?"

"What you did back there, with the lamia, calming her down."

Rain stilled. Was she about to figure it out?

"It seems like kind of a strange monster ability, from what fangy said."

"Yes?" mumbled Rain.

Opal nodded. "But from what she told me, and how she said it felt, it sounds perfect for un-dungeonifying monsters!"

Rain already did not like where this was going and his concern rose rapidly.

"What are you suggesting?"

Opal fidgeted.

"I want you to do that, use your new monster magic to help everyone." She looked up at him with big eyes and bit her lip. "Please."

Cute.

Rain groaned internally. How could he ever say no to that look? Clearly impossible.

They moved toward the mansion, and Rain noticed for the first time that the front door wasn't so large just to be impressive, it was in fact perfectly sized to fit him. Feeling a little curious he pushed through.

The room beyond was, well, larger in scale than it should have been, the ceiling too. For once he found himself not needing to duck his head as he stepped inside. It was touching that Opal had accounted for that.

The chairs and table were thick solid things, the legs like tree trunks, massively reinforced to take his weight, the plush couch too had steel reinforcements running through it.

The fire, in the fireplace, wasn't a fire, Rain discovered, but more of the glowing crystals that Quistis favoured all heaped up in a pile.

Rain looked around the room feeling a little bemused.

"Did you do this?"

"Mhmm! I thought you might like it. There's even... A bath."

It was definitely more comfortable… and that last bit…

Time to get this thing done, and then, a testing of this so-called bath.