The antiheroes made their way over to where Claire was working, and she was in the middle of directing some goblins who were currently constructing what would soon be a restaurant.
"Please move those things over here! Thank you! Good work everyone, please keep it up! Ah! You over there, could you please stop flexing!! You're giving me PTSD! Thank you! You all are doing great, but whatever you do... absolutely no squats. I understand... building yourselves up is important for this type of work, but PLEASE refrain from doing any squats. Is that understood? Wonderful. Ah! Antiheroes!"
Garett wondered at first what would happen regarding cooking and the production of meals for the village, since he was the only member among the party who actually held that ability- however it seemed that the antiheroes' lack of cooking skills were limited to themselves.
Claire was able to cook just fine, and if they were taught, the goblin females had no issues learning to cook, so some of them had been assigned to the preparation of food.
"Determined. We have some things to discuss. Are you busy?", Samantha asked.
"No, I have time.", Claire said, and then turned to the goblins who were working.
"Go ahead and continue working according to these blueprints! I will be back in a while! And absolutely no squats!"
'The Determined has been acting strange ever since returning from her journey... what's with all these statements about squats?', Samantha wondered. 'Maybe she doesn't like guys with muscular thighs?'
Samantha shook her head and tried to forget about it. There were more important things to focus on.
The four then headed over to the large reception hall and sat down at a round table before discussing things.
"Determined. I think you have seen yourself how quickly the village is developing. Everyone has been working very hard, and much progress has been made, and the four of us have been continuing to plan for future developments and designs. Before saying anything else, I would like to thank you for assisting in the management of the development .", Trevor stated in a very businesslike manner.
"There is no need to thank me! I am simply doing my best to help everyone in the village live happy and successful lives!"
"I see. Even so, good work. Never forget however that we are only doing all this for our own benefit. This isn't a charity, it's a nation- and a dictatorship at that. Now- there is something that has been on my mind recently- what will happen to this village if me and my comrades were to leave?"
"Do you plan on leaving?"
"Not right now- however soon enough it will be beneficial to expand our knowledge of the surrounding civilizations and cultures of this world. As a matter of fact, I have been considering visiting the human realm... however there is still much to do before such a trip is to be made. Blue, you obtained an ability that allows our appearances to be changed a while back, right? Perhaps we could make use of that."
"That's true. I am able to currently change the appearance of any member in the party- and since my Charisma stat is maximized currently, the limits on this skill should have been removed. I haven't tested it out yet, and we should run a few tests, however I don't think there will be any time limit anymore."
"Excellent. Now then... we have established a punishment force who will take control over the protection of the public while we are missing, however it still brings me worry to leave the village under current conditions. What if we are attacked on large scale? Our punishment force will not be able to hold their own against an army- even if they were to train and become stronger. We must figure out a way to minimize the risk to our people if we leave. Determined. I hope that you will cooperate with us and perform any outward expeditions on your own for now while we do what is necessary here and defend the people."
'Please don't send me to any more crazy places.... but... I suppose I'll do it if it's in order to help others...'
"Not a problem. Is there anything in particular that you need me to do now?"
"No. Not yet. For now, continue your work with the expansions and the management of the construction. That is all for now."
'Thank goodness... my legs still ache from all those squats...'
The antiheroes then spent the few weeks or so working their asses off trying to get the city to a level that was appropriate to call an official domain.
----
Rar and his buddies had continued living relatively carefree lives after the event where he had met Rithargus- lost the bet- and ended up being 'freed' of their servitude to him when a mother-like figure appeared and seemed to take her disobedient son away pulling him by the ear.
What an odd experience.
Apparantly that was the Determined. What a scary woman she was... to take over Rithargus so easily.... she didn't even flinch at his poisonous body when she grabbed him... she must have been a monster in her own right.
It shamed Rar to have lost to such a slime, however he was currently torn for another reason.
He- like the rest of the lizardmen- looked up to Arlo as the hero of the village. Arlo was the one who would show that the lizardmen were not a bunch of pushovers, and that their strength as warriors was real.
Among the monster realm, the lizardmen were right in the middle when it came to strength.
They were weaker than the higher beings such as demons, dragons, and elementals, however among the other beings they had an average amount of strength.
Well... perhaps that was overexaggerating.
The lizardmen were actually on the lower side of the middle tier when it came to strength.
If the monsters were split into 9 tiers, high middle and low of the upper, mid and lower tiers, they would be at the 4th out of 9. The lower end of those with mid-tier strength.
The lizardmen village was not too far from the human realm, and far away from the realm of the upper level beings, and so they were able to rest easy and convince themselves that they were strong warriors during these times of peace due to a lack of strong enemies nearby.
That changed quickly.
The birdmen would be considered in the middle of the middle tier when it came to strength- roughly at 5/9.
The lizardmen had not backed down when the lizardmen threatened to attack, but now that Arlo was gone and Pilir was heavily injured and psychologically disturbed, things looked grim.
However, no attacks came.
2 weeks had passed, and there had been no attacks from neither the birdmen nor from the antiheroes who Pilir had apparently angered.
It was common news at this point what had happened, and rumors were even starting to spread, however the biggest rumor of all was of course... the power held by the antiheroes.
Every lizardmen had seen Arlo bow his head to the Determined.
Perhaps he had already pledged his loyalty to the antiheroes at that point? Or perhaps that was all part of her plot all along... perhaps she intended to take over the village after showing such a display of dominance, and completely taking over the hero of the village.
A terrifying woman indeed.
Some lizardmen did not want to accept this, while others instead expressed their anger towards Arlo.
"He was not a true warrior!"
"He must have been a weakling!"
However, this was simply a loud minority.
Those who feared the Determined knew well that the antiheroes she was in charge of likely wielded as much power as she did if not more.
Every lizardmen in the village saw with their own eyes the terrifying smile that the Determined had made- as if she was condescending on the entire village as Arlo bowed to her.
There was no mistaking it.
She had zero fear even when the entire tribe of lizardmen were cheering for blood and shouting at the excitement of battle. That slime person- Rithargus- was right to be so overconfident.
Rar only realized that now after he had witnessed this.
And the fact that she had taken control over even the arrogant Rithargus so easily with such brutish actions...
The look on her eyes when she pulled hum out of that bar sent a chill down the spine of Rar.
As a lizardman warrior, he was ashamed to be so fearful of someone, however...
He could not help but wish to understand Arlo.
He wanted to know for himself why Arlo had decided to betray his village and leave to serve those beings of terror that he spoke of.
Rar made the decision on his own to set off and see for himself what this village was like.
What would he find?
A sweatshop where the citizens were slaved to the bone while being starved?
A society where those up top stepped on the backs of the hardworking peasantry?
Or perhaps something worse... a hierarchy of demons who enjoyed the torment of others for fun?
Rar allowed his mind to run loose as he imagined all the possibilities, but decided one thing.
There was no choice but to see himself.
After seeing Arlo leave the town like that, disgracing the name of the lizardmen warriors, Rar could not satisfy his curiosity by sitting back and relaxing. He may have been a ruffian before who only wished to prey on the weak and sit back in his little world, but now things had changed.
His world was on the edge of teetering over. The balance of power had flipped over on its head.
Perhaps he could even become the strongest warrior of the lizardmen if he trained hard enough, now that Arlo and Pilir were gone. Yerth was still there, but he was an archer- someone who was not specialized in melee combat which the lizardmen considered to be the most honorable form of fighting.
Either way, he had to know what was there in the village of the antiheroes.
Rar set out on a journey to the slime village, ready to find a hell on earth.