Waking up after the extremely mentally exhausting occurrence that we will forever-more dub 'that night I led a crusade/disaster in the Beastkin Kingdom', I remembered that I brought a fellow Cat person home with me. Huh. Thinking back, I really didn't have much of a reason to bring her along with me; yet I felt pretty adamant about it being necessary at the time. She might be strong? We'll see. Drunk me might not think as clearly as I had previously thought. I never needed to act out such intricate role play while drunk before, that must be the problem here. It's a lack of experience!
When all is said and done, my drunk scheme in the Beastkin Kingdom didn't turn out too bad. One might go so far as to call it a success. This one will call it a success! Yes! I managed to free all or the vast majority of the enslaved Scarecrow monsters henceforth increasing my offensive war potential vastly. I managed to do it all without gaining any levels which probably works wonders for my ability professions. Mainly, my [Capture Clansmen] ability profession this time around. I also managed to potentially get almost or over two dozen leads for potential invitees to my Cat Crew, but I'll need to wait two weeks before I can go get that information and begin to act on it. I learned where all of those Scarecrows originated from, and have devised a plan to help me stop them from ever being enslaved again as well as potentially even gain a shipment of additional Clansmen yearly. I learned that I might be able to find more Crows if I keep an eye on the farms in the Beastkin Kingdom. Originally, those farmers enslaved Scarecrows to stave off the Crows from plundering their food. If I try to guard that food, I will eventually run into more Crows. More Clansmen. Let's not forget that I found the first member of my Cat Crew.
Not only to keep me company, I want a Cat Crew to help make me feel more safe during the daytime. I have an enormous amount of war potential during the night time, but I'm utterly defenseless during the day. At this point in time, problems which I could easily stomp down during the night right now can very well be physically impossible for me to deal with during the day. Even if my Class is only capable of functioning properly at night, this is unacceptable if I'm going to be taking responsibility for this ecosystem here, or exploring the world.
Ever since Goblin Village Wheat Farmer Sama first made his appearance and gave me that quest to figure out the issues in the northeast side of the Lost Kingdom causing the nearby inhabitants to flee their homes, I have been strangely infatuated with ensuring that not only the north of the Lost Kingdom is functioning sustainably, but also the south. At first, I thought I was just doing a favor for my best friend, but I'm not so sure anymore. This is now beyond that.
It might be because the role play was so damned rich. Or because I feel responsible now after having not only slain the Python. Killing it was effectively stealing a large amount of experience from the Lost Kingdom. Or maybe it was because I also feel responsible now after having captured the Scarecrow and the Werewolf, effectively stealing similarly large amounts of experience or war potential from the Lost Kingdom. Regardless, I feel extremely involved at this point when it comes to how things are playing out in this safari-like mess we in these parts call a 'Kingdom'. Currently, I have two Tier 4 monsters and 3 Tier 3 monsters; but that is about to raise very soon when I use [Soul Merge] on my army of Scarecrows.
Originally, I told myself that I would probably not ever use [Soul Merge] on my subordinates if I had ever outed an entire Kingdom that I had stolen said subordinates. If people know that I have them, I can't just replace them with stronger versions. While that's the case, only a bunch of farmers would know that I have them. Even then, there's no telling if the farmers actually saw me or if they only saw the Scarecrows freeing each other. I was high in the sky, after all. I think it's safe. Cetilla could spread my truth, but she's far too twisted to do such a thing. She'd probably foam at the mouth in excitement if she learned the true nature of my abilities, not rat me out immediately. Yosh. I think it's safe.
Convincing myself, I began to use [Soul Merge] on my Scarecrows! The results? I ended up with 2 Tier 5 Scarecrows, 2 Tier 2 Scarecrows, and 2 Tier 1 Scarecrows. It actually worked out perfectly! I have officially ensured that Scarecrows can live on even without the Forest of Witches! I'm on a roll lately! I decided to check out the status of all my current tiers of Scarecrow, as I actually adopted Mr Scarecrow at Tier 4; I have no idea how strong these guys are!
Name: Unnamed Monster
Race: Scarecrow(x2) (Halloween)
Class: Berserker
Tier: 5
MP: 400/400, 400/400
P. DEF: 80
M. DEF: 40
STR: 160
INT: 16
DEX: 8
LUK: 8
AGI: 24
Titles:
[Prairie Horror+1], [Halloween Clansmen]
Abilities Learned:
[Stalk Thrash+1], [Strengthened Grass], [Terror Shout+1], [Return to Halloween]
Name: Unnamed Monster
Race: Scarecrow(x2) (Halloween)
Class: Berserker
Tier: 2
MP: 50/50, 50/50
P. DEF: 10
M. DEF: 5
STR: 20
INT: 2
DEX: 1
LUK: 1
AGI: 3
Titles:
[Halloween Clansmen]
Abilities Learned:
[Stalk Thrash], [Return to Halloween]
Name: Unnamed Monster
Race: Scarecrow(x2) (Halloween)
Class: Berserker
Tier: 1
MP: 25/25, 25/25
P. DEF: 5
M. DEF: 3
STR: 10
INT: 1
DEX: 0
LUK: 0
AGI: 2
Titles:
[Halloween Clansmen]
Abilities Learned:
[Stalk Thrash], [Return to Halloween]
Woah. Comparing the Tier 1 Scarecrow with how my Tier 1 Crows were in the past, the Tier 1 Scarecrow is subpar at best. I'm not going to let them enter battle at all. Nope. Even the Tier 2 Scarecrow pales in comparison to the Tier 2 Crows. Maybe the Crows are actually surprisingly strong? It's strange because I currently don't own any Tier 1 Crows, but the stat result is still located in my Clansmen menu. It just says that I currently have 'x0' of that type, and 0 MP. Well, I have a lot of things to do. I'm kind of still hungover after last night though. Looking around, Cetilla is still happily sleeping. She's sleeping on my treasure chest. Wow. I did that one time, you know. Oh. It seems that Goblin Village Wheat Farmer Sama began the fire sometime after I woke.
Getting dressed, I decided to wake Cetilla to let her experience one of the few blessings in living here. We get tons of fish, and lots of small talk. Between my Clansmen, the three Goblin big shots and myself, a lot of needless topics come up; but sometimes it's useful information! I swear! Plus, the needless topics are enjoyable, so there! I said it! Besides, there are new faces today. Specifically, five new Scarecrows and you. You're also a new face, Cetilla.
Having become immersed in the nightly meet and feast, I noticed that White Wolf Lady and Cetilla have been hitting it off rather nicely. I guess girls will get girls~ Mr Scarecrow has been singing along with the other Scarecrow which has the [Prairie Horror] title. The smaller ones just thrash their stalks against the ground to make percussion sounds. The band is coming along nicely, if I say so myself! The Tier 1 thrashes sound higher pitched than the Tier 2 thrashes, and the [Terror Shout] ability seems to have added an extra sense of flare to each scream. I'm overjoyed by the sweet sounds of horror! This is HALLOWEEN!
It feels weird to think about having saved around 100 Scarecrows to wind up with 6 of them just a day later. Judging by the rate of power increase from each Evolution, I can pretty fairly say that my [Soul Merge] basically takes 3 of the same monster and then replaces it with 1 monster twice as strong as one of the previous three. I'm essentially throwing away 33% of the power by merging them, but they become more sturdy individually. It's one of the harsh, yet bitter truths of being a Halloween Clansmen. Your soul is viciously torn and you lose a third of it, it is then combined with another two souls which were also just torn similarly. The result is that you become twice as strong as you previously were, and you are now only owning 30 percent of the rights to your own body. I don't know what happens to the conscious when this happens, but I think they probably lose 30 percent of their memories, and learn the new memories of both their new selves. Thinking about it, I don't need a massive army to increase my survivability. I need a raid battle team. Still though… I call it salvation while I'm truly killing off a third of them. I'm merging their souls to make superior beings, but without a doubt; a third of each of their souls are being lost somewhere in the conversion.
If I were to imagine having a third of me ripped away, and then have an additional two different people now latched onto me after having similarly had the same procedure, all the while losing a part of myself and gaining new pieces of other people… After numerous times, I don't think that I would be anywhere near my original self. I just combined around 100 souls, and still have those 100 souls but each having been split up into such minor fractions that they only encompass 6 bodies. Infact, most of them are actually encompassing just one body. A fair few are being latched onto Mr Scarecrow, but a much larger sum is making up his mate. Comparatively, the Tier 2 Scarecrows are at most 3 different souls, but they might have just been Tier 2 Scarecrows originally, so I don't know. The point is, the new Tier 5 Scarecrow most likely is an abomination made up of roughly 50 to 70 Scarecrow monsters. Mr Scarecrow is now a lesser abomination made up of 30 to 50 Scarecrow monsters, and I'm feeling extremely guilty.
Thinking back about Halloween, or even just thinking about the fact that my Clansmen should usually be losing SP and FP yet don't as long as it is night time, I still don't know where that spare energy is coming from. Maybe when I use [Soul Merge], an ability that is essentially a funnel for energy seemingly leading nowhere, I'm actually feeding the unexplainable pit of energy which I constantly draw from to have my Clansmen active during the night? Those two discrepancies are honestly the biggest holes related to my class which have seemed to be rather unexplainable up until this point. No matter what conclusion I come up with regarding where my monsters draw the power to ignore SP and FP, I still don't understand it. I understand that their HP is combined with MP. But I don't understand where their SP and FP go?! Who is feeding these people and letting them sleep?! I only ever need to feed them Candy after they're hurt, and they never seem to be tired.
What have I done?! Was this the right thing to do?! I'm starting to think that I might actually be the bad guy in this scenario! Guys?! Back me up here! A fella needs some reassurance that I actually saved all of those monsters and didn't just soil their entire existence into 2 corrupt beings! 1 considerably more corrupt than the other! After I die, will you still want to live?! Rationally?! If, for coincidence, there were someone nearby with the power to kill me; would you wish that they did?! How are you feeling?!
While having a nervous breakdown and eating Fish, I looked up to my Scarecrows. Particularly speaking, the large ones and tried to judge their mood. I say that, but I was specifically scanning for killing intent. After a few minutes of nervously stuffing Fish down my throat while watching them sing, I realized that those guys are too hard to read. They sing screamo, so even just a simple percussion sound could be thought of as killing intent. Yep. There's no helping it. If they want me dead, I'll probably die. Those guys now have 160 STR and 400 MP. My P. DEF. is still somewhat superior, but my STR has fallen behind.
I who lack any actually useful combat abilities to use against them would surely eventually die without trying to escape. I who is also currently a living gate for them to teleport to at ease simply can not escape them. I could probably slow them down by attempting to slowly fly away while preserving as much MP as possible, but I doubt that I could avoid them all night. Even if I fly high in the sky, if they teleport on me... I'd fall. Ouch. I wonder if my secret racial passive for fall damage would save me or if it truly is only a damage reduction?
Well, regardless of which... It seems that they're willing to let me live for meow. So, I'll just do my best to prove I'm actually just a travelling Cat. Gripping myself back into reality, I find that I'm currently Fishing. Oi! Who said that my alleged 'second will' supposed to be falsely granted by [Soul Merge] was allowed to take the reins and do something productive for me?! I just might have saved or condemned 100 Scarecrow monsters yesterday! I need a break! You know what I actually need? Proper bedding. Cetilla made me think about it as soon as she arrived.
Why didn't I think to try and do something about my living standards when I first arrived here? Why was I so hellbent on getting stronger, anyways? If I think about my current status, I'm totally safe. I might very well possess one of the strongest Tier monsters in the Lost Kingdom. Better yet, I have two of them. An army or cataclypse level monster can stop me, but anything less than that is probably fine. This is good. Cataclypse level monsters are probably unavoidable, but rare. I doubt that I'll ever come across anything like those terrors in Halloween on this world. That would be too much.
Armies however, are entirely avoidable. If I can establish information networks regarding at least the borders of the Lost Kingdom, and obtain a way of distant communication, then I can theoretically move any ecosystem temporarily to avoid being trampled by incoming armies. Goblin Village Wheat Farmer Sama seems to have some sort of information network already in order, so I should try and help build off of that.
The last time that problem occurred was after the two herds of monsters started to migrate due to the rise of the Python. We received information regarding the fact that those two herds were migrating, and I honestly had enough time to handle it; but it was a close call. The time before that, we received no information as far as I can tell and the Prairie Horror actually ended up making it into town. The Prairie Horror Evolved not once, but twice from the monsters just barely outside of the Village yet seemingly went unnoticed over the duration of it not only Evolving once, but twice.
The fact that we received information for an issue almost near the border of the Kingdom before we received information for an issue directly connected to the Village shows that our current information network probably only encompasses the areas involving the known monster herds. Thankfully, a lot of the herds are generally close to each other. The southern side of the Lost Kingdom is quite sparse though, so maybe that's where I should focus adding support to the information network?
If I think about it, the Demon Kingdom launched an attack on the Lost Kingdom around 300 years ago which cost the Lost Kingdom everything. While that's the case, the Demon Kingdom probably hasn't attacked the Lost Kingdom very often ever since. Why? Simple. The Lost Kingdom would not survive another serious attack led by the Demon Kingdom in its current state. If the Lost Kingdom falls entirely, then the monsters 'stopping' the other Kingdoms from marching on the Demon Kingdom would disappear. If the Lost Kingdom were too strong, then they might choose to side with the Human Kingdom.
If I were in charge of the Lost Kingdom, I don't know if I even would side with the Human Kingdom. I haven't been there yet, so I can't say for certain what I would do. While that's the case, I have been to the Demon Kingdom. It was horrendous. 0/10, would not return unless simply for Fishing. The Fish were unique there, and they tasted good. It's nice to have a variety as I seem to be stuck with 4 tastes over here. I was intending to go Fishing in the Beastkin Kingdom, but I ended up rushing everything after getting enraged and drunk. That's one thing that I regret from my trip to the Beastkin Kingdom. I neglected to go Fishing. There was a River and Lake, but I ignored them completely.
I'm hopeful for the Forest of Witches. I think they might be decent people simply mistakenly partially at fault for this. They probably assumed the Scarecrows would be fine in the wild. Honesty, high Tier Scarecrows are strong. Low Tier? Not so much… they would probably need at least a half dozen Tier 1 scarecrows in a pack to be capable of actually being considered fine in the wild. Even then, you need to consider possible prey for the Scarecrows or they'll simply starve while searching. If they're already being hunted by poachers the moment that they're released into the wild, they stand absolutely no chance even if grouped. So, soon I will venture to the Forest of Witches and make my case! I'd be too afraid to do it right now, with the fact that I'm currently out of Candy.
Returning to the hut with an astonishingly large number of fish in hand, I greet Cetilla and inform her that I'm going to the Forest of Witches in several days. She seems excited, yet also dejected that we won't leave immediately. It can't be helped. I need to feel safe! [Daily Candy], goodnight~