The next morning, I got up early because the system was incessantly flashing next to my ear and forcing me awake. Getting up groggily, I silently cursed the system and staggered to my feet. Rubbing my eyes and stifling a yawn, I put my glasses on and looked around.
"What is it?" I demanded. The system displayed a notification window.
-Potential spirit beasts for the user to make a spirit contract with. Please proceed outside. –
Well, that was cryptic. I scratched my head in bewilderment and ventured outside, but I didn't see anything. It was still fairly dark, and the sun had yet to risen. Illumination was provided through the ethereal flares that the elves had conjured with their natural magic.
Even so, I persevered. Though the system had demanded a lot from me, it had never led me astray. If it informed me of a potential spirit beast to make contracts with, then it had good reason. It was also attuned to my preferences. I was certain that it wasn't a coincidence that it handed me spirit contract rewards right when I found a bunch of spirit beasts that I wanted.
"Oh, you are up?"
To my surprise, I ran into an elf instead of a spirit beast. He was one of a few in a group, the elves having risen early to tend to their swamp steeds. They were tying harnesses and reins onto a group of giant mudskippers that I saw yesterday. The ones they were riding atop while hunting in the swamp before the Swamp Serpent, Crunchy Crocodiles and Swamp Hydra attacked. I stared at them, slightly puzzled. It wasn't that I wanted to forge a spirit contract with them, but still…
"Are you interested?" The elf asked. He grinned. "I'm Merin Murkwood, and I'm the leader of the fishing parties. If you want, you can try riding one of our Mud Skippers. Don't worry, they are actually pretty gentle and obedient, so you don't have to worry about being thrown off."
"Hmm, thanks. But I have this!" I summoned Xiao Ke, much to their surprise. Merin studied my Shell Loch and nodded in approval.
"Nice. We don't have many of such spirit beasts here, and this is the first time I've seen a Shell Loch. I believe they tend to live further out in the sea, rather than in lakes or rivers, so…"
"Well, Xiao Ke can use Surf outside of battle," I said, using gaming terms. Stupid of me. Game mechanics weren't applicable to reality. "I mean, I can ride on him, and I don't think he will have any problem swimming atop a swamp."
"Yes, I don't foresee any problem. We've witnessed your abilities firsthand yesterday, as well as the strength of your spirit beasts. You're more than welcome to join us."
"Thank you. I will do that then."
Fortunately, the elves were no longer arrogant and condescending toward me. I still remembered how Eliza and the other elves down in the trading post at the base of the World Tree's roots were cold and indifferent toward us humans, outright ignoring us. Even though Eliza had agreed to be our guide, she still held an air of hostility. That all changed yesterday when we helped to save Murkwood Village, and now they were more grateful to us than anything.
The other elves waved at me in a friendly manner when I approached, grinning in delight and excitement. If I hadn't known better, I would have sworn that they were hero worshipping me or something. In any event, they seemed glad to have me follow along.
"We'll show you the sights of Murkwood!" One of the younger elves said excitedly, wearing a green cap over his blond hair while his pointed ears stuck out. He grinned, reminding me of a teenager eager to start a match. "We have quite the assortment of fish and other creatures living in the swamp here! It might not be as large as swamps in the lands of humans, but it's still big enough to accommodate all manner of life!"
"I look forward to it," I said sincerely, though half of my mind was wondering what sort of spirit beasts were waiting for me. The system seemed sure that they would be something I was interested in making a contract with.
We sailed across the surface of the swamp, with both the school of Mud Skippers and Xiao Ke gliding gracefully across the murky waters. Though Xiao Ke was bigger and more powerful, the Mud Skippers were more agile and faster, able to dart about, swerve, weave and jump through the waters, allowing the elves to hunt. Merin shoved his spear into the waters and stabbed a large fish, hauling it back to throw inside a leather satchel he had attached to the back of his Mud Skipper.
"Hell, yeah!" The younger elf whooped as he urged his Mud Skipper to a powerful jump. The huge Mud Skipper skipped across the swamp, only for the elf to hold up his spear, with a fish impaled at the tip.
"Nice," I said, and he beamed in delight at my praise.
"Calm down, young elf," an older elf said behind us, both hands on a net. With a casual flick, he tossed the net into the water and waited a few moments before reeling it back in, fetching a good number of crustaceans and shelled creatures. He smiled indulgently. "Sometimes you'll catch more if you're less flashy with your movements."
"Fine," the young elf said sullenly. I tried to defuse the situation.
"We all have our own strengths and weaknesses."
"That's true," the older elf allowed. "This net wouldn't be able to…uh, net a large fish like the ones you're spearing."
The young elf brightened up at that, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Resting on Xiao Ke, I scanned the swamp for signs of anything new.
It wasn't just the fish and the crustaceans. There were a few snakes, alligators and amphibians swimming just beneath the surface, but they knew better than to bother the elves who were riding the Mud Skippers. Merin urged us forward, even as I glanced above. Atop the trees, brightly colored woodpeckers flew before perching on branches and pecking away with their gleaming beaks. Racoons darted amongst the thick leaves, scuttling from mangrove tree to tree. At the forested, less submerged areas of the marsh, deer grazed the grass, with a few mink-like mammals scampering at their feet through the tall vegetation.
A huge shell surfaced, belonging to a Swamp Turtle that lazily glided across the top of the water. My interest was piqued, but I already had Da Hai, so I wasn't sure if I needed a Swamp Turtle. Nothing about its features stood out, and though I knew it probably would have a high defense, between the Guardian Golems (and their chief Titan Golem) and Da Hai, I probably had that covered. Even my King Crab and Colossal Crabs had high defense because of their orange and white shells, just slightly lower than their fearsome attack power. Their sturdiness was usually overshadowed by the 10,000 horsepower that their pincers were capable of.
The same went for the crustaceans. There didn't seem to be any interesting or new stuff I could add to my armada of crabs.
While the elves hunted and fished, I watched from the sidelines. If this was a cultivation manhua or web novel, they would be scorning and insulting me for not being able to fish, only for me to slap their faces later when I captured more fish and clams than them and showed off my super fishing skills or some bullshit like that. But they were too grateful to me for saving their village that they didn't bother with that fictional nonsense.
Instead, I focused on looking out for any spirit beasts that might catch my eye.
Fortunately, it didn't take long. When we sailed away from the marshes and back to land after an extended fishing session, I spotted a flash of blue. Then I saw a school of smaller mudskipper like spirit beasts crawling into the shores. They were smaller variants of the giant mudskippers that the elves were riding.
"Oh, those?" Merin asked when he followed my gaze. "Unlike the Mud Skippers we are riding, those smaller ones are ordinary ranked Mud Fishes. They are docile creatures, amphibious just like our Mud Skippers, but too small for us to ride. Obviously. They are fast swimmers and pretty strong, though. Very hard workers too."
"Hard workers," I mused to myself. Their amphibious nature might be a good idea to tie the forest I was grooming with the deep-sea portions of my dungeon. The little Mud Fishes were about half a meter in height, blue and quadrupedal, and sported a fin on top of its head. It had a fan-shaped tail fin as well, which allowed it to propel itself through water at high speeds. But its legs looked strong, and it had orange gills on its cheeks. They looked pretty cute.
I watched them bury themselves in the damp soil next to the wetlands to sleep.
"Mud Fishes like them are often found in swamps and marshes," Merin continued to explain. "Mostly wetlands. So they are not unique to Murkwood. That said, they are still fairly rare, which is why poachers attempt to catch them."
"I might want a few for myself," I said, feeling a little guilty. Merin laughed and shook his head.
"Well, you're welcome to catch them. Having seen your spirit beasts, I'm sure we are all confident that you will take good care of them. I've seen firsthand their loyalty to you. That's not something you can earn through fear alone. They adore and respect you, and aside from that scary looking Abyssal Hydra, they seem like they will put their lives on the line to fight for you."
"Yeah, I'm lucky to have them as my comrades."
"An army of spirit beasts like that is worth several regular armies. No wonder the Crunchy Crocodiles were no match for your spirit beasts."
"Thanks." I felt embarrassed and cleared my throat. Nudging Xiao Ke to approach the shore where the Mud Fishes were, I glanced at Merin. "I'll talk to them and see if they want to join me. But I'll only take those willing to join me. I'm not going to force anyone who doesn't want to follow me to come along."
"That's fair. And yeah, it only makes me believe in you even more." Merin nodded in approval, crossing his arms. "You really are different from most of the other humans who come to Yggdrasil. Rarely anyone visits Murkwood, but I've heard rumors about their greed and selfishness. As I said, many of them wouldn't have any qualms poaching the spirit beasts here. Yet you ask me for permission even though it's not like I have any authority over the spirit beasts living here."
I smiled at that. "Yeah, the spirit beasts are our comrades. Our allies. It would be disrespectful to treat them as tools or weapons."
"Exactly. I've seen how you treat them. With humility and politeness. I know there are commenters beyond the fourth dimension who deride you for it, who think you are 'beta' or spineless for not exerting more authority like an arrogant so-called 'alpha,' but quite frankly, that sort of toxic masculinity is disturbing. They need to learn that being nice to others gets them further in life than being ruthless."
Why did Merin and the elves know about comments from the fourth dimension? I almost couldn't believe what I was hearing.
However, I was pleased to see that the elves shared my values. Earlier, before we set out, I noticed that the Mud Skippers they rode weren't tied to a ranch of anywhere. They were free to go, free to swim around in the swamp and roam Murkwood wherever and whenever they wanted. Only when the elves needed a ride through the marsh would they cast a spell and call the Mud Skippers to them. And the amphibious spirit beasts would respond without hesitation.
It was so different from the way human tamers attempted to harness and control spirit beasts.
Hopping off Xiao Ke the moment we reached the shore, I approached the horde of Mud Fishes. As I did so, the system propped up the usual message.
-Would you like to make a spirit contract with this Mud Fish? –
"Yeah." I nodded.
-The system suggests you only use 50 of your currently remaining 100 spirit contracts. –
"Yeah, I'll do just that. I'll leave it to you to pick and choose who's most willing to join, as usual."
-Understood. –
It didn't take long before fifty of the Mud Fishes broke out of the muddy soil and crawled toward me, looking chippy and pleased. I could feel the spiritual connection between us as the spirit contracts resolved. Placing my hands on my knees, I leaned a little closer to speak to them.
"Thanks for agreeing to the spirit contracts. From now on, I'll be relying on you guys for help. But I'll do my best to provide you a safe haven for you to live in, grow and breed!"
They appeared happy with that, and nodded. A few of them spoke to each other with cute little squeaks, their head and tail fins waving about excitedly. They knew that being contracted to me would make them stronger and improve their progress. Some might even evolve eventually.
Hmm…I wondered what the Mud Fishes would evolve into. That was something to look forward to. For now, though, I decided to send them back to my dungeon and allowed them to get acquainted with all the other spirit beasts there. Long Wang would take care of them for me and provide them the most appropriate accommodations. I was already sending him a telepathic message through our connection, and could hear his acknowledgment.
"I think the best place for them is the rivers and lakes next to the ghost forest. Let them make a home there and hang out with the Phantom Stumps and Ghost Pumpkins."
"Right away, my lord. It seems like you're bringing in a new horde of spirit beasts? I wonder what they are."
"Mud Fishes. I know they are only ordinary ranked, but they are diligent and I believe they will develop well in the future."
"Understood, my lord. I trust in your instincts. I don't think you've ever made a wrong choice regarding spirit beasts. I'll prepare a place for them right away." I could feel Long Wang making a few calculations as he strolled toward the region where my ghost forest was.
"Thanks. I'll leave it to you then. Let me know if you need any help."
"No problem, my lord. I don't foresee any problems, so focus on your own mission for now. I'll handle the newcomers."
"Thanks again."
Placing a hand on the lead most Mud Fish, I patted his head and grinned. Before I teleported them to my dungeon, I decided to greet them officially.
"Welcome to the Deep Sea Palace!"