Day 20
My eyes snapped open when the sensation of creeping fear filled my bones. Flashes of myself cowering as a massive storm passed overhead came to mind, but the night was calm. Outside my tent, in my spider silk boxers, I could clearly see the stars and the pink light from our moon. There weren't any cries for help; no, the fear I felt was from someone cowering.
Telepathy wasn't empathy; I shouldn't feel emotions, but Telepathy wasn't a skill humans had much experience with. After leveling it to 21 and crossing the 50 barrier in Willpower, sensing the minds around my farm was getting easier.
A quick look at the skill showed I was mistaken.
Telepathy lvl22
"Come back to bed, or an owl will snatch you," Veronica said.
An image of yellow eyes and the smell of terror assaulted my senses. I checked the time it was only 3 in the morning; no wonder the sun wasn't up. The wind didn't pick up; there was no need. The foreign mind alluded me until I focused. What else could I do?
Whatever it was had gotten past our walls. Barbed wire wasn't cutting it. The monster within my range had a squishy mind compared to most of the hens. While it felt plenty clever, and it clearly made it through my fence, I felt my psychic tendrils slip into it. It felt like I had pushed my shovel into a soap bubble. The mind popped.
The hen rose from her hiding place as I approached the scene. A weasel nearly 8ft long with needles for hair was dead. It had already voided its bowels. Killing it had been easy. That thought terrified me. If I was able to kill a rank 2 monster with a thought, then something much stronger could clearly do the same to me. Rong Da seemed so much deadlier with her Telepathy than before.
Was that why Telepathy was a frowned-upon skill? People with it could cause mass casualties so easily. No, that couldn't be, or we would have psychic overlords instead of champions and a senate.
Territory governors existed in territories where there was a single megacity. In less developed territories, we had sheriffs elected individuals with the power to bring law and order to a territory and deputize individuals. Rasputin was a wild part of Weston with my farm and little else in the way of territory. We were in the Northeast rather close to Easton, but they didn't want anything to do with the territory either. For us, the ground had almost no mana, and for Easton, the air had no chi. It was what most would call a fixer-upper of a territory. Not even bandits wanted to come here in fear of random dungeon surges, powerful monsters, and the legend.
To the north, over the mountains, there were the shattered tribes of heroes. If not for the mountains and powerful monsters up there, I might have to deal with a raid from them in my lifetime. That was something that confused me. This place was perfect to avoid the rest of the world. Laws barely existed, so why did I still have to deal with Tony Graves.
Ironically, Tony was one of the few I couldn't kill with my mind due to his high Willpower and tamer skills. I was certain they acted like a kind of Telepathy, giving his mind tools to use against me. The similarities between telepathy and tamer skills were why I took a gamble on using Telepathy to defend from the skill.
Gwen couldn't defend against the tamer skills because she was inexperienced, had little Willpower, and Psychic by itself wasn't that powerful. For mental defenses, Telepathy was the way to go.
I returned to my tent only to be woken up 15 minutes later by a similar attack. The monster attacking was slightly stronger, and I killed it the same way. Its Willpower was higher than the weasel's, but it didn't matter much. I stabbed into it, but the bubble didn't pop. It was resilient enough to take several shovel fulls of matter from it.
When it finally burst, I rolled over in my cot and hugged Fu to me. "I told you so," Fu said.
The sun rose, and I felt completely exhausted. From the air, I had to fend off monsters seeking easy prey. The owls had far higher Willpower than most predators, and a few had Telepathy. In that situation, I was forced to get out of my cot and face them in the night. Under the light of the sun, I was left with a pile of bodies.
A few of the roosters had gotten together and started cooking them to help feed our massive population. Food was going to be a problem for a while. Big Jon crowed to the sun just outside my tent, and it took everything I had not to boot him into my cornfield.
"Collect the eggs; we should take care of it before anything else," I said.
"Good morning to you, too. Did you sleep well?" Big Jon asked.
I turned to the rooster with what felt like obvious bags under my eyes. "Hens are noticing that monsters coming in to pick us off and falling dead. Your actions aren't going unappreciated."
"Once we sell the eggs, we'll expand our territory and build a new fence at the edge of the property." I blinked and thought of something more important than the fence. "Where is everyone shitting?"
"On the ground." Big Jon said.
I sucked in a breath and let it out. "We don't have the resources to correct the problem yet." I was starting to think everything I was about to make would be spent on my new flock. "Are there any blacksmiths? We don't have any metal or a forge, do we?" I asked.
"We have blacksmiths, and you would know that last part better than me, boss."
That was right, I'm in charge and the one everyone would blame if they started dying. One problem at a time. I could feel Big Jon like a beacon in the dark; his Telepathy was new if weak. I needed more telepathy skill shards but I wasn't going back into the dungeon for a while.
"Boss, if you don't mind me asking, where can we find water?" Big Jon asked.
That was one thing I knew how to do, but it wouldn't be very sanitary. Water follows gravity, and we needed a 100,000W water treatment device. They were a combination of drill, water purifier, and industrial pump, and we needed the land facing the mountain where the valley dipped into a limestone quarry. That would give us a stone for building foundations as well.
We loaded the eggs, each larger than my fist, and rank 2. It was fortunate that we loaded the eggs when we did. My transporter was already sending 100 eggs through at a time. Due to a shortage and increased demand by tamers due to the increase in qualifier applicants, egg prices had more than tripled.
Each rank 2 egg was selling for 90W each.
Westons were pouring into my account hours later after the eggs had been verified at the current market price. I checked my tablet and tamers could expect to pay 300W per rank 2 egg.
I paid off my debt immediately, bought seed for real rank 2 produce, purchased land, and the Aquapheonix Territorial 40,000. It was rated to supply a town of 40,000 inhabitants with fresh water. The massive machine popped out of the transporter. It was smaller than expected. When I turned it on, everyone rejoiced when it started drilling through the quarry and quickly hit an underground spring.
Water flowed up its pump and poured out in every direction.
I suddenly had no debt, 4 times the land I had before, a water source, acres of forest to clear, and a population to look after. There was so much to do I hadn't talked to the enchantress. My friend, the chimera rabbit, was still waiting for our conversation. A rolling tide of happiness swept over me as the hens drank from the new pond, constantly cleaned by our newly purchased machine.
For a time, I basked in their happiness and had a drink of my own. I turned to see Fu in a tree, slowly draining the insides out of a large owl I killed. She turned her attention to me and blushed.
"Don't watch me feed; it's unnerving. You don't know what you look like to other people."
I looked down at my dirty sand-covered knees and barefoot before shaking my head. "I guess I don't. What do you see when you look at me?" I asked.
"Humans don't cuddle maneater spiders no matter what level they are. I'm not a safety blanket."
"I like your hair; it looks vibrant today," I said.
"Thank you, and I like your glowing purple eyes, swords, and boxer shorts. Together, they make you look like a psycho."
I rubbed my face; it had gotten scratchy. I needed to shave, but I was scared to see what kind of razor I needed to cut my hair. At some point, products weren't made for humans any longer.
Knights also had my problem, but they tried to keep their constitution and endurance below 50 together. Both attributes affected not only my skin but all of me. There was no need to wear shoes because my feet were tougher than most. I needed rank2 monster leather of a constitution or endurance specialized monster.
"I can't help the glowing. I've grown too strong to stop it." I said.
Too many skills had hit 50, and it would take months to cross the threshold to 51 for any of them. Leveling them afterward would be slow, but every level would mean so much more.
"Let me feast and restore my energy then I'll make clothes fit for our savior. Talk to your rabbit friend; she has been waiting near the pepper fields." Fu said.
I knew she was there just like she knew where I was. Telepathy was so strange; from my brain, it felt like nerves stretched out, feeling and trading information. At times, I felt more like a squid-type monster than a human. Having tentacles felt like they would feel more natural than hair, and that worried me.
"I'm just a farmer, and soon I'll need to get to tilling and planting. We have enough water, but food will be our problem until we become self-sufficient. The predators will get smart and stop attacking then the people will starve." I said.
"Big juicy cattle could be an option. Buy lots more land, and we can raise them and eat so well. We barely have to feed them; they eat grass." Fu said.
I smiled at her enthusiasm 1000s acres were a lot of land to plow, but I felt like I could manage it. Maybe I could steal Tony's Unicorn mount, hook her up to a plow, and have my roosters handle it in two days. "Feces, they will be here soon," I said.
Before Fu could reply, I turned around and headed for the pepper fields.
The to-do list kept getting longer. I needed to buy tablets, train my managers in their use, and set up an anonymous ideas box so my population could tell me their needs. Suffrage was also something to think about; giving my managers the ability to vote on purchases would make the people feel like they had power. Universal suffrage was a terrible idea; it had been tried before a century ago, and Weston still hadn't recovered.
Each town could have any form of government they wanted that went double for wild territories. I wasn't foolish enough to let go of the reins of power because someone might be able to do a better job. Having Fu and Veronica as managers gave me two out of the 20 possible votes for managers. My rabbit friend could make a third, and the enchanter would undoubtedly make a 4th. I needed to build a strong voting block before I gave others power. Fortunately, the masses came from a medieval world and didn't know yet that republics were a thing.
Farmers built the land, but from what I could tell, none controlled it after a hamlet was established. The more built-up the land in a lawless territory, the better chance the farmer class would be removed from the levers of power. The people squatting on his land often used words like democracy and the will of the people to take his power away. Peer pressure, gaslighting, and voting were tools leadership classes used to trick farmers into selling their land on the cheap and then renting it.
I lived on the other side of it as the son of a tamer. That would not happen in this situation. I planned to buy the land from here to the valley and the mountains themselves. Maybe I would buy the entire Rasputin territory itself before I was done. Unfortunately, a few more egg sales would drastically increase the supply, and the current demand wouldn't last. So, while the demand lasted, I had to sell, but afterward, I could cut back. I'm sure the roosters wanted to increase their population.
The smell of hot peppers was a pleasant experience mixed with all the chicken feces on the ground. Great for fertilizing the ground terrible for my nose. Many of the peppers were in bloom, with chickens moving in to eat the large bugs attracted to them. The rabbit wore a wide-brimmed hat made from corn husks with openings for her long brown ears. She glared at me with all the fury in her 6-foot-tall body, not counting her ears. Her thick thighs were on full display in a pair of booty shorts sewn by Fu or another maneater. I spied a young face on a spider's body, watching from behind stalks, working on more booty shorts. The enchantress was there waiting for her pair.
"Is there an opening for your tail?" I asked.
I felt another foreign mind enter and squish it like so many others. How long until I did it subconsciously? Could I tell if it was a newborn chick or a predator? Out of the sky, a red feathered hawk slammed onto a nearby boulder with a satisfying crunch.
"I, did you just kill that thing with your mind?" My rival asked.
"That expression looks cute on you."
She sucked in a breath and let it out. That was apparently universal among nervous people and monsters. Good to know.
Big Jon had already shown up and began defeathering the massive predator.
"We could make glue from the feathers and stretch the hide with the others. At its size, we might get 50ft if we cut it right." Big Jon said.
"You know how to work leather," I said.
"Don't accuse me of being so talented. No, a couple of my favorite girls were daughters of their town's leatherworker. Like most children of a tradesman in hamlets, they were free labor. In not so many words, we have leather, lots of it for clothes, tents, and to sell." Big Jon said.
"Thank you for taking your role seriously. But we need some privacy." I said.
"Yes, sir, I'll distribute the meat and hide where it's needed most." Big Jon said.
When the rooster was gone after high-jacking our conversation, my rabbit rival spoke. "I never gave you my name, it's Isobel. We aren't in the dungeon anymore; if I die here, I won't come back." At her side was a chain sword still sheathed. "My niece's name is Ada, but our people call her the abyss rabbit. Why did you take her?"
"Her skill as an enchantress. We need clothing enchanted to increase Willpower and resist taming skills." I said.
"Tamers are a fact of life; they can enter a dungeon and take the loyalty of monsters, and there is nothing we can do about it. The dungeon even drops a tamer skill as one of the rare drops on the first floor. With my telekinesis, psychic, and telepathy skills, I'm almost immune to tamer skills." She turned away from me, picked a pepper, and popped it in her mouth. "These are lovely. I could eat them every day." She shook her head. "I always used to tell my people the only way a tamer would make me theirs was if they could beat me in combat. We used to laugh about it as if a human could beat with their frail bodies and reliance on monsters. Then, you came along and changed my whole world. What do you want from me?" Isobel asked.
"Your name is as beautiful as you," I said.
"Stop with the flattery; it's unbecoming of the man who beat me. Flattery is for when you want something from a better and can't get it with violence." Isobel said.
"Then what should I say to a woman I respect and want to make her feel accepted?" I asked.
"Acceptance is a weakness I would rather feel wanted. You should pull my face to meet yours by my ears and take my lips and more. That's what the man who beat me would do." Isobel said.
For a bunny girl, she had the eyes of a predator and the thighs of a woman who could crush watermelons with them.
I thought about her words for a moment.
"The man who beat you was my worst possible state of mind."
"Then what are you waiting for. I am a woman, and you're a man. There is nothing you need to fear. I won't be tamed." Isobel said.
How do they always know do I wear my feelings on my sleeve, or was it a product of Telepathy I wasn't aware of? I felt exposed and relieved, a combination of feelings that were disconcerting.
I closed my eyes, and Gwen flashed through my mind. Losing her was still fresh, even if it felt like a lifetime ago. Giving in and opening myself to love and letting her in would feel so good. Isobel was an even more powerful psychic than Gwen, with the Willpower to back it up. Fell energy was the only reason I managed to survive our fights. I closed my eyes, completely unsure. Want and need fought my fear of a painful betrayal.
"Give me time, I don't want to wait, but I have responsibilities."
"Then let me ease your burden," Isobel said.
A twitch of her lips revealed that this was her end goal, or maybe I was reading too much into it. Maybe she did care, and this was a way to help and not a naked power grab.
"Fine, you are in charge of all chimera rabbits. Manage them well and tell me if you need anything. I have fields to plow." I said.
"You do and not Echidna. Perhaps sweating under the warm sun while tearing through rock and root will make you yearn for a softer field."
For the rest of the day, I ripped through the dirt, roots, and boulders. After the furrows were aligned, I purchased pipes for irrigation systems down the lines connected to the water pump. Roosters took up the bags of seeds and planted in my stead. Despite not planting myself, I gained skill experience because it was my farm and my land. Ownership, as it turned out, was an important factor.
When I finished my chores for the day, I found a rock and invited Isobel to play a game with me. Together, we played tug of war with a rock using telekinesis to train Willpower.
Ping!
+2 Willpower, +1 Focus, +1 Intelligence, +1 Wisdom, +5 Charisma
Plowing lvl25
Planting lvl29
Furrows lvl30
Telekinesis (UC) lvl27
Telepathy lvl25
Psychic (R) lvl15
Skill Points:495
Before I tried to go to bed that night I took a hard look at my stat sheet while thinking about organizing it.
Status
Atom Walker lvl10
Class: Farmer +3 END +2 VIT per LEVEL
Attributes
Physical:
Vitality 26
Constitution 21
Endurance 40
Strength 25
Dexterity 15
Agility 20
Mental:
Perception 15
Willpower 62
Focus 21
Intelligence 11
Wisdom 26
Charisma 15
Skills
Farming:
Plow lvl7
Plant lvl12
Harvest lvl25
Furrows lvl7
Fencing lvl20
Dungeon Farming:
Dungeon Manager lvl20
MISC:
Berserk lvl40
Training lvl50
Regeneration lvl43
Adapt lvl50
Lingering Will lvl50
Gemini Waltz lvl50
Gemini Blitz lvl30
Chainsword Mastery lvl25
Blitz Kick lvl20
Counter lvl20
Crow Step lvl41
Final Blow lvl30
Psy Bolt lvl11
Telepathy lvl25
Fell Slash lvl40
Fell Wind lvl50
Drill Spear Mastery lvl1
Cosmic Tempo lvl40
First Strike lvl16
Blood Drain lvl1
Bond lvl25
Silver Strings (UC) lvl1
Telekinesis (UC) lvl27
Fell Whirlwind (UC) lvl38
Blood Manipulation (UC) lvl1
Skill Fusion (R) lvl1
Fell Mastery (R) lvl42
Psychic (R) lvl15
Blood Temple (R) lvl1
Skill Trees:
Stopping Force 0/1000
Monster Management 0/500
Mind Artz I 0/350
Baron of Cyclones 0/300
Pharaoh of the Black Pyramid 0/300
Embers of Fallen Heroes I 71/250
Blood of the Cosmos I 0/250
Certain Strike 0/225
Lord of Squalls 0/200
Last Word 0/200
Rip and Tear 0/100
Black Rage II 0/100
Maximize Growth I 0/75
Nightmare Images 0/75
Black Wings 0/75
Final Impact 0/50
Affection of Strangers 0/50
Way of the Homestead 0/50
Resistance is Elemental 0/50
Break and Grow 0/50
Seed The Land I 0/50