"It sure was a sight," Jod thought to himself as he watched the orc warriors exit the dungeon.
They exited covered in dark green blood, centipede blood, while laughing and showing off the horns of the centipedes they had killed. Mafu had forbidden taking the corpses out of the dungeon, but when the centipedes evolved a single blade-like horn on their head, he allowed that to be taken as a trophy.
It was better than the stone knives, and the orcs had begun binding the horns with leather, fastening wood to the bottom of the horn as a handle. The horn was as sharp as an iron blade but had some elasticity to it, so it was a bit trickier to use.
Still, better than stone knives, though. Jod was eating an apple while taking a break from the dungeon. The orcs and the beast-kin had agreed on a schedule of conquering the dungeon. Mafu had learned how to increase the spawn rate of the centipedes from a week to only a few hours.
In the mornings after breakfast, Jod, the beast-kin, and one human named Alan had their timeslot. They'd slaughter their way through the dungeon for somewhere between 2 and 3 hours. Then they'd exit for lunch, and sometime in the afternoon the orcs had their turn. They could conquer the dungeon deep into the night, as there were always more orcs to level up.
Jod finished his lunch; he was very fond of the apples that Mafu's subordinate Demeter had developed. He wasn't too sure how it worked, but Mafu could design new seeds. Demeter was the one in charge of the farms and lumberyard in the territory, and Jod had tried talking to him a few times.
Or rather, it. It was a strange... creature. It seemed only to respond to questions asked and did not ask any itself. It seemed to lack personality. Mafu had explained it as "only a brain," but Jod was still a bit averse to speaking with either Demeter or Athena.
He walked over to his mother's tent. She had set up sort of a "school tent" where she taught the children of all species life skills. Sometimes she had guest lecturers, such as different orcs who taught them how to sharpen spears and stones or how to track animals in the nearby forest.
Since every orc family had previously taught their children by themselves, this freed up a lot of orc women during the day. These orc women in general did not have a high level and did not use their class much.
Some had classes such as [Runner], [Courier], or [Maid] due to their preference of chores. The ones who ran messages and supplies around the camp got one of the two first classes, and the ones who cleaned clothes and kept order in the tents became [maids].
Now, Mafu had come up with a plan. He wanted Jod to ask the women to potentially give up their level and class. Mafu wanted to experience (on Athena's suggestion) using the fungal pool to absorb the experience and classes of the orc women.
Since Oran and Otek had found evidence of an iron mine, two days by walk for an orc from the settlement, there was going to be a need for blacksmiths. The problem was that all the male orcs were some kind of warrior or hunter. It was sadly how they had been bred, due to the peculiarity of the orcs having only certain orcs doing the breeding.
The orc children were then given to their new adoptive families, but all orc children were bred with parents that were physically able and had a natural talent for hunting or fighting. Now, this was no different from the women. They were also bred for such a skillset.
But the orc culture was strictly hierarchical. The ones who did the most for the tribe were also afforded the most privileges, and men were valued higher than women. The men were built in a way more suited for fighting. Hunting was seen as a secondary profession, unless you reached Oran's level.
The orcs did not leave any untalented individuals behind, though. Everyone had a tent and got food to fill their bellies. But the best cuts of meat, the finest furs, and the most elegantly crafted stone weapons and tools all went to those of high level and skill.
Jod thought it was a simple but fair system. Mafu agreed to a point but saw another future for the orc women. Instead of all of them working with chores and things they might not want to do, he wanted to take their levels and experience and train them to make weapons. Not only that, but tailoring and leatherworking were not professions that existed among the orcs.
Jod thought that was because every orc did make weapons, stitch leather, and weave thread. It was basic to maintain one's own equipment. However, if someone worked with it as a profession and a class, the results would be much better.
He entered the school tent. Not only children attended school; even adult orcs came by every now and then to learn. They mostly attended lessons aboutthe other world, where topics about the human empire and the civilization over there were discussed.
He nodded towards a few adult orcs he knew by name and sat down for a while and listened to his mother's class. His mother was assisted by Toqlan, but Toqlan did not do well with teaching the orcs. He hadn't quite adapted to the orcish ways, one could say. He was friendly with the orcs but did not handle their straightforward and brutally honest ways.
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So his mother did the teaching, and Toqlan decided on the materials for the class. Mafu had brought the two people together and asked about teaching the young, but the two of them had done the rest of the work themselves.
After the class was done, he approached his mother to ask the question that was the reason why he was here.
"Great lecture, you two! Mother, I got a request for you." Jod smiled as he walked up to them.
"Oh? A request from the King—how could I ever refuse?" His mother replied with a sarcastic tone and bowed in an overly flamboyant way. She teased him about his title as king, the only one who did so. In fact, Jod thought more people would tease him, but after the Hollow, the orcs and the beast-kin who had seen him had started to treat him differently.
They didn't revere him, but there was always a certain... tone of voice and way they acted. As if he were of a higher station than them. Jod didn't like it.
"Stop it, Mom. I want your help with convincing some orc women of… a difficult choice. Mafu ordered me to try to convince them. I'd be more at ease if you could help with the conversation. They respect you."
His mother soon stopped her giggling at the embarrassed Jod and became serious.
"Alright, what craziness has he ordered you to do this time?" She asked seriously but in a kind tone.
"To convince them to give up their level and class and return to level 1."
His mother looked at him with stupefied eyes, mouth half-open for a few seconds, and then responded.
"Oh... Only that much, huh? Piece of cake."
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[Dungeon Creator] Unlocked.
Subordinates of the Complex Skill [Dungeon Creator] are being attained.
[Dungeon Mana Flow Management] Unlocked.
[Dungeon Element Management] Unlocked.
[Dungeon Terrain Management] Unlocked.
[Dungeon Creature Control] Unlocked.
Mafu had thought this might happen, but to unlock all these handy tools from the beginning for the dungeon was more than he thought he deserved. He had basically only crammed mana into a hole. Well, he had tampered a bit here and there with the dungeon during these past weeks, but still.
He could now change the flow of mana in the dungeon to manage where monsters would spawn. He could also change the elemental affinity in the dungeon, for example, to make a fire dungeon in a forest, which would normally be a nature dungeon.
In fact, the centipede dungeon was a mixture of earth and nature. The terrain management was just to terraform the dungeon; it was not as useful as the other skills, as he had ants who could dig for him. But doing it via a skill would still be easier. The ants could be put to better use.
He wasn't sure about the creature control yet. He doubted he'd be able to freely command the centipedes around the dungeon.
He sent his vision into the dungeon and tried using the [Dungeon Creature Control] and found out that he could use it to set rules for the creatures. For example, he could make it so the centipedes would not move out of one area of the dungeon. Or he could limit the number of centipedes allowed in one spot, although the lowest he could go for the centipede dungeon was five.
If five orc warriors ran into five centipedes, it would be hard to tell which one would win. The centipedes were a couple of meters in length and had scales as strong as any normal warrior's armor. Their newly evolved "blade" on their head could be used to terrifying effect.
The orc warriors had leveled quite well during these past weeks, though. And now an orc warrior was on even footing as long as the centipede did not ambush him.
Also, the centipede dungeon did not really need the rule of a certain amount of centipedes in an area. If there were more than three, territorial disputes always broke out. They murdered each other often, and it was a constant drain on the mana economy of the territory.
Mafu hoped to be able to fix it with the dungeon mana flow management so that he'd only spawn one centipede in each "territory" so they would not fight.
The next new thing was the soldier ants. Taressa was extremely pleased. When the first soldier ant came out of the eggs she had laid, she instantly contacted Mafu and said,
"This was more than expected. We must cull the worker ants down to 1000. I am pleased with the result; now my soldiers will be able to kill the Hollow without hesitation."
Mafu understood her thoughts when he saw the first soldier ant. It was as big as a horse. It had two very large curved pincers on the front, maybe one and a half meters in length. The chitin that made up the pincers was hard enough to easily cut through trees without hurting the pincers.
The ant's body itself was covered with what looked like armored plates, and they'd stop arrows and swords equally. Well, as long as Oran didn't shoot the arrow. The only weakness was that their legs, while still thicker in proportion than a normal ant, were not covered by the armor plates.
They looked sturdy, but a good swing of a sword could probably lop off a leg. And another weakness was that the resources to feed these beasts were a heavy burden. However, the territory had grown, and Demeter had been hard at work, so they should be able to handle the 500 soldier ants whose eggs had been laid already.
Taressa's choice to cull another 250 normal ants would put the anthill at 1000 normal ants and 500 soldier ants for 1500 in total. It was still a comfortable number, but Mafu contacted Demeter and ordered for the farms to be expanded. If the ants evolved their size further in the future, they'd need a massive surplus of food.
And 1000 normal ants was the lowest Mafu was willing to go. Any less and their psychic attack would weaken, and as the territory grew, you could never have too many guards to patrol.
The Hollow had struck in small groups along the territory lines ever since that first big attack but had been repelled mostly by mushroom soldiers or the orcs. Mafu had no illusions, though; the Hollow was gathering up to attack.
Their first attack was a big loss for them, and if they could replenish their forces, they would and then attack again. Maybe next time there would be other things than orcs, maybe dwarves or giants. He had seen them at the entrance to the Hollow cave after all.
Next on the list of things to do: Level up to 50 (Mafu was level 49) and start the project of turning the orc women into professional tailors, leatherworkers, and blacksmiths. He was only waiting for Jod to convince them. Athena was almost 100% sure that it was possible to remove levels, class, and experience gained with the subject's approval.
This made Mafu feel strangely expectant of the future. Maybe for the first time after reincarnating, he felt that he was honestly progressing.
