Oran and Otek had gone to scout out activity around the portal and came back with an unassuming man. He walked in between them but seemed to be careful around the two massive orcs. Otek had a hand on his stone axe, seemingly ready to use it at any time.
They had led him to the outskirts of the settlement, where I had a grove of firecaps. We had worked out that if we had any visitors, or if we found the dwarves from the totemkeepers' stories, they would be brought here.
It was a precaution, but in reality it was only for show. If Oran and Otek could not win, Jod would have to battle. And Jod was strong, but Mafu suspected that he would lose to both Oran and Otek in a duel.
So Mafu's firecaps would not do much.
The man stood before the mushrooms, not quite sure what he was waiting for. Oran and Otek had not said anything, so Mafu simply asked the three of them:
"Who is this human?" Of course, Mafu did not hold back the feelings, smells, and pressure that he had been told his telepathy came with. Mafu inwardly wondered if this was "aura." He had not gotten any such feelings from anyone else, so he did not know why people reacted to him with disgust and fear.
Benoit instantly moved back two meters before stopping himself. Oteks axe was already at his throat, and although Oran's bow had been slung over his shoulder, an arrow was already nocked and ready.
Benoit spoke carefully, as if every word was weighed multiple times.
"I am from across the portal. My name is Benoit. My father told me to come over here and help the plant, who recently inhabited the forests on the outskirts of the empire. I am not an enemy."
Mafu took a minute or so to think before calling for Taressa. She arrived with four soldier ants, her royal guards, she called them. They had been allocated training time in the bug dungeon, as it was less popular among the orcs.
The soldier ants, and Taressa herself, could level like any humanoid. Taressa, being a normal-sized ant, had not gotten past level 5 before meeting Mafu. But since the ants' size increased, their leveling speed exploded.
Taressa had finally taken an interest in leveling herself when she realized she would not be able to assist in combat against the Hollow. As the queen of her nest, she gained a small portion of the level any of her ants attained.
But that was not enough for her. She was the army of my territory, and she abhorred the fact that others fought in her place. Mafu also thought she was just bloodthirsty to begin with, but higher-level ants were always welcome, so he did not mention that. 1
Benoit's eyes widened slightly when Taressa and her royal guard arrived. Mafu spoke again.
"Benoit. For you to enter this settlement and to fight with us, you must have your mind read. This might be painful, but it will not permanently harm you. You can choose not to have your mind read, but then we must imprison you."
Benoit stood still, with his eyes glued to Taressa. After thirty seconds or so, he nodded slightly and agreed to the intrusion.
After a thorough reading of his mind, Mafu and Taressa found no lies. But Mafu was personally worried. This was not a random man; it was an extremely lethal assassin. If he had some sort of way to prevent betrayal, he would use it instantly.
"This entity seems suited for your use of [Symbiosis]." Athena commented out of nowhere.
My [Symbiosis] could implant a part of my mycelium inside the body of one who was willing. I had not explored this use yet, but if it was a suggestion from Athena, it should be a safe bet.
"Benoit, I found no issues with your memories. However, I find an issue with your class and your advanced level in it. I assume I need not explain why?"
Benoit nodded. He knew what he was, and mindreading abilities could be countered. He had not blocked it, but Mafu could not know that.
"I have no solution for who I am." He said bitterly.
"I do. Accept my [Symbiosis]. I will take something from you that you do not need and give you something in return. Other than that, I can locate you at any time using this skill.
This time Benoit looked horrified. Mafu also knew why he was horrified. According to his memories, his father was bound by the emperor. The emperor, just as Mafu, also was in charge of a territory. Mafu's proposal sounded like something similar.
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"Do I have to?" Benoit asked.
"I will give you the rest of the day. You will move around this village, ask about life here, and about who I am. At the end of it, you will either accept the symbiosis, or you will be imprisoned. I can't have a lethal assassin around without having countermeasures."
Benoit nodded, and Oran and Otek showed him toward the settlement.
---
With Benoit leaving, Mafu returned to his current project.
Mafu had been spending two weeks or so on the creation of the third dungeon. His experiment with plants in the second dungeon had mostly failed.
His next idea was to finally use some of his fire element mana, which he had only used to spawn the mushroom soldiers that required it.
At first he had tried using his fire mana to imbue his mycelium, but that did not seem to change anything. So next, he had dipped rocks, plants, and dirt in the fungal pool and tried imbuing them with fire mana.
This had been a success. The rock changed to volcanic rock, the plants all seemed to have red streaks in them, and they emitted heat around them. The dirt changed but did not seem to have any special property.
He had the ants deliver these materials to the dungeon. They packed the dirt around the floor and walls. Then they planted the plants, with Mafu's dungeon management helping them. Then they placed the volcanic rocks around the side of the tunnels in the dungeon.
The temperature naturally rose a little bit in the underground structure. Using the dungeon management system, Mafu also pumped a little bit of fire mana in at the bottom rooms of the dungeon along with the normal mana. This increased the temperature much more.
And after some final touches, the dungeon was ready. No monsters had spawned yet, but in a few hours to a day he would see some results.
---
In the evening, Benoit came back to the firecaps outside the settlement.
"I will agree to the symbiosis. I'll have nowhere else to go even if I were to escape imprisonment, and you don't seem as bad as the empire, at least."
What a glowing review! Mafu chuckled to himself.
"Then you will enter the fungal pool. The procedure will be done while you are asleep."
Benoit had been ready for this; he had probably asked about this part around the village. My sedative pool was common knowledge to the orcs by this point. After all, I had taken the levels of just over 40 orc women at this point.
Tenia, the first one to step up, had already managed to create a working forge with the help of Akro. Mafu was happy about the early success of the "Orc Women's Project."
Benoit entered the pool and instantly fell asleep. Mafu inspected all the information, with the help of Athena. When that was done, he used his symbiosis.
He could feel a part of his mycelium now living inside of Benoit. It felt strange, like when you placed your hand above someone's heart and felt their heartbeat. A tiny string of consciousness now connected him with Benoit.
It was nowhere near as strong as his connection with Jod. The connection with Jod was like a rampaging river of information, feelings, and thoughts. But with this symbiosis, he would always know where Benoit was.
Now to the matter of what he would exchange. A symbiote would take something and give something else. He looked through Benoit's skills and stats. His agility was more than three times the amount of any other stat.
Other than that, he rarely used mana. His stealth was based upon agility and keeping to the shadows. However, his strength was very low. Lower than even some of the orc adolescents. Strength might not be the most needed stat for assassins, but it had a use.
Mafu discussed it with Athena and decided to remove resistance to the ice element in exchange for strength. With his mycelium inside Benoit, he could activate his "heated ground" effect inside Benoit. That would reduce any ice damage, should he need it.
It would consume quite a bit of Mafu's mana, but it was a drop out of an ocean at this point. Mafu's strongest stat was "Regeneration" at this point. It dealt with the regeneration of any resource, not just mana.
And with Mafu controlling more and more territory, he could decompose more things in a regular manner for mana and experience.
Benoit soon woke up and was informed of the symbiote's effect. He was grateful, and he saw the exchange of stats as a positive one. Then he asked:
"So, what is it you need me to do here?"
Mafu was thrown into one of his minute-long thinking sessions. More and more as of late, he needed more time to think. After a few minutes, while Benoit stood there not knowing what to do, Mafu responded:
"I have a student for you. That will be your day job. Unless we are fighting, you can train her."
"Okay." Benoit was then shown to Kira, who was still practicing at the training fields even though it was late evening.
Kira was doubtful when she was told she would learn from a human. Mafu thought it was probably good if she learned that humans were not unilaterally enemies. Of course, she had accepted Jod and the other refugees, but an assassin from the capital city was a different thing.
After Benoit used some skills and showed her how far she could get with training, she shut up. Mafu hoped that he could teach her enough so that she would not die easily.
The beast-kin children held a special place in his heart. Well, his mycelium heart. And Kira would be the one who would die first if she did not become exceptional.
---
The forges were now set up, ten of them along a Roman concrete wall. The problem they had now was that they did not have any coal. They had tested Mafu's firecaps inside of the forges, but the temperature did not reach high enough.
So Mafu had thrown Cordium ore, a firecap, and a load of fire mana inside his fungal pool. After tweaking it for a few days, he finally got what he wanted.
[Forgefire Mushroom Unlocked]
[Forgefire Mushroom] will unconditionally, ceaselessly burn everything around it with unrelenting flames.
Mafu was a bit bothered about the description. There was no way to turn off the forges. Well, Mafu could disconnect the mushrooms from the mycelium, but there was no off switch.
He installed them in the forges and had the orcs guard and watch the forges at all times. There would be no time that the smithy would have less than three people in it. In a settlement largely built out of wood and leather, fire spreading would spell doom.
But now, finally, the age of iron would arrive. They would have to send a mining party out to the iron vein. There was a risk of Hollow, so Oran, Otek, and a good number of warriors would have to follow. But it was worth it.
The orcs armed properly would be a different beast entirely.
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