Two months have passed since I started my gnoll farming experiment. My gnolls have been taking their new roles for cultivating crops fairly well though there are still some struggles in learning the cooking aspects. But there is progress at least and it shouldn’t take too long before they get the hang of that.

  As it turns out, they had told me that they were driving out the other species that I had rescued back at the castle which is why I haven’t heard from since then. They told me with their new source of food it shouldn’t take long before they return. Meaning my army would grow soon enough.

  The priestess meanwhile has still stuck with keeping an eye on me, though I noticed that she seemed to have loosen up a bit and not immediately assuming I’m up to anything heinous. She told me that her religious group would be returning soon to hear about her progress on investigating me. She assured me that despite her opinions she will fairly explain my activities and will have them determined their next course of action.

  As for me, with the Gnoll situation settled I was back with more free time which I planned on using to get back on track on other work that needed my attention. Development of my empire takes a lot to manage and sometimes I wish I had someone to help me with that aspect but so far none of my henchmen fit in with those criteria.

  In the meantime, I decided to work on another big project. The castle on Mivtic is nice and I did enjoy the homely building I had set up but a tyrant like me should have a proper castle at the center of his empire. ~

  Whenever I had the time, I gathered some [Stone] and other materials I would need and bit by bit forged the basis of my new castle. It takes a lot out of me, and I can’t afford to spread my forces too thin yet until I properly set up the defenses. For the time being, I’ve been working on it by myself with the occasional help from a few minions and henchmen that have their own free time. Mordred of course the most enthusiastic to help.

  Right now, I am having him help by carrying the stone blocks I forged and placing them where I needed.

  After the last of the stone blocks where done I called for a break so I could let my mana recover. “Alright, at this pace it will take only a few more months before we finish building the castle.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to call in other minions to speed up construction boss?” My Minotaur asked as he carried another stone block easily in his hands.

  “Nah, things are busy as is and I already got them stretch thin as. As much as I hate to admit it my castle is a rather low priority.” I explained.

  “Still surprises me how reasonable you can be. But you’re right, there are more important matters to attend to.” The priestess interjected, looking a bit bored after watching me work on construction. She gave the impression that she was annoyed as well as she continued “Which is why it makes no sense you would waste time on such nonsense. Where are you even getting the materials to make all this?”

  I pointed back at the general location of the caves where most of my monster minions reside in where they are more productive ones were either gathering or transporting materials to Greyston. “Every now and again I return back to the caves I originate from to resupply my personal storage of materials.”

  Katherine’s arms slumped with a bit of exhaustion showing. “Right, I remember the reports given about those caves of yours. Several regenerative veins are in there, the main reason why the Mivtic kingdom wanted to invade Greyston.”

  “Still with everything going on I barely can keep up with you monsters’ stamina.” She complained, taking a seat at the chair I constructed for her.

  “You’re free not to follow me arou-”

  “Absolutely not, there is no way I’m giving you a chance to do something heinous when I’m not looking. I wouldn’t be able to face the goddess if that happens.” She insisted, slightly puffing her cheeks.

  I casually waved my claws at her as I let her pout. Veehahahahaha, I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of seeing that. ~

  Later on, we finished up construction for now. The next order of business now was to get back in catching up to some adventurer duties. For the sake of avoiding unnecessary complications, I let her in about my adventurer persona.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  She reacted with shock, but mostly pointed out how absurd it was. For some reason she looked even more baffled when I showed her my disguise. What surprised me was the fact she seemed willing to let me continue without her monitoring me. Guess she takes adventurers rather seriously.

  Well definitely going to take advantage of that. It’ll make it easier to keep the disguise going without her hovering over me all the time.

  After getting in disguise and leaving the priestess to her own devices I went over to the guild to see if there were any interesting quests to take. Going inside the building I couldn’t help but compare it to how I first walked in. Before I would have the others looking down on me, and not just of my height damn it! Now they pay me no mind, and things have been more active now. Theres also a lot less hunting quest for intelligent monster races like goblins. They mainly retain to more mindless beasts instead.

  Those types intrigue me at the moment, so I decided to check them out. With all the quests I had accomplished I had managed to reach D rank which meant I could go after some tougher creatures and who knows I might get lucky and recruit a new follower or two if I get the chance. ~

  Going through the available quest, it seemed Mountain Boars would be suitable beasts to hunt. Unlike my wolves, there were no findings of them being nothing more than wild animals. With my decision I headed out to the location it indicated. The trip took almost a day to reach with the sunlight already starting to set, just a little past the Gnolls’ home base closer to a mountain. A location Mountain Boars settle hence their names. Considering how far I travelled I decided it was best to camp for the night. Since it was just me, I was free to construct a simple cozy dwelling.

  But just as I was almost ready to rest for the day, I started to hear a strange noise. I started to sense danger through my kobold instincts trying to warn me away. As usual I ignored it and followed the path it was trying to steer me away from.

  As I drew closer the noise grew louder and a lot more distinct. It was the sounds of beasts hunting. But not only that, I can hear the sounds of someone shouting.

  “I will not fall here! I’ll survive!!”

  Seems there was someone in trouble. I rushed faster, knowing that it was an emergency. As I came to the source of the trouble what I saw was a group of Mountain Boars relentlessly attacking as one against a singular person. With all of them grouped up it was hard to tell what they were.

  Deciding to ignore it for the moment I opted to forge sharp stakes off the ground as they skewer many of the boars dead. Not wanting to take the chance I cause the spikes to expand blossom into multiple other spikes. I then push them back by conjuring a ball of fire and using it to scare off the others that had evaded my initial attack.

  It wasn’t enough, there were still a few stragglers left after that, so I finished them off by launching myself at them and using the momentum to give the swing of my sword enough force to slit right at the belly of a beast. Just as the other boars started to react in a panic getting the message that they were next if they didn’t run now. Not long after there were no more Mountain Boars.

  Seeing that things were ok for the moment I checked to see if the person that they were attacking was alright. With the swarm of boars out of the way I managed to get a good look at the distressed. To my surprise he looked like a black and white bug-like person. A butterfly? No butterflies have wings that are a lot slenderer, his wings looked heftier instead. Even as I noticed the antenna on his head it looked more feather like compared to the thinner antennas that butterflies have.

  As for his actual body, he had a long and slender build that makes me guess him as a guy. Or at least I think so, his body looks not exactly there. It’s all wavey similar to smoke after the flame of a candle was blown away. I say the best way to describe it would be like his body was made of black mist. His eyes instead were more like two glowing red dots but dim as if obscured by darkness.

  I was curious that despite his smoky body he was wearing clothes with a similar color scheme to his body, though they looked ragged and had seen better days. There were numerous bite marks on it from what I assume came from the boars though I couldn’t understand why he had other marks on his clothing too like burn marks and rips and tears. Upon closer inspection his misty body was leaking out through the marks. His body was shaking showing that he was clinging for dear life!

  The misty moth man stretched out his arm towards me after noticing my presence. “Please…. I need to survive….”

  Sensing the danger of this moth person’s life I quickly pulled out some [Healing Powder] out of my [Dimensional Box] and quickly applied it to the areas with the bite marks. It seemed to work as the leaking smoke started to die down. His body started to calm down and relax. The chest area started to move more smoothly, indicating that his breathing was steadying down.

  Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to be enough as the mist continued to leak out. All the powder seemed to do was slow it down. I doubt this man was going to make it….

  I was about to let go before he suddenly started to grab my hand. I gazed upon his glowing blue eyes, somehow, I could tell that they were pleading as he clung to life. I shook my head, there was just nothing I could do for him. He seemed to get the message as his grip on me loosen.

  Then it tightened as he managed to utter five words that confused me.

  “…. Form…. a…...contract…...with…...me…….”