The queen, the biggest spider Jod had ever seen, was pathetic when it came to combat.

  She flailed her many legs around and tried to eat them as they moved to slash at her.

  But she was slow, and the large legs and fangs were easily dodged by everyone.

  The whole ordeal took no more than ten minutes, leaving Jod baffled.

  "That was easier than I thought it would be." Oran sat down next to Jod on the cold cave floor.

  "Yes. It is not the climax of the battle I had expected." Jod drank some of the water he had left in his waterskin.

  The lower levelled warriors were currently killing the Hollow parasites that were left in the sac of the queen. It was going slowly, but they gained experience from killing the undeveloped parasites, so the warriors were happily slaughtering.

  They had lost 47 orc warriors in total. No dwarves had died, but some had deep scratches on the parts that were not covered by armor.

  Most of the orcs they had lost were during the initial fight against the spiders. Jod cursed a bit to himself that he had not noticed the spiders on the walls.

  But he also had to be honest with himself. They had been careful, but the spiders clearly were experts at camouflage.

  After the warriors had completed the task of slaughtering the young parasites, Jod ordered everyone to exit the cave. They brought the fallen orcs with them.

  "Do you have any burial rites?" Jod asked Oran, who was walking beside him.

  "We bury anything that might draw the Hollow. That includes our dead." Oran responded.

  "Do you have any rituals around it?" Jod asked.

  "No? Sorry, I don't really understand your question." Oran was confused.

  Jod thought about it for a while, and realised that rituals around the dead might be strange to the orcs. After all, the only real "ritual" they had was celebrating everything with a feast.

  "So, is there anyone who says any words about the fallen orc? Or is there maybe a song someone sings or an instrument someone plays?" Jod asked.

  "No, we just dig a hole, and bury the body." Oran replied.

  "Hm. Alright, well let's bring our dead comrades back to camp. It does not seem right to leave them out here to me." Jod decided.

  "Understood." Oran walked off to inform the people carrying the bodies.

  All that was left was to return to the settlement.

  ---

  The army returned victorious.

  Mafu was truly satisfied, as this meant he could order the mycelium ants to truly start expanding again.

  Previously it had seemed to risky to have them expand the borders, as the Hollow could kill them.

  Mafu was about to reach level 57, but his leveling speed had been constrained while the Hollow was roaming about.

  The Hollow was still an issue now, of course. That was probably not the only nest they had, but as far as Mafu knew it would be the only one on the outer side of the valley.

  The nest had been to their southeast. The portal was to the south of them, which would then mean that anything to the west, east and south was now clear of the Hollow.

  This also meant that the portal would now be safer to access.

  Mafu had planned to expand aggressively if the conquest for the nest was successful, and now was the time.

  He also thought he should talk to the people about building a long wall from the eastern mountainside to the western one.

  It would allow them much more area to build a real city. No longer would they be a simple settlement, but an actual town and kingdom.

  It would be a monumental task. To travel from the western mountains to the eastern mountains took somewhere between 4-5 days.

  But with the ants tirelessly carrying construction material, the dwarves' know-how with construction, the orcs' physical prowess, and the new concrete, it could feasibly be done.

  Mafu was excited by the idea. He did not like the feeling of being besieged that came with the narrow scope of the settlement.

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  The orcs celebrated with a feast the night the army returned, as was usual.

  Jod had brought the bodies of the orcs who had died. The orcs who knew them were grieving, and most of the orcs felt the loss. But in large, the orcs were happy.

  Mafu and Jod could see it in their eyes. There was a different kind of happiness gleaming in them. They had lived for generations with the Hollow hunting them, and now they felt that pressure release.

  Mafu returned his thoughts to the bodies. Jod had informed him that the orcs did not seem to have any burial rites.

  To Mafu, it was both strange and understandable. If your focus is on survival, things such as burial rites seem superfluous.

  But this was an opportunity for Mafu, morbidly so. If he could create a burial rite that allowed him to absorb the corpses of the people, he would gain experience and mana easily.

  He did not think that the orcs would object, even if he did not add a burial rite to it.

  But it seemed more fitting to Mafu to make a burial rite so that the relatives, friends, and those that knew the fallen could relieve some of the grief they felt. To put an end to a life lost.

  So Mafu got to work with Athena on creating a new mushroom.

  He used the storage mushroom as a base. Mafu's idea was to add a small storage to a mushroom that could be used as a headstone for the grave. Then personal items could be stored there, to be kept forever as a memory of that person.

  He spent a few days making sure that the mushroom fit the image he had of it, and Athena helped with the tweaks. Athena was better at using the information given by the fungal pool and knew what numbers to change to get a certain outcome.

  The result was almost exactly what Mafu had intended.

  [Grave Remembrance Mushroom] Unlocked.

  The mushroom had a thick grey stem and a dark grey cap. The top of the cap was entirely transparent, allowing one to see inside the cap of the mushroom.

  In the cap, there was room for a few items, the cap was approximately one meter in diameter. Along the edges of the transparent cap, there was a "ribbon" that was entirely black.

  Text could then be engraved on this black ribbon, such as the name of the fallen, who he was to others and when he died.

  Mafu asked Jod to gather the relatives and those who knew the fallen, and asked that 47 graves be dug in an empty area that he had designated as a graveyard.

  The first ceremony for the first of the fallen was attended by about 50 orcs. Mafu started the ceremony.

  "Today we remember the life of a hero. Tarnag was one of the heroes who put an end to the Hollow who haunted the orcs for generations. His loss will be felt by all those who knew him, but his actions will be felt by all those who come after him." Mafu took a pause to let the words sink in and then continued with the same somber tone.

  "His name shall be remembered and honored by his family, his friends and all those who live a life free of the Hollow. His spirit will now rest in peace forevermore."

  The orcs present cried, and many of them were angry. There was no target for their anger, but they felt it anyway.

  "Is there anyone who would like to speak a few words to those gathered here?" Mafu asked.

  In this way, all the 47 warriors were buried in the new cemetery. At each ceremony, there were more orcs attending. For them, it was a strange ceremony, but most of them liked it.

  Parek was there from the first ceremony to the last one. Some of the relatives were angry at him, hitting him. Parek stood there in silence and took their blows.

  He felt some guilt from letting 47 of them die, but as a warrior he also knew that such guilt was something that he could not give in to.

  So he just stood there.

  Others thanked him, as they knew that the fallen warrior that was their relative had deeply respected Parek. For most of the orc warriors, this was the case. Parek had trained them since they were young.

  When all the burials were done, Parek was the only one left in the cemetery.

  He had not cried during the burials, but as all the relatives had left, he allowed himself to cry.

  "Is there anything you need?" Mafu asked after a while, as Parek visited the graves.

  "No. Or yes, if you could bring all of them back, I'd take that." Parek said. He, of course, knew that there was no bringing back the dead.

  "We would all take that, I imagine." Mafu responded.

  "This ceremony, I thought it unnecessary when you told me about it. I no longer feel that way. This is a... more proper end. When I die, please bury me here, with my warriors beside me." Parek said, as he wiped his tears with the back of his hand.

  "Hopefully that will not be for years to come."

  Parek laughed a short laugh, filled with bitterness. "Yes, had it been a few months ago I would have said I was not far from dying of old age. Now, I am not so sure. This new power I gained from being a duke seems to have made me younger."

  He looked at his hands and curled and uncurled his fingers while looking at them.

  "I now have more years of fighting in me." He looked at the graves and continued: "And it would not be right to them if I wasted them."

  As Parek left, Mafu remained, inspecting the graveshrooms for any fault. He wanted them to be pristine.

  ---

  Two months later.

  The construction of the new northern border wall was now in full swing. Jod had few minutes free every day, as he was inspecting the progress of the wall and the patrolling along it.

  The dwarves had completed their houses and started working on building houses for the orcs as well. The houses were built out of wood, with very few nails made out of iron.

  They had started mining an iron vein in the western mountains that the dwarves knew about from ancient times.

  Tenia and Akro had both levelled heavily in these past months, with both gaining their [Blacksmith] class.

  Jod spent about an hour of his day at their smithy, checking in on their progress and learning about what projects they were currently thinking about.

  He also checked in on the other workshops, of course. The carpentry and tailor workshops had both increased their quality of work fast as well.

  Mafu found out why Jod spent extra time in the smithy though. He was surprised that Jod had managed to hide it from him, but Jod had romantic feelings for Tenia.

  Mafu had not put any thought into relations between orcs and humans. But, with a human male and an orc female, it did not seem impossible. Orc males and human females would probably not work with the size difference.

  After all, they were not that different. The orc females were in general somewhere around two meters tall. That was kind of short for an orc male, but average for the females.

  Tenia stood at 190 centimeters tall, a bit short for an orc woman, and had a runners physique as most orc women had. Jod was around the same height but had a warrior's physique with more focus on his arms and core and less on the legs.

  The feelings seemed to be reciprocated, but neither Tenia nor Jod seemed to have mentioned them to each other.

  Inwardly, the scientist in Mafu was excited about seeing if it was possible for orcs and humans to have a child. He quickly disregarded the thoughts he had about experimenting on it.

  He simply wished Jod and Tenia the best.

  The border wall was half finished, and his territory was spreading faster than ever.

  It was the best time for growth.