It had been a few months since the meeting between Mafu and Tarlyeeh, the god of parasites.

  After the settlement had recovered from the mere disgusting presence of Tarlyeeh, it had quickly put up its defenses to high alert.

  But no attack came that day or any day after it.

  Gradually, everyone started feeling like a weight had been lifted off of their shoulders. The air seemed cleaner, the water more clear.

  The Hollow had not been seen since the deal had been struck with Tarlyeeh, and Mafu thought that the people feeling better must mean that the deal had been honored.

  Of course, it was a deal through the system itself, so Mafu doubted that even a god could break it without difficulty.

  From what he had seen of the gods in this world and Dolorans' world, gods were not omnipotent beings. They too had rules to follow and restrictions placed on them.

  Mafu could not theorize to what extent, but at the very least they did not have to worry about being erased from existence on a god's whim.

  The new wall from the western to the eastern mountains had been completed soon after the Hollow had left, with moats and watchtowers.

  The wall now served more as a backdrop to a new settlement built alongside it. The orcs had always lived in their tents, so they were easy to move.

  And with the dwarves' know-how, new houses had sprouted up alongside the wall. Jod had spent many hours and days planning for how this new city would be laid out.

  Mafu had helped, of course. But city planning was mostly based on access to water, where people worked, and noise reduction. Mafu had no real knowledge of how to address these issues in a medieval world.

  Instead, he had focused on the waste management. Every new house had a toilet on the bottom floor, where Mafu's mycelium took the place of the water in the toilet bowl.

  With him now being level 83, as he could expand freely and thus leveled much faster, his decomposition was fast as well.

  He did still find waste disposal somewhat... distasteful. So he had created a new mycelium mind to handle the toilets. It was named Beelzebub. But Mafu mostly called him Bub.

  He found it appropriately funny to use the name Beelzebub, lord of dung. After all, it was all he was made for. He had no issues with it either.

  To be honest, the mycelium minds were not truly alive. They could respond and work autonomously, but they lacked their own wants, needs, and desires.

  Mafu had lost a week or so thinking about what it was that makes someone truly alive. He had not found an answer, but he felt that he often got stuck on thoughts for a long time compared to when he was human.

  The orcs and the dwarves were perfect examples of being alive. Especially now that they could expand their settlement and explore the world.

  Many warriors from the orc settlement had taken a month or two to travel the valley. Oran had warned them all not to try to fight the beasts of the great plateau.

  After all, if Oran did not kill a beast in one shot, he himself had to run if he wanted to live.

  The dwarves also did go on journeys, although it was mostly to the surrounding area. They did not have the same wanderlust as the orcs did.

  Most of the dwarves were just really satisfied with feeling the sun on their skin and being able to bathe and eat meat freely.

  Over the last few months, a few new mushrooms had either appeared or been researched by Athena and Mafu.

  The first one was the [Cleansing Cap] that Athena had worked on for quite a bit of time. She and Demeter had grown medicinal herbs, as Mafu had been worried about all the poisonous plants they were cultivating.

  Then Athena had developed the mushroom to work like the [Small Puffcap] that Mafu had had access to from the beginning.

  It was a puffcap that could be exploded on command and would release a medicinal mist that would be beneficial to anyone who breathed it in.

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  It would probably not cure any deadly poisons or diseases, but it could be useful to have.

  The second mushroom was one that had grown in the territory. [Greencap]. It was exactly as boring as it sounded. It was a green-capped mushroom that smelled like grass.

  It was very nutritious, and according to its description, it was irresistible for herbivores. It would be good to use for animal feed if they could domesticate any animals in the future.

  The third and last one was [Barkrend Buttonshroom]. Mafu found the name overly complicated, as the only thing the mushroom did was to infect trees and "eat" their bark off.

  Mafu had also acquired two new skills.

  The first one was [Mycelium Storm]. It instantly grew millions of strands of mycelium in a 10x10x10 meter area. This would then trap any creature in there until they destroyed the mycelium or got choked by it.

  Mafu could control the strands, as they were connected to his network. The skill was a mana-intensive and stronger version of when he had used his mycelium manually to trip the Hollow.

  The second skill was [Bloodline Enforcement]. It was a skill created out of Mafu's more morbid thoughts and experiments. All the people in the settlement had taken a dip in the fungal pool. Many of them had done it more than once.

  In the process of studying their bodies' makeup, Mafu had thought, "What if I can change their genetics?" many times.

  After all, changing an already built body required a lot of effort and would feel off to anyone. But if he could change something about someone who was yet to be born, they would grow into the change.

  He had not yet tried anything on the people of the settlement. But he had wanted to. Mafu and Jod had talked about it extensively, and Jod had said that it would only be proper to mention it after Mafu was sure he could do it safely.

  But with this new skill, Mafu could "reinforce" bloodlines. He could see what the good parts were about someone's genetics and what the bad parts were.

  He could then reinforce the good parts, making them much more likely to take effect and thus minimizing what he ruled as bad.

  He could tailor-make babies, to some extent.

  This had brought back his thoughts to Kira. He had changed her, after all. While this new skill was similar to what he had done to Kira, it was more fundamental. Kira had gotten the budget version of this skill.

  Kira had reached level 25 as she turned 12 years old. It was a fast leveling speed, but under Benoit's tutelage she had grasped ideas and new skills at a fast pace.

  He had only good things to say about her. But her leveling speed had slowed recently, dramatically.

  After all, she had no "real" experience. All the sneaking, thieving, and listening in on conversations were about people she considered allies. As such, the system no longer rewarded her as greatly, as there were no risks involved.

  Benoit had a solution for it, but Mafu had shot him down before. He wanted to go back to Doloran's world and do missions alongside Kira. They would free slaves, kill slavemasters, and sow discord among the faithful of Doloran.

  Mafu had judged it to be too risky. But as he was reminded that he had changed Kira's stat distribution, he realized he had already crossed the line where he was the one to decide.

  He had placed his faith in Kira before, letting her hunt goblins and boars. This was no different. She was only twelve, but she took responsibility for herself and thought things through.

  She was often silent and did not mesh well with others socially, but she was dedicated to learning what Benoit taught her and did not waste any time with it.

  So Mafu had called Kira to him and asked her about what she wanted to do with Benoit's idea.

  "I want to go." She said, as always, not using many words.

  "Do you understand what risks there are?"

  "I could die?" She answered instantly, betraying some of the enthusiasm she had about the idea.

  "Yes, both you and Benoit."

  "If that is all, then I will go." She took a pause to think it through a little more and then said, "It is what the training was for."

  Mafu could not argue any longer but made sure she spent a week with her brother, Ula, Toqlan, and Jod before she left with Benoit.

  He wanted her to remember that people would miss her. Maybe that would reduce any risks she was willing to take.

  After they left, Mafu felt a pang of fear. He did not truly care about most of the adults he knew, but Kira, Akro, and Ula were there in the beginning. They felt like his family to some extent.

  He imagined himself as the mushroom uncle. He lost a few hours trying to make a mushroom with a moustache. He did not succeed.

  Jod and Tenia had started dating. It was not dating like Mafu was used to. They simply made their intentions clear with each other and now lived together as they got to know each other.

  They seemed happy, and Mafu tried his best not to peek in on private conversations between them. Most of the time.

  As the settlement had come to a new status quo in this world, with the hollow gone and the housing complete for all the people, Jod and the council of dukes had met to discuss naming this new kingdom.

  The last dwarven duke, Gintla, a woman who had been in charge of logistics for the warriors, was also present for this meeting. She had refused the duke title at first, but both Gwarth and Tudain had spent many days convincing her that her skills in managing logistics and people would suit her new role.

  They had met two more times after the first. Apparently, naming the kingdom was not so easy. Jod had even asked a few questions of Mafu about his old world and what names countries and kingdoms had there.

  Mafu had answered but cautioned that in no way did he want a name of a kingdom of his old world.

  Then, after the third meeting, they had landed on a name everyone found acceptable.

  The [Amanita Kingdom].

  Amanita?

  Like Amanita Muscaria, more commonly known as Fly Agaric?

  A regular, poisonous mushroom?

  Jod had simply laughed at Mafu's confused reaction, saying that it was already decided.

  And the system had picked up on it, as the name of [Fungal Fief] had already been changed.

  Mafu swore inwardly. He would never tell Jod anything about his old world again.

  But he accepted it.

  The [Amanita Kingdom] had now truly been born.