As the days went on and soon turned into weeks, Mafu reached level 98. He was on the precipice of the second gate. The choice at level 100. It felt like just yesterday that he chose Mushroom Kingdom at level 50.
With no real enemies in the mouth of the valley, his spread had been almost exponential. New mycelium ants had been spawned, and Taressa had expanded her nest to nearly triple its size.
New warrior ants, acid spitters, and normal ants were spawned alongside the mycelium spreaders.
The nest now went deep, nearly a hundred meters down. The entrance was still the unassuming hole at the bottom of the hill of the now newly built town.
Some of the people living in the town delivered gifts to the ants every now and then, and to the side of the entrance to the nest there was a little pile of different food and even a few statuettes of the ants.
Taressa did not thank anyone for the gifts, but Mafu knew she was inwardly proud of her ants and herself and saw the gifts as a sort of proof that she was doing well.
She had gathered the most beautiful of the statuettes and kept them in her own chamber in the nest, on display on a carefully carved-out shelf. Of course, no one but Mafu knew of this.
None dared enter the queen's chamber.
What was he thinking about again? Oh right, level 98. With the speed of leveling, Mafu predicted that he would hit level 100 within the next four weeks.
The amount of experience needed was exponentially increasing as well, but as long as he had the space to grow, he would always level.
He traded water, minerals, and whatever the trees needed for mana. He did not need the mana, but the act of trading nutrients with the trees earned him a slight trickle of experience as well.
The next project on Mafu's list was to expand the town into an actual city. Now, this was mostly the responsibility of Jod and his council of dukes. But Mafu wanted to make a city that could stand the test of time.
The plan was to receive a steady number of people from Doloran's world. In that case, they needed a city, not just a few houses slapped together in the places where tents stood before.
He had explained his plans to the council of dukes and Jod, and they agreed that a city would eventually be needed but were unsure about how large the scope of Mafu's plan was.
In the minds of Jod and the council, it would be better to just start small and add to the construction as needed.
Mafu wanted to plan districts and housing units from the beginning. He also wanted a governmental building in the center. In other words, a castle.
After all, what was a kingdom without a castle?
Parks and greenery were to be integral, as Mafu needed dirt to exist within the city. It took Mafu a couple of weeks of intermittent arguing to convince the council of his plans.
It was mostly Parek, Tudain, and Gwarth who needed convincing. As warriors at heart, they preferred increasing military structures and resources more.
Of course, that was also important, but when they started taking refugees in, a city would be more necessary.
Since the Hollow left, the warriors had been less needed. Their patrols were never decreased, though, and everyone kept vigilant.
But Mafu had a few ideas to remedy that.
First, more dungeons. Since the spear had spawned as loot in the lava dungeon, no other loot had spawned. Mafu wanted to increase the chances of that happening anyway, so more dungeons for the warriors to train in was killing two birds with one stone.
Second, he wanted to create a guild for the warriors. The workshops already had a sort of guild system in place. They had a building where crafters could request help from each other, and there were people that worked in that building to make that process easier.
But Mafu wanted the fantasy world must-have. An adventurers guild. Although to be honest, it would mostly be a hunting guild.
A place where materials from monsters and the loot from dungeons could be sold and bought. A place that would have information about where different animals and monsters could be found.
That, of course, led to the next problem. Neither the orcs nor the dwarves had used currency for more than a generation. They both lived as a community, making sure everyone had enough to eat.
The finest cuts of meat and the best pieces of leather would be awarded to those deserving.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
But for society to grow, a currency was needed. Jod and the humans from the frontier village had, of course, used currency, and Mafu now recruited them to help think of a system that could work.
None of them were nobles or merchants, of course. But their input was valuable.
However, Mafu was not an economist either. So after trying to figure out a system of currency for over a week, he gave up.
He made a new mycelium mind; after all, with all the mana gained from his expansion, he could sustain a good few more mycelium minds.
And thus, Mercury was born. Named after the Roman god of merchants, he would be in charge of figuring out a system of currency and presenting it to Mafu.
Mafu did not think it would be quick, as all the mycelium minds were based off of his own knowledge. But with time, the minds learned. Athena was now much more systematic, logical, and, in some ways, more intelligent than him.
Demeter knew things about growing plants, trees, and mushrooms that he himself did not.
Beelzebub... well, he mostly just handled shit, so he probably knew more about shit than Mafu did?
So Mafu felt optimistic about Mercury being able to create a system of currency.
As he was thinking about what to do next, he felt a jarring feeling. It was as if a chill went down his spine, even though he did not have a spine.
It did not take long to identify the reason for the alarming feeling, as a large dragon was slowly flying above them.
It slowly lowered itself until it finally touched down not far from where Mafu's central firecap was.
The dragon was colored deep brown, with brilliant red spots shining throughout its body. Its head was at least 5 meters from neck to snout. The jaw when open could easily fit two adult orc males walking side by side.
Its tail was longer than its body, nearly twice as long. Horns started on its head and curled backwards in a spiraling fashion. The largest horns reached two meters.
Each of its teeth was the size of swords and gleamed in a pure white brilliance.
But the most breathtaking part about the dragon was its eyes. The whites of the eyes were pitch black, and the pupils of the eyes looked like living fire.
The fire in its eyes swirled around as the dragon studied the area. But in the middle of it, there was a white-hot glowing point that Mafu thought must be the actual pupil.
"You are invited to his lordship's den. You are not expected to arrive there soon, but do not delay. His lordship is patient but will not suffer ignorant fools who waste his time." The massive dragon spoke telepathically to Mafu. Images of a mountaintop flashed across his mind.
The dragon then flapped its far-reaching wings once, creating a gust of wind that knocked over anything not tied down as it soared into the skies again.
The town had fallen silent; no one made a sound. It was as if the people in the town were rabbits, hiding from the fox outside. Everyone felt the same, no matter what level, age, or willpower.
A while after the dragon had left, Mafu felt the town relax a bit. It was as if the townspeople had held their breath. Mafu also realized that no animals were anywhere to be seen. Usually he could see deer, rabbits, insects, and sometimes even boars somewhere on his mycelium.
But now, not a single lifeform could be seen. They were all hiding from the dragon.
Jod had recovered as quickly as Mafu and called a meeting with the council.
It was a short meeting, where they all simply said, "What the fuck?" in different ways, many in a more dignified way than Mafu did.
---
Benoit was walking with Kira beside him.
They had just entered the frontier forest again. This time though, they were accompanied by fifty or so people. Mikaela and her crew of thugs.
Kira had learned that Mikaela was somewhat of a must-know person in the underworld of the western border cities.
If you wished to conduct any business, legal or illegal, you needed Mikaela's approval.
Kira had not known she was such an important person when they met her at that rundown tavern. But then again, Kira had also fallen for the act of everyone there being drunkards.
In fact, since they had entered the tavern, they had been surrounded. Benoit had known this, of course, but he had scolded Kira for being careless after they left.
Kira had to rethink what she had learned in the other world. In the other world, everything had been as it seemed. If you saw a sleepy orc guard, it was a sleepy orc guard.
Here, a drunkard could be an assassin. A priest could be a warrior. Nothing was necessarily as it seemed.
Mikaela had eventually been convinced to follow Benoit to the other world.
Kira thought it probably was because Mikaela seemed bored more than anything else. But Mikaela also seemed smart enough to know an opportunity when she saw one.
As they traversed the forest, they were attacked a few times. Bears, wolves, and then goblins. Enemies Kira once had to give her all to fight. Now they were nothing but nuisances.
If she had been alone, they would have posed some threat. But Mikaela's thugs were not low-level, and both Benoit and Mikaela were on an equal footing in strength.
While Kira did not know what class Mikaela had, it was clear that it was some sort of stealth or trickery class.
At times, Kira lost sight of her. Even when looking straight at her, sometimes it was as if a ripple of water went through the air, and Mikaela was walking a few meters further off.
Kira studied her, wondering what skill she was using. Was it a passive or an active skill? Did she mean to use it, or was it a skill that simply messed with Kira's mind?
"It is a passive skill," Benoit said quietly while walking next to Kira.
"Hm?" Kira replied.
"Reflection of Mist. It fools the senses of anyone trying to focus on her." Benoit said.
"So, how do you hit her?" Kira asked.
Benoit chuckled a bit at Kira's direct question.
"You don't. Maybe in thirty years you could."
Kira frowned and returned to trying to focus her vision on Mikaela. The same thing was repeated until they came upon the portal.
The human fortifications had been repurposed and rebuilt by the dwarves. Now they had a foothold around the portal in this world.
As Benoit walked up to the newly constructed gate, an orc looked down on him and asked.
"Name and password." The orc's eyes were vigilant, and his tone showed that this was no joke.
Benoit nodded and gave his name and the password he had gotten before they left.
The orc guard then asked a few questions about the people following behind, and Benoit explained quickly.
Kira was looking at Mikaela during the exchange and was amused to see a slight showing of fear in her eyes as she looked at the orc.
Kira had gotten used to the orcs; to her they were no different than any other people. After all, nearly everyone was bigger than her.
But she understood that Mikaela had never seen an orc, so she probably was unprepared for the size and muscles. The orcs were indeed a sight, as even the weakest of them were as strong as the strongest human soldiers.
Kira smiled as she returned through the portal.
