Otek, Mikaela, and Goran had wandered in silence for about thirty minutes.

  They had quickly said their farewells to the fisherman and then left.

  Mikaela was the one to break the silence.

  "What the fuck was that?" Her voice was in a higher tone than usual, betraying the exasperation she felt about what had happened.

  "A skill," Otek answered in a low voice.

  "No fucking skill can kill 10 templars in one hit! It wasn't even dodgeable! If it was a skill, it would have drained all the mana the fisherman had and made him faint, no?"

  Depleting one's mana to 0 could result in fainting, especially in humanoids. For plants, this rule seemed less strict. It would induce a bit of dizziness for Mafu, but he could power through it. However, he could do very little without mana.

  Nearly everything he did required some form of mana after all.

  "I think he has long since passed the third gate," Otek said.

  Mikaela's look of astonishment did not get noticed by Otek, as he walked forward deep in thought.

  "Or the one after that," Otek added.

  The third gate was suspected to be at level 150. But Otek now felt that was wrong. Maybe it would double every time? Mafu had also suggested that the gates would be harder and harder to pass through. So level 50, 100, 200, 400, and so on.

  But currently they only knew about the gates at level 50 and level 100. They would be better informed when Mafu reached level 150.

  What had remained of the Templars and their horses was almost nothing. The "fish" or whatever it was had eaten most of them. The parts that remained were the bloodstains and what had been crushed into the ground.

  Even their armors and weapons had been crushed, and splinters from them had been strewn about. Otek knew that the fisherman was strong from the start. He had felt an ominous aura from the beginning.

  But now, he knew that if they ever angered the fisherman, they'd all be dead. Even if Jod fought in the kingdom, he would die in one hit. Otek decided to put the fisherman in the same category as the dragons.

  "He did not seem hostile, though." Goran entered the conversation.

  "His aura was ominous, but it was mostly focused on the lake. It is what told me he might not be hostile." Otek answered.

  "On the lake?" Goran did not connect as to why that meant he would not be hostile to them.

  "Most of his interest lay in the lake. He is a fisherman; he likes fishing. If he grew that strong by only fishing, he must truly love it. One's aura often reflects one's desires and preferences." Otek explained.

  "Huh. I had not noticed that."

  "Well, aura only really starts to matter once one passes the second gate." Otek replied.

  "Ah, that makes sense. None of the knights in the barony are past level 100. Not even close, in fact." Goran also looked deep in thought.

  "Should you be revealing that information to us?" Mikaela replied with a smile.

  Goran had a brief look of horror as he realized he gave away military secrets. Then he put himself together and answered.

  "Well, it is nothing compared to what you've shared. And if you decided to invade, we would lose quickly anyway. So we would most likely surrender. The same way the baron's family once bowed to the emperor without fighting to save the people from war."

  "That is all true." Mikaela simply affirmed what Goran had said, and soon the silence returned.

  ---

  Mafu had used [Bloodline Reinforcement] often since he got it. He explained it to the dukes and some other notable people, and anyone who wanted to be a target for the skill could simply ask.

  All believers in Mafus godhood had taken a dip in the fungal pool at this point. Many others had also taken the dip, and as such, Mafu had leveled the skill and unlocked new features as time passed by.

  In the beginning he could only grant stat bonuses effectively. As in, the child of the person altered would have a 0.05 increase in strength growth, for example.

  Mafu had allowed the would-be parents to choose themselves what stat they wanted boosted. The boost only cost Mafu an insignificant amount of mana. It seemed that the system counted the "delay" of the skill as a way to balance it.

  For example, if Mafu was to give Oran a 0.05 increase in perception growth, the cost would have to be an equal decrease in another stat. But when applied to a future child, it required no such cost.

  But as he had used it extensively, another option opened up. Inheritable skills. Mafu could now add a skill from the parent that the child would inherit. Yet again at no cost. This brought all the people who had already undergone the alteration back to the pool.

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  This in turn meant that Mafu got more experience in using the skill. It was a virtuous cycle.

  Many of the orcs had asked for stats other than strength and agility. The new parents dreamed of having a child that did not need to be a warrior or a courier. Many of them valued perception, mana, magic power, or dexterity.

  They wanted their children to be mages that they had heard stories of and craftsmen that had already proved to be one of the jobs of the future.

  The dwarves were more traditional. They wanted their children to follow in their footsteps. Of course, there were those who deviated, but it was not many.

  And the humans who had settled in the kingdom had slowly started arriving after only hearing good things about the alteration. They had slowly been integrating with the orcs and dwarves, but it was two steps forward and one step back each time.

  There were cases where cultural differences meant conflict. For example, the humans disliked the way the orcs took up more space than needed and were too loud in the bathing facility. The orcs were of the opinion that they had paid to be able to freely use the facility, so they took full advantage of it.

  Jod and the dukes were very busy mediating between races, and this was what would eventually turn into the laws of the kingdom.

  Mafu had secretly made a mycelium mind that he had named Tyr, after the Norse god of law, justice, and oaths. He had this mind follow Jod around and study what the laws should or could be in the future.

  He would then have Tyr consult with Jod later on, but right now he was simply observing and learning. Laws were, of course, immediately necessary, but so far there had been no large crimes such as murder, rape, or abuse.

  Mafu had his mycelium minds inspecting the territory, regardless of their roles, every now and then for issues. The biggest crime that had been spotted so far was people stealing food and trying to sneak into the bathing facility.

  In those cases, a simple reprimand from Mafu had set them straight. Of course, a simple reprimand with the full force of his aura. Mafu had become more and more mindful about how he used his "aura."

  Goran was a good example. He had tried to increase his aura during the threatening parts and tried to smooth it out when talking about inviting the entire barony. Jod had said he had done it correctly, after inspecting his memories.

  Praise was always welcome when one had done something deserving of it. He needed Jod for a lot of things, but inspecting his use of aura was important. As Mafu himself could not "feel" what effect he had on the people, he needed Jod to fine-tune it for him.

  This was also one of the reasons he wanted to move his central firecap to the underground cathedral that was slated to be complete in a few days. A god should not be easily accessible, and if he had less contact with people, he would need to worry less about how he was perceived.

  Being an unseen god would add to the mystique. At least that was what was suggested by Dyani and Hald and agreed on by the council of dukes and Jod.

  He could then invite people to "descend the steps," as Dyani had called it, in a sort of ritual for the believers. He could also do it to enemies, and this would add a sense of foreboding that would be useful to bend their enemies to Mafus's will.

  Mafu agreed, as he imagined cults and religions of earth. It was mystique and rituals that made up cults and religions. Of course, in this universe gods were painfully real, so the mystique was, of course, naturally going to be weaker.

  Speaking of being weaker, the kingdom was undergoing a change as Mafu was thinking about mystique.

  Jod and Mafu had talked to the council of dukes and assigned separate lands for each of them. It was time to expand the kingdom past only the capital. Mafus mycelium had spread far and wide, and as such, they were using less than ten percent of the land available.

  It was only possible due to the food Mafu could bring in and some of the newly established farmsteads slightly outside the capital.

  But a duke needed a duchy. It was time to separate the people to grow faster. When people lived inside the capital city, it would at some point become or atleast feel like it had become crowded.

  Crowded cities would experience a fall in birthrate. And they needed an even higher birthrate than now. Neither the orcs nor the dwarves were especially good at conceiving children. Humans were better. This was probably because of the physical prowess that both orcs and dwarves exhibited from a young age.

  Thus, Bulok and Telim had been assigned the southwest and southeast parts of the valley. Their duchies would each include the end of the two mountain chains. In the middle between them, and covering the portal and out into the grasslands, was to be the duchy of Tudain.

  As the portal was necessary to defend, it was either Tudain or Parek who would have to place their roots there. Tudain had volunteered, as he knew Parek was set on a different place.

  Parek would take on the central northern defense. In other words, his duchy would be in the middle of the valley between the mountains on the other side of the defensive wall. He would be the first to notice if any of this world's enemies were to approach.

  On his western side, Gwarth would place his duchy. He would have an adequate amount of the valley to produce food and water, but nearly half of the duchy would be the mountains. As a dwarf, he would, of course, prospect and mine any resources he could from the mountains.

  On the northeastern side, Gintla, the only duchess, would take on a similar mission. There was a reason for two dwarven dukes to be on each wing of Parek's duchy.

  The expected enemies to fight against in this world were the dwarves. If the dwarves were to run into a dwarven-run duchy, diplomacy might be possible. If it were orcs, it would most likely lead to war.

  Grend, where the dwarves in the kingdom had come from, was located a bit further into the valley on the east side. So the first one to run into the dwarves was expected to be Gintla. She had been a logistician for Grend and was a practical and logical person.

  Mafu and Jod both felt reassured that she'd be the one to have first contact with any hostile dwarves.

  As had been pointed out during the meetings, Tudain could have been placed in Parek's spot and vice versa, but Mafu had vetoed it. Mafu had explained that he was worried about segregating orcs and dwarves to either side.

  For a multiracial society to work, it was imperative to Mafu that they relied not only on their own race but also on the other races as well.

  After some discussion on this point, the council had mostly agreed to Mafus's point. It had been brought up that there was no animosity in the council, as proof that the orcs and dwarves were in good standing.

  But Mafu had pointed out that that was during the current era. One never knew what the children who would one day grow up to sit in the council seats would think.

  For the orcs, having a vision for the future was not a normal thing. They had lived day to day, doing their best to survive for far too long. The dwarves were more organized in that manner. They had had to live off of rations, and their minds simply were set up in a more structured manner.

  And thus the dukes had started leaving one by one to set up their new duchies. Dwarven builders followed each duke, and a similar combination of warriors, craftsmen, and civilians made up each group.

  The difference was the Tudains and Pareks duchies. They would bring way more warriors to their duchies. No one disagreed on this point, as these two warrior dukes were almost worshipped by their loyal warriors.

  They would also be in charge of defense from each side, so it made sense.

  Mafu sighed and returned to the next would-be parent waiting for [Bloodline Reinforcement].