Chapter Twenty Three: Minotaur

To Jessica, the sound of other people talking or yelling, or just making noise is something that happens.

Talking signifies the presence of people, of a group communicating.

And such things are quite normal for her to hear.

Whether she lived at the monastery alongside her brothers and sisters, or even in a military camp alongside [Soldiers], sounds of communication were always present.

Even her short life as a slave had been filled with sound.

Thus, when she sleeps, she finds herself able to sleep through anything. The sounds around her are unable to wake her.

But now, for the first time in a long while, Jessica finds herself awakening.

And when her eyes open, the first thing her awakened mind notices is the complete absence of vocal sound.

Only the telltale crackle of flames strikes her ears, quickly followed by the realization of a lack of light and then followed by the smell of cooked meat.

Confused, but not necessarily scared, Jessica blinks several times, wiping her eyes before getting up from her lying position.

Lifting her arms over her head, Jessica stretches before turning towards the only source of light, immediately finding a massive bonfire with a skinned bird-like monster atop it.

Only then do her eyes realize that the Gejada are surrounding the bonfire, completely and utterly silent, even the strips of meat in their hands do not move to their mouths, all eyes and mental capability focused on an individual next to the fire, seemingly at the center of attention.

Jessica's mouth opens in utter astonishment.

Thorous, a [Blader] of a level close to one hundred, is dancing.

Jessica watches as Thorous moves quickly, her sharp curved blades whipping around her body as she twirls and spins at incredible speeds. Her scales, a magnificent red, twinkle from the firelight, seemingly illuminating her, making her dance all the more captivating.

Every Gejan's eyes are on her, unable to stop staring at the captivating display.

Everyone's eyes except Quasi's, who is glaring at Peter, a black furred spider the size of a human head.

And for reasons unknown, a weird sense of satisfaction comes over Jessica, though she can't pinpoint why.

With a confused frown, Jessica gets up and finally notices the rest of her surroundings.

Walls.

Massive wooden walls of at least ten feet in height surround the clearing in a circle.

And at the center of the clearing is the bonfire.

“Wow,” she says, realizing the sheer speed at which the Gejada work. She remembers dozing off, and now, after some time, a wall has already been built.

Unfortunately, her parched lips and rumbling stomach distracts her and her gaze turns towards the bonfire... and the meat sizzling over it.

__________

“Goddammit Peter, stop begging for food!” I say to the gluttonous spider.

The spider shakes his front legs before seemingly pointing at his mouth.

“You ate thirty pounds of meat. You don't even weigh ten pounds, where the heck do you even put it?”

The spider chitters in response, stomping all of its legs in mock anger.

I shake my head, adamant about not giving more meat.

Normally, I would have been fine letting Peter eat his fill, but we only have one giant bird and a lot of very hungry Gejada.

Who, by the way, are amazing workers.

And amazing idiots.

I turn my head, staring at the insane deforestation that had taken place.

Apparently, without proper supervision, the Gejada will compete with one another over who can down and bring back more trees.

Which would be something I would be quite proud of, except for the fact that a third of the [Gejan Guard] group is now injured in some way or another, all because they set an insane pace.

And the idiots refuse to disclose those injuries to me, willing to endure the cracked scales and wounds because of some weird Gejada honor system.

At Least the sound of falling trees seemed to have deterred any possible monsters from coming near to add to those injuries.

Thankfully, I didn't need to wake Jessica up for healing since the [Gejan Guards] are so resilient to damage… In the form of falling trees.

Regardless, they exceeded my expectations significantly as I had planned for a wall to be made in a couple days, or cycles as the Gejada call it.

I was not expecting it to be built in six hours.

Heck, If I allowed them to continue building, even into the night, we could probably have some proper wooden homes built.

And I would have, if the trees deeper in the forest weren't so much bigger.

I mean really, what kind of a leader would I be if I lost a part of my army to falling trees?

Moving my hand to my second crystal plate, I rip a piece of bird meat and move it into my mouth, allowing the tender meat to dance with my tongue, squeezing it slightly with my teeth, enabling the juices to pour out before swallowing it whole.

I suppress a moan, the food tasting extremely good.

If I didn't cook the massive bird myself, I think I would have thought the meat drugged.

……

Now that I think about it, all the food I had eaten had tasted much better than I expected.

…….

“Can I sit with you?” a voice calls out behind me, slightly starling me.

Turning around I find Jessica standing over me, her eyes looking down.

I give her a smile before patting the stone ground next to me.

She smiles in return before sitting down next to me and folding her legs, mimicking me.

As she sits down, I take my plate and place it on her lap.

“Eat up. Did you enjoy your nap?”

She blinks, momentarily surprised at the amount of food I placed in front of her.

“Sorry,” she says after a short pause, momentarily looking away before a blush forms on her face, ”I couldn't sleep yesterday night.”

I doubt anyone could sleep through Anathema’s obnoxiously loud screams. The women has some fierce vocal cords.

“Err, yeah.” I whisper, unsure of what to say.

She gives me a long look before turning to her plate, a smile returning on her lips.

Jessica looks at the food before her and grabs a piece of meat. She smells it first before putting it in her mouth. An expression of bliss forms on her face, immediately followed by her hand grabbing for more.

I snort at her unladylike behavior, enjoying the sight of a woman who could even make a [Soldier] blush at how fast she's eating.

Luckily, the Gejada seem to have no manners when it comes to food.

As she finishes a bit, her hand moves and points towards the bonfire, at a certain individual.

“Did you know she could dance?” Jessica asks before immediately putting another piece of meat in her mouth.

Damn, she must have been hungry.

“It's not actually dancing, she is just practicing her forms.”

Jessica gives me a weird look, lifting an eyebrow.

“Alright, don't look at me like that,” I say, scratching my ear as I focus my thoughts.

“So I wanted Thorous to get the [Soldier] class and eventually upgrade it to the class [Captain]. The girl’s a born leader. She's good at caring for those under her and very decisive in her actions. So I asked her to take the class, and she became very upset. Apparently, she was less than ten levels from getting over one hundred in her [Blader] class, which would upgrade to [Blademaster] like her father.”

I stop, frowning as I remember the story she told me, ”She really looks up to her father…”

Jessica swallows the meat, ”He died.”

I nod.

“He was killed on the fifth floor… she doesn't know the details. Her father was, like her, very respected for his strength and wisdom."

A sigh manages to escape my lips, "But I needed her to become a leader… so I offered to train her.”

“To dance?”

I roll my eyes at her, ”No… well technically yes. She demanded I teach her my most powerful fighting style… which is called ‘Blade Dancing.”

“So you taught her how to dance,” Jessica voices with a smile, enjoying my annoyed expression.

“Ughhh. Alright, I guess I should explain my past a little bit," I paused to put it into words for her, "So, I have been summoned as a hero to different worlds, sometimes human, many times not. It was my seventh summon that I was summoned into the body of an eight-year-old humanoid female, similar to humans but with green skin and four eyes.”

A smile forms on her lips as she listens intently.

Probably imagining what I would look like as a female… God, I hated that summon.

“Anyways, the clan I was summoned to was feared by all others for having a combat style called ‘Blade Dancing’, which utilizes any and all forms of edged weapons, combining it with spins, twirls, and some of the most complicated footwork ever known. On top of that you needed to be double jointed and extremely flexible, which is why only the females were even able to practice it.”

“And you know quite well that the Gejada females are quite flexible,” Jessica voices out, chuckling at my expression.

I roll my eyes, failing to hide my growing smile.

“I hated everything. I hated the goddess who put me in that body. The damn mistress who was always stronger than me. The fact that they fight practically naked. The fact that the men constantly stare at me like hungry animals… and I really hated the periods. My god do they hurt.”

*Sigh*, I scratch the side of my ear, where my exceptionally long hair used to be.

“But still, as much as I hated it all, I have never found a combat style that was better or even stronger. Which is why I taught her it… and goddamn did she learn fast. An entire year of advanced training and she picked up the movements so naturally. Even gained two levels on the first day apparently.”

“Do you think she will get a class that is different from [Blademaster]?”

I shrug my shoulders, ”I have no idea. I only have information on all tier one classes. Tier two classes completely allude me.”

She gives me a smile, moving her empty plate on the ground.

Holy crap she ate fast.

“Want me to explain the basics to you?” she asks with a smile.

Might as well, not like I’m doing anything.

“I would love that.”

For the next several hours I listened to Jessica explain classes, abilities, how they work. Everything I should have asked before.

All while a certain hairy spider was stealing food from distracted Gejada.

____________________

“How the fuck does this happen!” I yell in the morning, staring at the formerly cut down trees.

“How have they grown back already! What the hell!”

The trees, the literal deforestation of yesterday, have completely grown back.

“Oyyy, Zorren, what the hell.”

Zorren, who had slept through the whole night, just shrugs his shoulders next to me, ”Everything here grows quickly. It is the reason why we cannot live on this floor.”

Really? Did you ever wonder about living outside the forest, near the edge like where I had the camp made? Probably not.

I don't voice my thoughts, instead turning towards the Gejada leaders.

“Alright, I want you all to do the exact same thing you did yesterday. Cut the trees, bring the wood inside the walls, and wait for my return. I’ll show you how to start building homes.”

I turn back towards the tree’s, ordering my undead to take flight, ”In the meantime I will be going deeper into the forest with Zorren and Jessica to scout and get more information. Thorous is in charge while I am gone.”

The red scaled Gejan nods, none voicing discontent at her having been given authority.

“Now go, and please avoid getting hurt.”

The Gejada leaders turn and start yelling orders while I start heading into the forest, Zorren Jessica and Mule at my heels.

________

Traversing the forest is actually more difficult than I would have expected. Trees, plants, annoying insects, everything seems to be intent on getting in my way.

“Are you sure you remember the direction correctly?”

“Yes, it is only a bit farther.”

Dammit, I wish I could send out my undead desbats to scout, but there are a lot of those huge birds, which are currently flying in circles around my undead swarm, waiting for even one to break off.

I call up the information I had gained earlier.

Volare Level 76

One of the deadliest hunters on the second dungeon floor, the Volare prefer to hunt alone, flying fast and scooping up monster denizens with their clawed feet before dropping them from a large height, allowing gravity to kill their prey.

Normally, they do not attack groups of monsters, but if enough of them are around, they can be organized enough to attack together.

Most Volare are males, while the females are much larger in size, though less numerous.

Apparently, the Volare that attacked us yesterday was a female of a level 103. Unfortunately, their size means nothing against a swarm of organized Desbats.

As of right now only males are nearby, seemingly waiting for their numbers to increase before they attempt to attack my Desbats.

And I would so very much love it if they did. I think a giant bird mount would be much more comfortable to ride, especially a female Volare.

“ROOAAAAARRRRRR.”

And of course, nothing is ever simple.

I increase my speed, quickly moving towards the sound, finding a rather open clearing and a laughable site.

“YOU WANT FIGHT!? GROGNAK IS STRONG!”

“ROOAAARRRRRR.”

“GROGNAK SMACK YOU HARD. THEN EAT YOU!”

“GGRRRROOWWWWLLLL.”

It's my first time seeing a minotaur, and I don't need my [Advanced Analyze] ability to know that what I am seeing is actually a minotaur.

A giant head that looks like a bull with massive horns coming out of its sides. Hooves for feet. Hair covering its body… very dirty hair.

Oh, and a short tail.

A smile crosses my face as what seems to be a large, tiger-like creature is growling back at the minotaur, wanting nothing better than to take a sip from the watering hole and just leave.

But the ten-foot tall minotaur is just focused on talking smack.

“GROGNAK EAT YOU ALIVE!”

I activate my [Advanced Analyze] Skill on them both.

Ungues level 63

The Ungues are powerful four legged beasts that are able to move through dense forest and foliage with ease, allowing them to climb and attack from height against targets.

Unfortunately, being solitary hunters, they are forced to attack smaller of single prey, preferring to run away from something of equal or great size.

Grognak

Level 21 [Warrior]

Grognak, a Minotaur, was kicked out of his tribe after attempting to fight his chieftain, only to find himself defeated and forced to leave.

Strength

83

Dexterity

21

Stamina

80

Perception

12

Endurance

43

Vitality

113

Mana

65

M/regen

.1

Affinity

2

Intelligence

4

Willpower

160

Soul

120

Minotaur’s might: Increase strength by class level. Increase Endurance by half class level.

I turn to Zorren after reading the box.

“Minotaurs are idiots, aren't they?”

Zorren nods in confirmation.

Fuck. Just my luck to find that a race, which would have been a great frontline in any army, are idiots.

“All of them?”

Zorren shakes his head, ”The women are slightly smarter.”

Only slightly? Mmmmm, it would be a stretch, but maybe I can train them… even if their intelligence is only four.

“Ggrrrowwwwllll.”

One final voice from the Ungues and it immediately turns and runs away from the Minotaur which dwarfs its size.

“YES RUN! GROKNAK IS STRONG!”

I shake my head before walking out of the foliage with my posse next to me, the Desbats having landed on the trees, awaiting my orders.

Unfortunately, I completely underestimated how a low perception and Intelligence score can be so detrimental.

“YES RUN. NEVER COME BACK. GROKNAR IS TOO STRONG. YOU NOT WIN!”

And that's because he is staring at the direction where the Ungues had run off to.

All the Minotaur would have to do Is just turn his head slightly and we would be noticed.

Instead the idiot continues to gloat and yell at nothing.

“Are you sure you want them to join your army?” Jessica asks, frowning as the wind slightly picks up, bringing the horrid dirty smell of the Minotaur to our position.

I barely kept myself from gagging, though slightly surprised that Jessica didn't.

“Groknak, can you stop yelling,” I say waving my hand in the air.

The minotaur stops and looks at me and my group, a confused expression on his face.

It takes probably a good ten seconds of staring before he finally realizes that actual people are in front of him.

And then he notices that none of us are as large as he is.

“YOU FIGHT GROKNAK TOO! GROGNAK SMASH.”

I lift an eyebrow.

“Can you stop yelling? We can hear you pretty fine,” I say, already getting annoyed.

The minotaur smiles, ”BIG VOICE MAKE GROKNAK STRONG. LITTLE VOICE WEAK! YOU WEAK! ONLY GRO-”

“SHUT UP,” I yell, infusing my [Loud Voice] skill, causing Jessica to yell in surprise, the minotaur to stumble while birds, which have been sitting on branches, immediately fly away.

The minotaur looks to me, slightly afraid.

“What want?”

I point at the decent sized pond of water, a resource that we are slightly low on and will need to replenish.

The minotaur looks at the water, his mind works slowly before he stands confident again, ”you are leader of tribe?

I nod.

“Then Groknak give water and you take Groknak in tribe.”

Give water? I could fucking take it… whatever.

“Why do you want to join my… tribe?”

The minotaur looks at me like I’m some kind of idiot.

“To fight you for tribe leader.”

Zorren snorts, a smile actually forming on his face at the situation he finds me in.

My own smile forms on my face.

“Of course Groknak, you can join my tribe. But you must first defeat Zorren here before you can fight me for tribe leader.”

Groknak immediately nods, a smile on his bullish face as he turns to Zorren who is no longer smiling, instead seemingly annoyed.

“Good. I fight you!” Groknak exclaims, looking towards Zorren, someone who is two feet smaller than himself.

Jessica immediately giggles, also realizing that I had trapped the [Berserker] into a position that he probably was not expecting.

Zorren shakes his head before walking forward, not even going to unsheathe his hammer strapped onto his back.

Figured as much. Their society is based on strength.

Unfortunately, it seems the number of Volare has risen to a respectable number.

*CAWWWWWWWWWW*

*CAWWWWWWW*

*CAWWWWWWWWW*

“Jessica, get into the forest and hide under a log or something, it seems we have company.”