"Hiro can make wood, right? Why don't we just ask him to build houses and a wall outside? If we extend the wall, no one could complain. Or, we could construct higher-rise buildings in an empty plot," Rebecca suggested.
Hiro slapped Rebecca's head in annoyance with his tentacle. He had such high hopes for her intelligence, but this idea made him doubt her intelligence. He suspected Rebecca's earlier intelligence was a fluke.
"Um… I don't think Hiro can easily craft that much wood, Rebecca. There must be a limit to how much he can produce," Marissa frowned. She looked at Hiro's tentacle. Hiro nodded at her while still slapping Rebecca's head.
"Really? It seems endless, though…" Rebecca poked Hiro. Hiro wanted to slap her head again in frustration, but seeing Rebecca's guilty gaze, he stopped. He then slouched his tentacle over her shoulder in exasperation.
"If we don't want to anger the locals, we need to expand the city," Marissa sighed as she studied the map.
The map displayed a neat circular wall denoting Quantora's boundaries. To the west was a forest with small patches of farmland, while the east and south were dominated by sprawling agricultural lands.
Although it was risky, Marissa decided to expand into the forest. The Duke of Daneswald seemed to take this matter seriously, sending another batch of soldiers to help guard and assist in construction. Fortunately, the population of Marissa's village was tiny—barely a thousand—so the new wall wouldn't need to be excessively long. They just needed enough for housing. However, fate said otherwise. A soldier ran inside the manor, bringing ill news.
"Report: the monster horde has moved in the other direction as expected. However, after assaulting Silica, many villagers are fleeing this way. They're attracting the undead into Litmus!"
"Hm? Silica is five days away. Why didn't these refugees go to other towns?" John asked.
"The civilians reported that the lords there do not welcome them. We spotted them near our borders and are currently escorting them here."
"I see. Well, we will have Lord Seraphine on our side. Undeads are his specialty. We'll be seeing some cooked bones and charred flesh soon enough," John sighed.
Hiro was about to curse the foolish scouts for bringing Latvin's civilians to Litmus and drawing the undead with them. Then he remembered that Litmus was different from Latvin. As long as the civilians weren't criminals, they had the right to seek sanctuary here.
Although it was inconvenient, Litmus's values wouldn't allow them to turn away those in need. For better or worse, Hiro grudgingly respected their sense of justice.
"How many?" Marissa asked, her voice tinged with concern.
"Um... about ten thousand. But we expect more than half of them to die on the road," the scout reported grimly.
"Half?" Marissa's eyes widened. "Five thousand people will die?"
"Yes. The journey is rough. We lack supplies, and the undead don't need to rest during the night. We've already suffered casualties among our scouts. Should we send reinforcements?"
"May Amdal protect those souls," John sighed heavily. "I'll compile the report for Lord Seraphine. But reinforcements are unlikely. The whole reason we moved here was to avoid these undead in the first place. Hmm... if they come from the forest, this is not ideal. In the worst-case scenario, we may have to ask Lord Seraphine to burn the forest."
"But timber production will plummet!" one of Marissa's ministers protested.
Their complaints fell on deaf ears.
"Lord Seraphine can arrive here in two days with a battalion of three thousand knights if we request reinforcements," John said firmly. "Scouts should prioritize their own lives. If Latvin's civilians manage to reach us, we will protect them. But if they don't, we can't afford to help them. This mess was Latvin's to begin with."
"Our god Amdal frowns upon ignoring people in need. We must go and crush these abominations," the priest interjected.
"How many undead are there?"
"As far as the eye can see, sir. I estimate there to be more than a hundred thousand."
"See, priest? We are trying to save them, but we can't risk our lives recklessly. We have barely a thousand soldiers here. Do you think we can handle a hundred thousand undead in open plains? Our wooden fort won't even last without Lord Seraphine," John countered.
"...I understand. Saving them was not possible. At least, let me pray for these innocent souls," the priest relented.
"Let us call for Seraphine now. The walls aren't finished yet; we need him," Marissa said decisively. "When do you think the undead will reach us?"
"It's not certain they'll come here," John replied.
"We need him regardless—to calm the villagers and the refugees," Marissa insisted.
However, her thoughts were interrupted as a messenger arrived, bearing another grave news.
"Emergency! Lord Seraphine can't come. The undead are splitting!"
"What?" John shouted, his voice filled with disbelief. The plan relied heavily on Seraphine's strength. Without him, Hiro didn't think this village with a hastily built for would last.
"King Angus is taking the field, too. The undead had split into 3 directions." the scout explained.
"We must evacuate!" John declared.
"We have a symbiote user here! Why do we need to run?" one of the ministers asked, turning to the panicking knight. "Lady Marissa and her knights are symbiote users, right? Surely a bunch of skeletons isn't a big deal for them."
"Well, Lady Marissa's symbiote—"
"Stop it, John," Marissa interrupted, raising her hand. She tapped her belly gently, and Hiro emerged. "Let me ask Hiro. If he says we can't, we shall evacuate,"
"Could you handle this?" Marissa asked, her eyes steady and unwavering.
Hiro wanted to say no, but he hesitated. He had never been placed where expectations weighed so heavily on him. But when he looked at the girls—Cecile, Nana, Rebecca—all gazed at him with trust and anticipation. Summoning his courage, Hiro nodded. If Hiro summoned all of his strength, a horde should be easy. A horde should be Hiro's specialty, too.
Little did he know that undead horde carry no nutrients. he couldn't proliferate there.
Two days later, reinforcements from the Daneswald family arrived. Over two thousand soldiers marched into the village, and Marissa quickly gathered them for a briefing. Scouts and refugees from Latvin arrived in droves, many injured or malnourished. Marissa put them in village centers. She frowned. Not even a thousand made it here.
Soon after, skeleton soldiers, acting as the vanguard of the undead horde, began to appear.
Cecile and the trainee royal guards were the first to engage the skeletal invaders. With each swing of Cecile's sword, a skeleton's head was smashed or severed. Hiro watched in awe—and shame. He had feared the worst, yet Cecile dispatched the skeletal soldiers with ease, even without his doping skills. The morale was high as the defenders seemed to win this fight.
However, the battle continued unceasingly, and as the sun began to set, Hiro's earlier confidence began to waver. The undead forces seemed endless, wave after wave advancing relentlessly. Hiro had crushed some of them with his tentacles. He wasn't exhausted, but he could do only so much.
His tentacles couldn't cover the entire village. He needed more nutrients. He realized the true terror of the undead horde wasn't in their individual strength but in their overwhelming numbers and unyielding persistence. The battle was far from over.
[Cecile has leveled up to level 18
Level: 16/100
STR: 72->80
Dex: 75 ->81
Mag: 4]
[Nana has leveled up to level 18
Level: 16/100
STR: 28 ->30
Dex:93 ->103
Mag: 0 ]
[Rebecca has leveled up to level 18
Level: 16/100
STR: 10 ->13
Dex:15 ->17
Mag: 60 ->67]
The girls were leveling up steadily, but the relentless waves of undead were taking their toll. Despite their best efforts, the ceaseless assault began to push them back, and the unfinished wall was soon overwhelmed. The battle raged through the night with no signs of diminishing.
Thankfully, the two thousand elite Daneswald soldiers, combined with the local troops, managed to hold off the horde by rotating shifts—a strategy suggested by John early on. So far, they have held their ground.
"There's no end to them…" Cecile complained, swallowing her food quickly in the makeshift cafeteria. It was her time to rest. She rotated with Nana earlier.
"This is just the beginning," another soldier muttered grimly. "Without Lord Seraphine, we're doomed. Stronger undead will come soon…"
As morale waned among the soldiers, a grim but undeniable truth lingered: they were facing an uphill battle.
Fortunately, for now, the skeletal army seemed to be the only threat. Marissa briefly considered having all her female knights parasitized by Hiro, hoping for an edge in battle. But it turned out to be unnecessary—for the moment. Because a message from her soldiers brought hope.
Hiro quickly moved Nana and Cecile to the destination. Rebecca was fortunately already on the scene. The soldier told Marissa that they had found a lich, the boss monster that summoned all of these undead. If they could take it out, this undead horde would cease to exist.
"Watch out! That lich could use water and dark spells!" Rebecca's voice rang out. She cast a fireball at a small figure, her eyes sharp with determination.
A girl emerged from the battlefield, her skeletal hands glinting ominously as she countered Rebecca's attack with ice spears. Hiro's eyes widened—not in fear but in fascination. The lich appeared in the form of a petite girl but with an incongruous figure. it has about the same breast size with Marissa. it's huge!
Rebecca's fireball fizzled against the lich's magical defenses. The lich countered effortlessly, summoning golems and undead reinforcements to engage Cecile and Nana. The battlefield grew more chaotic as the undead swarmed.
Hiro, sensing the tide turning, used his mitosis skill to separate himself from Cecile. Tentacles extended from his core, wreaking havoc as they mowed down waves of skeletons.
While the golems and skeletons were busy with Cecile and Nana. Hiro saw his chance and charged past the distractions, his tentacles cutting through the skeletons as he advanced on the lich.
He entwined his tentacles around her in a decisive move. He jumped on her like a sex offender, enveloping her immediately when he got a hold of her petite but bountiful body.
The battlefield froze in that instant. Undeads that tried to force their way had lost their momentum. They still fought, but knowing that there would be no more reinforcement had raised the soldier's morale.
"..."
Surprisingly, the lich was physically weak, allowing Hiro to bind her without much resistance. As he latched onto her, Hiro felt some magical resistance but noted that she didn't scream or struggle much. Smugly, he nestled against her ample chest, his tentacles exploring her thighs. Her soft breasts and surprisingly smooth, long black hair stood out despite her undead nature. However, her skeletal arms, missing eye, and undead aura were grim reminders of her true form. Still, she was undeniably a cute girl, unlike the mature Marissa.
"..." The lich remained entirely indifferent to Hiro's caresses. Even when Hiro unleashed his ultimate aphrodisiac skill, she showed no reaction at all.
"We captured it! Yay!" Cecile cheered as the visible numbers of undead in the horde began to dwindle with the lich's capture. Soldiers cheered in victory as dawn began to arise.
"Good job, Hiro! Nice work! Now, open up a bit. If we smash her head, the lich should die," Rebecca suggested.
Hiro ignored her and instead tightened his hold on the lich, fully enveloping her in his tentacles. His actions restrained her while simultaneously shielding her.
"Hiro?" Cecile and Nana hesitated, sensing that Hiro wasn't backing down.
"Hey! You can hear me, right?" Rebecca tapped on the fleshy cocoon that Hiro had created around the lich. Since the lich was an undead and didn't need to breathe, the air-tight containment wasn't a concern for her survival. Hiro gently nudged her soft cheeks with a tentacle.
"Master… you're such a cheater!" Nana complained, hugging the cocoon. But Hiro remained adamant—there was no way he would let them harm this lich. he wanted her.
With the battle concluded, the group had no choice but to transport the cocooned lich to Marissa's mansion. There, John and the rest of the royal guard began questioning Hiro's decision.
"What happened? Is this one of Hiro's skills? Should we break it open?" John asked skeptically.
Hiro immediately emerged from Marissa, shaking his tentacle in a firm "no." Inside the cocoon, the lich couldn't do much. Whenever she attempted to cast a spell, Hiro would shake her skeletal hands or cover her mouth, successfully disrupting her efforts.
"It might be one of Hiro's skills. Just let him handle it," Marissa said. "Ah, but make sure at least one or two people keep watch. It's still a lich, after all."
"Yes, Lady Marissa," John replied.
"How are Lord Seraphine and King Angus?" Marissa asked.
"They've achieved a perfect victory as well, Lady Marissa. Five liches and an arch lich were defeated. Their decision was correct—most of the undead horde went to other villages."
"I see. Good. Stay vigilant. Hah… the politics after this will be a pain. I hope King Angus knows what to do. A dungeon break is a serious matter, and now we also have some of Latvin's villagers here," Marissa muttered.
Hiro, however, couldn't care less about the politics or the victory reports. His focus was entirely on a far more "important" matter. inspecting the new monster girl he captured.