The Mook Maker

All activity in the mining town seemed to stop the moment the host entered combat in the city far in the centre of the valley.  Almost all.

 

The Fleshspeakers had been recalled, readying all their drones to be sent into the fight as soon as possible, their previously frantic tunnelling efforts in order to reach the new veins of the ore under the mountains postponed indefinitely, with loads of ore being carried up out of the mineshaft dropped where they stood and the scaffolding work left half-undone.

 

An uncompleted earthwork, along with unfinished palisades and log buildings on the outskirts, were all left without their crew, all to return only after the immediate issue with the humans in the province’s central area had been dealt with.

 

The Ravagers had ceased deforestation and log processing, immediately stopped the work as they expected to be transported to deal with the humans in due course, leaving everything as it was the instant their shared link with their cousins revealed that there had been an immediate threat to their Master’s safety.  The ground remained littered with logs and cast-offs.

 

The Master must be protected, at any cost. 

 

The Eviscerators were hungering for the conflict. The small garrison of merely fifty of them assigned to keep order among the humans of the mining town would not stay idly as their beloved Master was in danger, even if their small group would not change the tide of the battle after a few thousands of their kin had been put on alert. 

 

Brave, even if named the Protector of these lands, still had to contribute to organising her kin, as Miwah focused on protecting the Master from the danger. 

 

The Eviscerators had to be urged not to abandon the patrol routes, since all the transportation to and from the battle was handled by the Displacers currently prioritising the Fleshspeakers, then the drones, followed by the Ravagers and Defilers. 

 

The Purifiers and Eviscerators now scattered over the wide area were about to guard the flank, yet they were far too worried, and would greatly prefer if the Master was evacuated where they could defend him rather than staying within the rebellious city.

 

Lily, and by extension, her Corruptor sisters she commanded, were not under any special obligation to participate, even if they themselves wouldn’t hesitate to put themselves in danger to shield their Master from this hostile world as well. 

 

The lack of accomplishment made Lily feel incompetent.

 

A freshly ascended Corruptor Alpha had very little to show over her very brief career.

 

The Corruptors, the gardeners of Master’s new world, were not flourishing under her guidance, and the current battle - one they weren’t even expected to contribute to - somehow reminded her she contributed far less to the overall struggle than others did.

 

Yet, she was the Alpha now.  

 

Despite her elevated position, Lily has been tormented with the difficulty creating anything meaningful even since Mai has been selected as Master’s mate, with most plant designs the Corruptors had used being either an idea of Mai herself, or a random experiment willed to the existence by Lily’s countless little sisters to breathe more life into this unforgiving wasteland, while Lily’s gave out very little. 

 

It was not due to her not wanting to. She did, and was ready to give in everything to help their Master, but she was not blessed by the same creativity which abounds in her sisters.  Lily felt reduced to merely an aide in someone else's brilliance. She envied her sisters, and her cousins, bursting seemingly with fresh ideas, while Lily had thought hard about what she could do to help meaningfully. 

 

Some of them were working hard to prepare the nesting sites now that Mai was expecting the Master’s young, but Lily was turned down there, with the new mother having a much better understanding of what was required. 

 

Her Master deserved a better Alpha than her. 

 

As the Fleshspeakers continued the hunt for the humans in the far-away city, their excited voices echoing through their shared link, Lily thought about what else she could do. 

 

If her place wasn’t in the fight, then it would be the creation of something new, something unexpected, something that would make their life in this world much easier, but coming up with said something was the core of the problem for Lily. 

 

The various fruits, now supplementing the diet of the entire host, were made by Mai, and replicated by other Corruptors, especially the blood-juiced one that the Displacers found especially tasty and were in high demand more than ever before. 

 

Their powers were extremely draining to use so frequently, and energising meals were proven to be a viable alternative to the emergency vitality transfers done by Defilers, as long as there wasn’t a crisis that demanded the sacrifices put forth in exchange for immediate effects.  

 

Were modifying beans to last longer an answer? Grow mushrooms and then dry them? 

 

Her sisters were already busy themselves working on it, leaving Lily with nothing new to be credited for. Even root cellars were being dug by the ordinary Purifiers when they weren’t called to somewhere else. 

 

Now, it was she who was responsible for the delivery for both a food, a plan, even of a fodder for the livestock, an idea that wouldn’t be put forth if it wasn’t for the Fleshspeakers ambitious plan to move away from the hunting entirely in favour of keeping the animals they modified. 

 

Albeit unnoticeable, Lily and her Corruptors were quite indispensable, but also inconspicuous, parts of the host. 

 

Not only did they augment the food supply  with the fruits and nuts, they used their powers to quickly grow the shelters that protected her cousins from the elements, created the weeds that handled the refuse, or even provided an additional layer of defences by creating the sharp brambles transformed into the formidable thorn walls. 

 

They were happy to provide, keen even.  They were caring for their extended family that, in turn, did all the fighting.

 

Lily wouldn’t want it any differently. Their cousins were precious to them, as they were precious to their Master, and they all struggled together against this foul, disagreeable world, yet she still yearned for so much more. 

 

A big idea. That is what she needed.

 

Even now, among the chaotic fight far away, the Fleshspeakers thought of various ways to modify their drones, and to subjugate the humans even against the limits of their direct control, with the creatures acting more on vague orders or instinct. 

 

However, the Corruptors’ ability to create something new was equally important to the creatures made to breathe a new life into the environment, to recreate all the flora to Master’s image, and to the benefit of his host.

 

Yet, none of it was truly something of her making, and something deep within her told her she was capable of so much more than the meagre administration she was doing at the moment.

 

She had felt that every ounce of creativity had been drained from her.

 

Even though she could make the hemp or flax plants grow through her magic, it was those slimy humans that would process it into fibre and cloth, not her, as her power lacked in the fine control required to make the final product her cousins could use. 

 

The presence of the Mutators blessed with much precise control, and their ability to harness the energies that made their cousins stronger, now threatened that the Master might be disappointed with Lily’s contribution even more. 

 

The Mutators were proving themselves to the Master more than before. 

 

Was she truly helpless?

 

Mai had promised the Master that she would provide a fruit to feed the humans as well, but those weren’t her idea either! 

 

The berries, now readily distributed to the humans in the mining town, were requested by Brave when the Eviscerator had run out of options on how to force the accursed humans to cooperate without the Fleshspeakers' direct involvement. She wished she had thought of it herself, but she merely did what others asked her to do rather than create something herself. 

 

The mine wasn’t going to run itself. 

 

It would, however, not be run by Lily either. 

 

She simply didn’t know how. 

 

In the meantime, her cousins fought and won, and the battle slowly subsided once Arke took down the source of her disturbance in the distant city, and the Corruptors no longer had to prepare for the eventuality the Displacers would be forced to evacuate the Master to safety. 

 

Now, preventing similar problems from arising ever again was up to Lily.

 

Technically, it would be Fleshspeaker’s effort, but the Corruptors wanted to be useful. As the others carried out their own duties, Lily was picking berries out of the bushes that now spread over the large portion of the forest after her sisters hastened their second harvest.

 

She was using it as an idle distraction while trying to bounce the ideas she had over the rest of the host. 

 

At least, she was supposed to have the thoughts and plans and designs, although it was not the case right now. 

 

Lily, obsessing with her inability to make something better, something more useful than this fodder for the smelly humans, spent a lot of time inspecting every small fruit almost as if it was going to give her the inspiration she sought, but found nothing amiss with them. 

 

Her sisters already did all the work, leaving nothing meaningful for Lily to change. 

 

Unique for-human-berries were purposefully made different from the other produce, with their small size and red-blue colours forming the patterns that nothing else simply had, so not even the not-so-bright humans didn’t confuse them with something else, while still being extremely nutritious and providing the humans with energy to work. 

 

Giving the humans a little motivation to receive the treat wouldn’t hurt. 

 

Lily, in fact, did not know it would work. 

 

Making them poisonous to humans was out of the question - the Master emphasised the new product must be safe for human consumption - and the Corruptor had searched her memories if they ever checked. Humans were of little concern to Corruptors. 

 

Lily had recalled that they, in fact, did verify that, albeit unintentionally, just yesterday. 

 

One human had run away yesterday and was caught because he had passed out after consuming far too many berries he found on his own, but as far as Lily could tell, he survived with little adverse effects, and was even left craving for more. 

 

So far, they were giving humans only small portions of it, as they were intended to rather calm the town's inhabitants so they wouldn’t cause issues to Brave, rather than serving as the primary food source. 

 

Many fields in the area still have the original crops so the humans could eat their own food, but it would be considerably more effective if that could be upgraded to greater yields, providing enough foodstuffs for not only the host but also all the humans, to last the winter. 

 

This actually worked perfectly for the host, and did not require the Defilers or Fleshspeakers working their powers on the mining town population, and proved the berries to be a viable alternative. 

 

To make the humans more productive, however, gave the new batch a higher concentration of stimulants.

 

By the time Arke was reporting the success in suppressing the city revolt to the Master, Lily had personally gathered a large basket of slightly more energising produce without anyone else assistance, and carried it back to town.

 

While she could delegate the task - she was the Alpha - doing it personally made her feel better, and allowed her to work her contribution to the entire effort. 

 

When Lily returned to the town where the humans had gathered to receive more berries. 

 

There was far greater success introducing the new feed that she would have anticipated, and gave promise to the improved version he had made. 

 

It would seem that humans liked the new feed, since they flocked around, Lily’s needless insistence on doing the gathering herself, despite having dozens of her sisters present in the vicinity, disturbed whatever distribution Brave had in mind. 

 

Humans seem to want their berries.  Badly.

 

Sadly, without the Fleshspeaker present, Lily had a difficulty to understand what they were saying, forcing her to guess the meaning, or rely on the host to wrangle the translation through proxy

 

Arke couldn’t spare any of her sisters from her effort to re-order the city, there were far too many humans out there, and the Fleshspeakers - and Overseers, after receiving the arcane fruit - were overextended, and now the host were making the coordinated effort to introduce some order to the chaotic human city. 

 

Even counting the dead the humans had suffered, and disposing of the bodies, would be a challenge, let alone re-organising the city, and making those accursed creatures even obey the basic orders was going to be a major undertaking. 

 

The Mutators had already proven themselves by strengthening their host while Lily …

 

Lily didn’t distribute the damn berries yet!

 

There was already a small tussle with Eviscerators, reminding the Corruptor to redouble their effort. 

 

The town had a tenth of the humans the city had, and Lily had to call for a few of her sisters to help there rather than with the growing where they should be.

 

They finally made the humans line up. 

 

She idly watched as the duo of humans offered her the pottery they used to conserve the food, but she wasn’t interested in the ceramic food container nor its content, besides she was under the instructions to not deprive humans of more of their food. 

 

If they starved to death, the Master would be displeased even if she caught him a few new humans. It would be a waste - the ones in the mining town were already half-tamed! 

 

This had to work. 

 

The humans seem to be sick, which was unexpected - they weren’t this way before, but now they were suffering from the noticeable cramps, shaking and sweating heavily, and mumbling something in their language Lily couldn’t effectively understand, but still seemed to want to offer the food. 

 

It couldn’t be the berries - if the berries made them feel worse, they wouldn’t want more of them. 

 

She thought they wanted to trade; she had to guess, albeit she fully intended to give them the berries for free. 

 

Lily handed the berries - mentally counting the dose - and the humans had quickly stuffed them into their mouths, and it would seem their health had improved nearly instantly once they consumed the small grape-like produce, the visible tremors in the human’s mouths had ceased almost immediately. 

 

It would seem they were pleased. Excellent - her creation had worked. 

 

She would advise the humans they could keep their food, but they scampered off far too quickly, replaced with another few more with the reaching hands, and pleading voices.

 

“Stand back, humans.” Brave warned them, but Lily doubted the humans understood. 

 

She once again requested a Fleshspeaker re-assigned here. 

 

Lily ordered her little sisters to return the pottery back to humans later on, as someone must have spotted where they went, but it was not important at this moment. 

 

Now, there were more humans, more voices, vying for her attention, all equally indecipherable to her.

 

She didn’t consider it before, but not only the initial pair but also other humans weren’t in good shape. Lily didn’t know if the new fodder would help them, but the feed-berries were made twice as nutritious that the previous ones, which should assure the humans wouldn’t starve.

 

Five berries each. Have it seven. Even ten. The Corruptor was sure the runaway ate much more, so it was reasonably safe. 

 

She handed a few more. To another human, and to another - as much as the creatures were quite displeasing to look at, or touch, especially when looking noticeably ill, Lily couldn’t just let them die, and if her berries were helping… 

 

Another few humans had a fight, but the Eviscerators pulled them from each other, and after receiving the berries they seemed to calm down quite considerably, and stopped causing problems. 

 

“One after another, humans.” Brave insisted, “You first. Then you. Then you.” 

 

Lily was certain that the languages they used were mutually intelligible - it was the source of their problems, after all - but it seemed that gestures were working for now, at least until a Fleshspeaker, or Overseer, could be spared. 

 

She could make the townsfolk something even more nutritious, to continue digging the ore, if someone explained their task to them.

 

The Humans ravenously devoured their share. It was suspicious, but it wasn’t the food she was handling that made them sick - if anything, it seemed it was making them feel better very fast, in the matter of minutes at worst. 

 

Lily was not sure why the humans didn’t eat their food, though. she was certain the Eviscerators that were around the entire time didn’t eat anything from the human granary. She recalled they were bringing the meat from the woods for a while instead, even if the catches were growing thinner and scarcer. 

 

Lily asked Narita and Mia to send her Defiler to help. Perhaps the humans got some disease - her power couldn’t affect the birds, the insects, the few large animals they caught - only plants.

 

Someone more powerful was required. Brave seconded on that. 

 

As her request was approved, she mentally assigned the plants that could be drained if more humans were found sick, as there wasn’t any other reliable way to treat them, making Lily consider growing the plants with more medicinal properties. 

 

She, however, knew very little about that. 

 

Perhaps something to treat the pain. Her sisters and her cousins could feel pain, just as the other creatures did, so it would be helpful to everyone.

 

Now she knew what it could be to leave her mark. 

 

The berries were very clearly beneficial, even though she did not understand why the humans wanted to exchange their food for them, even if they were more tasty.

 

One of the Corruptors checked the local granary - there was food in there.

 

One of the last humans in the line they formed, a female, offered Lily some clothes. 

 

At least, Lily assumed it was what she did. 

 

The lack of comprehension began to frustrate Lily to no end, but if the humans wanted to trade the items in exchange for the fruit she made, it would please her Master, not to mention the dress would allow her to look prettier for him. 

 

The Corruptor Alpha could make the new plants until she was tired, and be refreshed the moment after - now she had an inspiration, she could not only supply the feed for the townsfolk, filling their stores, but also attempt to introduce medicine. 

 

Not to mention, she would tell the Master she made the trade work as well, being praised, and perhaps...

 

“I will exchange the rest of the berries for the dress, human,” she said - after all, she distributed it fairly, and the Defiler would show any moment. 

 

Her words startled the woman. 

 

Were the humans thinking only Brave could talk? 

 

She replied, but the local tongue was beyond the Corruptors, and the Fleshspeakers now had ten times more the humans to handle, and it wouldn’t look well on Lily’s kin, or Alpha herself, if they couldn’t handle the single one. 

 

Luckily, it worked out. 

 

Still, it seemed that realisation that the exchange would yield her the rest of the berries dawned on the human female, and she quickly left with the basket and the remnants of the fruit, even if it created some displeasure among the others how she received more than the rest. 

 

The shortage wasn’t the issue. 

 

Lily couldn’t understand this level of maliciousness - she would share with her sisters, and they would with her, their minds always comprehending each other. There was something degrading about the conflict between those belonging to the same species. 

 

The humans were a little less pushy when Brave ordered her sisters to intervene, but it was far from perfect. 

 

Perhaps get that more agreeable human here?

 

Ari could understand them now, and didn’t even feel as repulsive as the other humans.  Ari was capable of teaching the humans about better behaviour and more harmonious existence, without envy or jealousy. 

 

The realisation of the fact of her envy over her cousin’s talent fell over her as she was positioned to intervene in the growing argument over the basket of leftover feed.  The aggressive humans were only restrained from further violence by the strength of Brave’s sisters pulling them apart. 

 

Vowing to act herself and deny the hypocrisy, the Corruptor stepped in, even if the Brave and Eviscerators would handle the issue just fine, restraining the humans - the host would help each other. 

 

Alas, her opportunity vanishes with the abrupt appearance of a spacial rift torn in  the air nearby, spitting out the requisitioned Displacer and Devourer.   The humans scattered.

 

Even better than having Defilers stationed there! 

 

Lily mentally thanked the host. 

 

The arrival scared off the townsfolk, too, as they were not willing to risk contact with the area of shifting space, and quite possibly their death. It seemed to be more effective than any bodily injury the Eviscerators could cause. The mob retreated to their huts. 

 

They wouldn't work in the mine, leaving the town rather idle for the short while, but it was of no consequence for now - the Master did order her to use the drones for the digging. It didn’t justify the other inhabitants to be unruly, but she would always convince them to behave now if she knew what they liked. 

 

Although the restless Displacer teleported out quickly after - insisting she have to watch over the Master - there was someone who could meaningfully heal the humans should they become sick again. 

 

The Corruptor would have to check on it later. The promise of boundless experimentation had given Lily much enthusiasm, as there was something specific she could keep making, wondering how many new plants she could twist into existence. 

 

So many new ideas now! 

 

The Devourer was up to the task as well, and Lily was about to depart. 

 

Then her eyes fell on the pot the humans brought, still covered and sealed, and no one yet brought it back to the granary. While it didn’t answer why the townsfolk weren’t willing to eat it, she was going to assume it was simply spoiled.

 

Perhaps it was what humans were trying to tell her? 

 

The thought of the perishing food stores, however, brought her the memory of how the locals preserved their food. The distant beacon of boundless guidance gave her the answer.

 

What if Lily tried to ferment her human-chow berries?