Mission name: Help the Villagers
Mission rank: C-Rank
Objective: Build Shelters for the Villagers
Location: Village Ruins
Reward: 300 ryo + 1 EP
Mission Description: Help survivors of the carnage here rebuild what you can, they need shelters
Development References: Death Camp, part II
Mission Details: The villagers have pale skin as if they have been without sunlight for years, their skin is as cold as ice. they need shelter and fires for warmth, as far as what happened to the village it is up to the writer. However they will have to look for supplies across the Ruins of Kirigakure, to build some kind of shelter for those still alive as well as something to build a fire.


WC Needed: 2000

The people looked as if they were tethering on the brink of death. Pale countenance, cold skin, emaciated. Were it not that a mixture of emotions welled up from them, one could easily have considered them undead in nature. Gathering together in what little remained of the village, the buildings barely being called shelters, the people had their eyes fixed on the apparition they considered Sero Osada. Some crawled away, wailing in agony and terror, others grovelled and begged for forgiveness for the misdeeds they had once committed, whereas others seemed hell-bent of getting through the crowd to get as close as possible to the girl with white hair.

To see such a vast amount of weakness annoyed her, the monstrous aura of the spider-nin flickering in response and urging some to step back. Yet, whereas otherwise she would have been inclined to end their lives, to hear them reach out to her as if she was Sero made her curious as to what her Creator had done with these people - who were they and why were they here? Was this pocket domain Sero's personal playground? Knowing already it was related to Fuinjutsu, Haka wanted to find out even more about its nature and the practical use of the scripted techniques, but for now... she would glare in annoyance to all those approaching, predatory cruelty apparent in her eyes.

"I'm Haka Osada, not Sero. Now stop grovelling."

The mass collectively stopped, as if suddenly having snapped out of a genjutsu, and started to talk with each other, murmuring about the differences such as size and gender. Differences they had not seen before, blinded by their own poor state of living. As they came to an understanding that, indeed, the spider-nin could not be the Lord himself but, perhaps, his descendant or something, the people seemed to regain a little of their composure. Then, a single man would move closer.

"Please... I do not know why you were thrown in here with us, but you look strong. Could you help us out? We could use wood, for fire... and shelter... and food too... Please... Look at us, how weakened we are."

It would not come as a surprise to Verdandi the spider had to suppress the urge to slay this man on the spot, preferring a weak specimen as him dead and replaced rather than to live on, but as it were it didn't quite look as if anyone of them would be better off leading the troop of rag-tag band of criminal souls. She would prefer to just ignore them, let them be for what little they were worth. This wasn't a mission, after all, but she could predict Verdandi would think otherwise about leaving these people to their fate. As for Chigetsu... She wondered what his thoughts were. Would he be the sort to allow weakness to thrive, or was he more the person to abide by the principles of the Spider Clan?

---

502

Verdandi watched Haka perform. It was marvellous to behold of seeing her aura in action. Reminding the princess that, despite being usually the one at advantage when it came to human interaction, Haka’s unique ties to the man owning this very universe of sorts, would eventually come in handy. Still, she could feel how the masses of people and their weakness were tearing on Haka’s patience. With a decisive step forward, she would indulge into her own role as negotiator. They had already been scared into submission by Haka so after the bad cop it was time for… a neutral cop?

Verdandi wouldn’t have intervened with Haka if she laid waste to the village. But it seemed to be of a tied in plot from Sero himself that they eventually found their way here. It was, after all, their very primary objective to find the humans within the dark dimension. While Haka concentrated further on things more to her liking Verd would lead the chosen leader to his hut and eventually get a paper of all the supplies needed within the camp. It was a short talk but she still preferred to do it a bit further away to lessen the potential of Haka’s bloodlust getting the better of her. With yet a stern voice Verd made sure to also impose on the leader. Implying that if they wanted their help they would have to grow some stones and start manning the walls more properly. Weapons they seemed to have enough. Probably from all the soldiers that have already died protecting the camp. So eventually, after receiving the list of materials needed from outside the camp, Verdandi made sure to give the leader a task as well. To assemble the 10 least pathetic men of his camp and make sure they started to train. The few soldiers that were left would not keep them alive for long. She mentioned she might help them with their training. When they returned. But for now he had to straighten up a few willing souls to at least try and protect this rotten place.

After that, eventually satisfied with bossing people around. She looked at the paper. Hunting creatures for food…. “There are wolf like creatures a bit north from here. It’s not much but they seem to give meat that they used to hunt. They haven’t done that in a while. I guess that task is best served to an assassin…” she said, looking at Haka and handing her the paper where the location for the creatures would be marked.

“As for us. We have to gather wood and Clay, both not too far from each other, we can head out together but we’ll have to split half way.” She motioned to Chigetsu. Pointing at two empty carts behind them and that they both had to be filled to the very brim with clay and wood. There was one map where a mine was supposed to be with the resources of clay ready to be loaded, but eventually would need to mine for more. As well as a forest not too far away from it, that housed trees that were not ashen and had been used for their houses and fires before. Most of the other trees didn’t allow to be harvested or seemed to carry cursed soil within them.

“It also says that both in forest and mine creatures have seen that would have slain the previous workers. And as for the wolf like creatures they seem to have some sort of mother that claimed the lives of the previous hunters. I’d say we stand carefully. If either of us needs help I guess a signal far up into the air would suffice?”

Looking at the locations, mine and forest were but ten minutes away from each other. The hunting grounds probably 20 or a bit more. Verd wasn’t afraid to feel assured that Haka was least likely to be in trouble from the three, considering her ability to call for her summon Ameya for help.

“Well I’d say off we go… Chi any particular preference on either mines or forest?” While the resources would need carry by carts. For Haka there was a large net at hand. Probably able to easily fit 30 or 40 creatures inside. Or a mixture of them and a very very large one….


730

Chigetsu would sigh. He couldn't help it in this situation. While these people were especially ugly from what he could only assume were years and years of torment and malnutrition, this wasn't an entirely new sight to him. In these sullen faces he saw the impoverished of Kirigakure. Those who shared the apartment complex with him had the same look in their eyes. Desperation and weakness. It was familiar and shameful. He could only hope that he never would share those eyes. To be such a burden like that was inexcusable. It was something he couldn't look in the eyes, and as these ghouls pranced about in front of him with their fuss over Haka and desperate begging he would look away. He could feel Haka's intent so very clearly, resonating with his own. A few tiny bubbles released up out from his neck, something caught in his throat and going the path of least resistance straight out. While he didn't exactly want to slaughter these people like Haka likely did, to simply squeeze them dry of whatever they could provide would have been his preferred action. Surely in these ruins they had something that could assist the three of them. Food, water, perhaps something valuable? Anything that made it easier to survive on their own. Surely, these dull blades would reach up and grasp at them for their own survival in the same manner if possible-

Chigetsu would reach down into his belt pouch, pulling his kunai out now and bringing it close to his face. He would squint, glaring at the blade. "Shut up." He would mumble to it, barely a whisper against the steel. There was surely some sort of use he could provide here, to these people. Maybe it would come to benefit him in the end as well. Luckily Verdandi seemed to be taking control of the situation. A natural result, considering her princess blood. That was fine. At the very least she had done it before Chigetsu and Haka began discussing the exact method in which to disassemble the village. He didn't particularly mind this either.  

"Wood and clay. Alright." He would nod his head. The carts didn't seem that big. Maybe for the broken-down villagers, but not for Chigetsu. Haka had been given the 'exciting' job of having to hunt down fresh meat, which he was sure that Verdandi gave to her specifically as a bribe in order to get her onboard with helping. Clever. As for either mining or logging, neither were exactly pursuits that fit his talents. Obviously, he could do either just fine though with the right tools. An axe or pickaxe. Although wouldn't a shovel down by a river be a bit more useful for clay? He was no expert in geology though, and Verdandi seemed like she knew what she was doing. "I don't have any preference for either. As long as we can get -" He would freeze. A memory would come back to him.

Toiling down in the mines. It had been a simple D-Rank mission to collect mineral resources. Chigetsu was beside perhaps twenty other genin, all swinging their pickaxes down to whatever minable resources they could find. The division of labor resulted in a group that would spend hours mining and other groups which would be dedicated towards ferrying resources to the surface. It had been hours for him down in the mine. Beads of sweat ran down the foreheads of other genin around him. He was stuck in a cold sweat, his eyes nearly bulging out of his head. More than just the whispers of his kunai, he heard the pickaxes. They sang to him. All twenty in unison, singing along with spirit and vigor as if they were cheery miners himself. All of them out of key and off tune. The entire time his kunai was attempting to get their attention, yelling at them. Their song echoed about in the mines and banged around inside his skull for the hours and hours and hour and hours and hours...

After the flashback ended he would swallow nervously. A bit of sweat dripped down his forehead. A bit of color seemed to have disappeared from him, Chigetsu now a shade or two paler than usual. "I'll take the forest."  

---

[726]

The spider observed the targets she could slay out of boredom and disapproved weakness. These people were truly pathetic, but their pleas for mercy and random mentions of atoning for their crimes hadn't left the spider unfazed. What had they done that Sero felt the need to lock them up in a world as this? And why was it that her Creator seemed to have taken humans who performed crimes? The concept of laws and criminology was an alien one to the spider who followed the Rules of the Strong, but such an apparent recurring reason could not be coincidence. Haka would have to ask her Creator about the details once she had left this place.

Turning around to look at Verdandi, the Ice Princess was about finished making her lists and decisions. This was the second time now that she took such matters in her own hands right after Haka had felt an urge to eliminate weakness from her path, making her wonder if this too was connected somehow. If she didn't do this out of a sense of protective measure towards the humans, afraid that Haka would once more slay a weak person on the spot in favour of a stronger option. Haka ran her hand through her white hair, picking up the note Verdandi offered after she hinted at a task for an assassin, her sentence failing to straight-out ask Haka for some reason. Wolf-like creatures, whatever those were supposed to be, to the north. Wordlessly, she would flicker away and out of the village.

---

The darkness of the forest was a welcome embrace. By herself. No limits. Only the rule of the Spider Clan would prevail. Wolf-creatures? She had never seen wolves on Spider Island, but she was fairly certain if it was an animal it could only be entertaining to deal with them. Trying out her strength on new opponents, eat them when hungry. There was a sense of freedom by not being around humans all the time, being alone in the night, shrouded by the mist. Almost like she was home here.

Wolf-like Creatures:

It wouldn't take too long before she met the first few of these wolf-creatures. Unknown to Haka, this breed was better known as vargr or warg, a wolf-like creature indeed, but more robust, stronger and wilder by nature. Some could debate they were tainted with the power of Yomi, but that mattered little as few survived their meeting with them. Their ferocity not any lesser than Haka's monstrous aura, unholy eyes would turn to search the source of the terror that dared to enter their domain. It didn't take long before a couple of them gathered up, eyeing the lone girl before them, and ran up to her direction. Meaty, strong. The spider licked her lips, eager to try out the extend of their ferocity in comparison to her own predatory nature.

It was strange to realise these creatures were... slower. Her fight with Verdandi had certainly been at a faster pace than this, the execution of her moves forcing her to make the best of her concentration. But these wargs, even with the three of them, were underwhelming. At this pace, she wouldn't even need to summon Ameya to deal with them. The arachnid assassin could probably enjoy something new to take to her lair, but the Spider Clan rarely dealt in these strange concepts called empathy and friendship. As the first warg assaulted her, Haka jumped to the left and rammed her knee straight in its chest. Though the impact would hardly kill it, the warg nonetheless rolled over the floor, dazed. The second one attempted to flank her, but the spider-nin's perception would not be fooled. Jumping up, she somersaulted over the aggressor, landing behind it and kicked the warg against his ally. The three of them recomposed themselves as Haka's unarmed combat didn't harm them sufficiently to be persuaded of another prey.

Slightly disappointed at herself, Haka decided to take on a more efficient tool and grabbed her obsidian kunai instead, sinking into crouch as her monstrous aura flared with her killing intent. The hunt was on. Taking the initiative, the spider dashed forward to see the her target crouch back in warning. Caring little for menial threats, she brutally fillet the first one, her kunai sinking in its fur and flesh and cutting it wide open. As the first one howled in its death throes, the two others retaliated. The first one trying to bite in her ankles felt its jaw make an uncomfortable twist as it met her foot. It would not exactly break, but the pain was sufficient to force a yelp out of it. The third one clenched its fangs tightly around her arm, tasting her arachnid blood, and was punished with a kunai being rammed straight in its chest. It dropped on the floor, dead. With just one of the three remaining, Haka wrestled the last one into the floor and slit its throat with one swift motion, watching it die with certain fascination before she would lick off the blood from her kunai in mild curiosity to its taste.

Well... It certainly was a different taste than human.

---

881
Total: 1383

OOC: Feel free to learn Body Flicker.
OOC: Considering multiple Wargs at D-0 stats or so, since this is a C rank mission.

190/200:

Verd could have seen Haka's slight disapproval over her handing out the mission files. It was a short way of saying "If you command me I'm going to bury you" kind of look. Verd scratched the back of her head sheepishly. Slowly following Chi’s train of thoughts or at least trying to. He seemed to become more and more distressed by the prospect of going in one specific direction. Sweat forming on his skin. Something traumatic was screening in front of his eyes but Verd couldn’t tell exactly what it was. As he seemed to have very much chosen the forest. Verd would pick up one of the larger axes and hand it to him.

Verd tossed the pickaxe on her cart and as the gate opened, the two of them would speed out like roman cart wheel gladiators. On their way to the middle ground. Verd tried her best to reassure Chi a little bit. Trying to pepp talk some energy and motivation into his worried mind. At last they would split. Dandi wondered if her friend would be alright. But she certainly made her way to the mines and started to quickly load up the clay onto her cart that was already prepared and shipping ready. The cart was easily half full but by far not satisfying enough for what she had in mind. Finding another pickaxe near the entrance to the mine, she would pick it up and make her way deep down into the tunnels. On her way she set at least a hundred torches back on fire to have some light along the pathway she came in.

As she was basically leaving breadcrumbs behind to find her way back out later. She’d observe the creatures of the night. Bats sometimes came a little too close for her taste and got sliced down by her Katana. She could easily cut her way through the myriad of these bats, badgers, moles, squirrels and other certainly evil creatures of this underground realm. If she was a bigger one that had some flesh on it she’d put it in one of her bags, for snack food later on. Knowing that Haka would bring in the big fishies. Or wolfies in that sense. Once arrived on spot. Verd took on one of the small transport carts and pushed it to the wall, beginning to hammer the first layers of firm clay out of the wall.

Once this was done she picked up the shovel from the cart and started to move the sandier fabric of the Clay, waiting behind the wall, off it’s origin and down into the cart. Verd seemed happy about the result so far. She massively overstocked the demand and the act of using two pickaxes at once when she was grinding for the harder stuff, the more badass it would feel.

Only a good 30 minutes later. Verd had mined all she wanted. Many trips back and forth with the smaller cart were needed to fully load all the resources tapped here. The cart was vastly overfilled and yet some bigger problem was approaching. A large, heavy as stone kind of dangerous. She didn’t even have to turn around to see the large shadow of the monster thing, behind her, shine downwards on the floor. Slowly subsiding to the side and trying to turn around.

As she did. A huge stone bodied creature would stare and scream at Verd very loudly. Punching it’s two large hills of hands together to show what’s business and who’s boss. Verd was reluctant to indulge herself but he seemed stronger and then most spirits she had encountered so far. This going to be a fun ride home with a golem on your hail!

630 / 1360

He had an axe. He would bring the metal blade up close to his face while he thought Verdandi wasn't looking. Just close enough that he could hear it, in case it was whispering. Getting to know your partners for a mission like this was important. Especially considering that trauma he had remembered earlier. Chigetsu didn't think he would be able to stand it if this axe started singing suddenly while he was working with it. Best to sort that out now. He could pass off his weirdness as inspecting the blade. Despite how close he brought it to his face though there would be nothing. No sounds. Not a whisper. Not even a meep. Chigetsu frowned. This was strange. He could already hear Verdandi's pickaxe chattering away. He hated those things so much. He did his best to ignore it. Maybe this axe was shy? That must have been it. It would make sense, not wanting to speak up when in the company of a noisy pickaxe.  
Splitting up on their tasks made Chigetsu's pursuit of this axe easier. He was behaving too strangely in the moment, likely just worrying Verdandi with his weirdness as the issue of talking weapons floated around in his mind. Any responses he gave to her reassurance would be fragmented, and it clear that he wasn't thinking the straightest. Now that he was alone with the axe, with the exception of his kunai, he could whisper lovingly into the blade in an attempt to draw out its shy personality. "It's alright... You don't need to be shy, I won't hurt you..." He would coo into the steel.

Still nothing.

When it became time to work Chigetsu would be forced to give up. Even if it was refusing to speak to him he would still be able to use it for its intended purpose. He was supposed to be chopping down logs. The cart that he had drug behind himself would be settled at the edge of the forest, and he would work inwards from the edge. No reason to go too deep into the forest when there could be potentially monsters. All these dead trees would burn the same anyhow. As long as he didn't make too much noise-

As he readied up his first swing with the axe Chigetsu would flinch. Suddenly it had decided to start speaking to him, shrieking out incomprehensible nonsense. He almost got a chance to react to it before the branch came down upon him from above, smashing his watery form to the ground. His body squished and squelched back up to form a meter or two backwards, his squished form squirming backward. His reluctance to go deeper into the forest was apparently meaningless, as there was now a monster right in front of him. Looking up now he could see it. Nearly fifty feet tall. It was the remnants of an oak tree, animated by the vile energies that seemed to flow freely around this nightmare land. His screaming axe would be clenched tightly in his hands, and Chigetsu would stare up with narrowed eyes at the shambling monster. It seemed to still be rooted in the ground, completely immobile despite its thrashing about. Its branches had an incredible reach to them though, and even where Chigetsu was standing now wasn't safe. The shambling nightmare would unleash fury down upon him, one wooden tendril after another bend send down with the intent to crush the boy who dared to brandish an axe in its presence. The first branch that came down would be sidestepped, Chigetsu taking a wide hop to the left in order to be out of range of the branch's girth. Two more came down on top of it, but Chigetsu was already gone at that point. Faster and more agile than the wooden creature, he had taken the opportunity of the branches crashing down to run inwards. The axe would be prepared as he approached the trunk, Chigetsu taking a chunk from the demon tree with his running chop. An inhuman screech would leak from it that rang through the forest, one that only increased in intensity as he slammed the blade of the axe into the trunk again. The branch that had been sent in to stop him would impale straight through his gut, piercing in through his back while he was busy swinging the axe. The attempt to pull him away would be futile though. The branch simply slipped right out of him as it attempted to pull him back, slipping out of his stomach and allowing a focused Chigetsu another swing towards the demon tree.  

Splinters and goo cover the ground. An intense cracking rang out through the air. The monster tree would shake. Three chops of the axe wouldn't have normally been enough, but with how the tree had been swaying back and forth in its attempts to throw Chigetsu away from its trunk it had widened the split considerably. Its swaying sent the tree backwards, the split caused by the axe cracking open wider and wider and wider... It fell, collapsing backwards into several trees that were behind it. After taking a moment to dust himself off Chigetsu would walk forward, inspecting the felled beast. A few extra swings with the axe would ensure it truly had died. He would sigh. The process of separating the felled tree into pieces and loading it into the wagon would be started slowly, along with the trees behind it that had been crushed down. The axe seemed to quiet down after the monstrous tree was defeated, and Chigetsu would sigh in relief as it stopped screaming.  

---

[956/1682]

Chakra 180/190 | Hydration 13/15:

The first three down, Haka stapled them one onto the other and took a scroll from her belt pouch. Rolling it open, she proceeded to channel an inkling of chakra to seal the warg into the scroll. With a poof of smoke, the warg disappeared, only blood and patches of fur betraying a brief battle had taken place in this area. Tucking the scroll away again, Haka then moved in search of new targets as she doubted three warg would suffice to feed the villagers as a whole as from their looks, they could probably eat a whole warg each on their own. Haka certainly would, having seen their build. All that fur, lean muscles and bones. It didn't look like there was much sustenance for a spider in them.

Wandering through the dead trees with eerie bony fingers, a chopping sound echoed in the distance. Carried far by the dead quiet environment, distorted by this domain itself, there was no saying who or what was causing this or where it would origin from. It certainly invited another pack of warg to stretch their legs, stand tall and have their ears trying to figure out where it would come from, imagining an easy meal to hunt down. Stepping into sight, the pack of five would be facing their own predator before they had a chance at taking down the eager lumberjack on his own. Attention instantly shifting in unison, five pair of eyes were dead set on Haka, their bodies low to the ground as they growled menacingly. Spreading out to surround her, Haka plucked water out of the lingering mist to create a clone that could cover her back.

Standing back to back, surrounded by the warg, there was a moment of assessing as the wolf-like creatures seemed to reflect an inkling of doubt about dealing with two monsters like Haka. That doubt would not remain for long as the first one jumped in to strike, setting in motion a brief but hard battle. Stepping out of the first line of attack, Haka moved to strike at the second warg nearby, kunai at the ready to wound the beast as deep as she could. In the meantime, another warg went to strike the clone and was met with sweeping kick in its flank that left it dazed. As the first warg landed, the second one was ripped open and the third one hit the floor, shaking its head as if it tried to shake away an unbelievable experience. The warg's formation was already broken, sending their strategies in disarray and forcing them to act upon instinct in an unfamiliar situation.

One of the warg looked to be in panic, indecisive about striking left or right as it faced the clone. The fifth one tried to hit Haka from behind, but its vicious snarl betrayed its intention. Back-flipping over the warg, she would form a one hand-seal as it turned around, striking the warg with a blob of water that would munch away at its face. At that same time, the clone would be occupied beating up another warg with a series of relentless strikes and kicks, barely paying attention to whatever could come after it. Two were left to deal with, a hint of intelligence reflecting in the eyes of the warg as they looked about their dead partners in the hunt. Haka brushed her hair out of her eyes, staring back with apathy as she waited for their decision.

One would eventually howl to call in reinforcements, the two of them keeping an eye on the white-haired girls to pin them down. Good. If they weren't about to attack, Haka and the clone would wait until they heard the others approach. It would mean less movement to achieve a better hunt. Though the mist shrouded their approach, in between the echoing resonance of chopped trees, Haka could hear snarls and howls herald the approach of even more warg. Quite a lot more warg, in fact, as it would not just be a couple of allies but even a bigger specimen coming to their aid.

---

693
Total: 2076

140/200, Clone: 20/20:

While Haka was about to kills half the warg clan by herself. Chi would be chopping the monster trees that were attacking him. Verd had yet to make proper acquaintance with the golem in front of her. Worried about her shovelled resources, she was pushing the cart ahead of her while he was chasing her up the corridors of the cave system. This wasn't good. The weight of the cart was too much for her to actually keep proper speed. With a slightly disgruntled sigh she'd let go off the cart just to hear the golem crash into it behind her and scattering the resources she had been working on within the last thirty minutes all over the place.

Since Verd had places the main cart right in front of the entrance, she knew, if she tried to outrun the guy, he would set the same fate onto that as well. Eventually making all progress that Verd had achieved by now completely useless. While she was running the beast behind her seemed to become faster. It quickly grabbed on the walls of the cave tunnels and jumped his way through the various paths like a gorilla. This was his home. He was literally in his element here. He was ripping apart certain edges and corners of the stone walls properly implicating that his strength was far off the charts of being healthy for Verdandi. B-Rank? A-Rank? When his fists hit the walls, they would crumble instantly. It was very evident. Being hit by that guy would prove to be heavily unhealthy.

However his superior strength seemed to come at a certain price. Verd realizes that whenever she took a turn into another cave side path, he would stop in the corner and take his time to adjust and search for her before his strength would quickly catapult his body back down the pathway and catch up again. His reaction time and perception were horrible. Good, perfect. Verdandi would yet have to test her theory and she wasn’t going to do it by herself. If she was wrong in her suspicion he would suddenly catch her and crush her in his palm. With a few simple hand signs a water clone would rise from the bottom of the cave and look at Verd. That moment she slowly stepped back into a corner that would give her a little protection from being easily seen.

As the golem came crashing down again and made a new hole in the wall he crashed into. He proceeded to look around as usual and see a Verdandi. The clone would proceed to run her way down the next path and the golem quickly took the bait. For a moment there, Verd was considering to use the chance of being unnoticed now and just walk out of the cave leaving the large stone buddy to chase the clone until it’s distance to Verd would become too large and she’d explode back into a puddle of water….. But if the villagers wanted to return to this mine and be able to get the ressources by themselves. That would mean this creature had to go.

Verdandi sighed and turned back around. Making the clone move into a corner where the large monster would slowly move up against her. Using the chance to have his back turned against Verdandi she took a deep breath and unleashed a freakishly large pool of water from her palm. Due to the confined space that the cave system provided. The water would rapidly fill the whole room and cover all, Golem, clone and Verdandi trapped within it.

The water would soon come in contact with Verdandi’s Hyouton breath and freeze. The reaction was quick and nasty. The water body froze before gravity would completely move the water and spread it into the tunnels. Once accomplished, Verd would exhale a wind breath from her lips and slowly use her Hyouton control to melt the ice around herself. Swimming her way out of the frozen cage to drop back onto solid stone pathway. As she stared back to see the now completely ice trapped golem. She was almost content for a minute. But it wouldn’t be that easy it seemed…. As the earth started to shake and under a loud, monstrous scream the whole body of ice would break as the raw body of power would allow the golem to break free. As it came in surprise, his fist would not only shatter the glassy ice around his body but also come down flying towards Verdandi’s frame. She could barely move a bit backward and raise her armour as the fist hit her body. Propelling her with a huge strength to the next wall, splatting the princess against it in an obviously painful act.


800 / 2160

Chakra, 150/200:

The tree had been quieted. Cut down. Chopped into pieces. Killed. Everything was good. Chigetsu was satisfied. Cutting it down hadn't been difficult in the slightest, only needing three swings of his axe. He would have expected such a mighty oak tree would need more than that, but perhaps that was just a testament to his strength? He had grown and become stronger. Yes, that must have been it. He was just that strong, chopping down the tree in that manner. Fighting through the soreness of the trees surprise attack had made chopping the oak corpse into tiny little fireplace sized chunks difficult, but not that hard. After all, Chugetsu was strong. He had proven such through the felling of that mighty tree-beast. He was truly strong. So strong. Strong, strong, strong...

Wait.  

He worked his shoulders a little bit, rotating them in their sockets. Soreness. Why did he feel sore? That branch had struck into him before but he had liquefied in time. Liquefying reactively to something like that should have been easy. Effortless. He could have done it in his sleep. Perhaps this strange world was messing with his hydrification, or there was some deep internal existential dread inside Chigetsu that was causing him pain. Although it seems like that latter thing would be something he'd be aware of before this point. His wondering about pain would cease very quickly though as another rumbling rumbled up from the forests. The same face of pure rage that had marked the first tree that Chigetsu felledcopy-pasteden copy pasted on what seemed to be every tree that Chigetsu could see. He swallowed.  Chigetsu would go still, staring up at the branches. There must have been a hundred trees now all squirming in pure rage, surely angered by the slaughter of one of their kind. The remains of the tree were all still visible, separated into small chunks in the wagon. They surely saw what he had done. A thousand branches came down upon Chigetsu, showering him in wooden fury. All he could feel was pain. He was slammed down into the ground, nowhere to escape. There wasn't a single direction that wasn't filled with wooden branches. Each slam down pushed him further and further into the dirt. A hole was being dug into the ground from the force of each impact, Chigetsu nothing more than a screaming puddle at the bottom of it. He was beginning to have an existential crisis beat into him. There shouldn't have been any pain at all with him liquefied into a puddle like this, screaming as loud as he could. But it surged through his body, and all he could do was flail about and pray that his pathetic life would end. Minutes passed. Unfortunately, he didn't.

"Chigetsu." The axe was screaming along with him again. It was difficult to hear, but he vaguely recognized the voice of his kunai. His throat was beginning to become hoarse. "You're dreaming, Chigetsu. You're going to drown. Stand up." He struggled against the torrent of branches and wood. Every time one came down it would be replaced by another. It was too much to handle. Standing was impossible, or even forming any sort of jutsu to defend himself with. "Do you remember catching on fire?"

"Oh."

If it wasn't for how much pain he was in he would confess his undying love for his kunai on the spot. Using his beaten and battered torso as cover Chigetsu would form his arms together. "Genjutsu Kai." He would shout down into the dirt. Everything would go quiet. The pain would stop, disappearing from his body as if it was never there. He felt fine, except for his throat. All that screaming he had done had been very real. He lay face down in the dirt, having apparently squirmed and thrashed so much into the ground that he ripped all of the strange grass that had been growing in the area. Dirt covered his face and body. Standing up he would see that the angry trees would all have returned to being lifeless. The one that he had battled earlier, chopping into pieces, had disappeared entirely from his cart. His chopping from earlier revealed itself to be against errant trees, spread around among the few that were to his right.

He sighed. Muddy and hoarse, he would have to restart from the beginning.

---

[743/2425]

Chakra 130/190 | Hydration 15/15:

What would follow in the wake of the howl would pretty much have been a zombie rush. But with wolves. From all sides in the forest, snarls and growls were approaching quickly. Too much for Haka to even bother counting. She would take some of the blood from the bite wound she previously suffered, mingle it with her chakra and slam it on the ground. Symbols of summoning would cover the immediate vicinity from which trapped shadows seemed to come to alive to form the quiet presence of another member of the Spider Clan - Ameya.

There was no need to explain her what her job would be as she instantly picked up the sounds of the rampaging hoard that was coming their way. As the first shapes became visible in the mist, the clone and the summon prepared to deal with the first incoming attacks. Kunai and bladed legs slashed and danced, the first few warg falling wounded on the floor before they were mercifully ended. Then came the rest. As the hoard enclosed them, Haka webbed the area around her, covering it for 15m around her in sticky webbing typical to the Spider Clan. Instantly having their speed cut down harshly, some of the warg toppled over whereas other decided to leap in the air. At the same time, the clone and the summon found their movement sharply increased. Their new speeds barely perceivable, the two flashed over the web to deal with the warg.

One by one they would fall. Stuck to a crawl, taken out mid-air. No warg from the horde was spared. The few that succeeded to break through the dancing defence, overwhelming the two killers by sheer amount, ended up receiving a beating by the web weaver herself before they were pushed back into the web and dealt with by an overly eager Ameya who ceased the opportunity of an easy kill. Little by little the web became filled with dead warg. Then arrived the larger version of the species.

Allowing the web to fall away and reclaiming the chakra from her clone, Haka would move to face the large warg along side Ameya. The specimen easily took a 5 ft height, with its spiky feral hair making it look bigger still. It's vicious maw could probably snap the spider in twain with slightest of efforts, murky drool dripping out of its mouth in anticipation of a meal it already claimed victory over. Unimpressed with Haka's monstrous aura, the beast stepped closer. Sharp claws kissing the ground just barely, its weight leaving large footprints where it had once stood.

Both of them dashing forward, the two groups clashed.

Faster than its brethren and quite stronger, its first clawing hit Haka's defensive posture hard enough for her feet to slide over the ground for a meter before she could bring the impact the a stand still. As it was occupied beating on Haka, Ameya skittered under the wolf to strike at one of its legs. Though the hit connected and left a wound, the warg jumped up with a snarl before crashing down upon the tiny assassin. Narrowly dodging the strike, she wove a strand of web for her to climb upon the warg himself while Haka aimed to make his other leg bleed. Another slam of its front paw prevented Haka from hitting it, but even Ameya's clever attempt to find a weak spot was thwarted as his vicious maw turned about to snap at her, driving her away from his neck.

"Take the hind legs.", Haka ordered in her native speech, upon which Ameya slid off the warg's back while she was once more trying an assault on its front leg to keep his attention. As soon as Ameya would be in position, Haka webbed his healthy front leg. The web was too small to catch the whole warg, but even with one of its legs stuck to the ground, the alpha's movement was heavily impeded. Though its free front paw still posed a threat, his hind legs could not as easily be protected and gave Ameya free game to start slicing away at its legs. It was far from the merciless approach most spiders tended to follow, but the size of the warg just made it impossible for the two tiny creatures to find a different solution. Hopping about in pain and trying to kick the assassin away, it didn't cease to snarl and growl at Haka who had been looking for an opportunity to slice open its throat all this time, and ultimately found the perfect one when Ameya hopped once more onto the warg to try hitting its neck.

Like a perfect tandem, the moment it reared its head to snap at Ameya, Haka jumped up to wound its neck. As thick black blood poured out, it turned its head again to find the source of its pain and punish it, upon which Ameya sunk her chakra-infused legs deeply into the back of its neck. Bleeding from two sides, exhaustion creeped upon the warg as his life flowed out of his body until his legs could no longer hold it up. Its body dropped on the floor, the warg howling in agony during his throes of death. The two spiders looked quietly how the warg alpha would die a slow death, none of their abilities or weapons able to get deep enough through fur and skin to sever its head or pierce its heart.

The whole place littered with dead warg, Ameya would grab a corpse for herself without a word, glaring briefly at Haka as a form of goodbye before she undid the summoning's effects. Running her hand through her white hair to brush it away, she would start the slow process of stapling warg, unrolling a scroll and sealing the corpses within it.

---

984
Total: 3060

110/200:

Verdandi would wake up from what must have been a short black out. The golem had deemed her as dead after punching her to the wall. Verdandi realized quickly that her full powered armour with intense chakra inside, was crumbling from her. If she had not protected herself, she would have certainly suffered multiple bone fractures. But as the armour did it’s job, it was but only the impact of Verd’s body that had shocked her and probably cut her off breath for a bit. Shaking her head she would put a finger on her forehead and measure if she was suffering a concussion, but she was not.

While the golem killed the water clone and started to violently beat his palms into the remains of it’s puddle. Verd would catch herself and stare at the beast. The frost had removed a very distinctive outer layer of the golem’s clay clad skin, revealing his rock skeleton and a glowing stone with runes on it at the centre. Verd would quickly jump forward and bury her sword in between a few stones, but her first attempt to catch the rune was unsuccessful. Bothered by the prospect of loosing like this, Dandi would yet realize that the ground was still massively soaked in water from the remains of her archerfish. The golem had broken the ice but all it did was melt and return to water. The quantity had dispersed into the ground quite a bit but they were still standing in quite a puddle of liquid.

Verd would swing her blade and jump up over the golem. Slicing her blade, as futile as it was, over his stone ridden skeleton. While he shook and tried to catch the fly that was annoying him. Verd would use her superior reaction skill to gracefully evade him. She didn’t plan on getting caught a second time in surprise and soon, she could make her way to his head. Standing right on top of it she would stomp down and saw that he was about to shake and try to get her off. But before he could. Verd would shove her blade with almost surgical precision into his neck slit of that stone clad rock skeleton, blocking his atlas-like stone made bone and obviously making it impossible for him to move his head anymore.

He pawed above his head and tried to catch Verdandi again as to whim left her sword inside the atlas crack and gracefully slid down his back onto the floor. Forming the seals, she would proceed to prepare her Hyouton chakra and the moment the golem turned around. A huge number of spikes would rake from the water clad floor and directly hit into every stone-bone separation she could find. As the spikes grew bigger they would slowly pin the golem back to the wall behind him. He was already mustering up the strength to break the ice spears but Verd had already achieved her goal. The opening he had created was easily big enough for Verd to cast her water palm blades and using that strength to cut a hole in his chest. With this the rune was visible and accessible from the front and Verdandi just sped forward, as his arms broke through the ice. Again, he tried to crush the fly between his huge stone palms but Verd could easily evade and use the chance to slide towards the broken opening in his chest and snatch the run. Ripping it from it’s hold and causing a large guttural groan and scream to escape the creature.

While his former body slowly crumbled, Verd held the rune in her hands and then slowly fell on her butt. Breathing hard from certain exhaustion and making it clear that this had, by far, not been an easy task for her. She would take a short nap to recover. It was fine.

After her regeneration cycle was past. She could feel the rune in her hand beaming with chakra. Verd had a sudden but fun idea. Out of the golems remains she would shape a very very small mini-version of the golem and place the rune stone back into it’s chest. The stone that seemed to work like a heart, was half the size of the new mini-golem. The confused little monster roared and tried to hit Verandi but he barely even had an E-Rank strength left. Now that’s gonna be a fun toy to bring home.


750 / 2910

Chakra 125 / 200:

Trees would be chopped down. Normally this time. None of them were all too large, dehydrated and desiccated as a default. The wood was easy to tear apart and would burn well. Why exactly this forest was full of dead trees was unknown though. With how moist the air was lack of rainfall seemed unlikely. The quality of the wood didn't make it seem like some wildfire brushed past here either, although Chigetsu was no expert in this sort of thing. His only guess would be that the soil was especially poor, or that some sort of poison had been poured into it as some point which resulted in all these dead trees. It was something to wonder about as he completed the manual labor, which was by no means enjoyable. The tedious work of chopping down each individual tree, separating it into log sized pieces, and then loading it into the cart wasn't quick or easy, but at the same time he didn't have to devote the entirety of his mind to it. His body could move on its own, going through the motions of each task. That it made him a bit sloppy didn't particularly matter. He accidentally chopped his own hand off once or twice, but that was only a minor inconvenience. Limbs could be reattached easily.  

Once the wagon was filled his job would be done. Everything would be arranged neatly, the cart stacked to the top and overflowing somewhat. Hopefully this would be enough. Several logs had been cut to match the length of the cart and were placed in the bottom, in case there was a need for construction material. Chigetsu would dust himself off, brushing a bit of the wood dust off his hands. The reins of the cart would be taken over his shoulders, and he would prepare the long journey of hauling it all back to the village.  

Pink. It was then that he noticed his body was pink. In his peripheral vision he had noticed it just barely but shrugged it off earlier. Now it was much more apparent. He stared down at his palms. Pink. His arms and his legs and torso. Even his clothing now. Pink. His palms would collide into his face. The blood that had been coloring his hair red must have spread through his body while he was sloshing around on the ground. Apparently with its red coloring diluted it had turned his entire form this light pink color. After a bit of internal struggle it would be ignored. Trudging back to the village was more important. The taunting of his weapons would be ignored too, although with greater difficulty. Having their voices in his ear wasn't as easy to block out as his own thoughts. The cart would be pulled back along the path. He wouldn't get very far before he saw the need to defend himself, and quickly he would begin arguing back and forth with his kunai.

---

[501/2926]

Finally finishing sealing the entire haul within scrolls, Haka felt quite annoyed about this. Hunting was one thing, but hunting for another's sake was not something she would do again soon. These pitiful humans would have to fend for themselves from now on. If not, she would make sure they would never need to hunt anymore. At all. It would matter little at that point if these humans had been punished by Sero or not as such weak specimen would not be worth anything to her Creator either way.

Making her way back to the village under the cadenced echo of wood being chopped down, the spider-nin returned with mild annoyance. She paid little attention to the hefty scratches from being beaten up by the alpha wolf, or the bite wound from an earlier warg. In fact, after this whole battle she looked a little scruffy all over, but that didn't bother her as much as having to hunt down prey for another's sake. She was not a caretaker. She was an Unmei, a huntress, the living weapon of her Creator.

Arriving at the village the spider would jump over the gate, not bothered with waiting until it was opened or even caring what the guards were shouting. One of them had the audacity to point at her, trying to scold her she was not to jump over the gate without a proper confirmation of identity, and met an untimely death as she drove partially shifted spider fangs into his neck to inject a burning venom. As he stumbled about, gasping in pain and shock, she finished him off without a word, kunai finding the throat of the helpless man easily. As his blood soaked the earth that formed the street, she moved on to the central square, suddenly once more associated with 'Lord Osada'.

Arriving at centre square, the spider would move on the edge of the fountain and sit down, legs stretched, arms resting on the cold stone, taking on a rather sassy way of sitting as she waited for the other two to appear. The fountain itself looked much like the one of Osada manor, stone cold, empty of fluid and mostly broken and worn on various spots. The similarities alone were enough sign for the spider-nin to understand that, indeed, Sero had his hand in the construction of this world somehow but she had yet to figure out how he had done so.

---

412
Total: 3472

Verdandi returned to the village with her own cart. She had overfilled it to the brim, not unlike Chi did with his wood. The two of them would enter by the gate and move the resource carts towards a storage room. The villagers were quick to start tearing the resources apart and starting to use them to fix their own houses. The village’s head cook was already busy with a bunch of scroll sealed meat, implying that Haka had finished her duty as well. The villagers seemed to avoid her in a large radius though. Since the corpse had been removed Chi and Verd wouldn’t be able to tell what exactly happened after Haka arrived. But the silent mood around the village was making Verd feel concerned. She could easily notice it when people were feeling different than before and those villagers were scared to death instead of being overjoyed by the resources that were brought forth.

Verd kept eye contact with Haka, she would know that Dandi did not approve of it. Despite being very aware that those men here were mostly pathetic material. The village leader however had done Verd’s bidding and raised a new set of troops out of the somewhat meat ridden men. They would all get to eat for a few days now. A lot. It’d probably not be enough just yet but it’d be a start. Meanwhile the little golem that Verdandi had captured in the mines would run around village and kick people randomly in the shin or try to punch their feet. He was tiny and weak. He wouldn’t be able to harm anyone much. But it was still amusing to see how he could distress some of them with his bare attitude. If Verd didn’t already have a pet waiting at home she would take him with her.

His body had by now consumed the rune that seemed to be the source of his life power. His eyes turned shiny purple and yet he was still just the size of a ball. Many villagers would kick him away as to what he would roll into a corner visibly confused and shaken up, before he’d get back up and try to punch someone else. After finishing their cart delivery Verd moved up to the little monster and pointed the very sword at him that severed his atlas from his neck before Verd sliced his stones apart to get his heart. The golem seemed intimidated by the sword that brought defeat to him and eventually sat down on his stone ass next to Haka at the fountain. Verdandi walked up to her too and Chi would eventually follow suit. Then again, Chi seemed to be somewhat distracted this time. Not sure what was going on Verd would assess the situation. “All starter resources are delivered. The soldiers are ready for guard duty. Food should last for a start. Prolly need more soon though. Everything went ok with you guys? I stumbled upon a new friend as you can see.” Pointing at the little tame golem looking depressed for being put into submission here.

While they were discussing she motioned the village leader to come forth. In her usual commanding and certainly demanding voice she told him to fix up one of his empty sheds as a place for them to stay overnight and some of the cook’s meals that he was fixing up already. Verd was tired and hungry. They would need rest for a few hours. After this gathering they would be able to grab some food and rest.

"Also... Chi? Why are you pink?"



600 / 3510

OOC:

It was impossible to not notice the strange attitude that the villages had when he returned to the village. They avoided eye contact as he approached, giving him a large berth as he hauled the cart back beyond the gates. Only once he let the cart come to a rest and walked away would they approach, timidly coming up to the cart, and once they saw Chigetsu wasn't going to reach out and bite them they would tear into the resources he had brought with him. It was hunger. They all stank of desperation, like starved dogs. They also all stank something fierce in terms of general stank, likely from not bathing in a long time. He was rather glad they were keeping a distance from him. He couldn't really see them with anything more than disdain, tools that were so dull and useless. If they had shown a little bit more backbone than maybe there would have been something worth respecting, but as it was they were barely worthy of being called human.

Still, helping them wasn't something he minded either. Completing a job like this felt good. He was able to be useful. He had been the last one to finish and return with the logs, and so he would be able to greet Haka and Verdandi. Greet wasn't really the right word, actually. Haka was planted firmly on the edge of the fountain, and Chigetsu would give a respectful nod in her direction. Verdandi, who seemed to be engaged in some sort of staring contest with the other girl, would get a strange look from Chigetsu. Whatever it was he knew better than to get in the middle of it. Not escaping his notice, the little rock monster that seemed to be terrorizing the village now would be given a glance. Strange. Didn't seem like too much of an issue though, at least not one that he should be concerned with. He would shrug his shoulders and focus then on dusting the dried dirt off his shins.  

Seeing Verdandi take a place next to Haka Chigetsu would follow. Rather than sitting on the edge he would simply slide in though, laying down on the stone where the water would normally be. When seeing fountains like this he was always half tempted to climb inside and treat it as a fun little ride, but unfortunately this one didn't seem functional. The stone would be cool and comfortable to lay against though, and in a moment of relaxation Chigetsu would reduce to a pink puddle inside the fountain. Despite having melted he would still be able to speak, his voice bubbling out of his spread-out form as he was questioned. "I hate genjutsu." Would be his response, said through a wet-sounding voice. "I hate it." He wouldn't give much of an explanation past that. The golem that was pointed out would be enough for the pink goo to rise somewhat from the fountain, peeking out over the lip. A similarly pink eyeball appeared out from its gooey depths to stare out towards the golem, and once Chigetsu-goo got a solid look he would relax back against the stone. The rest of the conversing Chigetsu paid little attention too. Meals and a place to stay would be a good start, but he would want to squeeze these villagers out for more than just that.

"Also... Chi? Why are you pink?"

The pink goo-blob would shift. It would shiver for a moment before squelching up to take the humanoid form of Chigetsu once again, sitting cross legged against the stone fountain. He would stare at Verdandi after she answered her question. That he had been thrashing around in the dirt from a genjutsu so hard that the blood in his hair spread all throughout his body wasn't something he could tell her. His mouth would open somewhat, and then he would close it. He didn't know how to respond.  

"Camouflage." It was the first explanation he could think of. It was an absolutely horrible lie, but he had already committed to it by saying it. Chigetsu was sweating now. He could only hope she wouldn't ask any further questions.

---

[712/3638]

The people had dragged away the corpse of the volunteer she had killed. A man barely worth to be called a guard. They had then shuffled the blood-soaked dirt with the rest of the streets as good as they possibly could, giving the entrance a slightly darker tint than it already was. If by day no one would see it, then by night it would not be any different. But people talked, and the news spread fast. If the gossip was not about 'Lord Osada' having killed a man, then it was about 'Lord Osada' being here and being as cruel as they had always known. Both resulted in them preferring to avoid the Unmei that looked much like him.

Sitting on the edge of the fountain, the whole area was thus empty of people. Haka was used to having her aura drive away people, but this was absurd. The people would have crawled through their buildings if they could avoid the market by doing so. They avoided the central area like the plague, body clinging to the buildings that were spread around it and sliding along the walls step by step, great fear in their eyes as they didn't lose Haka out of sight for one second. As if ignorant what was going on, Haka merely gazed back tracing every of their movement until they ran away into the streets again. Perhaps one indulging in the terror they sew would enjoy the show, but Haka found it loathsome at best. Really. What did Sero do to these people, and why did he keep them here in the first place?

The people would eventually move to help out Verdandi and Chigetsu in a dead silenced way, telling the human right away that something happened. As a result, she already shot Haka a disapproving glare even though she had no idea what was going on. Brushing her hair out of her eyes, Haka would stand up for a moment and meet there where they gathered the resources. She would roll open the scrolls and unseal its content, filling the streetsh with a 20-ish dead warg and a huge specimen on top of that before returning to her stone seat to watch how the walking corpses eagerly helped out to share and store the gathered resources. They were like rats trying to gorge them on a quickly rotting corpse, not caring to plan ahead about maintaining their consumption. Were it not for Verdandi's decision to gather up a small militia, these people would have remained without arms and armour to hunt for themselves even now.

Verdandi would come to sit with her, Chi following suit to sit in the empty fountain. Haka would briefly turn her head to eye the pink hue the Chigetsu had gained now, and watched how he gooified himself into a puddle of pink. He really was made of pudding, wasn't he? Haka would start poking the goo-getsu, not sure herself if she was driven by curiosity or a need to pester the boy. At the same time, she replied to Verdandi's question about their well-being with a "Haka's fine. Are you?", more so to maintain human etiquette than really wondering. She already knew Verdandi was fine, considering there was no scratch to be seen but humans had the strange idea to ask questions with obvious answers.

Chigetsu didn't seem fine once the question was asked, mumbling on about how he hated genjutsu though not elaborating on its reasons. Genjutsu was a tricky thing to fight, that much was true. Haka had suffered Loiralane's genjutsu before and she had not exactly liked what the mind weaver had done to her in that mental trap. But unlike other ways of fighting, it had not exactly hurt her. It had sapped her of her strength and will to fight. That sort of combat allowed the spider to dominate her enemies much easier, a tactic that intrigued the little spider in turn.

"Dominate what you hate and turn it against your enemies."

It was a philosophy Haka had lived by several times now. She had done so with suiton and katon, she would do so with genjutsu too. Only the strong had the rights to dominate. Those who could turn the weapons of their enemies against them had proven to survive their enemies and be strong enough to retaliate in kind. Such people had the potential to surpass those that had tried to defeat them. They had the right to dominate.

Puddle-getsu was then asked why he was pink, and replied with "camouflage" as a reason. A reason that didn't make sense to Haka, as camouflage meant you took on the colours of your environment. That was why she was misty grey in colour. To blend in with the mist, the bleak leaves and the dead. She doubted Chigetsu understood the proper way of camouflage and commented on that, "Camouflage lacks dark brown.". Having said that, she stopped poking him and bend over to grab two hands of dirty soil from the streets. She'd then move her hands above Chigetsu and drop it on him to see if he'd become dark brown with that. If he avoided it, the dirt would simply fill the fountain as the spider would not bother to move her hands.

---

899
Total: 4371

Verdandi sighed to herself. Haka knew very well that Verd was angry about the murder... or sacrifice or whatever and yet she also seemed to know exactly how to avoid Verd in that topic. Dandi couldn’t bother enough to really make a big deal out of it now. Watching the hungry men gather around the cook’s tent as they swallowed what seemed like weeks’ worth of meat in one go. Verd made big eyes. Despite the insane amount of meat Haka had torn up from the wolf fields, Verd could tell this wasn’t going to last. While Chi and Haka socialized in their own way. Verd got up and grabbed the village leader gently by his shirt, whom just submissively put a large bowl of cooked meat and rice into the well-prepared shack of the squad.

Since he had done a good job, Verd was actually nice to him. Telling him that his men deserved some good food and that they should meat themselves back up again. While she was sipping on a glass of wine one of the other maggots of men brought to her, she lifted the list of urgent to do’s in her own palm. Wood and clay were certainly done for a few. Verd explained to him how he would have to organize hauls to get clay from the upper mine levels and wood from the nearby forest if they run out of supplies. Then she made sure to put up some basic repair requests for his head carpenters. Some of the walls and houses had seen better days and Verd, due to her tasks in Yuki no Kuni, namely in Heidel, was sort of an expert in rebuilding pretty worn-down places.

She made a clear paper of instructions towards how the wall had to be reinforced properly with the clay and which guard towers were most important to be rebuilt. She also commanded for the elder to add another 10 soldiers to the guard ranks by the end of the week. The ones he had selected up until today would be designated as hunters. “I’m going to take them with me on wolves hunt and teach them how it’s done. Make sure they have crossbows and swords ready by tomorrow morning.” She ordered in her stern, somewhat arrogant but certainly effective voice. The villager leader seemed overjoyed. Someone was doing his job for him and doing good so far. His resource shacks were full and the cook was actually feeding the whole village with an almost non-stop supply of steak tonight.

Before the leader could walk off. The little golem would walk up to him and punch him in the shin. The leader would jump a few times in pure agony while golem gave him that “What ya gonna do about it?” kind of look. But he just huddled away towards the steaks in slight pain. Verd had chosen a name for their newest companion. Pebbles. He’d be of good use to them. So, he followed after the ice princess as she made her way to their own private shack. It’d be refurnished with comfortable beds. Candles for light. Scented ones to make the stench of the place somewhat less intense and three bowls of rice with plenty of wolf steak on the table.

She winked for her squaddies to join her. Where she would chat about tomorrows plans. Her idea to go hunt with the townsmen. Eating herself back up to energy and eventually. Going to get a well earned, nice long nap.

[EXIT]

600 / Total WC: 4110

WC Usage:

"Dominate what you hate and turn it against your enemies."


Yes. Yes, that was something Chigetsu could do. Take everything he hated and forge a whetstone out of it, sharpening his blade. His weaknesses would turn into the demise of his enemies. Taking each challenge that faced him and sharpen himself further on it until it becomes just another thing he can cut through. He shouldn't stop until he could slice right though genjutsu.

He twitched, his goo form shivering a bit. Whenever his kunai's thoughts and his own aligned that strongly it sent electricity down his spine afterwards. It was hard to tell sometimes where his thoughts ended and the whispering of his kunai began. Haka's poking would serve as a method to distract him from that, fortunately. He was still pretty gooey, despite being in his humanoid form. Each time she poked him his texture would change. First it would be as putty, and then the texture of thick aloe, and then just like water, and then as thick and sticky as maple syrup. It was a fun little game. Caught up in it, Chigetsu didn't notice what she was doing with the dirt until it was poured onto his head. Since the dirt wasn't a liquid it wouldn't be absorbed directly into him and would sit in a small pile on top of his head. The liquid that had been in the dirt would be absorbed after a few moments though, turning what she had poured onto him into a dry dirty powder. Just to amuse Haka he would take it a step further. After liquefying the dirt into a brown goo, it would be absorbed into his body through his head, and after a few moments his color would shift from light pink over into a dark brown. Immediately he felt filthy and regretted it.  

The now brown-getsu would frown. Reaching out he would give Haka a pat on the head, leaving a bit of his dirty mud goo on her head afterwards. If she dodged out of the way he would sigh, collapsing back into a puddle in the fountain. "The camouflage worked, but I need a bath now. I doubt there's any sort of running water around here... Maybe a river?" If it wasn't the monsters and traps here that killed him it would probably be that. Eventually so much filth will have entered his body that he'll be all garbage and no Chigetsu. A terrible disgusting way to die, being consumed by trash and filth.

Mudgetsu would follow as Verdandi called for them to follow. The scent of food was enough to snap him out of his mud-induced despair, and he would form up into a muddy person before stepping out of the fountain and walking over to the shack that had been prepared for them. He left footprints of mud along where he stepped. With how he was now there was no way he could sleep in a bed, and so he would simply excuse himself to the floor rather than completely ruin the sheets that had been prepared for him. Spreading out into a puddle of mud under the bed that had been prepared for him was more comfortable anyway.

---

[EXIT]
[550/4921]
[-2000 Mission]
[-1200 Extra Ryo]
[-1700 wc: Saving]

Slightly disappointed at the fact the mud didn't just get absorbed, it remained an interesting little thing to know nonetheless. Chigetsu didn't take up hard materials unwillingly, as far as dirt and earth could be considered as such. The process of liquefying the dirt and taking it up was a slow process that required some thought to it, but eventually Chigetsu would turn brown instead of pink. A much better camouflage, even if Haka would be the only one to think so. Chigetsu didn't look as impressed, preferring a bath above a good camouflage. His loss.

"There are small streams in the forest.", she said pointing in the direction from where she had entered the village upon her return. The mist, the rain, the place was dreary enough to hold sufficient amounts of water. Small springs sprang up, created small streams of water barely worth calling rivers, but there was bound to be one remotely large enough to nourish what little flora lived on. Dead trees or not, these trees had grown somehow so water had to be present, even if scarcely.

It would have to wait though. Darkness would soon creep in again. Things worse than crazy warg, shin-kicking stone rubble or talking trees would go bump. Verdandi beckoned for them to follow to some room the people had prepared for them. She'd watch how a slushy brown Mudgetsu would follow, leaving foot steps behind him. Perhaps this camouflage was not as good as she had considered it. Leaving mud traces all over would not make him good at hiding, after all. That he would leave traces in the room and in bed, that was less of her concern. One could still sleep in a dirty bed, but one could not hunt decently with a horrible camouflage. It all came down to efficiency and priorities.

---

[EXIT]

311
Total: 4682
-2000 mission
-200 extra 50 ryo.
-2400 Remaining stats: C-1 -> C-2