It took an hour, but once they found a wyvern it was quite effortless to take down with Henrek and Barney working together.
“Yep, you’re the real deal.” Barney sighed as Henrek landed from his aerial guillotine attack.
“Training as a knight has some perks. Though most of this is home grown in Dryholm.” Henrek explained as he examined the wyvern’s body, lifting its wing up in disgust.
“Explain to me how we’re supposed to eat this.” Henrek asked, dropping the foul monster.
“Just leave it to the misses! She’ll show ya why Wyvern’s steer clear of Nihola!” Barney laughed as he slung the decapitated dragon onto his shoulder.
“That is what we came here to learn after all I suppose…” Henrek sighed as he followed Barney out of the surprisingly monster-free forest.
…
While the two warriors were hunting for meat, the rest of the town worked on repairing the damage caused during the spat, all to Hope’s bewilderment. They’d even used magic to heal her, something the former slave girl was not used to at all.
“And get me that water right away, I am not in the mood to be standing for a moment longer than I have to!” May shouted as soon as Hope’s arm had been fully healed.
“Y-yes ma’am!” Hope squeaked, quickly getting up and grabbing a bucket of water.
She sprinted across the village, falling flat on her face just before the well.
“Deary me, let me take that for you.” One of the older ladies offered as Hope pulled herself up.
“O-oh thanks…” Hope mumbled as she awkwardly handed the bucket to the elderly lady.
“That’s quite alright! It’s the least we can do after that little misunderstanding.” The elderly lady laughed non-chalantly.
“I uh, still don’t quite understand why you did that…” Hope mumbled, despite the strides she’d made around Utarou (out of necessity) and Henrek (for other reasons), she was still quite nervous around most people.
“Oh honey, people from the Church ‘n the Crown have been a bit interested in our lil May since the day she was born, we get a bit jumpy whenever strangers come ‘bout now.” The elderly woman explained as she took the bucket to the well.
“H-how come?” Hope asked, following the woman to the well.
“Well missy din’t your parents ever get a visit from a vicar who… well I guess not.” The elderly lady stopped herself as she got a better look at Hope’s glowing yellow eyes.
“I uh, didn’t see the church often. I don’t know much about it…” Hope admitted awkwardly, scratching her neck.
“Ah I see. Well the church has a couple o’ funny rules about ya birth skills. They ain’t too fond of anyone gettin’ too different.” The woman explained as she dropped the bucket down the well.
“Really? Why?”
“Somethin’ about turnin’ into monsters. I think it’s all phooey anyway, the church won’t help us so why should we listen to them huh?” The woman spat.
“Turning into monsters…” Hope mumbled, feeling an anxious burning in her chest as she thought about Utarou’s plans.
…
“Alright alright that’s enough…” Utarou groaned as he kicked the baby dragon off of his leg.
He had been continually devoured and spat out for the last 8 days, and throughout the time he’d been scraping through systematically destroying every single dragon egg he found.
The hardest part was killing the Wyvern mothers, but with enough time anything was possible.
He’d almost finished exterminating the nest, but during his campaign several of the eggs had hatched, giving him more problems to deal with.
Though it had also given him some insight into monster biology.
Picking up the last baby dragon, he noted the complete lack of wings, and its four legs.
Wyvern’s only had 2 legs, its front arms turning into its wings.
But these were clearly the Wyvern’s eggs from prior.
“It must evolve dramatically with its skills… But how does it know what to pick…” Utarou pondered as he held the small beast by the scruff of its neck, the baby trying to bite his arm off and failing.
It was smaller than the other baby dragons he’d squished, and its teeth hadn’t come in, must’ve been a runt of the litter, perhaps hatching early as a survival mechanism.
“Alright congrats! You are now officially joining as my first experiment in Dragon Domestication!” Utarou said with a devious smirk, the baby dragon squeaking before biting his nose.
“I’m calling you Rhinosurgery.” Utarou groaned as he ripped the small creature away, holding it under his arms as he took it away from its nest, its brutally executed family being left behind him in the cave, entirely unknown to its small baby brain.
This was good for Utarou, considering he was going to try and somehow get this baby dragon to become a Dragon Woman. A two pronged approach to the Monster Girl plan, if he could make monsters more like girls, and girls more like monsters, he might be able to find the perfect mix somewhere in the middle.
“I wonder if Henrek and Hope are back yet.” Utarou thought as the baby dragon, Rhinoplasty, bit the side of Utarou’s stomach.
…
“T-t-t-thanks for t-t-the meal…” Hope stammered as she was presented with a bowl of soup with a large portion of Wyvern wing in it.
Hope was used to eating off cuts, but she’d never eaten a monster before.
“Are you… sure this is safe…?” Henrek asked, there was a strong taboo in Nugenesis regarding the consumption of monsters, due to a variety of reasons, some mystical and some practical.
The most practical one was, you were more likely than not to get extremely sick just by eating any part of any monster.
“Are you questionin’ my cooking?!” May scoffed as she sat down at the table, next to her husband Barney.
Henrek and Hope sat opposite, with the rest of the village going about its business as they ate.
“Relax honey, they’re actually interested in ya birth skill!” Barney explained, pulling his grumpy wife in for a kiss.
“Fine, what’s all the interest in this darn thing.” May scowled as she stuck her hand out, revealing her Legacy skill.
Monster Eater.
“Allows the user to eat monsters entirely unharmed…” Henrek read aloud, glancing around a few other skills until he noticed her one of her tier 2 and her only tier 3 skills.
The tier 2 skill Monster Cook, allows the user to prepare monsters so that others can consume it without any risk.
And the most interesting skill, the tier 3 skill Cooking Magic, allows the user to prepare special meals that take on the aspect of the monsters put into it.
“Oh no, Utarou is going to really like this…” Henrek sighed as he leaned back in his chair as Hope gingerly sipped a spoonful of the Wyvern Wing Soup.
“Mmm! This is really good!” Hope exclaimed, lighting up.
“Ya darn right it is! Now who’s this Utarou fella?” May asked as she began inhaling her soup.
“He’s the new Duke of Dracons, he’s got… Big plans for the province.” Henrek sighed as he took a spoonful of soup and sipped it.
It was very tasty, and somewhat concerningly, he could taste how the spice was coming from the Wyvern Wing and enhancing the rest of the stew.
“What’shat got to do with me?” May asked, mouth full of food.
“He’s looking for interesting Legacy Skills! Like yours and mine.” Hope explained, pointing to her yellow eyes. May raised an eyebrow.
“Why?”
Hope and Henrek looked at each other and sighed.
“To uh… evolve them further.” Henrek said carefully.
“Evolve?! Honey, this is great!” Barney exclaimed, standing up excitedly.
“Calm down, we don’t even know what the little bastards gonna get yet.” May grimaced, looking down at her pregnant stomach as it kicked.
“Yeah talkin’ about you!” May huffed before continuing to chow down. Henrek and Hope both looked quite confused at this.
“Y’see, me ‘n the misses are wantin’ to keep the Monster cookin’ alive, better even! It’s how our lil’ village has survived so long. But it still ain’t too good y’see.” Barney sighed.
“It’s plenty good! Drakes are just too rough…” May contested between bites.
“Y’see the reason you saw all them Drakes ‘n non’ of the Wyverns was on account of us well, eatin’ all the Wyverns!” Barney laughed as his wife finished her meal.
“Those Drakes are just too tough, the poison as well just gives me diarrhea too.” May declared matter of factly.
“D-doesn’t Drake poison normally…” Hope began before Henrek pushed her arm down and nodded.
“I think they know that it kills people normally.” Henrek whispered.
“So I’m hopin’ we get a little boy that can eat all the dragons! Get even tougher from em too!” Barney exclaimed with a loud chuckle.
“Yeah yeah, if it’s a girl though I get to pick!” May said in an annoyed tone.
“Well, I think Duke Utarou would be very fond of you! Say uh, are there any other pregnant women in the village?” Henrek asked hopefully.
“Hmm, I think Suzie might be, or she’s just gettin fat.” May shrugged.
“Well one of our uh… Orders was to… Well bring every… Pregnant woman to Dryholm…” Henrek explained awkwardly.
May and Barney looked at Henrek.
Henrek looked to Hope, who was looking away from the situation.
Henrek looked back to May and Barney.
The pair burst out into laughter.
“Ya thinkin’, of bringin’ everyone like that to Dryholm?!” Barney asked.
“Ain’t that place dead already?!” May laughed.
“Not… quite yet. Despite the Wyvern and harvest problems we’ve survived.” Henrek sighed.
“Waitaminute, Wyvern problem? Too many or too few?” May asked quickly.
“Far too many. They’re everywhere.” Henrek explained seriously.
“Hmm, alright then, all paid for by this Duke whoever right?” May clarified as she quickly worked out what she had to do.
“Well, I suppose so yes but right now we’re-”
“Alrighty! But on one condition!” May declared.
“Sure!” Hope replied before Henrek could decide.
“We’re gonna move everyone from Nihola in, that a problem?!” May asked in her usual gruff and terse voice.
Henrek went slightly slack jawed.
“T-there may not be enough housing or food so-”
“We’s got builders if you’s got the wood! Your prissy lil village probably hides under the trees rights?” May asked.
“Y-yeah.”
“Perfect! I’ll tell everyone in the mornin’, you two love birds can sleep here if you don’t-”
“We’re not love birds!” Henrek clarified.
“Yet.” Hope whispered, blushing intensely at the thought.