As the days carried on, more and more pathways opened up to Ellena in the labyrinthian first floor. Her level slowly increased and with it her bravery. For the most part she still just fought Horned Rats and Razbats.
Halfway through the week, Ellena came across something a little different though, it was still Horned Rats, but it appeared to be their den. A lot more manageable than a den of Mollits. She guessed it was a path to their den based on the sheer number of Rats she spotted. Dozens of them in a single tunnel.
The Mushman used her shield as a scoop, charging forward and flinging multiple beasts against the walls with a single swing. Even with the ease that she dispatched these Rats now, their numbers were still a risk for the little Mushman. By the end of this particular tunnel her body was covered in bite marks. Her actual health had not dropped too low, but it certainly stung.
Eventually, Ellena came to a large room. It looked to be around 40 feet high, compared to the far smaller tunnels that averaged at about 10-15 feet. Sunlight blasted in from a crack in the roof, showering the center of the room with a beam of light.
Trees dotted the room along with a layer of grass, birthed from the sunlight that gently spread across the scenery. In the center sat a stone mound surrounded by a winding river that disappeared into a crack on one end and another path on the other. On the mound lay a giant Rat. It must have been almost ten feet long. It had two horns upon its head and two tails. It must have been a Rat Lord.
The Rat Lord was surrounded on all sides by Giant Horned Rats, a retinue of some description. He must have been a mini-boss, dens didn’t usually attract such strong species.
On top of that there were plenty of decomposing skeletons and corpses around the Rat Lord and plenty of adventuring equipment. It seemed as though many went into this particular battle unprepared. Perhaps the beast was stronger than he looked.
Unfortunately, it was quite obvious that she was not ready for this particular challenge. If she couldn’t even bring herself to attack the Wolf Den or Mollit den, how could she fight what may have been the floor boss. Of course the worry was that the other major species within the top floor had their own boss level Monster, if that was the case, one of them had to have the entrance to the second floor in their Den. In her mind it made the most sense for it to be the Mollits, given that they’re the strongest Monsters on the floor.
For now though, she wasn’t ready to challenge any boss monsters, instead she just needed to grind. The safest spot for that was still the Grey Wolves den. Theirs was made up of multiple rooms and tunnels which made it a bit more manageable than the Rats. She hadn’t seen a boss Wolf yet, but now she was going to keep an eye out for one. Ellena was yet to fully inspect the Mollits den either, but considering the risk she had decided to save that for now.
For the rest of the day, she fought the Wolves, somehow never coming across more than five at once. Not that five Grey Wolves had suddenly become an easy fight for her, she still struggled, but not enough to complain about. She even saw a few pups with their mothers, this time, however Ellena decided to avoid them. She killed a pup when she was also a child, the idea didn’t sit right with her now that she was an adult. The mother son duo that she fought before must have come from this dungeon as it was nearby, which meant that there would be more Mushmen in danger. Still, she didn’t want to slaughter a bunch of pups just because they might hunt other Mushmen.
Even so, Ellena decided to play it cautious, when her energy had dropped low enough and her health's regen began to slow, the little Mushman headed home. A little early, but she had worried the Dryad enough already.
Upon arrival back home, Ellena nudged the front door, carefully and slowly, to make sure no Elf hid behind it. Only when the door had been fully opened could she confirm that there were no signs of Samora. She breathed out in relief.
“Samora is busy for a few days, Ellena, so you don’t have to worry. Though I’m sure she would be heartbroken knowing how she troubles you so,” Ellephwen replied from the other side of the building, she was in the middle of chopping carrots, but paused after looking up. “Actually, she might be happy about it. Can never tell with that girl.”
It wasn’t that Ellena disliked Samora, she found her quite entertaining to be honest, but as a person, she was a lot to deal with. Even when she was a human she wasn’t overly fond of extremely boisterous folks.
Ellephwen came over and closed the door behind the Mushman, as she still struggled to close the door behind herself. “For today Ellena, I thought we could have a short discussion about the remaining peoples of this world. Beastkin and Dwarves, you used to know a Dwarf did you not?”
Ellena nodded. If there was one other race she knew almost as well as humans, it was Dwarves. She had told Ellephwen about her Dwarven friend multiple times, but she also knew his family relatively well, a young son and his human wife. The reason he moved into a Human village.
“Ah. A Human wife? That was one thing I wished to discuss, something important for you now that you’re no longer human,” the Dryad smiled, patting the seat next to her.
The little Mushman trotted over and parked herself next to Ellephwen. What do you mean?
“I mean breeding Ellena. Sex. Making babies.” Ellena’s face shot hot red at the mention, she turned away from her kin already feeling sweat run down her head. “Come on now, you’re not a child inside there, don’t act like one.”
Ellena couldn’t look the Dryad in the eye. Which told her all she needed to know. Ellephwen nodded with understanding. “I see. Well then, this is even more important for you. Do you know what makes two separate races or subspecies compatible for mating?”
She quickly shook her head, still looking away. N-Never thought about it.
“It’s simple. The answer is being compatible.”
Ellena finally looked up at the Dryad confusion on her face. What!?
Ellephwen giggled. “Finally paying attention, huh?” She patted the Mushman's head. “But yes, there was quite an amount of research on this centuries ago. I won’t go into detail, but for whatever reason, if you have the parts for it, you can mate with any other race or species on the planet. So for example, you could not, Ellena, but I could.”
That was information the little Mushman did not need. Sure, Ellephwen may not have been related to her by blood, but at this point she felt more like family than anything else. And no one wants to hear about their families sex lives. Well. Almost no one.
Then what decides the child’s race? She asked. The Dwarf and his Human wife had one child, who was also a Dwarf. Why weren’t they a Human, or… Half and half?
“Whilst hybrid species are possible, they are incredibly rare. For whatever reason, it seems to be a dice roll of the Gods. When I say rare, I mean like spawning an entirely new sub species kind of rare.”
Like the Dark Elves? Ellena asked.
“Exactly like the Dark Elves. There aren’t many and some ended as soon as they began, but it happens.”
Ellena had to wonder how many incredible species were stopped before they could truly start. So, what else did you want to mention?
“Ah yes, the main topic did fall astray. Tell me your knowledge on both Dwarves and Beastkin, and I will fill in the gaps, how does that sound?” Ellephwen turned her chair and let her body relax, she was preparing to listen, not that Ellena had that much to say.
The ex-Human proceeded to reach into the deepest corners of her memory. She knew that Dwarves lived long, the longest base lifespans of all the mortal races save for a few monsters, though whether they should be lumped in with the mortal races was a debate in itself.
Even back in Ellena’s past life there was a Dwarven king who had reached the age of 540. He was still going strong then and according to Ellephwen lived quite a few years after too.
She also knew that despite having kings the Dwarves didn’t exactly have kingdoms. Each Dwarven king ruled over a single city and its surrounding villages. The Dwarven territory itself was around the same size as a kingdom, but was made up of ten kings and their cities, at least in her time, it may have changed.
Finally the Dwarves were a natural born warrior race despite their size. There was usually at least one war between a few of the Dwarven kings, but no king has gone beyond two cities as the others will band together to not upset the status quo. Also, if any king is threatened by an outside entity, they will all band together, it is what made them so formidable.
Ellephwen nodded. “That’s essentially everything that sets them apart from the other races. Very few things have changed. There was, albeit briefly, a High King that united all the others under his banner, but he was overthrown a few decades ago. Now it's back to just kings, eight of them currently,” she paused, remembering something. “Ah, there is technically a 9th, building his city on the Monster Continent.”
If there were only eight kings then at least one of them must have owned multiple cities, it was rare for one to claim such an upperhand for any period of time.
“And what of the Beastkin?”
Ellena had not forgotten that was part of the discussion, she just didn’t have much to say. It was definitely the Mortal race she knew the least of. She knew that now they did at least have their own kingdom on the Monster Continent, but most Mortal cultures, Human or Dwarf still held prejudices against them.
“But do you know where that prejudice stems from? Why do Humans and Dwarves hold so little disdain for each other, yet so much for the Beastkin?”
The Mushman thought for a moment, then simply shrugged. No idea.
“It’s related to something we spoke off. Every Beastkin subspecies is the result of two species mating. In this case, a mortal race with a Monster. None of the different Beastmen subspecies are technically connected.”
It took a moment for what Ellena had just heard to truly sink in. The Beastkin came from Humans mating with Monsters. There were Humans out there attracted to Monsters, that was strange, right?
Ellephwen rubbed her temple. “I’ll try and not get offended by that.”
Ellena realised what she had been thinking. No I mean, that’s different right? You look close enough to mortal races to be attractive to them right? Dryads, Nymphs and Wynts. All those sort of humanoid Monsters.
“Yes well, it wasn’t as if they were breeding with Grey Wolves. It would have been highly evolved forms, there is always a bipedal evolution for any species of Monster.”
But that’s the reason the other Mortal races look down on them? Even though it's thanks to them that they exist in the first place?
She shrugged. “I never said it made sense, but so rarely do such prejudices.”
Ellena looked down. Beastkin had very little to do with her past life, she had never really thought about how she should have felt about them. Perhaps her village was far too removed to develop any feeling either way. She looked back at Ellephwen. So what else do I need to know?
“Well for one, the Beastkin are both the strongest and weakest of the mortal races. They’re almost comparable to Monsters in their variety for obvious reasons. On one end you have Micemen, on the other you have the incredibly rare Tri-Horned Wolfmen. Though, currently the monarch of the Beastkin is an oddly powerful Grey Wolfman.”
Once again, the categorization of races of this planet confused Ellena a little. It was true that each Beastkin was similar in their creation, but at the same time they were all different, but then that was the same for any species when one thinks about it.
“Otherwise, there’s not much to be said for them as a whole. They are no different from the other Mortal species. They take a longer time to evolve, they have a variety of lifespans and they get married and have children like the rest of them. Of course there are plenty of individuals and history that stand out, but that is not the subject of today's lesson. In fact, I think it’s about time for said lesson to be over, don’t you?” Ellephwen asked, not waiting for an answer before picking the Mushman up.
Ellephwen furrowed her brow a moment. What is it?
“I think you’ve grown a little again Ellena.” she replied.
Ellena did not know how to take that as she was tucked into bed. Her bed that felt rather too large for her. Perhaps she truly would grow into it soon. Though, she had paused for a second, as she realised that Ellephwen may have subtly meant something else. Wait… Is she saying I gained weight?
She never did get an answer.
Some more lore changed ever so slightly, though I'm sure most wont remember the tiny unimportant details anyway haha. I really want to get to the Demon Continent, but I'm forcing myself not to rush through the first few books. Besides, it'll help me build a better foundation.
I might post a silly little archive thing soon. I think I spoke about this many years ago. I've had so many ideas, so many first chapters for stories that I couldn't bring myself to continue writing. I always wanted to just throw those first chapters somewhere to guage peoples interests. Now that I'm regularly writing again, I might do so. Over the last six years or so I have written a dozen first chapters, maybe more. I just need to unload them somewhere to stop them occupying my brain haha. Y'all don't need to read them, some probably wont ever see the light of day as finished books, but it may reinvigorate my desire if people seem interested in one or two.