Chapter 128: Clearing the Perimeter for Future Family Visit -2-

[You gained 100% energy of Rotwood Troll – Standard (Level 16)]

[You gained 100% energy of Rotwood Troll – Standard (Level 17)]

Three trolls. Maybe forty seconds total. Last month one troll had me running for my life with Rury chewing its legs from behind.

He spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon widening the circle. By the time the sun started dropping he had cleared about four square kilometers around the village. Not a slime, not a bat, not a single feral rabbit with stupid teeth. Everything that couldn’t run fast enough was dead and everything smart enough to run had already left.

[Congratulations! Your skill “Charming Voice” levelled up]

[Charming Voice: Level 3 > Level 4]

That one came from a weird encounter with a pack of six wild dogs. He just talked to them in a low steady voice with the skill active and all six turned around and walked west like they forgot why they were there. Love Shot had procced twice on random arrow shots at fleeing creatures too, the charm freezing them long enough for follow-up kills. His love class skills were turning into surprisingly decent combat tools when he stopped thinking of them as love skills and started thinking of them as crowd control.

The experience bar on his system panel had been crawling all day though. Dozens and dozens of kills and his bar barely moved past the halfway mark until the three trolls pushed it over the edge.

[Congratulations! You have reached Level 47]

All stats increased by 1

You gained 1 Stat Point to distribute

Finally.

He stared at the number and felt more annoyed than excited. It took him a full day of non-stop killing to gain one level. One whole day of running through the forest and butchering everything that moved. He remembered jumping from Level 25 to 30 in what felt like a long weekend and now a single level felt like pushing a boulder uphill with his face.

Emily hunted monsters since she was a teenager and she only hit Level 50 last month. He used to think she just didn’t kill enough but now he understood. The experience curve after Level 40 was absolutely insane and the creatures around the village were getting too low-level to give meaningful energy. He needed to find stronger targets or this grind was going to take months.

Emily would be laughing her ass off if she saw me charming wild dogs into surrendering. Stupidest combat class in the system and somehow it works.

After the big loop he walked toward the eastern edge of the village where the river ran. He had the LifeStraw camping purifier in his backpack, the one Rosa found at a sports store for cheap. Battery-powered pump, charcoal filter, UV sterilizer built into the nozzle. He set it up on a flat rock near the water and connected the intake tube.

The pump hummed and clean water started dripping out the other end. He tested it with his tongue and it tasted like nothing. Just clean water from a dirty river.

Toris is going to lose his mind when he sees this. That man hiked three hours into the forest once a month for salt and here I am turning river water into drinking water with a plastic box.

The mini solar panel went next to it, propped against a south-facing rock. A foldable rectangle the size of a textbook, sixty watts, enough to keep the purifier running without batteries. Both devices hummed quietly next to each other and Eren stood there watching them for a minute with his arms crossed because it felt good. Magitech experiments could come later but clean water was the kind of win that actually made a village stronger.

He packed up his hunting gear and started walking back toward the village center with a slow pace. Walking under the late afternoon sun was making his body warm and it felt kind of nice to move slowly after running at full speed all morning. It was a good and productive day.

He promised himself a private dinner at Selena’s tonight. She had been making something with that spiced Yaksha meat all day and Eren bet the smell would start coming through the walls of her restaurant the second he walked in the door.

And tonight might be extra special because Lyra said she was coming for dinner too. His heartbeat picked up a little with his imagination.

A threesome?

If he could get Selena to ask Lyra to stay after the food instead of him asking, the shy baker wouldn’t have an excuse to bolt early. She always ran when Eren suggested it but if Selena did the inviting with that sneaky warm voice of hers, Lyra would melt before the wine was poured. It would make this day perfect from start to finish…

Emily planned our wedding to the exact minute and then told me to “stop overthinking things silly.” She doesn’t get to lecture me about

these debuacry things happening here right.

They expect me to repopulate the whole elven race so I have a free pass for three-multiple ways, I guess..

“Big elf-man.”

He stopped walking with a excited Kobold girl’s shriek.

Griks stood at the edge of the village path near the first houses. The oversized elf tunic hung off her small frame and the drone controller was pressed against her chest like she was hugging a stuffed animal. Her tail was rigid behind her, puffed up fat, and her yellow eyes were way too wide.

She was shaking.

Eren walked over and crouched down. “What happened Griks.”

The little kobold raised a scaly arm and pointed north toward the mountain. Her finger trembled so badly it drew circles in the air instead of a line.

“Dragon.” Her Elvish still had rough edges but it was a hundred times better than a month ago. She swallowed hard. “Dragon is… not flying. Dragon is staying.”

He stood back up and looked north past the rooftops. The snow-covered peak sat there the same way it always did. Nothing visible from here.

“Staying where.”

“On mountain. Same place.” Griks pulled the drone tighter against her body. “Three days Griks watches. Dragon is carrying things. Big things. Rocks. Trees.” She looked up at him and her face was doing something he hadn’t seen on her before. Not just scared but deeper than scared. “Dragon is making… nest.”

What?

“You’re sure.” He said it slowly.

Griks nodded fast, her ears flopping. “Griks watches every morning from the tall rock. Dragon flies down, picks up trees, flies back up. Same spot. Every day. Is building.”

His hand went to the scimitar on his belt without thinking about it. A nesting dragon meant eggs. Eggs meant the dragon wasn’t passing through. It was staying permanently. Right above them.

Emily isn’t here. The wolves are patrolling south. I just cleaned every threat in four kilometers and now a dragon is setting up a nursery on top of our heads.

He looked at the snow-covered peak one more time.

Maybe I shouldn’t have sent Emily to Earth this week…

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