Empire Builder 1: Breed, Populate, Conquer by Dante King (free e books to read online txt) 📕

but he didn’t like the idea of being stuck in it without proper shelter once night fell. Especially if there were other kinds of monsters to be faced inside—like cantankerous walking trees.

He hurried after Melody under the dense growth of the forest canopy. The gloom swallowed them up. He couldn’t see the clearing with the settlement he had spotted from up on the cliffside.

“Does this path lead toward that village we saw?” Ben asked as they padded along, the sound of their footsteps swallowed up by the undergrowth.

“It does,” Melody replied. “It may take half the day to reach it though, assuming we don’t run into any trouble along the way.”

Trouble? What kind of “trouble” was she referring to? Ben and Melody had dispatched the werebats handily, and while she’d broken a sweat, Melody didn’t seem to have too much trouble whipping up some lightning bolts and turning the monsters into BBQ. And not only that, but Ben was still a newbie to this world and even he’d managed to do some damage.

What else was out there—or here, in the woods? Ben went through my mental encyclopedia of monsters from Dungeons & Dragons and fantasy novels he’d read and video games he’d beat and movies he’d watched. He was in a new world—any number of beasts or monsters or demons could be lurking.

And all he could do was get as powerful as possible as quickly as possible. Maybe it was the last traces of courage he’d sucked from those werebats, but he was feeling ready to take on the world, to rip a demon knight’s head off with his bare hands.

He was ready.

The fight had been a hell of a rush—totally exhilarating, like nothing else Ben had ever done in his life. Sure, he’d come close to taking a tumble off the bridge or ending up with some werebat teeth in his neck. But even so, he couldn’t wait for his next fight, his next challenge. A tingle of excitement ran up his spine as he considered what other kinds of spells he might be able to master, to use to obliterate his foes, or different applications of the Drain spell.

He shook his head, getting his attention back into the moment.

“Is a horde of flying werebats your idea of trouble?” he asked. “Or was that just an appetizer?”

Melody turned her head and smiled mischievously. “The Forgotten Ruler must be ready for all adversities he may face.” She sprang lightly down the path without waiting for his reply.

“Wait!” he yelled, his voice muffled by the forest undergrowth. “What are you leading me to?” He ran a few paces to catch up. “What are we looking for in that village? Why are we going there?”

Melody slowed her pace enough for him to stay at her side. “I don’t know much.” She held out her hands apologetically. “All I was told is that the ruins surrounding that village are very important.”

“Important how?” He was intrigued.

“Archmage Kamila told me that these ruins were once the central point of your original empire. I don’t know exactly what awaits you there, but I was assured that you would need to access this site of magic in order to regain some of your former power.”

OK—that was certainly an answer. If the magic Ben had gained access to already was anything to go by, he could only expect even better things to come. He almost felt impelled to hurry, to get to these ruins, but he knew they still needed to proceed with caution.

As they walked, he observed the nature of the forest. Although the bright morning sky was largely blotted out by the thickly intertwined fir branches overhead, he could still see clearly. At first, he couldn’t determine where the light was coming from, but as his eyes grew accustomed to his surroundings, he noticed unusual colors and patterns all around.

The whole forest was illuminated by soft, glowing fungus. Along the sides of the path and around the roots of the trees, multicolored toadstools popped up out of the pine needle groundcover. Ranging from bright hot pink to cool blue and every color in between, the light of the toadstools faded in and out, almost like Ben’s Razer keyboard back home. These colors were reflected by lichen and fungal growths on the sides of the trees as well. It was all pretty cool, actually.

Ben wasn’t sure why, but his mind was racing with potential uses for these growths. Maybe the fungus could be used as a portable light?

“What sort of magic causes the light from these mushrooms?” he asked Melody as they walked.

She glanced down at the fungi on the ground beside them, causing her purple hair to flick to the side as she did so. “Magic? There’s nothing magical about these mushrooms, they glow like that naturally. I believe botanists refer to this as ‘bioluminescence.’”

Interesting. Ben would have definitely said rainbow-colored glowing mushrooms were magical. But then again, nature had clearly evolved differently in this world. For all he knew, magic had a perfectly logical scientific explanation in this world. He felt like he was going to have to go through high school all over again, so much was new and unexplained.

In any case, he made a mental note of these mushrooms. Who knew when such a thing might be useful later?

Melody glanced at him from the side of her eye as they walked side by side, her hips swaying alluringly, in a way that reminded Ben of what she’d done with those hips only last night before. She smiled at him with curiosity written on her features.

“Much is new to you in our world, yes?” she asked. “You have forgotten much.”

“That’s certainly true,” he agreed. “Another question—what was that stuff you were harvesting from those werebats on the bridge?”

“Oh, that was mana crystal.” Melody fished in the satchel at her side and pulled out a black lump. “This is unrefined mana.” She put the lump in his hand.

It was faintly sticky, and hard like a