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

roasting meat made Ben’s stomach growl. He realized with surprise that he hadn’t eaten since yesterday evening. He’d been too caught up with the events of today to even think about breakfast. He remembered he had a couple of snacks in his rucksack. Ben didn’t know if whatever the ogres were roasting down there would be particularly appetizing.

“Any idea what they’re cooking down there, Melody?” Ben asked.

Melody sniffed the air and shook her head. “I couldn’t say for sure. It looks like a large animal though. If I remember rightly from what I read back in the Arcanarium, the mountain ogres have a fondness for bear flesh.”

“No, thank you.” Ben laughed drily.

“You’ve never eaten bear?” she asked. “It’s quite good—if not somewhat sweet.”

“I’ll stick to meat that moos or oinks, if you don’t mind.”

The mountain ogres took turns drinking straight out of the barrel. Typical barbarians—or at least, typical according to what he'd learned about fictional barbarians in video games or D & D. Harsh shouts and snatches of some ugly song drifted up to them from where they were beginning their revelry.

“Looks like there are more of them,” Ben said to Melody as he gestured at a few additional ogres stepping out of the to join their comrades around the fire.

Melody looked where Ben indicated. “I count seven,” she said. “And an eighth marching toward the entrance of the village.”

Ben worried for a moment that this one might be coming toward them. He didn’t think we’d made enough noise to be detected. But then the ogre stopped between two collapsed pillars that appeared to be the remnants of an archway. It looked like he was going to be on watch duty for the time being.

Ugly as the campfire songs of the mountain ogres were, hearing the boisterous noises gave Ben something to consider. He'd fought werebats earlier, barely sentient beings likely acting on pure instinct. Even so, he'd managed to pull their emotions out of them, drain them, use them against his enemies.

These mountain ogres, they were monsters like the werebats, but they were also different. If he could use the barely-there emotions of werebats to turn a fight in his favor, what could he do with actual, sentient beings with more developed emotions?

Could he drain their courage and make them flee? His mind raced with all of the possibilities at his disposal. And it was enough to cause a small smile to spread across his lips.

“What are you thinking, Benjamin?” Melody’s voice interrupted his line of thinking, and Ben realized he'd been standing in silence for several minutes.

With a snap of his fingers, Ben spun on his toes to face her. “I think I have a plan. I can use Drain to beat these assholes.”

Melody nodded slowly, her form becoming indistinct in the fading light. “You will need much mana to defeat them though.”

“That’s right.” Ben nodded. “I need to replenish my supply of mana. Can you refine the mana crystal you absorbed from those werebats?”

“I can.” Melody still sounded a little reluctant. “But you should be cautious about relying on mana crystals. You will need to be careful how much mana you consume, or else you may become sick.”

He remembered how Melody had warned of this earlier. “Don’t worry about me—I’m nothing if not careful. And I think I know exactly how much I’ll need to win the fight.”

“How will you do that?” Melody asked, curiosity in her voice.

“I’ll use their strength against them. But to do that, I need to test Drain on a living creature.”

“What will you test it on?” Melody sounded concerned. Ben got the immediate impression she thought he was implying that he would test his magic on her. He placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

“I’ll have to capture one of the ogres,” Ben said, squaring his shoulders and trying not to think too hard about how he would actually pull that off.

Melody didn’t respond for a moment. Her head was tilted to the side, and she appeared to be thinking hard. Finally, she let out a soft sigh—one that almost sounded like resignation. “You are the Forgotten Ruler, Benjamin. I have confidence in you. I know you will carry out your plan to the best of your ability.”

“I know this is kind of an insane plan, but I know we can pull it off.” He took her hands in mine. “I won’t let you down.”

Melody nodded. “I believe you. But you will still need strength. Here, you must take the last of this refined mana crystal.” She fished a transparent lump out of her satchel.

“Is there any way of naturally recovering mana?” Ben asked. He knew that was possible in lots of the RPGs he had played. This was a real world of course, and not a video game, but it would be nice to have some of the same perks.

“The natural process is very slow,” Melody said. “But there are legends of powerful sorcerers who can do so at a rapid rate, taking small breaks during battle to recover their mana. Me? I have always relied upon what I could harvest from the monsters I killed.”

“Surely the Forgotten Ruler could do it, right?” Ben persisted. “If he was as powerful as you say?”

Melody smiled. “Perhaps you will be able to. We shall see.”

It was something to think about, but not where his head needed to be in that moment.

“Well, in the meantime, I’ll need that mana crystal.”

“I will make more while I wait for your return,” she said, placing the lump into his hands.

Ben held the crystal up to the gray sky. It was totally transparent. He assumed this meant it was very pure. “What do I do with it?”

“You eat it,” Melody simply stated.

He shrugged. It was strange, but he had a feeling eating a lump of clear rock would be the least weird of what he'd be experiencing in this new world. He raised the mana crystal to his mouth and bit a chunk out of it. It