[Intruder alert] The device in front of Cain notifies him, showing a magical visual of a line of beastkin heading for the city, the first few attempting to find the legendary entrance to the mountain to keep themselves safe.
[Open the gates and let them in.] Cain instructs, receiving an affirmative beep from the device, and he can see the Bearkin in the lead stumble as the doors open in front of him, dropping him through the illusion.
"Drape yourself over my shoulder. I'm going to transform." Cain tells Cyrene, waiting for her to comply before shifting into his full and gloriously opressive ancient body.
Cain runs out of the central room, locking it behind him and leaps into the air, flying over to greet his guests.
[Welcome everyone to my humble city. I am Mayor Cain, and I will be your host for this apocalypse.] Cain welcomes them, his mental voice echoing through every mind within a hundred kilometers.
"Honorable Ancient Cain, we beg of you, will you take in the beastkin while we work to retake our lands from the monster hordes?" The lead Bearkin, a burly and furry old woman a little over three meters tall with golden hair and bright blue eyes asks humbly, prostrating herself before him.
"Of course I will. I opened the city gates to let you all in, the least I can do is allow you to stay. I will even assign you some staff to help you get settled in." Cain agrees and the old woman's eyes light up with hope.
His puppets can do a little bit of everything, thanks to his skills in the secondary tree, so Cain gets to work making more of them. He has almost a hundred and eighty out right now, of a possible 335 to match his level, so he makes another twenty, bringing him to a rough two hundred active puppets. These ones are all Bunnies, in the robes of Acolytes of the Goddess of Life, and Cain grants them all four abilities.
First is a Mythic ability called [Mana Core] that many magical beasts have as an innate ability. It adds a large reserve of constantly replenishing mana to their bodies letting them use magic. The second is [Noble Command] so they can make people obey them in an emergency. Third comes [Holy Light] To heal, cleanse and defend their charges, and finally Cain adds [Summon Pet], so evey one of them can call eighteen summons at Epic quality, selected from the Lesser Golems list.
They can use the extra summons to help with their work, and they know how to do everything that should be needed, since his skills grant them Apprentice level knowledge in everything that he hasn't added more points to.
They are still on the Central Continent, where anything over level two hundred is very uncommon, or was before the monsters started leaving the dungeons, and at level 335, the puppets can even deal with the Epic Quality former dungeon bosses. That's enough to convince everyone that Cain truly does intend to help them, despite the reputation that Ancients have on this Continent and pretty much everwhere else.
As expected, everyone loves Bunnies, but this city feels like it is missing something. Even with all these new people, it feels like an exploration team inside ruins. It needs an air of home, of life. While Cain thinks of that, he can feel an aura of interest begin to form in the air, and the Spider God's Blessing fills his mind with thoughts of webs and silks and spider companions.
[Alright, you have a point. It might give the beastkin the creeps though.] Cain agrees, letting the bunnies take over the welcoming duties. They're puppets, they can just ask him if they have questions, and he sent them the basic layout of the city with a thought.
At full capacity it can hold a million humanoids, and about thirty thousand ancients. That should be more than enough for their purposes, since the ancient homes will be mostly empty, while the smaller species move into the former pet houses.
There is an empty courtyard over by what Cain believes to have been a school, going by its layout, and Cain has decided that this is the perfect spot for a Tribute. Merging with a Granite Golem, Cain creates a large statue of the Spider Goddess, and then creates two more puppets just like the others, but in the form of an Arachnid Queen.
The moment they are fully formed, Cain receives a notice.
[Control of Puppets Ceded]
They are quickly surrounded by a dark aura, changing their bodies subtly, and Cain realizes that they are now carrying a large sack of eggs, and wearing the mark of the Spider Goddess. They don't say anything, but they do bow politely to both him and the statue before they vanish into the basement of the nearby building, setting up their nests before their eggs are ready to hatch.
Soon the city will have actual priestesses of the Spider Goddess, plus a healthy population of arachnids, a type of Beastkin with spider bodies and humanoid upper bodies at the front of their torso. They're not often seen outside of Underwood, but they are still beastkin, and should hopefully get along with the rest of the local population.
The city doesn't really need Cain's help to come alive though. Everyone is picking homes, gathering in Clan or extended family units to entirely fill buildings, making as much room as possilbe for more refugees to arrive. They are also setting up laundry lines, having grabbed everything they could in a hurry to leave without being attacked, which meant that most of their belongings are random and dirty from the trip.
The enchantments that make water in the city still work, though they haven't been used since before recorded history, and the beastkin are making the best of it. They have supplied mana to get the public fountains flowing, they are washing down the houses they have chosen, doing laundry, and even setting up stalls to barter items. None of them is thinking in coins at the moment, coins are neither edible or useful, so it is all by barter, and the impromptu market is busy.
Cain calls for two dozen Seraphim, from the Greater Golem Category, using [Summon Helper]. He gets twice as many of them as other species, thanks to his equipment, and he wants them to go hunting edible beasts.
If he searches, Cain is certain that he can find or create a spell to make food, but that would be a lot of work. Instead, he will send the Seraphim hunting and help clear the area, as well as bringing back dinner for the new arrivals. Letting them just huddle in misery and hunger doesn't sound much like he's being a good host, so it's the least he can do for them.
On the Eastern Continent, things are much the same. The locals have flocked to Port Nefheim after their villages were overrun, since the port is the only city in the region with walls. Neffie and the Lesser Watchers have cleared the first waves of Dinosaur attacks for the most part, though Neffie has hypnotized and captured some Raptors from among their numbers. She has not given up on her goal of Raptor Cavalry, even though she has modified the plan to have the cavalry summon their mounts.
They will still need to know how a real raptor fights though, so they can properly coordinate when they are dismounted. That's where the captured ones come in. She can have them fight in an arena, and the soldiers can watch and learn while the masses are entertained.
She heard about a thing called a coliseum in the old books that Ungle Aggie, better known as King Aggramor of the Demon Kingdom, showed her. It was a place where humans and monsters fought each other for the entertainment of the crowds, with people betting on the outcome. According to the King, the fighters were all prisoners sentenced to death, but if they could win ten straight fights they would be pardoned and released. Not only that, but they would get a small cut of the gambling winnings on their tenth fight, giving them something to start over with.
The idea stuck with her, even though Port Nefheim doesn't have any prisoners, much less ones sentenced to death. They caught a few petty criminals, but they used the Wave Rider punishments on them, publicly whipping them and then making them stand in neck deep salt water for the rest of the evening so they would learn their lesson. It seems pretty effective, nobody has reoffended in the city, not a single time.
So, she's not planning to change anything up, but unlike the old Demon Kingdom, she has summons available to her. She can call for fun and unique combinations to fight the monsters of the day. Nobody gets hurt, the monster population gets controlled, and the crowd gets entertainment. It's a win all around as far as Neffie is concerned.
The construction of the coliseum has already started, and with the influx of new viewers and Reptilian volunteers, Neffie has high hopes of pushing her timeline forward and getting right into the shows.
The only area currently having real issues is Blood Sands Castle. Montauk has the Beginner's Valley at its back, which is stable and still has its dungeons, with not many other dungeons around. But the castle is in the middle of the desert, and every dungeon formed from the mighty battles that destroyed a quarter of the continent has opened at once, and dumped a huge number of insane combatants of a dozen different species out into the sand.
With the two Lieutenants on duty, the castle itself isn't in any danger, but they had a lot of members out at the rest stations in the desert next to the new dungeons that they had found, and the sudden influx was making it hard to ensure their safety. They hadn't abandoned most of th locations yet, fearing that if they did the death toll would be much higher. The locations staffed by the Darklight Host attracted those fleeing the monsters, and those looking for allies to fight back, so every post was important to them today, and likely well into the future.
Instead, they had the Tengu Lieutenant Sora send out Seraphim scouting squads and fly from site to site herself, dropping off higher level volunteers. Two Guild members was enough to form a group, letting them use the Guild Skill of [Demon Army], which only summoned Lesser Demons at their level, but a lot of them, as well as the two sets of Epic Quality summons from [Benevolent Leader]. With that many summons, and a member near or over level 200 they stood a much better chance of holding off any sort of attack, even if the only people they had taken in were low level, or merchants without Systems.
