As soon as the men brought their axes to the forest, the forest seemed to shriek. Several rhinos burst out from the trees. But the moment they were about to charge, they dropped.
It took Hiro a full second to realize the cause. It was Cylia. She had hypnotized the entire herd with just a glance.
"Arghh!" The soldiers raised a battle cry, charging the monsters, killing the beasts as they advanced.
Then, a tree moved. Its branch sent a soldier flying far into the distance.
"Watch out! It's a tree monster!" Leafa commanded. "Hiro! Shoot it!"
Laser beams shot from the flower on Leafa's earpiece. The flower was small, but since Hiro had been charging it since morning, the sunbeam still delivered results. He would have to expand the flower if Leafa wanted him to fire more beams in rapid succession, though.
"A tree monster! Watch out. It doesn't have eyes. Cylia is useless against it! Use fire or explosives!" Leafa shouted.
"Don't say I'm useless!"
Cylia pulled a crossbow from beneath her skirt. After loading it, she shot toward another tree. The tree exploded and burned. She then turned to a group of soldiers.
"Men! Come with me!"
Hiro saw a purple aura emanate from her and flow into the soldiers she pointed at. Purple tentacles sprouted eyes as they stared directly at the soldiers. Then, the soldiers shuddered. It was as if they had been hexed.
"More of those monsters have come here!"
The vanguard rallied around Cylia. More and more eyes sprouted from the tentacles growing from her neck and back.
Hiro noticed that the soldiers fought better under Cylia's hex. They moved as if they were fighting as a single unit.
"I wonder if they could share their senses. If she can share what she sees with those soldiers, then she would be better than Hiro. Ah~~" Cecile muttered.
Hiro then knocked against her womb, sending shivers down her spine.
For a moment, he wondered whether he should grow the flowers so he could launch another sunbeam, but he held back. Marissa had said he shouldn't be too proactive.
If people saw him as a combat symbiote, there might be even more responsibilities placed on him.
The battle turned into a stalemate as the soldiers diverged, forming two factions. The left flank was led by Leafa while the right flank was led by Cylia.
As the sun began to set, the monsters' advance trickled to a stop.
"Good work, everyone," Leafa said as the soldiers began erecting tents for the night. Cylia also congratulated her soldiers.
"Why are the soldiers behaving like that?" Cecile muttered as she reflected on today's events.
"I don't want to know." Rebecca huddled under her blanket. "Sleep. We will continue hacking away at the forest at dawn. Hiro, please watch our surroundings. I don't think the Litmus soldiers would betray us, but there might be gaps in our night watch."
"Hiro… I want to play." Nana nudged her massive breasts, enveloping Hiro's tentacle between her cleavage.
Hiro wanted to play too, but he wasn't a fan of dangerous play. He didn't want to do it out in the open where monsters lurked. He had even missed Leafa's schedule by now. She was visibly dismayed that Hiro had stopped playing with her during this expedition.
"Hurry up! Cut down the forest!" Leafa ordered every man and woman to help with the logging. They even used saws to hasten the process, leaving only the soldiers to guard the area.
"You are being too hasty," Cylia said.
"We wasted a day before. Now's our chance to make up for it. The assaults have stopped. I can rely on Hiro to transport some logs to the wagons. We can build a temporary base near the mountain," Leafa said.
"So, there will be two bases near the mountain and later one at the port, huh? That's three settlements," Rebecca asked.
"That's not what our king ordered. You are expanding beyond your orders."
"It's necessary," Leafa said. "The path through the mountains was quite perilous."
Merchants could make camp using their carriages. If the road was safe, they could travel for two days without complaints. Surviving on jerky and dried meat. If it was just some low-level monsters, they could hire adventurers. There would be no need to build a base like this. The kingdom had only assigned workers to build a port town. It was Leafa's own judgment to establish two additional bases in the mountains.
Hiro knew that Leafa was trying to hasten the project because she was impatient about missing her third playtime. Even though she tried to act cool, Hiro knew she was wet down there.
"Alright. I guess it's fine. I don't like sleeping in the wild. If the temporary headquarters is finished, please let me know."
"Yes. You will be given a personal room, Cylia. The other captains and symbiote users will receive one as well."
"Done."
Hiro had expected something to go wrong with how rushed the woodcutting was. But nothing did. Apparently, they had exhausted most of the monsters in the area. When the sun set, they had progressed significantly. The cartographer said they were more than halfway there.
"At the rate we're going, we could start building the port town two days earlier. This is a bit faster than scheduled," she said. "But our vanguard has spotted beastmen and elves scouting to the west. I think they were—"
"Be careful. We're a bit too exhausted. Don't force them to work from dawn to dusk. They are going to make mistakes if we keep this up."
"It's fine. The soldiers are keeping a proper schedule. I'm only making the workers do overtime," Leafa said, hushing Cylia away. "I will rely on you if we spot more enemies."
"Alright…"
The next day, they managed to arrive at an open clearing near a rocky coast. There was no problem in the slightest.
Or so Hiro thought.
"We finally made it! The sea!" Cecile yelled. She raised her hand, as she felt the sea breeze caressed her face. Leafa sighed.
"This is the sea! There are waves here! So beautiful!" Cecile said as she ran to the edge of the coastline. The rocky shore was hard and a bit slippery. She could feel pebbles pressing against the soles of her feet.
"Alright. Make camp. Stay alert. Transport every log and tree we have cut and bring them here. We will begin with the walls and houses tomorrow. Some of you, set up camps. One for Cylia, one for me, and one for Cecile's team," Leafa said.
"Then set up tents for the captains and soldiers. As for the workers, you'll need to sleep on the ground until tomorrow. You can have your first houses after that. The soldiers will stay in tents until all the workers have their houses."
The workers sighed at the arduous task, but none complained.
The tents were erected. Leafa and the girls huddled inside their tents. Leafa sighed. This land was now theirs. They were the first to arrive. The place was ideal. With a rocky shore as a strong foundation, they could create a good harbor. It could probably hold several large ships if they built far enough out.
Then, during the night, Hiro was about to have fun with his girls. He extended his tentacles, blocking all lines of sight while spawning eyeballs around the tent. Nana was already naked inside the tent, ready to play alone with Hiro or with Cecile if she wished. Leafa, in another tent, had also stripped herself. Her graceful and cool attitude betrayed her anticipation. Hiro could sense she was aroused.
Just as Hiro was about to get into the game, closing Nana's mouth with his tentacle, he stopped. He saw movement. Not from the forest, but from the beach. He saw movement.
"Hnn? Hiro?" Nana muttered.
When Hiro pointed toward their gear, Rebecca was the first to move. Unlike the other girls, she was a maiden. She only liked it when Hiro played gently, and playing inside the tent was not her favorite.
Hiro wondered whether he should train Rebecca more, but he held that thought. There was a more pressing matter to attend to.
The light was faint, so Hiro couldn't see much. But there was something. He was sure of it. The clone inside Rebecca was properly watching the surroundings.
"WHAT IS IT?! Fuck off! Damn it!" Nana yelled as she stormed out of the tent. This was the second time she had been interrupted while playing. Even Cecile was filled with bloodlust.
Her shouts woke the night watch.
That was when it struck.
"Hmpf!"
It was silent. A man simply dropped to the ground.
"Something is in the water!" The night watch finally rang the bell.
Leafa was a few minutes late coming out. Her face was still in a daze. This was the first time she had been interrupted during play, and her mind was still muddled. Hiro had to dress her in a bodysuit and drag her outside before Leafa understood the gravity of the situation.
It was only when the camp had fully awakened, with soldiers running about in panic, that Leafa finally snapped out of her stupor.
"There is a monster in the sea! Black snakes! They have paralyzing poison!" a soldier said as he used his halberd to hack away at the black serpents that sprawled across the shore.
Then, a fireball lit up the night sky with an orange glow. Hiro turned toward the camp and found Cylia there with a raised potion. Cylia had used a potion to create a flare in the sky.
With the sky illuminated, she could see several small serpents emerging from the sea, hell-bent on their destruction.
Cecile and Nana rushed to the scene, hacking at the snakes with reckless abandon. Their strikes were filled with bloodlust toward the insolent creatures that dared interrupt them. Hiro had pumped them with an amphetamine shot but not adrenaline. He had surmised the snakes had little physical strength since Cecile and Nana easily hacked their bodies apart.
An hour later, the battlefield had become calmer. Three dozen snakes lay dead.
"Fuuck! Fuck!" Nana yelled angrily. "Fuck this piece of shit! I am never going on an expedition again."
The soldiers steered clear of her.
"Leafa! Round up the soldiers, please," Rebecca said, turning to her.
"Huh? Oh. Yeah…" Leafa called to the knights. "Please gather all the men. How many casualties do we have?"
"Yes, Milady!" The captain saluted and went off.
Hiro sighed, wondering when he would finally get to play with his girls. He felt his level-up was near once he played with them today.
But alas, fate had other plans.