I waited in the darkness. Only the timer of my resurrection told me of time. I could feel the vague sense of the earth underneath the forest.


    I spent these days of darkness by thinking. The archer who had slain my other half was most likely after the slaves. Had he tracked them all the way from the village? The slaves had said it took them about three days if I remember correctly.


    If the humans had the capability to track them that easily, they were more dangerous than I had given them credit for. I was fairly sure that the archer was dead. Thinking back to my final moments, Taressa was closing in as I died. I doubt the human archer would endure the psychic scream easily. The issue was, were there other humans nearby to support him?


    I felt anger. Perpetual, seething hatred. They should die. They should all die.


    Then I stopped myself. Why was I this angry? This was not the human me. I did not hate humans. I for sure would not give the slavers and faithfuls of their god a pass, but I could not attack all humans. Is there more to this mushroom part of me?


    I decided that I needed to plan. The plan of how to act going further, in relation to the humans. I needed to direct this anger.


    All humans involved in slavery, or faithful to their cruel god, would die. With mind-reading from Taressa, I could basically make sure that no innocent would die. What do I do to the others? I would have to take responsibility if I went about killing people of their society. Not to mention, the rulers should all die since they allowed slavery.


    I would have to create a nation. What the fuck do I know about creating nations?


    Also, I did not have any way of fighting the humans of that village, let alone the whole nation they must be a part of. More soldiers were needed. I need to become more aggressive. I need to spread my mycelium faster and further. I will have to throw caution to the wind and hope that the spread does not break my mind.


    Is there a way to solve the mind-altering effects of spreading? Can I delegate part of my mycelium to some sort of manager? Maybe there is such an option through the research tree. I could not access it now, but I put that on top of the list of tasks I had to do when I awakened.


    ---


    Some time later.


    I awakened slowly, with the central firecap growing over a few minutes. As soon as I was fully grown again, I was assaulted by an eager mental connection from Taressa.


    "You have come back. Good. Are you, and your memories intact?" There was a sense of relief in her voice. Less of the arrogant tone as well.


    "I am fine, I live both on the surface and below." I did want to keep my "mycelium heart" fairly hidden from Taressa, as she was a creature quite capable of truly murdering me. Not that I thought she would.


    "I could sense you, faintly."


    "The intruder, did he die?"


    "Yes, painfully, slowly." She said. I felt shivers down my metaphorical spine. On my top 10 list of ways not to die, psychic ants were probably number one.


    "Were there others?" I asked.


    "Yes, but they turned and ran as soon as we incapacitated the archer." She said. She seemed disappointed.


    "Did anything else happen while I was asleep?"


    "No, we kept gathering resources, and the beast-kin built themselves simple huts."


    Alright, good. Since it has been over a month, the humans probably gave up. It did not guarantee that they would not come back, but we aren''t actively under attack. Now, we have to kick these plans into gear.


    "Order the ants to start spreading mycelium, mainly in the direction the humans retreated towards. Spread some throughout the forest still."


    "Understood. What is the plan?"


    "We must build up strength. We will invade these humans, given time."


    Taressa did not answer in words, but instead I got a whirring, shrill sound from the mental link. I understood it as approval. Next on the plans is to start new research, the stat increase of the ants was done. I was also surprised to see that my mushroom warriors and workers had kept working while I was "dead." I started research on [Size II]. I informed Taressa, and she made her preparations.


    We now had materials to spare, and I took out quite a few of them and placed them under my central firecap. I was still rank 2, and it was time to rank up. I consumed the ashes of a lot of leaves, wood, and other decomposables.


    [Central Firecap ranked up!]


    [Heated Ground unlocked] This was one of the choices I had foregone in favor of [Flame Weapons] earlier. Nice, but not all that great for my plans of invasion.


    [All firecaps abilities upgraded to level 3, and their toughness is increased.]


    [Flame mana capacity increased.]


    [New units available in the barracks and archery range]


    [Fungal Wizard tower unlocked.]Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    Oh, fungal wizard sounds good. I immediately went through the new units available as well.


    The options were:


    [Fungal Greatswordsman (Fire element)]


    [Fungal Crossbowman (Fire element)]


    [Fungal Bastion (Fire element)]


    Now, those seemed useful. I started the next part of my plan. I spawned multiple new fungal workers quarters and assigned most of them as builders. I kept decomposing the leaves that had gathered up over the last month. I lost count of how many fungal workers I had now. I had long since given up on naming them.


    I ordered the construction of five new barracks and five new archery ranges. I lacked the materials to build any more and spoke to Taressa about sending the ants further out for materials for the constructions. She was excited, and I saw many ants quickly go to work on it.


    The construction did not take long, around half a day or so. I had been lazy and slow in the way I had handled it before my death. With the ants gathering, I could have grown multiple magnitudes faster. We could have had these barracks and archery ranges before my death. I scolded myself for a while.


    I spawned my new army out of the barracks. 10 [Fungal Archers] that did not gain my fire element and 15 [Fungal Crossbowmen] that did. From the barracks emerged 5 of each of the units available to me. Soldier, Axeman, Spearman, Greatswordsman, and Bastion.


    The Bastion was massive. It was about the size of a human, but wider. It had plate armor equipped and carried a greatshield as big as itself. It was a rectangular shield that curved inwards on its sides that looked too heavy to lift. It reminded me of the Roman legionary shield you often saw in games. Only bigger.


    The Greatswordsman was equally impressive. It was leaner and slightly shorter. But it carried a sword that was slightly taller than itself. It was a wide blade, with a big pommel at the end of the handle. It looked almost as heavy as the Bastion''s shield, but they wielded it as if it weighed nothing.


    "Is there another intruder?" Toqlan had walked closer, looking at what all the fuss was about. He looked scared, but I did not understand why.


    "No, this is simply our new military." I answered. I had not given much thought to the beast-kin since I awoke.


    "Oh, okay. What do you want us to focus on doing now? We have been idle since building our huts."


    Oh, right. What do I want them to do? They can''t gather as fast as the ants. I can''t make tools for their size, and they can''t fight.


    "What can you do?" I asked. I tried being diplomatic in my tone, as to not come off as looking down on them.


    "Akro can do heavy labor, maybe tree cutting? I have some knowledge about traps, so the rest of us can make traps for small animals if you allow it."


    Oh, that is actually an acceptable idea. Hmm. I do not want the trees cut right now. I like the forest being the way it is; we just harvest fallen logs and twigs and such right now.


    "You can all work on the traps, and I might need you for some questions about the village you came from. But also, why do you speak with a fearful tone?"


    "Oh, do you plan to do something in the village? And I am sorry for being fearful. The treatment of the human who attacked you... left some scars in my mind. It was hard to sleep, hearing him."


    I did not take Toqlan for someone squeamish, but I understand Taressa being scary. Wait, hearing him?


    "What do you mean, hearing him?"


    "Well, he did scream and cry for two days."


    Two days? I had imagined Taressa killing him in like, a couple of minutes. She kept him alive for two days?!


    "Taressa, did you torture the human for two days?" I asked, already knowing the answer.


    "Yes, he deserved more pain, but he was too weak to survive in the end."


    Oh my god. I have to deal with this. Even though I do not really have any forgiveness for the humans of this world, torturing someone for two days is far too extreme. Minutes is already scary enough.


    "Taressa, from now on, please kill our enemies within minutes. Or capture them, leaving them unharmed until I decide what to do with them."


    "Why?" She seemed upset and confused.


    "I have no forgiveness for them, but torture is not something I want in my territory.


    "...understood." She answered with a defiant tone.


    It is good that I am creating my own military. The queen of ants might be good to have by my side, but it is the nuclear option. I continued my talk with Toqlan and asked different questions about the village. I asked if he knew how many they had defending it and what force he thought I would need to invade it.


    "I do not know the strength of the village''s defenses, but it is not heavily fortified. There are mostly a few soldiers that did not quite make it among the larger cities standing armies. When a threat emerges nearby, the Templars are usually requested."


    "What are the Templars, and how strong are they?" I asked, but from the name alone, I would assume they are elite soldiers of the human god.


    "They are recruited from the top ranks of adventurers and city soldiers. I have only seen two of them, and they were level 30 and 42. They were requested to deal with a cave bear who had taken up residence in a nearby cave."


    "So they send people that fit the threat? How strong is a cave bear?"


    "I assume so, and I do not know; I have never seen or read about a cave bear."


    Shit, now this is an issue. If I invade, and then they send a strong Templar, they will just retake the village without me being able to do anything. I have to change my plans. Why do I want the village?


    I don''t.


    I want the beast-kin and to kill any slavers I run across. Then why would I fully invade the village? I could just use this forest and send a smaller force to sneak in and murder any slaver and free the slaves. I could be doing some Robin Hood-style hit-and-run strategies.


    "Toqlan, how many slaves are in the village, and how many humans?"


    "28 slaves, 242 humans. When we escaped, at least." I had forgotten about his perfect memory.


    "How many slavemasters?"


    "One."


    I did not expect there to only be one slavemaster. That made this a lot easier. If we snuck in and killed that slavemaster, we''d be able to increase our number by 28 beast-kin. We''d probably have to kill the guards and soldiers as well.


    "Do you think we can overwhelm them with the mushroom warriors and ants?"


    "Yes, the ants would probably be enough. It is a relatively small village, and it is located on the edge of the human empire."


    Empire? I was lost about this world still and decided that enough was enough. I had Toqlan give me a thorough lesson on what he knew of the humans. Apparently on this continent there is only one empire that ruled over what used to be a multitude of kingdoms. The Dol''kan empire. Apparently it is heresy for the humans to use the name of God in the naming of themselves or their cities. But they could use the first three letters of their god''s name.


    The Dol''kan was an empire focused around the human faith, of course. They had the whole package: a holy emperor, a caste of bishops that had the power of dukes, and templar armies. The emperor was named Arkan, had lived for centuries, and was the founding father of the empire.


    Apparently he was immortal, as the chosen of Doloran. A sort of champion of his god. Great, now we have to deal with an immortal, hero-type character as well. Not that it changed my intentions or plans.


    The humans gained power from their god, in the form of blessings, in their homeworld. When they invaded Toqlans homeworld, they also gained blessings, but not even close to what they had here. The closer to the portal of another world they are, the less their blessings apply.


    There was a portal to an unconquered world on the other side of the forest, which is why the beast-kin fled here to begin with. So we will have the defensive advantage. As long as the beasts and savages rumored to be on the other side did not rush through and attack us from behind.


    I now was a bit more knowledgeable about the situation. All that was left was preparation. After that, all that is left is to attack.


    I heard the whirring, shrill sound from Taressa again.