Underhill village.

With everyone walking towards the new ratfolk settlement, John noticed the smile on Anna's face when she looked at Tricia. He was aware that she had access to the gallery and that his little pit stop on the way to the forest had been recorded in it.

John also looked around him: seven beautiful, naked women were walking around him. And not just any women: His living fantasy of an art teacher. The cute curvy girl with a crush on him. A green nature spirit with a stunning body. A tall and strong, caramel-skinned elven huntress. Her living flame little sister who could now switch between pale skin with platinum blond hair and bright red skin with fiery hair. A petite, slavic genius girl with healing skills and an ancient bloodline bearing secret powers. And lastly, a mute slime girl who apparently lived to serve anyone she encountered.

Questions arose in his mind. Who was he to deserve even a single one of them? Two weeks prior, he would have given anything to be with one of them, now they were all gathered around him and eager to get their hands on him. Was he treating them right? The fact that he had done little things directly with Vesta would have to be compensated for, now that it was a possibility, and Cali too had spent little time with him, probably to avoid making her sister jealous... Time would be hard to find to satisfy all of them the way that they deserved it.

Walking naked surrounded by naked women in a fantasy land seemed like a scene from a wet dream. John's idea that he might have died at some point and gone to heaven was not easy to strike out.

Just like his bike, he could pick up the quad in his inventory, but it took an insane number of slots ending up filling 42 of them. John had been **** to give some items to Cali and Anna, who had their own inventory in their rings, before picking it up.

Beyond the forest and getting closer to the mountains, the plains transformed into green hills amidst of which meandered a river, flowing from the high peaks to the deep blue lake.

For the first time, John noticed the small wisp of smoke in the distance. He also spotted the stone cave entrance marking one of the access points of the Shadow Maze on top of a hill.

Down from the entrance John discovered something new in this kingdom... Buildings that he had not made himself or received as rewards. And not only that but also what looked like a farm.

In the relatively flat space between two hills, not far from the river, a patch of land had been stripped of all its vegetation and plowed. Dozens of smaller and larger rats were busy working on it with tiny shovels that were obviously made from scarab shells. A great number of small huts made out of earth and plants were scattered around the hills, and a small stream of water from the river filled a pond and a set of ditches to irrigate the field. Rats were busy everywhere, dragging fruits or bits of mushroom on sleds made with large scarab carapaces turned upside down.

The smoke came from one of the largest huts, which had a chimney. Raw food of many kinds was brought into it, and sleds full of steaming stew were dragged out. John looked at Vesta and wondered if she had played Prometheus, bringing the secrets of Fire to the low people.

"Surprise!" exclaimed Anna. John realized with shock that he had been played. He saw a pile of lumber cut into small beams and boards that was not missing from his stock. The rats had fire, were cooking, built an irrigation system and picked a near perfect spot for a settlement for them. He also guessed that the dry looking, white mushroom stems brought into their kitchen were most likely fuel for the fire. There was no way that the rats could have figured all of this out on their own in a few days. And what he saw around him bore the mark of not one but nearly all of the girls in his kingdom (Daphne and June excluded, but both were really new here).

"You all did this behind my back?" he asked them.

"They left a rear guard at the castle to keep the scarabs at bay, and we also put some obstacles in place to stop the biggest ones to reach the castle. We thought that, with all the efforts and time that you spend in this place and risking your life outside, you deserved some cool surprise that you did not need to worry about. All it took was a few explanations, one or two videos and a bit of help here and there. They have their own kitchen, a field for vegetables crops and a few mushroom caves under this. The huts are connected to underground rooms by tunnels. I gave them a few more simple tools, had to borrow 10 units of junk metal, sorry. Oh, and check out the kingdom interface, " replied his queen.

John opened the menu and noticed that the farm was now showing as built; he would be able to unlock the endurance perk for the rings at the Altar. He hugged her and then the three other girls involved, thanking them for this gift.

Algernon, followed by a bunch of tall rats, was walking on two legs and approaching the group.

"Salutening Overmaster, welcoming into the Underhill village. Self is proud of readening the folk and the warrens in advance of your visitationing," uttered the leader of the ratfolk. John noticed something strange: one of the tall rats following him had reddish-brown fur and a fluffy tail. In fact more, than a few of the regular sized ones showed the same characteristics. Characteristics that reminded John of the squirrels that inhabited the forest. Tricia had pointed out that the summoned rat should not even have been able to breed with the small mice of the castle in theory, yet his hybrids were now the totality of the population from what he could see. And now squirrel DNA was added into the mix.

"This is quite impressive. I'm amazed at how fast you put all of this in place, and that you managed to help me with something of concern with this farm is greatly appreciated. Some of your people look different, any explanation?" he asked in an inquisitive manner.

"’Twas hard work, and each rat put their paws to it. We discovered surface cousins, funny folks with a like to jump and roll and fly from wood bunch to another. Some joined us, self took a mate from them too. Congralicitation next to the road, growing your own pack it is? And what augutest mamalious additioning, enough to feed ten paws of younglings. And the pack leader somber friend came back lightened, yet the scarlet is darkened. What can the folk performise for you?" John noticed that with her suit set to translucent now, the rat didn't see Tricia as jet black, but it was how he was seeing Vesta now.

"I was led here by necessity. Even if I was glad to discover such pleasant surprise, I come bearing bad news..." John explained to him what led them here while Tricia deployed a couple of drones to scan the remaining population of the village.

John saw his always jolly friend lose his jovial demeanor for a second and shake his head. He seemed a lot less distraught than John had expected and that he was himself.

"Too much worriation, Overleader, the folk is gladdeninged by your boon. Such days you count short and weep about, we count plenty and celebrate. Since you brought my ancestor, the folk are stronger, bigger, live longer. Since you killed the lurker bellow the flow of squishies lowered. Now miraculous food and new life in the great outside, it is dreamed life for self and the folk. What you see as wronged, your fault, is more than we had without you. Don't saddenate you for such. The folk live and they die, is cycle," explained the elder rat.

John realized that he was so focused on his notion of things that he had forgotten to consider theirs. He didn't expect such philosophy coming from them either. Nevertheless, such an ephemeral sapient species seemed such an injustice that he was decided to do whatever he could to give them more, even if it ended being only a few years rather than a few days.

John took note of a few things that he could do to improve this village and decided that he would come back to work on them as soon as possible.

John emptied most of his mana crafting a few more tools and items for the village and helping to move away a large stone that was in the way of developing a new building: a granary to store more food.

Seeing these frail creatures give their all for a project that they would only enjoy for a few days was heart-rending. John had a plan and prayed to Gaia that it would work. All that was missing from the lab to be upgraded into the Ascension lab was a few vats and glass elements. The broken glass he took from the junkyard wouldn't be enough and was not really suited for this anyway, but there was a solution for it.

With Vesta and Tricia on the quad, John drove to the lake. The rest of the group was walking back to the castle now.

John looked down at the the sandy shore and waited for Tricia's opinion.

"This is regular sand, mostly silicon dioxide. It... This place is a kingdom, its contents are as stable as the real world. The trouble comes from the creatures created as quest rewards and the guests that you collected. Abyssal creatures can destabilize in the real world; our world is less prone to magic, and most of these creatures need a strong magic field to survive. But this is sand, the same that you could find on the shore of the river back home, a bit cleaner," she explained after scanning it with her drones.

"I could use it to make glass. Vesta can heat it up, and I can **** it into the right shape while it cools down."

"Interesting, it would save us buying a lot of equipment and also the vials for the elixir. Let's test it. You know, real glass needs the addition of other ingredients than sand, but there's a material named fused quartz which is made from pure silica heated to very high temperature. It is more resistant than normal glass and has better properties, but it is usually expensive and hard to work with. I think Vesta could heat things hot enough to make some. Are we doing this here?" asked Tricia.

"No, I'll just gather some sand, and we'll try it at the castle where I have the tools and equipment to improve and enchant it while we’re at it. June will love to learn that we can make glass on demand now."

Tricia looked at him filling six 50L garbage bags full of sand and make them disappear in that magic inventory of his. She even heard him grumble that each bag took two slots in his inventory. She had read about some bags of holding, but ones that could hold so much and totally negate the weight of their content were legendary and sought after. He could do it without any item.

From seeing how the Elf was looking at John, Tricia concluded that she was eager to have sex with him now that her new suit allowed her to ignore the disagreement of her condition. She inferred that her presence and the apparent gravity of the situation was the only thing preventing her to jump on John right now, and it made her feel a bit guilty.

On the way back she let the Elf girl be against John, sitting behind them and holding her instead.