Spellheart 10: Chapter 7 (Patreon)

The two of us were overdue for a shower. Thankfully, it hadn’t been damaged during Tivana’s breakthrough, though apparently a lot had been.

The birth of a Demigod was a rare occurrence, especially outside of a secluded space like my Cultivation Chamber or somewhere like the Primordial World. Few would be so generous as to share the energies released during their epiphany with an entire city. And of those that were, they wouldn’t want to leave themselves vulnerable.

If someone had a grudge against Tivana, that would have been the perfect time to assassinate her. Someone as notable as the Princess of Deania was bound to have enemies.

Unfortunately for those enemies, I had been there the whole time, as had my matriarchs. If they’d tried anything, it would have been the last thing they’d ever done.

Every breakthrough required a bit of a tune-up and an adjustment period. Having gone through the process with both body and spirit cultivation, I lent Tivana a hand to get her adjusted.

“I think I can walk again now,” Tivana said.

“Nah. I’m not sure. I’ll just have to carry you everywhere from now on,” I joked as I held her in my arms. A princess carry for a beautiful princess.

“You can put me down.”

“I don’t know. I kind of like having a beautiful princess on hand at all times. If I ever need any official decrees or speeches given, I have the perfect person right there!”

Tivana combed her hair back, a smile on her lips. “We both know that isn’t what you’d be doing with me.”

As we spoke, I’d been rubbing my face against her boobs. “Yeah...”

We both laughed, and I set Tivana back down on the ground. Eventually, we dressed and made our way back outside.

I was once again thankful to have such competent matriarchs partnered with me. If not for them, I would have had to take charge of the situation when I woke up. As it was, I could afford to relax and spend these crucial moments with Tivana and help her through her breakthrough.

I didn’t know what was going on outside in the Hearthwood, but I knew my companions well enough to know that they’d tell me if they didn’t already have it under control.

“I know you mentioned easing back on the number of kids you were having.” Tivana rubbed her belly anxiously as her eyes darted up to meet mine. “But we still have that quota of my mother’s to fill. And... well...”

I realized what had happened. Normally, an elf who didn’t want kids would be able to convert my seed into vitality to fuel their cultivation. They would only become pregnant if they failed to do that. But Tivana and I had been in an odd state of merged consciousness at the time. The two of us had been far too busy with her breakthrough to worry about kids.

I planted a kiss on her forehead. “More siblings? When the first couple eggs haven't even hatched into wisps? You're turning into quite the aspiring mother, Tivana."

Recently, I'd had the pleasure of collecting a few new eggs from my lovely princess from a previous tryst that took us all the way to another world. I hadn't expected her to have more so soon. But perhaps her mother was putting more pressure on her than I thought.

"You think the others will be upset I took spots they could have used?" Tivana asked shyly.

I shook my head. "Cutting back was just a goal, my dear. If I failed at it, it was my own fault, not any of yours. Don't take it out on yourself. And definitely not on the wisps to be. I’m sure they’ll be lovely little ones. We may have to tack a new addition onto the castle complex, but that’s just an afternoon’s work. And maybe one extra run to the Primordial World when they grow up.”

Tivana smiled. “I’ll come with you. We’ll clear out every shop and monster den. We’ll probably have to if we want to outfit so many aspiring True Mages and Wizards.”

That was probably the one thing I was very worried about with my growing number of children. A lot of them were extremely ambitious. Most clans would only have to train and equip a handful of new True Mages or Wizards at a time. But the Hearthwood would have to do that for dozens, maybe hundreds.

I wasn’t sure there were enough Aura Condensation Talismans on the continent if we used them all at once. There was really only one solution. We’d have to pick up resources from the Primordial World.

“Consider it a date. Maybe we can even kidnap some elves from the Elven Star Dominion. The Golden Sword Sect Leader worked out very well as a tutor for Comela. A couple dozen more of those, and we’ll have a real school together.”

The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. I jotted kidnapping down as a plan for the future. Those Elven Star Dominion elves were tough, so their spells, techniques, and training methods all had to be top-notch.

“So, did you really plan for a breakthrough then and there?” I asked Tivana.

She shook her head. “It came on unexpectedly. I...” her face was covered with a red flush. “I really wanted to go to that party with you.”

I laughed. “Well, I’m glad someone’s eager to go. Truth be told, I was kind of dreading it. But I’m dreading it less now that I know you’ll be by my side.”

***

Once the two of us were decent and moving normally, I rebuilt the damaged portion of the tower and dealt with another round of protesters. Apparently, my recent actions had earned their ire once again. I guess it was one thing to hear about the excess lovemaking I favored certain women with and another thing entirely to see it with their own eyes.

The fact that workers were gathering up the seed they were so hungry for by the bucket full probably didn’t help. I would have to work on my matriarch’s suggestion to concentrate it a little further. I’d have to fiddle with the World Titan Fiendbody a little more to make that happen, but that would take a lengthy meditation session.

I received a message from Mac saying that all my kids who’d broken through had gathered in Castle Mac to celebrate, and it might be a good idea for me to drop by. That sounded like a good idea since I’d love to meet the lucky young ladies and congratulate them.

When I found the room and entered, I saw more familiar faces than I expected. Argona was there and at True Mage no less. She’d been lagging behind others of her generation since she’d been more interested in crafting than cultivating. But somewhere along the way, she must have found her motivation, which had carried her all the way to forging an aura.

The immense wealth she’d gathered selling her enchanted creations probably also helped. With her skills, she’d never need to delve into the dungeon. Or even risk herself at anything particularly dangerous. A few weeks in a workshop, and she’d buy her next session of cultivation progress.

Dulik was there as well. He was at Bronze Bone body cultivation already. It was truly an amazingly fast rate of progress. If he and I had started simultaneously, we might be neck and neck.

But proudest of all was Segolas. He was my firstborn son, the eldest of my children. But after a tough battle against Tim from the Cult of the Unblinking Eye, he’d fallen into a coma from which we feared he would never awaken. When we’d finally managed to wake him up anyway, he was far behind his brother and sisters.

The kid had always taken pride in his talent and his dedication, so being far from the best had nearly broken him. He would have gotten himself killed delving too deep into the dungeon if I hadn’t followed him.

But he was beaming with pride as he saw me step through the door. He flexed his magical might, showing off his newly formed aura. I smiled at him and then at all the others. In total, about forty of my children had made breakthroughs, many from Zeal Accumulation to Mage Acolyte, but there were enough new True Mages to make this one room alone enough to be a powerful clan in Deania.

If I’d had a force like this at my disposal during the reign of the Crimson Dragon Clan when I’d first arrived in the Hearthwood, I could have flattened every enemy and conquered the Hearthwood the easy way, then kicked the asses of the Corpse Collector Company and sent them crawling back to their masters.

It would have been one hell of a different adventure, but I wasn’t sure if I preferred it. Yes, it would have been easier, but I wouldn’t have grown as close to my matriarchs as I had without that adversity.

“Well done, all of you! I’m very proud of you. The Hearthwood will be a better place for your efforts. I’m sure it wasn’t easy to push yourselves, but all of you deserve rewards. Feel free to visit the family treasury and pick something out for yourselves on the lower levels as my gifts to you.”

A wave of cheers erupted from my progeny. I had pretty good stuff on those lower levels, with more showing up every day now that The Wanderer as granting me access to a special shop that generated unique goods and gear.

I held up my hands as the cheering died down. “But with great power comes great responsibility! Remember that. Now that you’re more powerful, you need to start looking out for those you can protect. Look after your weaker siblings and all the people of the Hearthwood. I’ll be opening up new positions to enforce the law in the city, and many of you might find a position in those forces. The same will be true for our army and dungeon diving groups. Understood?”

There was a chorus of nods and voices of agreement.

“Great! Well, now that the boring stuff’s out of the way, let’s have some food!”

We had a small celebration party that went deep into the night. A few others joined us, and I got to meet Segolas’ companions again. The young man had a small budding harem of his own, mostly consisting of the reincarnated former matriarchs of the Hearthwood from before I took over.

By now, my companions had long since left those women in the dust, but they still held influence in certain circles. And all of them had enough talent to one day be True Mages since each had possessed considerable ability in their former lives.

I’d have to sneak Segolas some more Bloodline Origin Awakening Elixirs for the lot of them. No doubt they’d find the experiences of their past lives quite illuminating. It would help them keep up with my boy, keeping him from ever running off into the dungeon alone again.

***

The rest of the time before the much-anticipated Demigod gathering passed quickly. I spent several days with my family and continued to improve the infrastructure of Hearthwood, Deania, and all the surrounding nations.

My matriarchs carefully dealt with all the protesters demanding to be included in my nightly activities, and by and large, their efforts had already proven fruitful. The leader of the Golden Sword Sect had extended invitations to train at her school to many of my children, and some had even accepted.

A few months ago, I would have stopped them, but since then, the leader of the Golden Sword Sect had proven her loyalty time and time again. And the remaining members of their school were well and truly cowed by the power of the Hearthwood Clan. Still, I’d drop by unannounced every now and again to make sure everything was going well. And maybe Sava’s sister could volunteer to be a substitute teacher there for a bit.

They were probably lacking teaching staff since I’d killed most of their strongest the last time I was there. Kyrina was supposed to be a wizard now, which would make her strong enough to teach.

I’d make the request, but not guarantee anything. It would probably be better for her to show up with my kids anyway.

My other vassals were also hard at work, all eager to accumulate contribution points in my name in the homes they could exchange for a night of passion with me. I still wasn’t quite sure how to feel about that. At first, it made me feel like some sort of prize breeding stud, but then Illiel had shown me the price she’d listed for that particular reward. If I was a breeding stud, I was a damn expensive one.

Besides, Illiel wouldn’t have given it as an option to anyone I found particularly repulsive. Combing through the list of eligible vassals, I couldn’t find a single one of them with a bad personality or terrible looks.

High cultivation levels certainly helped with the looks issue, but the personalities? I suspected that anyone with a particularly nasty personality who might have otherwise qualified for the list had recently wound up dead. Now that I thought about it, I’d barely ever seen Eltiana around the Hearthwood lately, and the few times I did see her she was always exhausted and ready for a nap.

That was unusual for the normally energetic ninja, and the lack of annoying women competing for my attention was probably related. If I was willing to dig through all ten thousand pages of reports Illiel had written up for me, I’d probably find the answer somewhere in there. But digging through mountains of paperwork was what I had Mac for, so I left that kind of work to him.

Between keeping an eye on our internal affairs, a guiding hand on helping Tivana establish herself as a new Demigod, and the other on building new infrastructure, I fell into a pleasant routine. I knew I’d eventually grow bored with this sort of thing and seek out action once again, but before that, Sam and Dean arrived.

“Alright, Theo! Get your pants on and prepare yourself for this once per golden age little party!” Dean yelled when he appeared outside my tower one day. “Looks like it’s about time in the Primordial World, so we’ll have to get going sometime today.”

“Already time to go, huh?” I asked. I’d already packed anything I might need in my Dimensional Storage, but I wasn’t too worried about packing since I could always ask for more stuff to be added. “Sounds good. But I have one more Demigod to bring along.”

“Oh, you know a Demigod besides Sam and me?” Dean perked up in surprise. “I thought I was the handsome, dashing socialite of our gang. Where'd you go meeting new people without me?!”

I chuckled. “Don’t worry, Dean. You already met her. Come on, Tivana! It’s time to go!”

<Author's Note>

This chapter should mark the end of all the refresher stuff and get people back into the groove of the story. Starting from here the main plot will pick up shortly.