Dao Divinity 2 Chapter 17 (Patreon)

“Did you see Russ this morning?” Cherry chuckled as she, Dar, and Sasha walked away from the village just a little after dawn, headed for the forest.

“Yeah, I think he woke up most of the village as he went to town, trying to carve it out. We might have to ask him to chill out.” Dar shook his head. The gnoll had started on the log far before the sun rose, seeming to not hear any of the groans that were sent his way as a result.

Dar had a feeling Russ intended for it to be a regular occurrence, and the village may not completely tolerate it more than the one morning.

Sasha shrugged with a smirk. “I didn’t mind it. Gave us some quality morning time.”

“You’re insatiable.” He shot back.

“Says the man who never seems to get flaccid.” Cherry chimed in, teaming up with Sasha. He knew better than to take them both on, holding up his hands.

“Got me. But can you blame me surrounded by such lovely ladies?” He slapped Sasha’s rear. “Besides, you love it.”

“We both do. And we know that you’re going to add more here soon; can’t blame us for taking all we can get for now.”

Dar gave her a kiss on the cheek before holding his fingers to his lips as they approached the forest. “Quiet from here on out.”

Both of the girls nodded, and they crept through the forest.

Deja vu struck Dar as he walked through the forest, once again keeping an eye and ear out for the spider. It was even creepier this time, after being nearly ambushed the previous time. Part of Dar wished Neko could have joined them, but she was still recovering.

The unnatural quiet and spiderwebs covering branches and trees made the place feel more like a haunted house than a whimsical forest. The calm felt unnatural; Dar found himself bracing for something to jump out from behind every tree or bush.

As they moved towards the main battle area, they first came across the corpses of spiders. Dar was pleased to see that the spiders hadn’t eaten each other.

They followed the intense trail that had been created from their flight, and Dar pulled the corpses into his inner world one by one as they walked. Every few steps they’d have to stop for another.

“That’s a lot, if those spiders have a trace of dao…” Cherry let her thoughts trail off.

Dar found himself smiling despite the creepy surroundings. He was hopeful Cherry was right. It would mean his little dao tree would soon produce more fruit, likely more than he or they needed.

“I know. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

When they got to the site of the big fight, Dar knew without a doubt that they’d get plenty of dao fruits, even if the spiders didn’t have a touch of dao. Though, his little dao tree would have to get used to partial bodies.

The whole site was a mess of spider-armageddon.

Cherry pulled roots from surrounding trees up and started to pick through the mess, placing bodies before him so all he had to do was focus and draw them into his inner world, one by one.

“That’s still very odd looking.” Sasha said over her shoulder as she continued to scan the surroundings.

“You should see inside.” Cherry commented, keeping the conversation a hush, but it still sounded deafening to Dar amid the silent forest.

Sasha was quiet for a moment. “You wouldn’t mind? Either of you? Feels a bit like it’s your private space.”

“No, you’re always welcome.” Dar felt stupid for not thinking about it earlier. “I have been talking to Cherry about making it a potential safe haven for others, should something happen to the village. Can’t hurt to have an escape plan.”

“Then, yes, I’d like to see this inner world of yours.” Sasha peeked at him over her shoulder.

Cherry let out a small laugh. “We could use the extra help tonight, anyway; this is going to be so much work. Dar, do you think you can bring in my stump? Much easier than moving it with us.”

Looking at the massive stump that was still covering a large amount of the corpses. Dar tried to gauge how heavy it would be. “I don’t think so. Remember when we tried that boulder? Too heavy.”

“Right. Then we’ll just do this the hard way.” Cherry continued at her task, and the three of them fell into a companionable silence as they found their rhythm.

Sasha started pacing away from them, keeping her eyes in the canopy. But so far there hadn’t been any trouble. “Are you almost done?”

“Not much more.” Cherry said, before looking over to the massive stump “But I’m going to have to make some noise when I bring that out.”

“If you have to focus as much as last time, do you want me to carry you?” Dar paused in his task to try to read her reaction.

“And leave me as the only one ready to fight?” Sasha teased. “I see how it is.”

“Hush. I can fight while carrying Cherry.” Dar took the last corpse into his inner world and looked at Cherry.

“We’re done.” Cherry smiled at him.

Dar stretched his back and realized the sun was about halfway up to the middle of the day. They’d spent a solid three hours harvesting the bodies, but the walk back wouldn’t be long.

“Then let me scoop you up and get out of here.” Dar lifted Cherry into a princess carry, and she closed her eyes in concentration.

The giant stump came to life, rising off the ground. Its roots thundered as it followed them like a massive puppy.

“Well, at least we don’t have to worry about being quiet anymore.” Sasha breathed a sigh of relief. “That thing is really terrifying.”

Dar thought so too, but he didn’t like how it took all of Cherry’s concentration to move it, leaving her vulnerable like she was at that moment.

With each step of the stump, the spider webs in the trees quivered. It was almost like they were sending out some sort of signal, and a bad feeling started crawling across Dar’s skin.

Dar barely recognized what he was sensing before a massive spider sprang out of a funnel web. Dar moved backward quickly, shielding Cherry. Sasha whipped around, throwing her ribbons at the spider and touching the web itself. It shrank and cocooned the spider with its own web.

“Much better. I’d been wanting to do that to one of the buggers.” Sasha spit on the squirming spider and touched the web again, completely encasing it in a tight ball. “I don’t think it’s going to be able to get out without help, but just in case, we better move along.”

“Do you want to go just rip down their fortress in the woods?” Dar chuckled while he picked up the pace.

“If only I could control that much, I would. Although I’d also have to get close enough to it to touch it, and I doubt I could get that close by myself. It’s likely heavily protected.”

Dar smiled at how literally he was taking his question. “I was teasing. Now, let’s keep moving and get my lovely grump back to the village.”

“And away from spiders for at least for a few days?” Sasha asked hopefully.

Dar had to admit, he was tired of the creepy things as well. Even having them in his inner world felt grimy. “I’d like that, but I can’t promise anything.”

Their group made it clear of the forest just as a wave of chittering spiders reached their ears. “See? In and out. No problem.” Dar nudged Sasha.

A loud chorus sounded from the village as the guard rushed out, likely seeing the big stump before they saw the group.

“Cherry, can you get that think to stab its roots back in the ground? Might let it keep better.”

She didn’t respond to his comment, but the stump drove its roots in one at a time and began working itself into the soil as he’d asked.

When the stump finally settled in, she opened her eyes and yawned. “I need to go sprout the fields today.”

“Boss.” One of the guards came up and saluted. “Is everything okay?”

“Everything is fine; sorry for the concern. This is Cherry’s new toy. She plans to keep that by the village in the event we have trouble.”

“To use as a weapon?” The guard asked, his eyes wide as he looked back at the stump with a sort of reverence.

Dar knew then that he’d be fine. “Yep. So don’t touch it. She’ll have your hide if you do.”

“Yes, Boss.” He snapped another salute and turned around to talk with his partner.

“You are turning out to be quite the leader.” Sasha grabbed onto his arm as they walked into the village.

Dar felt himself swell a little at the comment. He’d felt like he’d been doing well, but if he was honest, he’d always been the doer, not the thinker in most projects. He just knew how to get shit done.

“Thanks.” Dar kissed the top of her head. “I’m going to go check on Neko.”

“Tell her I said ‘hi’. I need to go work on some clothes for the kids; they outgrow or destroy clothes faster than I can make them.”

Dar gave her a squeeze goodbye and found the hut with Neko in it, wanting to check on her. The jaguar girl looked up drowsily, as if she had been on the verge of going back to sleep. “Shh, I didn’t mean to disturb you.” He turned back.

But Neko’s eyes shot up on hearing his voice. “Dar. Stay.”

“New words?” Dar came back over to her side.

“New words.” She confirmed. “Talking important.”

“Well, I’m glad to see that you are at least learning quickly. How are you? Do you need water? A new rag?”

“Need Dar.” She stared right back into his eyes. The gold of her iris captured his attention, and maybe a small piece of his heart.

He sat down where she lay and scooted her head into his lap. “There you go. Just wait, soon you’ll be back on your feet. You already look miles better than yesterday.”

Neko hummed and rubbed her head into his lap. “Dar, best.”

“Yeah? What makes me the best?” He teased.

She grabbed his hand and put it on her head, worming her way deeper into his lap. He just smiles down at her and played with her hair, occasionally stroking one of her soft ears.

Neko’s human hum turned into a feline purr as she melted into his lap. “Dar. Best.”

“I know kitten, I know.” Dar soothed her back to sleep. He was pleased to see that she was more lively and didn’t seem to be in as much pain, but she was still so weak. The curled up woman in his lap was so far from the strong, ferocious demon he’d fought in the woods only a few days ago.

Still, the woman could bring a smile to his face.

He stayed with her a while after she fell back asleep to see if she’d wake again, but when she didn’t, Dar slipped out and went back to work. He’d laughed when she’d given a half-asleep growl as he shifted her off his lap, but she didn’t wake.

Ready to take on his next task, Dar headed back to the large cave, passing the men working with a smile. “Afternoon gents.”

“We heard you went back into the woods today. Any trouble?” A nearby worker asked, the others pausing in their tasks to listen in.

“The ettercaps seem to have retreated back deep into the woods. All we encountered was a spider. And Cherry brought back the massive stump she used to take them down before. She’ll have it at the ready to use as a weapon to defend the village if needed.”

There were more than a few sighs of relief, but one man spoke up. “That means you are getting ready to fight?” He paused and looked ashamed. “Sorry, Lord. It isn’t my place to ask those sorts of questions.”

Dar waved it off. Some formality helped with his authority, but he didn’t mind setting their minds at ease. “I don’t mind one bit. Hearthway’s safety is everyone’s concern. Right now, trying to take them head on is suicide, but we are trying to improve our position, regardless. We don’t know if they’ll change tactics and come at us.”

“With all these demons, we can take them! Charge right in and kill them all.” One man pumped his pick like he was ready to join the fight.

“Like I said, it’s too dangerous for us to take them head on. Just because our focus is on improving the village for winter right now doesn’t mean we’re cowards. It means that unlike the devils, we can use our heads in this fight.”

The man who had spoken up to go fight looked away as his two friends elbowed him.

Dar waited a moment to let that sink in before adding some more encouraging words, not wanting to discourage the man’s spirit. “But who knows? If they come out of the woods, we won’t have an option. If that happens, we’ll need each and every one of you to pick up a weapon.”

“Thank you, Lord. I just wish we could do something now.” The first spoke.

“Waiting is sometimes the hardest part. But trust me, it’s our best option. I’ve fought them three times now; there are just too many of them. But we will work towards being more battle-ready. You’ll see some changes I’m making to prepare for when we can take the fight to them.”

The men nodded eagerly. Dar could see they were ready to fight for Hearthway, eager even. He just hoped when the time came, they’d be smart about it.

“Anyway, back to work! I can’t dally too long.”

“Of course.” They smiled and went back to chipping away at a section of limestone and shoveling the broken stone into a wheelbarrow.

Picking his way to the back of the cave, Dar approached the area where he had been collecting stone previously, but the area was blocked off by Amelia. She seemed to have shifted her meditation area right to that spot, her bright amethyst eyes popping open as he approached.

“Fancy meeting you here. This was the best spot I could find for drawing more salt out of the stone.” A grin split her pink lips, and Dar had no doubt there was some strategy behind her spot choice as well.

Rolling his eyes, he stepped around her.

“Hey.”

“Look, I get it. I’ve welcomed your into our meals, but you need to pump the brakes.” Dar was going to let Cherry handle her.

She tilted her head. “Pump the brakes?”

“Pull back on the reins and slow your cart down.” Dar tried again. “I have houses to start and a village to organize. Don’t get me wrong, you’re hot. And I have no doubt you have amazing things to offer, but right now isn’t going to be the time. What you do from here is up to you, but all I can offer is continuing to join our dinners and getting to know each other.” As her eyes sparkled he added, “platonically for now. We’ll see where it goes.”

Amelia opened her mouth, then closed it several times. “You’re a tough nut to crack, hunk.”

“What do you mean?” Her tone had turned more serious than usual.

“I can’t figure out what you want. You seem wholesome, down to earth, but you certainly enjoy your women. From the noises coming out of your hut at night, you enjoy them wildly. But you don’t seem to want me?”

Dar crouched down, so he was eye level with her. “I happen to think physical love is so much sweeter when there’s an emotional connection for it to grow off of.”

Amelia let out a heavy sigh. “Fine. But a little physical won’t hurt ya, you know.”

Dar chuckled. “Like you said, you’ve heard evidence that I enjoy the physical as well. And I know Sasha and Cherry want our family to grow. But I’m not going to put this village at risk because I’m getting too distracted. So for now, we just get to know each other more. Understand?”

Amelia sighed, nodding.

“Good. Now, is this really the best spot for you to find salt?”

“Actually, it is really good. You sort of churned the stone around here and loosened things up for me to work.” She answered, and he didn’t see a lick of dishonesty in her eyes.

“Okay, then I’m going to carve a path around you so I don’t disturb you.”

She nodded, biting her bottom lip as she studied him.

Turning to focus on the rock, Dar started to pull granite from the surrounding rock and make more stone carts that he could haul out. Deciding to focus on the tasks a bit more, he kept producing cart after cart.

Once he had a number of them, he began wheeling them one at a time out, scattering around the village into spaces where he’d turn them into foundations later.

Back and forth he went into the mines, hauling out enough for three foundations before Bart stopped him.

“What can I help with?” Dar asked.

Bart looked at his work and whistled. “Maybe we should just leave the foundation work to you. We are only making enough cement for one a day, and we still have to dig out the ground.”

“Yeah, I’m starting to get a bit wiped, too. It’s still quite a bit of work using the granite to push out the soil.” Dar looked at the carts he’d brought out, knowing that each of them would take a toll on his mana reserves for him to push into the ground.

He looked around. It might make sense to try to see if there were parts of the process others could help with to limit the reserves he had to use up.

“Maybe we could use Glump to help move out the soil for the foundations.” Dar thought aloud.

Bart nodded, scratching that into a piece of wood. “Great idea, I’ll remind you to tell him at dinner.”

“Anyway, what did you need?” Dar focused back on Bart.

“Molds. I was hoping you could make some stone molds, so we could start making and laying out roof tiles before it gets too cold.”

“I can do that, no problem.” Dar reached for one of the nearby carts and pulled off a chunk of granite, starting to mold it in front of Bart. “Like this?”

“Damn, that’s still impressive, no matter how many times I see it.” Bart shook his head.

Dar smiled to himself, hopeful that he may one day be able to help Bart accomplish it himself. Bart was near the top of Dar’s list for getting any extra fruits.

“How many do you need?” Dar asked.

“Three should do the trick.”

Dar quickly made the other two and looked back at the first few foundations he’d made. “Bart, if we have some lumber, you should bring it over to one of the houses I already started. If I sank a strong piece into the four corners, do you think your men could use that to build up the rest?”

Bart looked at the foundations for a second, eyeing them up. “I think we could work with that. If you sink them into the granite as deep as I’m thinking, then they should be rock solid.”

“Great. Can we get your men working on that?”

“Still tight on lumber.” Bart reminded him.

Dar nodded. He’d already considered that. “For now, we stop the palisade construction. Maybe even strip it if we need to. I’m not entirely sure it would do us much good in the event we have trouble with the ettercaps anyway. Climbing is their specialty.”

Bart stroked his chin. “I see your point, although I still like the idea of a wall. Can we talk about this when we meet at dinner with the others? Even if the palisade isn’t much help with them, it would make people feel a whole lot more comfortable.”

“So would a home, Bart.” Dar countered. Dar understood the concern, but houses still seemed more important. And he could always shift the material for the walls to granite now that he had his new greater dao. His only barrier was his limitations with mana.