So I head to the main cavern. I haven’t eaten all day except breakfast and a bowl of stew with a fruit I found beside me after meditating, around midday. I’m starving.

  The moment I step in, I notice a few female goblins are serving dinner. I approach. The goblins start to stand up when they see me, and I indicate with a gesture that they don’t need to. There’s a free spot between the totem and Ronan. I sit down on the furs on the ground, and right away they bring me a bowl of broth with vegetables and meat, the same one everyone else is already eating.

  “Did you finish, my lady?” Ronan asks me.

  “Yes. How did things go with the bear and the orcs? Did they agree to evacuate the non-combatants?”

  “Yes, without problems.”

  Without problems, he says...

  The other bear, the one that was bigger than an Earth van, was already imposing and scary. But this bear, the bear king, made it look small. On all fours it rose more than three meters off the ground.

  Between that and Ronan’s dark aura—which is increasingly more pronounced, larger, and more intense for those of us who can see it —the strange thing is that they didn’t fall to their knees and open the gates.

  “Those orcs must be very brave. Are the combatants really willing to fight against you?”

  “I assured them that, if the non-combatants left, my bear and I would not participate in the attack.”

  “I see...”

  He shrugs.

  “How is the quarry progressing?” he asks me after a few seconds, which he uses to take some spoonfuls of his dinner. I do the same.

  The broth is really good. Grumpa is a great cook—or maybe I’m just so hungry.

  “It’s almost ready,” I answer. “I just have to go to the town hall and hit create. By the way, do you know anything about Vincent?”

  “They will leave tomorrow, at first light. They are already making solid progress on Clearhaven’s reconstruction.”

  I know he’ll be with his kingdom’s troops, that he’ll be safe. But my worry must be written all over my face, because Ronan says to me,

  “With the yetis’ help, breaking through that wooden orc palisade will be easy. Do not worry, my lady.”

  I smile at him. I know he’ll be fine because Vincent is very strong and capable. I’ll just feel more at ease when he’s back and I can lose myself in his beautiful golden eyes.

  “... my lady?” Ronan is saying to me.

  I shake my head. I must have been absorbed, without realizing it, in visualizing seeing my prince again.

  “Sorry, tell me, Ronan.”

  I bring the spoon to the broth and take some.

  “I was saying that, when we finish dinner, we should go to create the quarry. And then you can let me see the requirements to level up the settlement.”

  “Oh, I just realized I haven’t even looked at that. With so many available buildings and the blessings, it slipped my mind. You think that maybe, now that the orc village has just been added, we might have already met them, right?”

  “It would be possible. And if it then lets you appoint me as administrator, and we find a way for me to come here without requiring your presence to cross the portal, then I could not only have a calmer place for my magic experiments but also help you manage Convergence.”

  “True. Did you seriously bring Vincent here for that? So he’d take you through the portal?”

  He doesn’t answer me; he shrugs.

  Without a doubt, that was one of his main reasons. The other, his desire for me to come clean.

  I drop the subject and dedicate myself to finishing my food, which until now I’ve barely touched. We continue in silence. The totem and the other goblin diners do talk among themselves, animated. I listen to them.

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  They seem happy and excited about Convergence’s growth. Though they don’t like the fact that they can’t reproduce and increase the goblin population.

  Well, for now that’s how it’s going to stay.

  Once we’ve finished, I say goodbye and go with Ronan to the town hall.

  “By the way... about your invisible friend, can you ask him...?”

  The moment I start telling him—on the way, which is when it occurs to me—I realize this might be a topic better discussed under one of my prince’s silence spells. Better switch to mental communication.

  Can you ask him something about that terrible threat the seed can’t tell me anything more about? The one that’s not just other divine beasts.

  I don’t know why this idea has just crossed my mind now and not before. I imagine I assumed that, if the pup can’t tell me anything—not even through affirmative barks or through the system, since something or someone won’t let him—Ronan wouldn’t be able to get his god to tell him anything either.

  But Ronan is his acolyte and his friend and talks to him, so maybe he can tell him something.

  In any case, I look around. Through the tunnels there’s the occasional goblin or undead. And the totem and Gump, who follow us a couple of steps behind.

  They definitely heard that. Well, I only said Ronan has an invisible friend. They’ll think it’s a ghost.

  I did it as soon as you spoke to me about the threat, my lady. My friend seemed uneasy when I brought it up. He told me he was already helping me as much as he could, and that he trusted me for the rest.

  And that’s it?

  Yes.

  Well, that’s that. For a moment I thought we were going to have firsthand information.

  I sigh, somewhat disappointed. I feel eyes boring into my back.

  Look, I understand the totem coming with us to the pedestal thing, but Gump doing so… no. Not unless I’m some kind of guide for the young goblin to emulate and that’s why he seeks my presence so much. And I’m not turning around, because if I do, I’ll definitely find his questioning eyes staring back.

  We arrive at the town hall quickly, and I don’t say anything to him—I let him stay. Besides, he’s quiet, just watching with his huge eyes. And he doesn’t even, unlike the totem, try to see the interface that unfolds above the pedestal as soon as I place my hand on the engraved black claw. He simply stays a few meters away, observing.

  The totem positions himself on one of the two sides behind me. Ronan on the other. I don’t say anything to the goblin leader either, since this could be his job in the future. Though of course, first I’ll appoint Vincent as administrator.

  I know many goblins have gone to the quarry area to see how it materializes out of thin air. Smiling to myself, I find it in the settlement interface and hit build.

  Selected construction cost: 1 gold coin, 10 wooden logs, and 150 stone blocks. Do you wish to build it? Yes/No.

  I touch where it says “yes.”

  This time, unlike when we made the tannery, I don’t hear cheers or shouts of joy, since the quarry is far away and there’s stone in between. Before I go to sleep, I’ll stop by to see it, out of pure curiosity. Now, I continue.

  Next, I check the requirements for leveling up the settlement.

  200 inhabitants with beds, a town hall, and ten additional buildings.

  Thanks to the orcs Ronan conquered, the living population exceeds 300. And we have completely intact orc buildings that were added, raising our current building count from 5 to 48—49 with the tannery. Since Ronan didn’t damage the previous orc settlement, all of them have beds.

  Did he do it on purpose? I mean, by not destroying it he didn’t even break the walls.

  The 49 current buildings include the town hall, cold storage, smokehouse, forge-smithy, tannery, and goblin quarry, along with the orc great hall, family houses, barracks, forge-smithy, tannery, workshop, sewing workshop, kennel, and ceremonial bonfire. That’s 13 different buildings, 12 not counting the town hall.

  We more than meet the requirements, don’t we?

  Oh my gosh, what it would have cost to build all of that, without forgetting the influence points for the corresponding building unlocks? Ronan has undoubtedly just given Convergence’s growth a brutal boost.

  Wow.

  It never would have occurred to me to do something like that.

  Is this what it feels like when someone carries you?

  Anyway, I focus. I have Gump’s eyes boring into my face, which is undoubtedly showing a range of emotions.

  I go to level up the settlement and see there’s a little mark in the upper right corner. I touch it, curious. It seems like messages or notices are stored here, notifications that happen when I’m not in front of the pedestal.

  Congratulations, your settlement Convergence at initial level 1 meets the requirements to advance to level 2.

  Perfect!

  Without hesitation, I move my finger to accept and start that level up.

  A bright green light emanates from the pedestal, almost blinding, for more than a minute. When it fades softly, the screen it displays has changed.

  Settlement Convergence. Level 2

  Influence points: 655

  Population:

  Living: 298 orcs, 68 goblins, 8 bears.

  Undead: 62 skeletons, 43 zombies

  Current buildings: 49

  Available buildings: 20

  Current blessings: 0

  Available blessings: 6

  Leadership

  Both the number of available buildings and blessings have changed. I’d like to take a look, but now isn’t the time. Now, under the attentive gaze of the three who are in the town hall with me, what I do is move my hand to the leadership tab.

  Permitted users: 1 of 2. Bianca L’Crom.

  Exactly what I was waiting for. I add Ronan.

  Permitted users: 2. Bianca L’Crom (Custodian), Ronan Velbrun (Assistant Custodian).

  “Thank you so much, my lady,” he tells me with an enormous smile—the kind he doesn’t usually wear, but when he does, it’s like a child marveling at the beauty of life.

  “Well, later you can come and look at whatever you want. Now let’s go see the quarry. I’m excited about it.”