Amazon Apocalypse 6: Chapter 47

Bill helped me a bit longer. He brought up other people a few more times, and I realized pretty quickly what he was hinting at. He wasn't the only person living in the outskirts of the habitable region with an empty belly and nothing else to eat.

"Would it be possible to make one of these golems that can go underwater? There are some big sea creatures in the bay these days. I see the corporations haul in something the size of a whale every few days. It keeps them fed, though not much trickles back to us," Bill explained.

"Maybe. I'll have to think about the design. I take it most of you guys are on a seafood diet?" I demonstrated connecting several control points with channels of mana. I was pretty sure almost all of it was going completely over Bill's head. He couldn't see the mana I was working with, let alone do anything with it. He seemed more than happy to hold things in place for me though.

Despite his enthusiasm, I probably would have worked faster alone. But talking with him was illuminating, and told me things I never would have learned had I restricted myself to just Nakano and his subordinates.

"It would be good to get more food. We used to be able to find canned goods and old produce now and again, but it's been a while since the last stage of the integration, and there's nowhere safe left to search now." Bill hung his head sadly.

I stood and dusted my hands as the golem came to life. Bill went silent as he watched the enormous piece of magical construction equipment lurch to its feet and begin building a wall. I'd seen it enough times that the sight wasn't nearly so impressive to me, but it was nice to watch the awe on Bill's face. It was always nice to have your work appreciated.

It took him a while to calm down after seeing the golem actually move.

"Incredible. I can't figure out how the damn thing moved. I didn't see any pistons or servos in there. Just dirt." Bill stared at me with the same wonder a kid looks at a magician with.

"As I said when we were building, the infrastructure is magical. It's all mana constructs, so you can't see it with normal eyes. It's a bit harder to see with my golems though, since I cheat and store a lot of stuff extra-dimensional. Anyway, you said there were more people willing to do a bit of work for me if it meant getting to eat?"

"Uh... yeah! This way!" Bill took me back in the direction he'd come from. I followed him while checking my stash.

I'd been prepared to give away a few more of Bridget's meal kits, but when Bill showed me the people he'd been staying with, those plans went out the window. There were hundreds of scared, low-level people living in the center of what had once been an office complex.

Most of the doors and windows on the lower floors had been barricaded shut, but that was the limit of their defensive constructs. It was a far cry from what the employees of the major corporations enjoyed.

I didn't have nearly enough food from Bridget to share, but I had some raw goods left over from my recent trip to Onibushi. I'd brought a bunch of Amazonian beans and grains in case nothing else I had to sell was valuable, but given how well my custom coinage idea had worked I hadn't touched the stockpile.

"Who here can cook? Step forward." A few people raised their hands. "I've got a job for you, if you're willing to accept."

I offered everyone who volunteered to cook a simple job. If they were willing to cook and serve food, I'd make sure they ate their fill before anyone else was served, plus some to eat after the work was done.

I had no shortage of volunteers, though I did have to stop a few people from grabbing a bowl full of beans and running off with it. The people really were quite hungry. Not all of them were human either, much to my surprise.

The Marketplace Collective had probably wiped out a number of tribal or feudal civilizations holding up the integration. Given the population of this city, there was probably little capable of putting up a fight against them.

Thankfully, they all had Forerunner titles like I did, which removed the language barrier. A few groups of lizard-looking, purple-skinned, pointy-eared women, and feathered people had made room for themselves here on the edges of human territory among the less fortunate humans.

The line for food only seemed to get longer as time went on. Word had probably spread. I caught the same people in line more than once, but I wasn't about to short anyone. I actually had enough on me to solve the food issues for this whole city for at least a week or two.

I was perfectly happy to help people in need, and if Bridget were here with us she probably would have asked me to do just that. I was never quite as selfless as her though, and planned on using dinner as recruiting grounds.

"Listen up, there's more where that came from for anyone willing to work! If you think you can work with metal, machines, computers, or power tools, go to Doomblade's Armory. It's next to the Red Torii Group in the center of the Marketplace Collective, close to the obelisk. My girlfriend is hiring there, and anyone is welcome to show up for an interview." I pointed the crowd in Sakura's direction.

"And the rest of us?" asked a rough-looking lizard man. He wore what I thought of as tribal clothing, and probably didn't know what any of the words I'd just said meant.

"I could use some more manual labor at the wall I'm building. Report there tomorrow at dawn. Just look for the giant stone men." I pointed behind me. Even though we were halfway across the city, it wasn't hard to hear the clang of the huge golems moving cars, buildings, and dirt around.

A few people tried to follow me after I left, but they had little chance of catching me while I was using Shadowrealm Stride.

***

I returned to where I'd left Sakura, Reluna, and Kogai to fight undead, but they were out of sight. Fortunately, Reluna's suit had a tracking feature, so finding the girls wasn't too difficult. When the undead stopped coming for them, they started hunting down the undead.

And they really had killed quite a lot. I was partied with both of them, and Kogai too, so they were receiving an experience bonus from me. I was getting a little bit of experience as well, and to my surprise I was nearly up half a level from that alone.

The reason became apparent a short while later. Page after page of notifications filled my party chat.

Reluna has slain an undead thug! +100 experience points.
Reluna has slain an undead harpy! +120 experience points.
Reluna has slain an undead corporate drone! +200 experience points.

Notification after notification came rolling in, rarely interspersed with one of Sakura's kills. The only time I'd ever seen kills coming in this numerous and this fast was when I set Sharky loose to eat whatever he liked. Maybe he'd enjoy chowing down on some undead too. Someone must have finally managed to dispel him on Onibushi, since he'd be ready to summon again in just a few minutes.

When I finally caught up to the two of them, it was clear the Sorceress' Grindset Stimulator was at least partially responsible for the massive flood of experience points currently flowing into Reluna. While I was only up half a level thanks to her, she'd gained ten whole C-Grade levels.

That was the sort of progress even my team of D-Grades struggled to replicate in a single day, even with my guidance and what I considered a good work ethic. Reluna was on a different level, at least when properly motivated.

They saw my spells before they saw me. While watching them, I started channeling power into Mana Arsenal. A cloud of half-formed spells gathered in the sky above me. Most shone with the bright hue of sunlight or the radiant white of a new moon. Occasionally, there was a glint of bright jade-colored light flickering here and there.

Each spell was crafted with care, despite how quickly I made them. They drew on my own mana, flavored with the Goddess in Jade's blessing and my own understanding of the weaknesses of the undead. Most were even weaker than one of my standard mana bolts, since it didn't take much to kill a low-level undead when one had as much magical might as I did.

When nearly five hundred of the tiny spells hovered over my head, I pointed my finger like a gun at the tide of enemies Reluna and Sakura were fighting.

Each undead died in a blaze of holy fire, wiped out to the last with magic carefully calibrated to slip past their defenses and burn them out from the inside. The fires would have kept burning for a few seconds at least, but I cast Disassemble an instant later, reducing all the destroyed undead to dust. Soon, the only thing left was their monster cores.

"I see the two of you have been busy." I smiled as I floated down to Sakura and Reluna.

"Sometimes I wonder why you make us clean up your messes when you could handle them yourself so easily." Sakura rolled her eyes.

"I don't know, seems like Reluna is enjoying herself." I jerked my head in Reluna's direction.

She was already off searching for more enemies to smite. I could hear the buzzing noise in her suit's crotch from here, compelling her onward. I reached out and overrode its preprogrammed script, calling Reluna back to us. Meanwhile, I told Sakura what I'd been up to.

"But you're right, Sakura. You're not actually needed for killing low-level undead. I've gone ahead and signed you up for conducting more job interviews. Remember how I mentioned setting up a branch of Doomblade's Armory? Well, turns out there was a labor force right by the walls." I shrugged helplessly.

Sakura shook her head again, but there was a smile on her face. "I'm glad to know there are some things you really do need me for. Alright, I'll do more interviews, but I can't teach people to build things. Either you'll need to do that yourself, or I'll need to bring Gobgob over."

"You think she's ready?" I asked, then corrected myself. The Gobgob of today was not the Gobgob I'd first taught to build. Her time on Glacia had given her a confidence the little goblin of old never had. I'd held off on introducing her to the rest of Crownhill and the humans there, but after staying on Glacia so long, training a bunch of workers here was probably something she could handle.

"I think she's ready." Sakura nodded.

From there, I left things in Sakura's capable hands and turned back to Reluna.

"Hey, Reluna, I've got a game for you. It's no fun to fight alone. How about I summon up a buddy for you?" I grinned at her.

"S-summon a buddy?" Reluna cocked her head in confusion, still panting but clearly eager for more.

"You already know him. Sharky. Between the two of you, I'm really curious who can kill more undead, you or him?"

"I don't know... Sharky is pretty good at fighting..." Reluna trailed off hesitantly.

"If you win, I'll promise you a long, hard night of freaky sex from your most depraved fantasies. What do you say?" I teased.

Reluna's eyes lit up. "How could a mighty sorceress like me lose to a mere summon?"

I threw down Sharky's summoning circle, extra large this time given his recent growth spurt. He emerged in a great heaving mass of flesh.

"Nom nom." Sharky looked me over with a beady black eye.

"What, do I owe you something extra for having to push your acting skills a little? Okay, fine. How about this? There's plenty of undead to kill out there. You can eat as many as you want. Stronger ones count for more, naturally. Go on, buddy."

"Nom nom." Sharky turned, sniffed the air, and began swimming off in the direction of the nearby undead.

"Best of luck, Reluna!" I waved as I watched her run off.

"Wretches, you stand no chance against my mysterious powers!" Reluna held her staff aloft, and chains of mana shot from it one after another in a torrent of ephemeral energy.

The chains snagged one undead after another, grabbing them by throats, ankles, arms, and whatever else they could reach. It wasn’t as climactic as wiping out a small army with one volley of spellfire, but I had to give Reluna credit where it was due, especially considering her level was much lower than mine.

I noted her flawless posture and perfect mana flow with each spell. There wasn’t a single corner cut or ounce of laziness anywhere in her casting. I was pleased by that, and I suspected Reluna would be pleased herself in a moment. The suit was programmed to reward good habits.

The pitch of the vibrator between her legs rose as she slaughtered her way through the undead horde. Her breath hitched, audible only to my superhuman senses.

Reluna has slain an undead swordsman! +150 experience points.
Sharky has devoured an undead brute! +200 experience points.
Reluna has slain an undead lizardman! +180 experience points.

Reluna laughed wildly, her voice high and ragged with the intensity of her spellcasting. She had probably run out of her own mana long ago, her body long past exhaustion, and was only kept afloat by the obscene reserves her suit was force-feeding her.

“Face the wrath of Reluna, the—ahhh—the enchantress supreme!” she cried, though a broken moan split her proclamation in two.

Every chain of mana that lashed out came with a jolt of stimulation, and each time a spell landed, Reluna trembled, thighs quivering as her body shuddered on the edge of climax. To anyone watching from the outside she might have looked like a sadist reveling in destruction, but I knew the truth. The suit was grinding her down, teasing out the submissive little sorceress hiding beneath all that playfully arrogant wit.

Meanwhile, Sharky was tearing through the battlefield with his usual efficient hunger. To Sharky, all the world was food, and he was always starving. Reluna, on the other hand, was starving for something else entirely.

“More! More! I need more!” she cried with the desperation of an addict, her voice cracking between laughter and sobs of overstimulated pleasure.

I leaned back and popped open my dinner, chewing slowly while watching the show. Bridget’s cooking was far better than the beans I’d handed out earlier, and savoring it while Reluna debased herself on the battlefield was a pleasure in itself.

By the time I was done, the ground was a smoking ruin piled high with monster cores. I strolled casually after them, plucking the loot into my bags with telekinesis. Sharky’s kills poured experience into me directly, while Reluna’s trickled in through the party's shared experience. Not that I couldn’t wring the rest out of her later in more intimate ways.

But I couldn’t stay idle. Reluna was out there, panting, trembling, her legs slick under the armor, begging without even realizing it. I gave in to the temptation to override the suit again, layering in a few custom instructions.

“I… am the mysterious… invincible sorceress! My magic suit shall slaughter—ahhh—slaughter all undead!” she panted, her moans drowning out the bravado.

“How about less praise of yourself and more for the suit’s maker?” I teased. “Say the right words, and maybe you’ll like what happens.”

Reluna broke instantly, her voice frantic with submission.
“Carter is a genius of supreme skill and unrivaled craftsmanship! His cunning grants him complete ownership of my body!”

I rewarded her with a surge of stimulation, hard enough to rip the scream out of her throat. She collapsed to her knees, staff clattering, as her whole body convulsed in climax. But an instant later, I killed the power and left her twitching, desperate, and denied.

“Don’t go lying down on the job, Reluna,” I said smoothly. “You don’t see Sharky slacking off. I think he’s beating you.”

That was all it took. She staggered upright, staff blazing with renewed fury, still moaning as the suit teased her onward.

And then, finally, the notification I’d been waiting for blinked into my vision.

Congratulations! You have gained a level.
Sage of Forbidden Knowledge is now level 397.

I found a place to kick back, watch the show, and process a few of these monster cores into experience pearls. It was rather nice not having to do any work at all for my levels. A guy could get used to this.

<Note>

I think it's safe to assume Sharky won, but was that because Carter was messing with Reluna a bunch and distracting her? Or would Sharky have won no matter what?