The Hero continues to beg the people to do something.

The Rogue said that he told us so and people would do this after we hoisted up the Citadel.

All of former Iowa and large swaths of its bordering states, covering half of lake Michigan was now a land of fire and Brimstone.

The Demon Lord of Hellfire, the ultimate chuunibyou of the human race went rogue and claimed the new territory as his after he robbed the Citadel banks.

At least the cheeky bankers won't let him use them ever again, for all that matters. Anyway, I voted that we should wait to see how he acts.

-a comment to a friend from The Merlin. Shandalor later it released to the public, 1722 FE

*****************************************************

Odd received a parting gift of a nice, already prepared and roasted green colored rabbit of some kind after he spent the day with his Lust Dryad. The meat itself was green. Maybe it had a plantlike aftertaste?

He thanked Cirrha for the food and headed straight towards the cave.

Apparently, in her elite evolution, Cirrha gained a lot of extra range to her root manipulation and multitasking ability. She caught an animal, rubbed some dry tinder together to build a fire, and roasted it for him.

The upgrade was amazing for just an elite evolution, but Cirrha claimed she could always do those things but just didn't feel like it until she discovered her, 'femininity.'

That, and he realized that he spent the entire day with her, knocking metaphorical boots, so she had plenty of time to trap and prepare food for his mother. Odd thought Cirrha was definitely earning her keep.

However, as he thought about his own growth, he only had a little over two days now to get as much use of his [Unnatural Sponge] perk. It was beyond stupid to waste the time getting laid when he could have been learning skills!

Not that the addition of the [Nimble Fingers] perk was unhelpful. For... throwing and weilding daggers of course!

This time, the mermaid didn't stop him as he crossed the river, either. He made it to his living place in no time at all. He did notice, however, that it took a couple minutes to cross it because of how wide it was.

Did he really ignore the fact of how wide the river was because he was so focused on getting laid? Or... to talk to someone and make a friend! He internally corrected himself.

Loosing his virginity was just a bonus.

****************************************************

The shit eating grin on Odd's ugly face only grew wider as he noticed that Roark wasn't currently in the cave. Three Goblins and the captives were the only living things he could see.

Odd ignored the disgusting excuse for fortification the threesome of Goblins were performing as one of the breeding sows had died the night before and the others were spent for now.

'Nothing compared to me,' the Proto-Goblin thought to himself as he arrived by his mother's side.

"Here mom, it's a little cool, but it should be fine," he smiled and fed her gently.

"Go on, why the fuck are you so chipper?" Melisandra asked between bites.

Odd slyly rubbed his nose, "I got my first harem member mom, and even as ugly as I am now, I still did it!"

"Oh?" the amused captive asked. "Get yourself a little Goblin to fondle you? Maybe it'll evolve to be kinda pretty."

"She's already pretty! Cirrha evolved into a Lust Dryad just for me!"

"Hah!" Melisandra snorted and coughed some of her food up. Eating without hands is a pain.

"I thought you were going to die, the way you were obsessing about it yesterday, but only you. What a way to waste your [Unnatural Sponge] perk, I bet you got some new skills to please a woman out of it though."

"Uhh... mother knows best..." Odd said softly.

During there talk, Roark came back to the cave, with two Goblins trailing his wake. One of them was the old one that tried to name Odd after a hiccup and hit him on the head!

"Glette is getting new Gobs for yous lazy Gobs," the oversized Goblin said to the group before he made his way to the sea nymph.

In return, Odd gritted his teeth and tried to ignore the sounds he made as much as he could. The happiness that enveloped his world dimmed as he remembered how weak he was.

His mother was in chains in a dirty cave when she deserves the world. The sea nymph should be in the sea. The Roark should be dead.

"Mother," Odd asked hesitantly. "What do you think I should train for. Like you said, I think I'm kinda wasting the perk and just got lucky with the powers I have from you."

"Finally," Melisandra scoffed. "I figured you would want to do everything yourself."

She ignored the look her spawn gave her and spoke in an unusually serious tone.

"Although the Connection lists a whole bunch of stats, most of them are pretty useless to focus on. [Body] is the culmination of toughness, muscle strength, dexterity, physical perception, healing factor, and a whole bunch of other little factors. It's great to train the body and all, but it, [Soul] and [Mind] are only complimentary in the long run."

Odd was confused. Those stats are always listed first! And it's what all the Goblins he saw focused on.

Melisandra continued her lecture, "It's affinities that matter. With an affinity at 5.0, you can evolve to tier 3 early. With an affinity at 25.0, you will become a tier 4 powerhouse. An asshole I know says that 100.0 is required for tier 5, but you also need to meet special conditions or some shit to truly cross over the boundary."

That was new information. Why wasn't this all in his hereditary memories? It would make the Gobs much less savage if they just practiced magic and picked up breeding vessels the right way to get stronger instead of needlessly killing their own species.

"It's never been a question for Proto-Gobs before, but following the pattern and how strong T2 creatures are, you probably need an affinity at 1.0 for an early evolution," she added. "That is, if you want to lose that overpowered perk early."

"So train my [Yin Lighting Affinity] later, but what about now?"

Melisandra answered instantly, "Reinforcement. If I had a speed or strength reinforcement affinity, I wouldn't be in this mess. I'm a pure magic powerhouse and a badass, but it would have been nice to get when I was younger. Other than that? I dunno. I liquify people until they die. Life is simpler that way."

****************************************************

It was the dawn of the next morning and Odd set out to train. First though, he wanted to see Cirrha.

'An hour or two of my time wouldn't stop me from getting enough training,' the Gob, his mind as hyperfocused as a high school boy, thought to himself.

He was deeply concentrated on thoughts of his sweetheart as he was dragged underneath the surface of the river. Before he could even think of how to react, he pants being ripped off his body and small hands started rubbing his groin.

'Not again!' he yelled in his head as he tried to think of a way to stop his imminent drowning.