Tihana didn't respond to my words. Probably because she was just taken aback by them. Ki'rai stayed with her, as I slowly made my way towards Jayadeva's workshop.

The place got even bigger from the outside perspective than I remember it to be. The noize of machines working was escaping the walls, and you could hear it easily on the street. I just went inside. He clearly got some new workers, probably from Dwarka.

In the noise, and chaos of production, he spotted me before I noticed him, and emerged from behind some big machinery of unknown to me purpose.

- Peter, you are back! Hi! - he shouted. - Let's go outside. It's too loud here.

I couldn't argue. The grinders and power hammers were overwhelmingly noisy. Everybody there had some safety gear, but I didn't, so it was even worse for me.

I nodded, and we stepped outside.

- How was your trip? - he asked as soon as we got out.

- That's... A complicated question. I'll tell you later. Right now I need my chicken, and also some magical equipment. Weapons, shields, and probably chest plates.

- How many?

- Enough for thirty people, I guess...

- You are working with Americans, aren't you? - a smile crawled on his face.

- Yeah. I made a deal to help Will.

- You know that I already refused them once? - he asked.

- No. I didn't.

- I'll do it. For you, and for William - he patted me on the shoulder. - I deliver it to them when it's ready. Oh, and about your chicken... I build him a spacious cage, on the back of the workshop, protected from the noise. I'll bring him.

- Ok. Thank you. I'll wait here. It's too noisy inside...

He smiled again and then vanished inside. I waited few minutes, then he returned with Tam in his hands. I picked the chicken, said goodbye, and left.

With that I could check two things from my list, now I needed to figure out how to get Tihana some education in Ark, where no schools existed. Fortunately, I had a decent idea. It led me to the hospital, managed by Marcella.

There was a real doctor helping her there, a guy named Kunal Dara. He at least could teach Tihana biology. Maybe even help assemble a school here. Maybe there were no kids around except her and Vitalij, Boris's son, but there for sure were about to be plenty of them, since whatever was happening here, preventing it, definitely wasn't happening in India.

I found Marcela rather quickly. She didn't have any patients and was just talking with Daniel in her office. Something that wasn't present there when I visited before.

It was a quite small room, with a desk on the left, beside the window, and a couch with a table on the right. She decored it with few abstract paintings. As soon as I showed up, they just stopped talking.

- Peter? What brings you here - she asked.

- I came looking for the field surgeon. Is he around?

- Kunal Dara? - asked Daniel. - No. He is with the troops, hunting. Tomorrow they are switching with Americans, so you should try then. By the way, can we talk?

- About what?

- About Jayadeva, and my job in this place?

- Ok. Talk.

Marcela smiled at me and left us, to sit behind the desk.

- He just hired a bunch of people from outside. No selection, nothing. I bet half of them are here to spy. I talked with Hatta, but he said that he can't just make him fire them.

- Man, I'm a freaking bomb. You throw me at people and run the hell away. What do you want me to do? Whack them until they admit that? I can't help you.

- I know that, Peter. I just need to know, if I can mention you from time to time. Knowing that you have our backs would help a lot. People here are either afraid of you or respect you.

- Ok, but if you create some shit, I'll beat you up.

- You don't need to worry about that. By the way, why do you need the surgeon? Is it because of the young girl you brought yesterday? Is she...

- If you finish that sentence, I swear I'll kill you - I interrupted him. - Do I really look like a freaking pedophile, so everybody has to think that way?

I stood up out of irritation. Marcella tried her best not to laugh.

- I just need to make one thing clear - said Daniel. - If I say yes, will you kill me?

I noticed that the corners of his mouth were going slightly up, as he did his best to keep his poker face, and not just smile at my face.

- Fuck you - I said and pointed my index finger at him, and then did the same to Marcella. - And you.

They both laughed, as I walked away with Tam under my arm. I shadow walked back to the vicinity of the ogre cave as soon as I left the hospital. I needed some space to figure out how to weaponize him.

After spending a moment searching through the manual to find a way for it, I quickly discovered that I could achieve exactly what I wanted by sharing my skills and mana, and then sealing him with a way for him to open the seal himself. This way he could remain in a small form, and in case of emergency just unleash the power.

This idea quickly changed as I went through the skills I had. Why would I share my own mana with him, when he could have his own mana? All I needed was to share the most potent mana skill I had, which was 'Overcharger' 'Mana pool'.historical

In the end, the skills I shared were the following: 'Mana pool', 'Toughness', 'Natural armor', 'Shadow walk', 'Shadow fusion', and 'Shadow essence'.

I picked the last one since it was the strongest improvement for his shadow, which was leading to more power through the fusion.

As soon as he received my gift, I kinda regretted it, as he just grew immensely with all the mana he had in his body now. I thought it will stop, as he became bigger than an elephant, but he kept growing, forcing me to give him more space, then knocking the trees down, until his body transformed into a giant eagle-like bird with smoking feathers and black eyes.

It looked like he had all the skills activated as soon as he got them, and he couldn't or wouldn't turn them off.

So yeah, that's how I turned my chicken into twenty meters tall monster.

Then the sealing process came. It took me few hours to put on him something good enough to contain all the energy. The good thing was he just received the seal and didn't try to fight it off.

As soon as I activated it he shrunk, but the shadow fusion was still active, so tam officially became a smoking rooster.

With that, I finally returned to Ark. After a short discussion with Tihana we both decided that it will be better if she takes my room in the barracks, while I return to my own house since I could easily travel all that distance in a blink of an eye.

So I took the anchor, and brought it there, dropping an additional one at the city center on my way there.

The day came to an end with 3 541 029 points remaining on my account, and 20 class points.