Tribe Master 2: A Fantasy Harem Adventure Read online

  The first had saved my life after I had lost consciousness and Marlo, the old head of the Orakin Tribe, had given me his little speech.

  The latter had done a half-decent job of saving some of the jet. It was partially submerged in the running waters of the river, and there was no way that it would ever fly again. It would take some of the smartest engineers in the world just to assess the extent of the damage.

  I didn’t feel any remorse over it though. The thought that my jet was still intact hadn’t even crossed my mind since I had first taken control of my land. If anything, this brought me a sense of closure.

  Agraria was my home now.

  Chapter Eight

  The girls had managed to get to sleep without me, but they had been up for hours after my departure. I returned to the treehouse to find all three of them still sleeping. I awoke them and apologised for taking off so abruptly, reassured them that Elera was fine, after which they all dozed back to sleep.

  ‘A successful journey, Jack?’ Alorion asked as I headed down the steps of the tree and into the clearing.

  ‘Much more successful than I was hoping, bud. I haven’t seen you for a few days.’

  ‘The day of rest that you granted us may have extended into a second. Apologies.’

  ‘Don’t worry about it, I’m not a slave-driver. I hope you’re well-rested now, though.’

  ‘Why is that?’

  ‘Because we’ve got work to do.’

  ‘Always thinking ahead. That said, have you not been working for days?’

  ‘I have, but I’ve managed to catch up on a little sleep and get my head cleared. I can spend a little time focusing on the land now, instead of ending up in a cave surrounded by monsters…’

  After purchasing the seeds at the cove I had 5360GP remaining. It wasn’t a bad amount considering that we had also purchased the apartment annex and acquired the other items of value from the wreckage.

  Now I had time to go through the other items that I had recovered.

  The three skeleton keys all possessed the same appearance and features. Their handles had a skull embedded upon them, and the keys themselves were composed of jagged edges like those belonging to a beast of the forest. I would need to test them to figure out exactly how they worked.

  I examined the three other items that I had taken. The pearl necklace was exactly what it stated. I had every intention of spoiling my wives in the future when the tribe was prosperous and wealthy enough, but in the meantime it could be sold to further our funds.

  It was composed of twenty individual white pearls the gleamed in the sunlight. There was nothing that stood out about it, but considering where I had found it, it had to be worth something. I would need to get it valued at the trading post.

  The Idol of Tormund the Betrayer, as it was called, was much stranger. It was a squat idol that seemed to be made of solid gold, depicting a squashed humanoid figure with an open-mouth and wide eyes. In one hand was a flower, while his other hand, clasped behind his back, held a knife.

  ‘What the hell…?’ I smirked to myself, bouncing it in my hand and examining it. I turned to Alorion and held it up. ‘Any idea what this is?’

  ‘I have no knowledge of it. One of your citizens may, though.’

  I scanned the land to see who was awake. The only other citizens living on the land right now beyond my wives were Tormus, Eri and Lola.

  While my leading farmers were followers of the gods of Agraria, I hadn’t spoken to Lola properly since our fireside chat back at the apartment in the cove.

  She was already out and was tending to Arabelle and Myranthia in the pasture.

  Alorion hopped to the top of the Harvesting shed while I crossed the field to her and said good morning.

  ‘Enjoying the horses?’

  ‘They are beautiful creatures. I’ve never truly taken to them, though.’

  ‘Why’s that?’

  ‘I have never been sure. They are an important part of any farm or tribal land, but I enjoy the pure cultivation that animals bring. Speaking of which, are you still planning on appointing me to this animal farm of yours?’

  ‘I am, if you’d be okay with it.’

  ‘I would most definitely be, but when will we set off? I grow restless when I’m not working.’

  ‘You realize that’s a dream come true to somebody trying to build a herd of livestock?’

  ‘I don’t doubt it,’ she smiled. ‘I am particularly interested to meet the man who runs it.’

  ‘He’s very serious about his work, and he’s an honest man.’

  ‘That puts my mind at ease.’

  ‘He also puts a lot of stock in the gods of Agraria.’

  ‘As do I… Sometimes.’

  ‘Which brings me to something else.’ I held up the idol. ‘I was wondering if you could tell me anything about this. It’s called-’

  ‘Tormund the Betrayer.’ She held her hands out to take it from me, and I obliged. She examined it thoughtfully. ‘He is one of the old gods, a symbol of deceit to many, but not so much to others.’

  ‘What do you mean by not so much to others?’

  ‘He is a symbol that is open to interpretation, like all symbols really. The story goes that he and cheated several of the gods of their powers. Milos, the king of the Agrarian gods, deemed his behaviour to be unacceptable, and challenged him to a duel. Tormund accepted, knowing that he would be defeated, but decided to do so anyway.

  ‘After conceding in shame Milos came to help him up, but Tormund surprised Milos and cut one of his hands off. In a rage Milos slaughtered Tormund, who would forever be known as the Betrayer.’

  ‘Right…’ I said curiously, examining the item. ‘Just out of interest, how many gods are there in Agraria?’

  ’19. Would you like me to recite their histories for you?’

  ‘I… Think I’ll be okay for the time being. How much would I get for this at market?’

  ‘A reasonable amount if you can find a collector. Perhaps a little less with a generic buyer, but it would still be a considerable amount of gold.’

  I thanked Lola and returned to the totems, stowing the idol away in the process and meeting up with Alorion once again.

  The only item left was the Dagger of Concealment.

  I tapped the item’s image in my inventory. Before I moved to equip it I noticed that it possessed something that very few items I had in my inventory did; not just a name, but a description.

  Summon word: Backstab

  I retrieved it from my inventory and equipped it, weighing the item in my hand. It was unlike any other weapon I had ever seen; a black blade that looked as if it was made of obsidian.

  ‘What do you think the summon word does?’ I asked Alorion.

  ‘It activates it in some way,’ he said, stepping back. ‘But I think I shall stand over here while you determine what that is.’

  I held the knife with a light but firm grip.

  ‘Backstab.’

  The dagger vanished.

  ‘What the… Where did it go?’

  I checked my inventory. I hadn’t accidentally stashed it away.

  I tried it again.

  ‘Backstab.’

  As quickly as it had vanished, the handle appeared again in my hand.

  ‘Obviously,’ I said. ‘Concealment. That’s what it means. It’s a dagger that you can conceal and retrieve in an instant. Tormund the Betrayer eat your heart out.’

  ‘A strange item,’ Alorion remarked. ‘There is only one occasion on which you would need to use it.’

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘Well, think about it; if you are conducting a stealth attack you could simply use a regular dagger to take down your enemies. The only need you would have for a dagger such as this is if you were face to face with your enemy…’

  ‘… And convincing them that I’m their friend when I was about to kill them. You’re right, that is one backstabbing move.’

  ‘Sometimes we must do such things i
f we wish to survive.’

  ‘I wouldn’t disagree with you there.’

  A little while later my wives awoke. Tormus was getting started in the field on setting up the new crops, but had a number to harvest before doing that. I could already see Eri intending to follow her husband despite my warning not to, considering her present state.

  I asked Santana to help Lola with prepping one of the horses with a cart for a trip to the trading post, and for Lara and Ariadne to help Tormus out with the crop rotation. The moment I explained that Eri was pregnant, all three of my wives went rushing over to her, embracing her and congratulating while Alorion and I looked on from the tree.

  ‘They must be exceedingly happy,’ Alorion said from atop the Harvesting shed. ‘Just think, Jack, on a day not too far away that could be you.’

  ‘Yeah… Wait what?!’

  ‘Not to pry as your faithful servant, but you do lie with your wives, do you not?’

  ‘Well, yeah, but…’

  ‘And you share your seed with them?’

  ‘Good god, am I actually having this conversation with you right now?’

  ‘Have I said something inappropriate?’

  ‘Well… No, look it doesn’t matter.’

  ‘I am simply saying that you could call yourself a father one day in the future. Your wives are not only beautiful, but they are in the prime of their womanhood. You are not only a tribe master who lives his life and passes. Do that and you end up like Master Marlo. No. You are building a-’

  ‘Dynasty,’ I said, smiling. ‘I’m building a dynasty.’

  ‘Precisely. This may be early days, and we may still be figuring things out, but once resources build and your power expands, things will begin to move faster and faster.’

  ‘I’m no stranger to that. We’ve got this land, the Rourke Homestead and the apartment annex, but now it’s time to start building our resources. You’re right, we need to accelerate things, starting today. But there’s one more thing I’ve got to attend to before we do that.’

  A few minutes later we were back beyond the perimeter fence at the edge of the forest.

  I retrieved the power stone from my inventory and checked it.

  Power Stone – Telekinetic Blast – Charges x2

  Incantation: Telekinea

  The power stone only had two charges, but I had to know how to use it, as well as what it could actually do.

  I readied my new power stone, focused my palm towards a makeshift wooden figure that we had thrown together out of spare wooden posts from the storage room, and-

  ‘Telekinea!’

  The force of the spell was so strong that I felt the recoil explode up my arm.

  A translucent wave of energy distorted my view of the forest for a second. The blast struck the wooden man and obliterated him limb from limb, as well as shaking the trees around him.

  ‘Jesus…’ I muttered. ‘This thing could wipe out a group of guys in a second. Wouldn’t kill them, but it’d daze them long enough to easily finish them all off.’

  ‘Your wives are not only prospective breeders but fighters, too. I’m sure they would be willing to oblige.’

  ‘Right… Wait, did you just use the word breeders?’

  ‘Indeed. Why, is that inappropriate?’

  ‘Yeah. Very.’

  ‘Apologies. The women of my kind often birth out 12 or 13 younglings in one sitting.’

  ‘I didn’t need to know that.’

  ‘Oh, it is a handsome process, Jack. I could tell you about the ritual if you’d like-’

  ‘Believe me, buddy, I’m fine. Let’s get back to work.’

  ***

  I had a few matters to attend to back at our land, but I preferred to have my accounts in order before doing that.

  Within the next hour we finished up with the harvesting of the remaining tomatoes and corn and loaded up a cart with Arabelle attached. Lara and Ariadne moved to target and fighting practice while Tormus began uprooting the little corn that remained. We were going to completely overhaul the farmland in the northern section of the tribe with a more effective mix of potatoes, carrots and tomatoes.

  Despite Santana’s proficiency with a crossbow and her riding abilities that had saved my life once already, she possessed greater skills in working on the land. Cleaning out the stables was dirty work, but she had grown up doing it and had no problem with taking up a pitchfork and moving the waste.

  Lola and I made a trip to the trading post with the horse and cart. We traded out the entirety of our recently harvested crops for 600GP – not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things, but we were still expanding the new crops, and smaller amounts of the new kind yielded a greater return than the corn I had initially possessed on the land, which we had already oversaturated the local market with.

  And, like Eri said, with the potential for a dip in temperature in the future, removing the corn was a no-brainer. The new crops would be more robust in cold weather.

  But we weren’t heading straight to the Rourke Pasture. By heading to the trading post I could kill several birds with one stone.

  I purchased another 10 boar piglets from the same trader as last time for 240GP, right after purchasing two cages for 5GP each.

  The centaur I had purchased them from last time only frowned at me with a raised eyebrow, then at the cages.

  ‘Yeah, these are my property now, so I’d appreciate it if I handled them into my cages.’

  He only shook his head at me and nodded me away once I had the cages full. Back at the cart I unloaded them, and while Lola kept an eye on our goods I traversed the post once more.

  Despite the influx of animals since the death of the mother wolf, the variety was still relatively limited. But with the increase in piglets we would need more milk, and that meant more taurems.

  It took a single taurem to feed five piglets regularly while sustaining its own growth, and with this addition to the numbers we would need an extra taurem to feed them all comfortably.

  From a goblin trader who didn’t speak much English I managed to barter for two healthy taurems that weren’t quite fully-grown yet, handing over 400GP for both of them.

  I had to take sensible advantage of the lower prices that were currently available without going overboard. We could raise them until the prices increased again, or take the meat to somewhere that desired them more, but that would take one hell of a road trip.

  My penultimate piece of business was unloading the idol of Tormund the Betrayer and the pearl necklace. After asking around I unloaded both onto a collector for a square 600GP, enduring minutes of bartering in the process. All told, I finished trading with 6010GP in my pocket, and plenty of new resources.

  But there was one more thing on my mind.

  After traipsing through the innumerable stalls, I found a quiet and reclusive spot occupied by no purchasers, but a single seller. He was a small humanoid figure wrapped in a gown with a large, white mask bearing nothing but eye holes, from which a pair of green pupils stared back.

  I stepped up to the stall and looked into the eyes of the figure. He eventually blinked, his eyelids moving horizontally.

  Between us sat a vast but tightly compacted array of vials and potions of all different colors.

  ‘I’m in the market for a potion,’ I started. ‘Perhaps you can help me?’

  The man didn’t move. Another blink. I could only assume that he was listening to me considering he was looking nowhere else but at me.

  ‘I need something that will allow a water-dwelling being to live out of water, if such a thing exists.’

  The figure remained silent and still. I breathed deeply through my nose and crossed my arms, waiting.

  I was about to turn away, when he finally moved.

  He took up a scroll and a quill, and dipped the tip into a small vial of ink on his table.

  He scrawled for a moment, then tore a piece of parchment from the roll and handed it to me.

  Essence of the River –
Obscure – Something that I cannot craft – try west - happy travels

  I read the note back, then pocketed it.

  ‘Thank you.’

  The man remained still.

  ‘I’ll come back if I need anything else… Or I just feel like having my day made weirder.’

  After returning to the cart we set off to the Rourke Homestead and arrived there by mid-morning. Jeremiah appeared around the side of the house, his arms covered in dirt.

  ‘Master Jack,’ he smiled over. ‘I see you come bearing gifts.’

  He moved to shake my hand, then stopped when he examined the state of them.

  ‘Sorry. Handling the piglets.’

  ‘Don’t be sorry. It’s your job. Any trouble?’

  ‘Aside from the usual manure and pig-wrangling there hasn’t been a whisper. The forest has been silent.’

  ‘Well, hopefully things should remain that way. This is Lola.’

  Jeremiah nodded at her, remembering his hands, but this time it was she who offered a hand.

  ‘My hands are filthy,’ he remarked.

  ‘That is the last thing I am concerned about,’ she replied with a smile at the edge of her mouth.

  He returned the smile and they shook hands.

  ‘Lola will be helping you out with the animals, which you’re going to have a lot of in the future. Let’s get them unloaded.’

  We brought the cart around to the backyard of the farmhouse and placed the boar piglets in the pen with the others. Shortly after we let the younger taurems loose in the pasture.

  ‘Can I talk to you for a second?’ I said to Jeremiah, once we were back out front.

  ‘Of course – unless Lola needs a tour of the land.’

  ‘I can manage on my own,’ she smiled. ‘Please, tend to your tasks.’

  She took off to explore the land while Jeremiah and I spoke.

  ‘You don’t mind having her around, do you?’

  ‘What? Oh, of course not. She is a foxgirl, just like your wife Ariadne, yes? What a coincidence to come across another.’