NOVEL NEXT Chapter 16.5
“And now we’re in a whole new universe.” Said Grant, coming to the most recent part of his life.
Měi Lì and Grant were having a pleasant conversation, and Grant had plenty to talk about. This Měi Lì was split off 400 years ago, so there was plenty for him to share with her.
And she was happy to hear what Grant had been up to.
“Honestly,” sighed Měi Lì as she ate the honey biscuits a certain bear had been taught to make, “Only you could be selected to jump off into another universe for retirement.”
“It’s the only way I could get a quiet retirement” said Grant, smiling as he took another bite out of his biscuit. It could use more butter for sure though.
Měi Lì smirked. “Please, I’m sure your retirement will be anything but quiet.”
“Nonsense, it’ll be fine.” Assured Grant, but the look on his face betrayed the reality that even he didn’t believe that.
She rolled her eyes at that, but moved on. “And that new student, Natalie,” gestured to Měi Lì as she held her cookies in hand, gesturing. “She’s an absolute nutcase.” Grant raised an eyebrow. “Do tell?”
“Yeah, when she heard I had a binding technique, she wanted to know if she could learn it. For a friend. As if.”
“It is for a friend though. To hold him down if he tries to leave.”
"That's not friendship, that's obsession."
"In the eye of the beholder, besides, I'll make sure I hand Dain some of Houdini's teachings, hopefully that'll help."
"Hmm." Měi Lì seemed unconvinced, but decided not to pursue it for now. She'd have time to guide Natalie, and keep an eye on this already troublesome student. SHe reminded Měi Lì of herself a little bit too much.
They talked about some more things, before Grant decided he'd given the two enough time alone and decided he'd given the two enough time.
"It was a pleasure to speak with you once more Mei Mei."
Mei Mei's eyes seemed a bit sad, but she still responded joyfully.
"It was a pleasure to see you once more as well, brother Grant." She added playfully, "make sure to come see me more often. My only visitor currently is an infatuated young lady. The last thing I want to do is listen to her talk about her love all day."
"Don't you worry Mei Mei," Grant assured her, "once she's learned all she can, I'll free you from this inheritance book."
Měi Lì laughed at that. "You do have a twisted sense of humor Grant. Teasing a fragment of a soul like that." She paused as she looked at Grant's face.
"Grant?" She asked worriedly. She knew that face.
"Grant?" The man in question merely smiled cryptically as he put on the mask and faded out of the inheritance.
As Grant left his divine realm he went to Natalie and Dain's shared tent, and saw Dain, who looked absolutely exhausted, and Grant could not help but laugh as he slapped Dain on the back.
"So you've become a man hmm!? What did she say?"
Dain looked too exhausted to even respond to his snark. He did smile in response to the last question, albeit weakly.
"She said yes."
Grant chuckled. "I can see that."
Dain asked : "How long has it been? I feel like it's been hours."
Grant: "10 actually."
Dain looked at him in horror, then in confusion as he looked around, seeing it was still night, and finally switched back to Grant, his eyes seeking answers.
Grant rolled his eyes. "You think your the only lovers I've traveled with? I used to have two partners who used to go at it every chance they got. It's hard to do alchemy with some "natural creation" being done in the next room."
Grant pointed at the array surrounding Dain and Natalie's shared tent. "That array over there turns minutes into hours, and keeps everything nice and quiet. Absolute silence."
Dain nodded thankfully a that. How embarrassing would it be if everyone in the camp knew?
Everyone found out the next morning when Grant went to collect his reward.
"I told you I'd get them together within this trip! Cheers!"
"I didn't believe you, but you've been making miracles ever since this trip started! Another round."
Grant had an amused expression on his face. "At this rate you'll empty me of all my honey beers." He jeered.
"You have a honey bear" Leon shot back. "You don't run out of honey!"
Grant rolled his eyes but chose to keep quiet and hand out another round of honey beers.
Leon was right after all.
And what of Dain and Natalie.
Dain was quiet, but his face was blush and full of indignation, while Natalie was blushing, but pretty happy that she could finally mark Dain as hers.
As Grant collected the betting money he won, he remembered he'd promised to do something. Sneaking up to Dain, as quietly as he could, he slipped "The Guide To Rope Safety" By Houdini, he whispered in Dain's ear" You should practice this in your free time." and he tapped Dain on the back sympathetically. Bondage is usually for more experienced customers, but Dain may have to be prepared sooner than later.
Poor Dain had no clue what was going on, looking at Dain with confusion, while Natalie narrowed her eyes as she looked on.
Her Dain senses were tingling.
Grant didn't care though.
Grant had a good night, got to see a good friend...
... And finally Grant had enough energy to create a new species again. He immediately chose to create korvolds and axobodl's.
I mean, it can't create that much trouble. They were more like canine kobolds rather than draconian kobolds, so at the very worst, they'd likely work together with canine kobolds, trade with draconian ones.
What was the worse that could happen?
Note
Have you ever thought we have too few kobolds?
No? Just me? Everyone else thinks we have too many kobolds?
Well, I thought we need more kobolds, so I set my mind to making more!
Behold, the korvolds! And the axoboldl's! Screw it, dinosaurian kobold! Because we have dinomen, and I feel like lizardfolk and kobolds are a combo so nice, I did them twice!
Jokes aside, the reason I created axoboldl's and korvolds to fill a similar niche in a different environment, which made them a nice compromise between canine kobolds and draconian kobolds.
Korvolds prefer mountains, but while they do share a home with draconian kobolds, the real difference is one lives in the mountain, and one lives above the mountains. Korvolds don't just live above the mountains, they also live in forests alongside canine kobolds, and even maintain good relations with both canine kobolds and draconian kobolds. Admittedly, canine kobolds get along with anything sapient as long as they aren't attacked first, and draconian kobolds are the real problem in this conversation.
However, I found that because they're bird based kobolds, the draconian kobolds feel superior to korvolds since dragons are greater than birds. I made korvolds cunning and clever, so they have no problem being viewed as inferior as long as they get their shinies. Besides, they are more superior because they can fly already, so they hardly care.
The purpose of korvolds is a trading group essentially, as they are in fact capable of flying and are good speakers, so they fulfill a niche that didn't exist in kobold communities originally. Well, that and I wanted something that evolved into birdfolk and bird monsters.
Axoboldl's were made to... fix a certain mistake I made in the past. They're a powerful race, contrary to their axolotl-like appearance, and are capable of fighting at least d-c rank monsters on their own. Thankfully, I made them extremely peaceful, like their namesakes. And regenerative. And capable of evolving into some powerful monsters, like coatlotl's. They live in swamps, so they won't interfere with the others either, and under the right conditions can definitely serve as the warriors for the kobolds.
I'll probably make more eventually. Why? Because I wanted to. Yeah, a lot of gods hate me for that attitude. Thank god for backers huh?
-Grant, Player 0, beneficiary of the kobold race, who then went on to make fish type kobolds and variant kobolds, leading to the rise of a kobold civilization, which the world then had to recognize as a major power secretly. Gods hate him, progenitors love him.
Yeah, this is an excerpt from rolling storms, since each Rolling storms chapter gets a mini narration from Grant in the after chapters. Fun thing I've been doing. Would anyone like it if I started posting those excerpts here, in Grant's story? Been posting those in there to garner interest for this story, but I think it'd be fun to include them here.