Tribe Master 2: A Fantasy Harem Adventure

by Noah Layton

  The items on show were worthless pieces of crap, too. The occasional chest had a padlock securing its contents, but most didn’t; I checked one that was unlocked and examined the contents.

  Scraps of cloth, pieces of old parchment, rusty weapons.

  Complete and total trash.

  ‘What the fuck...?’

  ‘Psst...’

  The hissing sound was human. It came from down the hall.

  I moved ahead quickly along the old floorboards, wincing at every minor creak.

  Suddenly a hand reached out from a crevice between two stacks of old books. I almost yelped like a complete idiot, but managed to quell my response when I saw Cass.

  She grabbed the scruff of my overshirt and pulled me behind the pile.

  ‘What the hell are you doing here?’

  ‘What do you think? I’m looking for this recipe of yours.’

  ‘Did you know that this place is filled with-’

  ‘Torrents of taurem shit that nobody in their right mind would ever possibly want? Yes, I realized that a short while after getting inside here. Never would have believed it if I hadn’t seen it for myself.’

  ‘The whole house?’

  ‘Well-’

  ‘If that’s the case then this thing isn’t even in here. This mission’s over before it starts.’

  ‘I’d be able to tell you if you’d let me-’

  ‘Shh...!’

  I pushed back into the darkness of our hiding spot with Cass behind me as a guard appeared at the base of the stairs. We both fell quiet, quelling our breath as we waited.

  After a moment he hurried down the hall, passing us and heading back outside.

  ‘Listen to me,’ Cass ordered. ‘There’s a room upstairs that I found. It’s the only one that’s locked. If this thing is going to be anywhere it’ll be there.’

  ‘We need to get up there.’

  ‘There’s another guard still upstairs,’ Cass said sharply. ‘The moment he passes we’ll head up. They know that somebody is trying something but I’ve been careful. They don’t know we’re inside.’

  We waited silently in our hiding space until footsteps sounded. The last guard in the house trailed past us to the front door.

  I peaked around the edge and looked out as he moved out of sight.

  ‘Go.’

  Cass led me upstairs to the upper floor. We rushed quietly to the end of the corridor, to the last door on the right.

  I tried the handle. It was locked, just as she had said.

  ‘Got any bright ideas?’ She asked.

  ‘I do, actually.’

  I pulled up my inventory and removed one of the three skeleton keys, then attempted to jam it into the lock.

  Damn. It was way too big to fit.

  Then, before my eyes, the key began to change shape. It squirmed like a living creature and slid into the lock, settling into place.

  ‘That’s a skeleton key, isn’t it?’ Cass said in quiet shock. ‘Where did you get it?’

  ‘I’ll tell you the story sometime.’

  I turned it in a full cycle, and the door clicked open.

  I went to remove the key, but it vanished before me.

  Of course, I thought. That would make life way too easy.

  We pushed into the room.

  This was the only well-kept space in the house that I had seen. It was occupied by a few chests, and each possessed a label engraved into the lid, just above a gigantic, heavy-duty padlock.

  Precious stones, rare books, and…

  Recipes.

  I would have to use another one of my skeleton keys to open it.

  I fished one out of my inventory and placed it into the lock. It carried out the same act, then turned in a perfect cycle. The lock clicked open, and they key vanished.

  I flipped the lid and examined the contents.

  ‘Woah...’

  The fifty slots were filled with icons in their square spaces.

  ‘Jack...? I can hear footsteps...’

  I didn’t have time to grab everything that I could – there was one thing that I needed, and I had to find it.

  I scanned rapidly, tapping at icons until the words appeared before me.

  Essence of the River.

  I snatched it up just as the door to the room creaked open.

  ‘What the fuck are you two doing in here?’

  I spun around.

  Cass suddenly retrieved an old short sword from her inventory and readied it.

  I took out my Telekinetic Blast power stone and held it at the ready. There was only one charge left.

  ‘Don’t call for help,’ I said sternly to the guard. ‘Listen to me. You have a choice right now. Call for help, and I’ll kill you. Stay here, and stay quiet, and I don’t turn you in to a mess of blood and guts on that wall. It’s your choice.’

  He was younger than the others, more impressionable, and yet there was something in his eyes. I didn’t know if it was fear or wisdom or a mix of both, but he took it to heart.

  ‘Okay…’ He said, gulping finally and nodding. ‘Just don’t hurt me.’

  Cass and I rotated towards the door, swapping places with the guard.

  We were about to leave and shut the door behind us, when I suddenly realized something.

  ‘Wait, we can’t just leave him here.’

  ‘Why not?’ Cass asked.

  ‘If he doesn’t look hurt then this Alder guy will think he was in on it, or that he gave up.’

  ‘Good point.’

  ‘Well what the hell do I do?’ The guard whimpered.

  ‘Ever taken a punch before?’

  ‘N… No.’

  Cass shot me a look as if she had known me for years.

  ‘Fine,’ she muttered, ‘I’ll do it.’

  She rushed up to the young guard before he had a chance to even ask what was going on and clocked him square in the side of the head.

  The guy went down hard and fast, slamming limply into the ground, entirely unconscious.

  It was so hard that the floor vibrated with the strike.

  But I wasn’t going to wait around and wonder if the guards had heard us.

  Cass and I hurried quietly out the door. At the end of the corridor we reached the stairs and bolted down them, two at a time, finally reaching the reception hall corridor.

  The front door was still standing open.

  ‘Let’s get out of this fucking place,’ Cass said insistently.

  ‘I don’t need convincing.’

  Before we even had a chance to make it halfway down, three more guards appeared at the front door.

  ‘Shit…’

  ‘What do we do, Jack…?’

  I only had one charge left.

  Fuck it.

  ‘Telekinea!’

  BOOM.

  The explosion from my hand resonated down the hallway and smashed into the four goons running for me. They all flew back through the doorway and onto the yard.

  I sprinted straight at them and arced right. They were nowhere near ready to get to their feet – there might as well have been cartoon birds flying around their heads – but I wasn’t going to risk causing any more trouble.

  I hurried down the grassy knoll on the western side of the hill and slid through the grass. My companions were waiting just beyond the railing.

  Cass leaped to her front first, sliding sharply through the gap and through to the other side.

  Dropping to my front and scrambling under the fence, I pulled myself harder in a frenzied panic.

  Suddenly I felt two pairs of hands grasp at my arms, but it wasn’t Santana or Cass – Aden and Oden pulled me up to my feet so fast with their ridiculous strength that I lifted a foot into the air before landing on my feet.

  ‘Time to go,’ I said, but we didn’t need any prompting. We hurried through the small patch of trees beyond the fence, just a series of silhouettes in the night that had a single collective desire in mind; getting the fuck out of dodge as fast as possible
.

  The town was quiet, and as we unhitched our horses and hit the road out, I thought for the first time that the gods of Agraria might have been watching over us.

  Chapter Twelve

  Travelling through the wilds at night was a decision I had only ever made in emergencies, be it being chased by a giant monster or saving one of my citizens from dying from a lack of water. This constituted an emergency seeing as getting away from Grayholde quickly and anonymously was my one priority, but I felt considerably safer considering the fact that we had a party of five, including two guys who looked like they could knock out a bull elephant.

  We all travelled on foot seeing as we only had two horses amongst the five of us. I had no intention of letting Arabelle and Myranthia do the work while Cass and her brothers had to trail behind us on foot.

  We didn’t run into any issues on the way home aside from animals scrambling through the forest nearby and scaring the shit out of us every so often. Within a few hours we had arrived back at my land.

  I had to wake Alorion from his hideout in the trees on our border so that we could be let in. He had been in such a deep sleep that he awoke Tormus in a dazed state, who proceeded to unlock the gate for us and allow us in.

  I let them both get back to bed while Santana guided the horses into the pasture. After locking up the gates, I escorted Cass, Aden and Oden to the old house on the western side of the land that Jeremiah used to call home, and headed inside with them.

  ‘It’s a little under-furnished, but so is the other house and my own domain. There are two beds upstairs so somebody will need to grab a pillow and stay on the floor for the time being.’

  All three of them admired the ground floor of the small stone house in quiet appreciation. It was Aden and Oden who turned to me first, both offering their hands to shake.

  I believed in a firm handshake, but at the receiving end of theirs I was lucky to escape without mangled fingers. In the process I accepted both into the tribe.

  ‘Thank you,’ Aden said simply, while Oden nodded at me. The two headed upstairs, leaving Cass and I in the doorway.

  She had been straightforward and headstrong in an intelligent way since I had met her, but in the moonlight that managed to get through the open door I saw her eyes fill with moisture.

  ‘Thank you, Jack… This is unbelievable.’

  ‘Don’t mention it. Anyway, it’s late, so I’ll let you guys get some rest. Get plenty of sleep, and don’t worry about getting up early in the morning. I’ve got more than a few things to attend to.’

  I moved to go, but Cass grabbed by arm.

  ‘What is it?’

  She looked back at me for a moment, then wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tightly.

  I could tell it was a paradoxical move on her behalf; something she wanted to do but felt self-conscious about doing.

  I wrapped my arms around her in return in the quiet of the house. We stayed there for several long moments before she pulled away from me.

  ‘I just want you to know something, before I shake your hand and make myself a part of your tribe.’

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘I know that you have many wives, but… I can’t be one of them.’

  ‘Oh, no, I wasn’t assuming anything like that.’

  ‘Maybe not, but I just wanted to be clear about it. I… Actually prefer women. Not that I ever get a chance to pursue a relationship seeing as I’m always looking after my brothers.’

  ‘Are they… You know…’

  ‘Are they what?’

  ‘Are they all right? They’re just really quiet.’

  ‘Their minds have not been physically damaged. They know exactly who they are and they know what they’re doing. They used to be so… Lively. And funny, too. But after they killed our father they changed.’

  ‘I thought you said they hated him.’

  ‘They did, but they still murdered the man who helped create them. I… Don’t know. I try not to think about it. You should not dwell on it either.’

  ‘I understand. Loud and clear.’

  ‘Good,’ she smiled, offering a hand. ‘And thank you, again.’

  ‘You don’t need to keep thanking me. What you did for me today was more than enough of a gift.’

  I shook her hand and accepted her into my tribe.

  ‘Goodnight.’

  ‘Goodnight.’

  I headed out and shut the door behind me, then crossed to the treehouse. Santana was already undressing inside when I arrived. Lara and Ariadne were holding each other in my large bed and stirred a little as we joined them.

  I was exhausted, and in no time I drifted off to sleep with my wives at my sides.

  ***

  ‘And then we knocked out a few guards, escaped the house and got out of town. We got back pretty late.’

  ‘What are the new citizens like?’ Ariadne asked, propping herself up on her arm and sweeping her dark back over her face in between her fox ears.

  ‘They are pleasant and hardworking,’ Santana said. ‘The brothers never talk, and Cass looks after them. I think she is their… Caretaker, I suppose is the right word. She tells them what to do, guides them… They are nice people.’

  ‘I’m glad to hear it,’ Lara said, rolling onto her front by my side, her large breasts pushing against the sheets. ‘But then I didn’t think you would invite anybody into the tribe who was crazy.’

  ‘As long as they’re loyal,’ I said. ‘That’s my number one rule. Just… Try not to talk to the brothers. And I know you can all handle yourselves, but tell me if they display any weird behaviour. Anyway, how are the crops coming along?’

  ‘Decently,’ Ariadne added. ‘We finished the layout yesterday and planted the seeds, so fresh batches will be up in no time.’

  ‘That’s great,’ I said with a relaxed groan, wrapping my arms around Ariadne and Lara as they snuggled up to my sides, while Santana hugged Lara from behind and traced a hand over her arm. ‘God, I could lie here with you girls all day.’

  ‘Then do it, master,’ Lara moaned. ‘It’s been too long since you gave me your seed.’

  ‘Hey, me too,’ Ariadne said. ‘Santana has had it all lately.’

  ‘I have only had sex three times,’ Santana scoffed. ‘I am still finding out what I like.’

  ‘That’s fair, I suppose…’

  ‘It’s a miracle that I ever get anything done with you girls around,’ I said.

  It was mid-morning after I finally dressed and headed outside. Tormus and Eri were awake as per usual. There was no sign of Cass and her brothers, but I had no intention of waking them. They had been sleeping in terrible conditions for years, and they deserved to rest, especially after what Cass had done for me.

  And it was what Cass had done for me that was on my mind the moment I set eyes on my totems.

  I headed to the Potions Totem and dragged the Essence of the River into the recipe slot.

  Activate recipe: Essence of the River?

  I pressed accept and examined the necessary ingredients.

  Unable to craft – requires: vial of fresh water x1, fish oil x2, gils x2, mermaid’s breath x1

  The first three ingredients seemed relatively straightforward. Hopefully they were the kinds of things that I could pick up at the trading post.

  Mermaid’s Breath, on the other hand, was something that I had never heard of.

  After consulting with my wives, Santana informed me that it was a kind of herb, albeit a relatively rare one.

  ‘It tends to grow in damp caves. I’ve never seen it myself. It doesn’t have many uses.’

  The good thing that I could take away from that was that most other people wouldn’t be looking for it. I was making an obscure potion that few people had use for.

  I planned to head out later that day to compose it – I could acquire the main ingredients from the post, and with enough luck there might have been some on the rocks above the waterfall that hid Elera’s cave.

  In t
he meantime, though, I had something else to attend to.

  I headed to the Building Totem and activated it.

  Between defenses and building I had a pretty decent idea of what each totem was responsible for; my intention was to build a lookout tower if such a thing was available, but technically it counted as a defensive construct.

  Even so, every item that I had unlocked under the Defense Totem related to immediate bodily defense; armor, weapons and the like.

  I scrolled through the limited items under the Building Totem. So far I had the wood and stone houses unlocked, and the fences that represented the perimeter line of my land, but that was all. Housing my people was the only real need I had had so far in terms of buildings.

  Even with the fence in place, though, I had doubts grounded in reality. It signified a cut-off point, but it also gave an early warning to anybody approaching the land that there was a settlement here.

  It was a blessing and a curse, really. A form of defense, and a call to anyone approaching from the wilds that there was something of value right here.

  With that considered, I knew that it was time to take things up a notch.

  I had more than enough gold to initiate the next few upgrades on the Building Totem. With each I unlocked more structures – some were smaller and inconsequential for my needs right now, like signposts and individual doors, but others were slightly bigger and a little more useful.

  Before I arrived at what I needed, I unlocked a chicken coop, even an outhouse – and then the lookout post.

  The image in the window suggested that it was at least twice the height of the fences that composed the perimeter. I tapped craft.

  Unable to craft – requires wood x200

  ‘Jesus,’ I muttered. 100 was required for one of the basic wooden shacks that I had completely skipped by in offering my citizens the better stone houses.

  One thing I had learned in life was that you tended to get what you paid for. Something valuable required sacrifice, and in this case it was a matter of giving up time and the sweat of my brow.

  But that didn’t mean I couldn’t delegate and split the work to speed things up.

  I paid a visit to Cass and her brothers. Their front door was now open, and they were seated in the kitchen together.

  ‘Good morning,’ I smiled. ‘Have you had breakfast?’