Chapter 47 - Night 49

I feel like I slept horribly last night. I suppose that I deserve it, if nothing else. I deserve poor sleep until Rei and Milton can wake once more. Yosh. Mr Scarecrow, there's just no rest for the wicked. Also, what are you doing in the Treasure Room for that matter? I have literally never witnessed you come in here, and it's actually awkward to see you try. You're far too large for this room. In the Wailing Keep, only the towers and bedrooms are regularly sized. Everything else is massive and fit for Clansmen of varying Tiers. Mr Scarecrow is far too tall to be here right now. How did you even manage to get through the door?! Oh. He must have used my Lantern. Yeah. It makes sense, I suppose.

After talking it out with him, apparently I left the gate open last night and he came to complain to me about the seriously large amount of Fish currently bombarding the Halloween Town... Circle? It's a circle, but I feel like I should be calling it a square. On account of my Clansmen not requiring sleep, they were able to keep the gate protected but apparently they found a freaking Meglacommon. My Clansmen healed after the battle of slaying it, but feeling the need to protect the gate after finding the first one resulted in the vast majority of my Clansmen being highly irritated. They missed out on their nightly Scaraoke session, or something along those lines. Mr Scarecrow wasn't acting himself, and was speaking rather quickly and filled with emotion so I kind of had to take a step back and ensure that I was actually conscious; causing me to miss out on some of the details. Also, they caught a freaking Meglacommon.

I had a feeling that the Fae Queen might have caught on to my sleeping schedule and started to send Meglacommons during the day, but I mean... Come! On! I feel like we just had a festival like a few days ago or something. This is way too lucky, and I also don't feel like celebrating at all. Two of my four Cat Crew(o)men just died, okay?! I'm freaking devastated over here! We're not just haphazardly going to throw a festival! Jeez... I don't know what I should do. I kind of want to just keep the Meglacommon and use it as regular food, but I also kind of want to just give it away to the Villagers and say that we had a festival but neglect actually having a festival.

Also, I kind of want to get my mind off of Milton and Rei by throwing the festival; but this isn't your everyday type of grief that I'm experiencing here. It would be one thing if it was like last night, when it was just that my friend Milton died trying to protect me on account of something that I previously did... But it's now my fault that his potential future lover is dead as well, and it's my current duty to see to it that they're both resurrected. I should have nothing else on my mind, so I don't think I can validate myself trying to get it off of my mind by throwing a festival. I don't think I can really just save the Meglacommon as food for the Wailing Keep residents either, because there are roughly a thousand Goblin Villagers nearly starving just outside these walls. I know that the Bandsmen really enjoy festivals, as it's their chance to perform and show their more creative talents; but it's really not the time to be celebrating. Maybe I should just throw the festival for everyone else and go off to feel remorse by myself? That's probably the best thing that I can do. Yes. I'll do that.

Steeling my resolve, I kindly asked Mr Scarecrow to please leave my room as I got dressed. Getting dressed took a little while, but it's mainly because I lost my motivation halfway through. Arriving in the Foyeur, it appeared as though I was late to the daily meet and feast. I ended up needing to make my own meal. I burnt one of my Fish, but I think it was Wailing Keep Sama's fault and not my own wandering mind. His upgrade wasn't worth it. He downgraded because I caught on to his schemes, most likely. I know he's been stealing MP from me, and he's no longer even trying to hide it. I'm almost certain of it. He decided that rather than put the MP to good use and elegantly Evolve, he wanted to disturbingly Devolve. I can make his life a living hell though, if I want to. I've devised the perfect way to utterly destroy him.

What if I choose to wear the highest stat possible for [10 Minute Makeover], refill my MP through the use of immense quantities of Candy, force him into summoning a stupidly high stat [Hallowed Gate] when I do… And then turn around, cancel the gate refunding only half the MP before refilling my MP yet again only to repeat the exact same scenario a plethora of times all in 10 minutes? I feel like in that scenario, I might just be able to force the Wailing Keep Sama's hands into utterly wasting vast amounts of his own MP. Maybe then, and only then would he decide that he would like to start submitting to my rule? There's one problem though. It's going to be a very similarly large waste of MP for me, too. We're truly in this boat together, but I don't understand why he's gotta be so rude about it. It's like he doesn't recognize me as a True Halloween Cat or something. There's no way that the default [Wailing Keep] ability getting better results in more effective stovetops. There's just no way. He must be messing with me or something. Also, most of the other ability upgrade descriptions are seriously vague. Sometimes, the ability neglects to even inform me of what actually happened at all. The info for the upgrade is just blank. There must be some kind of discrimination going on in the background, because something's not right here.

I was thinking such things as I ate my slightly burnt Fish alone in the ridiculously large Dining Hall. After finishing, I made my way into Halloween in order to survey the damage. On arrival... Yeah. That's a Meglacommon, alright~ Scattered around the allegedly trick blood fountain are a lot of dead Fish. I decided to go back through the gate leading to the waterfall and procured myself a stick. Making my way back into Halloween, I started to slowly capture all of the now deceased and somewhat dirty Fish while stabbing them onto my stick. I'm not asking anyone for help this time around. I just kind of feel like doing it myself.

I ended up needing to make several trips back and forth between Halloween and the Wailing Keep Kitchen in order to store all of the Fish into the fridge before I came back for the Meglacommon. I now have 280 STR. The Crowli has 320, so I'm thinking that I might actually be capable of this now. After attempting it, I slowly remembered that even Conrad himself has never even carried one of these things by himself and realized exactly why. They're slippery, and ridiculously large. It's almost impossible to get an adequate grip on one. Nope. I couldn't do it. I tried, and I tried... The end result was me being a slimy mess and the dead schoolbus of a Fish not even moving an inch. I'll never do this again. Nope. You and your milk flavored eyes can just go ahead and disappear from my line of sight. Stop looking at me!

Absolutely mortified at my current state, I called in the big guns and had them handle it for me. It's the Scarecrows joined by Budget Dragon, Cyclozard, Ben (Bear), Goblin Funk, and Wilson (Wolfenrine). Conrad is busy, so he can't do it. Surprisingly, no one was disturbed by my current state. Apparently, this slime has already been a major issue for many of my companions; mainly the Halloween Clansmen. It had already been previously dubbed the Meglapollen. It won't dry off of you naturally, and the best course of remedy for those afflicted by it is to roll around in Delhn Sand while nude, causing the Sand to stick to the Meglapollen before you bathe in the Lake... At which point it will detach. Woah! Why do I need to get nude if the Meglacommon is also on my clothes?! Apparently, the clothes can have fire magic cast on it, which causes the Meglapollen to evaporate; but it takes a seriously long amount of time. Also, apparently clothes created by [Disguise] are almost always somewhat fire resistant; the more sturdy clothes tend to be more so. Be that as it may, the clothes themselves might not burn; but any exposed skin is another story. It's best to remove the clothes first, and to handle skin with another method. Delhn Sand. On the other hand, trying to roll clothes covered in Meglapollen around in Delhn Sand can often cause the Meglapollen to continue to seep through the clothes and it becomes an even greater mess than before. Jeez. Why do I feel like I'm always late to everything that happens around here?! This must have... Required studies or something! Where was I?!

Well, I decided to ditch the others and handle my issue elsewhere. I made sure to ask Cosmo and Wanda to watch over the Hallowed Gate near the waterfall. I'm almost certain that just about any sand will do the trick. There's no need for me to go skinny rolling around in the sand with the guys, and wait a seriously long time while still nude with the guys in order to properly manage cleaning my clothes. The entire ordeal just seems way too profane for me. We're all guys or whatever, but I'm like… In a child's body. I get shudders just thinking about it. Moreover, I was never the type in my previous life to just go out and hit up a public nude sauna or something like that. It's weird. The only people who should see me nude are the people who I sleep with. As I have a child's body, I'm going to be nude by my lonesome. At least until I have an actual adult body. Yosh.

So, where might I be going on this fine evening? I'm heading to the Demon Kingdom, obviously. I don't want to be in Reygid if at all possible right now. It's also not like I'm about to head into Orpia or anything, so I'm not afraid of encountering Lily the Loli. I distinctly remember there being a Lake in Orpia towards the western side of it. It's slightly north of Orpia, but mostly just west. It's probably directly west of the northern outskirts of Orpia. Nyah. It's actually a rather strange Lake. It's quite near the cliffs that cut off the Kingdom, and I feel like that fact in itself is strange. How often do you see a Lake on the edge of a cliff leading into the Ocean? It's just rather peculiar, is all. Honestly, it just reminds me of how much this world is like a game.

Even if I say that, it's also very real. There are businesses flourishing all over in several of the Kingdoms, but then again; that's also the norm for some games. There are a lot of animals, which sometimes behave similarly to how they would in real life... But they also have their own game tendencies. There are many different nationalities of people, and they all seem to have immense pride for their homeland or ideals. That's wondrous, until you realize just how immense that very pride can be when it's used as a weapon against almost all of the other different nationalities of people. When you think about it, the Beastkin, Monster, and Demon Kingdoms are by far the most inclusive to varying nationalities. I don't totally understand why the Monster and Demon Kingdom even needed to fight each other. Sure, all of those aforementioned Kingdoms have their own current problems to deal with; but at one point… They were probably striving for something amazing. Even now, I can say wholeheartedly that the Monster Kingdom is still striving, albeit struggling.

The Demon Kingdom has a ton of races living within it, and I honestly don't know what they are. They looked unique to me. Every last one of them. Their people appeared to be living happily. While that's true, there were also some unspeakable horrors going on beneath their feet. The Beastkin Kingdom has a ton of races living within it, and they also appear to be living happily; yet they enslave a ton of less fortunate monsters and even Humans. They both have their issues to deal with, as does the Monster Kingdom. The Monster Kingdom, or now called Lost Kingdom has issues with properly feeding, sheltering, and clothing its inhabitants. Looking at the other two Kingdoms, I can wholeheartedly say that I believe this cause is more worthwhile for me to be spending my time on. I'm helping poor, defenseless, starving, innocent critters from the brink of extinction back into their former glory. I can try and go convince a bunch of wealthy and powerful people to change their ways, or I can help save the poor descendants of the creatures that those very same wealthy and powerful people's ancestors chose to betray, abandon, or murder.

500 years ago, there was probably some Clan leader... Potentially a Halloween Cat who had chosen to force the Demon Kingdom into starting a peculiar war with the rest of the continent. Eventually, some Easter Bunny got involved and pushed the Demon Kingdom off the continent. The Monster Kingdom, Forest of Fae, and the Beastkin Kingdom were all pals and worked hand in hand with the Easter Bunny in order to pull it off. Around 200 years later, the Demons returned to practically annihilate the Monster Kingdom and leave its continued state as a message to the other Kingdoms. What did the Monster Kingdom's two allies do in return? They closed off their gates and rejected the notion of ever having been allies in the first place. The Beastkin turned around and formed an alliance with the Humans and Elves. The Fae Queen just flat out shut herself and her kin from the world, and has continued to do so ever since.

The Beastkin actually seemed to have taken in some of the Monster Kingdom's refugees, but that's the key word. Some. They only took the ones who had Evolved into more humanoid forms, leaving all of the objectively less fortunate to die. Also, I have never met a Goblin within the Beastkin Kingdom. I'm not sure if it's due to the Goblins all choosing to stay here, or if the Beastkin simply would not have Goblins. I don't know. What I do know is that there's a price to be paid for what all of the aforementioned Kingdoms did to the Monster Kingdom, and it will probably be paid after I die. To be fair, the Demon Kingdom might not have really done anything wrong. The way that they staged their war causes me to believe that it was a Halloween Cat at work, but I still don't really understand why the Halloween Cat chose to attack once every 3 nights; nor do I understand how the Halloween Cat's number of Clansmen continued to rise no matter how many were slain. Even if you choose to never use [Soul Merge], it still doesn't make sense as to how the Clansmen numbers continued to rise.

I fully intend to see to it that the Monster Kingdom reclaims its former glory. What the Demon Kingdom did to the Monster Kingdom has stunted them for 3 centuries, while you can argue that what the Easter Bunny leading the three Kingdoms stunted the Demon Kingdom for only 2 centuries. Probably less, considering how well the Demon Kingdom bounced back. The Monster Kingdom has failed to bounce back. Two of their previously most proud races have shut themselves off from the rest of the world, beneath it... Fearful of ever returning to the surface. The Harpies and Mer. The Harpies are also protecting several other races who had also once been proud races for their Kingdom, and let's not forget about the Mantillions, Dodori Birds, and Minotaurs. They practically went extinct due to what the Demon Kingdom did. The Dodori Birds actually might have. I have only witnessed one Minotaur in my time here, to be fair I haven't really travelled that much yet either though. The other races currently still standing on the surface have not been spared whatsoever.

Starvation has plagued this entire Kingdom, and for the first time ever... There might not even be a proper heir to the Goblin Village. The current Goblin Chief is merely level 23. What?! I'd be delightfully surprised if the Mer were even still alive at all for that matter. The state of this Kingdom. It's an absolute mess. Someone needs to pay for that, and I'm doubtful that the residents of this Kingdom will not seek that payment after I die or even before then if I'm being honest. If I succeed in returning the Lost Kingdom to its former glory as the Monster Kingdom, they might just go off in search of vengeance without me even in the picture. Honestly? I'm perfectly fine with that. I don't know how I feel about being perfectly fine with it, but I am.

I personally want to see this Village thriving. It's a fine place, and I'm here for what they stand behind. They want a Kingdom in which any monster can live happily. I'm currently a monster. It sounds like a good place to be. They can't live happily if they're constantly living while remembering what happened to their ancestors, causing their currently stagnant situation. I would prefer to live alongside happy people. It's like that. Honestly though, they probably won't get very adequate revenge unless the people behind the original matter three centuries ago are still alive and well within the Demon Kingdom. Do Demons have that long of lifespans? I guess they might. Huh... They can probably still get their revenge, at least against the Demons. The Fae Queen is probably also still alive, so surely they can get revenge against her as well. I'm doubtful about the Beastkin's upper echelons living that long though.

Even so, I'm optimistic that if we can solve the food, shelter, and clothing issues currently worsening the Goblin's lives... Then maybe they can learn to be happy and move on from what the other Kingdoms did without ever feeling the need to seek revenge again. I also need to appease every other race around here as well, though. I can't just focus on the Goblins. That sounds like a stand up goal. In my humble opinion, there's only one issue with the Demon and Beastkin Kingdoms. It's whoever is managing them. They need better leadership. They need leadership that does not casually enslave other races, or torture their citizens. The Demon and Beastkin Kingdoms both set out to do very similar things in comparison to the Monster Kingdom, but somewhere along the road... They lost their way. As tiring and difficult as it may be to revert their goals back to what they should probably be working towards, it might actually be possible. I'll probably need to be a Tier 9 or 10 monster before either of their upper echelons choose to listen to me, though. Goddin Village Neith Sama claims to have never heard of any monsters achieving above Tier 10, but I'm quite certain that I've literally witnessed several monsters who had surpassed Tier 10. I'm talking about the apocalypse level monsters who constantly dance in the distance surrounding my Halloween Town. Also, that thing at the bottom of the Delhn Lake is probably above Tier 10. Just saying. If only Goddin Village Neith Sama ever felt the need to take a journey outside the damn Village, maybe he too would have heard of monsters surpassing Tier 10. No offense, Goddin Village Neith Sama.

I was thinking such things while I was rolling around nude in sand near the Lake to the west of Orpia. When I was getting undressed earlier, I noticed that my underclothes weren't actually slimy. After finishing my rolling around and taking a long rinse in the Lake, I threw a small [Pumpkin Bomb] worth 20 MP a couple of feet away from me before throwing my clothes onto it. I say that, but the fire spread somewhat far. It's not as if I was throwing my clothes into a pile or anything. The fire stayed alive for around a minute before it disappeared, and I quickly realized that this would end up taking a long time. 20 MP worth of flames is weak. It's not something that can cause the Meglapollen to evaporate. I need to go big, or it just won't work. Even then, this is a war type ability. I can't just haphazardly throw a 500 MP [Pumpkin Bomb] down and expect no one to notice. It will literally spread to the size of two baseball stadiums before slowly whittling out like 12 minutes later. Who's to say that it will even deal very much damage? It feels like my MP is mostly being spent on the duration of the flames and the overall amount of ground that they cover, not the temperature of heat that they burn from. They're probably like trick flames.

Thinking along these lines, I decided to just make a bunch of new, temporary clothes to wear while I asked the others to try and solve my Meglapollen issue. Thankfully, my underclothes were fine and didn't actually need any replacements. I suppose that a lot of my stress was unfounded. I can continue to wear them underneath the new clothes. Yosh! I created around a dozen new pieces of clothes while aiming for level 2. The end result left me feeling somewhat nostalgic. I'm currently wearing a lab coat, my yellow swim trunks, my grey short sleeved tee shirt, my trusted Emerald Gold Necklace, and a pair of sandals. I really only picked two of the dozen pieces. Sandals and the lab coat. I didn't need anything else, unless I wanted to get fancy with level 2 clothes. I figured that there would be no point, but I was somewhat close to wearing a red feather necklace. The cheap kind.

I stuffed my stockings into a lab coat pocket, cancelled my [Hallowed Gate] and resummoned it here for my regular 100 MP before asking my Clansmen to do their best at carrying the slimy clothes into the Foyeur and the new weaker clothes into the Throne Room. I wasn't about to touch those slimy clothes again after finally getting myself clean. It would have been the end of me. I made sure to cancel my Hallowed Gate. Can't be leaving that thing open again, especially in a place like that. That might have also been the end of me, if all of my Clansmen were forced into working two full days in a row. Conrad can probably still kill me if he decides to, but I know for a fact that he can do it if they all work together. I wouldn't stand a chance.

I ended up letting the guys handle my clothes, after I noticed that they were still standing around the fire while nearly nude. I say that, but it's just Goblin Funk among them who even wore clothes to begin with. He's really the one most inconvenienced by the whole matter. Kneeling down to thank him, I humbly had my Scarecrows emerge from behind me to give him my original outer clothes as I requested that he be so kind as to burn mine for me. Dawn is coming, and this seems like it's going to take awhile. I really didn't do very much tonight, aside from zone out a whole lot while rolling around in sand. I'm grieving. It's hard for me. I'm just not a very productive griever, I guess.

I was thinking such things as I fled at lightning speed from the Goblin Warrior who very clearly did not want to burn my clothes for me. Where was I fleeing? All the way through the obnoxiously long Throne Room and back into the Treasure Room. On the way there, I quickly stopped and used [Time Skip] on Rei's corpse. They're both kind of laying there in the Throne Room. There's a rule to becoming Banshees or Phantasms. Apparently, you need to remain unburied, unburned, and undevoured. They're kind of safe being there like that. It might be more safe for me to bring them into Halloween, though. Yeah. I'll do that. I decided to put them beside the allegedly trick blood fountain. I propped them both to sit up next to it. I chose to skip time by a rate of 60 for Rei, costing me 6 MP per second. I was able to keep that up for around 5 minutes before I had consumed all of my MP and returned to my Treasure Room. It should have been like 5 hours for Rei. That's the current extent of my powers, I suppose. Casting [Daily Candy], I got fully undressed and reverted back into my smallest form. Catapulting myself into the bed and clawing away at the blankets until they had reached my preferential form, I fell asleep.