Chapter 34 – How to Sell a Project

The Second Elder grew really curious seeing that unknown and foreign environment, and seemed about to go as she told Inky, she needed to discuss it with the other elders.

Then Erik nodded to Inky.

Inky: " well Second Elder, you have to see what my mate is capable of so, he was wondering if the entire tribe would like to live like this"

The Second Elder frowned.

Second Elder:" there's no way anyone wouldn't want to live in this luxury, but it's impossible to fit the entire tribe here"

Inky:" no, what Erik is proposing is helping you build a base like this one inside the rock but big enough to fit all the tribe nearby, he would give you the tools and help needed for you to establish yourselves, and help in building enormous public baths and relaxation places for the all the octopeople to enjoy, and being inside the rock there wouldn't be any danger of monster attacks, so everyone could sleep relaxed and live calmly"

Second Elder: " it would be a titanic project though, well if we had those weird headpieces of equipment, it would save a lot of time in mistakes, I will have to discuss it with the other elders though"

Inky:" that's fine, now follow us, we would like to show you something you didn't see on your first time here".

The Second Elder grew curious as they took her to the onsen and she entered the water on their urging.

It was warm and relaxing, Erik and Inky also entered and they all 3 took a nap on the hot water.

Then Erik grabbed the Second Elder by the hand and took her to the massage room only to realize the massage room table was way too small for her.

He quickly added a new normal table below and laid the Second elder on the extended massage table, it groaned but endured her weight, and between Inky and him they massaged her making her fall asleep.

30 minutes later, she groggily woke up and came upstairs to see Inky and Erik watching a documentary about exoplanets and sat to watch it with them, she didn't understand the words, but the images shown amazed her.

when the second elder came back to the village and described everything she experienced, the rest were pleasantly surprised and agreed to the labor project.

3 days later, and octopeople were all over the place inside digging, around 20 warriors and 30 hunters, and 4 scouts that were there to serve the others, Erik instructed the scouts how to cook and they made food for the rest.

The food was starting to decrease, so he increased the number of 'palangres' farther away from the base and made bombs just in case, thankfully he had his algae and clam and mussels farms up and running and could already collect some of the bigger ones.

The rocks were accumulating in loose stones and stone blocks in from of the base and other octopeople came and took the blocks back to the village to build with them.

2 weeks passed in this way with Erik managing to catch another sea monster using his barred modular trap, catching an enormous armoured sea cucumber, killing it and taking it back to base, gutting it quickly and storing the meat to boil and feed the workers, what amazed Erik though were some crabs that were living directly inside the anus of the creature, hiding inside when they sensed danger, he almost released them though but a warrior stopped him and said something that Inky translated as "tasty" pointing at the crabs, he didn't want to but he killed the crabs and quickly noticed something, their shells were soft!, so he washed them thoroughly, covered them in seaweed flour and fried them, giving most to the worker and Inky who all loved it, he tried a pincer and it was indeed tasty despite its origins.

with the advanced tools and the superior strength and stamina of the octopeople, the project was almost finished by now, he also let them use the onsen and sauna to the workers and they loved it, expending most of their free time there, he also gave rewards to those who made faster progress, it was easy thanks to Rose's constant monitoring, the 2 that worked harder the first week he gave them swimsuit for the upper body with backpacks included and they loved them, the 2 winners were 2 hunters and that would help them on their tasks, this reward motivated the rest too, the second week's winner were 3 warriors as they worked almost the same, working to the bone and he gifted them plasma spears and they were super excited about it.

In fact, they must have told their superiors as the next day the Second Elder came and pestered him about giving her equipment too, poking him and hugging him until he couldn't take it her sticking to him all day.

He made her a big shield with an armoured grouper fish scale, and diving suit that stuck to her upper body were he then also added a backpack and custom made blackened armor plates that wouldn't reveal her position to predators, and also two underwater propulsors connected to the back sides of her back armor, then also a plasma spear, she would need to come back once in a while to charge all her equipment though, but it should be easier for her to hunt now.