A New Beginning In A Mana Apocalypse - Chapter 78 Chapter 78

Megan and Karen led me and Kayda around the haven to introduce us around and show off what they had accomplished. A lot had changed in the week Kayda and I were unconscious. A lot more than I could have imagined. The space of the haven had been pushed to its limits and farming had already begun on a large portion of it. Cattle and other farm animals were also present nearby being cared for some people I had never met before.

Besides the fields and animals there were a plethora of houses for people to stay in though a majority of them were dorm style.

When I finally broke down and asked where the houses came from the answer startled me. Emy. Seeing the need for everyone to have some kind of personal space, especially her own family. She grew many of the houses over the last week. Given the amount of time and strain it caused her do that, and the sheer number of people my haven now housed, Megan had asked her to only build the dorm style buildings. If anyone wanted a house of their own they needed to make it themselves or provide some kind of contribution to pay for Emy’s effort.

As Emy was an incredible multitasker I was able to watch the process for a while as she started a new dorm so I could see the process. It was rather time consuming so I didn’t stay to watch the whole thing, but I was sufficiently amazed by her capabilities, and also the single fact that without her my haven wouldn’t be nearly as comfortable to live in as it was now.

While Emy was a significant contributor to my haven, Annitte also had a large role to play. She had begun to teach many of the awakened different ways to use their elemental abilities to assist in the construction of the haven. While the majority of the buildings were Emy’s there was also a large number of stone houses created by the awakened with their elemental abilities. A water tower had already been formed and ‘pipes’ laid using earth magic.

Despite it only being a week the place felt incredibly civilized already.

Of course that wasn’t the case with everything. With the influx of people came an increase in the amount of food to feed everyone. As Emy wasn’t capable of doing everything hunting parties had been formed to raid Earth and the Great Realm. Annitte also had a large part in this as her ability to ‘see’ into different places, a specialization of the space ability, let her find the safe places with plenty of supplies, or the easier to kill beasts.

The military and beasts made up the majority of the hunting parties. Despite the best efforts of my girls and Derek, the military hunting parties had become arrogant and started to make demands for their services.

I got the feeling that I would have to deal with that issue personally, and if they were too stubborn I would have to banish my first group of people. I didn’t look forward to it but I knew it was something I would have to do eventually.

After the tour of the new haven I had the chance to meet with each of the leaders. Derek was even more surrely than normal however his pretty major was by his side and was able to keep him from exploding at me. He was obviously still against the twins being with me, but his complaints seemed half hearted now making me feel he was starting to accept it. Then again he did have a week to get used to the idea as the twins had let him know their decision shortly after I had fallen unconscious.

Jorrimus, Calidia’s companion from when I first met her had become the clerk for the haven managing the little details and balancing our supplies against our needs. Again I had completely forgotten this man actually existed, though I blamed that partly on him as he seemed to be an expert at remaining in the background until he was needed. A great skill for both servants and assassins. I had no idea which he really was. He followed Caly’s orders without fault but he had a very dangerous aura about it. I was surprised by how much that feeling worried me, but as a older and much more experienced man, I figured that even if he wasn’t stronger than me, he was definitely more practiced with his abilities.

Jessarn and the rest of his family had settled in on part of the farming area and were behaving themselves. I didn’t see them for long as they seemed very busy but I was reassured by the girls that they were least troublesome group we had. Followed closely by Jasmine and her girls who while willing to help wherever they could, had trouble with the men in the haven and kept to themselves. Unfortunately the biggest target for the ‘hunters’ were exactly these girls, another reason to ease my conscious if I had to kick them out of the haven. There hadn’t been any serious issues, but the men were reported to be becoming more insistent that the girls join them for some ‘fun’ even if they backed off after being denied enough times.

I had half expected Michael and his group to be causing trouble, but instead Momma and Kelly had taken that group in hand and were making them into helpful members of the haven. Under Courtney’s influence Michael’s harem had grown to four members but all of them were willing and even the military hunters couldn’t complain as Michael led his own hunting team that was just as successful, if not more so than the military hunters.

Michael’s group lived separate from the rest in houses they had created with Annitte’s guidance. Most of the supplies Michael brought in were for his own people, a situation that Megan had allowed. After hearing her reasoning I agreed with her. When they had the ability it was a decided that they would leave and make their own haven. Not that they weren’t grateful and helpful. The rest of the members of his group assisted in the haven just like everyone else.

Arnold had managed to hold onto his girlfriend despite the many other interested men in the haven. He and her family had a place of their own. Both assisted Jorrimus as assistants in running the haven. I met some of the other newcomers and while they were friendly, I could feel their judging gazes on me trying to determine if I really was worthy of being the head of the haven.

After a very roundabout tour where I didn’t meet a lot of the people I was curious about, or needed to check in with. I was led to the homes of the beasts. Besides being hunters many of the herd beasts were acting as ranchers watching over and caring for the livestock we had obtained. I also noticed that there was a large separation between the beasts and the rest of the humans. When I asked about it Karen explained that other than me and my wives, none of the other humans were able to feel comfortable in the presence of the beasts. As many of the beasts weren’t able to take human form there was an immense language barrier. Those who were able to take human form kept to themselves as they felt superior to the majority of the weak humans around them. As they had orders from my wives not to cause trouble they kept their distance. Especially after a few fights between them and the military hunters left several of the human hunters with broken bones and shattered pride.

Beyond the beasts was another area that housed the twisted I had caught in Las Vegas, Heather’s sister, and the twisted captured with her. While they had told me that Monica was able to keep them in check, I wasn’t so sure I would use the same description. Emy had created a large cage and hardened the wood of the cage until it was harder than steel. No idea how she did that, but apparently she could, explained a bit on how she was able to create such large buildings. Whenever Monica wasn’t actively keeping an eye on them they had to be in the cage or they would wander off and at the sight of any human they would start to rage. Only an intervention from Monica could stop the rampage.

Hearing all of that I had to wonder why they had bothered to keep so many of the twisted. I could understand Heather’s sister, but not the rest of them. I asked only to find out that amongst those captured there were many that were friends and family to Michael’s group and even some of Jasmine’s girls.

I also got the feeling that since they could keep them from harming anyone they didn’t even think about getting rid of them.

As part of the experiment I had considered before my transformation I created a friend level bond with Heather’s sister. Unfortunately the results were underwhelming. My marital bond could change Monica enough that she regained her rationality, but the friend level wasn’t strong enough to cause the same effect. I decided to ask Annitte about it more and see if she had anything to offer that could help. I knew there were other kinds of bonds than the ones I was using. Apparently it might be time to learn about them and what they could do.

I also decided to ask Heather if her sister had anyone in the haven that she had been close too, boyfriend, Bryan’s father, something like that. I was curious to see if it was the bond, or the fact that she was bonded to me that had helped Monica. If there was someone willing to have a marital bond with heather’s sister I might be able to find out. Though I knew it wasn’t fair to her, she couldn’t agree to it in her condition. Yep definitely have to talk to Heather about it.

After touring the haven and seeing all the changes I had to decide how best to use my time to assist the haven. What would my actual role be. The others had some suggestions but the decision was ultimately mine. Though if I was being honest with myself I already knew what I wanted to do. I remembered what Annitte had said about the difficulty of getting stronger, but I also recalled a situation I had found myself in before we left earth. Before any of that I needed to learn more about my new species and how to use my abilities.