"The repairs are going smoothly, Lord Terion!" One of the Shipwrights reported with exhaustion painted on his face. "We have repaired all of the frigates and most of the destroyers. Now we are left with the most severe cases. Thankfully, with the help of the crews, repairs are going much quicker than we expected. They are determined to return to their duties as quickly as possible."

"What about Dauntless?" Pyonta asked quietly from her plush-lined recliner chair.

She hadn't been feeling well lately but still insisted on, at least, accompanying Terion. The Count smiled gently at the woman he loved above all.

"I forgot to tell you." The Count continued, "We finished the hull overhaul yesterday and are almost finished installing of the newest pattern CIWS turrets and autocannons. How's the progress?"

The last question was directed toward a Rabbitkin Shipwright standing nearby.

"Almost done, Sir! We still have a few tests but otherwise he is ready to go."

"Excellent." Terion nodded happily. "Prepare Valiant for his upgrades. I don't see any reason not to use this occasion to upgrade him as well."

"Well, we already started on his upgrades since multiple hull sections were to be replaced anyway..." The Rabbitkin shrugged.

"Very well. HMS Relentless will be started soon but the Emperor told me to wait for his approval before beginning the next dreadnought." Terion recorded something on a note paper and scratched the side of his head. "So now we need to focus on building frigates, improving and building new destroyers, and of course, corvettes. Gods, we are understaffed..."

"Everyone is, my Dear," Pyonta said as her bunny ear flicked to the side when she giggled. "At least, we are slowly doing something about it. What about you, Tym, Emmet?"

She looked at the two Shipwrights with a smug smile and both of them turned slightly red.

"There is so much work, Ma'am..." Tym, the Human Shipwright, dodged as he wanted to report on the fleet repair progress, also suddenly very interested in something on the tip of his shoe.

"I... I recently started seeing a very nice lady, Ma'am..." Emmet cast a pleading gaze at the count who started laughing.

"Is that so? I wish you the best, Emmet! And Tym... Get your priorities straight, will you? Otherwise, I will be forced to send you on a forced vacation. Work is important, rebuilding our fleet is important as hell, but you can't live for work forever. One day you will look at your life and you don't want to despise yourself for wasting it." Terion shook his head with a serious expression. "On that note, take a free afternoon. In fact, all repair crews will be taking time off, so please inform everyone. Order from Avalon."

"Yes, Sir!" They bowed with respect and left the room.

"My cute little bunny..." Jehaness approached his wife who was affectionately rubbing her growing belly. "What?!"

"Well..." She smiled widely. "You can call it a Divine Revelation. A prophecy or something like that... Anyway, Goddess Verka wants everyone to find their happiness and I, as her Archbishop, have to preach her word."

"Ummm..." He rubbed the side of his head. "But Goddess Verka is a Goddess of Vengeance..."

Pyonta looked at her husband with absolute lack of understanding. "So?"

"I mean... Shouldn't she demand punishment for slights or something?

"Ahh..." She chuckled. "Let's call it a Pantheon-wide action. All the Deities of Arcadia have recently pushed this policy. In my opinion, it's Goddess-Empress Hestia behind the original order but, as you can guess, it's basically a Holy Decree by now."

"Uhum..." He simply shrugged, his gaze lost focus, and he yawned. "A single free afternoon would be good..."

•••

The battle in the Ancient Forest had taken place nearly three months ago. During that time much has changed in our lives... March had arrived and the air started warming ever so slightly with a promise of spring slowly awakening. It would take a few weeks or maybe a couple of weeks before winter ended but the days were already noticeably longer. With Tommy around, the mood of my wives had changed as well. They seemed more fulfilled and happier but somehow even I found it easier to relax. He started attending the University with the experimental class and quickly found many friends. Of course, Tommy was almost immediately engulfed by Marie and her gang, but our little troublemaker had found herself some competition. Tommy wasn't going to be bossed around and the, so far coherent, group started breaking apart. At first, I was concerned, but Luna told me to let the kids be. They needed to deal with it on their own. While I expected the group to split into two factions, it finally resolved into three groups.

The first, and most obvious one, was Marie's group with Clovis and two more kids named Zac and Pola I had never met. The second was Tommy's with Fiona, Diana, and one other girl called Anya. Of course, my wives almost immediately summed it up with 'like father like son'. The fact that I needed to pull out the 'it's too early for them' argument for an obvious joke indicated that I was overreacting. Maybe. Probably. The third group, however, was completely unexpected. Nicole led it with Will, Ed, and Gahrys. From what Tommy told us, it appeared that Nicole's group would split again later. However, for now, it seemed that all the frictions that led to this schism had disappeared and they, once again, were best friends though in three parties that had some friendly rivalries going on.

For now, Tommy was classless, no matter what I tried, but he wasn't bothered by it at all. For combat, he summoned one of his Scions or even a group of his Denizens. While Marie grumbled it wasn't fair, he wasn't cheating... Well, he wasn't cheating much at least. There were a lot of various summoners in Arcadia so he simply tried to copy their skill set. While he wasn't particularly happy about being a second-line class, he was intelligent and knew he had to play the cards he was dealt. As for his Scions, he had three spawners excluding the Legionnaires. His Frogloks were training with my Praetorians who were posted at Tommy's sanctum and they were quickly becoming competent warriors. I was sure that, given time, they would be as good as Freya's Korreds or my Legio Aeigs. I would like them to be as good as Praetorians, but those are monsters among monsters. Anyway, the Froglok Scion, Zol Marshblade, was a Mystic Knight. A fairly interesting class Tommy created himself inspired by Cahrona's Spell Blade.

His other Scion was, basically, useless on land and Tommy wasn't particularly eager to upgrade her spawner. The Shark Scion, Coral, wasn't particularly happy about it but I explained to her that Tommy needed to decide what evolution path he wanted for her. That wasn't even a lie. The evolution tree for sharks was bigger than the one for spiders and snakes. His last spawner shocked me the most. Tommy liked horses but since he couldn't keep them underwater for obvious reasons, I told him about Kelpies. For three days he was sad that he couldn't build a Kelpie spawner. That coincided with his lessons where Luna explained to him how the World System worked. After confirming a few things with Amber, Irene, and Hestia, he got to work. He obtained a small living branch of Yggdrasil from Lavender and assembled a lot of various materials from Avalon. With those, as well as his favourite horse, Quentin, Tommy returned to the Abyss and locked himself in his castle for two days. While we were anxious, his Frogloks very politely asked us not to disturb him.

During that time, he forced Kelpies into existence. We were impressed and proud when he returned, just in time, to not miss his classes. So now, he had Frogloks and Kelpies with which to summon and fight. Without doubt, Kelpies were going to be a force to reckon with both above and under the waves. While only Freya and I fully grasped the extent of the achievement to create a fully unique denizen, my remaining wives didn't need convincing. His feat was also acknowledged by the System. Tommy could now build Kelpies' spawners which were unique and only for him which showed to everyone how incredible he was. Of course, Kelpie Scion was named Quentin and Tommy insisted it was his favourite horse, now reborn as his denizen. For all intents and purposes, it might have even been the truth but, for the record, a horse respawned in my stables, so diplomatically, Quentin's ownership was changed. Once it was understood that Kelpies were shapeshifters, but not as good as my Slimes, Sebastian took it as a point of honour to train Quentin to be a perfect butler. Tommy needed someone like Sebastian, so I guess...?

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

We quickly got used to the presence of a child in our home and lives. While Irene, Aoi, Mia, and Tia were slightly disappointed that, when his education settled and he finished ascending, he was 7 years old. The rest of my wives seemed unbothered. They simply enjoyed their gift of maternity. Tommy was learning at the University, spent time with us, and played with his friends. He was a cheerful and very intelligent child. Of course, his statistics played a key part and he simply couldn't be compared to other kids his age. Even the prodigies like Marie, Fiona, Nicole, and Clovis paled in comparison but that was expected. He was a Dungeon Core, after all, and not just any Dungeon Core. He had a True Name and my family name. He was Thomas Avalon.

I tried to spend time with him but I had a war to fight...

Irene, Lavender, Cahrona, Cassmira and Tommy were playing a board game while the rest of my wives relaxed nearby. I was reviewing the latest reports. Ian had finally managed to release Dahlia from the Teleportation Relay and they continued to conduct a few experiments. He patiently dug out the presumed coordinates where Arthur Ives had been sent and recorded them so no one could accidentally alter or delete them. Unfortunately, the coordinates for the teleportation used by the relay had no sense for our Teleportation Spell and it looked like we had a lot of work before we could send an airship to bring home our lost Inquisitor. Nonetheless, Ian managed to successfully send some supplies a few times already. The supply crates were protected by Inquisitorial wards which meant that only Arthur would be able to open them. In one of the first shipments, Luna insisted on adding some situational items: unlocked gear that could be used by any people recruited by Arthur. Others had more survival oriented items were potions, rations, gold coins, a few voice-recorded messages, a communication devices in case Arthur's was lost or destroyed, and a powerful beacon that would grow its power and range as it absorbed mana. The last item was a gamble. If anyone intercepted the signal, they would certainly be alarmed by it and would investigate.

However, we were getting closer to bringing back Arthur from wherever he was.

I sighed as I put away the report and looked at the clock.

"It's almost time," Luna said as she fixed an unnoticeable flaw in her magnificent dress.

Mia and Tia were ready as well and only Amber and Freya were waiting for their Maids to finish styling their hair.

"Where are you going, Dad?" Tommy asked me in confusion.

"To a meeting with the leaders of our alliance to inform them about recent events," I said with a sigh. "There are a lot of things to discuss and we have to go."

"Do I need to go as well?" He asked with reluctance.

"No." I chuckled as I saw him sigh in relief. "At least not now. Maybe in two years during your official introduction ceremony."

•••

A grim silence fell upon the Sleeping Dungeon NATO assembly chamber once my wives and I finished reporting the current status of Arcadia. The news about Vestargo's slave cities and the horrible fate of those people hit everyone hard. Testimonies of Hope, Maia, and Helen left no room for denial. Not that I expected my allies to deny but the girls' emotionless tales of their slavery left a grim impression. Especially Helen's story, which told about life in the largest slave camp we found to date. After she sat down, there was absolute silence in the assembly hall. I saw tears in Theresa Iceleon's and Blanca Metaka's eyes. I saw rage and disbelief in the stunned expressions of Guad Metaka, Victor Iceleon, and Varis Aclium. Only King Sawal Talos Ebrus was calm: sad, but calm. After all, they obtained a prophecy from Arletta who had then worked overtime to keep Ebrusians from pissing me off.

"That isn't exactly why I called you out today," I said as I took the center stage. "Nor is it the state of my military but rather something that involves everyone here. I will have to, very soon, limit food exports from Arcadia."

"That's something I expected after hearing from Miss Helen and that unbelievable number... A million people..." Guad very slowly shook his head but his arms were shaking as he nervously clenched his fists. He looked at the representatives of Aclium and Iceleon. "Metaka, after we removed our rebellious nobles and seized some of Nar'verna's war supplies, is actually fairly well-supplied. However..."

"Don't be unreasonable, Guad..." Theresa slowly shook her head. "We never planned to rely on Arcadia's support indefinitely. It certainly made things easier, but it's also a trap for various reasons. We have managed to build up supplies from when we started buying food, exactly in case of situations like this. Food rationing and long-lasting food will keep us alive till the harvest even if you halve your exports, Theon."

"The supplies you sent helped us to survive the worst, but you don't have to be worried for the time being. Nar'verna's granaries and stockpiles were full of supplies as they must have been preparing for war for a while. With how decisively we won, we now have enough food to last a few years. The only thing that we could use is the export of Arcadian storage items to prevent food from spoiling." King Varis smiled.

"That won't be a problem but we will discuss those details in private." I nodded with relief and looked at the last monarch in the room.

"Ebrus never needed the supplies in the first place but, you know, the variety was nice." King Tawal sighed heavily.

"In the case of Ebrus, we could exchange some of our food products for your fish. As you said, King Tawal, variety makes a difference." Amber smiled warmly.

"If I understand correctly, only Iceleon needs food supplies for obvious reasons?" Guad turned his gaze to Varis and Tawal who nodded in confirmation. "In that case, we could resign from importing food from Arcadia, and in the case of Ebrus exchange food supplies for the sake of variety. That way, Iceleon will still be able to thrive. Because you are putting on a brave front, aren't you, Theresa? Surviving was a very apt description of your situation."

"Unfortunately, most of Iceleon's food reserves were spent in the early days of the crisis and the snow destroyed our crops long before a harvest," Victor answered instead. "So while we would survive, it would be hard."

"That's why you have allies." Guad sighed and looked at me with disapproval. "The same goes for you, Theon. You are already waging an exhausting war against an unimaginable threat so you are doing more than any other country could afford. If there is anything we can help you with, just tell us."

I hesitated for a moment because I simply wasn't prepared to answer something like that. There was literally nothing they could help me with... Or so I thought.

"We need iron, orichalcum, adamantium, and mithril to replace the ships we have lost during the war against Vestargo." Freya immediately used the occasion and gave the Metakan Emperor a stern look. Her voice was calm but, at the same time, it showed her dismay at Guad's disapproval. "However, there is very little we can offer in exchange. Nearly everything we produce is directed to the war effort. For us, gold and precious gems are just building materials we use as soon as we obtain them. Would you provide us with the same materials you need as well, in exchange for the promise that maybe one day, if this war is won, we will pay you? Or maybe we should ask you to send soldiers to the front lines for them to fight a hopeless fight against endless waves of level-one-hundred monsters that know no mercy and can't recognise that they have lost and should retreat? No, Guad. Arcadia can't make such ridiculous and unreasonable demands."

"Besides you are supporting us already," Tia said with a calm expression and with a simple wave of her hand, the entire southern Arcadian border was highlighted with a warm, red colour. "Without your support and active assistance, other Mortal powers might try to invade our homeland. With you, our allies, our borders are secured."

"I believe that we could donate some iron." Guad slowly nodded. "Not sell you. Donate. You are forgetting about something important, Freya and Tia. If Arcadia falls to the tide of bugs, we won't stand a chance. Our people will die. It's better to forget about profit when it comes to survival. Am I right Victor?"

I looked at my former officer who slowly nodded. The King of the Kingdom of Iceleon skilfully used his console and displayed data that shocked me.

"In collaboration with Metaka, Ebrus, and Aclium, we reactivated our mines in the Iron Mountains. Five more to be precise. We are currently producing fifty thousand tonnes of iron ore monthly. We copied the excavation equipment you left for us, our engineers who returned during breaks at the University brought new knowledge and immediately wanted to put it to good use." Victor started explaining. "By giving you a means to fight, we are not just supporting your war, which would overwhelm us otherwise, but we are investing in our future."

"Because Aderon has no future if Arcadia loses this war." Varis Aclium powerlessly clenched his fists and looked at the girls saved from Vestargo's slavery. "One million people were destined to be murdered so horribly... We aren't that petty, Theon."

"It's exactly as the Goddess said." King Tawal Ebrus smiled softly at me. "If we won't stand together against the evil that dwells in the Ancient Forest, we will fall one by one. You don't want to take the lives of our people, and for that, we are forever grateful. But there is no use for riches if they can't buy safety for our people. We can't eat gold, nor can we hide behind piles of gemstones. But we can hide behind the power of your Legions and the might of your Fleets. We can eat the fancy food of Arcadia once you solve your population problems."

"You gave us hope, Theon, when there was none." Theresa smiled and slowly moved her gaze from face to face. "It is time for us to repay your kindness."

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