Chapter 192: First Offcial meeting
Ren returned from his meeting with Crimson. He walked to the edge of the cave and looked at everything that had been done so far, how much his people had grown.
He knew that a lot was meant to come after, and so he wanted to ensure that it all went well.
Remu landed beside him.
"Master, what's the next step forward?" He asked.
"Well, first I have to undergo an evolution, but after that, I think it's best we focus on ourselves more. The world outside is pretty crazy, but we are not yet ready to meet it."
They spoke a bit more about what to do, and then Ren left him and went into the cave.
There was a ton of space inside the cave. They had expanded it massively to fit his size. Ren transformed and wrapped himself around. He lay his head down and allowed the evolution to start.
A massive forcefield covered him as he lay there, and the evolution began. The only difference was that now he was unlocking more of his strength and ability as a Calamity-grade devouring dragon.
It might have been a short time, but Ren was now extremely powerful, and that was not an understatement at all.
The evolution took a few days as Ren lay there and slept. His size grew by another tens of feet, making him over thirty feet now. He was now the size of a full dragon. Many dragons would never get to his size in their lives, and he had managed to get there.
Not only that, his scales shined with a new light and carried a higher sense of power. He was like someone that had been reborn, a son given even more strength.
His eyes flickered open. He looked around, and all the darkness faded away. Even when there was no light at all, his gaze could see all the way to outside the cave and the forest around like it was right next to him.
[Evolution Successful]
The system rang out the very moment that he woke up, telling him it was done. Ren raised his head and transformed back into his human form, only to find out that a lot had changed about it as well.
He was no longer the same. His frame was slim, but the muscles were far more tense. His hands and legs were no longer covered with scales, and the horns on his head were much shorter. His wings were still there, but he had no tail at all.
He stretched his body a bit and got some of his clothes and put them on, a loose-sleeved black shirt, black pants, and boots.
He kicked the boots on the ground a few times to ensure that he was comfortable, and then with a flex of his back, his wings seemed to vanish.
"Well, that's new. Seems I have better control over my body as a whole now." He walked out of the cave, and the light of the sun washed over him.
He looked at the settlement in front of him and then stretched again.
"Now let's make you into the greatest place in the entire world."
[...]
"First official meeting as of today," Ezra spoke. She read off a piece of paper, looking at everyone that was there. On this table were some leaders of the orcs, hobgoblins, the wolves, every race had a representative.
All the important figures who were closer to ten were also seated here as they needed to be.
"This meeting is to dictate the betterment of Crimson going forward." She continued. She looked around for a few seconds and then placed the papers down. "Everyone rise, Master Ren is coming."
As soon as she said that, the entire hall went silent and everyone went quiet. She walked from her seat and stood behind the large chair at the top that was set for Ren.
Behind the chair was Fey as well. She had voted herself as the right hand of Ren, and she refused to allow anyone to tell her otherwise, and so no one dared to do that. After all, she was one of the strongest people in the entire place.
The door opened and Ren walked in, followed by Remu and Silas. Everyone got on their feet and bowed their heads.
"Remu, why is everyone so uptight?" Ren whispered to Remu.
"Master, you said you want to create a proper government now, and as such, we have ensured everyone started acting accordingly as they are meant to live," Remu explained in his ear.
"I guess that makes sense, but I did not really think that everyone would be this way. Sigh, I guess I'll have to start getting used to it," he said and walked to his chair. He sat down.
Remu walked to the chair closest to it and Silas walked to the opposite one, while Ezra and Fey stood behind him.
"Everyone can have their seat," Ren said, and they all sat down.
"It's great to see you, Master Ren," one of the Lizardmen leaders gritted. He was sent here to represent them because Remu, Ezra, and Riker were no longer allowed to have bias towards any race. They were all too close to Ren, and they had too much influence for them to pick a side.
"Please do not speak out of turn," Ezra spoke, shutting up the Lizardman.
Ren, on the other hand, was playing with his hair. It had grown a lot longer now, and he was thinking about what to do with it.
"It's alright, Ezra," he said casually and waved his hand. He turned to look at everyone.
"I'm not really good with this whole addressing stuff. But I have called this as the first official meeting for us.
"We have just been through a lot over the past few days, fighting against the forest lords and against Ophelia.
"I have to say that we suffered some losses, and even if the number on paper was so little, it did not mean their lives were meaningless.
"Their lives were not numbers on papers, but they were people that had done a lot in service to us, to me." He dropped his head down as a sign of respect.
"That aside, we must tackle the first few issues that we have written down." He said and then looked at Ezra. She pulled out her files and started reading.
"Expansion. There has been very little to no proper growth in the settlement over the last months. Everything has been erratic and has no defined structure," she stated.
Ren leaned forward and pressed his elbow on the table.
"Before the start of all this, I had promised proper growth and development. I have not been able to deliver on that for the longest time, and so now we have to focus on that.
"The building team will have to increase their output, structured houses for all our new intakes, and roads that stretch from here all the way to Raven Town. They are the only human settlement we have major attachments to now," Ren explained.
Someone suddenly raised their hands and pulled Ren's attention.
"Do you have an issue?" Ren asked. It was a hobgoblin.
"Yes, Master Ren," he said and got on his feet. "I am Kane, named by Sir Remu.
"I find it painful that you'd want to connect with the humans after everything that they have put us through.
"We understand that you are capable of ensuring that they do not harm us, but that being said, I refuse to accept them due to the risk that they pose," he spoke his mind clearly while looking at Ren.
No one else said anything, but Ren could see the silent agreement to what Kane had said.
"If I can defend us, why are you worried about anything else?" Ren asked.
"Because if you, Master, are not around for even a short time, it puts everyone at risk," Kane said.
"I'm guessing everyone at this table also has some similar feelings about this?" Ren asked and looked around. They tried to not speak and say anything that could make him angry, but he could tell from their silent nods.
"So what do you propose that we do?" Ren asked.
"Keep the humans outside and away as much as possible. That way, we do not have the risk of them causing us harm."