I Somehow Got Tasked With Managing A Realm

I Somehow Got Tasked With Managing A Realm – Chapter 76 Part 1

My entire screen was filled with the view of an adorable green creature resting in a basket, being poked by a finger.

Poke. Poke.

"This thing is really squishy."

Such an observation entered my domain from the mouth of my Oracle, who had seemingly become obsessed with this chubby caterpillar-like lifeform ever since its discovery six days ago in the toad's realm. He even had to close his eyes when one was eaten as a test, which it passed with flying colors.

He didn't seem too thrilled about it becoming a new food source in my realm, however. 

It's not like I can blame him- they're crazy cute.

My gaze shifted toward the penguin standing on my desk.

And here I thought Mr. Flippers would be my realm's mascot.

"Squawk?" he turned toward me, noticing my gaze.

"Ah- I was just thinking about how adorable you are."

"... Squawk."

See- that's exactly what I mean! The buggy boy would never call me gross! You're really gonna lose your status at this rate!

Pushing my thoughts aside, we both looked back at the screen and watched as Ruglace dropped a few leaves into the basket holding the creature that he must've harvested from that giant-viney plant that grew in the swampy waters. The view on the screen noticeably thinned as he watched it start slowly munching on them- an obvious indicator of the Oracle's smile. 

I'm still not used to being locked into his perspective. I haven't seen out of an Oracle's eyes since Uunga's time.

A sigh escaped my lips.

Honestly, it is a bit restrictive. I really would like to at least be able to move the screen around him.

Alas, I was bound to the restrictions imposed by the Academy; if I wanted a view of the area, I needed to have my Oracle see it for himself.

Speaking of which, it's probably a good time for some scouting, anyway.

"Yo, Ruglace. Do you mind looking over the area? It might be your last chance today before the sun starts to set. "

"Oh... okay," the Oracle stood up at my words, picking up the basket and gently placing it near the portal, stacked alongside dozens of other filled baskets and pouches.

After walking over to a clear area, Ruglace kicked off the ground with decent force.

Whoosh!

As the land disappeared under him, the Oracle wasted no time in scanning the island for any signs of creatures, yet the search results were underwhelming.

"Nothing, huh?" I muttered as Ruglace's feet returned to the ground.

"Yeah. I did not even see any more of the cute things," he sulked.

"You mean the buggy boys? Why won't you call them by their name?"

Ruglace grimaced, "I am sorry, but it is a really bad name..."

"Huh!? It's a great name!" I looked over to Mister Flippers for support, "Don't you think so, too?"

"Squawk."

A flat denial.

"... Whatever. Maybe I'll just call them Mister Bugs from now," I grumbled, turning my attention back to the screen, "Anyway, there's really no sign of the toads? It's nearly been a week since you guys have been in there- I could've sworn they'd make some move by now."

The Oracle gave a slight nod, "It is a good thing- we were able to bring back a lot because of it."

"Well, yeah- that's amazing, believe me, but it's still a bit weird. I figured you would've made a house or something with how laid back everything has been~"

"... I want to teach our world how to build- not this one."

"It's not like there's anyone here to learn it, though!"

As we said, there had not been even a single sighting of one of the toad creatures since crossing into the realm. It wasn't as if there was no effort being made to look out for them; the soldiers were constantly patrolling the island, and Ruglace was also doing his aerial scouting at least four times per day. With his divinity-enhanced vision, he could clearly see everything on the island when he jumped to a decent height. Not only that, but he also looked for any signs of the toads from the surrounding islands in the distance, but nothing even remotely worrying could be spotted.

"Maybe they do not know we are here?" Ruglace pondered.

"No, they definitely know. There's no way they don't," I denied.

I knew firsthand how obnoxious the alarm was whenever invaders entered my realm, not noticing it was outright impossible.

Since he knows we're in his realm, I can really only think of three reasons why he hasn't attacked us yet.

The first was what I thought was the most likely: his Oracle was far away from the portal when we entered. Regardless of how badly the lumpy toad Seedling wants to attack us, it's impossible without his Oracle nearby. We only would've suffered an attack by now if his Oracle happened to be stationed within a week of travel distance from the portal. For all we knew, it could take a considerable amount of time for any attackers to reach us.

Another possibility was that he was taking his time to build up an army to fight us. This was pretty reasonable considering we had an Oracle, but I figured there would at least be some sign of them on the nearby islands that Ruglace could spot while airborne. Such a force would need time to prepare for the fight and build some fortifications. Having them within sight would serve as pressure for my humans and could even cause us to retreat without needing to fight, depending on their size. The fact that Ruglace saw no signs of this meant that either it wasn't his plan or that he wasn't smart enough to even consider it.

Lastly, and though I felt this was the most unlikely given how easily he fell for my provocation back in the Academy, it was also possible that he didn't feel like it was worth responding to our encampment since we were not directly impacting his toads or aiming for his temple. We were literally isolated on one uninhabited island up until this point; he may have felt that it was not worth putting his Oracle at risk to prevent a few random lifeforms from being stolen.

Maybe it's more likely than I thought, though. He did seem to give up attacking my realm pretty easily. Still, we were planning to branch out to other nearby islands to try to find more lifeforms soon, so that might change.

The lumpy toad dude would have no knowledge of this, however, so it wouldn't really impact his current lack of response. Regardless of the reason behind it, the fact that my humans had been left alone in his realm for nearly a week remained the same.

Like Ruglace said, although a bit suspicious, we were already able to get a few dozen buggy boys and countless pouches of grass and swamp vine seeds back to the realm.

As the two of us were reflecting on this, a soldier quickly approached Ruglace with what resembled a broken red shell in his palms.

"Ruglace! I found another one of these things in the water!"

"Ah- another broken one..." Ruglace gently took the shell from the soldier.

"Yes," the soldier slightly sulked at the Oracle's defeated mutter, "I am sorry- we still have not seen a single alive one."

"You do not need to apologize," Ruglace softly smiled, "There is a chance we just need to look on other islands for them. Take a small break here and then spread word to the others to focus on getting more seeds and... buggy boys."

The soldier readily nodded at the Oracle's words before scurrying off to grab some cooked chicken that was being moved through the portal.

"Ha~ you used my name! I knew you liked it~" I took the chance to tease before changing the subject at Ruglace's grimace, "Anyway, that's another shattered shell they found, huh?"

"Yes... it is a bit disappointing."

On the first day of the looting, one of the soldiers reported seeing bubbles in the water near the shore. A team was immediately sent to investigate, but the only thing they could find was a similar broken red shell. Still, I was initially extremely excited at the news; it was clear he had some sort of crab or lobster as a lifeform that was hiding in the water- it was a perfect option to add more life to my somewhat bare oceans.

A part of my mind was still a bit hesitant about believing such creatures were the cause of the bubble reports, but I figured it might just be some odd variant in this world rather than what I was familiar with on Earth. Of course, I could not verify this unless we were able to get back an alive specimen to examine, yet, despite multiple teams searching for some living ones near the island, only broken shells turned up.

Why are these crabs hiding so much? I just want to take them for a nice and calm two-month journey through a freezing, icy landscape~

"I already put in requests for supplies for more pouches and rafts, but it will take a while before they get here." Ruglace continued.

"That's fine.- there's nothing we can do about that.'

Hopefully it's a scenario one or three. We might have enough time to wait for them if the Oracle is crazy far.

As we spoke, another soldier ran up to him with a broken red shell.

"Ruglace! Look what I found!"

"Another one?" he tilted his head, "There was just one brought to me... usually we only get one or two per day."

"I guess I got lucky then!" the soldier beamed. 

"R-right. I guess you can say that," Ruglace spoke with a forced smile.

Just as he was about to continue, however, a group of around five soldiers popped through the field of tall grass- the Oracle's eyes locked onto the handfuls of broken shells each of them held.

"Uhhh... creator of the world? Something is not right..."

I stared at my screen, my face quickly paling.

"Ruglace... get the creatures and pouches through the portal and tell the soldiers to gather here... I have a terrible feeling about this."

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

"Another one? This is weird."

Curiously, a familiar soldier waded into the water to grab half of a red crab shell he saw floating a bit off the island. 

With this mutter, he scooped up the shell and plopped it into the basket he carried, already half-filled with a dozen others in similar partially destroyed conditions.

"S-should we not report this to Ruglace at this point?" a timid voice questioned from the shore, "We only found a handful of them before today, but now they seem to be everywhere..."

"Someone should, but it will not be us," the soldier shook his head at his friend leaning on a spear stabbed into the soft dirt, "If they are this common, other groups have likely found them, too. While they are all running back to tell him about it for the hundredth time, we should use this chance to find the first living one."

As he declared this, the soldier spotted another shell in the distance and began slugging his way through the still, murky water to get over to it.

"You know... I was starting to wonder if maybe the reason no one has found a living one is because there is no living one to begin with," the friend commented from the shore, "Maybe they are like feathers for a chicken and not really alive themselves."

The soldier simply shrugged, "It really makes no difference. Even if you are right, these red things must have come from something. Feathers do not just appear on their own. If these are popping up everywhere, that must mean the things making them are nearby."

"I guess you have a point," his friend looked up, pondering, "But why would a bunch of the things making them suddenly come close to the island?"

This time it was the soldier's turn to think, pausing after he added the next shell to the basket in the chest-deep water, "I guess it does not have to mean more are near the island, just that more of their feathers are showing up. If these things are really like feathers to a chicken, maybe something is happening to make the creatures lose them."

"Really? What could that be?"

The soldier turned back to face his friend on the shore, "Have you ever seen a chicken get caught by a mountain chicken? Feathers go every... where..."

Both of their eyes immediately widened, each coming to the same conclusion. Before either had the chance to talk, however, a loud but easily recognizable voice emanating from the center of the island suddenly filled their ears.

"EVERYONE! GET BACK TO THE PORTAL NOW!"

The shout, seemingly confirming their conclusion, was enough to get the two to move into action and the soldier immediately tossed his basket and began scrambling through the murky water in an attempt to rush back toward the shore.

"B-behind you!"

"These freaking-!"

As if signaled by his scamble or the shout, bubbling noises filled the air. Still moving toward land, the soldier glanced behind him to see a swarm of bubbles arising to the top of the murky water in a manner resembling a rapid boil merely twenty steps away. Figures quickly began breaking the water's surface until the heads of what seemed like several thousand creatures dotted his view. 

Muttering curses under his breath, the soldier quickly continued his race toward the shore, but a few of the nearest toads gave chase. Despite the initial gap between them, their figures proved to be much more adept at navigating through the murky water, eventually allowing them to get within arm's-reach of the soldier once the water was down to his knees.

Left with no other choice, the soldier stopped his retreat, clicking his tongue and turning back toward the toads after pulling his talon knife from his waist.

"Watch out!"

Schinch!

The toad to his left was ruthlessly pierced through the chest by a thrown spear. Without letting the opportunity slip by, the soldier yanked the spear out of its falling body, spraying himself with gushes of red blood in the process. There was no time to wipe it from his face- the next toad was already upon him, so the soldier quickly thrusted the spear at its figure. 

Schinch!

"S-scree~"

His hasty attack grazed the creature's shoulder and deeply cut the side of its neck, causing it to falter back with its hand clutching the gushing wound.

There was not even a chance for rest- the injured toad's retreat only allowed for the two toads behind it to lunge forward, kicking through the water with crazy force in a powerful leap. 

"Tsk."

Splash!

The soldier only had time to click his tongue and hold out his spear before he was body slammed by the two toads, crashing into the murky water.

A heavy weight could be felt at the end of his spear- a sign that he successfully impaled one of the giant amphibians with its own momentum, yet this wasn't something at the top of his mind. A slimy palm gripped the side of his head in an attempt to hold him under the water. An almost searing pain was immediately felt where it touched.

In a rush, the soldier quickly abandoned the spear, fidgeting with his side until he felt the hilt of his talon knife.

Slash!

He twisted his body, slashing up at the toad. Relief washed over him as he felt the sensation of cutting through flesh, followed by an immediate loosening of the grip on his skull. 

"Gah... Haah-"

The soldier surfaced, spitting out water and gasping for air as he saw the toad with a newly slit throat collasp into the water next to him. Although exhausted and with a throbbing face, the soldier continued his hazed dash toward the shore.

"Come on!"

Once close enough, his friend reached out, grabbing his outstretched hand and pulling him onto land- his eyes trembled upon seeing him.

"Your face..." 

The soldier was utterly exhausted and woozy- it felt a bit like the world was spinning around him, but a quick glance back at the massive swarm of toads nearing the land revealed his fate if he took the chance to rest.

"There is no time to stare- we have to run!"

Brought back to attention, his friend hoisted the soldier onto his feet and gripped his wrist as the two pushed through the tall grass and neared the center of the island.