"Well done, well done!" The hamster clapped at the top cabinet before he rolled down his body to the table and subsequently the ground. "Did not expect those chickens to see me when I took their eggs. I thought I could grow a few chickens of my own! Hahahah!" Hamatarou laughed at his own misfortune as he revealed two oversized chicken eggs from the depths of his furry body.
"How did he keep all those things inside his body?" Qiu Yue wondered looking at Lynn as the other gave her a deadpan stare.
"I've only come to visit this world twice before. As if I would know such stuff." Lynn replied as she took the bodies of the Horned Chicken via the Sub System. She was informed that signs of Body Restructuring had been detected inside the creatures. It advised Lynn to wait until the chicken reverted to its original sizes before processing it.
"Interesting. Are you a shaman too?" Hamatarou asked and ignored the Penguin Chieftain Skitter who was kneeling in front of him.
"You don't seem to be a particularly good host. I suggest you answer the person who is requesting your audience first." Lynn answered with a bit of annoyance in her words.
"Ah! Sorry Skitter! I did not see you down there." Hamatarou laughed loudly as he took out another exact copy of the Totem of Atem for them. "Just as promised you ten years ago. Here is your new and improved totem. According to my research, I predict that with this improved one the generation after the next should hopefully not even need this. The same routine, go to the Altar of Giants to recharge its powers every once in a while."
"Thank you, Sir Hamatarou!" Skitter expressed his gratitude as the rest of the penguins knelt and bowed in front of him as well.
"No need to be so humble. You did earn it, especially after my impromptu task of killing the horned chickens. Now if you don't mind, would you introduce me to your two companions? They seem quite capable. I regret to say that I have yet to encounter any members of their species in our world." Hamatarou requested.
"Other species? No, you are mistaken Sir Hamatarou, they aren't from anywhere around here. Lady Lynn graced us with her presence suddenly. She is actually from another world." Skitter replied.
"Another world? Well, I am surprised you appear to believe them so readily. I admit that I have never seen those strange vehicles they rode, nor the weapons they used. Still, that does not mean they hail from another world. This might as well be some long lost technology or magic." Hamatarou remarked as he suddenly became suspicious.
"It is true, Sir Hamatarou." Kido took the initiative to speak. "I've been to their world and the others had served Lady Lynn in her quests."
"...Hmm okay. Assume that I'm interested that I want to see that world for myself. Will you bring me along as well?" Hamatarou said in a wishy washy manner.
"Sure, but you will have to sign a contract with us. The short version is that you will have to serve us at our times of need." Qiu Yue immediately took out a contract form and showed it to Hamatarou. The Sub System had managed to write it all in its native language based on what it had learnt about the Penguins.
As she wanted to hand it over, she noticed, that there was a bit of discrepancy in their sizes, but the hamster immediately used his own totem of Atem to turn the same size as Lynn and began to read the contract.
"Interesting. So, I will have to go into combat against other members of your species?" Hamatarou questioned, and Qiu Yue nodded her head.
"That is most often the case. However, it may also turn to you battling some species you have never seen before. If you have other talents to provide, we can also change the contract to something more suited for you. In return, you will experience at least our own world, and maybe others." Qiu Yue listed their demands, and Hamatarou was deep in thought.
"Sounds like a very unfair deal." The hamster concluded, and Qiu Yue shrugged her shoulders.
"Well, you will practically become an interworld traveller with our help. It's not something anyone can offer you on the spot. Additionally, we will provide you with decent food, entertainment and a place to stay. Not to mention, if you work for us, we will pay you some credit in accordance to your results to get better food and the chance to train yourself to self betterment. If that is not to your liking, we also offer knowledge you may never learn otherwise." Qiu Yue added, and Lynn could not help but cringe at her promotion of a contract.
"Anyways if you don't like it, it's not like we are keeping you forever. The duration of the contract is designed for a three month provisional stay. If you like it, you can renew it or turn it into a permanent contract. " Qiu Yue was basically trying to hard sell it to the hamster. The penguins, on the other hand, shared their own experiences with the sceptical hamster.
"Fine. I trust the penguins more than you guys. And I am really curious to see how other world looks like. You are right, such an opportunity may only come once in a lifetime, but I am unable to leave for three months. One week. That is all the time I have before I have other matters to attend to." Hamatarou bit on his paws and was ready to use a drop of his blood to seal the contract.
"Agreed. For starters, please tell us more about this Giant World." Qiu Yue told the System to rewrite the contract, and upon verification, the hamster sealed the deal.
"Very well. Long story short, I am a druid. Which is also why I am able to provide these totems to the penguins. This place is just one of the meeting places that I had set up as a haven for the various races that wish to survive this harsh world without being affected by the Giantism Virus. Follow me." Hamatarou ordered as it grew larger once more and indicated the rest to grab onto its fur.
The hamster opened the door with much ease since it was on par with its enhanced size, and jumped up to the roofs as soon as it was out of the house. Lynn and the others saw only a part of the entirety of the ruined city that they were in. It wasn't until Hamatarou reached one of the watchtowers that they saw more of it.
"When I told Skitter ten years, I was not joking. You have seen that I can control my size, but the transformation is not permanent and has its limits. Even at my largest, the city remains vast and huge. It took me a year alone to get the totems to different races like the penguins here. After which, I had to travel using stealth to other small towns and cities to share with them."
"So there are other sentient races as well? Why are you doing this?" Lynn asked, and apparently, others who lived far away from the penguins within this city. The turtles, walrus, crocs, frogs as well as other different penguin settlements.
"I need all of them to get stronger so that we can eventually prepare for an exodus from this cursed city," Hamatarou said as they were jumping from one roof to another.
"Exodus? Leave this city? Cursed? Why?" Lynn continued to ask as Qiu Yue grabbed on both her and Hamatarou's fur.
"The city has long since been depleted of its food stock. The giantism virus had infected almost everyone that lived in this city. While the different tribes are procuring their own food, there is only so much they can grow and survive." Hamatarou sighed.
"I am trying to find a place for all these people to live and thrive, a mass exodus of the most capable warriors and talented beings who will follow me to find such a sanctuary. I heard of an island beyond the sea that should have an abundance of food and animals still on the size of the penguins. This meant that they can live there." Druid Hamatarou announced its plans to them.
"Is that why most of the races that you saved…are amphibious in nature?" Lynn questioned as she had noticed, that all the races he had listed could live on land and survive in the long sea trip. Mildly surprised, the druid nodded in acknowledgement.
"Still, depending on your ability to travel to other worlds, that might change our plans a little. Although we potentially still face another problem." Hamatarou spoke out saying that they were reaching his base soon, which was at the bottom of the large tree ahead of them. At the centre of a desolated nature park.
"To search for the other surviving races," Hamatarou spoke a few words in an unknown language (though it sounded like an annoyed hamster) and the tree roots opened itself up to let the hamster in.
"While I did not tell the penguins initially, I've told the other races to meet me at the Altar of Giants within a few months time if I sent a continuous flare of light in the night. That would also signal the start of the mass exodus." Hamatarou stated and the rest immediately understood what that meant. If the entire village or even just a small group travelling will attract danger from the various giants in the vicincity.
"Can't we just search each tribe up individually? That's what you did to meet up with them, right?" Qiu Yue asked as they finally reached the ground.
"I remember he said that he met them via meeting places," Kido replied and Hamatarou nodded.
"Yes, this was to prevent any possible infiltration from another group. A group I regret having saved before." Hamatarou lit up his base, and the first thing everyone saw was an entirely horrifying body of a lizard hanging right in front of them seemingly ready to pounce.
"The Salamanders."
Hamatarou told them how he tried teaching the salamanders to shape shift …or size shift after the Giantism Virus had hit throughout the country. However, the Salamanders had used their newfound knowledge to infiltrate other villages and steal their food.
Sadly, it did not end there. The Salamanders eventually killed entire villages and burned them down so that they could use the corpses as food stock.
The druid had been so mad that they did such an atrocious act and decided to curse them with a forbidden spell. They remained fairly large in size no longer able to revert to their original smaller size, allowing the other more giant monsters to prey on them. Afterwards, they had decided to hole up in the castle of the city which was up the hill.
The city was split into three parts. The bottom of the hill once housed the peasants with the middle being for the wealthy merchants and nobles. At the top was once occupied by the royalty, though it appeared to be a lifetime ago.
"If I shoot the flare spell up, the salamanders will use that as the perfect opportunity to kill us as part of the revenge. I also fear they have found ways on how to tame the monsters too. This will allow them to reach the cathedral very quickly. And they are prone to attack anything in 'their' territory." Hamatarou finished his story by giving the stone salamander in front of them a disgusted look.
This particular one had tried to kill the druid in his own home, but the druid managed to petrify it and decided to allow it to remain here as a grim reminder that the Salamanders could strike him at any time.
"That should not be a problem. Whenever you meet up with the other races, possibly teleport them to our city?" Qiu Yue suggested, and the others agreed that it seemed like a good idea too. "Besides, you signed the contract, just holler me up if you wish to transport them."
"If it were that easy, I would have been elated the moment I heard you have the ability to teleport people. But it seems like the Salamanders are doing their cleansing job seriously too. There was a tribe I was supposed to meet, but they never appeared. This was also the reason I was late for the meeting as I tried to track their village down."
"Same kind of destruction?" Lynn asked solemnly.
"Worse. The Salamanders massacred and decorated the place with their entrails. They were not even interested in them as food stock because they were too small for their appetite; it seems. Their marks were all over the place, and it felt deliberate. I'm pretty sure that they wanted me to find it that way." Hamatarou replied.
"That is also why I readily accepted your contract. I want to see your world, and see first hand whether it would be liveable for my other subjects."
"…Other subjects?" Lynn repeated that word, and suddenly, the two Sub System users realised.
"…You were the king of this city?" Both asked at the same time which the druid hamster was silent for a while.
"…Prince. An exiled one."
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