There was instantly a colossal explosion and from the neck down, everything somehow kept galloping forward… Until it hit a tall and thin bladed-tree, which managed to split the whole creature down the middle. At that point, the adhesive that was locking me onto that monster’s thigh had finally reached its limit and I was launched a hundred miles-per-hour, spiraling through the air, eventually landing in an incredibly deep lake.

I knew a little water-magic, but I could barely even control my body, so I definitely wasn’t going to be able to swim at that point. After skipping across the surface about twenty-nine times, I finally sank down into the depths.

Then I heard Levi yell “Oi, Lori, stay awake! Pay attention! Activate your emergency beacon!”

There was a silver, mana-powered watch on my right wrist, which had several buttons on the edges. When I pressed them in a certain sequence, it started releasing a horrible screeching noise. How it worked exactly, I really didn’t know, but Lyn did mention that it had a maximum range of a hundred miles.

I was reaching my limit and about to start drowning, when a gigantic feminine dark-grey hand, reached into the lake and grabbed me. At that point I passed out again, so I didn’t find out what happened until later.

Basically, as soon as I was pulled into The Forest of Corruption, Morn began to frantically chase after me. Unfortunately, the demon-horse was a bit faster than her maximum running speed. She caught up once it stopped, but couldn’t find me… The rest is pretty obvious.

That whole experience made me realize something really damn important: I was weak. I had deluded myself into believing that I was special, I mean I’ve always been totally special and amazing, but I still almost died. Hell, I even got my ass handed to me by an imaginary tiger-girl and could barely even function in the fourth ring.

***

After that incident, the Angren Arena and Casino were both completely constructed in under a month. The amount of money that came from all of the demon-related products was truly ridiculous. I basically had to invent banks because people simply couldn’t deal with it all. Hardcore adventurers would buy mansions in the city, get all kinds of super-expensive gear, mounts, ammo and supplies… Then they blew all the rest of their cash on gambling, drinking, or eating extravagant meals.

We had to print millions of new bills to supplement the state of Beast Haven. I took a few trips over to White Mithril, because there was a bunch of bullshit about the previous mayor’s corruption scandal. I also wanted to spend some quality time with my Big Bro and Rae-Rae. However, I eventually had to pay a visit… to ‘Doctor’ Yuri in Beast Haven.

It had been a whole month since my prolonged exposure to mana-density that was a thousand times greater than the atmosphere in Ael Tol. Although I didn’t really feel that bad, it was still better to be safe than sorry. No, never mind, it definitely wasn’t. I instantly regretted my decision to get a ‘check-up’.

I was suspended in midair by hundreds of purple vines, which were acting like a spider-web, and that crazy pink-dryad was poking and prodding me with her tentacle-fingers. After a few hours of her ‘examining’ every inch of my completely naked and defenseless body, she told me “You aren’t going to mutate or die from mana-poisoning.”

I grinned and ‘calmly’ asked “That’s terrific! I can go now, right?! Also, was it really necessary to forcefully remove the urine-sample from the source?! Actually, why would you need to do half of those fucking tests?! Can you please take these needles out of my nipples and tail?! Also, why are there slugs crawling on my face?! What possible reason would you have to wax all the fur on my entire body for?!” My list of complaints was a lot longer than that, but the point was that I was barely even a maiden anymore.

Levi was slithering around me and whispering “You think this is bad… I used to be married to this psychopath. Well, that was so long ago that I barely remember. Sigh~, I still blame my tentacle-fetish on her. Did I mention that she was my daughter and mother before too? Maybe that wasn’t ‘me’ actually… She’s always been crazy though.”

Then Yuri tilted her head and said “Interesting, you appear to be infected with dryadic spores. What’s remarkable is that your DNA seems to have been dramatically altered in order to assimilate them. Are you perhaps, genetically related to Michael? Ah, I understand now, your DNA is more similar to the offspring that he asked me to create. At least half of your genetic-structure is from a Mouse Tribe, the remainder…”

I immediately screamed her “Wait, wait, stop, how the hell could I be related to Mikey?! More importantly, let me down and stop molesting me with these damn tentacles!” as I tried to move my severely restrained body. She casually waved her left hand and I was slowly released from the myriad of bindings, needles, and nasty creatures.

The bright-pink dryad, who was more than twice as tall as me, started humming randomly while gazing out the window to my left. Eventually, she seemed to stop daydreaming and replied “Your father was the same species as Michael, but the generational difference is rather extreme. If you were curious about the possible negative consequences from reproducing with him, there shouldn’t be any. However, considering the contrast in physical stature, I would suggest that you accept a few upgrades regarding the elasticity of your vaginal, uterine, and abdominal muscles. Otherwise, there may be severe damage during the reproductive process… Also the size of the fetus would likely be far too large for your current physical size.”

Levi quickly shouted “For fuck’s sake, don’t you dare say yes! She will turn you into a goddamn baby-factory! Just ask her about that dryadic spore infection. She said that you were ‘assimilating’ them…” Then he calmed down and whispered “I kinda have an idea, but it might be a little difficult to accomplish with the current level of technology. But~ since there’s magic in this world, hehehe~, we can do some pretty hardcore cheating.”

I was really tempted by Yuri’s offer… I trusted the little snake’s judgement though. That day marked the official beginning of the ‘Super-Lori’ project. Well, I still had to convince Ailyn and Yuri to work together on it, but it wasn’t really that hard. They might have acted like they hated each other on the surface, yet they always seemed to find reasons to spend time together anyway.