Chapter #78

Zeno stayed on Mount Gorgon for an entire month, it wasn't just because he was looking after Renia. He was also strolling the place planning where to build his small heaven on this mountain.

He had been getting along with Yue pretty well, though he may have warped her common sense with stories that didn't belong to this world.

He didn't make any moves on her, which was surprising. He didn't care when he was grooming Dana and Saya to suit his tastes but now with his somewhat rebuilt morality he wanted her to grow naturally before he made any moves.

<Plain stupid!> Drago roared.

'Shut it! I am monologuing here!' Zeno slapped him across the mental plain.

'Still, there's nothing on this side of the peak. No minerals, ores, nothing worthy to sell or trade. Even the soil is worthless, I can't grow anything on it without fertilizing the shit out of it.' Zeno slumped on the ground comically.

The expected retorts about how this place being unclaimed due to it being barren didn't sound in his head making him more depressed.

Zeno got up with a sigh and kept marking out his territory, he discovered that after beating the monsters in the area to the inch of death they accepted him as their boss.

Still he was forced to kill some of them before they actually learned how to behave. Zeno didn't waste the bodies, allowing The Little Carp to do the killing while he kept the monsters tied up.

'Huh... Maybe they got scared since it looked like torture to the monsters.' Zeno thought before shrugging.

So, Zeno is planting Karmic Virtue rods at the borders of his territory to warn them. Not that they would dare to piss him off.

So far he had consumed an Archspore giving him the ability to shoot poisoned thorns, scales in his case. It was useless for him since he can do that just fine, now however it became an instinctual attack if he ever needed to.

He had killed a Protofleder in the caves downstairs, it made Yue somewhat uncomfortable otherwise he wouldn't even notice the damn thing.

Zeno would have never expected one so far away from Unseen Elder's cave but that didn't matter as he gained the ability to emit a golden glow if he ever dies. It's not that there weren't any other improvements but Zeno only kept track of unique changes happening to him.

Then an Alp came to the mountains, most likely looking for the Protofleder he had killed, Zeno killed her as well, giving him invisibility to magic scanning.

This was different from his Karmic Virtue protection but served the same purpose.

Following the Alp and Bruxa arrived making Zeno facepalm. He got a scream attack from her.

He unfortunately killed a peaceful Spriggan as they usually don't attack unless you harm plant life. The fight with the Bruxa had resulted in some trees getting broken, and the Spriggan didn't listen to his reasoning.

From the poor thing Zeno gained the ability to interact with plant life but he has to connect himself to the plants if he wants to control them.

This ability will no doubt be useful when he is redecorating the parts of the mountains he owns.

There was a Shaelmaar that was running away from a group of errant knights that died at his hands. From him Zeno got improvements to his defenses and echolocation.

After the Shaelmaar, a group of Giant Centipedes came following the tracks of the Shaelmaar. Zeno remembered them living in a weird symbiosis.

Unfortunately the Centipedes didn't give anything worthwhile other than a general boost of power.

'How strong did I become, I wonder?' Zeno thought while going back to the cave.

<When were you in a position you were truly weak in the setting you ended up in?> Dragon growled.

He had been grumpy since Zeno was abstinent from sex for the past month and couldn't take Zeno's habit of talking to himself.

'That is no reason to slack off though. Anyway I am sure I will face someone that can keep up eventually.' Zeno shrugged as he walked.

_______

Back at the cave Yue was cleaning her mother with a wet cloth while Ao and Jean kept watch at the entrance.

"Zeno is weird, I can feel he is sad but he keeps a smile on his face. I wish you could have met him" A smile was on her face as she talked about him. "I can't see his emotions all the time. I think he noticed but he still let's me see whenever he is truly happy."

"I even asked him to give me a name. You said it was my father's duty to give me a name... Or my future husband's if I never found my father..." Yue stopped talking. It was obvious that she had given up on looking for her father after the incident with her mother.

"Mom, I am sorry for what happened, it's all my fault... When will you wake up." Yue's voice trembled, pearls of tears fell off her eyes as she kept cleaning her mother.

"I wish I hadn't harmed you when my powers went out of control. I wish I wasn't born, then you wouldn't be in this state." She kept crying as she bathed her mother.

(AN: Behold and tremble before my power of bullshitting, or you can assume interacting with Zeno allowed her to mature since Zeno can let her see his emotions for education purposes. Right I did say he wasn't trying to groom her... Oops!)

Ao and Jean decided to keep this a secret from Zeno. Not because they are betraying him or anything but they knew he would rather hear it from Yue herself.

______

By the time Zeno came back to the cave Yue had already cleaned up after herself, still Zeno's perception allowed him to guess what happened.

Still, he feigned ignorance and talked to her like nothing happened.

"I am going to start building underground, so it might be noisy during the day." Zeno said while sitting down.

"What are you building?" Yue asked with a head tilt.

"An underground city. This place is in a favorable spot if you ignore the fact that there is nothing truly precious here, the fact that it is basically inaccessible to humans and filled with monsters." Zeno counted with his fingers.

"..." Yue was speechless. 'Are you trying to praise or insult my home? I'll bite you, you know!' She thought jokingly but didn't express herself.

"Anyway, I got some rabbits on the way. So let's cook!" Zeno enthusiastically clapped before taking out four rabbits.

Yue clapped alongside him with stars in her eyes. She had long discovered Zeno was the best cook she could get and promptly made him a permanent cook.

Zeno didn't disagree after seeing her poor attempts at cooking. Well, she didn't even know she could use fire to cook before that, since Vilas are vegetarians by choice it was fine for her to not cook her food.

Zeno was pretty sure that Renia would give him a beating for introducing Yue to a wonderful world of all kinds of meat.

'Well, she is half vampire... She'll be fine.' Zeno thought while stirring the meat. 'Ahh, what would I do without my Fake-Creation ability.'(AN: Zeno refers to his ability to make organic and inorganic material with his biomass)

Still, Renia's state started to worry him. Her injury pretty much healed up and there wasn't anything physical with her situation.

All Zeno could guess was something magical but flooding her body with Karmic Virtue didn't help, she wasn't cursed or being afflicted with some sort of spell.

'I guess I should be thankful that Karmic Virtue didn't do anything bad to her considering her species...' Zeno sighed.

"Zeno, I will help." Yue came next to him and took the vegetables he was planning on using before she started to cut them.

It was somewhat surprising for her to help him while cooking. "Thanks." Zeno patted her head and focused back on the meat.

"Winter is coming." Yue said.

"Damn Lannisters, they killed Sean Bean!" Zeno cursed.

"..." Yue deadpanned seeing his humor manifesting in front of her eyes. "Will you be going back to the Keep you kept mentioning?"

"Ah! I totally forgot I have to go back for winter!" Zeno almost dropped the pan in his hands.

"..." Yue.

"I can carry you and your mother on my back, don't worry about the rest at the castle, they won't hunt peaceful monsters." Zeno assured her.

He had all the intentions to find a way to heal her mother. There is no need for her to worry herself.

"No, I finally found someone that can help her... He will arrive in a week. He asked me to accompany him in return." Yue said, her voice trembling as she did so.(AN: No she won't be in a relationship with the mysterious healer, NO NTR! Also the only character development she is getting will be off screen thanks to my meager skills. Sorry...)

"So, you have enough confidence to travel the world filled with all kinds of filth in humanoid form with someone you just met some time ago with your Vila mother following you two from behind." Zeno reiterated for her.

"Yes." Yue said resolutely.

Zeno suddenly had a headache. There was no way for him to let her go alone, but she didn't look like she wanted him alongside her.

"Why don't I take your mother with me to Kaer Morhen after she was healed. I don't know the person that is going to heal her but I know you would prefer her to be safe." Zeno offered.

Yue hesitated, it was here that Zeno got a clue. Sure he had long guessed that Yue was the cause for her mother's injury.

'She wants to see her healed and keep her safe and she is the only person she could have trusted with the task, until I arrived.' Zeno thought. 'She met a vampire capable of fixing Renia, isn't she? Her father most likely...' Zeno guessed. 'He naturally wants to keep her beside him, if not out of love but from curiosity.'

"Fine, my mother can come with you, even better you can give her back to her tribe... She'll be happier without me I am sure of that." Yue said.

Zeno really wanted to berate her but knew she was trying to convince herself more than him.

'Normally I would just karate chop her and carry her back to Kaer Morhen but I am supposed to dial down the borderline yandere behaviors I have...' Zeno sighed, he decided to spare a clone to tail her all the time. It was a nice middle ground in his mind.

After System and Ouryuu left Zeno found himself capable of making Biomass clones with independent thought, somewhat like Shadow Clones.

He was hoping to leave them here to work but it seems he has to send one after Yue.

"Can you tell me what happened to your mother?" Zeno asked.

Yue stilled before she continued to chop vegetables. "Some people found us when I and mom were travelling the towns down the mountain. Bad people, I unleashed my powers but mom got caught in the crossfire, I just couldn't control myself..." Yue said while trembling a little.

Zeno nodded and kept on cooking. He didn't try to cuddle her since it was clear that she didn't want anyone to tell her it wasn't her fault and other such words.

"Fine, but I will be giving you something. You can summon me with it if you ever got in trouble." Zeno said while passing her a token.

"Thank you." Yue took it gratefully.

That night food was tasteless for Yue for she kept thinking about how she won't be able to eat such food much longer.