Adira slowly woke up. The first thing she noticed was the warmth of several soft bodies around her; they were her "sisters," the other women who shared César's home. However, she immediately noticed two absences: Taurina's and César's.
She carefully got up so as not to wake the others and walked to a side room where a massive stone tub stood. She submerged herself in it, letting the cool water hydrate her scales and refresh her senses. Soon another guest arrived: Laura. The murloc, like her, needed to keep her skin moist regularly to remain healthy. After sharing a comfortable silence and a refreshing bath, the two left the house.
As they crossed the threshold, Adira noticed that there were few people in the central area. The residents of this zone, those who lived near the mana vein, knew that every day was a gift that should not be wasted. Everyone took advantage of the dense energetic environment to meditate and raise their ranks.
'Only those who have formed their mana core have the privilege of living here,' Adira thought with pride. She remembered that before, anyone who could open their veins could live there, but now the rules were clear: the center of the village was reserved for the elite.
As she moved away from the upper residential zone, she reached the lower part of the village. Early in the morning, goblins could already be seen carrying heavy buckets filled with what seemed to be manure. Adira knew they were collecting waste from the public latrines to use as fertilizer for the goblin mushroom crops. She frowned in disgust and quickened her pace, leaving behind the rancid smell of compost.
She walked toward the sector where most of the minotaurs lived. Despite their physical strength, many of them still did not possess a mana core, so there were still quite a few who did not live in the central zone.
As she approached, she felt the strange and heavy gazes the horned giants cast at her.
Adira ignored them completely. After all, their first encounter at the river had not been peaceful. If both sides had not surrendered to César's superiority, they would still be killing each other.
Finally, she spotted Taurina. The leader's daughter was speaking with a group of her warriors, but when she saw the Adaro, she dismissed them with a quick gesture and approached with a radiant smile.
"Adira! It's great to see you so early," Taurina greeted enthusiastically, waving as she approached.
"Likewise, Taurina," Adira replied with a slight nod, her scales shining under the morning sunlight.
The two began walking toward the village gates, where a mixed group of armed goblins and pigmen were already waiting for them. Taurina and Adira shared a common desire: they wanted to go hunting. One was new to the surface, and the other barely knew the dangers of these forested territories.
"César says real practice is the best form of refinement," Taurina commented, firmly adjusting the grip on her battle axe.
Adira smiled, revealing her rows of sharp teeth.
"My scales need the test of blood, not just the water of a bath. Let's see what treasures this forest hides."
Without further delay, the hunting group crossed the walls of Lito-médula and entered the dense wilderness to test their new power. As they walked among ancient trees, Taurina, as if remembering something important, pulled a sheet of parchment from her pocket. Several detailed drawings were sketched on it.
"What is that...?" Adira asked curiously.
"This is the list César created," Taurina explained. "Every expedition group has one."
As if to prove it, the leader of the hunters showed a sheet identical to the one the minotaur held.
"According to César, we were lucky to find the shadow horses and the new Varmetal ore, but we can't always depend on luck. That's why he created a list of priority targets," Taurina said with a smile full of pride for her man's strategic mind.
It didn't take long before they spotted a fresh trail. After a brief pursuit, they cornered a group of Green Pigs. The hunt was intense, and after much effort from the pigmen and the warriors, they managed to capture twelve of them.
Taurina, seeing the prey alive and struggling, felt her mouth water.
"Damn, we've had incredible luck," she said while licking her lips. "You know these are an absolute delicacy. They're very difficult to catch; there are barely any left in this area."
Adira also looked at them with burning eyes; in the riverlands, these pigs were considered the most exquisite delicacy one could obtain from the coast. The other pigmen and goblins, panting from the effort, stared at the pigs with obvious culinary greed.
However, one of the goblins—a young warrior with a thin but athletic build—approached the two women cautiously.
"Ehem..." the small warrior stammered.
Both girls looked at him sternly, waiting for him to speak. The goblin felt intimidated being observed by the two women of the leader, but he gathered his courage.
"My ladies... those pigs seem to be on the list."
Adira and Taurina exchanged a suspicious glance. Taurina unfolded her parchment and, indeed, the green pigs were drawn there under the section labeled "Capture Alive."
"Why do you think César wants them?" Adira murmured, holding her chin while examining the animals carefully for the first time, as if trying to uncover some hidden secret in their green hides.
"Maybe César wants to make their meat exclusive to the elite again, or maybe they have more 'nutrients,' as he likes to say."
"I don't know, but there must be a reason," Taurina replied, sighing as she realized the feast would have to wait. "Well, let's go back and ask him."
Adira nodded and ordered the men to tie the green pigs carefully and transport them alive back to the village.
After crossing the village walls, Adira and Taurina reunited with César. He was supervising the training of warriors practicing the use of Aura, observing how their life energy reinforced their movements. When he noticed the twelve living green pigs, his eyes shone with an intensity the girls had never seen before.
"Are they going to be tonight's banquet, Lord César?" a pigman asked excitedly, already unsheathing his butcher knife.
'Banquet?' The word almost made César stumble.
He shot the pigman a freezing glare and spoke in a threatening, authoritative tone that made the air feel heavy.
"If you eat these animals, you would be cooking our future. These are not food... from today onward, they are our mounts."
A murmur of doubt spread among the crowd. Before, the word "mount" would have been unfamiliar, but since César introduced the shadow horses, the concept had begun to settle in. However, everyone knew those horses were only useful for mental power training and lacked the brute strength necessary to carry them at high speed, so many considered them useless and preferred running.
César approached one of the pigs and placed his hand on the animal's bristled back. He looked at the crowd, aware that on this continent most animals were either untamable or too weak to carry riders.
'These pigs are one of the few creatures whose extinction in the future wasn't caused by humans, but by the natives themselves eating them because their meat was so delicious,' César thought bitterly.
He remembered the details from the novel perfectly. The protagonist's companion, a sturdy boy who always seemed to be the comic relief, had domesticated a strange green pig. At first, readers thought it was a joke—until the truth was revealed: besides being able to carry incredible weights and run quickly, they had a variant capable of flying. And the most terrifying part: if fed with the proper elixir, their growth had no limits. That character's pig eventually became the size of a mountain, an unstoppable flying fortress.
Just remembering it made César tremble with excitement.
In the original story, humans barely found a single specimen because they were already extinct. But here, César had twelve in front of him.
"Listen carefully," César said, raising his voice. "Their bone structure is the only one capable of supporting massive weight—even that of a minotaur in full charge. Don't be deceived by their current size. With the right diet, these animals can grow without limit."
César turned toward his two women, a spark of triumph in his eyes.
"Taurina, Adira... you have brought something far more valuable than simple meat. You have brought what our clan lacked the most: the ability to dominate the land—and eventually, the sky."
Taurina looked at the pig with renewed respect, while Adira ran a hand over her scales, imagining the feeling of charging into battle atop a beast of that caliber.