The Legendary Monster Layer!

After their sticky indulgences, the three of them got some practical adventuring done. The Bewitching Forest was a decent walk from base, so while bringing Opal into the Menagerie had been the ultimate goal, they still had intended to do other hunting—to make the most out of the adventure.

A few hours later, about five or six fights, Ari, Opal, and Lori returned to the burrow thoroughly spent. Like with Renna, their exhausting adventures had at least meant Opal had warmed up to Ari and Lori, no longer a total stranger. Though, Opal hadn’t taken much ‘warming up’ to begin with. She seemed to be a pretty eager, affable girl. Kind of like Claire, but not as bubbly. More confident, less … ‘bouncy’, which was the funny word that Ari had instinctively wanted to apply to Claire. Claire really had so much energy.

Claire and Renna were out on mundane adventures, hunting their direct surroundings. Silvana, like usual, was in the burrow, diligently working away at carving out stone. She’d made good progress—a surprising amount, considering the time they’d been gone. She’d excavated a crude hallway, and gotten the majority of the study cleared out, too. People would have a place to sit in and read, or otherwise find quiet, not crammed in together. Which was even more important, now that they’d received their fifth member.

And also, the extra space would be important for another reason—Ari had leveled up. With it, her suspicions had finally confirmed: her level six skill was [Capacity I], which adjusted her Menagerie limit from five to ten.

Five more! It doubled the size of her Menagerie, which was already becoming unwieldy. Not unwieldy in a bad way, of course, because the more the merrier in Ari’s eyes, but five people to manage was, while amazing, also a handful, administratively speaking.

And sheesh, wasn’t that an odd word to be using? ‘Administratively’? When had her lewd adventures taken that kind of tint? But it was true. Ari wouldn’t be able to handle things by herself as the Menagerie grew.

A guild. Ari would have a Monstergirl Guild, soon enough. Using that metaphor—or maybe not even metaphor—Ari was the guildmaster, the leader of the organization. However, a guild of any reasonable size required officers. People to split duties with.

While she didn’t want her Menagerie taking on some kind of ‘professional’ feel, since having fun with each of her members was something she fully planned to do, and for things to feel like a family (er, maybe the wrong word …) no matter how big the group got, she did need to take some practical measures. So, assigning officers.

In this regard, Ari didn’t mind taking charge and making decisions by herself. She didn’t want to rule her Menagerie’s life, the personal aspects, but in the sense of an ‘organization’, Ari could take charge. Could be the guildmaster. It was far from her specialty, or intended path, but someone needed to do it. If anyone declined Ari’s offered roles, that was fine too. But her desire to handle everything ‘as a group’ would become unfeasible if they reached the numbers she thought they would.

She organized her thoughts while she cleaned off in the recently installed shower. It had been tucked to the side of the central room, temporarily, with a two-inch indent into the floor to catch the water, which pooled to the transport glyph and returned to that invisible reservoir, leaving the grime behind. The grime would need to be cleaned manually, probably once a day, if not more.

They’d also bought a shower curtain, though it was limited privacy, considering that it was, y’know, attached to the living room with no real walls. But Ari hardly needed privacy. In fact, she was still on the fence about tat wonderful idea of mandating everyone to go around naked. If there was anything that tempted her to abuse her power, it was that. It would just be so amazing getting to see her friends’ curves always on display.

Structural organization, she chided herself, bringing her brain back to meaningful topics, hot water pouring across her body. She would have a guild, soon enough, and so needed to assign officers. Who should have what responsibilities?

Some were obvious. Silvana would be the lead organizer, of a few sorts: both construction and personnel, should the Menagerie advanced from ten to some truly unwieldy number. She had a mind for logistics. Her primary duties would be construction and supplies, for now, though Ari would make it clear that as things expanded, she might be in charge of organizing people and schedules, too.

Lori would be the adventuring lead. She’d organize hunts and keep everyone safe, as well as deal with training and equipping new members. It was a much smaller role than Silvana’s, but if Ari were frankly honest with herself, not only did she think Lori wouldn’t suffer administrative roles, but she wouldn’t be especially good at them. Her talents were her drive and determination—and adventuring skills.

Renna would handle the treasury. Not for any particular reason, beyond how they needed someone to manage finances and items. That could be lumped in with Silvana, she supposed, under the general sense of ‘logistics’, but Ari needed to spread duties out. Silvana already had a lot on her plate. Plus, Renna would be adventuring a lot from the sounds of it, so she was primed to be handling the loot they received. And she had enjoyed their trip to the market, so it would give her an excuse to go there frequently, selling items and handling money.

Claire, naturally, would be responsible for new members—in catching them up to speed. Almost as much as Silvana, that role was obvious … she already performed it. Renna had chatted to Ari about it. Claire had taken her under her wing and made her feel welcomed as a natural instinct.

Which was perfect, because Ari didn’t want anyone feeling left out, and she knew these bizarre circumstances her class saddled her Menagerie with had to be difficult to adjust to. Not to mention how joining a group of people as an outsider was challenging in the first place. Not for everyone—Opal would do fine, as had Renna—but if someone like Lori had joined late, rather than first or anyone not as socially affable as the others, then Claire would do a great job of bringing them into the fold.

Opal … Opal she hadn’t decided on. She’d warmed up to her and Lori in their adventures, but she still didn’t know the girl well. She was sure she’d come up with something eventually. Then again, maybe all her bases were covered? She didn’t know, exactly, what went into managing an organization.

As problems cropped up, she’d find out, she supposed.