"Thank you so much."
Two Lion men bowed their heads as they carried the net of fruits and barrels of fishes and water I've given them.
"Allow me to give my thanks to you too, lady Rhea," Ragna, who's standing on my side, said and bowed his head as well.
Like his fellow tribesmen, he now addresses me as his lady.
"It's no big deal. As long as you keep me safe, I won't let your tribe starve."
"We're truly amazed by your power."
As Ragna is the strongest in his tribe, he's been stationed in my oasis to act as my guard. Day and night, he stands beside me, keenly guarding me as if I was some treasure. And so far, he's been doing a good job.
When a giant scorpion approached my oasis and destroyed the golems I created, he swooped in and cut it in half with one swing. That was when I realized I made the right choice to ally with him and his tribe. Clearly, they were able to survive this harsh world for a reason.
Finally able to eat good food, Ragna now looks even larger than before. He's more muscular, and despite barely sleeping, he's evidently more energetic. He's also taken off the black cloak he had before. The sunlight is calm in my oasis, so he doesn't need it, but the other reason is it simply doesn't fit him anymore.
"You're able to produce fruit from nothing, and the fishes in your pond multiply to no end," he continues.
I ignored Ragna's unending praises and began to nap on my tree.
After all this time, I've been doing nothing but practicing my magic and falling asleep. Whenever I'm around my main body, I feel too comfortable and I suddenly get the urge to lay beside it. I soon understand, I gather my magic and energy from it.
I've really been doing nothing else with my time. I might have done a good job allying with Ragna's lion men and providing them with food, but I have not been fulfilling my main mission of procreation. But I cannot be faulted for that.
I'm only one woman. How can I repopulate this world by myself? Logically, that goddess should've kept me as a man instead, so I can easily breed the women of this world.
What a missed opportunity.
Speaking of which, is this world even struggling with its population? As far as I'm aware, there are people like Ragna and his tribe around, and there are supposedly bandits roaming everywhere. They might be struggling with food, but there's still life in this world.
"How many members does your tribe have?" I decided to ask Ragna.
"We total of seven. Five men and two women."
"Only seven!? How many of those are children?"
"Huh? There's none, my lady. All of us are adult warriors," he explained, "We tried many times to increase our number, but our women just can't seem to bear children. But that's how it's become in this world," he said so matter-of-factly.
That's bad, isn't it? Won't they just become extinct if they can't increase their number? And he said it's the same for the entire world?
Suddenly, I felt bad for Ragna and his tribe. Before I knew it, I was considering fulfilling my mission. I looked at Ragna, and my eyes steady on his muscular body. He's over two meters tall, and he might be three times my overall size.
My eyes also settle on the long cylindrical outline bulging out of the thin cloth covering his lower half.
"Gulp..." I swallowed my accumulating saliva.
Will I even survive mating with him?