He took a look through the list of options he had for the evolution of the second tier and saw both the caster zombie and large zombie as an option. Z scratched his chin as he thought it over but decided to hold off on evolving to the next tier for now. He tapped the Regenerative stitchwork and rolled his shoulders as a brief feeling of discomfort swept over his body. He saw nothing different about his body but he felt healthier. He glanced back towards the box that contained his own information and saw that he still had an evolution available. He pondered it for a bit but decided to go for the Improved strength option.

He flexed his fingers to test his strength, he picked up a branch as thick as his wrist and easily snapped it while clenching a fist with his hand. That was a great deal stronger than any regular human. Improved agility would be an interesting ability to get aswell, he was already more agile by far compared to normal zombies so he wondered how much the difference would be.

He swept his eyes over his forces, he had acquired a small army in a days time. He wanted more, he was curious to see how much he could grow. He gestured to his zombies and headed back into the spider forest, this time determined to find one of the territory hubs like his. Something that he could conquer, he wondered what new options would be available if he did. As usual, he lost himself in thought as he led his shambling army deeper into the darkness.

It took a good deal longer before they encountered anything on this expedition. After a near half hour of walking, they had seen no signs of spiders, what he did notice was how the forest grew darker and darker the deeper they headed inside. Spider webs were strung from tree to tree and became more numerous the deeper he went. The silence had grown eerie, the lack of birds or insects, unnatural and would have sent shivers up any individuals spine. The undead, of course, were not bothered in the slightest and merely trudged onward.

Z raised his eyebrows as he carefully listened, that sounded like combat. He frowned and picked up the pace, the zombies behind him struggling to keep up as he broke into a jog. He was sure of it now he heard the angry and pained screeches of warriors in battle and the yelled cruses in a language he was not familiar with. He started running faster as the sound picked up in volume, he breached the clearing and blinked as he looked at the wide plain. Infront of him a horde of spiders that must have numbered in the hundreds. They were facing a shoddily protected town were snarling green warriors were trying to keep the spiders from flooding their wooden walls. Atop one of the walls stood a larger and more muscular green warrior with elven like ears a crooked nose and pointed teeth, he was snarling commands to his soldiers. He knew the type of creatures, Goblins.

He surveyed the situation for a moment when he heard the sound of his troops catching up, he tapped his chin before making his decision. “Attack the spiders, don't fight the goblins!” A simple command that sent a wave of movement through the undead as they trudged forward at their highest speed. Which was admittedly quite slow and barely faster than walking pace. Z himself however charged into the spiders line at top spring. Heading towards the spider that was even taller than him, it's brown hair accented by a crimson pattern that made it look even more dangerous than the smaller of its kin. He tore into the line of spiders slaughtering his way through the smaller of their kind.

From the corner of his eyes, he saw as the goblin noticed the undead army and how they charged into the spiders. To Z's surprise, the chieftain reacted quickly and pulled units from his left flank where the zombies were tearing into the spiders to reinforce his right flank. Trusting the fact that the spiders would focus their efforts on the new threat that had appeared from the forest. The chieftains instinct had proven right and the spiders were now being pressed from both sides of their sizable army. The creatures fell in droves, the goblins using the protection of their wall to rain death upon the many-legged monsters. While the zombies simply used their superior strength and immunity to the toxin to pound their opponents into the ground.

Z waded his way through the waves of spiders, crushing them beneath his feet or simply tearing them apart with his hands as he headed towards the largest of the creatures.The lead spider screeched and sent a wave of the larger spiders his way. Z tore through them as if they were paper, none of them even capable of landing a hit on his body. He grinned maliciously as he reveled in his new found strength. The lead spider screeched and charged at him itself, Z ducked beneath one of its razor-sharp legs as he danced his way to its side. The spider used its many legs as weapons as it attempted to cut him down. Z frowned, brows pulled together as he focused on dodging its many limbs. He smoothly twisted and twirled between the limbs for a while until one of its limbs glowed and moved faster than before.

Z managed to twist his body away in the nick of time dodging the gleaming red leg. Then he felt a tug on his left shoulder as he was smacked into the ground, he utilised his momentum to roll back to his feet as he snarled at the spider. He glanced to his left shoulder only to see nothing but rotten flesh, his arm torn off. The other spiders and zombies had backed off from the fight between him and the lead spider. Even his own zombies were tearing into the arachnid forces while keeping an area free around him and the lead spider. Z spotted his arm near the edge of the freed area and picked it up and pressed it to the stump of his shoulder. He kept his eyes on the spider as the creature stared at him wearily. Its eight eyes focused on his every move.

Z breathed in as he saw an ethereal needle appear and thread a just as ethereal thread through his flesh tying his arm back to his body. He flexed his arm and marveled at how it had not lost any of its mobility. He grinned as he made his way further towards the lead spider, the creature still keeping a distance from him for a reason he did not know. Z took another step forward and saw the spider do the same, Z noticed how the leg the spider had used to tear of his arm was trembling and he grinned. The attack had been a double-edged sword, the creature had either wounded or exhausted itself. Not one to let such opportunities waste away Z charged towards the creature, his teeth bared in a wordless snarl.

The spider hissed at him as it did a charge of its own, Z slipped beneath one of the legs only to have another pierce his abdomen, he ignored the wound and tore off the leg the spider had used to cause the injury. Their battle waged on, the zombie dodging agilely beneath the swipes of the spider, occasionally taking a hit but returning the favor by tearing of the offending leg. The spider was down to 5 legs as it started backing off, out of nowhere a glowing blue bolt smashed into its back shattering its exoskeleton as the creature shrieked in pain. Brainz stood there with a raised arm, blue motes of power swirling around his stretched arm. Clog came thundering through the wave of spiders tackling the larger creature.

Z took the opening and jumped onto the creature himself, his hands tearing into the spider's body as the creature shrieked in agony, then his hand or that of clog found something important as a shudder went through the spider and it stopped moving. The remaining hundred or so spiders shivered as they turned around and skittered back into the forest, running from the forces that had destroyed their own. Z stood up wiping blood and spider innards of him as he glanced towards the goblin 'fortress'. The chieftain much like himself was covered in blood and his left arm was hanging limp.

Z wiped the gore of his body as he stepped towards the chieftain, his remaining troops moved to follow him and Z glanced at his forces. Of the fifty-five or so zombies he had led into combat only twenty-three had survived. The fact that both Brainz and Clog had survived the battle made those numbers irrelevant. He was sure he had earned a lot more KP than he had lost. He motioned for his troops to halt as he walked towards the fortress by himself. The goblin chieftain frowned for a moment before jumping down from his wall and moving to greet him, to the protest of his troops who watched with wary eyes as they knocked arrows on their bows to protect their chief should the need arise.

Z walked a bit forward untill he was in range of the bows to set the goblins at ease then waited for the chieftain to reach him. Now that he had a closer look at the chief he noticed that he wasn't exactly a goblin-like the rest of his village, the chief was at least six feet tall. Which was a good two inches taller than Z was himself. His body was muscular and there were more than a few scars apparent on his body. Z grinned in appreciation, this here was a man who knew how to do battle. The chief had in those brief moments proven to be intelligent and powerful. The chieftain stopped about ten paces away from Z and stared him in the eye.

“Why you help goblin.” He rumbled, eyes narrowed.

Z shrugged, “Didn't really have a reason, spiders attacked as soon as they saw me so they are proven to be my enemy. Not really sure if I do want to help the goblins, this was just a good chance to get rid of many of the spiders.”

The chief nodded in understanding, “You goblin enemy now?” The words were spoken calmly the hob-goblin stared into his eyes, his posture radiating readiness to do battle, yet his eyes remained cold and calculating.

Z smiled, “I was thinking you would make a better ally than enemy, not to mention that the main forces of the spiders are still out there.”

The chief grinned, showing his pointy teeth. “Red Grass tribe would accept you as ally.” The chief extended his hand Z stepped forward to grab it. A message flashed before his eyes.

[Both you and the Red Grass tribe have agreed to form an alliance, Should you accept this alliance you will not be able to attack the Red Grass tribe. Doing so anyway will incur massive penalties to your faction. Allies are sworn to help each other in battle as do they gain 10% of the other factions EP gains if the territories are connected. Do you accept the alliance Y/N]

He tapped the Y and saw the chieftain do the same which was confirmed when another message appeared declaring the two factions allies. Z smiled, elated as he was on the inside he kept his face calm. The creation of a strong foundation for any faction needed a few things. Resources and Manpower, both which could be achieved through development of ones lands. Capable and trustworthy allies, which would protect your lands borders. Meaning one less possible avenue for enemies to attack so forces and resources could be concentrated on other fronts. The last thing he would need was the time to build a strong infrastructure and foundation. The last he was not sure he would ever get... Not in this world.

He focused his mind back towards the present as the goblins happy cheering broke him out of his thought process. Another thing he noticed was that the goblins now had a nearly transparent green outline. He could 'feel' that they were his allies, he assumed that his forces could feel the same. He frowned as he thought about the implication, perhaps this system was set in place so that less intelligent monsters would not attack their allies by accident. It made sense in a strange sort of way.

He nodded his goodbye to the chief and told him that he would like to spend the resources gained from this battle. The chief nodded in understanding and said he would like to do the same. So each headed back to their headquarters and promised to meet when they were done with their expenditures. Z grinned, he was really looking forward to spending those points.