One day left on my school break. I decided to buy some seeds and I head to the fortress to start growing some crops. With nature magic, I clear a good sized field. Plant the crops then cast regrowth on the them. (regrowth can be cast on a person regenerating lost limbs but the pain is enough to make most go crazy.) Regrowth also reduces the time it takes for plants to grow to maturity.

When they start sprouting I'll cast regrowth again on each individual plant. I'll use staggered intensity to the regrowth spells so I can judge how much of a difference using full mana makes. Also having crops grow to maturity at different times will help keep the food fresh with less need for storage. I hear a yell behind me.

“Morning master!”

I turn around to be greeted by Gobber but he's a hobgoblin now! He's far more attractive than the last hobgoblin leader... Not sure why but I think it might be the age he turned or the fact he had more classes might have had something to do with it…

“Wow Gobber you've grown haven't you!”

He looks at me smiling.

“It's all thanks to masters instructions that I did.”

Well I already planted today might as well fix up the fortress. I patch some holes in the fortress walls with control nature. I head inside to scrub the floors in the main room. I brought Gizmo, he'll live here for now to help clean. No matter how much I scrub, I can't get rid of the smell though. It's coming from an opening in the wa-

Oh shit! The old hobgoblins corpse is still in there. I jump up and am hit with a wave of stench. He's been dead for over months. No bugs can get to him either so it's just rancid meat of a rotting carcass laying there. Gagging I use flare magic to burn it.

Fuck! That made the smell worse! We'll never get rid of the smell completely. Triggering my gag reflex almost involuntarily puking, I seal off the room and it removes some of the smell for now. I puke extremely hard and clean it up quickly with some water magic.

I continue cleaning and start thinking about adding some additions to the fortress and cave. Some job stations like a blacksmiths forge, brewing station, tailoring loom and some other things would be nice. Maybe I could mount some of the bigger crossbows to the outside if we ever get attacked. They'd help deter intruders.

With it being just me and Gobber I decide not to, at least for now. Thinking about it the new sword I had made for Gobber should fit his hand perfectly... He's going to need a full set of new gear though, and a shield. He could probably use the giant crossbow while standing.

I didn't bring it with me so I'll have him try later. His spider pet has made a nest in the old slave room. I don't want to bother it but maybe I should bring over Sock and Pokodo to visit and play with it. All plans for the future though, I got the next plan and that's to attack the gnolls next. I have to confer with Gobber on the strategy.

“Alright so the first meeting of the Nooby Army is officially commenced. We'll discuss the plans of action as well as take comments for improvements to make in the future. First topic I'd like to fight with the gnolls that set up a camp near the city. It would be best to wipe them out before they become a problem.”

Gobber interrupts me.

“We could challenge the leader to a duel, gnolls are forced to duel anyone who challenges them and if we win one of us can become the leader."

Did becoming a hobgoblin make Gobber smart or something? I read a whole book about the sub-races and didn't read about that. I'll take his word for it right now.

“Ok so the plan will be to challenge the leader with our full force and pets so we can secure victory.”

“The duels have to be one on one and if we bring our pets they might end up getting eaten.”

I think I did read that gnolls have intense appetites, needing to eat a lot they normally hold up near cities and attack caravans carrying food.

“Ok, so the plan will be for you to challenge the leader.”

Gobber interrupts. “I think you should challenge him master. You leading the gnolls would be better than me.”

We head towards the city. I decide to take Gobber with me. He could probably pass the security check easier now since he's not a plain goblin. The guard stops us.

"Woah! Kite who's your friend?"

"You've met them before this is Gobber."

The female guard looked extremely surprised. Gobber doesn't understand much Common language so I talk for him. The female guard is the only other person I've ever seen him talk too. We head towards the blacksmith. The new swords should be in. Gobber is getting stared at like crazy but its not really looks of disgust. More like looks of interest, interest beyond curiosity. I knew he was attractive but the attention he's drawing is more than a prince would.

We get our swords and the bolts I bought. The swords are about the same or even better than my last sword. The bolts are obviously a better quality then the other ones. I end up buying him a set of leather gear. It's layered with metal like mine but it's mostly leather. I had him get it made a little loose so I could put silk lining in.

He needs a new shield so I get a shield for him as well. The other one was too small for him. Finally I enchant 2 rings for him back to back using fatigue to regenerate mana. I'll do the same for myself later except with 4 rings. One is a strength ring the other is a dexterity ring. I get his crossbow from him and I'm going to upgrade it tonight and give it back tomorrow.

He follows me to the school. The looks we were getting outside the school, we're also getting inside the school. Jeez this is uncomfortable how many women are drooling over him.

I give him the giant crossbow. At the moment there are only six bolts to it but they're enchanted and have infused anti magic runes. Poison would be a waste since the bolts aren't going to injure whatever they hit, they're going to kill. Three are double freeze bolts and three are double flare bolts. I'm not that tired today, so I take a lap around the school before I go to bed.

School starts today, maybe I should enroll Gobber as a blue mage? Nah, I'm a good enough teacher for him and I'd rather Gobber not get stuck in the city after I graduate in two years. Some people might be racist towards him for being a hobgoblin. For all four of my lessons I'm taking free periods to jump around the learn the most about each class and job.

School is going to be very easy this year because of that. Next year I'll focus classes depending on which classes I want to level. But that's a whole year away. I'm planning on challenging the gnoll leader sometime soon. I've spent a lot of time preparing.

I got an idea to improve a weapon but I need throwing knives to upgrade it. After school, before I go training with Gobber. I'll buy some knives and make it once I get back. I need to flip my schedule around to night time again. So I can start fighting stronger monsters.

Lance's point of view

I graduated from school and have been looking for a party to adventure with. From what I learned traveling with Kite, it would be good to bring a white mage as well as one or two support mages with our group. I tried telling some of the other graduates but a few have left on an adventure together...

Not going to get very far, the first crisis they're put in will end up killing them. They refused to listen, so they might end up dead. I head to the adventurers guild, my classes make for a decent tank as well as a damage dealer. I should easily find a group. Completely outfitted now with the spare money I still had from clearing the raid, it will be very hard to kill me. I see someone I know.

“Kattie! What are you still doing in the city?”

We talk for a bit and I end up joining her group that's going to a dungeon a few days travel away. It's a low tier dungeon, being a rank two means that it's the weakest naturally forming dungeon. It should be an easy clear. We head there and get ambushed by bandits. I end up killing a few but one of our party members, Leon is injured badly. He might not be able to continue and Kattie wasn't able to heal it.

His knee was smashed in the fight and if it is that broken. He will probably lose his ability to be an adventurer ever again. Kattie seemed to overact, I guess this has happened before and might have ruined the last group she was in. I urge the group to push on anyways and we'll leave him at the entrance where he's not likely to be attacked while we finish it. We also had six members which would have been too many to challenge the dungeon anyways. If we challenged with him the dungeon would start absorbing our mana and make itself more difficult.

This dungeon only has two floors and only one boss. We quickly clear the first floor, the second one gives us trouble with slimes splitting up, almost overwhelming us. I manage to clear the smaller ones fast enough for it to not be a problem.

The way dungeons work is the monster and bosses are revived by the mana rich area. So naturally forming ones will always have monsters. People can make tier one dungeons by channeling magic into the ground for long enough time. We had a mage visit us with that ability at the training camp for two weeks. A lot of us gained levels during that time.

We make it to the boss. It's an orc leader and around four other orcs. All wearing different attire showing their class. Being constantly resurrected has destroyed all parts of their minds, besides the parts that know how to fight. Orcs are normally friendly towards humans but killing these ones is fine. Sometimes dungeons even have humans as the bosses.

Looking at each orcs gear, I charge the one wearing the most white first. Jumping as high as I could and kicking off the ceiling. Coming down to jump strike through him killing the orc instantly. As soon as I do Kattie starts playing the strength ballad. The fight starts at that point. The leader rushes towards Kattie but I get in front of him.

The orc black mage is also casting at her. Our archer shoots him through the mouth, not killing him. It will be hard to chant with a crossbow bolt through your mouth though. The archer is very new to adventuring, only gaining archery recently. Some genius tutor taught him in a single day. One of the other orcs wearing leather and wielding daggers also goes for Kattie.

The warrior of this group steps in and takes the orc on. I went to school with him, he's halfway decent. The last orc starts pulling his bow back but is destroyed by a fireball from our mage. The black mages familiar shoots more arrows through the orc mage. The black mages fire elemental is also rushing towards the orc rogue assisting the warrior. This mage is very skilled, I fall back with a jump strike aiming for the rogue. Piercing through him, finishing him off. The only one left is the orc warrior.

Five against one, it doesn't take long to finally finish him off. Compared to the lich that fight was easy. No one was injured or killed this time. The boss dropped ten silver. If we waited around a week we could kill him again but we don't need to. The gear he dropped wasn't that good. The only upgrade we got was a rare pair of gloves the archer took. We have to take Leon back to the city anyways. The black mage starts talking to me.

“Wow Lance you've gotten stronger.”

The way they said it sounded like they knew me. Looking at her face, I don't recognize her.

“Don't remember me? It's Leaf!”

What? The weakling Leaf from when we fought the lich got this strong? What do they teach at the magic academy?