Here we go again! I hope that you guys had a more pleasant start into the new year. I sadly had some health issues since the last post which kept me down in bed with antibioitics and a whole range of other meds for 2 weeks and I am still not quite completely restored T_T. Missing out on most of the christmas and new years fun did quite dampen my motivation to do anything which is hopefully a bit understandable. Anyway ! As a boon I tried to do as much as possible now. I did some changes to my style as well Which i hope will meet some of you peoples likes. I havent really gone over it for correction yet so don´t look at it too closely. XD 2 chapters today !

The next day turned into a quite work heavy one. Right after my own breakfast I went to the elf and brought her a portion of it as well. In the old world I had read once an article about how captives could come to build a positive relation with the one holding them by providing for their needs and relieve. So I wanted to put this to test on Quimoira. After making sure that the food was of a decent quality I brought it personally to her. As I stepped into my cave and looked around I saw that she was still resting on my makeshift bed. Realizing that I had entered the cave she rose her body slowly from the furs before she noticed that she wasn't wearing much and sunk back down again to cover herself up. Her eyes never left me as I walked further in and I could almost see that, what happened last night, had shaken her mind to the very core. The language of her body still spoke of fear, keeping it as small as possible like a threatened animal. But the expression on her face was one of confusion. Most likely the food I had given her and the rest on this pile of a bed was more kindness than she had been shown for years. After a moment her eyes fell on the food that I was holding on the plate and I could actually hear a hungry growl coming from her stomach.

Well the food last night wasn't that much after all.

I chuckled amused and just put down the plate somewhere near the bed right on the floor. Then I called one of the guarding goblins to carry out the plate and bowl that had been used last night. It seems after I left she had eaten every last bit of the food, it even looked as if the plate had even been licked clean. Turning back to Quimoira I saw that she was eying the plate on the floor greedily but it seemed like she didn't dare yet to touch it. I suddenly had a thought and approached the elf with leisure steps. Her eyes right away turned to me as I came close and she actually sunk back into the furrs a new fear creeping over her face. With a smile on my face I reached out and stroked over her head.

(Me): ”Eat your fill my little pet, you will soon need your strength.”

Quimoira had actually closed her eyes shut when I reached for her but when she felt the touch being a soft one she actually leaned against it for a moment. The completely startled expression on her face was greatly amusing.

Deep down she is craving for a kind touch. Well, who would not in her situation.

(Quimoira): “P...Pet?!”

After realization had sunk into her mind what I had done she backed away from me again. With a laugh I withdrew from the elf and walked towards the entrance, looked back at her once before I stepped out and left her with some words.

(Me): “Slave, pet, property…. it's all the same in the end. It just depends on the difference in treatment. ”

After speaking those words I stepped out and was wanting to walk towards the Drow quarters. I had told Kalannar that I would visit him to speak about our plans for the immediate future before I went to play with the Grimoire and the things he had given me in the trade.

(Gobar): “Lord, if you would spare me a moment.”

But I was actually called out to as soon as I had taken a few steps. The old goblin looked at me with a very serious expression which made me actually feel quite curious.

(Me): “Should you not be preparing for the training session Gobar?”

(Gobar): “It is fine, Lord. My disciples are there in case that some goblins come to the magic lessons earlier. ”

Since he put it like that I nodded and wanted to listen but Gobar actually bowed and lead the way to his own cave. It seemed like he wanted to speak in private.

Well this is quite interesting. Let´s see what the good guy wants.

Once there we both settled down on the floor and he regarded me silently for a few moments, seemingly contemplating what he was about to say.

(Gobar): “Lord, I hope you will permit my boldness. What are your plans for the half blood ? ”

I tilted my head slightly as I observed how serious Gobar was. His hands were even tightly holding onto his trusted staff with enough strength to make the old wood let out some creaking sounds. Though I did not quite understand why he was so interested in this now.

From what I saw the goblins have no qualms at all about using slaves for labour and breeding. So what is he getting at?

(Me): “She is mine now and a project to work on. I think I will be able to make her an obedient pet. Maybe she will even turn out to be something useful. But what does it matter to you Gobar? Your people seemed quite eager to get to the other females that were brought over and I don't think they are shy about using violence on the weaker. ”

My words seemed to relieve him a slight bit and he nodded in contemplation.

(Gobar): ”Of course it is up to you to take any number of slaves. That is the right of a king. The guards were surprised at the… way you handled the elf. It seemed quite different for your usual conduct. But you are right there are not many that are concerned about your methods, admittedly not many understand what you are doing with the elf.”

It seemed like the exchange had him relaxed enough that he slipped back into the more informal way that we had been using mostly until now.

(Gobar): “On this matter I would only like to caution you once that trying to stir the madness within a being is a dangerous path to walk. But it is not within my right to tell you what to do.”

Hah the old guy understands what is going on.

I laughed and nodded but at the same time remained silent. This was my fun and I would not let anyone meddle in it. Apparently Gobar understood this as well and went on.

(Gobar): “The thing that had a lot of us, me included, worried is not what you plan to do with her as an individual. No, it is the fact that she is the first mate you have picked. It caused the fear that we would be maybe replaced since her race might make her into a more promising servant. There were a good many cases where the descendants of a stronger races within a dungeon replaced the original ones.”

Ah so that was it.

I thought over the goblins words and had to admit that they were not baseless fears from their perspective. Until now I had treated the goblins good, in my opinion at least, but I had not shown as strong an interest for an individual goblin as I had for Quimoira and of course the goblinas until now had not been exactly meeting my sense of womanly aesthetics that had carried over from my precious live.

I will have to make sure that I dissipate those fears some way or another...

(Me): “I understand your concerns. But I have no intention to replace your people. You can tell your people that you will remain as the core in this dungeon. The gratitude for your efforts in making me will remain forever.”

(Gobar): “I am most grateful to hear this. It might be a good idea to choose a mate from among the goblinas or the evolved hobgoblinas. ”

Gobar had bowed his head as he conveyed his thanks and suggested the obvious solution but so far I had not seen any of the goblin kin that had taken my fancy. The goblinas simply looked too much like children. As for the hobgoblinas, well they were at least of a size that put them among possible interest. But they were still rather rough on the eye if one was to apply the humans standard. The green skin was not really a problem, but their features themselves so far had no real appeal to me. Maybe that will get better, after all on the female side there were only few so far that had evolved.

(Me): “Well I shall see about that. Speaking of which, until now I didn't really have the impression that taking a mate was such a serious business for goblins. Why is it now of such importance?”

It did look to me as if they just went down whenever and with whomever they wanted. Surprisingly there are no fights among the male goblins for females either.

(Gobar): “Ah, how neglectful of me. It is true that such things were not explained yet.”

Gobar had a rueful look on his face as he started to explain some of the goblin tradition.

(Gobar):” It is true that common goblins do not take a specific mate. This is because usually any normal goblin does not have the capability to support a female or a full family by himself. Especially since, as you know by now, our kind tends to procreate quickly. So normally the whole clan cares for the offsprings and the mating is a loosely organized matter. This is not the case for the king of the clan and sometimes, in large clans, the appointed leaders. Only the smartest or strongest are in that those position and as such can sustain one or more females. Also there is a lot expected from those individual offsprings and as such raised with great care to continue the promising bloodlines. ”

Ahhh well makes sense. It seems they know how to take advantage of their traits. The average quality goblins are pooling their resources to sustain as many individuals as possible while the good quality is nurtured to an elite within the clan.

After some more questioning and hearing the explanations about the mating and courting of goblins I really had to leave for the meeting with the Drow. So I left a relieved Gobar who promised to right away get to the matter of settling the fears of the other goblins before he would continue with the matter of teaching. With swift steps I went towards the quarters of our pointy eared guests and was greeted by guards there who right away led me on towards the ambassador´s cave.

Well, they certainly got settled quickly.

The Drow almost made the impression as if they had always lived here. Torches had been fixed onto the walls in regular distances with guards being posted or patrolling carefully. The most heavily guarded area was without a doubt the teleportation circle.

Well not that I would really trust a dungeon and a bunch of goblins either but that seems bit excessive.

We finally reached the place and I found a quite surprising scene before my eyes. The cave actually looked decent. There was a table, chairs, bed and an actual freaking carpet on the stone floor.

(Kalannar):”Hahaha that look alone is worth bringing these things over. But please take a seat honored Dungeon Lord. ”

The Drow stood just somewhat to the side, apparently fiddling with something inside a bag, but I had been too surprised at first to spot him right away. With an annoyed grunt I went over to the table and sat down. The chairs were surprisingly comfortable for simple wooden ones.

(Me): “How did you even get all this stuff here. Don´t tell me all the things you got over were for you alone and some torches for the walls ?”

(Kalannar): “You will see a part of how we did it when you open your crates. But no I did not bring over goods only for myself. Still being a highly ranked official does have its clear advantages.”

Somehow I could not help but be impressed at his smug attitude and grin with which he admitted that he had used his position of power to the utmost for his comfort.

(Me): “Anyway, I assume we both have plenty to do. So what exactly did you want to talk about. You were rather vague yesterday.”

The drow nodded and finally seemed to finished with his bag as he approached the table as well and sat down in front of me with a much more serious expression now.

(Kalannar):”There are some plans that we need to speak about. Also about how to progress from now on. ”

I did not quite like those words and apparently it showed on my face as he gave a slight smile and actually poured us both something to drink before he went on.

(Kalannar):”You do not need to look so grim. This is to our both benefit. The first part is about a possibility to give the elves a steady beating to their supply of food, as well as fighting force. The second part that I mentioned is that we are of course very interested in the way that you are planning your own future and I think we can give you some very important informations on that point.”

(Me): “For our both benefit is easily said. But I am listening, go ahead. ”

I could not help myself but let some sarcasm flow into the words. It was indeed easy to say that it would be good for both of us. But if that was indeed the case still needed to be seen. The Drow nodded at my words and stepped away for a moment to get a pile of scrolls and put them on the table. Then he took one of the larger ones and carefully spread out over the table. Gulagh had given me a rough shape, with his drawing back, to understand the general layout then. Of course that was nothing compared to the detailed map which I had now in front of me. It was a quite interesting shape to behold. The forest in which the Elves lived was actually situated in a humongous basin and surrounded by two mountain ranges. They joined in the east and west which gave the whole thing the rough appearance of an eye. From this basin countless valleys spread out like veins. It actually looked as if this had been a lake once and the water had eroded its way outside. The really interesting thing though was that there were two marked areas. One which was, as I presumed, the elven territory. It was marked by a red line that circled some parts of the center forest as well as a large portion of the north. Meanwhile the northern mountain range was surrounded by a blue line and most likely displayed the Drow territory which was a good bit smaller in total size then the elven part and was broader in the west. Kalannar let me have some time to take a close look at all of this before he went on.

(Kalannar):”Now about the plans to diminish the elven resources. A lot of their resources actually come from small tribes of demihumans or beastkin spread out within the forest. They also recruit many of their soldiers from them that are sent to the very frontlines. Some of those tribes or clans are within their territory but most are to the south and east.”

Seeing how the territory is aligned here that makes sense.

(Me): “I assume you took out all the tribes on the west side. But how are we supposed to do anything to the tribes? If it was that easy you would have done it yourself a long time ago already.”

(Kalannar):”That is true, but you have a distinctive advantage. The elves deploy a magic field that detects Drows and beings above a certain stage of power. There are ways to bypass this but it has more drawbacks than advantages so we were unable to execute them. Your goblins will fall under neither category..”

(Me):”That may be, but won´t the elves come to look for a threat if their people die?”

At my words Kalannar actually grinned wryly as if I had made a bad joke.

(Kalannar):” I think you still do not quite have a clear understanding of the elves mentality on this point. The tribes are not ‘their’ people. They see themselves as the absolute rulers and nobility of the forest dwellers. I think even the goblins have heard about how the high elves only consume vegetables and fruits. But there is no way that any Elf would actually do such mundane work as to plow a field or collect fruits. No they have the tribes pay tribute to them in form of food and people. The biggest part of the ‘recruited’ people are then sent as cannon fodder to the frontlines nothing more then that. In their arrogance they hold the tribes with no regards and even wiped a few of them out when they refused to pay. The only real measure to protect the ones that are paying, is the detection field. Even this measure is only taken since they are slightly afraid that they might face slight inconvenience if we actually succeed in wiping out all tribes. A few deaths within the tribes won´t be noticed right away and when they do it will be too late.”

I tilted my head as I listened. Kalannar continued his explanation it seemed like they had employed spies to check the tribes out sometimes. Basically the tribes were slaves. Some of the recruited tribesman would be trained and brainwashed into believing that they were the chosen ones of the Elves. This gave them a certain amount of power and they were tasked to keep their own people in line. Apparently beyond collecting information it was too dangerous for the spies to perform any serious moves to damage the supply lines significantly.

(Me): “How does this detection field actually work ? If they detect Drow how did your spies get anywhere near close enough? Could they not just keep track of everything if they have something like that?”

Kalannar chuckled amused and shook his head at my question, apparently it amused him greatly that I had as many questions.

(Kalannar):”Of course a dungeon such as you would ask that. But you have an analyzing skill. Do you still remember the flood of information that you got when you used that skill the first time? I imagine it was not comfortable. Well for normal beings they are unable to process so much at once. In the worst cases they could suffer permanent damage to their mind, so the magic has to be limited in what informations it actually collects. As for why our spies came close enough, well basically the field picks up the mana signatures of the beings that step into it. It feels different between the various kinds of beings. But it can be hidden by completely suppressing the mana itself much like we do it with slaves to keep them relatively harmless. But this also keeps them from using any mana related skill. It is also not that easy to use and the skill bought with skill points is not reliable enough.”

Well that makes sense… I guess it would be like a computer that gets an overload in its memory. Or worse than that. Damn…. good that I am a dungeon. With those restrictions it is understandable that they didn't get to do anything to the more protected tribes this yet.

(Me):”So you want me to use my servants to kill the tribes ? ”

(Kalannar):”Not quite as drastic. If it is too abrupt the elves might realize that something is amiss and send some troops to check out what is going on. No it would be better to employ more gradual methods of making their numbers dwindle. You luckily had your goblins train intensively in stealth, if my troops help them out they will soon be above and beyond in those areas for the average tribesman. Since Vierna is already doing a good job I will put two attendants at her side to make the training go a bit smoother ahead.”

(Me):”I see your point. So basically ambush smaller groups of them, making sure that no one witnesses it and such. ”

(Kalannar): “Exactly, it would be even better if you could make it look like it were some of the natural predators of the woods. If you keep switching between the tribes they will most likely paint it up to an unlucky year. It would also be fine if you captured them to add to your own workforce. We will help you with the enslaving part of course to make sure that they are unable to flee. But of course your goblins have to do that in a way that it is not noticed. Beyond that I think that an occasional assassination of a central figure inside a tribe would help to destabilize their situation as a whole. ”

(Me):”Won't they be actually more cautioned if someone kills their leaders? I like the idea of getting more slaves though. I hope you have many collars stuffed away for that. ”

(Kalannar):”That should be no problem. With your knowledge from the grimoire I am sure you will be able to soon make poisons will look like a natural death without a deeper examination. Also such actions will be necessary to unlock the assassin class. I think you would be interested in that.”

Ah damn… I am an idiot. I should have long ago realized that it was that.

I had long since been wondering why the goblins had not yet gotten that class. In my eyes they had all the needed skills but of course they had not done an assassination until now. Well they killed plenty, but an assassination is after all the elimination of a specific target.

(Me):”This sounds like a good plan. What else have you got ?”

(Kalannar):”Well once that plan progressed further it will be a huge help to use. Beyond that we need to raise your defensive forces in case that you are discovered. ”

(Me):”How would we do that? I think I already am employing the breeding quite extensively to get more servants. ”

(Kalannar):”That is true, but you need some better guardians. Golems would be a very good choice for this matter. With your crystal evolution you will have no problem to get enough earth crystals. Though until you reach your next stage you will not have the quality needed for the better golems. Still even weak golems are a formidable thing within a dungeon and an expendable force.”

(Me): “Golems ! Well that sounds good. But what did you mean with next stage?”

(Kalannar):”I will tell you about that in more detail later on. Since both topics are quite detailed let's not get them mixed up.”

As he said that he took another scroll and handed it over to me. Since he gave the indication to go ahead I opened it up and took a look through what was written and drawn there. It was a short description of what was needed to make golems. Apparently you needed a certain affinity for the earth element, a magic crystal of the earth element at least of the mid class and a skill in summoning. The process in itself sounded simple enough. Summon a spirit, make a contract with it and let it possess the crystal or forcibly bind it to the sparkly thing. Depending on the skill of the caster, the willingness of the spirit and the quality of the crystal it would then be a stronger or weaker golem. This would also influence what material the golems body could be made from.

(Kalannar):”I do know that you have druids that are capable of earth magic. But since we are on this topic already…. let us discuss what magics you would like to learn for yourself as well.”

Ah now that is an interesting topic. I think it will be fun.