The news of Mike’s return to the valley traveled quickly, and many hobgoblins joined their procession as they made their way to the heart of the valley where his base was. In the two weeks he had been gone, the hobgoblins that had remained in the valley hadn’t been idle. Analyzing one visibly muscular hobgoblin, Mike was pleased to find that at least one specimen had made some improvements.

Name: Creensykl

Monster Type: Hobgoblin

Level: 2

Strength: 6

Dexterity: 2

Intelligence: 2

Charisma: 2

Toughness: 6

Luck: 7

Abilities: Beast of Burden(3)

Skill Abilities: Behemoth

Though Creensykl hadn’t leveled up, the Ability training had made him improve quite a bit in some stats. For the first time, a hobgoblin had gotten a Skill Ability, and it appeared that it had stemmed from Beast of Burden. Focusing on Behemoth, Mike found the following:

Skill Ability: Behemoth

Effect: Strength, Toughness and size are tripled for a duration of 10 seconds, followed by a decrease for 10 seconds. Decrease based on luck.

Cooldown: 10 minutes

Behemoth appeared to closely relate to Footsteps of the Wind, and would be an interesting addition to his skill abilities. He had never thought that a Skill Ability could make him physically grow larger. That had to be terribly unwieldy with the low Dexterity score of Creensykl. How strong would he be if he activated this ability at the same time as Footsteps of the Wind? He would be almost worthless after, but for those 10 seconds, he would be truly terrifying.

Everything he had supposed about Skill Abilities fell to pieces as he continued to Analyze hobgoblins. Creensykl wasn’t the only one to have gained a Skill Ability, and apparently Behemoth wasn’t a guaranteed Skill Ability stemming from Beast of Burden, as he saw several other variants including Bulwark, Strong Arm, and Fortification as he looked at other hobgoblins. Up until then, he had always supposed that a Skill Ability always stemmed from a given Ability, and maybe that was still true, but from what he could tell, a given Ability could award a variety of different Skill Abilities, which led him to wonder if there was variation in how these hobgoblins had performed the Ability or if it could all be chalked up to the randomness of the System.

His thoughts were interrupted as the moment he had been dreading arrived. Creeanth emerged from the trees ahead and Mike felt Creeagle stiffen next to him. There were other Hobgoblin Tribe Leaders in Creeagle’s horde, but Mike had no idea how a Hobgoblin Horde Leader got a Hobgoblin Tribe Leader to capitulate. Though he spoke to and often thought of the hobgoblins as human, he had seen plenty of evidence that their society was less formal than that of his own species Thus he remained ready to intervene, not willing to stand by if Creeanth would be killed, but accepting the fact that allowing their societal norms to play out would likely lead to the best possible outcome.

Creeagle dwarfed Creeanth, his Level 8 stats clearly superior to those of the small hobgoblin. Mike couldn’t help but notice that Creeanth wasn’t backing down though. As Creeagle approached, flames erupted along the Tribe Leader’s arms, causing Creeagle to pause and the entirety of the surrounding throng to shriek in wonder. They all chanted the same word, which sounded like a brutal mixture of Russian and Chinese to Mike’s ears, and held absolutely no meaning to him, but gave him the opportunity to Analyze Creeanth.

Name: Creeanth

Monster Type: Hobgoblin Tribe Leader

Level: 2

Strength: 5

Dexterity: 6

Intelligence: 11

Charisma: 1

Toughness: 3

Luck: 6

Abilities: Trilling Enthrallment (1), Fire Starting (3), Gardening (1), Believer (2), Peacemaker (2)

Skill Abilities: Flaming Arms

He didn’t have to Analyze Flaming Arms, the ability was self evident in the face of Creeanth’s demonstration. It obviously came from Fire Starting, as that was the only Ability the hobgoblin possessed that was at Level 3. More flummoxing than the origin of the Skill Ability was the number of Abilities that the hobgoblin had acquired, several of which Mike had no idea how to obtain.

Just as he was about to further analyze the Abilities, Creeagle seemed to catch up with his surprise and bellowed loudly, the usual high pitched voice that Mike had come to associate with the species gone in the face of the guttural roar. The horrendous sound caused goosebumps to appear on Mike’s arms and neck. The noise must have impacted Creeanth as well, because the flames disappeared from his arms and he fell in kowtow before the larger hobgoblin.

Mike placed his hands over his spatial storage back, ready to come to the rescue, but it proved unnecessary. Creeagle loomed over the other hobgoblin, before crouching and placing both of his hands one Creeanth’s shoulders, causing the smaller hobgoblin to visibly grow larger before the congregation’s eyes.

Mike Analyzed Creeanth and was surprised to find that the Tribe Leader had become a Hobgoblin Horde Shaman.

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After the spectacle, the procession moved on, Creeagle’s horde numbers now buffered by the valley’s inhabitants, which had grown since he was last here. Eventually they came to the campsite and Mike nodded approvingly at the changes he saw. In the pre-System world, it was getting harder and harder to find people who would follow through on a project, especially the youth. Apparently earth’s apathy didn’t expand to its newest inhabitants, and he was always happy to be a part of a hard working community.

The potters had gotten sick of their kiln size and took it upon themselves to use some of the bricks he had taught them to make to make a bigger kiln. A pile of ceramic shards lay next to the kiln, proof of the hobgoblins efforts at making vessels. He didn’t see any completed bowls unfortunately, so he still couldn’t make a huge batch of stew, a plan that had been swimming in his head since he first saved the hobgoblins as a good dinner for a large group.

The garden area had grown immensely, taking up over half an acre. It was a good start, but barely a drop in the bucket for how much food the horde would need.

The same bricks that made the kiln also formed another blast furnace, which Mike was pleased to find was of shoddy Quality but marked Rare. There was also a substantial pile of bricks off to the side of the area, which would be perfect for carrying out his plan to ensure the valley’s safety.

There wasn’t a single downed log in sight, the Beast of Burden hobgoblins having cleared everything away.

Dinner was served, a large salad from the garden. The inclusion of dandelion roots showed that the hobgoblins had even managed to forage over the last two days. He had heard it said that dandelions were more nutritious than any common vegetable, he remembered his mother boiling them over and over then adding salt, pepper, and butter as a kid. She had told him it was a trick from the great depression. These dandelion roots didn’t taste nearly as good, what he wouldn’t give for some butter, but it was a nice reminder of days gone by.

Mike turned in early for the night, there was much to do to get the valley ready, but all of it could wait until tomorrow.

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Mike woke around 4 AM, which was the default time he had risen for many years when he worked for the post office, and began his preparations. He first started by checking in on the molds he had created right before he left. The pick ax blades looked like they would work well. There were 5 of them. There were only 3 draw knife blades, but they too seemed decent, being of the standard shoddy quality. There was only one usable hook knife, which was actually better than he anticipated. As he dug around near the kiln, he found the mold of the tools. Only the pick ax mold was still in one piece, which explained why the hobgoblins had managed to make more of the instrument. An hour later, he had made handles for all of the pickaxes, his Woodworking skill making it much quicker to shape handles from scratch.

At what he estimated to be 5:30, he carefully picked out a group of 10 hobgoblins, all of which were at least level 5 and had seen battle with him. In addition, he woke up Creeanth and set out with the group. These hobgoblins all had higher Dexterity and Strength than their peers, which meant that they could walk around 60-70% of the speed of an average human, and Mike was bent on changing that. During seal training, he had been forced to run until he puked, and then to spit and keep running, and he had even more in store for these hobgoblins, after all, this world was far crazier now than it had been in the 70s.

He started off with a slow-motion jog, his actions showing the hobgoblins the proper form for distance running. His slow-motion jog equated to a brisk pace for them, which he kept up for about an hour. After that, he took turns having them sprint, then slow jog, and then run with high knees. An hour and a half into their exercise, they were right outside the valley, and he bent over to show them the tracks that his battle with Bart’s team had created. It was difficult to explain complex principles, but he continually instructed out loud. Creeanth seemed to understand some of it and would chatter away to the other hobgoblins who would nod their heads emphatically to whatever he said, whether they actually understood or were simply deferring to his authority was unclear.

He went a little farther with them into the forest and taught them how to set up some trip wires and other triggers that would easily indicate a roaming human group in future days. Then it was another run back to the center of the valley, where breakfast was in full swing. Yum, more veggies.

After breakfast, he gathered a small group of 30 hobgoblins and guided them to the lake, where he produced some pilfered arrows from the village that made for spear sized tools in their undersized bodies. It took almost an entire hour to help them understand that he wanted them to fish, and then two more hours for them to understand that they had to move with extreme caution in order to avoid scaring the food away. It was an entire waste of three hours though, as he had managed to catch around 10 fish, even if the hobgoblins hadn’t caught any.

Leaving them to their work, he returned to the camp and gathered a large group of hobgoblins. To 8 of them he distributed the pickaxes and had them begin digging into the side of the mountain, Salt, Sulfur, Iron, Copper, it didn’t matter, he would take any influx of resources he could get. The others he instructed to clear away the debris after the ones with the pickaxes loosened the area. He would likely need to make some shovels soon, but it would take a while for the hobgoblins to make any real progress.

The other two pickaxes he retained and got a group of 10 goblins to go along with them. Drawing out a four by four square in a meadow far away from the burgeoning campsite, he dropped a four foot stick and indicated that he wanted a hole duge that matched his measurements. If it worked, he may have the makings of a turkey trap, and if it didn’t, maybe they would learn a skill that boosted Strength or Dexterity.

Going back to camp, he gathered together yet another group of hobgoblins and drew out a large rectangle on the ground, then indicated that he wanted them to use the ceramic bricks to build walls. This group he oversaw carefully, correcting mistakes and helping to make sure that the mortar they made out of clay and water was of a good consistency.

While observing them, he went over to the gardeners and checked in on their progress. The work looked good, and many were at level 2 now. He let them continue doing what they had been doing over the last few weeks, only changing instructions for the sweet potatoes. He created a ring of dirt around these plants about a foot high and filled the space with the most fertile soil he could find. He couldn’t keep growing food outward and needed to think about how to grow the food vertically, and who knew how far he could stretch those physics in this new world.

As the sun set, he ate a few fish as he watched the hobgoblins enjoy a roaring fire, courtesy of Creeanth, the small creature seemed to simmer happily in the worship of his brethren. A few hobgoblins inched close to him, eyeing his scaly dinner, their mouths salivating and their eyes large with want. He let them have a couple fish to split while he snarfed down the rest of his meal. Taking the selfish road, he kept four fish for himself. Maybe these small creatures could live on vegetables, but he refused to give in to that kind of torture.

As the fire died down and the hobgoblins drifted to sleep, he thought back on his most fulfilling day since the System had changed the world. He felt at ease in the township, the hobgoblins no longer avoiding him entirely, and there was as small sense of companionship around them, especially Creeagle, Creeanth, and the Gardening hobgoblins, as he had come to think of the group with the Gardening skill. They all had higher intelligence and he sensed in them a desire to learn. Whereas many of the other hobgoblins seemed to follow orders out of duty alone. Tomorrow would be another packed day. He had to get the Beast of Burden hobgoblins a task, and there were thousands of others who needed training and a purpose in life. He intended to give it to them.