I walked out the front of the cave with Roland. Alexander was inspecting each goblin in the neat ranks they made and I asked, “How do they look?”

“More bone than meat,” it commented.

The goblins did look thin and raggedy. It was likely none of them had enough food for some time. “Then we will need to beef them up somehow,” I said. I could always convert my mana production into nutrients for them. It would feed them while making them grow stronger, but it would also be a huge drain. No matter how much mana I generated, suddenly supplying over 20 goblins was a lot to ask.

“We will need to establish a consistent food source,” Alexander said as if he was reading my mind.

I mused, “Having crops wouldn’t be bad.” However, the problem with crops is we would need both time and land. While there was land on the other side of the river before the elf village ruins, we didn’t have time to plant and grow crops; the payoff would come too late. Besides, it’s not like I had seeds lying around. “We can start working on getting crops established and obtaining some animals to raise, but we would need something more readily available for now.”

“Let the insects forage,” the death knight suggested. “This land is bountiful. There are animals to hunt. Berries and nuts to gather. Fish to spear.”

“I figured as much, but I didn’t want to strain the environment.”

“The forest is vast.” Alexander looked over at the goblins, “Their effect should be negligible.”

“Alexander, I have another question: how do the goblins look from a mental perspective? I’m afraid in the process of controlling them I might have done something – it feels weird to seem them just despondently stand there and stare…”

Alexander rubbed its ethereal chin, exhaling out frost. “Goblins were always mindless mongrels, lowly beasts with only two things on their minds: food and fucking.” It knocked on a goblin’s head with its knuckles, “If they appear lame, it’s because they are. Under your control they no longer are slaves to their base instincts. Absolute control will do this to any beast. Goblins are no exception.”

“So, you’re telling me they are nothing more than mindless muscle? Doesn’t sound that great to be honest…”

“At first these goblins were worth less than the dirt on your shoe,” Alexander said, “But now under your control they are more like helpless worms and insects. You can make them grow, and just like an insect, they too can metamorphize out of their pitiful worthlessness.”

“Ah, you are right.” I completely neglected the fact that I could use my mana to slowly develop and evolve them. Perhaps they could turn into hobgoblins, but even they weren’t that smart either. What else could a goblin turn into, I wondered. “We can start on developing just a few of them to see where it leads, how does that sound?”

Alexander replied, “Perfect. I already have three out of them selected.” The death knight marched them forward. “The one of the middle is bigger than the rest with more meat and muscle on it. I estimate it to have the highest capabilities so I propose turning this one into a leader for them. The other two are above the rest but are about equal. With one leader we can split the remaining twenty-two into groups of eleven, each with their own sub-leader.”

“Leave it to Alexander to have everything thought out already. I’ll do that then,” I said while already making the proper connections through my dungeon abilities.

“Developing monsters?” Roland asked. “So, with these dungeon powers, you can… evolve these monsters?”

I turned to my friend, “Yup. I told you being fused with a dungeon core gave me incomprehensible abilities. I can use the mana the dungeon generates as a fuel source for anything under my influence. Slime developed from a normal slime into what you saw as an example. I can even apply it to myself and I did get some powers out of it, but it’s not that practical yet.”

“That sounds incredibly powerful, to be honest,” Roland said folding his arms with a frown.

I pulled out my notebook, “To keep myself busy, I kept a running journal with my thoughts and notes and experiments. If you have any questions you can take a look through it to see what I’ve figured out already. Or you can ask Gil wherever he is at. Where is he anyways?”

“The scrawny one did not feel at ease amongst these insects,” Alexander replied. “He retired to his chambers along with that zombie.”

“Sounds like Gil,” Roland said with a chuckle. “He was never good around monsters. Or danger.” He scratched his head, “But it sounds like he’s breaking out of his shell if he’s hanging out with a zombie…”

“Well, you know, his desire to explore and learn sometimes surpasses his fright mentality,” I said.

Roland walked up to Alexander, “So, Mr. death knight Alexander, I was talking to Hector and we are thinking about boosting our numbers by targeting the illegal slave trade and liberating and recruiting from their ranks. I can assume you will help, right?”

“Of course,” it waved, “Sounds like a great plan. However, I know nothing of the dealings of men. We will need much more information.”

“That seems to me to be the biggest issue with that so far,” I said joining them. “We need both manpower and intel to do anything, and I’m afraid we don’t have enough of either.”

“Your average vermin thug would be unable to challenge me,” Alexander declared.

I sighed, “I know you’re strong, but there might be dozens of enemies in unfavorable territory. It’s not like I can come out and help since I’m stuck here either.”

“Regardless,” Alexander rattled, “Differences in manpower can be compensated with sufficient knowledge. That elf girl is already out there. Set her on this task.”

I nodded my head, “I will do that. Hope it isn’t too much for her.” I looked over at the goblins and scratched my chin. “What should we do meanwhile? It may take some time for Lia to get back to us with anything.”

Roland answered, “If you really intend on building this place into something, we need to work on infrastructure. Map out the area if you haven’t, plan out the structure, and start clearing out the area and erecting structures.”

“Battlements and defense structures would be wise,” Alexander said. “Establish some outpost areas out in the forest and the goblins can rotate between them while they hunt and grow as a protector force. The skeletons and golems can be used for building efforts: both on the proposed underground path below the river and even an above ground bridge.”

I listened to their plans and didn’t have a single objection. “It all sounds good to me. We can use the golems to clear out some trees and lumber for now and we can convert those into outposts in the forest. Until those are setup the goblins should help out to accelerate the process. The skeletons can go back down to their digging and I’ll help out. There’s a lot of renovations I wanted to do to the dungeon. Expand the fourth floor in particular for housing, setup the first floor as a defensible entrance, and convert the second floor into a holding area for monsters and supplies.”

“Let’s get to it then,” Roland said. “Doesn’t sound like there is much for me to do so I will go and catch up with Gil for now. I have some questions for him.” He looked over at Alexander, “After that, I’d like to sit down and discuss some things with you. Is that alright?”

“Very well,” the death knight said. “I will oversee the fortification effort in the meanwhile.”

I clapped my hands, “Excellent. I’ll go send a message to Lia then and we can get started.” I headed back to the dungeon to begin the long buildup.