In the middle of the small village, Thirty five members of the tribe sit there covering themselves in mana. Each individual has varying degrees of success, but they are all patchy and at the very least "completely" surrounding their bodies, creating a formless film over their person.

I walk between each meticulously made row and examine each individual. I come to a stop at a very small goblin with softer features than rest of them. Although physically he is weaker than the rest, the film covering is the most complete.

"Guide as little mana through through your body as possible and focus on control. Slowly increase the amount when you feel you can control it."

Upon saying this, the mana on each individuals body decreases, but the patchy and flailing aura appears more controlled, and on the individual in front of me, It comes to a perfect circulation. The mana slowly moves across his body and cycles in a controlled function.

"Hold this for a while." I say

After waiting roughly a minute I say "Stop."

At this everyone stops the circulation of mana in their bodies.

"Attempt it again, but try to grasp that same feeling of control. This child here is circulating his mana from the front of his body, over his head and back. Learn from his example." I say

At this comment, everyone attempts to adjust the way control their mana.

"If this method doesn't work for you, play with it. Find perfection. You are all different, your necessities are different." I continue.

After hearing this, the goblins who had struggled more with this method attempted a different method of mana circulation. They all focused on finding that perfect method to control their mana aura.

After three hours of training, they had all more or less figured out how to control their aura. At this time I force them all to spar against eachother. Each required to use blunt sticks as weapons, each one required to more or less avoid grappling.

I taught them basic fighting movements, things to watch for, and mostly I beat them to show effectiveness.

With a kick to the knees, the goblin in front of me stumbles, whereupon I catch him by the arm and fling him into a prone position. Looking at the watching goblins I say

"Everyone has a weak point. The knees, the head, the groin. So long as you find an opening, you have an opportunity to down an opponent." With this, I let them let them spar amongst themselves with Bearg watching over them as I turn my attention to the goblin from earlier.

He starts by grappling his opponent, but because of lack of leverage and size, he naturally loses. With interest I walk up and say

"As a smaller fighter, you will never win in absolute strength. You can use your mana to absolve the force behind a punch but when he grabs you, you are done for. Even though your mana control is better than his, it won't give you a great advantage at this point in time because you are still too weak. Take advantage of your size and control. Light quick attacks. Back off. Don't let him get a hold of you."

Taking my words into consideration, the goblins separate and prepare another round. This time, the larger goblin rushes to grab, however using propulsion from his mana, the smaller one ducks under his arms and uses the blunt stick in his hands to hit his side before rolling forwards. The larger goblin stutters before the smaller one turns around and smacking him on the head, instantly knocking him out.

With a smile I say

"Good job. Take advantage of your mana control and you will never lose. There is a popular opinion that speed triumphs strength, take advantage of your speed and hit harder with your whole body backing you up. No need to grapple with strength like the rest of them."

Ending the conversation, I return to my hut.

The goblins themselves, are instinctual fighters. They are very good at being tricky during a fight, and training them to fight and teaching them weakpoints is like adding wings to a tiger. They pick up physical fighting very fast, however they are picking up mana control fairly slow. Usually it would take an hour or so to completely control your aura at a low level, however even the best of them took three, and not everyone has figured it out yet. They are nowhere near Bearg's strength, let alone mine, however with a lack of strength, they can make up for in teamwork. Which I intend to drill into them while fighting the shellfish creatures tomorrow.

Sitting in a lotus position, I slowly absorb wild mana into my body and push it towards my fifth meridian. After about an hour, I end my practice with a sigh. This way of pulling mana into my body is too slow. I'd be better off eating monster cores. Granted, the mana in the air is not very thick.

I stand up restlessly and take a walk around the village, watching the tired looking goblins that are still working hard until I come to a stop in front of the piles of chitin. There are many plates that can be used for chest pieces, but they are quite large, only suitable for the hobgoblins. There are many smaller pieces from the legs and tail however, and we can at least cover the vitals. Covering the vitals with chitin will decrease the chances of death when fighting against the wedhund members. It won't be as usefull against larger creatures, but it will definately protect from slash and stabs.

With my plans made up, I return to my hut and decide to call it a night, waiting for sunrise to begin group training.