“…...”

The newly appointed goblin general continued kneeling as he observed his masters. He was a very unusual specimen of the Goblin race. Most goblins stood at around one meter(three feet) in height with lanky bodies and distorted features such as large pointed ears and hooked noses. Their skin came in various shades of green, grey, blue, brown and pale white. But this one stood at almost two meters(five feet), with a sturdy muscular body of dark green skin tone. He still had the large ears and hooked nose but they look didn’t look so comically out of place on him, instead he looked actually kind of impressive with such features.

[Master, what is the plan for this empowered goblin.]

“Didn’t you say that all of the existing monsters in the Maze won’t follow my orders, even though I’m the Dungeon master that most of them are more likely to eat me than follow my orders. So I’ll need to create subordinates to exert my authority over them. This goblin will be my agent to bring the various goblin tribes under my control. Also the high costs to create monsters means I can’t produce large numbers and should focus on leaders. One hundred units of Quintessence just for one goblin, by the way what does a unit even mean?”

[A unit of Quintessence is the amount harvested from the average human upon death.]

“What!? So I need a hundred hunters so get just one goblin. In most situations a newbie hunter can kill several goblins. Why is it so costly to buy such basic monsters?”

[A large amount of Quintessence is required to make something from nothing. The cost can be reduced if materials are procured to mediate the creation of new creatures. Conversely the amount of Quintessence gained from intruders varies as they acquire Quintessence either from ingesting the meat of creatures or soaking it up the air in the Maze. Most experienced intruders would be worth several hundred units easily. Also Master, the current amount of Quintessence is a result of forced inactivity and loss of control over large sections of the Maze. Under normal circumstances this Core should have access to several million units at minimum.]

Even though the Core spoke in its usual neutral tone, Sigard sensed that it was being defensive. Also he didn’t have a pile of corpses just laying around so he would be required to use Quintessence exclusively for the foreseeable future.

“So then how do we achieve this reserve of millions of units of Quintessence?”

[This Core would draw in Quintessence from other parts of the Maze. But this Core still has no feeling to most of the Maze and thus can’t redirect any here. There are the reserves of stored Quintessence. Unfortunately, intruders have looted these reserves over the centuries and this Core doesn’t currently have access to any existing stock piles. Quintessence can be retrieved from intruders upon their death, so a large number of intruders being exterminated would help. Really it’s only with time that the amount of Quintessence is going to increase.]

“Anyway this just reinforces the fact that I should focus on creating monsters who will be my lieutenants and rule over the Maze’s inhabitants on my behalf, at least for the time being.”

Sigard turned his sight back towards the kneeling Goblin.

“Anyway you’ll be my general, who unites the goblins under my rule.”

Sigard maintain a straight face but internally he was quite excited. He was starting to enjoy this feeling of power, of getting to control his own destiny.

“Yes master…where are goblins?”

The goblin general acknowledged the order but since they were currently in the hidden tunnel network that the Core was stored in, he didn’t know how to fulfill his orders.

“Right, I’ll need to show you to the Maze proper. From there you can go searching for the various goblin tribes.”

Sigard then turns to lead the goblin general out, only for the Core to speak up.

[Master, if your entering the Maze proper then Master should have a set of guardians to protect you.]

“We barely have any energy as is and you want me to spend what little there is on escorts?”

[Master should have protectors for any lurking threats. Quintessence can be gathered, but Masters safety is paramount.]

“…Fine.” Sigard knew how dangerous the Maze could be. Though he didn’t see it as necessary right now, this was another good opportunity to test the monster creation process.

Sigard returned to the core and placed his hand on it and accessed the Catalog.

Instantly Sigard was once again bombarded with information. Hundreds of entries flooded Sigard’s mind all at once. And once Sigard began to make sense of it all a simple thought like ‘What would be a good option for a bodyguard,’ the list of entries would change to match his errant thoughts. This happened several more times in quick succession reacting to Sigard’s thoughts. Sigard quickly became tired of this and picked two semi-appropriate entries, almost at random.

Golden Thunder Tiger-5000 units

Giant Mantis Queen-3000 units

Sigard pulled back from the Core to recuperate while the two monster were being created. He was becoming very certain that he would need a lot of practice just to understand and navigate the Core’s functions. It would require a lot of mental discipline to control errant thoughts, especially while overwhelmed by the leviathan amount of information flooding his mind.

After the two new monsters had finished being created they left their rooms and came to the core room. The Golden Thunder Tiger looked like a typical, if large, tiger. She was 12ft(3.6 meters) in length with the black stripes being sharp and jagged in appearance. The Giant Mantis Queen on the other hand was monster incarnate. She was massive, towering over everyone present, bright green chitin covering her body, bulging eyes, scythe like forelegs and predatory insectoid features made for a fearsome creature.

Both had come up to Sigard to present themselves, but he was to mentally exhausted to pay attention anymore and sat down.

He had barely eaten anything for days, today it was only a few scraps of meat scavenged from a beast killed by something else in the Maze. Now he felt drained and tired.

And so he passed out.