After a week or so, the report from the dark elves stated that the cave had a deeper system which connected it to an iron deposit. Dark elves also mentioned that although they have not yet seen it in the cave, coal is usually found around iron deposits, and thus it is likely that they would be able to mine some when they start working out the cave.

Another thing their report included was that the size of the explored cave was big enough to accommodate our entire population, but giant cave spiders had built their nests in some of the rooms of the cave. Although I would have wished that they would not engage in a fight with monsters, apparently, they had no choice when they were exploring. While we were victorious in the fights against the giant cave spiders, some casualties were inevitable. As a result of the fights however, Harren had a bountiful feast of spider meat, and we were able to add giant cave spider poison sacks and stinger as well as their spinnerets, the organ which spins spider silk, to our arsenal.

The giant cave spider is a huge monster, as wide as 3 meters and perhaps as tall as a troll if we could it make it stand up on its legs. It has long, hairy legs, and millions of eyes. It has a thick stinger, and I am pretty sure if one can survive from its poison which is strong enough to kill a gith in a matter of seconds, the stab wound it opens up on your chest would kill anyone. I am amazed that they were able to take these scary creatures down without proper weapons and armor – perhaps it was their luck or just the sheer amount of power that came about with the superiority in numbers. Either way, although our sacrifices were upsetting, we acquired a new base, one that has iron deposit and can accommodate our entire population if necessary. Moreover, we also expanded our resources and weaponry.

One thing I really was curious about now was whether I could make giant cave spiders into citizens just like I convinced the orcs. While it was possible with magic to use spinnerets to produce silk according to dark elves, it would still be useful to have a living giant cave spider on our side. That way, we could both save magical power and have a fearsome monster on our side.

Indeed, I feel like I have a certain charm for humanoid monsters that happen to get them to like me faster. While, clearly, the reason for Ghyurl’s and Lthrok’s tribes to join Harren was the tale of the caller, I sense a sympathetic attraction yet still. It is as if they do not harbor the anger and grudge they hold against humans towards me. Maybe I can use my magic to deliberately tame non-humanoid monsters. But, still, maybe it is also impossible – that my magic can only penetrate the minds and hearts of sentient monsters. If giant cave spiders were smarter, that is, maybe that would have been possible.

In the past week, the expansion of Harren continued at a pace much slower than the construction of the initial site. This was, of course, to be expected since the expansion is done with much more care and attention to details: the buildings look much better and proper. The city planning is also done in accordance with defense strategies in case of a siege or a monster attack as well as the distance from accommodation blocks to the areas where I wish to build commercial and work centers. The main construction item is wood, so the city will be prone to fire. This, we might change later on, but I really hope there is a magic which make the buildings fire-proof. Magic can make a person stronger and increase their endurance – so, I assume similar rules apply to materials.

Since the cave needs a bit more exploration, I am planning to send more people from Harren over there to slowly start settling. Although there will be people living there, my plan is to use the cave a source of raw materials and bring those materials over here to work on them. These materials, of course, are mainly the metals that we will hopefully extract from within the cave and organic materials like another giant monster corpse.

Lthrok recently started focusing more on breeding the wargs than taming them. This means that we will not be able to ride female wargs for six months but will have many more wargs once they give birth. In the long-term, I think this is a much better idea than increasing their numbers mainly by taming new ones. Also, not much effort is required to breed wargs, since it is in their nature, unlike being tamed. So, we are saving our time and effort. So, the time Lthrok’s trive poured into taming wargs is now allocated for training fighting and warg-riding skills.