there is a reason that I do not like to work with goblins. They are always a headache to deal with. The headache this time is Jack, who came to me just this morning. It started as such a simple and peaceful conversation. The day was so good too, or as good as it could be.

Jack- troop master, I have something that I need to inform you.

he came so calmly too. As if what he was about to tell me was nothing important.

Jack- it might have been a mistake for us to come to this place. I have discovered something about this place. The quarry is linked with a den, troop master.

Me- is it anything hard to deal with. Let soldier one deal with it. He is the one that commands the troop.

well, I did not understand how hard a den would be to deal with.

Jack- troop master, you do not seem to understand just how deadly a den can be, especially the kind of den that we are dealing with.

Me- then, tell me what is it that we are dealing with.

Jack- this particular codex that I am using contains a record from one of the people that came to this location when we had just set up the southern walls.

This particular group contained three named, a titled one, and thirty-seven unnamed ones.

Me- who was the titled one.

Jack- he is the goblin builder. A very weird man, but his knowledge of building is considered to be the best in our neighbors. He built the southern walls or at least the base of it. The remaining part was the hard work of the great mage.

Me- get to the point.

Jack- yeah, anyways. This group was charged with scouting this region and if possible building a forward base here.

They scouted the entire region, fighting both night wolves and water wolves when they finally decided to build their base here. Within a week, what you see in front of you was built. It was smooth sailing for this group until the quarry was dug deep enough to link with the den. Soon enough, the group had to face waves and waves of attacks that forced them to abandon this place.

Me- what exactly is a den. Do you folks mind explaining it to me clearly.

Jack- a den or a dungeon if you are human, is the place that mana monsters are born in. All the magic beasts and spiritual constructs originate from these dens. Normally, a den can produce at most step zero or step one being like us, with a few dungeons able to produce a step two rarely. This is the hunting season now, so it can be considered to be an exception.

Me- what happens in the hunting season. I think it should be nothing good.

Jack- the ambient mana in the air increases by a lot. That is why the production of monsters is boosted by a lot. I won't be surprised if there are at least three or four step two beings down there.

Me- you could not have bothered to mention this to me before we came to this place. You know that we can't abandon this place now. There are night wolves outside.

At least this body of mine is intimidating. Jack steps back in fear, without much effort from my side. This body does have its benefits.

Jack- even I did not know then, troop master. The text in the codex that I was given was tampered with magically. Even a first step being like me barely noticed the traces of this spell.

he then goes on to explain how the ink on the pages was transmuted to match the color of the pages. The codex is kind of like my ability, where the caster tends to use magic to manipulate ink to record their texts.

Me- I want a list of all the beings that are capable of this. At the very least, this situation gives us somebody to show our strength. You think it to be anything more than a prank. Anything that I need to worry about.

Jack- no my lord, we were just very unlucky. Firstly, the night wolves have never been this aggressive. We have sent entire troops of nameless ones here before and they have completely intact. Secondly, this type of transmutation has a time limit. usually, it disappears in a couple of days. I personally never understood why that is funny, but everybody does this to everybody. what will we do about the den? We can't just leave it alone can we, troop master.

Me- for that we will be needing soldier one. We can't just leave the walls empty. Are there any details about the creatures in the den at the very least? I need to know what we are dealing with anyway.

Jack- yes troop master.

Me- keep it ready, I will be listening to it after I converse with soldier one.

as it turns out, soldier one was already making his way to my building. A two-storied building of which the second floor is leveled, but the first floor is pretty liveable. Anyway, it did not take long for a proper round table to be set up. Me, Jack, and soldier one to be precise.

Soldier one- troop master, we have found something in one of the buildings.

Me- we will discuss that later, young Jack has something more important to speak about. There is a den in this region.

Jack- the creatures that are spawned by this dungeon should be a kind of variant of the type sewer rat.

jack interrupts me, suddenly speaking. Well, normally that would lead to bad things happening to jack, but now is neither the time nor do I have the strength to enforce such a punishment.

Me- so what about their strength and their abilities in general and can we leave them alone.

Soldier one- that would not be very wise. Rats are always the main threat that we are facing in the granary. They are hungry little pests that are one of the most annoying pests to deal with. they are not particularly strong. I can take on about three of them on my own, but if we have food with us so we have a lot to worry about.

Me- why exactly.

Soldier one- rats are gluttonous creatures, capable of eating almost anything. Cooked food is something that particularly attracts rats. They will come and keep attacking us until they manage to devour our resources or worse leave them behind. Let's just say it is very unsafe to eat food left behind by rats.

Jack- the major threat of these creatures is their bites. They can release a kind of poison that can kill the flesh. It can be pretty dangerous if it is not dealt with. We have medics with us, but this kind of toxins will require step one magic at the very least to deal with.

Me- so, we will most likely have to send soldiers down there, shouldn't we soldier one.

Soldier one- I won't be able to send too many soldiers. Soldier three and soldier seven are in a bad situation, so soldier four and soldier five will not be able to go. The remaining soldiers are needed at the wall, so that leaves only me.

Me- well, if that is the case, then it can only be three of us. Jack, I am certain you have nothing to do up here.

Jack- no, I have no problem troop master. I am not sure of the help we can be. The rats are famous for their numbers.

Me- we are free and we can try something at the very least. Knowing the map of the dungeon will also help don't you think. If the night wolves do breach the walls, it can make a pretty good backup plan. Let the wolves fight the rats while we hide safely.

Jack- that is a very risky plan.

Me- when you are about to die anyway, I am sure you won't mind the riskiness. Leave and prepare that list of yours.

jack leaves without much resistance, leaving me alone with soldier one.

Me- what did you want to inform me anyway, soldier one.

Soldier one- we had found a chest in one of the buildings, sealed with some kind of sealing magic. We wanted you to take a look at it.

Me- sure, I will make my way in some time. Anyway, talk to me about soldier three and soldier seven. How are they?

Soldier one- I am not very sure, but soldier four and soldier five are still pretty adamant that we should not follow your method.

Me- I will need to remind you that my process is the absolute last resort that we are going to use. They will be nearly useless even if we succeed and strength is something that we need urgently. To think that they managed to take out our strongest so quickly.

Soldier one- but both of them are so close to death. It feels as if either of them is going to die any second.

he speaks this with an intensity rarely seen in him. I do pity this one. but I can't do anything to help him for now.

Me- you focus on the quarry for now and leave the injured to the medics. Death by starvation is not very fun. I have something to figure out so it would be nice if you left me for now.

Anyway, I begin to channel my mana compressing it, making it thinner and thinner until it took the shape of a string. Not very long, roughly about the length of my hand. Already I can feel the ambient mana of the world ripping the string to pieces.

For some reason, mana in this world seems to particularly tame compared to other worlds. In other worlds, such a weak string would have been completely obliterated.

this is a spell of mine, though I don't know if it can be called that. It is called mana string and it allows me to shape mana into the shape of a string. It is a spell that can be used in almost any world, but to use it in a new world will take some time.

Well, I will need to experiment with the spell a bit more, see just how effective it is going to be, and just how much I will need to modify that spell. How much mana should be given to the string, too much would be wasteful, and too little would cause the string to be ripped apart. Magic is a pretty complex subject if I can say so Especially the kind that I practice.

(After a few hours )

Well, I finally managed to complete modifying mana string to suit the rules of this world. It is at the most efficiency that I can give it right now.

A single unit of mana can give me about a meter of mana string. Not too much but we can work something out, maybe even weave clothes out of it. Clothes made of mana tend to be pretty durable. not only cloth, but with enough time I can create weapons, armors, and even entire buildings if I have enough mana. This particular flexibility of mana string made it the perfect spell to use with my absorption ability. As I said before, my previous ability allows me to absorb things and make them my own. I remember once when I had absorbed the teeth of a vampire. It was about seven worlds ago.

It gave me the ability to absorb the blood of creatures, using it to heal myself. This particular absorption ability extended to my mana string as well. I managed to create the blood king, an entire fort with many abilities. I had lent it to Tengen,(another world hopper) for some experimentation.

Thinking about what I do not have will not serve me any purpose. I have to enter into meditation. It has been very taxing to do all of these calculations.