The good news is that the number of goblins coming into his territory finally started to dwindle. Unfortunately, he had almost nothing left to fight them with. The big spider swarms and really big spider swarms were doing a really good job of holding the off thanks largely to their sheer numbers. Even that proved to be only temporary though as the spider swarms began to fall. By now the goblins had stopped coming but that still left more than he dared think about to deal with. As the last goblin made it inside the northern most gate he decided to once again send his troops, the few he had left, around the side of his territory to attack the goblins. This time however he wouldn't be attacking the goblin army's sides but rather the back line itself. This worked perfectly as he was able to catch them completely off guard a second time. The water mantises and normal mantises tore into their lines killing a few before they even realized they were being attacked. By this time their front lines had killed most of the spiders and were advancing towards yet another gate. Half their army had been forced to stay behind to deal with the new threat though. That was when he made the call to have Cid send in the humans. They gathered just outside his custom-built wall waiting for goblins to make it to them. Slowly they started making it through but once again faced the tag team of the fire and air mantises. As always while that did hold them for a while it couldn't hold them forever. It wasn't long before they faced their first human opponent and Logan could see first-hand the results of all that training and the mock battles. With the Healers there to tend to any wounds the battle went better than he could have hoped. The warriors were able to parry or block every goblin stab or slash attack effortlessly. By this time the water and normal mantises had been defeated but they did their job and successfully divided the goblin army. This meant that the humans Had a few seconds to catch their breath and for the healers to make sure everyone was tended to before the next wave hit. It took a great deal of effort but eventually the humans were able to deal with the last of the goblins.
Now though he had a new problem, his entire northern territory was full of goblin bodies, and he didn't have any rats left to eat them. Even if he did what would he do with the skeletons. That was when he made another startling realization. "What happened to all the other skeletons I've accumulated?" As much as he didn't like the idea the only possible solution was that he must have absorbed them at some point. Looking closer at his core he realized that absorbing fallen enemies was a passive skill, one he'd been actively fighting against due to some misguided human morality about 'eating' sentient beings. After all he'd had no problem absorbing his own dead troops. In fact, he'd been doing that all along without even realizing it. With that in mind he decided to just go ahead and absorb them. To his surprise he didn't taste them, looking back he can't remember why he thought that he would. He also realized that he wasn't really absorbing them but rather transforming them into mana and absorbing that. With that one realization he understood that he'd been handicapping himself by not absorbing fallen enemies. Once again, he was reminded that he needed to stop thinking like a human.
Aside from that he had another mystery. Not all of the lesser wolves went to fight when ordered. In an effort to find out why he looked at the ones who hadn't and noticed that they were all bonded to a human. Apparently, they had been tamed which made them technically no longer one of his units. There was no actual change in their appearance or personality nor of the humans they were bonded with. The bond was strong enough though that they would only respond to the human who tamed them. "So, that's a thing I guess" he chuckled to himself no longer concerned now that he knew why they refused his orders.
For now, it was time to go on a spending spree because he now had a lot of mana. The first thing he did was go ahead and buy six western expansions giving him more houses the rest of the mansions and a lot more room to work with. He then removed the eastern walls separating his mansion from his other building so that the humans could get around easier and used the material to repair and reinforce the wall nearest the streets. He then bought one more eastern expansion. This didn't really give him anything sadly. Still, he did spend two weeks' worth of mana in a few hours. With the insane rate at which his mana now regenerates that means he burned through a lot of mana. The only reason it even took that long was because he stopped to deal with the wall before buying the final expansion.
Looking over his territory he thinks back to when it was just three meters by three meters. To think he now controls an area of 156 meters by 156 meters. He's no fool he knows that he is still relatively small on the grand scale, but he is inching ever closer to being a kilometer wide in both directions. Which if he's being honest has been one of his long-term goals from the beginning. After all he figured the city was at least one kilometer by one kilometer, probably more.
He watched as the humans gathered up what they could from the goblins gear. There wasn't much that was actually useful but at least carver could use the swords as Scrap metal to make actual usable swords and other equipment. After all the goblins idea of a sword was any sharp or semi-sharp bit of metal. The good news was that he had survived the goblin horde and although he wasn't sure how fast they reproduced he was almost certain his troops could repopulate faster. A few people had gotten seriously wounded during the fight but thankfully nobody had died. It did mean that the healers were going to be busy for the next few days but on the bright side it also meant they would get plenty of practice with healing spells. The mages were annoyed that they hadn't been used at all aside from the healers. He couldn't even blame them. It probably would have gone a lot smoother if he had remembered to deploy the mages along the wall like he had planned. Apparently, he was still capable of forgetting things while panicking. Also, he was apparently more panicked than he realized.
Yangus went with the cooks to assess what if any damage the new and improved cafeteria had suffered. It seems that he got lucky again as none of the goblins had made it inside. Whether that was because they didn't expect it to be getting used or because they didn't know how to open doors, he wasn't sure. What he did know was that everyone needed a good meal, more than that though they earned a good meal. The warriors, the ones not injured anyway, decided to take a few days off from the mock battles to give everyone time to recover mentally as well as physically. Unfortunately, the goblins didn't have any alchemy ingredients on them or even any potions although Allyson did check thoroughly. Logan also checked his inventory in case he'd accidentally absorbed some but didn't find any.
The battle had taken most of an entire day so by the time everyone got done checking how much damage was actually done the sun had already set. The next day things slowly began to get back to normal as everyone got back into their old routines. The warriors decided to take an extra-long bath with the few fire mantises that respawned doing their best to keep the rooms at around 37c. They're usually a few degrees short of that temperature but even so this means the humans wouldn't be cold getting out of the water. Allyson is busy replacing the potions that got used in the battle. The mages are back to practicing combo spells, but this time are also taking a moment every now and then to work on strengthening their individual spells. Something they had been neglecting before as soon as they began working on combo spells. Everyone else is doing their own thing.
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The next day he already had enough mana to expand again thanks to the leftover mana he had after his last growth spurt. Without a second thought he bought the eastern expansion which gave him part of two mansions, or at least the foundations where they would have been, but surprisingly no little houses in the southeast corner like he was expecting based on the established pattern. His troop count was still around just four percent what it was before which is ironically enough another reason for him to want to expand. Not just in hopes of finding another spawner which was part of it but also in hopes of reducing the chances of him getting caught off guard.
A few days later he was ready to expand again, and the warriors were back to their mock battles. Even the seriously injured warriors were nearly completely healed. As much as he wanted to watch their first mock battle since the goblin attack, he had work to do. He quickly bought the eastern expansion and on top of getting what he expected got two more building, or at least the foundations, that appeared at first glance to be mansions but their location and the fact that they appeared to be surrounded on all sides by streets meant that they were probably something else. Although that last part was a guess based on the pattern he could see.
He wanted to send out his recon team to see if the kobolds had rebuilt their camps, but he decided to wait until his troop count had increased to a point where he felt confident, he could defend himself. As much as it pained him to admit it there was no point trying to rescue more slaves if he wasn't sure he could defend them, and right now he wasn't sure he could defend himself from a serious attack much less the humans under his protection.
After two weeks and seven more upgrades he finally felt comfortable enough with the number of troops he had to send out his Recon team once again. He still didn't know what those two buildings in the southeast of his territory were supposed to be but that was a mystery for another day. Right now, he had a mission to plan. He was still at around fifty percent his pre goblin horde strength. He was confident he could handle any retaliatory strikes the kobold might try though. Not that he expected any since the idea was still to make it look like elves were the ones raiding the kobold camp and stealing their slaves.
As he sent them out, he decided to relax for a bit and see if he could still take in his entire territory. It should be possible since he was his territory, but he had also grown a lot since he tried it last. The sensation was hard to describe. He could see everything and knew where everyone was, but his territory was so big that it was like he was looking everywhere all at once. Not really focused on anything just observing. Focusing on different places he surmised that he didn't actually move or rather that he didn't need to move. It was only the conscious part of his mind focusing on different things within his field of vision that made it appear as though his viewpoint was moving around. That would explain how he could be aware of someone entering or leaving his territory without actually consciously seeing them do it.
As he looked over everything, he noticed that Yangus's crew had graduated and was now working on separate projects. Yangus was still primarily building houses, but Kite now almost exclusively gathered and shaped the wood into whatever size and shape was needed without needing his work double checked. Lott on the other hand makes all the furnishings, Chairs, tables, beds, and everything else that makes a house feel more like a home. People have even begun moving into the houses they've already finished. Sometimes even before Adam can apply the extra layer of stonework to strengthen the house. At the moment though Yangus is working on converting the partially destroyed mansion beside the cafeteria into another boarding house. It shouldn't take near as long as last time with two competent helpers. He should have done it before now, but the thought of having individual houses was too tempting.
Pulling his attention away from the woodworkers he noticed that Carver still had his apprentice but that was likely do to their only being one forge within his territory. It could also be that blacksmithing is harder to learn than woodworking he didn't know enough about either one to say for sure. As he watched he noticed that the apprentice was in charge of simple things like plates, bowls, spoons, cups, and the like.
He scanned everyone else but nothing particularly interesting was happening. He did notice the expectant mothers hanging out more and more but that was to be expected with them training together almost exclusively. Watching them Logan once again vowed that their children would never know slavery or have to master swordsmanship at much to young an age. Watching them he suddenly realized they would soon have to decide how children would be raised. Obviously, they needed some form of education but there was plenty of time for that. The more immediate concern was whether a nursery should be built so that they could continue to be warriors in the human army. Deciding this needed to be resolved sooner rather than later he had Cid go talk with them. After a lot of discussion, it was decided that the mostly undamaged mansion on the other side of the cafeteria from where the boarding house was being built would be converted into a nursery. They also agreed that if any woman wanted to stop being a warrior to raise her child nobody would fault her for it.
With the boring administrative duties out of the way for now he made a mental note to ask for someone to take care of things like that for him. The humans would need to start governing themselves eventually after all. At any rate he noticed it had been a few days since he sent the recon team out, which meant it was time to expand. This expanse does get him the wall east of the two mansions he just recently acquired. which in turn allows him to tear down the walls west of those mansions and use the material as well as some more he gained from marking more spots for Adam to mine out in to repair and reinforce the eastern walls. He had a choice to make now, continue expanding east west or expand more north south. Normally he would switch to north south by now to keep his sides more or less even, but he was big enough at this point that the 30 extra meters in the east west direction didn't matter too much. Not when the length of his sides would soon be measured in hundreds of meters. Ah well, he would need to make a decision eventually but for now he couldn't decide.
Instead, he chose to relax and watch some mock battles. It seems that watching how the fire mantises behaved in the last battle gave them some ideas as he could see some of the defenders hiding behind the gate waiting to attack anyone from the 'attackers' that made it through. Unfortunately, the 'attackers' had watched the same tactic and so where ready for it. The result of which being the surprise attackers themselves getting surprise attacked. Logan of course found the whole thing incredibly amusing.
Further down in what he had begun calling his sub-basement the two light and shadow mages being trained by Lulu and her partner were progressing rapidly and could already almost match them blow for blow. This gave him an idea, he wanted to test their ability compared to the warriors. With that in mind he instructed Cid to have four warriors go down and spar with the mages after the mid-day meal. Four warriors volunteered for the sparing match thinking it would be easy, after all mages don't do melee. That's why you need a melee fighter or two to stay back and protect them. They soon had that preconception beaten out of them and were suddenly thankful there was no audience. The mages for their part seem to have enjoyed it and wanted to do it again. Logan however was already thinking ahead. Exhibition matches like this would surely raise moral as well as pushing the warriors to improve. Any way to improve morale was always welcome. He mentioned his idea to Cid and let him go about organizing it. Cid in turn talked it over with Joel and a few others and after discussing it most of the rest of that day they decided on a tournament style setup with two teams of four in each match. The teams could have any combination of mages and warriors they wanted but they had to have four members. After each match one team would be eliminated and the other team would move on, just like any other tournament, until there was a clear winner. The prize would be the chance to challenge the shadow and light warriors in a four vs four match.