The fighting was intense. Despite how mentally and physically exhausted they were the sheer number of goblins meant that it was not an easy fight for the humans. In fact, without Logan's help they might have even suffered losses. That said the fight was a huge success on multiple levels. Firstly, winning the fight provided a huge boost to moral. Secondly, He got a huge chunk of mana from that fight. It was less than what he would have gotten for killing them all himself but still significant. Combined with what he had saved up it was enough to get eight southern expansions. As he got the expansion, he couldn't help but notice that some of the buildings resembled English letters. It was just a coincidence he was reasonably certain, but he still found it amusing that from a bird's eye view he could spot a random E, H, T, or L every now and then. They aren't in any particular order and were usually by themselves, as far as letter shaped buildings go, which is why he believes it was just a weird coincidence.

Getting back to business he wants to get this mess with the goblins over with as soon as possible, so he sends out another army of dire rat swarms to lead them back to the sanctuary. The other goblin camp that is relatively close to the one he is currently attacking is still not showing any signs of joining the fight. They either haven't noticed or don't care about what is happening Logan isn't sure which and isn't sure he should care since it makes taking them out one at a time much easier.

While he waits for the dire rats to make their way to the goblins and for the goblins to follow them back, he decides to focus on other things. For one thing he noticed that a few of the houses have basements. Not all of them, but a fair amount of them. He considers linking them together to make a vast underground network. In the end though he decides against it, believing that the houses should remain separate. What he does do instead is use the existing basements as a template to give basements to the houses that don't have them. He does this partly to make everything more symmetrical, but also because these will most likely be generational houses. As much as it pains him to admit it, he is expanding far slower than he would like. Which means that it could still be a few years before he has the entire town. He realistically won't be anywhere near the other human city for decades even if he expands straight towards it after claiming the entire town.

He could have the humans carve out the basement, but it's been a while since he got his hands dirty so to speak. It takes him almost a month to complete all the basements because he wants to make them as perfect as possible. He also wants to add the door leading to the basement in a way that won't conflict with anything in the house or be in the way. Placing the doors turned out to be the most time consuming because everyone decorates their houses slightly differently. Which is remarkable in itself given how few options they have for decorating. This limited the ability of his, now admittedly small, underground area to grow outward. He still had room under the streets and in a few other places, so it wasn't like he was completely blocked from digging out tunnels and stuff in that direction. He doesn't dig out any extra tunnels or anything just yet. He still needs Yangus and Adam to come in and create actual walls and floors for the basements.

On a side note, he didn't expand his territory during that month even though he could have. He decided that he liked getting a bunch of expansions all at once. He wasn't as pressed for space anymore the same way he once was. Everyone had a bed to sleep in even if not everyone had their own house yet. There were even a few empty beds now. So as much as his instincts didn't seem to like the idea, he decided he could afford to wait and not spend his mana as soon as he got it.

For now, he had to focus. The goblins would be here momentarily. The human army was ready and willing to meet them head on. As they trickled in, he noticed that they were a lot less grouped up than even the last group. In fact, he found that he barely had to do anything. On the one hand, just watching was boring. On the other hand, he had to admit that he was proud of them for not relying completely on him for their protection. That's not to say that he did absolutely nothing during this fight as he still stepped in whenever it looked like they needed help. He limited how much he actually helps though because he had noticed lately that the humans seemed to be getting stronger. For years he had assumed it was due to a proper diet combined with proper training and practical experience. Now though he wasn't so sure. Some of the moves they were pulling off seemed almost superhuman. With the mages he had chalked it up to them just getting better at using magic since he had no frame of reference to go by, but now even the melee fighters were doing things he wasn't sure was physically possible. Well, maybe if they were Olympic athletes who had spent over ten years honing their skills.

Watching the battle unfold he couldn't help but think back to when the first few humans entered his awareness. They have come so far in just a few short years. Naturally, he found himself curious if they would continue to progress at this rate or if they would plateau soon. Ordinarily it would be obvious, but he reminded himself that the normal rules regarding what is and isn't possible don't apply in a world full of magic. As the battle wound down towards its inevitable conclusion, he began to think how he could aid their continued growth. Most of what he had already set up was based on the assumption that they would never progress beyond what a 'normal' human was capable of. With the exception of mages of course. He also realized how much they were holding back during their mock battles and tournaments which can't be helping their progress.

He would have to think about that later though. For now, he had a lot of mana to spend. Combined with what he already had saved up from all the waiting around he now had enough to grab eight southern expansions. That gave him access to a lot more houses. He would need to add a basement to most of them once Yangus's crew was done rebuilding them. A task he was looking forward to.

As he watched Yangus work he thought about everything that he still needed to do and how best to accomplish his goals. He needs a way to help them advance even further. Perhaps he could have them go up against a few of his seldom used mobs. The problem was that looking over how much they advanced in the last two battles he realized they advanced more in those two battles than in the previous year. He feared they wouldn't advance very fast as long as they knew there was no actual danger. It wasn't as if he was willing to put their lives in actual danger either. He was also worried about those who chose not to pursue combat roles somehow getting the idea he had suddenly turned on them. Luckily with Cid's help and some careful planning and forethought he could prevent that, but he still couldn't change the fact that there was no actual danger, and they knew it.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

The question of how to make them think their lives are in danger without actually putting their lives in danger was soon put on hold though. A recon team just reported that what was left of the first goblin camp was effectively absorbed by the second goblin camp. This meant that the first goblin camp was back up to almost full strength. Granted the second goblin camp had to severely weaken its own strength to accomplish this. If things kept up the way they were going the second goblin camp would be able to reinforce the first goblin camp every few months. Logan wasn't sure how to fill about this. On the one hand, it meant a long uphill climb to eliminate the two goblin camps unless he stepped up his attacks and fought them outside his territory. On the other hand, the amount of mana he got from each battle was nothing to sneeze at. In the end he decided that the extra mana was worth it taking a bit longer to deal with the goblins.

With that settled he sent out an army of normal rat swarms to lead the goblins back to his territory. With the upcoming goblin 'attack' being stronger than the previous two he wouldn't be able to rely as heavily on the humans. He still wanted them to participate though since they seemed to gain a lot from the experience. After talking with Cid and having him discuss it with the other humans it was decided that Logan would use the slag slimes to incircle and incinerate the goblins while human soldiers focused on going after stragglers or any that escaped the circle.

If the goblins were a bit smarter, they might have sent out a second wave about half a day behind the first attack. They weren't smart though and despite relying exclusively on numbers it never seemed to occur to them to send out more than one attack at a time. He wondered if this was because they simply weren't smart or if the expected others to try and take advantage of their reduced numbers. It didn't really matter since he believed no single race could pose a significant threat anymore. Despite that Logan still sought to understand his opponents. Still, he was grateful that he had planned ahead and decided not to build up the structures in that corner of the territory until after the goblins were dealt with.

By the time that the goblins arrived Logan had everything set up to greet them. The various wolves, birds, wasps, and snakes worked to filter the goblins into the correct spot while the nightmare gophers used their abilities to keep them there frozen with fear. The humans to their credit were able to keep any that managed to get out of that area from making it very far with surprisingly little help. He couldn't help but feel pride both because they were almost capable of surviving without him and because despite everything, he still considered himself human even if his 'body' was now a giant glowing orb in the middle of an underground room. The battle lasted much longer than expected due to his reduced numbers after continuous battles over these last months. Which is at least partly the reason he started allowing the humans to help out in the first place. Eventually though the slag slimes were able to coral them and that effectively ended the battle. The rest of the battle was just a matter of waiting around for the slag slimes to finish off the last goblin.

After everything was said and done, he had enough mana to do another mass expansion. This time though he only got four southern expansions and, just so his instincts would stop nagging him, spent the rest of the mana on four westward expansions. The westward expansions are a bit of a surprise. Instead of continuing the line of mansions there appears to be some other buildings where a mansion would normally be. As for the underground area he is starting to get an idea of just how massive it is as it continues to open up into an even wider area. He could have gotten more expansions if he had spent them all on expanding south or north. He felt very lopsided as it is though, being significantly larger north-south than he is east-west. The town is so big now that he is certain that he must be getting close to the edge of the town. For the first time in a while, he is tempted to ask how much more of the town there is to claim but he refrains from doing so. Partly because he knows he'll get it eventually and partly because he has a good idea of the terrain beyond the city. He wants to experience the joy of discovery while he still can.

After getting the last expansion he sends another army of dire rat swarms to lure more goblins to his sanctuary. Watching them leave he can't help but think that the same trick really should not work this many times in a row. Them being sapient means no matter how slow they are intellectually, even they should catch on eventually. Not that he minds all the mana he's been getting. In the meantime, Yangus is busy getting started on all the new houses. As Yangus works on the houses Logan begins to give serious thought to building an actual school. He's been here so long by this point that even the children born in the sanctuary will be ready for a formal education soon. He does still have a little time, but he figures he should at least decide which of his buildings to convert into a school. On second thought he decides perhaps this is something Siobhan and her advisors should take care of. He isn't sure how much there is to learn be he figures reading, writing, and some basic math can't hurt anything. After talking with Cid about it he listens in as Cid presents the idea to Siobhan. It doesn't seem to be as high on their list of priorities as he would like. Nonetheless they agree to convert one of the as yet unused mansions near the residential area into a school.

In the meantime, Logan begins to dig out tunnels underneath the streets running along and through the residential area. He doesn't stop there though as in a sudden fit of inspiration he digs out the area around the basements as well creating essentially triple the underground area. He also creates torches to light up everything. As much as he would like to take some seeds from his existing grass fields and plant them in the new underground area, he doesn't think they would grow underground without his help. This would effectively turn the entire area into a mana sink so with great reluctance he abandons that idea. He decided to leave it up to each individual whether they want direct access to the underground area through their house. There are multiple stairs leading down already after all. The main problem being that they are both near the center of his territory and, although they seemed far apart at the time they were created, are in fact relatively close together. Nearly everyone agrees to have a door installed leading from their basement to the underground area. Liking the idea of being able to potentially come up behind future attackers. Logan envisioned it as a way to escape from the attackers. He is forced to admit however that at this point if an attack from that direction made it far enough that the humans could use this to pop out behind them, he would probably actually need their help. He considers adding a basement to the other building as well so that he can dig out a whole underground town effectively doubling the size of the town. He wants to run the idea by Cid and Siobhan before he actually goes that far though.

For now, he prepares to defend the sanctuary from the goblin army that is approaching. He reluctantly allows the humans to help seeing as they do get more from this than from their training. He isn't sure how much stronger they will get but he doubts they'll get much stronger since the other races were able to defeat them, even if it did take all of them working together to do it.