Eventually he did end up sending the recon team out to check on the kobold but not before buying another expansion. This one getting him the other half of those residential buildings and confirming their size. it also got him a small shop in the southeast corner. the shop was mostly destroyed but seeing as stone and metal are harder to destroy than wood there was enough left to tell that this use to be a forge. He immediately has Cid ask carver to come take a look. If they can get it up and running it should be a huge step up from the makeshift forge Carver is now using. Logan is well aware that they will most likely wait until his borders aren't right up against it to actually use it. Especially since he doesn't yet own the entire building Still, he would like to have Carver give his professional opinion about whether it's worth restoring or not. He does tell Cid to have a few guards go with Carver though since he will be outside the sanctuary's borders and thus invisible to him. Also, because Cid himself can't actually leave the sanctuary. It takes Carver half a day to dig the forge out well enough to have a proper look but eventually he comes back with a verdict. Turns out that Logan was correct about this forge being a significant improvement over the one he is using now. Even if most of the technical reasoning went over his head.

As Carver went back to work, he went back to waiting for the recon team to return. As he did, he noticed that Yangus had this place looking more like a proper town than it had in over 50 years. He also learned through Cid that although this was called humanities last city it was in fact about the size of an average town. So, since he was confident that this wouldn't be the last city of humanity anymore, he decided to start referring to it as a town. He also wanted to change the name from Last Hope to New Hope, but since this was technically their town, he let them decide on the name. They deliberated for a full day before coming up with the most unoriginal name Logan could think of "Sanctuary Town". He couldn't deny their reasoning though as Cid explained that the town wouldn't exist without him. He wanted to remain humble, but they really weren't making it easy right now.

Another day and a half later and he was buying another expansion. This one getting more of the forge but nothing else. A few days after that he was about ready to buy another expansion when a commotion caught his attention. It seems that one of the female warriors was now going into labor. The three female life mages all rushed to her side. She was escorted to the 10 by 10 meter room that Yangus had the foresight to convert into a makeshift delivery room. He had called it something else, but the idea and its intended purpose was the same. Then the other two life mages decided that Lily was too young to witness childbirth. Odd Logan thought since she had literally been in combat and had likely treated her share of life-threatening injuries. It was almost comical that after everything she's already witnessed childbirth of all things is where they draw the line. Soon after the Labor started in earnest the new father was doing laps outside the building, more out of nervousness than any actual desire to exercise. Logan decided to hold off on expanding until after the child was born. He was 99.999% sure it wouldn't effect the birth in any way but still why take chances right. What he did do was have Cid ask Allyson to bring up a couple of healing potions and that new stamina potion she'd only just figured out how to make, thanks in part to that old alchemist's journal. He wasn't sure how helpful they would actually be during childbirth, but he figured immediately afterwards they could help her recover from the experience. They would even have one more health potion 'just in case' even though that was kind of why the life mages were there to begin with. After 26 of the longest hours Logan had ever experienced little Jankin was born at an impressive 54.61 cm. The father who by this time was a nervous wreck both from exhaustion and worry calmed down significantly when he heard his child cry. He still did not know if he had a daughter or a son, but it mattered not so long as the child was healthy. His only wish was that this child never know bondage. After a brief check to make sure Jankin was healthy the mother was presented with a swaddling blanket Maribel had made. Maribel also sent her some baby clothes that perfectly fit, admittedly she expected the child to need to grow into them.

Over the next few days the family rested in their house. Eventually they decided to stay at home and look after their son, at least until he was a bit older and no longer required round the clock care. This decision was not unexpected. He can certainly understand them not wanting to be sent out for weeks at a time. For a brief moment he wonders if he can speed up Jankins growth but quickly decides against it as he doesn't want to risk significantly shortening his lifespan.

That being said he still has a job to do. One that he had put on the back burner for the past several days. With a thought he buys two southward expansions. This gets him a lot more of the small family homes, or at least they will be when Yangus is through with them and solidifies that whole area as the residential area. It also gets him a bit more of the old forge. The rats and mantises are still happily going about their pest control duties even though the manner they generate is completely unnoticeable at this point. It will still be another week before the recon team returns and he can't help but chuckle to himself that "it'll be nice to have something to surprise them with for a change" while thinking about baby Jankin.

While waiting for the recon team to return he ends up buying another two southern expansions. This one grants him another piece of the old forge and part of a cross street running alongside all the soon to be rebuilt houses about three meters beyond where their southernmost wall will be. Eventually the recon team returns with surprisingly good news. It seems the number of kobold has been reduced significantly. Apparently, they believe the threat has been dealt with although there will likely be extra guards around for the next month or so 'just in case'.

This actually gives him the perfect excuse to finally see what's beyond the goblin camp. Something he's been wanting to do since it was destroyed. He does allow them to rest for a few days first though, and of course meet baby Jankin. Shortly after buying the next expansion, which doesn't grant him anything noteworthy he sends the recon team north past the goblin camp with orders to be extra cautious and turn around after two weeks even if they haven't found anything.

While they were gone three more children were born. Two girls and another boy. Just like with Jankins' parents they don't want to be sent out away from the sanctuary for extended periods of time, but they do still want to contribute so they agree to each take a turn at scouting duty, which basically just involves patrolling a little ways outside the town limits trying to catch sight of anything attempting to attack the sanctuary. If possible, without being spotted themselves. When the recon team returns, they report having found nothing worth mentioning. That is surprising but not entirely unexpected. Next, he plans to have them go out in a more northwest direction. He does allow them a little extra time to rest this time. In fact, he allows them to take a week off. They hardly ever spend any time actually in the sanctuary although seeing how many people they help rescue either directly or indirectly they are proud of what they contribute.

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After watching the latest mock battle, something he still does to relax. He decides to ask Cid about something that's been gnawing at the back of his mind for a while. He knows that Cid can see his border, but he doesn't really understand how he sees it. He has also been worried about what would happen to Cid if he left, even accidentally getting pushed out or tripping or something. The answer turned out to be both a lot simpler and a lot more interesting than he could have guessed. According to Cid it appears as a stationary wall of mist. He suspects that that mist is actually mana since nobody else appears to be seeing it, but he doesn't have mana sight to know for sure. Interestingly this does bring up the question of whether someone with mana sight could see his borders. According to Cid it's an extremely rare trait even among the other races. As far has he knows it only occurs in humans and elves. As for leaving well it turns out that he physically can't leave. He was curious about what would happen when he left back when he first became contracted and so he experimented, and it turns out that whatever force creates and maintains his border also prevents contracted people from leaving. Logan now wishes he'd included an expiration date on the contract. Cid for his part just reminds him that if he keeps expanding as he is then soon enough it will be a moot point. He also talks with Cid about the need for them to set up some kind of government soon. He agrees but says that they can afford to put it off for a while longer yet. At least until the town hall isn't right on the edge of his territory. The two spend the rest of the day talking about various other things that have been on one or the others minds. Cid tells Logan about what had been going on before they found the sanctuary, which basically just involved a lot of sneaking around and not staying in one place to long. They tried to start a community a few different times, but it was always destroyed as soon as it was found by one of the other races. Logan for his part shared a few 'secrets of the gods' which basically amounted to what he could remember from his high school science classes.

Another week passes and he has bought another two expansions. Which grants him most of the rest of the old forge and more half house foundations starting about one meter south of the street. The recon team is sent out to the northwest this time and are given the same rules as last time. Namely remain undetected and turn back after two weeks or whenever you spot something whichever comes first. He feels confident that they will find something this time. After all there can't be nothing north of him and it can't be too far north either otherwise where did those camps come from.

While waiting for news from the recon team he takes another long look at the town he is helping to create. Lily has taken a special interest in Jankin becoming his unofficial big sister. As for the four amigos they still spend the majority of their time together, but they have started spending time apart as well. "This is good" he thinks to himself "they need to form bounds outside their core group". They do all consider Siobhan to be a friend but that was still them acting as a group and not as individuals. Maribel has moved her shop to one of the old merchant buildings on the surface. She has actually become quite skilled at her craft and now has a considerable selection of both clothing and leather armor. Even Allyson normally shy and timid lights up and starts talking excitedly when she discusses anything alchemy related. She loves to go in depth about her latest research project with anyone who will listen. Which is great to see because even introverts need some social interaction.

Everything is running like clockwork, and he even manages to buy another three expansions while he waits for the recon team to return. This grants him the rest of that old forge. It also gets him the other half of the foundations he was working towards and half of some others. He is about to buy another upgrade when a scout reports seeing a few kobold just east of the town. They didn't approach but it seems unlikely that they didn't notice all the activity. With a thought he stops sending slimes down to the underground area and starts sending them to help out with a possible attack from the east as they spawn in. The slag slimes he commands to stay on the stone streets as much as possible to avoid setting things on fire. He also decides to upgrade the slime spawner again instead of expanding this time getting him a spherical ball of slime with a diameter of 25 cm that just kind of rolls around the way you'd expect a ball to do. According to the information he was given while focusing on the new slime it is just as acidic as the other slime but several times more agile. The fact that this ball slime is much more agile is pretty clear as he watches the slime jump by compressing its body and then releasing the tension all at once. Just like the other slimes it is also completely immune to almost all physical attacks.

He soon decides to go back to expanding though and gets another 3 expansions. Aside from a few more future houses he doesn't get anything for it except more territory. The recon team returns a full week early. According to them there is another camp of orcs about ten days travel northwest of the sanctuary. It was a slightly larger camp than the previous one but still rather small compared to the number of individuals the camps of the other races now held. Indeed, he would not have been able to rescue as many humans as he had if he hadn't 'convinced' the elves and kobold to fight each other. Allowing him to pick apart the scraps and rescue the enslaved humans. Granted it was mostly due to his actions that the number of combatants in each camp had increased but still.

Early the next morning the Scout reports kobold lining up along the clearing about half a days travel outside the town. More and more gather as the day goes on. She isn't sure what they are waiting for, but Logan suspects they are waiting for more reinforcements to arrive. He tries his best to keep the monstrous spiders and other really large troops out of sight hoping that the kobold will overestimate their odds. He also decides that if they don't attack soon, he will send a group of humans out to taunt them. Not an easy decision to make as part of him still doesn't want any of the races to know that there is a large group of humans here, but he also can't just let them keep building their forces before they attack. In the end he Doesn't need to worry about that as they attack right as the sun is setting. He holds his own troops back until they are at least a few meters inside the territory. Then the slag slimes begin directing the heat they produce towards the kobold while linking up to increase the intensity of that heat. The effect of which being essentially an invisible flame wall which even begins to melt the slightly heat resistant scales right off of their bodies. This surprises not only the kobold but Logan as well who had no idea they could directly control where the heat actually goes. It also forces them to split up and try to go around the slag slimes. As a result, they end up running into a virtual wall of monstrous spiders and razor tusks. He also sends in the wasps to begin working their poison into the enemy ranks. While that's going on he has Swarms of lightning rats sneak around behind them cutting off their escape. The hard scales of the kobold means that even though they are almost as small as the goblins they are much tougher to actually kill. Biting off their heads is still very effect at ending their lives however. The razor tusks are not able to just impale them the way they did the goblins but they still manage to deliver enough small cuts to get the job done. In the end they simply don't have the numbers to overcome the sanctuary forces. They did manage to kill a large number of the monstrous spiders and razor tusks though and he even ended up having to send in the really giant spiders and the ice wolves towards the end.

At some point during the battle most of the humans had snuck off towards the kobold camp. Part of him was proud of them for taking the initiative but he worries that their over eagerness to rescue more humans might spell their doom. All he can do at this point however is hope that they are correct, and that the kobold are at their weakest right now. The human army is also not exactly small either especially when you factor in their lesser wolf companions.