At some point he gained enough mana to expand upward and got the rest of the roof, at least for now. After that it was a matter of getting the rest of the building. The wasps enjoyed the increased height limit though. They could technically leave his territory whenever they wanted but they preferred to stay within it. Another reason he wanted to expand was that he had started getting a number of larger units lately. In the case of the monstrous spiders much larger units. Which naturally needed more room. The good news is that he was now even stronger than when the goblins attacked the bad news is that thanks to his larger units, he was running low on room. Not so much that it was getting crowded but enough to where it would get that way soon if he wasn't constantly expanding.
Taking a quick look around he noticed the first baby would be here in a few months and so decided to turn one of the merchant shops closes to the houses into a daycare center. He had Cid explain the concept to Yangus and then let him get to planning. He got the impression that most of them would rather spend as much time with their babies as possible, but he wanted to at least give them that option. This way they wouldn't have to give up being warriors. Maribel was also busy making baby clothes and little bassinets with Yangus's help of course.
He was still a little sore about not being able to rescue the humans in the elven camp and so had devoted a not insignificant amount of his focus on figuring out a way to do it without risking everyone's lives. Every plan he came up with though was at best a maybe and would be expensive as far as lives lost. Eventually he came up with a plan that involved waiting. When he thought of it, he was amazed he hadn't thought of it sooner. He would assign one of the scouts who had a trained lesser wolf to accompany the recon team. It was about a weeks travel for humans but the lesser wolf could make the trip in about half that time. Besides all he really had to do was get close enough for a scout to spot him. The plan was for them to send the wolf back to summon the army whenever the bulk of the elves left to attack the kobold camp. This plan wouldn't work with normal wolves without extensive training but being a dungeon creation made him naturally more intelligent than the average wolf. With the new plan in place, they set out early the next morning.
He didn't want the new babies to grow up without both a mother and father so that just gave him another reason to reject any plan with a high mortality rate. The new plan was the one least likely to end in a significant number of human deaths. He just hoped his recon team wouldn't get spotted before the elves sent their troops away.
The expansions were now slightly more expensive so as he waited for the messenger wolf to return over the next two weeks, he was only able to acquire five more northern expansions. Aside from all the partial buildings and other things he also got a 20 m by 14 m building in his current northeast corner that Cid informs him was for families with multiple children. It had more area than the mansion but was missing a lot of the amenities that the mansion had. He wasted no time in sending in the normal rats to clear out as much as they could without leaving his territory. He barely got anything for it these days compared to his passive mana generation, but he still didn't like the idea of creatures other than humans in his domain that he didn't create. He isn't sure if that's a dungeon thing or a just not liking bugs thing though.
The tournament and the mock battles had been put on hold while he waited for word, and everyone was starting to get antsy. Luckily the wolf returned shortly after the next expansion. Which just granted them more of the buildings they didn't yet have 100% of. Seeing the signal, the humans immediately took off south. Now he would be waiting alone for any news. Well not alone as he had many noncombatants and a few who chose not to go for obvious reasons. Still having 97 people suddenly vanish from his awareness makes him feel like he's suddenly all alone. They did have three life mages going with them though. Admittedly that means each one is responsible for around 32 people but it's much better than two of them each being responsible for around 50 people. Aside from that everyone had at least one health potion.
Over the next two weeks he watched as expectant mothers finished turning houses into homes. It was a slow process, but they were happy no excited to be doing it. Their partners had been helping them but they're off to rescue more people. Logan did manage to grab up 5 more expansions in those two weeks. One of the things that gave him was a 25 by 25 meter building the Cid insisted was a Barracks. He also managed to get most of what appears to be a training arena. Which actually makes sense now that he knows the other building to the east is a barracks. He decides to keep the barracks as a barracks because the way he sees it the town will eventually need dedicated guards, not necessarily to protect them from other humans but to protect them from outside threats. Besides that, with the warriors sleeping here it frees up beds in the bunk houses.
The day after buying the next expansion the rescue team returns. They look battered and bruised but nobody seems to have died. He supposes sending everyone was a bit overkill when the elves had already sent the bulk of their force towards the kobold camp. On the other hand, he was tired of rescue missions resulting in casualties. The 22 former slaves brought the total population up to a staggering 150 humans. That is to say there are now 150 people living and working in an area 204 m by 186 m. To say that they needed more room was an understatement. Especially when you consider all the sanctuaries creations. The newest residents were eager to contribute and so the majority of them became warriors while the rest began to study magic. All total they ended up with two new life mages, a fire mage, and two new earth mages.
He gave them a few days for everyone to get to know each other and for the new arrivals to start getting into a routine before doing anything drastic. Then he bought another northern expansion. which gave him the rest of the training hall and part of another large building. The training hall consisted of a large 13 by 13 meter central room with four 12 by 9 meter rooms intersecting it at each of the four corners forming a kind of x shape. This time he decided to send the recon team north. He still didn't know where the goblin camp was, and he also wanted to keep an eye on their population to get an idea when they might attack again. Ideally, he'd just eliminate the camp but that wasn't going to be possible without hundreds of human warries with lesser wolf companions. Unless that is he happened to catch them right after they sent out the bulk of their forces. He could also try to goad them into attacking the sanctuary before they had time to build up their numbers depending on how close the goblin camp was. Goblins were not exactly known for their critical thinking skills so tricking them should be relatively easy.
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While he waited for news from the recon team, he allowed his consciousness to drift around the territory. The bath house was now the most popular hangout spot for anyone not training or doing other tasks. It's so popular in fact that he wondered how the water could be so clean before reminding himself that the cooks had place a purification rune on some of the stones connected to the water. Which as the name implies gradually purifies it removing accumulated dirt and other unsanitary things. The first round of the next tournament was also scheduled to start soon. Aside from that he notices that the daycare is almost finished, it would have been finished by now except that his crew is debating about whether or not to add a second or even third floor. He actually likes the idea of multiple floors to split them up by age ranges, but he doesn't say anything.
He manages to get two more northern expansions before the recon team gets back. This gives him another of those multi child homes. Only now does it occur to him that the houses were probably for the families of soldiers. It's what he doesn't get this time that is the big news as he still hasn't found the northern end of the absolutely massive building in his northwest corner. Cid informs him that the building is the town hall and that the reason it's so big is that it acts as the center of government, the bank, and the central storage area for the entire city. Literally everything flowed through this building in some way. Looking closer he noticed that the building had a rather large basement area. the only reason he hadn't noticed them before was that he hadn't bothered to look since it was by far the only building with a basement. Looking around the basement he began seeing several magically sealed metal boxes each containing various amounts of gold and silver divided into coins weighing 10, 100, and 1000 grams respectively. He was sure the different weights denoted different values which was an easy enough concept to grasp. Just as he was sure the difference between gold and silver denoted a different value.
Putting the economics of this world aside for a minute he realizes that he is already at the point where he would normally start expanding south but because of that weird thing he has about not being able to own just part of a building he is forced to continue expanding north. So, after a few more days he does just that. He does get a small piece of what he can only assume is another multi child home based on its location. other than that, though it was just more of the buildings he already had part of. When the recon team failed to return after a while, he bought yet another expansion north getting more of the same. A few days after that the recon team returned with news. The goblin camp is only a little over three days journey north. It also turns out his guess was right. The goblins are only up to about 50% of the numbers they had when they attacked last. A far faster rate of reproduction than should be possible Logan feels but still slow enough that if he is careful, he can whittle away at their numbers and eventually destroy the goblin camp completely.
Armed with this new knowledge he sets about devising a strategy to slowly chip away at the goblin problem. An all-out assault is out of the question. Even with their significantly reduced population they would still have enough goblins to overwhelm the humans. Hit and run tactics also won't work because they wouldn't be able to kill enough of them fast enough. Indeed, the only plan that makes any kind of since is goading a large number of them into charging the sanctuary. It will be a tough fight, but he feels confident that he can handle a small portion of the numbers they sent last time without losing to many units.
First things first though. He allows the recon team some much needed rest and recovery time. While they are resting, he buys another northern expansion which gets him more of the same few buildings. Surprisingly though he does get part of the storage area in the basement of the town hall along with a way down in a walled off section near on one of the side walls. The storage containers that he can access don't have magical seals like the boxes in the bank area does. He sends Cid and the farmer to collect a few of the seeds that he has spotted and check for any more. He believes that anything left would either be completely rotted or would have been taken in the evacuation but he's still hopeful. Come to think of it he isn't sure how the seeds are still viable after all these years but then he's no horticulturalist or agriculturalist or whatever the correct terminology is. All total they manage to find five new seed types, but since none of them including Logan grew up farming, they won't know what they got until they plant them.
The farmer plants them first thing the next morning. Logan plans to pour some mana into each of them, but for right now the recon team has been resting for a few days now so it's time for them to head back out. With them he sends around 20 warriors with their lesser wolf companions and a fire and air mage. Their mission is to do their best to goad the goblins into chasing them. Considering that distances are based on walking speed it will most likely take a whole day to get back to camp at a full run. So, he advices them to set up camp and rest just beyond the point where they are likely to get noticed. As soon as they leave, he turns his attention back to the seeds. He spends a few hours slowly pouring mana into each one to speed up the growth cycle, careful not to go to fast as they can only absorb the mana so fast. After spending nearly 11 hours pouring mana into the seeds what he ends up with is three tomato plants, four carrots, two eggplants, six beats, and a single muskmelon. He pours just a little extra mana into each one to ensure the increased growth cycle survives the next several plant generations. Just like that he is suddenly much less worried about their nutritional needs. He does insist that the soon to be moms are the first to try any recipes made with the new ingredients. Which the cooks are thrilled about because several recipes in that old cookbook were just opened up to them.
Precisely three days after the first group left he sends out another group of 20 warriors with lesser wolf companions and 3 more fire and 3 more air mages. If he timed it right they should meets up with the first group right as they are starting to get tired and should be able to use flame wall enhanced with air magic to give them some breathing room. To help with this plan even further he buys another expansion to the north and gets nothing new, but he does get a little further north which is three meters less they have to run in order to be safe. That night the two groups come running back together. Being significantly faster than the goblins help to prevent them from being overrun, that combined the air magic enhanced fire walls allowed them to get some distances whenever they stopped running long enough for the goblins to catch up. The goblins also sent the bulk of their remaining forces which was just over a third as strong as the force that nearly shattered his core. Fortunately, he had way more monstrous spiders than he did during the first encounter. The higher 'ceiling' of his territory also allowed the wasps to remain undetected until it was time to start their attack. Which they did by essentially dive bombing the unsuspecting goblins. He also sent in a few electric rat swarms and really giant spiders to get anything that slipped through the monstrous spiders. Once again, he considered checking their actual names or at least changing what he called them since the really big spider was one of the smallest versions. Turning his attention back to the fight it's actually going much better than last time do to him having way more than just a few monstrous spiders. Even so he does end up having to send in the Giant spider and the dire rat swarms to finish off the last of them.
With that taken care of he decides to refocus on freeing more slaves. He'd like nothing more than to capitalize on his recent victory and finish the goblins before they can recover but he has a feeling the goblins that are left are still more than the humans can handle. He needs to let his forces recover as well, but he also knows for certain now that his troop numbers recover much faster than the goblins. Goading them into attacking two more times over the next few months should have their numbers reduced low enough that the humans can wipe out their camp for good. Especially if they continue to rescue slaves during that time. He also noted with a metaphorical smile that his human population would begin increasing naturally real soon.