Between the Wasp venom and the Fear effect secretly cast by the fear gopher the orc leader was practically dead before the fight had even started but his residents didn't need to know that. At the moment they were busy celebrating their victory. A few of them even exchanged their weapons for orc weapons, while others chose to keep the weapon they had been training with. There still wasn't any among them who could fit into the armor so that got stored for later use. Logan was celebrating all the mana he just got. He is also a little worried. Losing a few scouts might have gotten their attention but losing a whole patrol will definitely force them to take notice. The one good thing is that none of the patrol managed to escape, so even if the orcs know something is here, they don't know what it is or exactly where it is. Logan throws an upgrade on the rat spawner to prepare for the battles he knows will come. This time what comes out is an electric rat. Another upgrade to the rat spawner increases the odds of an electric rat spawning. After this he decides to wait and expand again because he doesn't like how close they had to get before he could even see them, and he knows the next attack won't be just a simple patrol.

Slowly he works, partly because iron is the toughest material he has ever tried to mold, and partly because focusing as hard as he needs to on the ladies to get their measurements exactly right just feels wrong. "Why the ladies and not the men, well its simply that ladies make babies" He thinks to himself. "Sure, you need men too, but a man can father several babies at a time while a woman can normally only carry one baby at a time." He doesn't know how many humans are left exactly but given that he was sent down here alone to save them he figures it can't be very many. He works through the night molding the iron into the perfect shape. He wished he had a blacksmith so he wouldn't have to do this himself but even if there was a blacksmith among them, he or she would need equipment to be able to work. As morning arrives, he has just managed to finish two chest plates by taking the excess removed from one to make another. He thought about making it tougher by just compressing it down, but until he can figure out a magical work around making something smaller by squeezing it doesn't make it any lighter. While they are doing their thing during the day, he continues to work on the iron armor. He stopped as night fell to extend his border to the north. What he had hoped was a mansion turned out to be just a huge stone foundation with charred bits of wood here and there. "Well, I guess a mansion, or some other important building was there at one time" he remarks to himself a little crestfallen. After that it was back to work and as he worked he got faster and faster. At the end of the second day, he purchases the expansion to the south. What he gets is a stone brick wall with a hole blown out of it obviously during whatever fight ended this city. On the other side of that wall was a stone path, further proof that this was a thriving city at one point and Logan vows then and there that it will be again someday. One more day of molding iron and he had gotten to where he could almost make a complete set of armor in one day. Buying the western expansion that night he got the western edge of the wall that surrounded the former mansion. He also discovered that the wall was only about two meters away from the edge of the mansion. This section of wall however appeared mostly intact, there were tiny holes here and there but nothing big enough for someone to crawl through. Unfortunately, he couldn't tell what was on the other side as the wall was right at the edge of his perception, but he could guess that it was another paved path. Another day of making armor and another expansion later, this time to the east, and he had the entire wall except the northern part.

He had wanted to wait until he was done with all the armor before presenting it, but it was taking too long so while they slept, he brought the armors that were finished up and laid them beside their new owner. They were surprised at first but then happily donned the armor. The female guards were much more imposing with their armor on. The armor wasn't perfect, as it lacked any sort of padding for one thing, but he knew that an attack could come any day now. During the day he went to carving out more 3x3 rooms with adjoining hallways in the second floor basement area. Using the stone, he strengthens his walls. He would repair and strengthen the mansions walls as well, but he wanted to wait until he had the entire structure first.

Another day passed and he now had armor for most of the ones standing guard. He decided that tonight he would focus on beefing up his forces. With that in mind he upgraded the gopher spawner which produced a Dire gopher which stood an amazing 63.5cm tall. Then he threw another upgrade on the rat spawner which increased the odds that something besides just a normal rat would spawn. Just for the heck of it he also upgraded the chicken spawner which spit out a chicken that was twice as big but other than that completely the same. On a side note, the chickens for the moment are spawning faster than the residence can eat them so they have taken to storing some in a makeshift coop they made using one of the 3x3 rooms and just eating the eggs they lay to add a little variety to their diet.

The next morning one of the scouts sent out to collect water reported that a massive orc army was on its way. They had apparently sent out scouts ahead of time because they were headed straight here. Panicking just a bit, for the first time in a while, he used most of his remaining mana to upgrade the snake spawner. The new spawner produced a snake that appeared to have telekinetic powers. He didn't want to reveal all his cards and so since they had by far the slowest spawn rate, he ordered all the gophers inside the wall. except for a few fear gophers who would get close enough to cast fear before retreating to safety. In fact, he kept everything just inside the wall trying not to reveal his strength until it was too late for the enemy to formulate a good strategy to deal with it. As far as the orcs knew the patrol had been defeated by a band of humans trying to reclaim one of their lost settlements.

As they drew closer Logan could see they numbered much higher than the patrol they fought earlier. When they were about 4m away he ordered the wasps to charge in. This time though the orcs had fire magic which was very effective against even the assassin wasps. The wasps did manage to inflict various amounts of poison on 62 of the enemy soldiers before getting wiped out. Then it was time for the fear gophers to do their thing. Between the poison and the fear spell the enemies' front lines began to crumble. That, he decided, was the perfect time to send out the rats. Two large dire rat swarms followed by a medium and then a small dire rat swarm swept down the center of the enemy lines followed by a few lone dire rats separating the enemy into two groups. He had the goliath mantises target the magic users, while the electric rats targeted one of the melee groups, since wearing iron armor didn't exactly help when it came to dealing with electric attacks. Each lightning bolt seemed to arc between them for several seconds. Eventually though the last of the dire rats and electric rats were defeated. The enemy numbers were down to 48 now though. The goliath mantises managed to take out 6 more on their own by attacking any bit of exposed skin they could find and just ripping out entire chunks of flesh. Some of the ones who survived the encounter probably wished they hadn't, with chunks eaten out of their sides, eyeballs pulled from sockets, and similar injuries anywhere a claw or mouth could reach. Still not wanting to reveal everything he has he orders all the remaining rats to attack. Large swarms of normal rats one after the other poor from the gate. They are not as effective as the dire rats but through sheer numbers they manage to whittle down their numbers. At this point there is only 12 enemy combatants left, but Logan has blown through most of his offensive spawns. He still has the snakes, but he doesn't want to reveal everything in case someone is watching the battle from a distance. Instead, he allows them to believe he has nothing else. Until they enter the gate way at which point just as they had before the fire mantises light it up. Once again watching the melted flesh peel from the bone made him extremely grateful to not have a nose or any sense of smell. This time a few of the orcs managed to escape but that was bound to happen eventually and part of why he didn't reveal everything he had.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Now the trouble was how to prepare for an attack that could come any time with most of his forces wiped out. There was no way he could replace weeks worth of mobs spawning in a few days, he would try though. First, he gave his rat spawner another upgrade which oddly enough produced two rats instead of just one. He was confused because other than their being 2 of them they were identical to normal rats. He watched the spawner for a while and noticed that for some reason the spawner now spit out two creatures each time instead of just the one. This would help sure, but he still needed more. After all, the next attack will be serious, since they now know they are dealing with more than just a few humans. He throws an upgrade on the Mantis spawner hoping for another magic type and was not disappointed as the spawner spit out a blue praying mantis about the same size as the fire mantis. Instead of just breathing out water though the water mantis summoned water from Logan knows not where and blasts it forward at unimaginable speed. He is certain that with more intelligence the fire and water mantises could learn more than the one spell but hey at least he now has a reliable source of water. He'll deal with that later though first he has a lot more mana to spend. His next upgrade target is the wasp spawner which appears to spit out two wasps just like the rat spawner. As he watches the spawner for a while though the next spawn is normal, so he focuses on the strange double wasp and finds that they are actually one wasp. The wasp appears to be in two places at once but in reality, is right in between the two wasps that appear to be eternally circling each other. The next upgrade went to the snake spawner which spawned a white snake. Focusing on the snake he saw that it had a life drain ability. Capable of draining the life force from anything it bites. Only now does he consider that he should have used some of that mana to buy a more combat oriented spawner.

While he was doing that the residents were busy gathering up the armor and placing it in storage. Logan took a few pieces of armor and formed them into a large metal jug. He then created a lid that when closed formed a watertight seal. Then he had the water mantis spray it with water before leaving it by the cooking area. The Junior cook used some sanitation magic to sterilize the pot, which the water mantis promptly filled with water. He could see the two cooks' minds working thinking of all the recipes now open to them with unlimited water.

By the time all that was finished it was nighttime so while everyone slept Logan spent the night working on more armor. The next morning brought a brand new discussion from the residence. The four that escaped the elvish slavers earlier wanted to return and try to free even more people. Now that they had armor and proper weapons a simple rescue operation should be possible. Plus, they now had the food and water to support a higher population. Logan had mixed feelings about this. He didn't like to see anyone enslaved but he wouldn't be able to send anything to help them. In the end it was decided that they would leave out in a few days after going over the layout of the slaver camp in detail and coming up with a plan for getting in and out, without being seen preferably. Logan used this time to wrap the wooden clubs in a coat of iron which both hardened it and made the spikes super sharp.

He then focuses his attention on the north, having a second wall can't be a bad thing after all. Buying the expansion, he still doesn't get all of the stone foundation, but "progress is progress" he reminds himself. "No matter how slow or uneventful the progress may be as long as I am still making progress I will succeed" he tells himself. He knows it won't be that simple or straight forward but then that's why he has multiple contingency plans in place. Speaking of which he spends the last of the mana, besides what he is keeping for emergencies, and upgrades the chicken spawner again. This time the spawner spit out a chicken with razor sharp teeth and claws on the ends of its wings that also happened to be larger than the really big chickens. These Dino chickens would be a last resort, protecting both his residence and his core if the enemy ever makes it this far. He needs them because for some reason that boggles his mind there must always be a clear path to his core. At least that was the message that flashed through his head when he tried to seal up the door to the room holding his core during the last attack. To him it seems like being forced to fight with one hand tied behind your back. Leaving an opening for your enemies to potentially exploit is anathema to every form of self-defense he has ever studied. He is starting to see how the other sanctuaries were defeated though.

The next day he just relaxes, watching the warriors train and then plan their raid and train some more. He has a plan. He will create a second set of stairs leading down and place the entrance on the stone foundation where the mansion once stood. The stone that is already there will help to hide the stairs when they are closed and having another way down means he can close the main stairs like he originally planned. He just has to open the secondary stairs first. He plans to move the secondary stairs further away after he expands a bit too. The following day he gets to work. Having practice making stairs it doesn't take him to long and so he spends the rest of the day practicing opening and closing the staircase smoothly and efficiently. The idea being not to leave any sign that a stairs was even there when closed. That night he expands north again and gets the rest of the mansion foundation except the front steps.

That morning at sunrise the two of the four former slaves and six warriors set of for the slave camp while two that use to be in charge of gathering water scout north to find out how strong the orc settlement is. He wishes them luck but is saddened that he can't do more. He is glad to see them showing some initiative though, no matter how much he desires for them to never be in danger. "This is torture" he moans to himself feeling like a father that just sent his kids away to summer camp for the first time.

To distract himself he works on creating stone doors for his gates. As long as he only closes one at a time it should still count as having a clear path he figures. He doesn't bother trying to hide or disguise the doors because he still wants to control where the enemy focuses their attention. Each door takes a full day to make because of its sheer size and the size of the hinges needed to support it. At the end of the second day, he expands north yet again and manages to get the rest of the foundation and a large chunk of the yard. No new spawner, but at this point it would be more surprising if there was one.

Shortly after buying the latest expansion, the scouts sent out to learn about the orc settlement returned.