He was ecstatic to finally be getting a useful building. Not that a library is useless but with no books to put in it, it might as well be. Speaking of which a single bookcase was being used to house the books they managed to find so far. The residents wanted to keep them underground, but Logan had insisted they remain in the library unless someone was actively reading one of them. After all he wanted them to return to a more normal human life eventually. The bath house however was something they could use right away to improve both the hygiene and general mood of the people in the sanctuary. Not to mention it being another step closer to normalcy. He still needed to work on adding variety to their diet but for now there was no way of accomplishing that. So instead, he chose to focus on the positive as well as the things he could change. With that in mind he decided to go ahead and have Cid try to convince people to actually use the bath after it was filled with water and cleansed. They protested but he told them that taking time every now and then to relax and get cleaned up was just as important as training. Plus, it helps if your enemy can't smell you coming a kilometer away, he didn't actually say that last part, didn't even dare think it really it was just kind of how he felt. They hadn't really bathed or made any attempt to clean themselves after all so one can only imagine the smell. That and he didn't want them dying from disease, not that he has any proof diseases exist here, but he also doesn't have any proof they don't.

In the middle of the great bath debate however a scout informed him that elves were coming. He didn't know how many but there were a lot of them. This threw a wrench in his plans, at least for the moment. It wasn't that he'd forgotten about the elves, in fact he knew they would come in force eventually. He just didn't think it would happen so soon after defeating the last elvish army. Then again, he had to remind himself that was nearly a month ago. There wasn't enough time or mana to really change to much, so he focused on getting everything in position. He had the Giant spiders line up along the outer defensive wall by the south gate followed by the really big spiders and the big spider swarms. The idea was to overwhelm them with poison. They would probably be ready for that, but unless they had strong poison resist, they would still have to take time to deal with it. They Didn't all go over there though as he didn't want to leave his other side completely exposed. He was starting to get big enough that if he were attacked from the side, it would take a few seconds for his troops to get there after all. Unfortunately, there was no place for his fear gophers to hide and still be close enough to cast fear on the enemy this time. That was ok though as he would simply use dire gophers along with the spiders to draw their attention. With any luck they will be completely focused on the creatures moving towards them to the point that they don't even notice the ones not moving.

Finally, though the time for planning was over cause the enemy had arrived. Once again, he allowed them to get a fair way into his territory before attacking. He couldn't let them all get inside his boarder though as the army was just too big. As the giant spiders rushed out the gate the fear gophers began casting fear which effectively dissolved the front lines. Then he sent out the Dire gophers along with the really big spiders. The giant spiders were amazing, able to bite through limbs were there was no armor and severely denting the armor if it was there making the limb inside the armor effectively useless. Clearly, they had not been expecting giant spiders. The really big spiders weren't able to bite clean through limbs but in places where there was no armor still managed to do a fair amount of damage. Dire gophers unfortunately were more of an annoyance than anything though they did manage to score a few kills themselves. Then he unleashed the big spider swarms and while their attention was on the ground units, he also sent in all the wasps. The big spiders headed straight towards the back going almost entirely unseen in all the chaos and attacked the elves that were just now entering his territory. The wasps venom combined with bits from the big spiders slowed the newcomers enough for the others to handle. Eventually they began throwing fire grenades at the big spider swarms. Which was what he wanted he hoped they would use them all up before he sent out his rats. Meanwhile the fear gophers were continuously casting fear magic hampering any attempts by the elves to regroup. Despite all this the elves just seemed to keep coming and eventually they began to kill the giant spiders which were currently the only ones raking up serious kill streaks. Eventually elvish mages made it onto the battlefield and began targeting his wasps. Elvish healers even began casting high level antidote spells. In response to this he sent out his Dire and electric rat swarms with orders to target the mages. The electric rat swarms fired bolts of electricity directly at the mages to draw their attention while the dire rat swarm snuck around the side to flank the mages. The mages were so focused on the electric rats that the dire rats caught them completely off guard. The dire rats tore into their flesh and managed to kill a few before they were noticed by the warriors in charge of protecting the mages. On top of that he sent out his vampire snakes hoping the rats would draw enough attention for them to go unnoticed. He succeeded in this, at least initially and was able to successfully use life drain on several mages before the melee warriors guarding them who were currently fighting the rats caught on. He also sent out his telekinetic snakes to sow chaos in the enemy ranks as well as aid the other troops by holding an enemies weapon mid swing or removing bits of armor. He would also have them try and catch the explosives and through them back at the elves. This too worked for a while, but it couldn't work forever. Meanwhile, despite the vampire snakes and the rats, the mages noticed the fear gophers and began to take them out. At the same time the elves melee fighters began taking out telekinetic snakes, considering them more of a nuisance that the remaining spiders. This prompted him to unleash the giant snakes which he used to consider his trump card, that is until the super dino chickens. The giant snakes would use their size to wrap around anywhere that didn't have armor and just squeezing until the insides came squirting out like stepping on a tube of toothpaste. They crushed limbs, shattered spins, even broke a few necks, but they too were eventually defeated by the sheer number of elves. All too soon the elves fought their way to the gate where he had his usual surprise waiting for them. He never really got used to seeing the flesh melt from the bone or watching someone boil alive in their own sweat as their armor was super-heated. They were slowly able to make their way past the outer south gate as each flame attack took a few seconds to recharge. Logan had planned for this eventuality though and had already closed the inner south gate forcing them to fight their way around. he also sent some goliath mantises to protect the second wave of fire mantises waiting at the inner northern gate. Realizing from his last encounter that for whatever reason traps just don't seem to work on elves he ordered the water mantises to try and push the group towards the traps. Their water jets now focused in as narrow of a beam as they could make them hit the elves with incredible force even from over 2 meters away. This worked to push them off balance and into the traps killing some and temporarily immobilizing others. Still, they came although the wave of enemies still entering his territory had become a trickle. Just like with the fire mantises flames magic the water magic also needed time to recharge. This allowed the elves to slowly start taking out the water mantises and eventually get past them. That was when he sent in the regular snakes and gophers. He was scraping the bottom of the barrel now. He hoped their overwhelming numbers would dwindle the enemies numbers just a bit. Just like with everything else this succeeded for a time, but the elves adapted quickly to the newcomers. As they fell, he sent in his army of normal rat and spider swarms. It was clear from the expression on the elves faces they thought they were past all the poisonous stuff. They made quick work of the rats and spiders but this time it was Logan who had the numbers advantage. Attempting to capitalize on that fact sent out his normal mantises. He knew they couldn't do much individually, but he hoped to overwhelm the elves with sheer numbers. Not a very strategically sound move but one of the few he had left to him at this point. He also recalled the last of the giant spiders and dire rat swarms he had in reserve, after all he figures there ain't much point having stuff in reserve unless he survives this fight. The giant spiders were just as effective as always and even the dire rats seemed to be scoring more kills than normal from the now exhausted elvish army. To be honest though he never actually expected anyone to push him this much, or to make it this far inside his territory. His reserve units did their duty though and the enemy now numbered less than a hundred and he realizes that without the giant spiders he would have easily been overrun and his core smashed. It still might be which is a sobering thought as he now realizes he had never actually considered that a possibility even while planning for ways to prevent it. Eventually though the enemy makes it to the inner north gate and the combination of the fire mantises melting their flesh and the goliath mantises jumping in to protect the fire mantises while their spell recharges manages to hold the elves there for a while and cut their numbers drastically. Eventually though they do manage to break through, goliath mantises after all are still rather small compared to elves despite their name. They did do a good job of being a door stop for a while. By this time though he had already sent his super dino and dino chickens to the surface to greet them. The remainder of the elves numbers which had been slowly whittled down to more manageable levels by the fire and goliath mantises now faced the super dino and dino chickens who attacked immediately and without mercy. Those guys are vicious he notes watching his dino chickens and super dino chickens rip and tear instead of slice and dice. Bits of exposed skin begin to resemble hamburger meat. On top of that a few of the human mages that remained on the surface to secretly observe the enemy mages casting spells began throwing fire balls and air needles. Air needles being something the air mages apparently worked on in private but didn't dare use in active combat training due to them being nearly impossible to see much less dodge or deflect in time. Lulu and the shadow mage had taken it upon themselves to go stand by the core just in case, while the others planned to ambush them from behind if they made it that far. Back on the surface though the combination of dino chicken viciousness and human magic managed to take down the last of the elves, although just barely. He sends the few dino and super dino chickens that remain back down to guard the core. Then he has Cid ask the humans to gather up all the elves gear. Carver can use the raw material if nothing else. If he faced another attack any time in the next few days, he won't be able to fend it off, and if it's anything like this attack he'll need at least two to three weeks before he is ready to face such an attack.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Now saturated with mana he ponders what he should do. What are the odds that he will face another attack like this so soon. What are the odds that he could survive it even with another spawner. In the end he decides to spend some time upgrading the spawners he has first. The very first upgrade he buys is for the Spider spawner. This is really a no brainer as Giant spiders were the MVPs of that last Battle. What pops out, rather predictably, is a really giant spider. Somehow though he still manages to be shocked by the size, at four meters it's nearly the size of a small room and there's no way he's going to be hiding this thing from anyone. The next thing he looks at are the gophers. He feels like they could have played more of a role in the last battle. What he gets is a spawn rate increase to one every two hours. It's still the slowest spawn rate by far but at least now it's much closer to the spawn rate of the second slowest spawners of one per hour. He isn't the only one to have gained something from the last battle though as the mages who stayed on the surface to watch now have several new spells to try and master. Even the life mage has a few new healing and antidote spells to work on after witnessing the elven healer's work. At one point much closer than she would have liked.

After this he decides to expand a few times or to put it bluntly he has exactly enough mana to expand twice. Still the fact remains that he got nearly a week's worth of mana from that battle even at his current rate of passive generation. Even if he did end up spending a third of it on upgrading spawners. He had considered buying a new spawner at first but that would have taken all of the mana he just got and hunkering in place doesn't exactly have a very good success rate from what he can remember of studying history. Never mind the fact that he is literally a sentient piece of land and hunkering down is all he can actually do. He's always been more of a doer than a wait and see kind of person. He can be cautious at times, but he is confident it will be a while before he faces an attack like that again. What he gets from the expansions is a much clearer image of the building as a whole. For one thing it seems there are two distinct areas most likely male and female. The small room with the double doors appears to be a reception area with doors leading to two different changing areas. This he takes as evidence that he was right about the purpose of those rooms.

He actually misses seeing his troops scurrying here and there. His territory feels rather empty right now, which makes him feel vulnerable. It was starting to get a little crowded which makes the absence of his army that much more noticeable. To be honest he had kind of hoped that at least one of the expansion's would come with a new spawner. He does briefly wonder if he has all the spawners he will get without buying them. Maybe that's what prevents dungeons from growing huge. He soon rejects that though as he is still getting mostly building with each expansion, and although he did get the rat spawner inside a house, he doubts it's common. Even the scouts are sticking closer to home knowing that he won't be able to do much if they do encounter something further out, but still wanting to provide an early warning of potential trouble. Slowly he started to gain back his lost army, but it would be a long time before he was even close to the numbers he once had. Fortunately, the dwarves were busy with the orcs who they blamed for killing their scout and stealing the slaves they had intended to sell to the elves and didn't even know he existed. The orcs on the other hand were busy dealing with the both the dwarves and the goblins. For their part the goblins as far as he knew were also not even aware of his existence.