The tournament would be held once every week. The mock battles would be put on hold that day so even those not participating could watch. It would give the people something to look forward to. It would also give them a chance to work on teamwork as well as forcing them to get creative with their moves so they can gain an advantage over their fellow competitors which in turn will make the army as a whole stronger. At least that was the idea.

Confident that the details had all been taken care of and with the first tournament a few days away, to give people time to prepare and pick teams. He turned his attention back to the east and wondered how the recon team was doing. It had only been a day and a half since he sent them out, so he didn't expect them back anytime soon. Still, he couldn't help worrying since this was their first outing after the goblin attack that would have shattered the core had the humans not been here. What chance would six humans have against such an overwhelming show of force. Part of him wondered if he should have sent them north to finally locate the goblin camp instead seeing as they had to stop looking last time do to the massive army marching towards them. He soon shakes off that idea. After all the slaves aren't going to rescue themselves. Even if they did, on their own there was a good chance they'd blunder their way away from the sanctuary instead of towards it.

At some point he realizes that he's spent several hours going over possible scenarios. The last attack must have rattled him more than he thought. He had to admit it was the first time since arriving on Thana that he was forced to rely entirely on someone else for protection and the thought of it was more than a little unsettling. He is supposed to be protecting them not the other way around.

Still, he now had enough mana to expand east or west. The question is did he want to or would it be better to wait a few hours and expand north or south. After debating for a while, long enough to gain enough mana to expand either direction, he decided to expand north. continuing east or west was tempting but the north was either the edge of the city or it was something entirely different and he wanted to know which. He didn't really get any answers with this expansion though, in fact he got nothing at all aside from more territory. Well, there was one little path that was almost half as wide as the streets, but since he has no idea where it leads he doesn't pay much attention to it.

After a few days it's time for the first tournament to begin. He is surprised to see all of the mages will be participating, with only one mage per team. He had thought that they would have been a liability in a four vs four match but every team seems to want one. Thinking on it they do offer a good ranged option which. Now that he's actually thinking about it, he is surprised he hasn't encountered at least a bow and arrow. It seems that for whatever reason this world just never bothered developing ranged weapons. He thinks about asking Cid, but he is worried that if ranged weapons truly aren't a thing here the concept alone might break his brain. Deciding to explore this mystery later he refocuses on the first match of the tournament.

This match is between the four amigos and a team that is around Siobhan's age maybe a little older. Looking at them getting ready to square off you'd almost forget that their all technically still children. A fact which Logan is profoundly saddened by. The one consolation is that they are only learning what they need to in order to protect themselves. Ordinarily a healer would be a great thing to have but since nobody wants to actually kill their opponent it was agreed that any strike which draws blood will be counted as a lethal blow. Both life mages agreed to be on standby to heal anyone who needs it as long as they are not engaged in a match at that time. Nobody is sure what will happen if they have to face off though. The first match was an exciting one as it looked like the four amigos were going to lose but then Lily showed that life magic was about more than healing and curing ailments. Nobody is quite sure where she learned it, but she managed to temporarily boost the strength and speed of the other three members giving them a total of 150% of normal. This was enough for them to come out on top since their teamwork was already second to none, except for maybe Lulu and her partner. After the match the other life mage, understandably, wanted to know how she did that, but all Lily could say was that she kept thinking "if only we were just a little bit stronger or faster". It turns out she was as surprised by it as everyone else. Logan is wondering if maybe magic is based on intent rather than a set of hard rules, he's already seen some evidence of this with the combo spells. If that is the case, it opens up a lot of possibilities. He's far from an expert though. In fact, this time last year he would have scoffed at the mere mention of magic. That being said, this is his new reality. So, he has made a choice to accept it.

A few hours later and the first round of the tournament was finished. 64 competitors had been reduced to 32. On a side note, he had enough to expand again but again he wasn't sure which direction. It is still possible he has reached the northern edge of the city already in which case expanding north wouldn't really appeal to him until he gets the rest of the city. On the other hand, he should at least claim enough to know for sure. There is also south, having ruled out east or west for now, he could see what lies beyond the houses he currently has and also create space between those houses and his boarder to help people feel more comfortable sleeping there. He considers asking Cid if he has reached the northern edge of the city but quickly dismisses the idea. That would ruin the surprise and he still likes not knowing what he will get ahead of time. It's more exciting that way. After going over it a few times he decides to expand south. It doesn't get him anything noteworthy, however.

Letting his curiosity get the better of him he does decide to ask Cid about the mysterious foundations in the southeast of his territory. From what Cid could gather from the few old enough to remember living in the city back before it fell those were merchant shops. Each one selling a different type of merchandise, so they weren't directly competing with each other. Logan isn't sure whether to restore them or not. For one thing he doesn't really know if he can keep them stocked, and for another they don't have any real form of currency at the moment. He isn't so sure introducing currency back into the city would help anything. Right now, they are doing things 'for the good of all' and not to make a profit. Besides that, there is still the question of what the currency will actually physically be. He's not really an economist so decides not to worry about it. It'll either evolve naturally or it won't. He does however decide to rebuild the shops. If nothing else, it will be a way to organize everything and keep it above ground.

A week later and it was time for the next round of the current tournament. 32 competitors had been reduced to 16. He had also gotten two expansions to the north and was about go for another one. He was a little distracted however by the fact that the recon team hadn't returned yet. Granted it would still be a few days before they were late. Knowing that didn't keep him from worrying. The next day he got yet another northern expansion and this time he found the largest building yet and possibly the reason why they fought so hard to protect this area in particular. It was a building three stories tall at least and 62 meters wide. The smaller path leads to the front door so whatever this building is it was obviously important. It also meant he would need at least one more upward expansion maybe more.

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The rogues return a few days later but the news they bring is not good. It seems that the kobold have beefed up security in response to the recent attacks and loss of 'property'. This means if they want to rescue the slaves, they need to commit to a full-scale assault. He asked through Cid the number of slaves they saw, and they were able to confirm at least 13 but say there could be more. He then asked about the number of kobold and found out that there were at least 63 individuals that they knew of. The Humans still intended to go even knowing that some of them would probably die, and despite the fact that if any kobold managed to flee, they would know that the human city is no longer abandoned. Knowing he couldn't talk them out of it and not really wanting to he worked with them to come up with a plan. First came his shadow and light mages which would be sent out for the first time. The shadow mages would sneak around and kill as many as they could while remaining in stealth. Their ability to literally create shadows to hide in would help with this. Whenever they did finally get caught the light mages would set off a huge burst of light temporarily blinding everyone. this would be the main army's que to charge in. The hope was that between the two of them they could take out at least six or seven enemies before getting spotted.

With all of the planning now done they gathered everything they would need while happily chatting about all the new faces they would soon add to the sanctuary. They left early the next morning and Logan instantly felt a huge drop in his mana generation. It wasn't that he forgot the humans were boosting his mana generation he just forgot how much they were boosting it. This was the first time in months he'd had this few humans in his sanctuary. With the majority of the warriors joining the assault on the kobold camp. Over the next week, he didn't really do anything. He still needed the upward expansion and that would take around two weeks to save up for even with all the humans still inside the sanctuary.

The four amigos were defeated in round three of the tournament, though he's actual surprised they made it that far. The field of competitors was now down to 8 and he found himself actually looking forward to each 'tournament day', as the residence began calling them, far more than he thought he would.

Peeling his attention away now that the days tournament matches were over, he decided to check on some of the residence that were still here. watching the expectant mothers sleep alone During those two weeks, some for the first time since they got here. He wondered about marriage and relationships in general and about cultural views on the matter. Talking with Cid about it he found that it was all very casual. They did have a sense of 'partnerships' and parenting but beyond that they didn't feel any strong obligation towards their familial lineage. Logan guessed that was partly because nobody remembers much about their ancestors, but he decided to keep that to himself. He only really cared because he wasn't sure if he should start thinking of them as a family unit, which he kind of already had been, or if they were still two separate individuals that just happened to spend all their free time together. This was important because a family unit only needs one home instead of one for each parent. He had already designated the single houses in the southern part of his territory for families, but he wasn't sure if maybe the reason they shared a house was just because there weren't enough houses to go around.

The following week he was almost as excited for the tournament as the human spectators. It was time for the final round. One team had a fire mage while the other team had a water mage but other than that they were identical. both had a sword and shield guy, a dual sword wielder, and a dual club wielder. Despite that the match was surprisingly intense. In the end it was the Water mage team that won the day and the right to challenge the sanctuaries secret weapons, Lulu and her group of light and shadow mages who hadn't exactly been sitting idle during the past several weeks.

Now that the tournament was over, he turned his attention to city planning. Yangus for his part had finished the new boarding house. He was now busy working on the last of the single houses before fixing up the merchant buildings. By fixing up he of course meant rebuilding from scratch. Logan had to admire the fact that thanks in large part to Yangus and his crew the sanctuary was starting to feel like an actual city. It didn't hurt that between the two boarding houses they contained 72 beds and that combined with the houses meant very few people sleeping underground anymore. Although the number of people still needing to sleep underground was way higher than he would have liked.

Later that day the rescue team returned with 17 people who had been recently enslaved. They managed to lose three people rescuing them, but everyone agreed that the price was worth it. The first thing they did after checking in that they had returned was perform what they called a burial ceremony. According to Cid it was a ceremony reserved for honored warriors in which everyone who served with them would take turns digging the grave one shovel full at a time. As much as he didn't want to play favorites, he was relieved to see that Lulu, Siobhan and Joel were not among the dead. That night at the evening meal there was a mixture of happiness and sadness with people welcoming the new arrivals and being eager to show them around while also mourning the death of warriors they had grown close to over the past few months.

He allowed them to grieve for a few days before sending the recon team back out. This time south towards the elven encampment. Some of the new recruits Wanted to join the recon team but it was much too soon for that. Among the new recruits it was discovered that several had magical aspirations. Whether that was from being enslaved by the kobold or it was just a happy little coincidence he couldn't tell. The fact remained that within their ranks were ten new mages. They were a fire mage, two air mages, an earth mage, three water mages, a life mage, a light mage, and a shadow mage. The rest of the new group wanted to be warriors except for two who wanted to help out in the kitchen. It turns out that she had been in charge of cooking in the last settlement before the kobold found it. Also, as it turns out there are small human settlements scattered around though there usual only around ten to twenty at most in order to remain hidden. Apparently, this isn't very well known as the other humans seemed just as shocked as Logan was. They did what they could to free people but unlike this sanctuary they didn't really have an army. He wanted to reach out to these groups and bring them into the fold but the closest one that they knew of was at least a months journey from here if it was even still there. Not only that it meant passing by at least two kobold camps twice once getting there and again on the return trip. Once he had a human army a few hundred strong he might attempt it but not until then.

As far as training the new recruits went, he just reopened the beginners course taught by Joel. The mages were also lucky because they all had someone to learn from now. He was starting to recognize the need for an official magic school though. He also needs a barracks, a guard tower, and a bunch of other buildings but that was beside the point.

The next week it was time for the exhibition match between the tournament winners and Lulu's group. The Group actually did better than he thought they would. The match started with Lulu flashing a bright light towards the other team. The water mage to his credit summoned a wall of water between the two groups in an attempt to hinder any surprise attack while they're vision recovered. After a few minutes the dual wielders leapt forward and were met by the shadow mages. The shadow mages conjured a couple of shields to block the attacks which immediately after became daggers which cut the two warriors enough to draw blood and eliminate them as per the rules of the tournament. While that was happening the water mage had summoned two water whips which he cracked like a couple of whips drawing blood from the two shadow warriors eliminating them. There accomplishment was short lived though as one of the light mages had snuck up behind the water mage and when the shield bearer protecting him turned to intercept the attack he was cut by a magically summoned long spear. The water mage jumped away from the attempted sneak attack and pulled up another water wall to put some distance between them unfortunately he had forgotten about the other light mages which wasted no time using the same magically conjured long spear again ending the match.

A week later the recon team returned. They again had bad news. Just like the kobold the elves had beefed up security. Unlike the kobold there were a few hundred elves. He didn't think he'd be able to win even if he sent everybody and even if he did the lives lost wouldn't be worth it. Some might argue that freeing even one person would be worth it, but he was looking at the big picture. More specifically he was thinking about the future. If the city he was establishing was going to survive the people living here needed genetic diversity. He wasn't exactly a geneticist in his old life but even a laymen knew that inbreeding was bad, especially long term.