Twig was curious what exactly a hobgoblin was, but first he decided to check out the possessed goblins.

[Possessed Goblin: A common woodland goblin infused with a dark spirit to control it. These small creatures are only fierce in numbers. As soon as there exists the slightest chance to lose a fight they will panic and run. In a straight up fight they are useless, but If a hobgoblin is present they can be forced to work. Increased mastery spawns more goblins.]

[Manacost: 600 Mana]

[Monster Core Cost: 400 Mana]

Current Mastery Benefits:

6 Possessed Goblins.

Monster Core Bonus: [Talent: Stone Throwing]

Twig sighted. Pretty much what he had expected. In a fight he could just use skeletons for cheap cannon fodder, they were much more cost efficient. But maybe if hobgoblins proved to be useful, using them as work slaves would be decent. After all, Twigs castle wouldn’t build itself. He did not bother summoning them, they would make more chaos than they would be helpful. Quickly he skipped towards the hobgoblins.

[Possessed Hobgoblin: A rare woodland hobgoblin, infused with a strong dark spirit to control it. While they spent a whole goblin life running away and stealing food wherever they could, this exemplar was successful in growing up. Their natural instincts paired with their night vision and excellent hearing make them fierce and silent hunters in the woodlands. Often their hunting and leadership can keep a whole tribe of dozens of goblins alive. Increased Mastery spawns more hobgoblins.]

[Manacost: 900 Mana]

[Monster Core Cost: 600 Mana]

Current Mastery Benefits:

2 Possessed Hobgoblin.

Monster Core Bonus: [Talent: Assassination]

Immediately Twig summoned 80 of them. All with a monster core. These creatures were just perfect to scout and be his eyes. None of the earlier creatures would have been able to be his eyes and ears. This was a important aspect of survival. If noone made it towards Twig to surprise him, no one would ever beat him! As eighty hobgoblins rose out of the void and stepped foot into this world, Twig was overwhelmed for a second.

All the focus he had to put into controlling them made him dizzy for a few moments. But then he caught himself, and was able to FEEL all his new minions. Ordering them to jump, walk, breath or die would be as natural as breathing. They all had thoughts and wishes, but suppressed below the masters orders. His orders. “Go. Swarm out, let no one see you and scout the area for interesting things.” Only thinking his order, all of them disappeared. Quiet like a silent killer.

At first it was difficult to follow all their movements so far away, but Twig got the hang of it pretty quickly. The mansion was surrounded by a small village. A few guards did not notice the silent hobgoblins rushing through the night and neither did the villagers. Half an hour later it was clear to Twig that his master must have left the area. A couple of goblins stole valuables or food, purely out of instinct. Shrugging he let them do, they would bring it back to him later.

Having ordered his scout army to rush out, he focused on his creatures again. What could he toy around with next? Sadly, before he was able to choose he was interrupted. One of the girls had come downstairs. Was this the Marcella girl? No. Apparently the other one. Twig would have loved to tell himself that he had never been told her name, but he had been. Just his attention had not been… there. Shrugging mentally he welcomed her. “Hi.”

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Yawning, she stumbled towards him. “Morning. What-”, she opened up her eyes wide. “What are THESE?” Twig rolled his eyes. “These. Are my minions. And it is good morning, master! Or go away. I don’t teach humans that don’t follow me.” The girl was left speechless. And apparently she was not as stupid as she looked at this moment. “I apologize. My lack of respect is unforgivable. May the great Twig himself forgive me?”

Twig was not used to be talked to in this matter. He felt like his master. The young prince was courtshipped by the young girls the same way. “Uhm. Fine.” - “Great one, what are all these creatures?” Twig sighted. “I summoned them. They are mine. And it’s not morning. It’s late at night.” She shrugged and just stretched. “I am a night person. Really you must be talented to summon all of these.”

All these compliments were a nice change. Maybe he should ask for her name. “Who are you again?” - “Mira. I am a witch. Or sorcerer if you prefer that. What are you teaching Daz? He is still sitting there… Is he okay?” Twig shrugged. “He is cultivating. Time flies that way.” Actually he wasn’t really sure if humans needed sleep from time to time while using that technique. He himself very rarely slept. Hardly anything was tiring to him. Well, humans were. Sometimes.

“Can you teach me? What does it do?” - “I don’t know. But it increases your energy or mana. Ask him to teach you. I don’t know if you can use it though.” She raised an eyebrow. “Well, we can just use a crystal for mana. I have quite a few, I stored mana for a long time.” Twig stepped away from her a bit. “Well, ask him. I can’t help you.” - “Fine. Thank you.” Then she hurried off towards Daz.

Observing them for a bit, he decided to break it up. Girls clearly distracted him too much. “Stupid human, can’t you focus?” Twigs golem smacked him slightly. “Mira, go away. And you… Show me your cultivation again.” Daz proceeded to sit down again, cultivating. His level had improved. He was already at the second stage. Impressive. “Huh. Good. You are doing well. Here, put these on.” Twig handed him the arm bracers and the boots.

The material was a very special metal, that he had noticed in the royal treasury. It was very heavy. On a hammer it would just crush very much harder. On arms and feet though, it was terror. “What. What are these. I can barely walk like this. Master?” Twig just shrugged. “Now, run. Your body needs to keep up with your energy levels. Or you will explode.” Panicking his minion started to move awkwardly in slow steps around the garden. It would take a while until he started to actually run.

Not that Twig had any idea on his theory. But it would motivate the boy. The girl came up to him again. “What is he doing?” She was quite annoying. Twig tried to cut the conversation short. “Running. Or trying. What do you want?” - “Would the honorable master lend me your creatures for target practice?” Twig shrugged. “Alright.” Wasn’t flattery the best thing? Soon afterwards his four skeletons, two stone golems and a cave troll were chasing the young witch around. She was rooting them with vines, stunning them and firing explosive missiles at the golems and troll.

With everyone busy and his own peace of mind Twig decided to check out more of his monsters. Going from the top of the list zombies were the next. Might as well get that one over with. Most likely similar to skeletons anyway.

[Zombie: Unlike commonly assumed, Zombies are not dead corpses moving around. The real culprit is powerful parasite that takes control of a dead human being. The summoner can summon those to give birth to a cheap undead army. While Zombies are generally slow, their persistence and continuous aggression makes them hard to deal with. Increased mastery increases summoning range. Warning: True Necromancers can take control of your Zombie monsters.]

[Manacost: 100 Mana]

[Monster Core Cost: 100 Mana]

Current Mastery Benefits:

1 Zombie Parasite. Necessary Minimum Distance: 20 meters

Monster Core Bonus: [Talent: Undying]

Twig was rather surprised. This would be rather convenient. He imagined a large battle with a lot of humans. Every single one killed by his minions would rise again. For him. But what was that talent? Investigating further he achieved some more information. [Talent: Undying. Zombie stays alive after it’s host body is killed. It will try to find a new host within 5 minutes.] Twig was satisfied. This gave him a lot more options.

Sadly he would not be able to try it out. And if he was honest killing his humans just to try it out would be overkill. He kind of liked them too. Next on the list were water spirits.

[Water Spirit: A elemental spirit, bound to a mortal shell. While a water spirit can be a strong long range attacker its body is very weak and cannot sustain many attacks. A source of water is needed to create the spirits form. Increased Mastery increases the spirits size and strength. ]

[Manacost: 800 Mana]

[Monster Core Cost: 3.000 Mana]

Current Mastery Benefits:

1 Water Spirit. Size: 1.6 meters

Monster Core Bonus: The spirits form turns normal water into a weak healing potion.

That one sounded interesting, especially the healing potion part. But three thousand mana for the core? That was quite expensive. And it raised another problem. There was no water spot here. He called for the witch girl, that was still playing around with his troll. The rest had already suffered a rather extreme death. “Yes?” - “Can you do me a favour and get water? Or at least, show my skeletons where to get some? I will send some with you.” - “Um. Sure. Now?” Twig nodded.

After summoning thirty six skeletons Mira took off with them. Then Twig proceeded to dig. Well, not he himself digged, he summoned six stone golems that dug out a big chunk of the garden. His disciple came along asking what he was doing, so he made one of the golems run after him, trying to constantly kick him. That would keep him moving. He had gotten a bit faster too. He was almost walking now. Of course the golem was considerate. As long as he moved nothing would happen.

A good twenty minutes later he had dug a small pond, large enough to fit four golems comfortably. Incidentally that was around the same time as his skeletons came back with mira. “Uhh, more golems. Can I have them?” Each skeleton was carrying a wooden bucket. “They only had 29 buckets.” Twig shrugged. “I will search the house for other things. You can have the four golems. Thank you, Mira.” - “Yey. Thank you, great one!”

The skeletons scavenged the house for cups, pans, large washing basins and all other water fillable resources and summoned enough skeletons to use them all. The pond filled up rather quickly, although Twigs mana pool had really suffered a heavy blow from all the experiments. He barely had enough to summon the water spirit with a monster core.

Doing so placed a small liquid ball in the water. It was clearly visible, since it was shining in a light blue color. Aside from that nothing really happened at first. Then the dirty water that had all the whirled up earth inside, became crystal clear in an instant. The pond awakened and a light blue blob rose above surface, still connected to his source. He was about one and a half meter in diameter and seemed to do nothing special. Peaceful.

The only thing that seemed odd was the slightly pink or red-ish color the whole pool started to take on...