Drakar:

After the somewhat incompetent initial survey of the domain, the construction for the village went on full speed ahead. We had to complete the construction of halfway habitable village abodes before the start of the winter season in around two months. If that had been the only thing to worry about then it would have still been manageable, however as always that was only one of the many worries for the great War Chief of the goblin tribe. No, along with the construction of abodes, Drakar’s Warband was also tasked with scouting and mapping the surrounding area, accumulating enough food supplies for the tribe to last through the cold season, as well as protecting the goblins who were tasked with collecting firewood and medical herbs for winter.

With half of his goblin warriors tasked with construction and the other half outside the valley, it came to no surprise to anybody that the Nightshade tribe lacked the leisure time to further survey the domain of the cave deity.

After a bit of consideration, I gave my subordinates the permission to venture into the first floor of the Domain in parties of five as long as they had at least two E-ranked goblins in their party. However, any further delves were forbidden as despite needing the resources the domain provided, it did not justify the risks of delving any further without a babysitter, cough I mean experienced goblin as protector.

Great opportunities usually come with greater risks. And since we found the Domain of the Cave deity it had come to our awareness that all paths of retreat had been cut off for our tribe. For the goblin tribe nothing was as important as the domain, and it needed to be protected at all costs, even at the cost of the continuity of the tribe. Thus, the construction of the tribe became even more elaborate than our previous ancestral grounds. This meant that we had to construct a permanent habitat that could last throughout the ages, and last against any possible threats, especially the humans. Such a huge project could not be done within one or two months, even with the extra resources from the domain. However, winter was coming so the construction of the abodes and collection of supplies were given priority above all else.

Within two months after the formation of the contract with the Lord of a thousand faces, almost forty semi- underground homes with stone foundation and reinforced wooden roofs were erected in the depths of the valley. Central fireplaces had been constructed for every five houses inter-connected through vents for warmth. A stone foundation made of dungeon stone had been laid out for the construction of the great hall in the future. A large storage hut had been built to the west side of the village filled with foraged fruits, vegetables and herbs as well as smoked and salted meat for the winter. The homes for the village chief and shaman stood in the center of the village, a few sizes larger than all the other houses. In the center of the village a large area was left open for the central fireplace for gatherings and different ceremonies conducted by the shaman. By the time of the first snowfall, the final phases for the temporary wood palisades and watchtowers had been constructed at the three openings of the valley. Further expansion and fortification work would be left until the beginning of spring, as winter was the time for hibernation and repopulation for the tribe members.

----------------------------------------

Two weeks into the start of winter I was pulled from my comfortable sleep out of my warm bed, by one of the few scouts which were still stationed around the perimeter of our valley. He rushed into my home shouting loudly. “Sir Drakar, Sir Drakar, it's urgent… huuuumANS, HUMANS!!!”

“What?!? What do you mean Humans?” I roared, my heart palpitating with fear. Did those humans follow us from our previous ancestral ground? Did they not have had enough with exterminating half of our tribe? Will they only give up after every single goblin is dead? Those bastards, today I will kill every one of them. I rolled out of my bed with hundreds of thoughts flitting through my mind and my fighting spirit over the roof.

“Stand still and calm down!! What do you mean by Humans? How many and where?” I asked sternly, though I secretly sympathized with my subordinate, as I know he, like all the other goblins warriors, had been through a lot because of the humans and that species had already become almost like a curse to our tribe.

“Oh, ah, it's two of them and the other scouts have already captured them and are bringing them here.” the goblin said, scratching his head and his face full of chagrin. A pail of cold water doused my burning fighting spirit within seconds.

“You…” I became speechless while looking at the idiot. Why the hell was there a need for all this dramatics if they have already captured the humans. I have to increase their training volume tremendously. If they are already like startled birds while seeing two captured humans, then what will be their condition if the humans attack in earnest. No, this can not do, especially with our new location for our tribe. Discipline seems to be more necessary than ever before.

After counting to five and calming my anger down for a bit, I stared down at the scout for a good three minutes. Once he started sweating and squirming in his place. I started speaking word by word, so that he could feel exactly that I was questioning his intelligence at the moment. “Bring me… to the big bad… humans." I gritted out, out through my teeth.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

" He he … sure yes Sir.” He grinned with chagrin as he led the way.

From afar I saw two tied up Humans, guarded by four E-ranked scouts and my brother Wizzle. Making my way closer to them I saw that both of them had sack clothes covering their head, and a whole coil of rope was used to bind each one of them. Well talk about overkill. Even from a distance I could feel only one of them was E-Ranked and the other was just an F-Ranked. The extra training is definitely getting up on the agenda.

Seeing me, all my underlings stopped and saluted. With my hand on my chin I wondered for a few seconds where I should take them, to question them about their goal on making their way here. After a few seconds of thought I realized that the only available place for questioning was my own house. Seems there are more buildings we need to construct with the start of spring.

Once everyone made their way back to my house, I sent one of the guards to send the message to the Village Chief and the Shaman. After giving Wizzle the permission to stay, I sent out all the other guards to guard my house. One of the scouts was sent off to Vexa, for a bottle of truth serum, while we were examining the two prisoners. The E-ranked human was walking with his back straight despite his head being covered with a sack. While the F-ranked human on his side was somewhat curling into himself, showing that his confidence and position was not that high. Wizzle removed the sackcloth from the E- ranked prisoner to see what we were dealing with.

I stared at the blond pockmarked man, while the man blinked and started looking around to orient himself. After taking a glance around, his gaze focused on me, as if he knew I was the boss here. After staring at each other for a moment, as we took the measure of each other, I dragged him down to the underground cellar. “Bring me the potion, when you get it… I will get him ready for it.”

Though the truth serum had the ability to prompt people with normal willpower to speak only the truth for a few hours of time. It would not bring anything, if the willpower of the receiver was too high, or if they kept their silence. Thus the usual practice before administering the truth serum was to torture the victim and make them pliable to answer any questions asked.

Since the active duration of the serum was only a quarter of an hour in which it should be consumed, as if became less effective afterwards, the serum was usually brewed up from scratch. Thus it would give me and Wizzle enough time to make the captive docile.

After a few hours of torture and the consumption of a truth serum later, we learnt from the soon to be dead prisoner that his name was Will and that he was a low level Surveyor and Cartographer by livelihood. He had made his way here, in the dead of winter due to a job posting in the Adventurer Guild.

Apparently, the job was posted three and half weeks ago for a small par sum of a silver and three copper coins. The job description was about a magical cave in the no-man's land between Alderia and Eckador, where a small traveling caravan came to its end. The reason for the low compensation was due to the job intelligence of the listing coming from an E-Ranked adventurer, who in turn got his information from a child apparently. Will, being a Surveyor living at the fringes of his community, had got his sixth sense tingling apparently when he saw the posting. Wanting to make it big this time, he set off before the onset of snowfall, to be the first person to find out the secrets of the magical cave before anybody else, however the goblin village was a surprise to him. The other F-Ranked human, Sam, was just a lackey he employed to do the menial work.

According to his almost incoherent threats, adventurers would be swarming the valley by come spring to find the cave if he went missing. However upon further detailed questioning it was revealed that if contact was lost with the adventurer who took the job for three months, the return on the job posting would only increase by a small fraction, except for special cases where there was active contribution from the person who listed the job. And given the myriad of reasons someone could lose his life in the wild, I was not too worried about the guild missing these two particular adventurers.

After again questioning Sam, to double check the accuracy of the information I made my way to the Village chief and Shaman to discuss our further actions.

“It seems that we are safe for the time being, and the humans are unaware of our presence.” Vorkus mused after hearing everything I had reported. “The humans seem to not realize that we have the domain of our Lord here in the mountains. And the only information they do have, does not seem to be taken seriously by them, which gives us an advantage and time.” Slinkshadow added.

“From what I understand of their Adventurer’s guild we might have a few months up to a year if we are lucky. However we have to keep in mind that however long it might take the next human explorers to come, they will come one time or another. So we have to be ready for their arrival.”

“Drakar, you should speed up the training of all tribe members, even the non-combatants. It is said that the domain of our deity is the best place to become stronger at a faster rate, so from the time that the snow starts melting I want all our tribe members to start training there in batches.”

“Furthermore, the humans are still unsure of the existence of the domain. So the next explorer can only know about the existence of a goblin village in the valley, the existence of the domain must be hidden at all costs. To the Humans we goblins are only just a nuisance that can be exterminated at their leisure when they feel the need for it. We are no different from other monsters to them, and they may take their time to fight us if they come to know about us. However, from our ancestral teachings it is clear that if they come to know about the deities' domain the speed and magnitude of their attack will be much greater.”

“Humans have always coveted our deities' domain, and the effort given to something they covet will be much different from something they find a nuisance.”

“Vokus, our planned fortifications for spring must be strengthened once again. And start thinking about traps, our ancestors were trap specialists, it is time that we once again go back to our roots. I see great Turbulence in the Horizon. Whether we survive it or not depends on our preparedness. Right now our enemies are still in the open while we are in the dark.”

“Drakar, bring the prisoner to the domain, I will do another sacrificial ceremony and we can sacrifice the humans to the Lord. I will also report today's events to the Lord. It is said that the Lord can hear and see everything that goes on in his domain.”

“We hear and obey, great Shaman.”