How do I get a long and narrow pike? A horn? But there are no monsters with horns in the dungeon. I sigh. In the end, it has to be a part of my own body. Using a corpse would help a bit, as it’s a better environment for vitality than the body of a dungeon monster, but the best possible solution means that vitality needs to stay in my body.

A finger? I go to the recovering goblin and measure how deep I can pierce his scull. If I were to place the vitality ball at the tip of my claw… it would still not be enough. I need to avoid places where vitality is normally connected to the soul. I don’t see those places in the subject, but I sense them in my own body, which should be identical.

So? What now? Maybe… penis? Mine is long enough… But it’s grit is too large. I would damage connection points. Besides, that is quite disgusting.

I sigh. I can graft something. Like, cut a finger of another hobgoblin, and then graft it on a tip of my own. I will have a strange, double long finger that will be long enough. In the worst case scenario, my body will be restored to normal during the evolution anyway. I still need quite a few levels, but even lacking one finger is not a disability that would break my life.

I grimace. It seems I have decided. Who can lose a finger? I don’t want to lose mine on top of having one mutated. I find the last hob that survived coming here with me.

“Give me a finger.”

He rotates his head in incomprehension, like a dog. Trying to save yourselves with cuteness? Ha! I grab his hand and place it on the wall of a shack. I make him curl all his fingers, with the exception of the index finger. I heard once that it's the finger that’s worth the least, and the middle finger can easily replace it in normal life.

“Hold still.” I quickly slash it with a sword and chop it off.

“Agrh!” He shouts and looks at me with anger.

“Easy!” I send some vitality to him. I could maybe regrow it for him, but that would require spending my whole pool. I grab the cut off finger and send some vitality to it as well, to keep it fresh. “See? It’s healing already. Don’t worry, you won’t even miss it!”

Now that I have a finger, I go to a secluded location. I place my own index finger in a similar position. Ok. It’s a necessary procedure. I can heal myself.

I clear my mind and chop off my claw. It hurts! Damn it. In battle, injuries are always less painful. I sigh and place the chopped off finger at the end of my stump. The finger is small enough that even badly joined veins should work; my finger will be just constantly cold. I still try to make it good, even if just for professional pride. Generous amounts of vitality at specific points should conjoin veins first. Two minutes later, I’m a mutant.

I move my new finger. It bends in four places, making it awkward to use it. Just as expected. I shrug and check my remaining mana.

Mana:242/448

Should be enough. I grab another goblin and bring him to the place of the previous experiment. The goblin is recovering and may wake up soon. I wonder, will soul damage be visible? Hopefully not. My first test subject is wittering away, his body doesn’t get nutrients, and he will probably die in his sleep in a few days.

I once again bind the subject. The first thing is that I need to create a hole in his scull. Just in the bone, so a reckless stab with a spear probably won’t work as intended. I need a drill. It would be easiest to ask Asaru…

I find her and ask her to create a drill out of a short spear. It takes a few tries to get me a useful tool, and she tells me it’s going back in a few hours without maintenance or placing a lot of mana in it. I tell her I don’t need anything more for now. I hope I will need her services for the rest of the goblins, though.

The goblin is no longer there. I frown. I find him a few meters further. He is trying to escape by crawling. There's some panic in his eyes. “Come on! It’s for your own good!” I drag him back. “Nobody understands my experiments.” I grumble. Whatever. They will, after I succeed. “We will talk after I awaken you.”

I sit on the goblin’s back and drill a hole in the back of his head. The goblin is trying to escape, but my bindings are good enough. The hole is coming a bit wider than I intended, but it’s his fault, not mine. Who told him to move his head?

With access through the bone, it’s time for my upgraded finger. I pierce his flesh with my claw and push my finger inside. The goblin keeps moving, but the flesh inside is tight, making it hard to miss. I just need to watch out not to push when he is convulsing. Done! My claw is officially inside this guy’s soul. I send most of my vitality to the tip of my claw. Since it’s all inside my body, I don’t lose any vitality, and my control is way better.

The goblin falls unconscious, finally allowing me to work without interruptions. A minute later, I feel a shock to myself. My control over vitality weakens, but I recover quickly. What happened? Right! His soul is partially inside my body! When his soul changed, it tried to wrest control over vitality, but that clashed with my own soul! After all, for the sake of a battle of Wills, we are both at a distance of zero!

I quickly remove my finger from his soul while leaving a few points of mana behind. The soul transforms as intended. I check my mana pool, and indeed, I only lost five points for the whole operation so far. The question is how much I will need to spend to stabilize the patient. I send more vitality to seal the hole in his head.

Can I do it better? I don’t need a permanent hole, just temporary access. Asaru! Maybe she can make a fake hole. That would solve nearly all problems. I check soul damage, and it’s even less than with the previous experiment. Better control allowed me to contain all the vitality in a smaller space.

I watch for ten minutes and send more vitality to the goblin. His body seems to be falling, and with the amount I had to send to him to heal his head, this measurement had already been contaminated.

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All in all, another success! I need to bring Asaru into the plan and start awakening them. At this point, any improvements would be marginal. I will become better while awakening them. I just need to wait a bit to find out if they will actually wake up and if they will be sane.

As for hobgoblins, I need either Asaru or Axi to subdue them. Catching one myself is too dangerous. For now, I should try to block the exit. It's time to find the team. I find them sparing, that is, Axi and Asaru. I watch for a moment. Asaru keeps disappearing and tries to attack Axi from a side or from the back. Axi created several small fireballs and orbits them around herself. Asaru is forced to time her attack well, or a fireball will hit her.

At one point, Axi fireball is deflected with a shield of isolating mana. Axi notices that and immediately turns around, releases some fire mana, and moves it chaotically, so that Asaru can’t camouflage as it. Asaru doesn’t continue, though, and the game continues. I guess the first one out of mana would lose, though Asaru would just have to escape, while Axi would die in a real fight.

Speaking of mana, “Don’t waste too much mana. Adventurers can attack us anytime!” I shout and walk forward, signaling the end of their spar. Axi looks at me, then collects back all her fire mana and brings her ax down.

She nods. “We only spar when we have a full mana pool. You are right, though.” She sighs helplessly. “I can only match Asaru when I’m using a lot of mana.”

Asaru reappears. Time for my speech. I cough two times. “I believe it’s time to try to block the exit.” Axi nods, so I look at Asaru. “We had already checked out the exit, and there’s no ambush or trap there. I think it’s the best possible option for us.”

Asaru doesn’t say anything. I wait for her answer. Adding another argument would make me look weak. “Remodeling the dungeon would cause all those goblins to attack you.”

I smirk. “Only when they are still controlled by the dungeon. I managed to awaken two of them already. I will soon perfect the method and awaken the rest of the tribe. We need to check the possibilities, though. We don’t have enough food to linger.”

Asaru frowns. “Really?”

I nod. “I can show you. Come.” I wave my hand and led her to the two goblins. The food situation is fine for now. Asaru and Axi butchered the corpses of humans. For the few of us, the meat is going to last around two, three weeks. Enough for some dungeon food to become real. Well, it’s fine from a strategic point of view, but I will have to eat human meat too. I don’t like that, but it’s hard to tell which animal butchered meat is from. I can just tell myself it’s pork. I pity Anastasia, though.

Dungeon goblins eat their own dungeon food. The moment all of them become real, our food reserves will be enough for only a day. We can last a few days before we will be too weak to fight, but ultimately, we will need to act fast. If the local shaman can really block priests abilities, the assault on the containment room would be just ridiculously bloody, rather than outright suicidal.

“They really are real…” Asaru inspects goblins from all sides, and I think she also does something with her mana. “Why are they unconscious?”

“It’s just a small and insignificant side effect. My method forces them into one day sleep. They should wake up tomorrow.” I wave my hand dismissively. “So? Will you go?”

“Very well. I will help you.” She says it with a glint in her eyes. I smile. Things are coming along.

Asaru leads us to the exit in the record time of ten minutes, though that doesn’t count, I judge. She used too many sacred passages!

“What now?” Anastasia asks.

“We need building materials. Blocks from dungeon walls?” I propose.

Axi shrugs and chops the wall. Her ax makes a millimeter scar. That won’t work.

“Allow me.” Asaru uses fake mana and upgrades her ax. I present my sword as well, and she helps me too. Axi's ax strikes for a half-centimeter the next time. I’m doing worse, but that’s quite a few of us. We mine for an hour. During that time, we managed to sculpt a few ugly bricks and create the first layer on the ground. We got tired, so the pace is going down, though. I calculate that the whole blockade would take around 24, maybe 30 hours of constant work. If I can use all the goblins in the tribe, though, it could be done in a few hours.

“The dungeon doesn’t like it. Mana patterns changed.” Asaru announces.

I nod. “Can we stay and watch what will happen?”

He hesitates. “From a distance.”

After fifteen minutes, goblins from the village start emerging from the tunnels. They grab our bricks and return them to the sides. The dungeon slowly reclaims them. Given that nothing exciting happens, the rest of the group goes back. I observe longer, hiding in the shadows, to measure timescales. I need to know how quickly the dungeon can repair itself. After around six hours, the tunnel is back to the original.

I go back to the village. I suppose I can actually eat my unsuccessful experiments. It’s a potential source of meat. I’m not sure if it’s sustainable for the whole tribe, but I could awaken a few goblins first, then kill and eat them. Prepare more supplies. It’s an idea.

[Gent’s POV]

Looking at the distance from the top of a hill, I must admit that Adam looks quite handsome. I shake my head. I have my Eli; there is no need to compare myself to him.

“Should we stay here? Who knows what will come out of there?” I move my head in the direction of the 2nd tier zone.

“It’s not like we are safe closer to civilization. A powerful monster can find us anywhere.”

So we shouldn’t even try? I don’t say it, though.

“I was thinking that this isn’t going to last. At least, it leads nowhere.”

“What do you mean?”

“How do you imagine yourself in ten years?”

I think about it. Ten years? Hopefully married with a few kids. I frown. Where? Fighting and hunting in the forest is fine, but I would rather have a more stable life with more amenities. Maybe I could move to the town and become an adventurer. I could just delve into the dungeon. Maybe become a guard. That’s a good option. I look back at Adam. I think I understand what he means.

“But what about the rest of us?” I can’t help but ask.

“What do you mean? I never said I would abandon anyone.”

I’m lost. How can we change everyone’s life? I suppose this is one of the reasons Adam is the leader.

“OK. So, what’s your plan? I’m guessing you need me for something.”

“Yes. I want you to go to nearby refugee camps and ask them to meet me.”

I grimace. “They don’t like us. What can they possibly give us, anyway?”

He smiles. “Manpower. I plan to take over Roheb.”

“What?!” I’m dumbfounded. That’s impossible.

“Think about that. When I’m the new governor, I will need trusted men in high offices. How about you becoming the captain of guards? How about another job? I don’t need to tell you how much money that would bring you. All of that on top of security.”

I smile helplessly. “It’s good to have dreams, but I don’t see how that could happen. Let’s say you are, miraculously, Roheb's governor tomorrow. Then what? Governor didn’t let us in for the reasons. Where will we find food? Will you drive out current citizens?” I rant.

Adam shakes his head. “It’s true there are going to be challenges, but I have already planned everything.” He smiles. “Smag. I plan to hire him to guard villages from riders.”

I frown. “Nobles aren’t going to like it.”

“They can’t even protect this place; it’s not like they can spare troops. As long as I give them their taxes, they may not even object to the change.” Adam waves his hand dismissively. “Smag is said to be a former warlock. He probably made such deals before many times.” A glint appears in his eyes. “Moreover, currently is the best chance to seize the town. Smag may not be extremely powerful, but you can’t tell he isn’t cunning. The town closed the whole dungeon to contain him, and knowing him, he didn’t get inside without a plan. He is going to be out and bring even more chaos. That’s our chance.”

“I… I don’t know.” A good life is good, but I also want to be able to look back at myself in the mirror ten years from now. Maybe I shouldn’t overthink it. Adam is the leader. A leader who I respect. He really saved us back then. Compared to other refugee camps, we are doing the best. Maybe I should just follow his orders. I sigh.

“Go to the other leaders and tell them we need to meet. Our numbers may not be enough.”

“Will they listen? We refused most of them, just like Roheb.”

“They don’t like us or me, but they will listen to benefits. Tell them I have a solution to our predicament. Tell them that they don’t need to stay in the forest for long.”

I nod. They may actually listen to that. I’m not sure if I’m glad about it.