I keep the message crystal on me and begin making plans. Seeing an army that large has left me shaken. I haven’t prepared my kobolds for war. I’ve only prepared them for living peaceful lives to the fullest.

“You.” I point to a kobold who isn’t doing anything. He yaps in surprise then quickly gets to his feet. “Yes, lord dragon.”

“Anon is fine.” Just call me by my name. That is all I want.

“Yes, lord Anon, yap!”

It just keeps happening. “Come with me.” I beckon him outside of the cave. He follows, wagging his tail like a puppy. It’s a different reaction than normal. “You’re not scared?”

“Why would I be? Yap!”

I’m getting an odd sense of dejavu and decide to not continue on with that line of thought. Time is of the essence here. “You’re good with rocks right?”

“Yap! All kobolds good with rocks. Shiny rocks, best rocks.”

“We aren’t looking for shiny rocks.” I lead him down into the tunnels where the large beetles live. After a short walk we arrive at my original escape hole. The piles of dirt that I had dug out of the mountain side are still here. I quickly sort through them until I find a gray and brown stone. The brown parts of the rock are flaky to the touch, like rust.

“This is iron ore. You can tell it’s iron ore because of that orange rust. I need you to find as much of it as you can.”

I lead him farther down the cave studying the cave walls. The deeper you go the hotter it gets. I stop when I see a black rock in the wall. I chip a piece off and hold it in my palm. “Create fire.” A small flame dances on the rock and I quickly have to drop it as it begins to burn. I chip off another piece of the black rock and hand it to Yap. Yap is what I will call him. I am no longer squeamish about assigning names. They’re my kobolds. I’ll name them whatever I want and they’ll enjoy it because they’re mine.

“This is coal. You can tell it’s coal because of how black it is. I need a lot of this too. Gather a few kobolds and lead them in mining operations.”

He takes the rocks and runs off. I thank the gods that I was isekaid into a place with such rich natural resources. You’re welcome. On the way back I see a beetle. It looks so much smaller now, but it could be a threat to my kobolds if it attacks. I need to get a detachment of guards to guard the miners.

“Warrior Kobold!”

I shout and he comes running. “Yes, lord Anon.” He stands to my chest in height now.

“Did you get taller?”

He nods. That’s weird. He hasn’t gained any levels, why has he gotten taller? Nevermind that mystery. I have much more pressing issues to attend to.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“How many weapons do we have?”

He looks only at his two handed sword. “One? Three if you count the daggers you loaned us.”

“Okay, that’ll do for now. I’m sending a group of kobolds into the caves to mine for iron. If you could send two kobolds with daggers to protect them, that’d be nice.”

He salutes and then runs off.

By now I’m frantically searching for kobolds who are doing nothing. Each kobold seems to be doing something. Fuck it,I’ll just grab one of the weaver kobolds.

“You!”

I point to a young male kobold. He points to himself and bobs his head up and down like a bearded dragon.

“Yes you. Come with me.”

He gets up and follows me. Bobbing his head the whole way. Another kobold with a weird tic. At least this one is noverbal.

“You got a name?”

He shakes his head.

“Cool I’m going to call you Bob.”

He chuckles. “That’s what the others call me.” No time to reflect. I need this guy set up with a smithery immediately. I can’t place it outside because the goblins can easily attack anyone outside. I lead him to the bonfire.

“Fuck this bonfire. Useless piece of crap.”

I use Move Earth to slam it out of my way. Then using more earth magic I construct a smithery. I’m not 100% on how a blacksmiths forge is made. This’ll require more work in the future, but for the basics all I need is a forge where coal is heated and an anvil. It’s hard to make an anvil without any iron. A tree stump will do. We’ll just plate it with iron later.

I dart out of the cave. Grabbing a tree stump and flying back in. I set it down in the forge area then quickly fly back over to the basket weavers.

“Why is our main entrance so vulnerable? We need traps. Kobolds are good with traps, yes? Can I get two of you to go make some?” The groups look around at each other. Two shrug and stand up.

I dart back to the forge. “Alright, you’re going to be the blacksmith slash pottery oven guy. I know you don’t know what those are. We will start with pottery. Only because the miners need time to mine.”

Back to the basket weavers. Grab two of them. Down to the river bed, grab baskets full of clay. Show them how to make bowls. Show them where the bowls go when they are ready to be fired. Show Bob how to load wood in and light it. Show bob how to seal the forge so it stays hot. Show Bob how to keep it at a steady temperature. Down to the mines to grab baskets of coal and Iron. The miner kobolds are getting the hang of this very quickly. We have no molds so we have to just use clay and hope it works. Show Bob how to melt iron. Quickly make a wooden mallet while the iron cools, because I was stupid and forgot it. Back to the forge just in time for the first ingot to be done. Show Bob how to pound it into a dagger like shape. Show Bob how to cool it in a bowl of water. Fly out of the cave to grab a rough looking stone. Nearly get taken out by a trap on my way back. Show Bob how to use a whetstone.

Breath! I need to breathe. This is too much too quickly. I feel like I’m speed running civilization right now. I lumber over to my quarters and flop onto my animal pelt beg. I just need a few minutes. Sleep came easily.

Except it didn’t.

“Sir?”

“What?!”

“How are we to tend the farm if the exit is trapped?”

“Just dig pathways that kobols can fit through, but are easily collapsible incase we are raided.”

“Yes, sir!”

With that I fall asleep. Minus one more interruption. The message crystal in my robe pocket was glowing. I picked it out and listened to the baron’s message.

“If I send people to help then half the spoils are mine.”

It wasn’t in my morals to accept his help knowing that it would lead to a life time of slavery for the demi-humans he got ahold of. If he was as shrewd as the King then he would give me the human’s as slaves, knowing full well that I would turn them free. I sighed and laid my head back down.