I wake up early and head to school, lessons are boring compared to teaching. Finishing school I trade the gnoll ear pieces into the adventurers guild. Each is twenty copper totaling around ten silver. I head back to the fortress. I grab one of the farmers and teach him scout. He'll work every night shift from now. Making sure to focus on leveling that class so he can spot incoming dangers. 

The blacksmith gnoll managed to make around four swords. I give them all to the knight gnolls. Shields are easy enough to make so I also make around ten shields for all the knight gnolls. I can't have the gnolls wiping out all the monsters in the area so they started a training camp following the same routine Gobber does. Including the thief gnolls. Running will increase their fatigue points so it's always good to do. None of the gnolls could learn more then three classes so far. I make some extra practice dummies and targets for practice for once I make the crossbows.

I start making the crossbows, I only manage to make around five before one of the gnolls runs in. 

“We found something!” 

From the mining pick he's holding I guess he's a gatherer gnoll. We head to the mines and there it is. A giant vein of a material. I'm not exactly sure what it is. The picks can't break any pieces off. Judging by the part that's visible its probably a square foot of ore. 

They excavate it and toss it into the cart with all the ore. Once again I've never seen this type of ore before so there's no way I'd know what to make with it. Some ores are better for armor or weapons. Others are better for accessories like rings and necklaces. I'll take it to the blacksmith after school tomorrow. With that I head back and make the rest of the crossbows for the thief gnolls.

The next day I wake up grab the ore and head to school putting the ore in my old room that I don't sleep at anymore. School ends and I head towards the blacksmith to see what type of ore it is. The blacksmith drops his hammer when he sees it. 

“BOY! Do you know what that is!?” 

His hands are visibly shaking. I ask what it is. 

“It's mithril, it has intense magic resistance properties. Combining with adamantine which is extremely strong against physical damage and gold which is very good for enchanting. You can make dragon slayer armor with that.” 

The square foot chunk I have would sell for fifty gold coins. The blacksmith has never seen the material before only heard of it. I ask him how much it would be for him to make metal plates to replace the iron metal plates on my armor. 

“Nothing, I'll do it for free. I think this might be the only time I'll ever get to work with this in my lifetime. Since I'm doing this for free though... If you ever get adamantite I'd like to make the dragon slayer armor for you” 

I guess even though its strong against magic damage it is also stronger than steel in terms of physical resistance. It can't be enchanted easily though. I buy a compound and recurve bow with the money I have on me. The blacksmith has no idea how long it will take so I'll just leave him to it for now. Once it's done I'll make a set of scale mail with the mithril plates. I have heard of mithril before. I just had never seen it so I didn't realize what it was.

It's been a few weeks, all the gnolls have gotten used to their new lives. I have gotten used to being the leader of an army. The crops have started coming in. I expanded the farm again to feed the army if it expands. At the moment we make enough food to feed everyone but if we want to expand we have to think ahead. 

Everyone has a sword and shield if they're a knight. I bought ten cheap helmets to make them more distinctive from the rest of the gnolls. Maybe I should put badges on their cloths to distinguish which branch they're a part of. Yea that will be fine. Some of the knights have started going out on night patrols and have started collecting wolf pelts to make leather gear for everyone. I pick another farmer to make the leather worker and he gets to work. 

The alchemist has managed to make more potions than we could ever use so he's went back to farming and woodworking in his downtime. I'm about to leave for school when a few of the knight gnolls stop me. 

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“Master, something weird popped up earlier for us. We learned a new class.” 

What!? I didn't even know that was possible. 

“It is the monster rider class.” 

I pull the one talking right now aside to explain it to me, it takes all day but I unlock it.

Class learned Monster rider- passive skill Mounted combat- Able to retain all combat abilities while mounted

Level 1 skill Double strike- attack with your pet, very difficult to avoid both attacks

So some things happened that I don't understand. They managed to learn a class I've never heard of. I didn't think that was possible. It's similar to Gobber, maybe if I think hard enough. I can teach them two classes that will make a third class. Is there a way to increase the class limit? I'm more confused by this new class than anything.

Being able to ride their dire wolves will increase there combat potential incredibly. It would be nice if they could manage to tame some griffons. I don't know where any are in the part of the world. I guess it just goes to show that you might think you know a lot. The world will still find things that can confuse you.

A few days later when I checked in with the blacksmith he was finally done. It ended up taking a much longer time than I thought it would be. He was probably experimenting with it. It might be the only time he gets to use a metal that expensive. He ended up making around two hundred and fifty tiny metal plates. 

I'm going to make a scale chest piece by layering them overtop of each other. I hope that someday we find some adamantine to upgrade this. I take all the pieces and leave immediately heading towards the fortress. We've expanded again to make a bathing area for everyone. 

Gnolls have no sense of indecency so there is no split between male and female bath area's. Its almost like a giant hot spring. Why didn't I think of this before! If I enchant some rocks with flare magic I can increase the heat of the water making it an actual hot spring.

There fortress walls have also been fortified with bricks. Safety is important and if a single person managed to get a fire attack off it could have ended up burning down our defenses. Some other improvements that have been made are the living quarters for me. I removed the spider moving him to the stables and reworked the room into my personal room. 

It has a usable bathroom tied to it. As well as a closet and an additional room to store my equipment and treasures. The main room where everyone sleeps has also been improved. Gobber made an addition as well for a room to himself for sleeping. 

It's not nearly as nice as my room but still better than sleeping in the pile of gnolls every night. Gobber has started heading in town with me. He has access to go into the town by himself. While I'm in school he often wanders around the city doing random things. He's always waiting for me once I finish classes. Something surprising happened when I met Gobber today though.

Side story: Gobbers point of view

Today I follow master into town again. I often check the adventurers guild for missions I can send some of the gnolls on to make extra money. I get talked to by adventurers but I don't speak common well. Even so I can normally make out a few words like. 

“dating anyone, available, attractive, cute are the ones I hear the most often.” 

I don't really understand what they're asking me though. Maybe I should ask master? I leave the adventurers guild and while I'm walking to the school where master attends I hear someone call out. 

“Hey cutie, if you come into this alleyway. I'll show you a good time.” 

It seems that a female wants to show me a good time. Maybe we'll play a game? I often wait for master to finish so spending a few minutes playing a game shouldn't make me late. 

“What game are we going to play?” I ask.

“I have a few games we can play big boy.” 

The lady was very nice to me. I walk into the alleyway and she pushes me against the wall. Am I being mugged? Master told me not to hurt anyone in the city or I could be killed by the guards. What should I do? The lady starts trying to take off my cloths, she must be mugging me! Should I yell for help? 

No master said people might treat me poorly because I'm a hobgoblin. If I call for help more people might show up to help the woman. I started to cry because I don't know what to do. 

“Hey what are you doing to in that back alley.”

I look at who was talking. It was the nice guard lady. She would teach me common while I waited for master back when we trained everyday. The female who was trying to rob me gets up and sighs she talks. 

“I just wanted to show him a good time. Is that against the law?” 

The guard lady talked. “No its not against the law but it doesn't look like he even understands whats going on.” 

The robber lady walked away. I was happy I wasn't getting robbed. 

“Thank you for scaring away the robber lady.” 

The guard lady laughed for some reason. I put my cloths back on then the guard lady talked. 

“You know she was only after one thing from you right? She wanted to have sex with you.”

I wonder what that is. 

“I don't remember ever making sex so I don't think I have any on me.” 

She audibly laughs for a few moments. Then speaks “Where are you headed. I'll give you the birds and the bees talk while we head there.”