It’s already getting dark when LightsOut lands next to me, this time coming with empty claws.

I think he is tired and ready to call it a night when he tells me, “A lot of goblins, a lot of goblins.”

My heart skips a beat. “Where?”

“Over the top, the top.”

Damn. “How many?”

“Many, many.”

“More than last time when we fought with Tarra?”

He nods his head down.

Crap. I did not need this.

“If they walk tomorrow, would they make it till the evening?”

“Two hours how Oollie walks.”

Damn. That’s too close. They seemed to have sneaked up on us.

I am nervous now. And I need to see it, need to know what we are facing.

“Let’s go,” I tell him, seeing suddenly he is very reluctant. “Don’t worry, we’ll stay up high.”

I tell Rocky and Oollie to hold the fort. The Dungeon has been healing itself and the outline of the Dungeon gate has emerged. But there is still a good four feet of gap and the way it’s being able to fix itself, it tells me it will take at least a week before it is all closed up.

I’m not sure if I have a week. But I need to see what I’m up against to know what kind of monsters I need to create.

Before I go, there is something else I need to do. I select the new option I found in the Dungeon submenu.

[Denizens can function outside the dungeon boundary without suffering any penalties including discomfort and mental distortion

Cost: 1 LIC Energy Unit per Denizen per day per ten miles radius

Enable? Yes or No]

It’s expensive. But that way, my guys will not feel dizzy, feel as if they’ve been drinking whenever they step out. I bet LigthsOut will perform much better with such options as will everyone else. Should have selected this option as soon as I saw it available when I earned my Level 3 upgrade. That penny-pinching can’t be the reason I get killed, I hope.

Twenty minutes later we pass over the peak and see what has him so spooked.

It’s not the number. Sure they came obviously prepared, pitching about ten tents up. I breathe the first breath of relaxation as I estimate their number less than fifty on the ground. I doubt they would sleep on top of each other, so I guess maybe a few dozen more in the tents. One hundred all together at most. That’s not bad.

No, there is something else that has LightsOut scared. We are not flying really high, high because I need to see up close what we are dealing with and the goblins see us.

Their guards see us right away, and soon there are half a dozen of them who take bows out and shoot at us. These are not regular bows and those are not regular goblins. They seem twice as wide and a head bigger than the rest. And I bet their arrows are bigger and more powerful than regular ones, but they still come halfway to us. Not even close.

“You see, nothing to worry about,” I say as I watch the arrows lose their power and turn around to fall down.

“They will pay, they will pay,” he cracks out and then drops a few turd bombs at them.

Oh, you can bet your pretty fathers they will pay. And with more than just the turd bombs.

I'm already thinking about what can I throw on their heads. Rocks, pieces of timber… Maybe I can make some kind of flammable bombs. Distill some fruits, make barrels of alcohol, see how much LightsOUt can carry a long distance, then pack it inside some light bags. It could work. Would need a few people to pull it all together. But I bet it could work.

And really… it does not even need to be fruits to make alcohol. Whiskey is made of grains. Vodka of potatoes. All of that could do.

I could open my own distillery. I always wanted to have that, and here is my chance. Sell the booze to the people and when I need it for defense, I just get a bunch of heavy bombers like LightsOUt to carry it and drop it wherever I want them to. The sky is the limit.

But all of that would take a long time. And from what I see, these people here are starving. They do not have spare food to make an apple pie for a person who saved their kids. Yeah. We need to change that ASAP.

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Hard to do it if you are constantly getting raided from all sides.

It seems poor folks always had it rough.

As I’m flying back, one thing becomes clear to me. I cannot wait for the dwarfs to finish forging me a weapon for Rocky. These guys will be at my door tomorrow, shooting everything with those big arrows. I will not be able to even duck my head out of the Dungeon. And what about the dwarfs? I need to tell them. There are only about dozen of them and will not be able to fight these many goblins. Sure I can offer them protection inside my cellar, but, that is not a long-term solution.

If they are bringing tents, obviously it’s not just a raiding party. They do not expect any trouble. Will probably settle down and block me out.

No. I can’t wait till tomorrow. I need to go and use the darkness of the night to do some major damage to these goblins. Raid their camp and kill as many as I can tonight. I go to the Constructor to see the biggest sword that it permits me to have. It’s a two-handed sword, over four feet long. I do not even want to see how much it will cost me. I can’t watch my pennies now because it just would not be right for Rocky to have to fight with small goblins' swords. He would just lose a lot of the advantage his monstrous strength could give him. It would be equal to having a Ferrari just to drive on an unpaved country road with more path holes than the road.

As soon as I approve of the making and SAMS tells me it will take fifteen minutes, I have a change of heart. I actually think I have a better idea, one that could not cost me anything.

Not even wanting to wait for the sword, I impatiently run to the dwarfs and tell them all about the goblin's threat and how I’m planning to raid them tonight.

Then I tell them about my idea. A heavy-duty double-edged axe. With a long, reinforced handle. The blade should be rough and sharp. But massive. It has to be strong so that it does not crack. But it has to be massive that Rocky can chop two goblins in a single strike.

I can’t believe I have not thought about that earlier. Like I’ve never played Diablo.

They look at me as if I smoked something funny. For them, axes are small, something to put around your waist. But after seeing what Rocky could do, they don’t ask questions or protest and say that they’d be glad to help.

“We have hot iron. I already started to melt what you got us earlier. Give us an hour,” Remetin says eagerly, understanding the urgency, and starts working the fire right away, calling his younger brother to come and give him a hand.

“You do the blade, Remetin, and I’ll do the handle. Have the right piece of wood for it. Used it as a lever to move rocks, but it would work perfectly for the long handle Master Dungeon asks for,” one of the dwarfs who gathered around offers to help.

I truly appreciate that.

While they work that out, I go to the Constructor and see the sword it finished producing. It’s shiny and new and sharp.

I tell Rocky to pick it up, and let him handle it. The weapon is heavy, but he moves it around as if it’s a toothpick.

Even though Rocky default sword fighting skills are basic, he can still move it around and cuts himself on his leg only one time. Yeah. He will need to train to use this brutal weapon, at least the weapon this long. If it was shorter, he would not have cut himself.

If he gets hurt by himself, what is going to happen when they attack him? Probably from all sides the way they did Tarra. Me and my experiments!

But what is done is done.

So, while he is bleeding, I figure I better get some healing supplies.

“You say there are about a hundred of them,” Old Master Dwarf greets me when I come back to take a weapon.

“Yes. But there won’t be nearly that number after tonight.”

They look at me, all frowning and serious, and I frankly can’t tell what they are thinking. “Look, you can go back to town or if you want to, you can look for protection inside the cellar of the Dungeon.

“Ha,” the Old Master Dwarf just chuckled. “That will not happen.”

I do not know what he wants. “I have to thin their numbers tonight. If they set up a camp here, they have enough arrows to make my life rather difficult.”

“We understand. We were thinking… if you would not mind a little help with thinning their numbers tonight.”

“I can’t ask you to fight-”

“Why not?”

“This is our home now too. Isn’t it? Or you were serious to honor it?”

“Oh, yes, this is your home, but… I do not want any of you to get hurt.”

“We know how to fight.”

An image of fighting dwarfs what I read in Tarra’s scroll flashes in front of my eyes. If only I was so lucky. Because those were professional fighters. These here are just miners. And their grown-up children. No. I’m not sure I want to be responsible for them. We’re just doing so good, so incredibly good after the roughest of start we had… could never imagine to be doing so good with them, just for them to get hurt now? They’ll hate me forever.

“I don’t want you hurt.”

“You’re not our grandma. If you fall, those goblins will be here. And they’ll raid your dungeon, and we lose our place here. Sure we can run away. Sure it would be worse for you. But what does that matter? We both lose.”

I sigh and that seems to give him the incentive to continue. “They’ll kill your wolves and skin them, and your little cute fella too. Maybe even rape him.”

“Yes. These goblins from Erwin’s Dungeon are all twisted. They’ll definitely rape him first,” one dwarf added from behind.

“Yes, they are known to stick their willies into anything that moves.”

“And some things that don’t.”

“Yes, they’ll definitely rape Ollie, then eat him,” the other one added.

I see what they are doing. They see my face, actually Rocky’s, full of disgust and frowning, they think they got me and are running with it. I sigh again. Obviously, they want to fight. But…

“You have to trust us,” Master Dwarf says. And then to cement his argument, he adds. “I never thought I would ever say this to any dungeon, but… If this relationship between us has any chance of working, we have to trust each other. And I’m willing to give it a shot. If you are, that is.”

How can you turn down someone like a tough-as-a-nail little Master Dwarf guy when he comes at you like that? Besides, you know he is right.

Still, you have to play it tough. I bet he expects you to do it just like that. “If you come, it’s at your own peril. And… this only works if… you listen to me. You do what I ask of you. Not more and not less. And… nobody needs to die tonight. Do you understand?”

They nod their head.

“No heroics. This is just a raiding party. Use darkness as our friend. And come back home, safe and sound. Understand?”

“We understand,” they all say.

And the way they say it is like… they know what they are talking about. At least more than I do.

In the end, they all come. Not a single one stays. They take their bows and arrows I did not even see they had. Some take their axes. One even had two of them, proudly tied in his large belt.

The way they fall suddenly silent, I again realize they know more about surviving here than I do. So, I start to seriously fear that my ignorance might cost some of them their lives.

If even one of them dies, my dungeon is too far away for his soul to be brought in. He would be lost forever. And then, Tyrion in me would never forgive me.