I wake up in the morning, ravenously hungry, and check my stats as I go to stuff my face with food.
Level: 0
HP: 911/911
MP: 358/358
Traits: Mana Affinity, Earth Manipulation
Magic: Improved Stone Shaping, Tectonic Sense, Earth Spike
Well, I can stone shape four times as fast now, and my stats are looking pretty good, I mean compared to when I was an imp at least. After I eat, I record my stats in my records, and go to use a bucket of water to get a decent look at myself. I might have gotten a little larger, and it seems like my forearms are a little thicker, but other than that, I don't notice any changes. I feel like when I was an imp I had bigger changes when I prestiged, but maybe that was only in the later stages, it's hard to recall exactly how I looked as an uncommon and rare imp, especially since I didn't have any reflective surfaces to look at myself back then.
With all my record keeping taken care of, it's time to show Zeb how I clean the ashes from the fire for disposal. That'll be his task for the day while I get used to using the Improved Stone Shaping on my house. I'll have to reward Zeb's hard work with more English lessons soon though. I feel bad having him work away from me, considering the situation.
----------------------------------------
Over the next eight days, I did end up coming up with a good work pattern so that Zeb could work near me. I ended up working on two projects at once as part of this. First, I needed more stone for constructing the front of the house at the cave entrance and the roof features. So I decided to start digging out both the room that I'd like to use for crystal storage in the future, and a new storage area closer to the cave entrance. I went a little further down from where I normally charge the crystals to build the crystal storage room. Then just off the stairwell, I started cutting stone out of the wall. Then I had Zeb haul the stone up to the cave entrance. I would make a trip up with Zeb many times because I can cut blocks out so much faster than they could be carried. When that room was plenty large for storing crystal trays, we moved on to the storage area closer to the entrance.
All of this gave Zeb plenty of time to work on learning English. Tonight, however, I notice that we're already getting low on imp meat. I completely forgot that I have to get my own food again. I got pretty used to the goblins providing for me in the village, and with two of us up here, the imp meat only goes so far. I guess tomorrow I'll be taking Zeb on a trek to get spuds and lion roots. Then I can show him how I store and cook them. I think, if we keep the pace of work up that we've been going at, the entryway house will be done by the time Zaka returns.
----------------------------------------
It's been another twenty days. Later today is when Zaka and a few other goblins should arrive. I'm excited to show them not only the new entryway house, which is quite large, but I also carved out small living quarters for the goblins that visit. The area in front of the cave has been remodeled as well. I'll have Zeb help me give them a grand tour when they arrive. Zeb hasn't been neglected either. For now Zeb's staying in my old living quarters down in the cave, but we've started carving out a place right next to mine in the mountain face for Zeb to stay in.
Around half-way through the day, as Zeb and I are working on his house, we hear a booming voice suddenly from outside. I'm caught off guard, and am temporarily stunned by the sound. Zeb however, cautiously looks outside, then looks back to me and says, "Zaka is back. He looks different he says."
Zeb and I leave the area we're working in, and inside the new clearing of trees are three goblins... and one much larger, and more muscular, red skinned goblin.
Zeb points to the red skinned goblin and says, "That's Zaka."
I mean, if he did say he looks different, then yes, it's obvious that one is Zaka. The other ones all still look like goblins. I can't know for certain, but I'm presuming that Zaka turned into a hobgoblin. With his tall posture, he stands a little taller than I do now, and honestly is a little intimidating. I was going to give them a tour, but it seems like they want to rest first, and give us updates on the goblin village, so I invite them into my new house through the main door.
Inside, I've divided the house into three rooms, with the entry hall being the largest, taking up half the house. The room is a about 25 feet wide and 15 feet long, with a 12 foot ceiling. From one side of the room to about the halfway point, I've made a long table with 10 chairs around it. On wall opposite sits a large fireplace, which currently doesn't have a fire in it. In a corner is a makeshift kitchen area, and near the entryway is a rack I made for people to store any tools they might be carrying.
Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.
I let Zaka and the goblins know they can store their spears on the rack, and then show them to the table to sit, as Zaka begins giving us an update of happenings in the goblin village. He periodically pauses so Zeb can translate for me, which is considerate of him.
The gist of the situation is that they lost another goblin to a lizard attack. This time it was one of the woodcutters who was attacked after they felled a tree. When other goblins went to go look for their missing comrade, they found the lizard near the felled tree, and his body was nowhere to be found, but there was enough blood to indicate that he was probably killed. The palisade project is going well overall though, and they'll be finishing one of the four sides pretty soon. Almost all the goblins have prestiged at least once now, and quite a few have prestiged a second time. Zaka himself finally attained evolution as well, and says he can now summon an imp without using a crystal, but recharging his mana will be much faster with them.
In two more eclipse cycles, Zaka will return to bring us back to the village before the snowfall, that is, as long as many more goblins don't die before then. He says when he returns next time though, he plans on summoning imps again before returning, and I decide not to object.
After he finishes his update, I start a fire in the fireplace, and start cooking. I imagine the goblins will be hungry. I know they may not want any vegetables, but it's all we've got right now, so they'll have to live with boiled lion root and mashed spud. I've gotten more of the sweet rock flower, and used it to at least add some flavor to the food, which the goblins seem to enjoy more than the last time I fed them plants.
After everyone has eaten, I decide to lead them on the grand tour of the new and improved cave entrance, of which they've already seen the outside area, but I want to show it off to them anyway.
The front area has been cleared of the nearby trees, and although there are still some stumps around, some have been removed closer to the house. I've laid down sidewalks and made some terraces along the slope, with stairs between them. This way, we can properly farm the spuds. I've already transplanted some spud plants into one of the terrace fields, to see how well they grow as well. How did I accomplish this so fast you might wonder? Well, look no further than a little further down the mountainside to see a pile of rubble. I basically dug the dirt into a pile, then cut chunks out of the mountain and tossed them down the slope to a nearby landing, then redistributed the dirt. This area was quite rushed, as by this time, I only had a few days left until our guests arrived. The two terrace fields are each only 20 feet by 10 feet, and the rise on the back side is between three and five feet.
Returning to the cave entrance, I decide not to show them the place where Zeb's house will be, since it's under construction, but I will show them the other additions. First, there is a door leading to a hallway alongside my house which goes back to the old wall in the back of the cave entrance. This way they can go to and from the cave without going through the house. The hallway is about thirty feet long, on the right side of the hallway, there is one door, which leads to my workshop area in my house. On the left there are five doors spaced evenly from each other along the way to the back. Behind each of the left doors is a small 8 foot by 5 foot room with a bed in it. It's not much, but I figured the goblins might appreciate it, since they normally all stay in their own huts in their village.
The workshop area of my house is a 15 feet by 10 foot room, with shelves, a desk, buckets and bins, and some tools scattered about. There are two doors in here, one leads to the entry hall area, and the other to my bedroom. The bedroom is actually pretty bare right now, with just a bed, since I was busy building everything else.
Once you go back through the door into the cave, there is another door in the wall of the cave not far away. Inside is currently just a large empty space with support pillars, and a lot of loose wood. I plan on making shelves and extending it as needed, but for now, this is the new main storage area. Again, I was short on time to complete all the details of this area.
The last thing to show them is further down. I did complete this project, because it not only helped me, but I figured it would help Zaka as well. A little bit before we make it to the main cavern, I stop the goblins at a door in the wall. This door has a bit of a locking mechanism, and by that, I mean it just has a handle which can be rotated to raise or lower a piece of wood into a latch on the backside. I have a feeling I'll need to replace the rotating mechanism frequently, because it runs on stone bearings, but if it gets jammed at any point, I can always just cut directly into the room if I need to.
Inside the room, I've got lots of shelves with all my trays of crystals. With Zeb's help, I explain how to use the crystal and tray system, and have Zaka work through it once, to make sure he understands. I don't mind letting him use it while he's here, but I already have to clean up the imps when he's done, I don't want to be trying to re-sort crystal trays, or worse, remake trays from scratch, because he didn't use it correctly.
With all the tour ended, I have Zeb go back up with the goblins, while I head down into the cave to seal off the two sub-caves before tomorrow. When I return to the house, Zaka and the goblins are all relaxing around the fireplace in the entrance hall, so I join them for a while before we all turn in for the night.