When we get back to the camp, it seems like the fire has already been started, so we put our wood down nearby as people cook. Quite a few goblins are also huddled around where I was working. I make my way over and the goblins near my pit make way for me to go through them. It doesn't look like they've done anything other than look, so I climb back down into the pit, and begin working again since my mana is refilled. As I cut blocks out of the stone, I hear the goblins start whispering to each other, and I look up as I see a few pointing at the blocks of stone.

I shrug and keep working, moving the blocks over, and melding them into the wall. After a little while, the goblins start leaving one by one to get food, and the leader goblin comes over and brings me some food. He watched for a little while as I worked before interrupting me to give me the food, which consisted of a very meager portion of meat. I'm really starting to miss my cave.

I keep working, and after another hour and a half, the pit has four walls and a stairwell, and I need more mana. Eventually, this will be a basement, but for now, it's just an open pit. If I had to guess, it measures about 10 feet by 10 feet. The size of a small room. Right now the basement floor is uneven, due to the blocks I'm cutting out of it, but it's about four feet deep. By the time I'm done cutting all the stone to build a building, it'll be at least 6 feet deep. For today though, I just want to close the ceiling off in the pit so that it doesn't fill with water when it rains next.

As I take my break, I observe that a lot of the goblins are just milling about and talking to each other. Ever since I've come here, I've been working almost nonstop, so it's surprising to see others just milling about and not working. Like, if they went and got wood now, they wouldn't need to go back out later. They also don't seem to use any weapons of any kind. Honestly, it's probably for the best I can't understand their language, otherwise I'd be trying to micromanage them like crazy.

With that in mind, I fully intend to keep working rather than just lazing around. I think I can probably find that downed tree again myself, so I might as well go get a load of wood to haul back.

As I make my way to that tree, another ground bird runs off from nearby. With my mana empty and my spear in the village, I barely even get a chance to swing my claws before it's long gone and running off into the underbrush. Too bad I suppose. I really would have liked some more food. I'll have to settle for hauling the wood I came here for initially.

When I make it back to the goblin village, a few goblins look over with some confused faces as I drop the wood off at the fire. I'm really starting to feel the hunger though, so I think tonight I'll be sure to go hunting as long as I can finish covering up the basement roof. I am getting a little frustrated that I'm even building this though. I'd much prefer to be back up in my cave, and I feel like maybe I should just head out and attempt to go back, but I also don't want to make a sudden enemy of the goblins. I'm not sure what they even think of me in this situation. If I can get them to guide me back to the cave, that would be good. They have had a habit of periodically returning to the cave, so hopefully at the point they return, I can just go with them.

I continue working on the basement, adding a central support pillar, then slowly extending supporting arch shaped beams to the walls, then filling in the spaces between the beams with thick stone. I definitely don't want any collapses to occur. I make sure to leave the space above the stairs open as well. At this point, I'm glad my natural posture has a hunch, because the ceiling in the basement is pretty low. Eventually it'll be higher as I continue harvesting stone from the floor to build though.

With the ceiling mostly completed, I'm again out of mana, and it's getting to the evening. It seems like a few of the goblin groups have already set out to hunt, so I might as well join them to hunt. The leader goblin comes over to try to get me to go hunting with him, but I think I'd rather join a different group if I can. Mostly, I'm interested in how the other goblins hunt. I've already seen the leader use fireballs to roast birds.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Initially he keeps trying to get me to go with him, but I persistently follow the group I followed for wood earlier in the day, and he eventually splits off on his own. I hope I didn't hurt his feelings or anything, but I am curious to see how the other goblins operate.

My initial impression is quite low. They basically just try to run down or sneak up on small animals. Which probably explains their low success rate. After watching them fail to catch a small bird for the third time, I stop them. They seem a little wary of me, but I guess my actions from earlier with the wood have at least made them less terrified of me.

I grab a few nearby pebbles on the ground, and use magic to etch a 1, 2, 3, and 4 on them. Then I point to the 1, and myself, and set it on the ground. Then I repeat for 2 through 4 to each of the goblins. I lift the pebble up, and put it down, then I deliberately do a light jump. I point to 2, and do the same, and go through each to ensure they get the idea that the pebble represents them. Then I spread their pebbles out a ways away in a fan, and move them in towards me.

I have no idea if they understand what I'm saying, but I'm basically trying to convince them to go out, and drive animals towards me.

Initially they just kind of go a short distance away and move towards me. Which, while I'm glad they get roughly what I meant, I guess I need to try harder with this. I move their pebbles all to one side, then move them out as far as I moved them before. Then I wait a moment, and grab all three again, and physically walk them a short distance away, then fan them back out. I wait again, then begin sliding them all in towards me.

I'm not quite sure that they got it, but after a moment, they group up, and walk off in a direction together. I stay where I'm at, and when they don't come back immediately, I decide the only thing I can do is wait a while to see if they understood or not. I grip my spear, and try my best to hide myself somewhat as I wait.

After a few minutes, I hear some rustling, and I ready myself. Out from the underbrush a little ways to my side, I catch sight of one of the ground birds running past. Dang. It's a little too far for me to do anything about. So I continue waiting and listening. More rustling. A second ground bird runs out near enough to me to attack. I stab into it with my spear. It cries out, and begins flapping it's wings while impaled on my spear. It doesn't get free, but I miss a third bird run past as I struggle to keep this bird pinned. After a few moments, one of the goblins comes out of the brush, followed shortly by the other two.

They see the ground bird pinned on my spear and look genuinely elated... and hungry. As am I for that matter. The ground bird, when not split by an earth spike is actually kind of large. Somewhere between a turkey and a chicken in size. Which means that hopefully, it's a good meal.

I let the goblins carry the bird back, and they seem even more excited than before. Before we go though, one of the goblins goes over to the pebbles from before and goes to pick one up before stopping and looking at me. It seems like it wants the pebble that I used to represent it from before. Well, honestly, I was just going to leave the pebbles here, and the other goblins don't seem interested. I pick up all four pebbles, and the goblin looks a little saddened. I then reach out and present them to it. It looks up at me, and back to my open hand, and grabs the number three, which I used to represent him. I nudge my hand forward to it looks up at me before grabbing the other stones.

As the goblins and I return to the village, the three goblins in my group all have very happy faces on. I'm glad for them. More than that though, I'm hungry, so I'm very happy when the leader goblin comes over to start the cooking fire. He seems impressed by the ground bird kill as well. He talks for a while with the three goblins I went out with, and then he watches as the goblin I gave the pebbles to shows him what I showed him. He seems genuinely interested and talks for a while. The goblin conversation is interrupted when the food is done. It's actually quite the haul this time, as the leader goblin also caught a ground bird, in addition to other very small game that some of the other goblins caught.

For the time being, everyone just sits down and enjoys the feast before them, myself included.