As it turned out, Lia could use magic. It wasn’t anywhere close to the magic she was used to, and she could only use mental magic, but it was still magic.

The magic she had been taught in school relied heavily on a chant, and then used a key phrase to actually cast the spell. Technically, the key phrase was all that was required, and even that was optional if you were really, really good and could figure out how to activate magic without the words. That didn’t mean the chant was useless, though; the chant before kept you focused and prevented you from accidentally misfiring and doing something incredibly dangerous, and it also provided those who weren’t the best at calling upon their magic time to get a firm grasp on it.

Lia had been in that last category when she was a foxkin. Her magic had felt elusive, something she had to root around in the back of her mind to find. Yet, now, it was just…there in the forefront of her brain. If she had to use an analogy, it was like before she had to get up, walk across the room, and root around in a drawer to find the magic, and now it was just in her pocket, and she could reach out and grab it with no trouble.

When she did reach out and grab it, using it felt…natural. Before she had had no clue where to even begin to look to activate magic without a key phrase, but now she just knew. Well, for mental magic, anyway. Any time she tried a spell that didn’t directly affect something’s mind, that understanding of how to activate it just…wasn’t there. She even tried to chant for a bit before deciding that her mouth was not meant for speech.

Still, she was good at mental magic. Whenever she tried anything relating to the mind, her focus was sharp, the image of what she wanted the magic to do crisp and clear. It was like…like instead of a chant, something else was keeping her mental image from wandering.

She had realized, after casting a couple of spells, that it was the knots in her tail where other rats would be on a normal rat king. Each time she cast a spell, at least one of those would perk up, with more perking up the more complicated a spell was.

After making that discovery, she had spent most of the rest of the afternoon practicing her magic on the druid and the gardener, getting a feel for how much each spell would cost and how effective they were, as well as leveling up once thanks to Rose. She had felt a little bad about doing experimentation on the druid and gardener, but they had seemed more than happy to be guinea pigs for her when she asked, so she went ahead with it anyway.

Before she had even realized, night was upon her, and Rose had returned with the results of her day’s work. As promised, she returned with fifty foot soldiers, and there was a huge amount of modeling wax outside of the burrow. A large hole had been dug in the ground, and even then, the pile of modeling wax wasn’t fully contained.

Lia was able to see where it had come from, too – the hole was near the stumps of a couple of trees that had definitely been standing the last time Lia had been out. Now that she was thinking back, she vaguely remembered hearing some loud thuds, but she had been so engrossed in her practice that she hadn’t paid them much note.

You’re…impressive as always. Lia told Rose. Good work.

Thank you, my – I mean, thank you, Lia! Rose replied happily. Shall I help in the raid? I’m nearly level nine, so I’m getting really close to evolving again.

No. Lia said. This is going to be very dangerous, and you don’t have much in the way of combat potential yet, right?

Well…yes. Rose replied slowly. But it feels wrong to just…leave you to do all the work. Like…I want to be there in case something goes wrong, and you need assistance.

Lia shook her head. No. If I need someone to take a hit for me or something, that’s what the foot soldiers and ironclads are for. I have a bunch of those, I only have one you. I can’t replace you like I can replace them.

I know, but…

Lia sighed. Will it make you feel better if I keep at least two ironclads next to me at all times?

I suppose. Rose said. In…in that case, what should I do while you’re out?

Use the druid and gardener and gather up a bunch of plants. I want a line of pricklers outside of the fortifications once we take them over, and we’re going to need plants for that. Oh, and while you’re at it, convert more rats into foot soldiers. I want you to evolve ASAP.

Understood, Lia. I will do my best.

Lia nodded, then gave the rat part of her army orders to form up while she made her way over to the store of modeling wax. It seemed there was enough to fill her storage, so that’s just what she did.

Over half the pile disappeared into her storage, leaving an unnaturally smooth pile of modeling wax in the hole. Satisfied, Lia made her way back to her army, and began to lead them towards the bazaar.

The fortifications seemed to be complete, and were a blazing light amidst the near complete darkness of the rest of the market. There were scattered pockets of light where patrols were, but they were nothing compared to the beacon in front of the market.

No, that wasn’t quite correct. It was hard to tell at this distance, but there were two large pockets of light, one of which was situated much deeper in the market. From the angle Lia was approaching the market from, it made it seem as if the two lights were just one big light, leading to her initial confusion.

Why hadn’t those lights been on earlier? Yes, it was now night outside, but that hardly mattered inside the bazaar; it was constantly dark in there anyway. Though…now that she was looking closer, the ambient light that came from the occasional illuminated stall had vanished. All the stall lights had been turned off for the night, leaving only the fires of the goblins to light the area.

Once they were within a few hundred yards, Lia had her army scatter somewhat, so they weren’t just one big blob of motion in the darkness. She’d have them trickle into the fortifications, sneak past the guards, and aim for the sleeping quarters of the goblins. From there, she’d begin the conversions of as many goblins as possible, and once they were discovered, things would turn into a real fight.

She gave the order to start the infiltration, and began to make her way in. She took two ironclads with her, activated Active Camouflage, and began moving towards the wall. There were goblins behind it, yes, but they weren’t particularly attentive, nor were they looking down. When they did glance beyond their walls, they simply cast their gaze out towards the distance for a brief moment, then went back to whatever they were doing.

It was simplicity itself to sneak through the gaps in the wall, and then Lia and her honor guard were in. The compound was…messy. The stalls of the market had either been stripped of their materials and used to help make the walls, or just left in place and used by the goblins as…whatever they felt like. Some held food, some held armor and weapons, and others still had goblins sleeping on them.

Lia continued making her way towards the center of the compound, expertly using the stalls as cover from the few goblins that were awake. After only a couple of minutes, she was able to make out a series of crude tents that had been put up around a particularly large fire, and made a beeline for the biggest one.

That was likely to hold the commander of the goblins, and she wanted to take that out as soon as possible. Not only would it likely make for a particularly strong member of her swarm, it would also throw the rest of the goblins into disarray when the time came for battle, and make them that much easier to rout.

Lia and her guard slipped into the tent to find a goblin wearing metal armor sitting on the floor munching on a large steak. Lia didn’t waste any time, putting forty Mana into a spell that instantly put it to sleep, watching as it slumped over slightly and stopped eating.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

She and her guard ran up to it and coated it with modeling wax as quickly as possible, and Lia took a look at her options. This goblin was apparently a “Goblin Commander”, and it could be converted into most of the same things as the goblin sentries, though the options for foot soldier and infiltrator were greater and normal respectively, compared to the normal and lesser the sentries provided.

But there were still two new options that Lia needed to check before she could make her decision.

Swarm Goblin Commander:

A Swarm Goblin Commander is a Goblin Commander that has been remodeled to be part of the swarm. They maintain most of the same capabilities as regular Goblin Commanders, but are more intelligent and have the ability to issue simple commands to a small number of their sisters.

Lesser Swarm Knight:

A Swarm Knight is, in many ways, an upgraded version of the Swarm Foot Soldier. They boast excellent physical offense and defense, and have Skills that increase their effectiveness at using armor and weapons. They retain all the base functionality of the Swarm Foot Soldier, including their excellent coordination with Swarm Foot Soldiers, making them very good at leading groups of Swarm Foot Soldiers.

Lia didn’t have to think too hard about that. She didn’t really need another person who could command the swarm, but she was in need of more firepower, so the knight it was. She set it to converting, then took up watch at the entrance of the tent, ready to ambush any goblins who came in to see their commander.

Fortunately, none did. The camp was mostly asleep after their day of hard labor, and so the few minutes it took to convert the commander passed without incident. Once Lia got the notification that the conversion had finished, she turned around to see her new knight, only to freeze in place.

What…why…no, this had to be Amelia’s doing. Lia refused to accept the possibility that it was her fault, or that this was just how swarm knights would “normally” look.

Its skin had lightened from the deep green that it had before, becoming a much more vibrant and friendly-looking light green. There was none of the dirt that she had come to associate with goblins, even the goblins she had made into foot soldiers. Yet, on the other hand, the knight was spotless.

It was also decidedly feminine. The armor it had been wearing before had morphed into bikini armor that emphasized its rather large new…assets, and it had gained a long, flowing mane of brown hair. It…no, she looked more like a parody of a knight rather than an actual knight.

…This was not to say that she was attractive. As much as she had nice skin and a decent figure, it was still ruined by her…well, being a goblin. Like other goblins, her proportions were all out of whack – her arms were slightly too long, legs were slightly too short, and the length of her arms was a little mismatched. Her face was still nearly the same as it had been before, and looked almost comically out of place on her new body.

But Lia had to admit, she looked oddly…effective. When it came to monsters that wore armor, how much their armor covered was often not much of a factor – it had a tendency to magically cover the rest of their body from blows. It was…like only part of the armor was actually visible, but the rest was there, just invisible. That wasn’t a perfect metaphor, their armor would usually completely vanish if the visible parts were destroyed or rendered unusable, but it was close enough.

Regardless, the knight had a metal sword and shield with her that she hadn’t had before, and they looked…well, nice. The armor did too, actually; none of the stuff the knight was wielding was of the shoddy make that was usually associated with goblins, it was all something that Lia could imagine an actual knight wielding.

Uh…things of that quality, that was. She couldn’t see an actual knight wearing that armor unless they absolutely had to, but it seemed to be of fine make.

The knight, oblivious to Lia’s inner monologue, gave Lia a bow, then stood at attention, clearly waiting for orders.

Uh…you just…wait here. Lia said. I’m going to go check on the rest of the swarm. If any goblins come in, take care of them while making as little noise as possible.

The knight gave a nod, and Lia took the ironclads and left, heading off to check on the rest of the swarm. The tents nearby had all been infiltrated, and the goblins within were already in the process of being converted to foot soldiers. That accounted for…ten or so, and Lia had estimated she had seen about fifteen goblins on the way in.

But she had only seen around half of the foot soldiers that she had sent in, so she assumed the rest were doing their work in other parts of the fort. Now, if she did some quick math…she estimated there were around fifty goblins in this fort in total, given the numbers she had already seen.

Assuming five or so foot soldiers got caught and…eaten or something on the way in, that left her with roughly fifty-five foot soldiers left, with about twenty more on the way, assuming the other half of her swarm had been as successful as this half. That was almost half the fort’s population, and she had the commander in her pocket to boot.

Yeah, she could deal with the other thirtyish goblins with this. They’d be disoriented and scattered, and her swarm would be ready. So, she hunkered down and began to wait. A few minutes after the goblins in the tents had finished converting, she’d have her swarm attack.

Or, that was the plan. Just after the first of the other goblins had finished converting, a surprised yell sounded out from the edge of the camp, in the direction leading deeper into the market.

Alright, that’s the signal, I guess! Lia instructed. Everyone to battle! Try to ambush goblins if possible, we want to minimize casualties!

She was fortunate that she wasn’t limited by line of sight like Rose was. The information she got back from her swarm was limited, but she could at least give commands to them without any interference.

Was that limited by range? She hadn’t been really far away from any of her swarm yet, so she hadn’t had much of an opportunity to check. She’d have to test that out when she got out of this dungeon.

But that was later. Right now, she had goblins to kill. She could already hear the other goblins starting to make noise as they drew closer to the original yelp. So, she took her ironclads and the foot soldiers that were near her and moved to head off the goblins moving towards their location. She instructed the knight and whatever foot soldiers that were in that group of tents to stay put until they were seen, at which point they were to begin attacking any goblin they saw.

It took only a couple of minutes to run into the first set of goblins, a pair that looked like they had just woken up and had hastily thrown on whatever gear happened to be nearby. The two goblins stopped as they encountered the small army of rats, staring in confusion at the assembled force.

Lia took the opportunity to throw together a spell that would amplify that confusion, then applied Mindspike and Magic Multitarget (Mental) to nail them both and deal some damage.

You confused and dealt 14 damage to Goblin Sentries!

Wait, that was minor damage? Lia knew that goblins generally had poor Mental Fortitude, but this seemed a little silly. Then again, her stats were probably at least double theirs, and she had probably already gained a few levels during this raid, so perhaps it wasn’t that surprising.

The goblins stumbled, clutching their heads and casting confused glances around the area. Lia ordered her troops to attack, and the goblins were soon engulfed in a mass of fur and claws. Lia got the messages indicating their deaths a moment later, and she moved on to her next target.

The rest of the raid went about the same way. The goblins were split up, confused, and lacking in leadership. There were no real difficult encounters until Lia made her way to where the initial conflict had occurred, and even that was swiftly dealt with.

There had been ten goblins gathered there, but by that point all of the goblins had finished converting, and Lia had the edge in terms of numbers. Still, those ten goblins were an opportunity for her, one to allow her to gain experience in her Skills. She had her troops focus on keeping the goblins distracted instead of outright killing them, and she worked on weaving spells.

She purposefully made some mental spells that did as little as possible, just a brief twinge of emotion, so they would cost as little as possible, then applied Mindspike and targeted all of the goblins at once. She repeated this process until they keeled over, eyes rolling back into their sockets as their HP fell to zero.

And…that was that. She had won. Her army had taken some damage, roughly fifteen of the foot soldiers she had taken in with her having been killed, but she had gained more than that, so she was actually coming out of the raid stronger than she had been going in.

Well, that was probably to be expected for a creature that could assimilate enemy forces. It was almost like the old tales of necromantic armies, ones that would only grow stronger and stronger with each battle they were victorious in. Fortunately, there hadn’t been one of those in a long time. She was probably the only thing around that was capable of something like that.

The fortifications were all intact as well, meaning Lia would be able to use this just fine. She just needed to move her main base from the burrow over to here. Or…actually, she could just collapse the entrance above-ground, and have the burrowers dig a tunnel to the fortifications. They’d gain more modeling wax, the burrowers would have something to work on when they weren’t directly needed, and a perfectly good home wouldn’t be going to waste. If she just made the tunnels rat-sized, it would even function as an emergency exit.

Yeah, that was a good idea. She called Rose and told her to bring everything over to the fortifications, then began to inspect her gains. She was sure to have leveled up a lot, in terms of both Skills and “actual” levels, so she couldn’t wait to see what was new.