While I kept one eye on the goblins I played around with some new options. In addition to the two new monster plants I also had the option to grow other plants. None of them had any offensive abilities but I had picked plants because they would be a source of food for my other monsters.

Fortunately they seemed capable of surviving on the ambient light in my dungeon instead of sunlight. I covered the floor of my core room in dirt. Then I planted dozens of different plants and trees that produced food. I also found an herb that would help heal wounds and another that would reduce pain. Since I had an injured goblin I figured those would be useful.

All of the plants grew to full size within a few minutes. The only exception were the trees which looked like they may take a few hours. I also hid a couple strangle vines and spore shrooms in half the room. With any luck a couple adventurers may let their guard down and get injured or even killed by them. I’d have to make sure the goblins remembered to stay away from that side of the room though.

Just as I was finishing the drugged goblin finally started to recover. It still seemed a bit out of it so I sent it to gather a few of the new herbs for the other goblin. I had thought I was going to have to repeat my order at least half a dozen times but surprisingly I didn’t. The goblin quickly gathered the herbs and then ground them up and placed them on the injured goblins' wound.

Once it was done the goblin oddly wandered back into the garden area and started looking over all the plants. I would have taken some more time to investigate but right at that moment a screen popped up.

Hello Arthur,

Congratulations on surviving your first day. Points will be awarded every day based on your views and ratings rankings. Everyone will also get points based on the overall rankings of Apocalypse compared to other shows. If you didn’t know already, these points can be used for purchases in the store. We wish you luck in continuing to survive and increasing the views and ratings of the show.

Good Luck

I had lost track of time since I didn’t experience hunger, thirst, or get tired. It had been twenty four hours since I received the first message. I quickly selected the indicator to see what I had been rewarded. My screen was filled with information detailing every creature that had entered my dungeon and everything that my goblins had killed. I quickly found an option to filter the notices to show just my own level ups and awards.

Congratulations as a reward for your first time reaching a top 1,000,000 overall ranking you have earned 8 points.

Congratulations your overall views ranking of 1,010,985 has earned you 8 points.

Congratulations your overall ratings ranking of 1,284,561 has earned you 8 points.

Congratulations your race views ranking of 205 has earned you 4 points.

Congratulations your race ratings ranking of 289 has earned you 4 points.

Congratulations Apocalypse’s ranking of 74,493,688,002 has earned you 4 points.

I was a bit shocked at the ranking for the entire show. It meant that there were at least seventy four billion other shows. Probably significantly more. Still it was good that I now had eighty two points.

I breathed a sigh of relief as the two goblins that had died first respawned. That brought me up to twenty living goblins. Since I had now reached over half mana capacity I decided to make a few more.

I decided to create another eight goblins. Once I finished making them equipment that left me with just under a quarter of my mana capacity. It also meant that once all my goblins recovered I’d have thirty of them. I also created enough leather armor that I could have six guard goblins. That allowed me to have three shifts of two guards each.

While my goblins continued working on the fourth room I decided to look closer at the shop. The items in the shop mostly seemed to be split into different tiers. Most of the first tier of items cost a single point. Second tier items cost ten points and the third tier cost a hundred points.

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I had already decided that I was going to try to save up for a hundred point purchase. I wasn’t interested in waiting weeks or even months to purchase something higher than third tier. I still needed to decide which third tier item to purchase though. As I examined the shop I made sure to occasionally reinforce the ceilings so that my goblins didn’t get crushed as they worked.

Suddenly my attention was pulled from the shop. Both my goblin guards at the entrance of the dungeon were dead. My goblins dying didn’t surprise me. What did was the fact that they had died from gunshot wounds. I thought the message had said that technology would no longer work. Either it had lied, or guns didn’t count as technology.

As I tried to look outside my dungeon I was surprised to see that it was already a couple hours past dawn. Apparently I had lost track of time again.

After a few seconds four men stepped out of the trees and approached the entrance to the dungeon. They were all dressed in hunting gear and carrying rifles. All four of them seemed to be on guard against anything coming out of the cave. Of course there wasn’t anything coming out. Even if my goblins could leave I wasn’t about to send them charging through the first room. If I was lucky, only half of them would get killed by the strangle vines.

“What were those things Doug?” One of the men asked.

Doug considered my two dead goblins for a moment before answering. “Whatever they are, they’re dead now Josh.” He finally said.

One of the other men spoke up. “Looks kind of like a tiny orc or something. You know from all those fantasy movies with elves and dwarves and shit.”

The final man finally said something. “Goblins maybe.” The other men gave him a weird look. “What? I’ve actually read a few fantasy books and my kids are always playing games. It looks like a goblin to me.” I suspected the other men considered him a bit of a nerd.

“Do you think there are more inside?” The other man I didn’t have a name for asked.

Doug nodded. “I don’t see any tracks but these two looked like they were guards. I’d bet that means there are more inside.”

“This has to be related to those weird messages everyone has been getting. They’re just a couple miles from town. Who knows what kind of trouble these creatures will cause. We should go in and take them out.” The man that figured out it was a goblin said eagerly. Doug and Josh also seemed excited about the idea. The third man that had thought my goblins were tiny orcs seemed more cautious. Unfortunately he was outvoted and the men entered my dungeon.

Josh took the lead when they went inside. I couldn’t help but be annoyed as they carefully avoided all the plants. Finally I triggered one of the rock traps above Josh. Fifty pounds of rock fell from the ceiling. Josh was luckier than any of my goblins though. Somehow none of the rocks landed on his head. He’d have a few bad bruises though.

One of his buddies didn’t react as well though. Stumbling backwards in fear he stepped on a spore shroom. A puff of spores flew into the air. Unfortunately for me the man was tall enough he only got a brief whiff of the spores. The cloud of spores was visible though and all the men gave him and the cloud a frightened look.

Doug backed away from the cloud of spores and managed to bump into a strangle vine that was dangling from the ceiling. It instantly wrapped around his right arm. “What the fuck. It’s grabbing me.” He yelled as he tried to get away.

The man that was the calmest was actually the semi-nerd. He pulled out a knife and grabbed the vine. A quick chop and Doug was free. “Stay away from the plants in here. Looks like the vines will grab you and I’m not sure what the mushrooms do. How are you feeling?” He asked the man that had stepped on the spore shroom.

“I’m not sure. It feels kind of like when I used to smoke marijuana in college. But a little stronger and different. Glad I didn’t breathe in more of that stuff. Hopefully it’s not poisonous or something.” The man replied in a concerned voice.

“What was with those rocks?” Doug asked.

“It seemed like they just fell from the cave ceiling.” Josh said examining where the rocks had fallen from. “Huh there is some sort of mechanism up there. It’s primitive but it looks like it was just barely holding the rocks up. Maybe these goblins set a few traps?” Josh said after his examination.

“Well should we head back then, or keep on going?” The nerdy man asked.

“I don’t know about the rest of you but whatever that cloud was, it’s starting to mess with my head.” The drugged man said.

“Better safe than sorry I think we should head back. We can report this to the sheriff and he can decide what to do.” Doug said. It was becoming clear that he was some type of leader.

Unfortunately for them I wasn’t about to let them get away that easily. They had killed two of my goblins in cold blood without trying to talk to them. I wanted revenge. While the men were talking, I gathered my goblins and created equipment for them. My boss goblin and eight healthy goblin males were all armed and waiting for the men to step into the next room. I had left the one weird goblin in the plant room. It would be bad if all my goblins were dead. I ordered the nine goblins to charge the four men.