To complete war preparations, Ian began making new goblins. Using the same method as the goblin captain, he made ten new goblin variants. Each goblin variant took as much time as the goblin captain, as he had to reduce his knowledge to a much greater degree.
The goblin swordsman arose from the goblin warrior. There were versions that contained his knowledge of greatswords, while others knew how to use one-handed swords and shields. Both versions lacked armor, but at least had pants. The greatsword versions were a little taller with more of a belly, but their arms were beefier. The one-handed versions looked like normal goblins but fitter. They both came with their own equipment, but it was lacking. In the end both were considered the same species and were both D rank.
His spear knowledge produced goblin spearman. Beyond the strap that carried their spear on their back, they also only had pants. Their strap was similar to the goblin swordsman version greatsword, but their physique was the same as a normal goblin. He had reduced his knowledge a little farther with this variant as they were D- rank instead of D rank.
Unlike the swordsman version greatsword and spearman, the one-handed swordsman had belts around their waist with a buckler attached to their non-dominant arm.
Using the goblin thief as a base, he infused knowledge of trap disassembly, dagger usage, and body movement to produce a goblin rogue. With knowledge of stealth and vital points, he also produced a goblin assassin.
The goblin thief was E- rank compared to E+ rank, so the goblin rogue was only E+ rank. The goblin assassin, however, went above the more direct combat oriented evolutions and reached D+ rank.
All three evolutions; thief, rogue, and assassin; were a darker shade of green than a normal goblin. The assassin being the darkest shade. They all had pieces of cloth covering their mouths along with more clothes than other evolutions. The thief and rogues hand brown clothes, while the assassin had clothes in a camouflage pattern of green and brown. Daggers were present on all of their waists, while the assassin also had vials of poison and small needles.
For the next two combat evolutions, Ian was unsure if he should use the goblin warrior or goblin thief. The thief was more similar to the lithe nature he wanted, but the goblin warrior was a good basis for all weapon classes. In the end, he went with the goblin warrior.
Like the swordsman and spearman evolutions, he created the goblin archer and goblin crossbowman classes. The archer being D rank and the crossbowman being D+ rank. It seemed the less strength needed for the crossbow resulted in a more dangerous monster. The evolution provided bows and crossbows were pretty shabby, but they would have to do. At least until he actually used his DP for once. Physically the goblins looked like normal goblins with greater arm strength and back muscles.
Before he made his mages, Ian decided that he should make the groups of five hundred first. However, after he started creating the D+ rank monsters, he did some quick math in his head. If he did five hundred for one D+ rank, he’d use up half of his mana pool. This was supposed to be a distraction army, so while he needed some stronger monsters, the amount of monsters he had was more important. After a while, Ian decided to make groups of one hundred for the goblins D rank and up, and groups of five hundred for D- rank and below. The other two armies would be composed of as many G- rank monsters he could spew out.
As he created the new goblin groups, Yervin spoke to Ian, “Hey, Ian, can we get one of those wolves? Trying to identify each other while invisible hasn’t been working out.”
Yervin and the other blink hobgoblins had been playing hide and seek. They started out all invisible, but none of them could find each other beyond blindly swinging their arms around. Afterwards, they had one blink hobgoblin stay visible and try to combat another invisible hobgoblin. It was better practice for the invisible hobgoblin, but all the visible hobgoblin could do was swing their arms around again. Without someone to detect their invisibility, it was mediocre practice at best.
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“Sure,” respond Ian, “but only the B+ rank one. It should be fine as I doubt ogres have better senses than cloud wolves.”
“Thanks,” replied Yervin as a cloud wolf appeared in the center of the practicing blink hobgoblins. Most of them froze in place, while a few started to run away before Yervin called them back.
After Ian completed the groups of goblins, and ignored the complaints from the goblin captains, he started to make the mages. He created four mages with his knowledge: the goblin apprentice light mage, the goblin apprentice healing mage, the goblin apprentice illusion mage, and goblin apprentice wind mage. Why wind of all the elements? Mainly because they were less likely to destroy the forest outside.
The light mages could create flash spells and slow moving balls of light that burned opponents. They also knew a single beam spell that would burn through all of their mana, and if they were lacking, life force.
The wind mages could use wind cutters and tornadoes. Of course, they didn’t have the impact of the natural disaster, but they could create cuts across the body and disturb formations.
The illusion mages could create five copies of either themselves or someone else. They could also create illusions in the mind of someone within a five meter range of them.
The healing mages could heal any wounds that hadn’t damaged vital organs. More prominently, they could reattach limbs as long as neither the detached appendage or stub was too damaged.
If he wanted to create five hundred of each, he had to limit their abilities somewhat. He was actually able to increase their combat abilities, while limiting their abilities, by completely eliminating knowledge of more mundane and useful spells. Hopefully if any survived, they would be able to learn those on their own.
After Ian told the goblin captains that he would create two thousand goblin mages for them to order around, he got a withering look from each of them. Of course, after they thought he wasn’t paying attention to them, he saw the wide smiles on their faces. Those smiles made his stomach drop a bit. Although they knew they were created as fodder, the possibility of survival against the ogres still pleased them.
He originally planned on making abnormal equipment for everyone, but his mana was getting low at only seven million. That seven million was needed for a horde of G- rank monsters.
The leftover monster room expanded as Ian prepped it for the influx of six hundred thousand monsters. Admittedly fist sized monsters, but they still required a ton of room.
Fifteen thousand of each spider variant appeared for a total of three hundred thousand spiders. Additionally, Ian created one hundred and fifty thousand slimes and one hundred and fifty thousand jellies. The weak monster horde army was completed.
The horde army would crash into the ogre tribe and try to kill as many as possible by either suffocation or weight. The likelihood of them causing any injury beyond that, no matter their number advantage, was almost zero. Although, reducing their stamina was a very real possibility. While the ogre tribe was focused on the horde, the goblin army would attempt to strike them from the back. Ian felt that the goblin army was far more likely to be discovered and have to strike the side, however.
While the ogres were fighting, the goblins and Arc, led by Cynthia, would lead the groonvat to his dungeon. Yervin and his hobgoblins would be invisible and assassinate any stragglers. They would also make sure the ogres didn’t follow the groonvat. At least until they were safely in the dungeon.
Upon Ian’s initial creation of the horde, the goblin army stared at it for five minutes before the captains yelled at them to get back in line.
Yervin just muttered to himself, “That seems like a bit much.”
Cynthia tried to think to herself, “What kind of dungeon did we form a dungeon contract with?! It can create an army of over half a million instantly?! It’s only slightly over ten days old! I know they’re all weak, but still!”
The army spent three days prepping and getting used to one another. Ian would have liked to spend at least two more, but Cynthia was getting irritable. Around twenty people had died in the three days, so he knew he would lose her minimal trust if he didn’t head out now. Besides, he didn’t like losing those possible twenty dungeon contractees either.
He ordered his army to battle. The horde of monsters rushed out of the dungeon and out of his sphere of perception. Outside he still could order them and made sure to order them in the right direction using Cynthia’s directions. The goblin army of over five thousand marched out of the dungeon and followed behind the horde of spiders, slimes, and jellies.
The blink hobgoblins, armed with new weapons, shimmered and disappeared as they left the dungeon, and the group led by Cynthia followed soon after. With that, Ian’s first dungeon war began.