Fields of grassy hills surrounded the capital city Haven. These grassy hills were unused and often on sale. Anyone could own land if they had the points to pay taxes every year. The problem was making use of the land. The grassy hills surrounding Haven had no rare mineral deposits, weren’t exceptionally fertile, and had plenty dangerous predators.

Markus had noticed a band or two of goblins living in the hills he inspected. That wasn’t especially abnormal. Goblins were a sentient species and made their homes underground. They were known for being crafty and weak of body. Not to the confused with the small folk known as hobbits.

A few centuries there was a war between the goblins and the halflings. While the hobbits tried to bargain and steal anything that wasn’t nailed down, and then stole the nails. The goblins prepared for war. To call it one sided would be kind. The goblins wiped out the hobbits to a man, killed the children, and took the women as rape slaves. Every now and then there are goblins with a penchant for thievery and hairy feet.

Some knights collected hairy goblin feet. A throw back to the old times when halflings had their feet cut off to prevent them from stealing.

Markus walked around the the hills counted 7 goblins dens and nodded his head. He could buy a kilometer of land for a little under 100k. Cheap compared to normal prices.

“What are you going to do with a kilometer of hill country and 7 goblin tribes?” Trixie asked out of the blue. Markus glanced at her noticing how loopy her tentacles have gotten. When she lets them down, they pile on the floor. Her yellow eyes glare at him in a way he was sure was supposed to be fearsome.

“We’re going to make livestock that can care for itself.” Marks said. “Or I can just flatten the hills and we can farm it naturally.” She glanced at the cascading grassy hills then looked back at him.

“Alright, I’m curious.” Trixie said with a slight smile. For a measly 30k he managed to buy 100head of cattle. With the war effort cattle prices have increased dramatically. It was rare for the local restaurants to serve meat.

He dominated the minds of the cattle. If he said jump they would try to jump and break their legs. Minoos weren’t known for their athleticism. But once upon a time they were as sentient as goblins. Potions were fed to them while they were enslaved to turn them into the dumb livestock they are today. So, perhaps potions can be used to reverse the process.

“He pulled out a potion he made in class.” It was a vile filled with a blue bubbling liquid. He had to substitute quite a few ingredients. A few he found in the pestilence dungeon, and others he found in the woods or bought from local merchants. Markus hoped that when it was applied the bubbling would cease.

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“This is going to go right, I can already tell.” No, she didn’t say that, but he was feeling like playing to the bright side. The cows settled on the only flat surface in the area. Since he replaced a few ingredients for some better ones. The potion was a little more concentrated than normal. He sacrificed one of the ten dungeon treasures he farmed for it. X50 base disease immunity was nice and he had eaten one. The other nine went into the potion.

“Markus this isn’t a good idea. I have genetic memory, I know what they were like originally. They were brutes.” She said in burbled in a way that made it hard to take her seriously.

“Their livestock, I’m just making them a little better at surviving. This will work out.” He said in his most convincing voice. She crossed her arms and sighed.

“We can kill them if they step out of line anyway. Go for it. Don’t blame me if this becomes the planet of the cows.” He poured the potion in a nearby stream. The entire surface became a boiling mass of intelligence potion before settling back to a crystal blue.

The cows went to the water and began drinking deeply. He observed their minds with Trixie to see what would happen. They waited patiently watching the cows continue to drink. Time ticked away the grass grew, and Markus sensed a tingling sensation move through the cows. Their heads began to expand, their brains wrinkled with increased brain matter and their skulls cracked in half.

The brains crawled out and a mouth opened. They began eating their former bodies. Tentacles of flesh grew out of the brains as they stood upon them. Small eyes appeared as the brains upon finishing their meals leapt into the water.

“Markus that wasn’t supposed to happen, right?” Trixie asked. He was still mentally linked to the 100 brains. They were rapidly adapting to their new aquatic environment. His mind went through a whirlwind of explanations until it stopped on the most likely one.

“They ranked up.” Markus said it and didn’t know how this happened. Well better kill them and go back to the drawing board. He raised his hand to destroy them but decided not to at the last second. Trixie looked at him then back at the pound of giant tentacled brains swimming and eating fish. A shell of sorts had begun surrounding the brains.

“They are still under your control, right?” Trixie said. Markus nodded and caught on. He dominated them. So, they were loyal to him even in this new form. It was more than that though. He could feel a well spring of mana coming from them. It would take longer to get to him the farther he got from this area but standing next to the pond his mana supply was around 8times normal. So, the brains were already comparable to him.

“Maybe the potion was too much of a success.” Markus said. She nodded.

“Their brains went from dumber than dirt to lets ascend beyond this meat suit. Better yet once we know their spawning rate, I have a new source of brains.” Trixie said in a better mood.

“But now I’m out 130k.” He checked his point balance and blinked. “Huh, it seems they aren’t useless after all.” Like a noble he gained one tenth of every point they gained. He gained 1000 points in the last ten minutes. So, he had a passive income now.

Unfortunately, when they returned to the city, he remembered that he needed to put up a fence to prevent the goblins from getting into the pond.