Upon waking the next morning, John noticed that he was the first one to awake other than the Chief himself, who seemed to be training with his axe a short distance away. The moment John started to move away, the Chief's head snapped towards him. The Goblin's awareness was amazing.

"Clan head, come to me. I wish to test your strength." The Chief commanded, and John obeyed.

"Yes Chief. As you command." John's replay got nothing but a snort from the Chief.

"Use your strongest magic against me. Do not fear, I shall not strike you down. You would still be weak, having just evolved. You do not have the strength to harm me." The Chief ordered. Strangely, this order tugged more at him than the last.

John did as he was commanded, casting Burning Touch at his Chief. It barely even singed the hairs on his chest, such was the chasm that is the power between them. This seemed to please the Chief greatly.

"You are newly born, so you would not know. Normally, you would learn this from your Clan Head, or from a senior Goblin while hunting together. There are twelve Tribes within a three-day march of us, and we are at war with all of them. That is why our numbers are so low. Currently, no clan has the advantage, and there has been a lull in the fighting due to a Bugbear migration. Every clan will be using this time to bolster their numbers. Some will take every Gob they can get, amassing more numbers but less evolution. Others will make theirs fight among themselves, hastening evolution, but ending with low numbers. I have taken the middle road. As such, there shall be no direct conflict between the Clans."

The Clan leader paused a moment, looking down at John with eyes that promised death. "That does not mean you cannot undermine the other Clans, however. But if I catch you weakening the Tribe for your own benefit, I will kill you myself. We were almost annihilated before the migration. I will not see that happen again."

"Why are we fighting?" John asked, hoping that this question would not anger the Chief. He still wasn't sure the Goblin wouldn't just murder him for the fun of it.

"Simple. Greed. We Chiefs are all the same evolution. We refuse to bow to each other, even though we are all at the evolution of War Master. One of the requirements to become a Goblin King. Another is to rule all the Goblin Tribes within your forest. There are some exceptions, such as ferals and outcasts, but all must bend to the will of one. Originally, there were only three contenders, but as the war raged on, more of us evolved. I myself am one of the late evolutions. It has been years since the war started, and many of us absorbed small tribes or split off from larger clans to form our own."

John was amazed at the story being told. These Goblins had used their high fertility to fight a war that normally would have ended years ago. A small-time skirmish that should have ended after a few months has grown to the scale of a massive civil war due to the fact that Goblins could breed faster than they could kill each other.

"However." The Chief continued. "None of them have you. None of them have a magic-user. Well, at least they didn't last time we clashed. Come the end of Summer, we shall war for another three seasons, before breaking for the Bugbear migration. I plan for this to be the last cycle. Or at least for us to be in a much better position than this time."

"Why must we break for the Bugbear migration? Are they not intelligent?" John asked. He knew about Bugbears. They tended to travel in small groups of around three to eight. They were tribal, much like the Goblins, but preferred smaller groups with a nomadic lifestyle. Any more than eight and they always had a chief, a powerful Bugbear that ruled by force, much like Goblins. Though this was uncommon.

"Well, normally we wouldn't have any problem with Bugbears. But this tribe seems particularly fond of Goblin meat. Also, there are twenty of them, with an incredibly strong Chief and two lieutenants that are just as strong. Any of the Goblin Chiefs could beat the lieutenants, but that Chief is particularly crafty and would hold us while our people are slaughtered. We can not beat them without at least two Chiefs working together, leaving them open to everyone else, as well as betrayal."

John nodded along. It seemed the Chief was actually a lot more patient than he thought, happy to answer any questions. Perhaps it was the knowledge that John couldn't really hurt him at the moment. John was currently a tool, not a threat. It was best to keep tools sharp.

"I understand Chief. Are there any others I should know about? I heard something about wolves before." John asked, pressing for information. The Chief nodded at him before speaking.

"Yes. The wolves are a problem. They come around every two weeks, just in time for the birthing. They leave one, attack one so that our numbers do not get too low. If you manage to kill them the next time they come around, I will give you a full batch of survivors. Good luck though, the other Clans have all tried and failed, taking losses in the process."

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The Chief carried on, talking about other monsters in the area. "To the north, across the river, is a Troll. It leaves us alone since the river is too deep for it to cross. Harpies are nesting on top of the cliff, but they tend to leave us be so long as we don't try to climb the cliff. Lastly, there are Shadow Cats to the south, but we are just outside their hunting areas, so we only really have losses when someone wanders out too far. Other than that, just regular Monsters like the Death Rabbits, along with natural predators."

John got a good view of everything. Westwards was the cliff, no getting passed that during the Summer due to the Harpies. North was the water source, a river. South was a hunting area, but it wasn't very large due to the Shadow Cats. Lastly, there was the East, covered in Monsters and wolves. He would have to come up with some kind of partner system to make sure that his Goblins didn't die.

"I understand Chief. Thank you for sharing this information with me." John replied, bowing his head in respect to the powerful Goblin. He was glad that the Chief was so willing to teach him. He had a feeling it wouldn't last.

"You will pay me back one hundred times over. You already are. The Clans were getting a bit uppity. You put some chaos into the mix, made them more willing to follow orders unless I sic my new favorite pet on their best warriors. They fear you, and by extension, me. Well, they always feared me, but they have a habit of forgetting why they should when I sit around doing nothing most days." The Chief smiled his cruel smile. "I do enjoy sitting around doing nothing. The rest of the tribe are waking. Go to your Goblins and lead them."

John bowed to the Chief again before turning tail and returning to his group of five Infant Goblins. They were slowly stirring, the waking of one waking the rest. John hadn't noticed it, but him and the Chief had been talking for a good hour.

John waited patiently for the Goblins to get up. He wasn't in any rush. They had plenty of one thing, and that was time. He couldn't do much until his new system was ready anyway. Once they were up, John started laying down the law.

"Form up into pairs. You with you, you with you, and you with me." John ordered, pointing at goblins and telling them what to do. He had plans. Today, he would teach them all to hunt and hopefully get enough food for today and tomorrow. Tomorrow, he would show them how to gather water, as well as create some kind of container to store it in. The other Goblins seemed to use pilfered waterskins, most with patched-up holes, or animal bladders.

"We shall hunt some Half-Blood Rabbits. They should keep for a day or two. Follow me. Do not forget who your partner is. You will be working together for your own safety." John then lead his small Clan to the Half-Blood Rabbit warren. It was easy enough to find, having traveled the way twice now. He just knew he had to hammer the way into the heads of his Goblins.

Once they got closer, he ordered them all to crouch down and make as little noise as possible. All but one of them seemed completely useless at this. They, rather loudly, made their way up to the edge of the warren. All the Half-Blood Rabbits were on high alert, having heard the noise and having lost their Alpha the day before. But none ran, it wasn't in their blood to run before at least trying to kill the intruder.

"These are Half-Blood Rabbits. The rest of the tribe calls them Death Rabbits, but we will call them by their proper names, understood?" John whispered to his fellow Goblins. There were nods all around. "Good. We are going to kill two. They attack when they see a threat, but flee once they are hit. One team will take keep the others away with the help of my partner, while two of you will focus on killing one of them. I will take one alone."

With his instructions clear, John began to move out. It took a few seconds longer than John would have liked, but his Goblins soon got the idea and started moving as well. Three of them moved forwards, cutting off not one, but four rabbits from the rest. The pair that were meant to work together then split up, focusing on different targets. John felt his stomach drop. These Monsters were idiots. He should have seen this coming.

With two of the Half-Blood Rabbits distracted, John tried his best to take one down quickly so they could at least eat tonight. Diving on top of one of the distracted Rabbits, he cast Burning Touch on its face, blinding it and quickly depleting it's HP. It soon collapsed dead. He then pointed at the remaining Goblin that was fighting. "Go and kill that Half-Blood Rabbit. Work together!"

Looking around, he saw that the line of three Goblins was in shambles. One of them was throwing rocks and keeping the others away, while the other two were getting chased like mice running from a cat. "Hit the ones chasing the other Goblins!" John yelled at the rock thrower. It seemed surprised for a moment and almost dropped its rock, but it soon caught on and threw the rock at one of the chasing Rabbits, scaring it off.

The second Rabbit giving chase also got a rock, but this time it seemed to stun it. John took the opportunity and lept on top of the Half-Blood Rabbit, repeating his earlier trick of blinding it and letting the fire kill it.

Looking back over to the pair trying to kill the solo Rabbit, they were actually getting somewhere now. Whenever it went for one of them, the other would strike out with a stick and hit it. It was doing next to nothing, but the Rabbit looked tired and couldn't run since it was surrounded. Well, it could very easily run, but its brain couldn't figure out that two dumb Goblins wasn't a full encirclement.

John dragged the second kill over to the first. He was breathing heavily from the running and jumping, as well as the mana loss. Mana fatigue was a bitch, so it was best not to overdo it. Two of the Goblins sent to drive the Half-Blood Rabbits off were still just swinging sticks around doing basically nothing, but the stone thrower had a good arm and great aim. Eventually, all the Rabbits retreated down the warren, leaving the one getting battered by sticks alone.

"Everyone, attack that Half-Blood Rabbit!" John called, pointing at the Monster. The Goblins doggy pile on it and beat the poor thing to death with sticks. Only the rock thrower still had it's Obsidian Shard, and it seemed to have forgotten about it.

Eventually, the poor creature died. John had three Half-Blood Rabbits instead of two. Things were looking up for him now. With the Exp for the final Rabbit split among 5 Goblins, it was not enough to make any of them evolve, but that was probably for the best until John actually managed to evolve and stay ahead of them.