I face down the humans, fist held up and preparing to beat them to the ground. The goblins are supposed to watch and learn but it’s mostly about seeing how well the humans can fight without weapons, after all, I need to know enough about how they move to be able to fight others of their race.

The spread out and the goblins around us shut up, preparing to watch the most powerful people in the cavern beat the snot out of each other. The humans are looking a bit hesitant, but they’ve been strengthened by the system and should be able to give me a good fight or at least heal when I break them.

They come at me hands held in a high guard, the biggest one comes at me from the front well the smaller one circles around. They’re allowed to grapple me, I’m only allowed to punch they said it’s the only way to make the fight ‘fair.’

I snort at the memory since when has life been fair? When they meet another of my kind I know that it won’t hold back.

The one in front of me throws a straight jab, his fist hurtling for my jaw, I take it--I need to see how powerful these humans can punch.

My head rocks back and I feel some of my muscles freeze but that’s about all. If that was an uppercut it might be able to do a little bit more damage. I can smash these humans easily, and my hide only makes it easier--

The human in front of me looks a bit surprised at how easily I took the punch, I go forward with a jab of my own for the human to dance out of the way. I feel a couple punches land on the back of my head but I don’t really feel anything that bad.

I turn around and send out a hook, hoping to either knock out the human behind me or get him into a clench. They said that clenching was allowed, where one opponent pins another for a short period of time. At least, that’s how they explained it to me. I got the basic meaning of it though.

The human though just ducks under and throws a couple more punches at my ribs. I underestimated the speed that these guys have on them, I should’ve known, after all their fighting with weapons was based mostly on speed, so why wouldn’t there fist-fighting be as well.

This goes on for a while, me lashing out while they just bob and duck out of my way. Eventually, I manage to land a blow on the body to the smaller of the two, sending him flying into the wall. The bigger one gets angry and comes at me with a flurry of blows--I smirk and put a blow into his stomach sending him to the same place his friend went.

I walk over slowly, I had learned a lot from that fight. I wasn’t fast, and that is my weakness, that’s what allowed them to survive so long because while they couldn’t land a damaging blow on me they managed to duck all of my punches.

I sit down in front of them with a grunt and check my notifications, the very first one to pop-up catches my eye. [New Base Options Available.] [New Followers Added.]

I click on the first one and am surprised to see a whole list of things come up. All divided into three categories.

--[Minions]

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--[Buildings]

--[Production]

The first one I click on is minions. A whole lot of stuff comes up, and I grin in surprise.

[Minions:]

[Goblins: x80]

[Bone Goblin: x1]

[Evolutions: --]

[Out-Standing Followers]

[Simon]

[Sam]

Huh, that’s pretty interesting. Who would’ve thought that there was a way to see all of my followers? I click on [Goblins] and more writing shows up.

[Goblins are weak, dumb, and find it hard to connect to the system. Occasionally Goblins have the fortune to contract with a {Dungeon Core} this kick-starts development and allows for evolutions. Your Goblins have evolved into {Cave Goblins.} They are nocturnal and have a knack for mining. Sunshine while not debilitating drastically reduces mental and physical performance.]

I nod. Most of this I already knew, except for the dungeon core bit. I also have no idea what evolution is, but I think that’s what Boney is. An evolution. Probably because of dungeon core, whatever that was.

[Buildings: Cave System (Uncommon)(Hidden)]

[This building provides a bonus to staying hidden, finding ores, and mining. This building has a small chance of collapsing.]

…

[You upgrade buildings or build new buildings by creating or finding blueprints. Current Buildings (0) Current Upgrades (0) Current Blueprints (2)]

I tilt my head curiously, I have blueprints? I click on them and two things pop-up.

[Improved Cave System (Upgrade)--Enhances benefits of [Cave System] and decreases chances of collapse]

[Goblin Breeding Room (Upgrade)--Adds [Goblin Breeding Room] to the cave system, this enhances birthrate, breeding success, and chances of intercourse]

Hmmm, interesting. These both look useful. I just have no idea how to build them and if I even can. The goblins are useless, they barely do anything. That might be more the fault of Boney though. That goblin isn’t the most reliable and if he wasn’t so powerful I would remove him. I still will once he serves his purpose. Looking closer I can see that the blueprints are actual pictures of what the building would look like. The advanced cave system just looks like a bigger version of what I already have with more escape routes and hidden tunnels. The goblin breeding room is just a cavern with lots of furs around and some stone beds. I snort in anger, nothing here actually tells me how to make these things.

Another pop-up appears [You do not have the necessary skills to be able to view a more comprehensive blueprint.] I have no idea what comprehensive means but I do know that it’s saying I don’t have skills. Which is a lie, I had been chopping trees and building Troll huts all the time in The Pits! I wasn’t as good as the Bricklayers but I was decent. I snort again and finally click on the last option. [Production.]

[Resources: (None) Resource Production: (None)] Huh. Obviously, I would need to get the goblins mining if I wanted to manage anything. One thing does stick out though- how do I not have any food stored? I’m sure that I brought some in. Probably the goblins again. Sticking their hands into my stuff. Disgusting creatures. At least they’re staying alive, that’s about as much as I can hope for at this point.

With a groan I stand up and start walking toward where all the goblins are kept, I need to talk to Boney and I should probably start assigning the goblins jobs. How else am I supposed to get production? Once I have the goblin breeder running I’ll be able to multiply my servants and attack the Ogre. The thing about the Ogre though is that it has those special powers, things that make it launch itself at me so fast it should be impossible.

I’ll just need to train harder than usual, the system has all sorts of secrets that I will force it to reveal. Speaking of that… “BONEY!” My shout echoes through the cave system, the humans look at me curiously, they had been discussing other things while I had been reading about all the new options that had appeared in front of me.

Boney comes running down the hall and appears in front of me. I smile, and motion for him to sit down. He looks nervous but does as I command. “Master?”

“Boney. I want you to organise the goblins and get them onto the mining. I also want you to send some of them out into the mist to find some small animals that they can kill--they must be furry.” I am going to try to make the goblin breeding house, from what I can tell from the blueprint in needs stone and furs. Hopefully, by mining, I’ll also be able to get the advanced cave system. “Boney, I also want you to know that you will not be punished for the goblins you have snuck away so far.” He goes rigid in shock, I don’t actually know if he had been smuggling goblins but it was to guess, it’s what I would do. I grab him by the neck and smash him against the wall, “If you mess up any longer though…” I throw him across the room and grin as he lands with a thump.

That should keep him in line for a little while longer, it would keep him in line long enough for a replacement to be bred. When that happens I will rip him to pieces, he’s too smart, too cunning to be left alive. The humans look on shocked.