6 Ch. 6 Building An Army

For the next three months we did all we could to grow as strong as possible. I had the scouts and Runts spread out farther as our forces began to increase in number substantially. We had over 700 Goblin males in the camp and 60 Goblin females. Of those about half were the evolved Soldiers. We also had 50 Hobgoblins, 4 being female. Only 34 of those were considered adults, by their standards, 2 of the females and 32 males. Their stats were definitely a lot stronger than the basic Goblin, starting out at 13 to each stat at full maturity, including Mana. The strongest of them was my first son, Squall. He was almost as tall as me at 5'6" tall and was already level 15. He wielded a two handed Great Sword and had the Evolution into Soldier. Now the funny thing was, as with my summons, apparently my Hobgoblin children benefitted from the same bonuses my Goblin affinity gave to my Goblins, so he was easily stronger than everyone else by a long shot. Except a few select summons. He was standing in front of me, making his report on the most recent Orc sightings, so I checked his stats. I was still amazed at how strong he was.

Squall (Hobgoblin Soldier, Two Handed Great Sword)

Level 15

Attack 28

Defence 20

Health 20

Mana 24

Exp 450/1450

Firebolt

Heal

"So they are definitely expanding into our territory then?" he nodded "Yes father they are. I have been training with Weapons Master Gobra daily and he said I am as ready as I will ever be." I sighed, he was if I was being honest, my favorite of all my children, but being the oldest, in his mind he had to set an example and prove himself. I was reluctant to let him prove himself, but I had read too many stories and raised my own children back on Earth to know sheltering leads to resentment. "What of your brothers?" He smirked "None are as talented as I am, however they are just as eager to test themselves." I nodded. "Zidane." I called out. He rushed into the throne room "Yes Master?" I pointed at Squall "Take Squall and his brothers, along with a squad of Soldiers and Shield Bearers to where the Orcs have been encroaching on my territory. I want you to watch, but not interfere and report back to me on their success or failure." he nodded and bowed. I turned to Squall who had a grin on his face, I quirked an eyebrow and he coughed, quickly bowing, but he had a glint in his eyes. "Thank you father, I will prove to you that your effort has not been wasted." I nodded and said low enough that I knew he could hear, just barely "Come back alive, I don't care if you fail or succeed." then made a half heart in the air with one hand. He smiled and made the other half heart in the same hand. It was a simple thing, but it was our thing, saying I love you without saying it.

Gobelle was in tears as Squall marched out of the throne room, her head resting in my lap. "My child, off to prove himself. I hope he comes back, I know it's not the Goblin way, but these past months learning from you has made me understand how brutish our ways were before. My heart aches that he might not return, can you promise me he will come back?" I smiled and leaned down, kissing her softly on the lips "Of course my love. Zidane has orders to bring the rest of the A-Team as well as Lennish with him. We have been discussing this for a while now." she nodded and sighed, then leaned her head against my cock, using it as a pillow. I sighed and looked over my stats. I had been leveling up again, we had found a nest of Dire Bears to the south and a nest of Gnolls to the east. I had taken out the Gnolls personally, apparently they bred even faster than Goblins. The Dire Bears we were using as training for the Soldiers. I looked over my Feats list and the new feat I had added, it was called Affinissimilation.

Richard

Level 26

Attack 40

Defence 40

Health 30

Mana 42

EXP 1150/2550

Card Transmutation

Feats

Affinity (Goblin)

Save Yourself

Cost Reduction (Goblin) ×2

Affinissimalation

Devourer (Ring)

Spells

Firebolt

Heal

Thunderstorm

Skills

Inspect 60

Butcher 40

Leatherworker 38

Hunter 31

Deck Size 84

Affinissimilation - Allows the user to become closer to his Affinity. You will begin to take on some characteristics of your Affinity. This gives you the same bonuses as your Affinity as well, allowing you to become stronger at the cost of looking less like you and more like your Affinity.

I tugged at my pointed ears and caressed my sharp teeth as I read the description of the feat. I was still as tall as I was normally and had the same skin tone, but my nails were sharper, stronger and longer, my ears had the point to them, although they looked more elven to me than Goblinoid and my teeth were sharp as hell. Other than that there weren't any other changes, but according to Gobelle I was even sexier now so I shrugged and chuckled to myself. I fingered the ring on my hand, when my Inspect skill had finally reached 60 I was able to deduce what it was and it was an amazing boon that I was still reluctant to try.

Devourer - Allows the user to gain permanent bonuses to Attributes when they eat the fresh heart of a slain enemy. Attribute bonuses depend on the strength of the enemy. This bonus can only be given once per enemy type.

I had never eaten raw meat before, I mean I liked my steaks rare, but a raw heart was something that I just didn't know if I could eat. Although it would be nice to have bonus permanent stats. Only problem is I would also have to wait until I killed the strongest I could find of each enemy, to maximize my gains. It wasn't ideal, but it would be amazing if I could get past my squeamishness.

As I sat there contemplating this one of my Striker Goblins came running into the throne room, kneeling before me. "I am sorry for intruding Master, but we have news. There are humans in our land with monsters like we have not seen before." I sat forward at hearing this, "Tell me more." he nodded "Four humans in total. They summon monsters as you do and they just took out a squad of Goblins. They are poking around the edges of your territory, we are watching them currently." I grinned, it was the first time since I got here that I had heard of humans being nearby. I quickly got dressed, wearing a suit of Studded Leather Armor and putting on a buckler and War axe combo. I had taken a liking to the axe fighting style more than any other, it was my favorite way of fighting. I checked my Summons, I could use all except Zidane and Lennish at the moment, but I knew Zash would be there as well. "Lead the way." I said, setting out with a small escort of Soldiers with me.

It took near an hour to get to where the other humans were, having to alter our course here and there as our scouts reported the situation. When we got to where we could see them I stopped and watched for a little bit, three of them were dressed in what could only be described as full plate armor. There was a red crest on their armor, depicting the head of a dragon with glittering scales and two horns running alongside the head. The one not wearing armor had a very nice suit of red and gold, which had the same crest on the front. He held himself with his chin up and an arrogant expression on his face. Other than that he looked like an ordinary human. He and I'm assuming his guards had what looked to be young dragons, not fully developed summoned. "The tournament starts in a few months and other than wolves and these puny Goblins we haven't found anything in this forest to challenge our levels." said the haughty one. One of the guards nodded "Normally you would find other more powerful creatures here, but from what I am seeing it looks as if this forest is heavy in human traffic. Look at these footprints, they are small, but all of them are wearing boots. I don't know what to make of this my lord."

I grinned as I stepped out of cover, my Goblins by my side. The men instantly turned to me and pulled swords out of somewhere, I had no idea where, shields coming a half second after. "Welcome to my land." I said stretching my arms to the side. They eyed me up and down before the haughty one sneered at me. "YOUR LAND?" he asked as his eyes fell on the Goblins next to me. He continued watching me for a moment before he laughed "A Goblin, he's nothing more than an evolved Goblin." One of the guards shook his head "No my lord, he seems to be a human who has taken on some characteristics of a Goblin." The haughty one looked at me disgusted by that point "Why would anyone do that?"

Before anyone else could say anything I jumped and appeared right behind the guard who spoked up, my axe at his neck before I said "So I could become more." then jumped back to my previous spot and sheathing my axe. "You dare?! Do you not know who I am? I am the Duke's son you mongrel." His guards tensed up and summoned three dragons each. I shrugged "What does being the Duke's son have anything to do with this? You are on my land, killing my subjects. I came out here to greet you, yet you greet me with open hostility by showing your weapons."

The kid looked at me like I was crazy "This is my father's land you incompetent fool. The entire forest belongs to the Draco family." I shook my head "I have been here for months, not once have I seen you or your people. I slew the Goblin Chieftain and became their king, taken out most of the monster nests that could pose a threat to me and my growing kingdom and only now that you need *training* have I seen humans in the forest." I said trying to rein in my temper at his arrogance. He sighed and waved his hand at me "Reinard, deal with this fool." The guard to his right nodded and stepped forward, 4 of the dragons coming forward with him. "If that is how it has to be, then so be it." I said, I eyed everyone and inspected them. The Dragons were level 25 and the humans were all level 28 and 29, their stats half of what mine were. The Dragons though could prove to be a problem, as I calculated quickly I realized his dragons must have had at least 20 stats to start with. I called out "Zash, Gobra, Gobtu, Bash. Show these people what we do to trespassers." the four Goblins came forward. Zash instantly charged at the dragon in front of him, cleaving off a leg before it knew what hit it. Gobra did the same, but only sliced halfway through the leg. Bash charged forward and spun at the last moment, smashing the dragons head back and sending it flying into a nearby tree. Gobtu jumped and landed a few moments later on the back of the final dragon, his Guan Dao lodged firmly in the chest of the dragon, their reaction times were impressive to say the least. All four dragons disappeared into motes of light that flew back into Reinard's deck box after a few more quick attacks the dragons couldn't even dodge.

I quirked an eyebrow at the little princeling's expression of disbelief. Reinard too was stumped. "Now, I have somewhere around 50 Goblins surrounding you at this moment and can call more, I also have 20 Hobgoblins nearby that I can call upon and believe me when I say they are definitely stronger than you. So we can do this one of two ways. Either you come with me willingly and I will be a gracious host, showing you what I have done and possibly opening trade relations, or you can come with me bound and I will meet the Duke personally and speak with him about the arrogance of his son and what he tried to do to a possible ally."

The guards looked nervously between the arrogant one and me, they knew they couldn't fight their way out. The kid went through a few facial emotions, then sighed and nodded. The guards put their weapons away. I snapped my fingers and Zidane came out of the shadows behind the kid. He jumped about a foot as Zidane approached "Master, what do you require?" I smiled "Tell the girls we will be having guests. I want the best of our wines brought out, none of that stuff that Hilcen has been working on and I want the boar Squall hunted this morning cooked up and ready. Use the good stuff." he chuckled and nodded then headed off. I stepped in to reach my hand out "I am sorry my greeting was not up to par with normal standards. I have been alone in these woods for months with only Goblins to speak with. I am Richard the Goblin King." he rolled his eyes and chuckled, but grasped my forearm "I may have been a bit rash as well. I am Garret Draco of the Draco dynasty. Now tell me Richard, what is this good stuff you speak of?" when I described it to him he looked at me shocked "You made mayonnaise in this forest?" my eyes lit up and I grabbed him by the shoulder, I kind of liked him at this point.