Although he was now satisfied with his goblins, Elroy was still looking at his shabby dungeon. A mere tunnel of some thirty meters and the Core room thereafter was surely not appropriate for a dungeon. The idea he had in mind of dungeons were that of sprawling mazes of corridors and rooms, going to the depths of the earth.
However, as he looked at the stone walls all around, he couldn't help but feel that it was going to be hard to make this vision come true. Even so, there was a start to everything and as such he created a dozen pickaxes for the goblins before instructing them to start chipping away at the walls.
As they started to do so, he started to wait for the Core to replenish with Essence. As he was watching it rising in the room before being absorbed by the Core, he couldn't help but feel once again that it was going at too slow of a pace. Especially considering that his expenses would only continue to rise as he developed the dungeon.
Therefore, he attempted to replicate what he had done earlier, increasing the speed of the rotation of the Essence Clouds inside the Core. As he put his whole mind into doing so, he noticed that the Essence being absorbed by the Core did not seem to be stored there, but rather started to dissipate throughout the Core and reinforce the Clouds. As this process went on gradually, the Clouds rapidly gained in speed, coming to a limit around five times their previous speed. When he stopped focusing the Essence into the Core, the Clouds stopped their acceleration and as he took a step back, he could now admire the results.
If what previously could be described as a small stream being absorbed into the Core, the Essence now resembled a raging river being funneled into it. The small iridescent spark contained within the Core, what Elroy assumed to be the physical representation of his soul, was now growing rapidly. It now was more appropriate to describe it as a small flame. This growth felt like a baptism to him, making him feel better and more in control than ever.
Having solved his shortage of Essence, he immediately summoned more minions, taking the total number of goblins to twenty-four from twelve and doubling the number of hobgoblins. Not forgetting to provide them with the Living-wood equipment, he immediately made these new minions leave the dungeon to hunt for food. The goblins would try to catch some fish at the small stream, while the hobgoblins would be on the prowl for bigger game such as deer or possibly wolves.
Having sent out the minions, he turned back to the goblins chipping away at the walls, finding that they been making remarkable progress. Each swing of the pickaxes was taking out large chunks of rock, which could mostly be attributed to the extraordinary sharpness of the picks he had provided them. Although they been making extraordinary progress, rocks were starting to pile up inside the core room and Elroy had to assign a few goblins to transporting the rocks to the outside of the dungeon, piling them up.
Feeling a light tremor, his vision went to the goblins by the water stream, delighted that they caught the first fish of, hopefully, many. Along the stream, there were a few stones that resembled flint and so Elroy instructed the goblins to take some back for later experimentation when they would return to the dungeon.
Deciding to check up on the hobgoblins that were hunting, his vision went to them. They were wandering about the woods discreetly, in search of prey to take down. Luck would strike as they did not have to wait long before coming upon a pack of five wolves feeding from the carcass of a deer.
Slowing down to a standstill, the two hobgoblins readied their bows and started to take aim at two of the wolves. Drawing the bows until they looked like half-moons, they had readied their shot. At that moment, one of the other wolves raised its head, sniffing at the wind as it carried the scent of the two which were badly positioned in the upwind. Not daring to waste a single second, they let go of the arrows, their green fletching flashing by their face as an audible twang resounded. The strong force carried by the arrows knocked down the two targets as they impaled them.
Rather than fleeing away, the other three wolves showed their teeth as they let out a low growl. As evidenced by their slender frame, this deer had been their first kill in a long time and they were not going to abandon it. They then broke into a run, trying to close the distance as quickly as possible.
One of the hobgoblins set aside its bow, unsheathing its saber and holding its shield in preparation. The other notched another arrow, and took aim at the rapidly approaching wolves. He waited for the opportune moment before letting it loose, the arrow plunging itself in the torso of one of the wolves and sending it stumbling to the ground due to momentum.
The first hobgoblin, holding its shield, faced the first assault of the wolves as the leading one leaped for the throat. In place of the soft meat of the hobgoblin, the only thing its jaws made contact with was the steel rim of its shield as it received a solid hit to its snout, sending it dazed in the direction of the other hobgoblin. Not missing that opportunity, it unsheathed its blade as it delivered a brutal strike, embedding the saber in the skull of the poor animal in a splutter of blood.
The last wolf arrived at that moment, ramming itself into the raised shield of the first hobgoblin and sending it to the ground as the wolf snapped at its throat. It only missed due to the hobgoblin struggling to raise his shield as the wolf stood upon it, distancing it slightly from the beast. Seeing its comrade's plight, the other hobgoblin let go of his saber as it would not be able to dislodge it in time, rather choosing to draw one of the nail-like arrows before jumping onto the wolf. As the two rolled to the ground, the wolf scratching and biting, the hobgoblin stabbed it repeatedly. Thankfully, its armor had taken most of the bites, while it was wounded with a few scrapes. It seemed in slight pain as it frowned.
Streams of Essence rose from the bodies of the wolves before being absorbed by the two hobgoblins as they rose up from the ground, one of them heading to retrieve its saber from the skull it was lodged in, before both of them started to collect the arrows they had shot.
Elroy watched, entranced, as the two hobgoblins seemed to smile in glee and excitement at having made it through the encounter, letting their pointed teeth show, before instructing some goblins to come and help carry the wolves back to the dungeon.
As he accompanied them on their return, he started to think.
'Although these beings I summoned do seem tireless, I guess they are not emotionless. In that sense, you could say that they are not mere products of Essence, but rather truly living beings which experience the world around them.'
At this thought, Elroy decided to pay more attention to the safety of his minions, developing a preference for ranged encounters as they seemed much safer, and even more efficient, then close-ranged ones.
As all his minions had returned to the dungeon, he was now looking at another problem. A portion of the fishes caught and the five wolves were being stored for later consumption in one of the newly excavated rooms, however, fresh meats do not last very long.
Instructing the goblins to crack the stones they had taken from the stream with some of the rocks lying around, there now was the key to solving this new problem: a rather large piece of flint. With the use of the flint and of the steel used in the weapons, they would be able to light a fire in order to dry and smoke the meat, enabling long-term storage. However, they would need to build a small building outside the dungeon for that purpose as smoking the meat could take a few hours and Elroy was afraid that smoke would fill up the dungeon if they were to do it inside. The rocks mined out when expanding the dungeon would be a perfect material for that building.
He moved up this project to a high priority as he would commence work on it the following day, since the sun was starting to go down, leaving perhaps an hour or two until night-time.
Speaking of the expansion, during the time that Elroy had been away, following the hobgoblins on their hunt, the goblins had greatly progressed. They had already finished excavating two adjacent rooms to the Core room and were continuing with digging a curved tunnel going further from the Core room into the mountains at a gentle downwards slope.
'Since this is about the end of the second day, the adventurers should have made it back to that town called Heimdell. At the earliest, I can expect that rookie adventurers could arrive tomorrow or the day after.'
During his journey with the hobgoblins, Elroy had gathered some valuable information regarding the topography of the surrounding area. The dungeon seemed to be located in the depths of a valley located in between two peaks of the mountain range.
'I should definitely consider posting a minion overlooking the entrance to this valley to serve as an early warning mechanism, as otherwise, I would only be aware of the presence of adventurers if they were spotted randomly by a goblin. Or worse, if they were already setting foot into the dungeon.'
On this thought, Elroy's second day in this foreign place had come to an end.