After a couple of days spent resting and settling the new critters at the property while planning their training courses, I finally updated my business page with a completed list of basic packages for already trained subhumans before posting pictures of the three mountain goblins in my possession.
Within the first hour of teaching the kobolds how to properly wear weights without ruining them as well as how to use a treadmill, the first three currently queued customers responded to direct messages about accepting these goblins as well as what training packages they wanted.
Thanks to the 'practical exam' video I had made ungodly amounts of money off of, none of these three were interesting in anything but the fencer, berserker, and the 'soldier' who used the all-purpose sword and shield combo. The tanker option who wore arm weapons like the ones Fred wanted from the death stone did not seem to appealing in regards to the berserker.
People were probably wary of goblin archers, though, whose weapons and combat styles were simply unarmed Wing Chun from Chinese martial arts and 'simplified' archery.
Nobody even mentioned the 'lancer' package that focused on spear and staff arts except one guy who said they wanted a whole Poniard and not half of him. I corrected him on the spot saying that it would be one-third Poniard because my goblin was also a shaman. I received no replies from them which meant that I had probably succeeded in pissing them off with how great Poniard is.
I had even posted a video of Poniard shooting the target from eighty yards with all hits on the target and at least sixty percent of them within the center target. However, this was Poniard in the video shooting a foam target. If I had posted a video of a freshly trained goblin using a small scaled MP Bow to railgun animals as they ran across the property I would have probably finalized three archer contracts.
Now that I had training plans in mind, I took the mountain goblins out to the exercise field. These guys were roughly the same grade as the last goblins even though they were a little bigger all around as trolls-to-be and were tougher than the goblins I was used to working with. However, surrounded by kobolds with Poniard and Glaive monitoring exercises, they were downright meek in my presence.
It did not hurt that I was the only reason they were still alive after having their asses handed to them despite having the 'advantage' of being armed.
Unlike forest goblins, though, these guys were built for muscle more than speed and were downright clumsy at speeds over ten miles per hour while weighted. However, I kept them at thirteen even after they would fall and fly off the belt. Then I would make them get up and get back on while it was still running.
By the time it was time for the next lessening of the kobold workloads, the mountain goblins could actually maintain their paces. However, by the time all of the other treadmill beds were lowered the mountain goblins were already tiring. I immediately got on my phone and made a post straight to my business page detailing recent discoveries.
Since these three were already put in the queue I offered finding troll-variant specialized training with no change in pricing despite the extension of an added week in training time. It would take this long just to get their endurance and stamina up to an appropriate level for working alongside Protectors. Fighting was not always done in one location and you had to be able to switch seats faster than a drunk driver speeding down the highway or you might die like one.
In the business I even posted that it was not until upper grades that goblins even began wearing anything considered armor besides hides or carried more than a primary weapon. These guys naturally had a lot to compensate for when converting to modern means from their primitive lives. A week of endurance training alone was enough to raise most values.
Nobody complained about the extra week or the specialized training but the lady who ordered a fencing mountain troll decided to settle for the soldier package instead. Small style weapons and close combat suited to them would not be appropriate for a long-armed mountain goblin because of their balance in spite of their reach. However, tanking was different.
With one new plan in mind and a change in the general strategy, I decided to focus the mountain goblins' training on running for as long as possible at top speeds. For this, I had to place the artifact in reach of them to extend their ability to run. Even if regenerating their stamina while running did not raise their endurance as much as one would think, it still stretched the strain of the muscles to allow better growth.
As well, it achieved the fundamental necessity of teaching the goblins how to mentally cope with running for insane periods of time.
Even if they maxed at a declining three hours of steady motion like the previous goblins, that was still all they would need for their grade. They started at a thirty degree incline with close to their body weight and then ended at naked weight on level 'ground', in their basic kits with a little extra cargo, they could probably fight for most of a day.
Not long after I let the kobolds down to rest around the running goblins, my phone started ringing while I was setting Poniard up to teach Glaive his own unarmed combat style as a demonstration for the other kobolds. Walking off to the side to answer it, I find Karen's name and number on my screen seeing who it was, I decided to reply to the call with a message and sent a picture of all the kobolds and running goblins watching Poniard and Glaive with the question, 'what's up?'
A few minutes later, I received one five messages that made up on long text about the cobalt I had given her. Apparently, adding powdered cobalt reacted with the slime acid layer used in her Physics Fire Bombs to create hydrogen gas which added to the literal firepower of the magic explosive. This was something she intended. What she did not intend was for the presence of a fuel outside the fume vacuum phase would create an air barrier between the outer and inner gasses.
Adding a small amount of high grade cobalt created a second fire phase which created a 'super-imposed' phase of compressed hot air. To quote her, 'if so, adding an adequate amount of lower grade cobalt would have the same effect' and she wanted my permission to degrade the cobalt. I told her to make me a six-pound steel saber that was three percent carbon, three percent cobalt, three percent titanium, and one percent vanadium so all of the remaining cobalt would be hers.
She thanked me profusely and then sent me another essay about the metallic qualities of the pine top I gave her as well as the potential for high MP ethanol to cut with regular combustible fluid. I told her to go ahead and break it down for all necessary materials and simply put them on hold until she gets a better assessment.
With my own metal stocks at Johnathan's as well as the rest of the cobalt needles, I could have another weapon made and trade the rest for fire bombs.
After making contact with Karen I decided to call Ms. Gwyn and see how she and the rest of the party were doing since I had already spent the better part of twenty minutes reading about what Karen has been up to. Ms. Gwyn answered only a few rings into the call and sounded tired with some machinery and people in the background.
"Hey, Malcolm, what are… you calling me for?" She asks in a cheerful but breathless manner. "I'm at the… gym right now, you're on… speaker. Leo's coming… over in a second, too."
"That's cool, I just wanted to see how your vacation was going and ask if you heard from the others," I reply in a mellow tone, glad to see that the team leader was taking their 'vacation' seriously. "I'm just here at my compound waiting for a development team and running the critters. I wanted to let you know I was running some side business with Karen concerning some magic metals I acquired, her fire bombs are going to have a whole lot more fire and I'm going to trade more with her. You should put in a team request for anti-boss weapons… like a big fire bomb or three."
"Good call… thank you so… much for letting… me know!" Ms. Gwyn replies in a slight rush. "How is… Poniard? You have more? We have your… new toys at… home, by the way. Never know… when you're home."
She must have been running for a while already because she was sounding pretty breathless. I almost felt bad about calling at this time but it was probably good training for her since she was the leader and responsible for calling orders in a fight. "Poniard is great, they're basically C grade now and they've become a full-fledged shaman. He even said he'll be bigger soon the other day.
"Aside from that," I carry on quickly to save their breath for running. "We'll have two new friends on our missions. Mostly only one, but on outdoor portals we can take Poniard's mount out of its hole. He and the bird created an undead demon thing on our… private assignment and I also managed to catch a bunch of kobolds. The Bureau claimed all of the lesser kobolds but I am keeping one adult stage evolved female to bring to portals. You guys should come by some time."
"Your property?" Another familiar voice asks as Leo enters the conversation. "Is this a group invite or just my wife?"
"Everybody can come if they want," I reply in my best Eliza impersonation, adding only the slightest emphasis to the word 'come' with a mischievous grin. "I don't know if you heard about them or not, but I've got two new familiars, kind of. One is a familiar of a familiar? Good luck with how that works. Oh, Poniard is just under C grade and I brought this C grade tree back from the assignment with me. If you're all still under D then the tree and all the critters would be great exposure."
"Malcolm…" Leo says slowly, sounding uncertain as if he was distracted. Then, a moment later, "Gwyn and I want to know what your current MP level is."
"Current grade…?" I ask in the same slow but also impish manner. "Right now I'm probably above or below two-thirty? The vacation is to let my body finish stabilizing from the MP growth. I even have a mid F mana pool, now, and even that is still growing. Remember that giant spider slime? Tell yourself its core was used to classified my bones and skin and some fluids."
"Class… oh, I see," Leo says in confusion until Ms. Gwyn suddenly started laughing in the background. "Are you sure you should be working around the critters and exposure tree, then? Doesn't that… defeat the purpose?"
"As far as I or the director is concerned, as long as I don't have direct exposure to things like portals or their worlds then my MP growth will only stabilize at just above their levels," I reply flippantly. "It might take more than a month if the tree is that large of an influence, but I have already started getting goblins from customers to keep myself busy with. They're the troll type so I'm just going to slap some heavy gear on them like Fred and teach them a simplified Muay Thai."
"How mu- no… what- y- what… if we… got goblins?" Leo starts saying and asking in different ways with partial sounds, one or two words, and probably a lot of gestures from Ms. Gwyn on the other side. "Okay, what if we brought you goblins and stuff? I personally have enough contribution set aside to buy some new or recently born goblins… maybe if… if everyone? Oh, if everyone comes together, we can probably get… some exotic breeding stock or something."
"If my team leader or teammates wanted me to train an animal, I will offer you guys and only the now known as 'original party' of current team members free training," I say to start a special contract. "I will house them for the first week, during the second week you guys will visit once a day if possible or once every other day mandatory to learn the regime, and during the third week… you guys are at a gym."
There was only the background noise of other people at the gym for a few moments and then Leo asks, "Is that a problem?"
"Maybe?" I answer with a question hesitantly. "The people I usually deal with have the facilities to continue the training of their goblins. If you guys are at the gym you probably live in an apartment or something that doesn't have the facilities or zoning for keeping goblins. Are you guys allowed to have goblins?"
"We're not even allowed to have pets at our condo," Leo replies a little miserably. "Moving is something we've been talking about for a while but then we'll need to hire someone to take care of the place for us. If we're doing dungeons every week then we're not mowing our own yard."
"I have two hobs who take care of the property, they're great," I reply while surveying the grounds. The grass was not much more than an inch or so tall from their progressive sling-blade skills. "You can teach goblins to do more than fight, I even let the hobs have keys to everything but the patio gate and the property gate and they remember which is which well enough. Y'all should think about it, two pounds of ground beef or pretty much any meat every day is all it costs for a pair of body guards and butlers."
"We'll start… looking… for a place," Ms. Gwyn calls out from the background before Leo can even formulate a response. "Will also… talk to team… about goblins."
*