Moidra Stood in front of a large iron pot full of boiling water, and a mix of herbs. Inhaling the wisp of steam invigorates her, the mixture of herbs is something she has developed over the last month to give the goblins extra energy. In the morning it is wonderful to drink it warm, in the afternoon she would grind a new form of mint she found and add it to the left overs creating a cooling effect as well. The other goblins were not big fans of Moidra's concoctions at first but since she got the mix right and they found some honey to balance the bitterness everyone loved it.
As the Goblin's came up to grab some tea and some roasted meat for breakfast Moidra would talk to them about the tasks from the day before and the goals for today, with only 18 goblins in camp right now it was an easy process to manage, and the last two months had been very busy for the goblins. Thanks to the lumber yard to the south the Goblins had constructed 2 outhouses, and a communal bunk house, the construction was a bit rough but it wasn't like it would fall in suddenly, they'd have time to flee… hopefully.
Other than the 4 goblins who were producing and transporting lumber, Moidra had a group of rope makers, a group of tanners, weavers, a group of explorers, and Shota led a group of Hunters. Erdrin was the group's head chef, preservationist, and apparently animal expert. When he wasn't cooking, smoking, or drying food he was using his wolf, which was no longer a pup, to collect animals for a roughly built farm. Thanks to that the goblins were actually able to make a very basic, somewhat bland cheese. Erdrin seemed to have an innate ability to commune with animals, and the feral cows seemed to tame fairly quickly.
The only problems Moidra had currently were the lack of salt, storage containers, and skilled craftsmen. Aside from Tect, no other goblin was able to learn a skilled trade so they could only do the most basic crafts right now. The ropes as an example frayed and broke regularly. Moidra would love to be able to get books on skilled trades, and also reading and writing. Moidra was the second most educated goblin after Tect, but even she wasn't skilled in reading, and she couldn't write or do math at all.
Moidra had just finished handing out the day's orders when she sat down to her tea and a skewer of lightly roasted mutton. The smell made her drool a bit. Erdrin was truly gifted to be able to produce such flavorful food without salt. Suddenly, a group of goblins came running up to Moidra, it was the group sent to explore the area and map. They had only left half an hour ago, but they were already back and panting from running as hard as they could.
"Moidra, it's bad, there is a knight coming from the direction of the dead city!"
Moidra was confused, "What do you mean a knight, do they have the Campbell county crest on their armor?"
The goblins all shook their heads. "No, I didn't see a crest at all."
Moidra ran towards the dragon bridge, as she reached it she could see the unknown knight on the other side. Moidra Immediately panicked, "Get Shota and his hunters as quickly as you can."
Moidra and the others ran back to camp, and immediately called everyone to arms. It took almost no time for all the goblins to grab wooden spears and hide among the tree's. Shota took a position further ahead, and waited.
Tect could finally see the camp, he was so damn tired. The armor was very comfortable, and it breathed like a nice cotton shirt, but it was still heavy. Tect's armor was absolutely gorgeous, the lizard hide had been used and the armor took a lot of it's design from that, and used a theme Tect had set with his sword design. The main color of the armor was blue, the lizard hide was black, and there were many silver accents. The helm was a slightly stylized dragons head, the armor itself was mostly leather with a blue overlapping scales, the only solid areas were the pauldrons, elbow, knee, and shin guards. The back was covered in overlapped plates that resembled the scales on the chest but at nearly 3 times the size, and the areas where flexibility was most needed a very fine but strong chain mail protected him. All together this made Tect a very imposing figure, but he would need alot of time to get used to the weight, he would have stored the armor in his spatial bag, but he had brought things for the clan and it was full so he had to wear it.
To add to Tect's woes as he approached the camp, Shota who Tect thought was his friend, jumped from a tree screaming like a banshee. As he did that he also attempted to stab Tect right in the back. Unfortunately for Shota, and fortunately for Tect, the dagger skipped right off of the scales and flew from Shota's hand.
"Shota What The Fuck!"
Shota's eyes became as wide as saucers, "Holy shit, Tect is that you?"
"Who the hell else would it be, I told you guys I was going to make armor and a sword. Have you seen anyone else in the Mountain Heart? Did you think the Rats or Slimes decided to attack by filling a suit of armor?"
Shota started laughing, "How fricken cool would that be though? Rat Knights, like 30 rats, ones a foot, ones a shin. That would be amazing."
The other goblin's are too far away to hear the conversation, but seeing Shota laughing causes them to slowly approach. As they do Tect takes off the Helmet and they all breath a sigh of relief.
Shota looks behind Tect, about 30 feet back is a giant chicken, "Uhm Tect, Why is a chicken following you?
Tect laughed, "Long story, but to be honest. It's a demon in the shape of a chicken. After I caught it I thought it was normal, but then when I started home I released it thinking it would go home, but no it follows me now. Worst of all… It's a cannibal. I ate a chicken a few days ago, and while I slept that psychopath ran into my camp and ate what was left."
The Chicken noticed Shota's horrified look, not understanding what it meant the chicken stared right back at him, which only added to his sense of unease. "It's a good egg layer by the way, so if we get a few more then we can start a chicken farm." Erdrin immediately appeared, "I'll take care of this, where are the chicken's located?
"North East of here in the plains, there are pigs there too."
Erdrin stuck 2 fingers in his mouth and whistled. In less than a minute a massive wolf came running up. This wolf size could intimidate the most experienced adventurers… except, as he approached he practically pranced, with his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth. If other wolves could see this they would hang their heads in shame, a proud and vicious breed like this wolf was reduced to such a display of cuteness was an affront to it's ancestors savage nature. That being said, he was a huge hit with the ladies, so perhaps this was an act and the cunning beast had simply traded the thrill of natural supremacy for the cheap thrill of belly rubs and cuddles. When the wolf got to Eldrin, he hopped up on its back and rode off like he was riding a horse.
"Damn, That goblin is way cooler than you right now." Azulak laughed, Tect couldn't disagree though.
The goblins all drug Tect back to the camp to hear about his time at the mine. Tect took a few hours telling them everything, showing them some cores, the egg, his sword, and his new skills. The goblins were all like small children listening intently to every word. Many ooo's and ahh's were heard. Tect subtly left out the embarrassing parts, like almost dying and being pooped on.
"I took a little bit of extra time to produce things I thought you guys could use." Tect began to pull the storage room chest from his bag. "Many of these are empty, but I used the auto forge to make you guys some basic tools and necessities." Tect opened a few chests which had the heads of basic tools, like hoes, picks, shovels, and sickles. In another chest were a few hammers, chisels, and nails. The remaining chest had buckets, knives, spear tips, and a few devices for making arrows. "This will hopefully help you guys get a real village going while I'm away. If I'm able I plan on getting more things from the towns I'm going to visit. I hope we can build a real town and eventually city here for all goblins, so keep up the great work everyone."
All the goblins cheered, they had been using wooden and stone tools for everything, and now they could really speed up some of their progress.
The next day the Goblins from the Lumbermill arrived. They had created a very basic sled and brought back a lot of the newly cut boards. When they explained to everyone about the automatic saw mill everyone was super excited. Plans were made to use the high quality lumber to produce a cart so that more lumber could be gathered more quickly. When Erdrin returned they would discuss using a cow to pull the cart.
Tect was in paradise right now, the joy and hope he saw on the others' faces overwhelmed Tect. This was something that during his darkest days he thought he would never see, and on his best days never dreamed of being so overwhelming. This is what everyone deserved, humans, elves, dwarves, dragons, and goblins. Tect planned on enjoying some time with his clan but he knew he had to leave as soon as possible. Winter was just getting started, and he wanted to make it to Nadteifelt before it was too late. The old man, Julia, and Little Arnold were constantly on his mind, his first priority was paying back their kindness and finding out if any other goblins survived the massacre.