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  [Marrok]

  Marrok led his band of goblins out of the Wier woods, and up through the foothills of the mountain. He knew the filthy races had names for the mountain, but he didn’t care for their names. What use was naming things to a goblin. All that mattered was the tally and the one God.

  Marrok’s tally stood at 135, 40 more than his nearest warrior. That was why Marrok was chieftain, and though he wasn’t the biggest goblin, he made up for it in cunning and ferocity that none had yet matched.

  As a young goblin, he had brawled with his brothers on a day-to-day basis, killing five of them, as they slumbered. Some had thought it was cowardice, but he had dispatched them in a similar way and his tally now sat higher than any other goblin he had heard of. His first non-goblin tally mark occurred in his fifth winter, an injured human. It had wandered into the Wier wood in search of food and tripped on something. Marrok didn’t know what, nor did he care. All he knew was that he could start his tally off well.

  Cutting the human’s throat had been one of the best things Marrok could remember. Feeling the grating resistance on his blade as he sawed it back and forth and the hot blood rushing down his hands and forearms had been euphoric, and he had taken full advantage of the death, mutilating the corpse before roasting it over his fire. Marrok had fed well that night, and as he sat around his fire now, 15 winters later, he revelled in the memory, mouth salivating at the thought.

  Soon, he promised himself, soon…

  The band had left the Wier wood, the traitors’ behaviour having tainted the land. He wouldn’t stay there now; nothing would prevent his glory from reaching the one God. He had a momentous tally and a pure life. He deserved a place by the God and traitorous scum would not stop him now.

  Abandoning the Wier wood was a big step for a goblin that had lived his entire life within it, stepping out for a quick raid every now and then. Now though, he was abandoning it, and the choice between the great plains or the mountain was an easy choice. Goblins didn’t like the plains, too open, too vulnerable.

  The mountain was his destination, and he would drag the band with him. He was chieftain after all, and his word was law.

  The mountain was steep on the side of the Wier wood and traipsing up its slopes had led to the deaths of a few of his brethren. Marrok didn’t care though. Other goblins were not his concern, only his tally. They followed him because they knew his tally was so good, just as he had done with the previous chieftain. But he was in charge now, and he would ascend the mountain to new land, he wanted to get their before breeding season, and when the new influx of goblins grew up, he would go on a huge raid. Perhaps getting his tally into the two hundreds. Surely that would merit a place by the God’s side. Two hundred! The fact that he was even considering it was possible was amazing. He knew that he would have been astounded to meet a goblin with such a tally as a child. And now he was that goblin.

  He revelled in the thought for a few moments.

  “Pick it up, let’s keep going… onwards Wier goblins, to the flatland over the crest.” He screamed. His warbling voice, bloodcurdling to the filthy races, but encouraging to his brethren.

  They joined his cry with their own and they forged on, making good progress.

  ***2 weeks later***

  Just yesterday, the ground had begun to flatten out and the crest seemed far closer. Today, Marrok had led his band over the crest and down towards the gentle slopes of the southern side. Sparse trees and cold blowing winds were not what Marrok had hoped for, in truth he hadn’t expected it, and he was annoyed at that. The prevailing wind was always to the north. Why hadn’t he considered that? He wondered, frustration scratching at his mind.

  Why?

  One of the breeders had frozen that first night, and Marrok had reluctantly ordered the band to huddle closer around their fire. The band was not content, and resentment was beginning to build. Marrok hoped it wouldn’t get much worse, he didn’t want to be challenged. He had no fear though, he knew all the members of his band in serious detail, knew how to take them down and keep them down. But he wasn’t looking forwards to killing them. Though it counted for his tally, he felt it was a tainted mark and he didn’t like accumulating them. He would do it without a thought though.

  He was chieftain, and he was proud to be chieftain. Perhaps they needed a reminder of how skilled he was, that would prevent a challenge.

  But he didn’t know how to prove it to them up here, he was a goblin of the Wier wood, not one of the gentle mountain slopes, and it would take a while to learn what needed to be learnt.

  Perhaps he would stumble across an opportunity sometime soon.

  Either way, ruminating on his issues did nothing to solve them, so he focused on the walk, night was drawing near once again, and he needed to look for somewhere to camp.

  ==========

  [Dungeon]

  ~~Level up: 21~~

  ~~Level up: 22~~

  ~~Level up: 23~~

  ~~Level up: 24~~

  ~~Level up: 25~~

  I had gone a bit overboard with levelling, getting to 25 and not to the 23 I had originally intended.

  If I had only got to level 23, then I wouldn’t have had many dungeon points left over for building my next floor. And the one after that, I wanted to be a boss floor and I was sure I would need a lot of points to buy a suitable creature.

  The first three floors had made use of the cheap, normal animals. But I would need to move onto mana-attuned monsters soon, not just animals. They just weren’t dangerous enough.

  Getting to level 25 had taken me a couple of weeks, though another deer’s death had fuelled a decent chunk of that. Smaller animals wandered in fairly regularly, seeking the warmth and shelter of a hideaway underground. Their constant deaths had increased my mana absorption by double. Double what it had been before opening up to the surface. It was still extremely slow going though, and I recognised that soon even the deer that wandered in occasionally would be of limited use.

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  Levelling had increased my health to 335, however, I still wasn’t at full health. The damage that I had done to my crystal had compounded with my growth so that I now only had 287. Higher than before, yet a larger gap to full health than it had ever been.

  My mana was fuller than ever, and with 1297 dungeon points I was sure I would be able to finish off floors four and five, even after buying the alligators. I had gained 120 extra points from somewhere, but I wasn’t sure where, either way I wasn’t complaining as it would only do me good.

  Spending 640 dungeon points for the alligators was a large chunk of my points and I reconsidered whether or not I truly needed five. Perhaps only two? A male and a female? Then I could breed them. But I wanted a good insurance now though. Just in case.

  Deliberating over whether or not to buy them, I felt paralysed. It was a strange feeling, I never felt paralysed: I made a decision and stuck with it. For better or worse.

  Making up my mind, I spent the points, buying the five alligators for their exorbitant price, and quickly distributing them through the floor.

  Now it felt complete, and I was happy with my choice. I was going to make it to at least level 30 before announcing myself anyway, and I could pick my next perk then too.

  Carving out the caverns took an enormous amount of time and mana, and I wasn’t willing to invest so much in my next floor, making it a similar size to the first floor; about 100 metres across.

  However, unlike the first floor, which contained small sparse trees and plentiful grasses, floor four was going to be an extremely dense packed jungle with brambles and foliage blocking everything. I was going to be weaving the plants into a barrier that the thieves would have serious trouble getting through.

  Thick, nutrient-dense soil and plenty of water were needed to grow such a huge amount of plants and so I implemented an underground network of water channels that would ensure the trees had enough water to grow.

  That, in conjunction with my mana feeding, allowed me to fill up the floor in no time. Well… some… About a week. But it felt like good quick progress. Far faster than any of the other floors had been.

  Unlike the previous floors, I didn’t want this one to hum with life. No, I wanted it to be quiet and eerie, of course some life was still important. I needed enough for my monsters to live off. I sure as hell wasn’t going to be feeding them all mana for the rest of my life. That was my mana, they could make do with the animals.

  Far more efficient of me, I thought.

  The animals on the first two floors had been living there for a while now, and several generations of the shorter-lived species had occurred. Siphoning off some of the population wasn’t too difficult and they soon adapted to life in the jungle.

  Determined not to go overboard, I stopped working on it, an overgrown wilderness didn’t need much micromanaging and design, nature did a good enough job, and arranging things just so, was a waste of mana.

  With the floor design done, it was time to move onto the monsters. In one of my store scans I had stumbled across a creature that I thought was a good fit for my level.

  Kobolds.

  When reading the store entries, I had been confused what the little up arrow next to the creature name meant, but I had eventually realised it was a selectable option that brought up a page of information.

  It turned out that kobolds were a societal species, and that buying one or two wouldn’t work. They needed to live together to be happy and they needed to work together to be lethal.

  Kobold young needed adult supervision to get stronger and they were paralysed in fights without it. Kobold warriors were fantastic fighters, but they were lazy and disorganised without leadership. Leadership that the chieftain would provide which is why he was the most expensive kobold despite having an average danger level. Kobold berserkers were so cheap, because without the kobold shaman providing regular magic during downtime, they would go crazy and kill everything in sight. And the kobold shaman needed the warriors to protect it whilst it cast spells, it was otherwise a very weak physical fighter and of almost no use on its own.

  Frustrated by the high cost for getting the kobolds I had looked harder, until I had discovered an offer. One that had held my attention for a while.

  The kobold village was exactly what I wanted, it contained everything I thought I needed to make the floor perfect. But, damn, one thousand points!

  I had thought it was less. Still, it was only two levels worth of points. It was sacrificing so much mana that I had trouble with.

  It has to be done. But first floor five.

  Having regenerated my mana properly and being in a creative mood, I wanted to finish of the chamber for my boss. Since it was only one monster, the room didn’t need to be too big, and I had a vague idea of what I wanted.

  Carving out a room only 30 metres across, but 50 high was easy, the room was quite small!

  In the centre, a large open grassy space filled up most of the room, whilst round the edges, thick trees towered up above, their canopies intermingling, yet leaving a small hole in the centre through which the ceiling could be seen.

  To prevent the thieves walking around the grassy space, through the woodlands, I filled up the space between the trees with thick hedging, tough branches, and sharp ends. Hopefully, preventing quick access to the trees.

  I was determined they wouldn’t have anywhere to hide from my boss.

  With both floors ready, it was time to level up again. Hopefully, a few more deer or something better would wander in. That would cut short my process by weeks at least.

  It was an unlikely hope, but one I desired a lot.