Experiments

After following the two adventurers on their way out of the dungeon on the off-chance they would give out more information, he could only head back to the Core disappointedly after only hearing some meaningless drivel about how they would spend their commission from the contract. While it was overall not so interesting, it still provided him some clues about the region and the overall technological development of the area.

'There's a town about a day's journey to the east called Heimdell, while this dungeon is located in a mountain range.'

'After the two adventurers get back to town and report to the Adventurer's Guild branch there, this place will be declared free to explore for new adventurers at their own risks. Considering they were only leaving just now, that leaves me at least two days before new people come here.'

Going back to the Core, Elroy looked at the faded clouds replenishing themselves from the fog coming out of the ground. If he was capable of letting out a sigh, he definitely would have.

'I guess this is no fog, but rather Essence as the two called it. And bringing out these five depleted the small amount that was accumulated within the Core… They cost Essence to form!'

At this realization, some excitement came to him.

'Meaning, if I wait a bit and let it replenish some more, maybe I can form some more goblins!'

After some time passed, about an hour according to Elroy's estimate, he assessed that there was enough Essence for him to start experimenting a bit with forming, or summoning as he preferred calling it, goblins. Trying to recall the feeling he had when the five original goblins had appeared, he managed to send out some Essence from the Core and excitedly lead it towards the ground. As it touched the ground, it then sunk down and disappeared to his dismay. After doing it another time to the same result he could only come to the conclusion that he was doing something wrong.

'Simply leading the fog to the ground cannot be enough, should there also be a template for the goblins to be summoned and given form by the Essence? Otherwise, why would anything appear after-all.'

Feeling he was going in the right direction, he sent out some Essence from the Core once again, this time recalling as much detail as could about the original goblins. The third time seemed to have done the trick, as Elroy was now staring at a brand-new goblin.

'About a bit taller than a meter, long pointy ears, knife-like teeth, amber eyes and green skin, seems like a perfectly fine goblin to me!'

As Elroy thought so, he did a double-take.

'Amber eyes and green skin, amber eyes and green skin… Amber and green. Colors!'

Looking around the room and then going to the end of the tunnel to look outside quickly dampened his excitement however, as he could only see through that bizarre grayscale vision of his. Coming back to the goblin, staring at it in suspicion, he could only come to the conclusion that it was indeed green skinned and possessed amber eyes.

'But why can I see the goblin in color while I cannot do so for everything except the Core. The Core seems to be where my mind is attached in this world, so could it be that this goblin is somehow linked to me in some way as well'

In order to test his idea, he thought about commanding the goblin to do simple things such as lifting its arm and spinning around which the goblin then executed, much to Elroy's delight. He then tried to make it speak but was disappointed when it only vocalized some growls and snarls. Looking at the somewhat dull eyes of the goblin, Elroy started becoming suspicious of something.

'Although goblins are not stupid as seen from the earlier fight where they displayed some elements of strategy, they do not seem that bright either. I guess I shouldn't expect too much from them as shown by their performance against the adventurers, but it is rather useful that I can command them according to my will.'

As Elroy repeatedly summoned goblins to get more familiar with the process, while taking breaks to ensure he did not run out of Essence, he soon was looking at about a dozen goblins all holding stone knives.

'If it is possible for me to summon goblins if I have a proper template when doing so, then, would it not be possible to summon other beings as well? How about a stronger, bigger and, hopefully, smarter goblin?'

As he tried repeatedly to make this idea come true and using more Essence than for a regular goblin, he encountered failure after failure. Either the goblin would appear as though it was a regular one or it would appear to be slightly more in conformity with his template, seeming a bit taller and stringer than regular goblins. Those partial successes would however soon all topple over and die inexplicably.

As he was about to get frustrated and take a break from attempting to summon an improved goblin, he decided to still attempt it a few more times. After one more failure, as he tried it again, everything seemed to flow perfectly as more Essence was drawn from the Core and landed on the ground in a flash of light. From it, emerged a silhouette that stood as tall as a regular man. This new goblin also possessed slightly longer ears than humans ending in a point like regular goblins, however, it also differed in some ways.

First off was the build, as it could be described as being as tall as 1.80 meters and being of a lighter skin tone than the dark green of regular goblins. Although it appeared somewhat slender, the muscles it had were denser and allowed for much more explosive strength. It also wielded a stone blade in place of a small knife. Looking at it and comparing it to the surrounding, Elroy could not help but think that it seemed to be like a perfect evolution from the regular goblins.

'I guess it wouldn't be fair to call you a regular goblin anymore. If I were to go along with traditional naming sense, I guess you would be a hobgoblin then?'

'What this also means is that it is definitely possible to summon different types of beings with enough essence and a proper template although failure seems to occur frequently.'

As he took a look at the Core, he noticed that the Essence within didn't seem to be accumulating as quickly as before, although the Essence clouds were still rotating at the same speed. Looking at the room, he saw that some of the wisps of Essence rising from the ground were being absorbed by the goblins while the hobgoblin was absorbing about twice as much.

'Could it be that they are sustained on Essence then, which is why they have been absorbing it?'

'Come to think of it, what do goblins eat? Just any type of food? I will have to test this later as I do not have access to any kind of food as of now.'

Thinking about possible food sources, he remembered the rabbit and the wolf who had paid a visit to the dungeon earlier from the oustide world.

'Although I could not leave the dungeon then, perhaps these goblins I summoned could do so in my stead.'

At this thought he immediately commanded a goblin to head to the outside. When it came to the end of the tunnel, it paused for a few moments before continuing on into the clearing. Elroy found that as the goblin continued to head further away, he was not stopped as previously from leaving the dungeon, his vision instead following the goblin as it trudged along the surrounding forest. He also found out that his vision could either snap to the view of the insides of the dungeon or to following the goblin outside.

Delighted by this, Elroy thought of immediately summoning a new hobgoblin in order to consitute two makeshift teams of goblin. One hobgoblin leading a team of eight goblins staying in the dungeon, while the other hobgoblins would lead the remaining four goblins on an expedition of sorts in the surrounding forest.

Looking proudly at his two squads, he then commanded the smaller squad of goblins to head out.