Orkan and New Adventurers

As the light started to fade, it became obvious that Orkan had undergone a series of changes. First off was its height, as it appeared to have grown some forty centimeters, making it about two meters-ten tall. Should it be standing it would certainly tower over the other hobgoblins.

Its skin had also underwent a change, now trending towards a dark brown with cyan tribal markings on the arms and back. It looked as if these markings had sprouted from the four scars on its back where the bear had launched its wind blades.

Departing from the slender frame of the hobgoblins, Orkan was now much bulkier, having strong chiseled muscles. Somehow, he now reminded Elroy of the bear that he had killed.

As Orkan was still unconscious, he commanded the hobgoblins to set Orkan atop his warg as they would now be heading back to the dungeon. Returning to the dungeon, the surviving goblins had to slowly drag the bear along for it was too heavy to carry.

Finally arriving at the dungeon, Elroy proceeded to summon more goblins to replenish their numbers. The bear, having killed over half of the goblins making up the hunting party, had demonstrated an important fact to him.

'They are just too weak to be used as an effective combat force. Be it the bear or the adventurers, they just seem to be killed easily at every encounter so far. Granted, the adventurers said they were of silver rank, implying it was a high rank, but this still doesn't tell me anything about the strength of lower-ranked adventurers. If they still do not perform well against rookie adventurers, I guess their only use will be for labor.'

As Elroy pondered this, Orkan rose to consciousness. As he opened his eyes, they seemed to contain small cyan flames within the depths of his pupils. Rising up to his feet, the markings on his body seemed to let out a faint glow before Essence started to be drawn towards them. Concentrating he managed to gather it over his hands, much in the same way as the bear did.

Swiping at the wall, wind blades were launched, leaving scars on the stone walls. As it took up its saber, Elroy couldn't help but notice that the weapon was now somewhat small in its hands. From the way he could wave it around, as though it was weightless, it was unable to make use of his newfound strength. To replace it, Elroy wished to craft a new weapon, what he had in mind was a claymore. It was a two-handed sword, with a v-shaped cross guard. Being about a meter-sixty in length, it was indeed a hefty weapon. Along with the weapon, he also made a scabbard that would sit on the warg at its side.

Leaving Orkan to practice and get used to his stronger body and new weapon, Elroy then turned his attention to the progress the goblins had made as to the expansion. They had finished digging out the two rooms bordering the Core room as well as the tunnel going down into the mountain. At the end of it, they had dug out a new room, leaving a stone pedestal towards the back.

Somewhat nervously, Elroy made the hobgoblins carry the Core with caution, towards the pedestal. As they deposited it into the socket, which had been prepared for this purpose, the relocation of the Core had been completed and there now would be a buffer zone consisting of the first three rooms before any intruders could get sight of the Core.

As he turned his sight back to the previous Core room, he made the goblins take down the old pedestal before proceeding to order them to start to construct the smokehouse outside the dungeon, a small distance away. Looking for Orkan again, Elroy saw him in the process of skinning the dead bear, seemingly having appropriated its fur for himself. He ended up making some fur clothes, and padding to wear under his armor.

Seeing the goblins make swift progress with cobbling up a smokehouse with the leftover rocks from the expansion, Elroy also provided them with some axes to start stockpiling wood. Soon, they would be able to preserve food for long periods of time and he would not have to leave goblins fishing in the stream all day.

Feeling a pulse from Vakt, he went to check up on him. It turned out that he had spotted some elks hanging about the woods while he was watching over the pass. As he was going to shoot one down to eat, a white flash passed by, and the elk was gone.

Bewildered, Vakt looked around, trying to find it. After-all elks do not have a habit of randomly disappearing, right? However, he could only be left disappointed as he couldn't find any traces of it.

[…]

A week passed uneventfully, as the goblins continued to expand the dungeon. Even though the adventurers had surely made it to town, no rookies had yet made their way to the dungeon. Every few days, Vakt would see the ominous white flash take away another elk mysteriously. However, on this day, things would happen differently.

As Vakt was watching, an elk seemed to sense a threat and tried to dodge something. The white flash passed by, and deep lacerations were left on the side of the elk, blood starting to pour down. Having missed its attack, Vakt's gaze turned sharp as he could identify the being responsible. It was a large white eagle, sporting deep purple eyes resembling amethyst. As the eagle made another pass, it grabbed the elk with its powerful talons before lifting it away in the direction of the mountains, probably carrying it to its nest.

Elroy, having been notified of the presence of the beast by Vakt, was also watching it depart. Similarly to the bear they had killed a week prior, he could see the colored eyes of the eagle. The bear had been incredibly strong, knowing how to use Essence in an offensive way, however a flying creature such as the eagle would be a foe on an entirely different as they would not be able to keep their distance from it. Never minding the fact that he didn't know if it could also use Essence and to what effect.

As Elroy was still observing the eagle going into the distance, Vakt sent out another pulse. He had spotted a small group of adventurers making their way through the pass. Their group was composed of four people and Elroy could barely distinguish their equipment as they were still some distance away.

One looked to be a warrior, wearing some heavy metallic armor and possessing a sword and shield. Another seemed to be some type of swordsman, wearing some kind of leather armor intermixed with plate and wielding a bastard sword. Interestingly, the swordsman didn't have any kind of shield. Following closely behind were the last two adventurers, one equipped similarly to the silver-ranked rogue that had come on the first day Elroy had arrived. The last one was more peculiar, wearing robes and holding a staff which reminded him of mages and wizards.

Elroy instructed Vakt to follow the adventurers in order to be made aware of any problems should they arise. He also proceeded to recall any of his minions currently outside the dungeon, who were either gathering wood or foodstuffs.