Well, I stone shape four times as fast now, and my stats are looking pretty good, I mean pared to when I was an imp at least. After I eat, I rey stats in my records, and go to use a bucket of water to get a det look at myself. I might have gotten a little rger, and it seems like my forearms are a little thicker, but other than that, I don't notiy ges. I feel like when I was an imp I had bigger ges when I prestiged, but maybe that was only ier stages, it's hard to recall exactly how I looked as an unon and rare imp, especially since I didn't have any reflective surfaces to look at myself back then.
With all my record keeping taken care of, it's time to show Zeb how I the ashes from the fire for disposal. That'll be his task for the day while I get used to using the Improved Stone Shaping on my house. I'll have to reward Zeb's hard work with more English lessons soon though. I feel bad having him work away from me, sidering the situation.
Over the eight days, I did end up ing up with a good work pattern so that Zeb could work near me. I ended up w on two projects at once as part of this. First, I needed more stone for strug the front of the house at the cave entrand the roof features. So I decided to start digging out both the room that I'd like to use for crystal ste iure, and a e area closer to the cave entranbsp; I went a little further down from where I normally charge the crystals to build the crystal ste room. Then just off the stairwell, I started cutting sto of the wall. Then I had Zeb haul the stone up to the cave entranbsp; I would make a trip up with Zeb many times because I cut blocks out so much faster than they could be carried. When that room lenty rge for st crystal trays, we moved on to the ste area closer to the entrance.
All of this gave Zeb plenty of time to work on learning English. Tonight, however, I notice that we're already getting low on imp meat. I pletely fot that I have to get my own food again. I got pretty used to the goblins providing for me in the vilge, and with two of us up here, the imp meat only goes so far. I guess tomorrow I'll be taking Zeb on a trek to get spuds and lion roots. Then I show him how I store and cook them. I think, if we keep the pace of work up that we've been going at, the entryway house will be done by the time Zaka returns.
It's been awenty days. Later today is when Zaka and a few oblins should arrive. I'm excited to show them not only the ryway house, which is quite rge, but I also carved out small living quarters for the goblins that visit. The area in front of the cave has been remodeled as well. I'll have Zeb help me give them a grand tour when they arrive. Zeb hasn't been ed either. For now Zeb's staying in my old living quarters down in the cave, but we've started carving out a pce right o mine in the mountain face for Zeb to stay in.
Around half-way through the day, as Zeb and I are w on his house, we hear a booming voice suddenly from outside. I'm caught off guard, and am temporarily stunned by the sound. Zeb however, cautiously looks outside, then looks bae and says, "Zaka is babsp; He looks different he says."
Zeb and I leave the area we're w in, and ihe new clearing of trees are three goblins... and one much rger, and more muscur, red skinned goblin.
Zeb points to the red skinned goblin and says, "That's Zaka."
I mean, if he did say he looks different, then yes, it's obvious that one is Zaka. The other ones all still look like goblins. I 't know for certain, but I'm presuming that Zaka turned into a hobgoblin. With his tall posture, he stands a little taller than I do now, and holy is a little intimidating. I was going to give them a tour, but it seems like they want to rest first, and give us updates on the goblin vilge, so I ihem into my new house through the main door.
Inside, I've divided the house into three rooms, with the entry hall being the rgest, taking up half the house. The room is a about 25 feet wide and 15 feet long, with a 12 foot ceiling. From one side of the room to about the halfoint, I've made a long table with 10 chairs around it. On wall opposite sits a rge firepce, which currently doesn't have a fire in it. In a er is a makeshift kit area, ahe entryway is a rack I made for people to store any tools they might be carrying.
I let Zaka and the goblins know they store their spears on the rack, and then show them to the table to sit, as Zaka begins giving us an update of happenings in the goblin vilge. He periodically pauses so Zeb transte for me, which is siderate of him.
The gist of the situation is that they lost anoblin to a lizard attabsp; This time it was one of the woodcutters who was attacked after they felled a tree. When oblio go look for their missing rade, they found the lizard he felled tree, and his body was o be found, but there was enough blood to indicate that he robably killed. The palisade project is going well overall though, and they'll be finishing one of the four sides pretty soon. Almost all the goblins have prestiged at least onow, and quite a ferestiged a sed time. Zaka himself finally attained evolution as well, and says he ow summon an imp without using a crystal, but recharging his mana will be much faster with them.
In two more eclipse cycles, Zaka will return t us back to the vilge before the snowfall, that is, as long as many moblins don't die before then. He says wheurime though, he pns on summoning imps again before returning, and I decide not to object.
After he finishes his update, I start a fire in the firepce, and start cooking. I imagihe goblins will be hungry. I know they may not want aables, but it's all we've ght now, so they'll have to live with boiled lion root and mashed spud. I've gotten more of the sweet rock flower, and used it to at least add some fvor to the food, which the goblio enjoy more tha time I fed them pnts.
After everyone has eaten, I decide to lead them on the grand tour of the new and improved cave entrance, of which they've already seeside area, but I want to show it off to them anyway.
The front area has been cleared of the nearby trees, and although there are still some stumps around, some have been removed closer to the house. I've id down sidewalks and made some terraces along the slope, with stairs between them. This way, roperly farm the spuds. I've already transpnted some spud pnts into one of the terrace fields, to see how well they grow as well. How did I aplish this so fast you might wonder? Well, look no further than a little further down the mountaio see a pile of rubble. I basically dug the dirt into a pile, then cut ks out of the mountain and tossed them down the slope to a nearby nding, theributed the dirt. This area was quite rushed, as by this time, I only had a few days left until uests arrived. The two terrace fields are ealy 20 feet by 10 feet, and the rise on the back side is between three and five feet.
Returning to the cave entrance, I decide not to show them the pce where Zeb's house will be, si's under stru, but I will show them the other additions. First, there is a door leading to a hallway alongside my house which goes back to the old wall in the back of the cave entranbsp; This way they go to and from the cave without going through the house. The hallway is about thirty feet long, on the right side of the hallway, there is one door, which leads to my workshop area in my house. On the left there are five doors spaced evenly from each other along the way to the babsp; Behind each of the left doors is a small 8 foot by 5 foot room with a bed in it. It's not much, but I figured the goblins might appreciate it, sihey normally all stay in their own huts in their vilge.
The workshop area of my house is a 15 feet by 10 foot room, with shelves, a desk, buckets and bins, and some tools scattered about. There are two doors in here, one leads to the entry hall area, and the other to my bedroom. The bedroom is actually pretty bare right now, with just a bed, since I was busy building everything else.
Once you go back through the door into the cave, there is another door in the wall of the cave not far away. Inside is currently just a rge empty space with support pilrs, and a lot of loose wood. I pn on making shelves aending it as needed, but for now, this is the new main ste area. Again, I was short on time to plete all the details of this area.
The st thing to show them is further down. I did plete this project, because it not only helped me, but I figured it would help Zaka as well. A little bit before we make it to the main cavern, I stop the goblins at a door in the wall. This door has a bit of a log meism, and by that, I mean it just has a handle which be rotated to raise or loiece of wood into a t the backside. I have a feeling I'll o repce the rotating meism frequently, because it runs on stone bearings, but if it gets jammed at any point, I always just cut directly into the room if I o.
Ihe room, I've got lots of shelves with all my trays of crystals. With Zeb's help, I expin how to use the crystal and tray system, and have Zaka work through it oo make sure he uands. I don't miing him use it while he's here, but I already have to up the imps when he's done, I don't want to be trying to re-sort crystal trays, or worse, remake trays from scratch, because he didn't use it correctly.
With all the tour ended, I have Zeb go back up with the goblins, while I head down into the cave to seal off the two sub-caves before tomorrow. When I return to the house, Zaka and the goblins are all rexing around the firep the entrance hall, so I join them for a while before we all turn in for the night.