It’s been a few days now since my confrontations with that pathetic swordsman. I hadn’t heard anything about him since then so I imagined that would be the end of that. With the advice of the Guild Master, I’ve made sure to take extra measures on managing the relations with my monster and human minions. I supervised their hunting exploits, making sure they focused more on cavern hunts and only strong monsters on the surface. Luckily for me they have been faithfully following through.

  Not only that but Damian has been hard at work, working diligently on a difficult quest every day. Thanks to all this, the rest of the adventurers have become more motivated and have taken up quests more often again. Hopefully this will be enough to get the Guild Master off my back. I even did a few quests myself; it’s been good practice for increasing my [Sword Mastery] and thanks to the quests I managed to have a savings of 20 [Silver Coins]. That should help in case I ever need some personal income on hand.

  As for my overall Stats, I decided to check on my current progress. It did felt like it’s been a while after all.

  According to this I should finally be able to rank up [Kobold Adaptability], hopefully I can give it an upgrade to increase the speed of progression. On the other end it seemed that [Material Forge] has slowed down instead. That’s probably because I was putting more focused on my sword practice, which would explain how [Sword Mastery] got a huge boost in growth. I’m happy with the results I see, but I shouldn’t let myself grow complacent now. It’s going to take a lot more power than this if I plan to take over his world. ~

  I should probably try to rank up [Material Forge] and figure out how I should upgrade it, I would need to consider what it was currently lacking since it’s my main source of how I fight. With that in mind, I would have to find a way to increase my [Spirit] so as to have more mana to utilize my skills. Though I’m still having trouble figuring out how to rank it up.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  Meanwhile, preparations for the town’s defense were nearing completion with changing the makeshift wooden walls I had built in a hurry to a wall with material that is a lot more stable, [Rock]. I’ve been having my fellow kobolds who didn’t wish to fight focused on mining and taking advantage of the renewable veins, mainly gathering [Rock], [Iron], and [Copper]. Dispensing it at the home base at the new storage building I had forged. Some of the goblins would then help distribute some of the material to my town. I’m hoping this will help further build the monster and human relationship I’m trying to build.

  It wouldn’t be long now till our defenses were finished. I just need to put in the last of the foundations with my skill, since I still haven’t mastered in making something intricate as it drains my mana too quickly. I would need to let my minions give the finishing touches instead.

  “Alright that should do it.” I announced as I set down the last of the wall’s foundations. I took a deep breath of relief, I nearly dropped to the ground feeling exhausted. With all the quests, managing the town, and helping with the wall construction so quickly, I barely had time to properly rest. I planned to return to my home building with plans to lay down in my bed, but as soon as I opened the door I was suddenly grabbed into a familiar fluffy hold.

  “VLADDDYYY, I missed you!!~~” The black bear was hugging me VERY tightly in his arms. Tears were welling in his eyes, and I could see he was also tired. I don’t think I’ll ever understand how someone this emotional could gain the moniker ‘The Quiet Black Beast’. There’s nothing quiet about this bear!

  I managed to free myself a little from his grip. I tried to ignore the fact that I was almost hugged to death by this Beastman. “That’s right, you have been doing quests non-stop. You must be tired.”

  He quietly nodded as he tried to wipe his tears, I could already tell I was going to be stuck in his embrace for the rest of the day. Though I decided to comfort him a bit, if only in the likely hood he would let me go sooner. “Well, the Guild Master seems satisfied by your performance as of now and the other adventurers are slowly working again. I even heard you might be promoted to A rank soon, so you could probably take it easy for now.”

  That seemed to calm him down a bit, and I could feel his grip on me soften so I changed the subject. “Construction on the walls is pretty much done on my end and I can leave it to the rest to finish it. With all that I think I can finally tackle the Mivtic Kingdom issue, you understand right?”

  My tone was serious, and Damian’s expression had returned to his familiar stoicism as he nodded in agreement and finally let me go. I stretched in relief as if I was finally safe from danger, even if I’m getting used to this doesn’t mean I like having little room to breathe. “I’ll need you to gather Mordred over to the town outskirts.”

  Understanding his assignment Damian left, meanwhile I went to gather all my fight capable monster minions and brought them to the outskirts. Some of them seemed a bit confused but the rest seemed to understand my possible intent. As for the humans, I simply called the town’s mayor and Guild Master. While our relations with my human minions are progressing, it’s still too soon to directly involve them with this right now.

  With everyone present, the Guild Master with his arms crossed, spoke first. “So lord Vladimir, was there something you wished to discuss with us?”

  Mordred right on cue began to argue with him. “Now listen here you don’t act li-” Before he suddenly stopped after feeling that same intense gaze I had felt the other day. Seems even someone as strong as Mordred can’t handle someone like him…. just who is this guy…

  Before things get any more awkward, I responded to his question. “It’s involving with the Mivtic Kingdom. I suspect they’ll be initiating their counter assault real soon.”

  Otis nodded in acknowledgement “I see, and how are you so sure they’ll be coming now?”

  “Call it a hunch, based on what his ex-soldiers had to say about their king, I would have suspected them to return with an attack sooner. The fact they haven’t means they’re gathering their forces for a larger assault.”

  The mayor started to panic, easy to understand why. “I-if that’s true what are we going to do?”

  I then began to laugh, which confused the humans. My monster minions on the other hand simply shook their heads or groaned in annoyance. They know me enough to understand what I was thinking at this point.

  “Veehahahahaha why it’s simple really. I’ll be planning to intercept their counterattack on their way here. I’ll gather my monster minions, and we’ll hit them before they can react. I was planning to take over their kingdom soon anyway so this would be more of an exercise for that.”

  The old man began to object “A-are you crazy lord Vladimir?! Our forces are just starting out and we’ve just recently been able to set up our defenses! What makes you think we could go against an entire kingdom’s army!?”

  “Oh, don’t worry I don’t plan to just barge right at the front gates and overpower them. After all, I want that army as intact as possible when I completely take over. No, I just need to focus on the most troubling obstacles they have to offer. And from what I hear from the humans that used to work there, the citizens would be more than happy to see their fat king overthrown. Veehahahahaha~”

  The mayor continued to voice his concerns “B-Bu-”

  But he was interrupted by one of my fellow kobolds, who was tugging at the old man’s pants to get his attention and began to whisper something to him. “Yeah… you should just give up…. When the chief gets like this, there’s nothing that would stop him at this point. Not only that but-”

  He then pointed towards Mordred, who had the familiar look of admiration in his eyes. He was pumping his fists in excitement over the news. “Oh inferno yes!! That’s my boss for you! I knew you weren’t going to settle with a single town!!”

  “O-ok then what about Damia-”

  Without giving him a moment to ask the kobold then pointed at the black bear, who seemed to be looking away from everyone while keeping his hands near his chest. If the old man’s a better listener he probably would have picked up on his whispers, which seemed to consist of “Adorable” and “So cute” …ignoring that…..

  It seemed that was enough to get the mayor to give up as he looked pitifully at the monster minions. “I see… I must say you all had such a difficult time with him…”

  To my surprise all my smaller minions collectively sighed and spoke. “Tell us about it…”

  I decided to ignore that as well and continued. “Don’t worry, I only plan to bring my monster minions and henchmen with me. You humans are still adjusting your life with us, so I imagine you’d like a bit of break from us.”

  “Th-that’s” The old man tried to deny.

  “Oh, but I will still leave behind the ones who wish to continue with distributions with the ores. Just a reminder, that I will still keep track on all my minions and will expect a report of events while I was away.”

  “U-understood…” The mayor responded in defeat.

  It was then the Guild Master spoke up, “Then I’ll make sure to inform the rest of the adventurers of this as well.”

  With everything said and done, it was time to head out and face the Mivtic Kingdom once more.~