I rejoined the goblins in their village and got some rest. For the next while, I would stay in the area and spend some time scouting for suspicious movements. The node had grown a small sphere of stone in the middle of the hallway. In two weeks it would likely be too small for the orks to pass by. They could still dig through the stone, though. The day the tunnel was completely blocked off would be the earliest for me to leave the village.

I spent the time not scouting either resting or reading up on golems. The construction and control of the little mindless minions was a completely different craft than anything I had done with thaumaturgy before. Sure, the preparation of the materials used the common methods like the crucible or sometimes infusion crafting but getting them to actually do what one wanted seemed incredibly tedious. In some cases. There were two options that had been researched incredibly well and had multiple pages as to the advantages and disadvantages of their different applications. Guard duty and alchemical helpers.

The first was exactly what it sounded like. The thaumaturge in the village down below had been utilizing it a lot. Sadly, thaumaturges were not very social. That resulted in a lot of recommendations on how to make golems kill this or that threat but nothing on how to prevent them from killing your allies. Besides the creator and other golems made by them, they would simply attack anything trespassing on their patrolled ground. That could be solved, obviously. I had seen some higher-level golems during the ork’s Circle meeting. What made them special, though, was a different brain. Instead of pure magic running something akin to a simple computer, they used an actual brain infused with the essence of soul. It was not known if they held actual souls after their creation but was highly suspected to be the case. What kind of soul was much longer of a discussion and something I did not want to engage in at that point.

The other task that was extremely common was supplying alchemical assistance. That mostly boiled down to transporting distilled essentia from alembics to warded jars for further use. I read an entry about someone musing how a golem should be able to use a crucible but they had not been successful in their research. Or not combined it into the Thaumonomicon. I was still a little unsure how and where the entries came from.

In short, golems were useful but there was a lot less one could do without likely trapping souls in magically revived brains. I would stick to the simpler forms. They were more than enough for me. What brought me to research this deeply was an idea. Could I use golems to tend to the goblins’ fields or dig out new tunnels? Even if the goblins did not want this kind of help, I could surely use them for myself. Harvesting sounded simple. There were seals that could make a golem do that. I would need another one to pick up the dropped crops but that much was fine as well. What I could not find was some way to easily make them tend to growing plants or till fields. I quickly realized why. The lamp of growth was used to replace those needs. It supplied plants with herba essentia to make them grow no matter their surroundings. They only needed soft enough soil to burrow their roots into. And after the harvest, there would be a lot of waste plant material I could break down into herba essentia. I looked like a self-sustaining cycle. The only limit was potential flux.

For digging, it looked even worse. There was a way to make golems break material in a certain area but it was slow and small. I would be much faster just doing it myself. Looking for other options was much more successful. There was a construct called the arcane bore. It would use an excavation focus within some sort of lens to drastically extend its range. The tunnel formed would have a fixed radius and length by the end but it still seemed like an interesting concept. Sadly, the construction looked too difficult to even begin preparing down here in the village.

After a few days, Roguk left his hut again. He had finally finished his experiments. Apparently, my idea was solid. Any living being dissolved his concoction quickly after it came in contact with their body. If they were in contact with stone before that, however, things turned ugly really quickly. I took a look at the petrified spiders and mice on his shelves and shuddered. Some of them were only partially stone. Still, the blocked blood vessels had quickly sealed their fate. Larger organisms would not succumb as easily, of course, but it was still an extremely dangerous substance.

I found some time to talk to the alchemist about my ideas with Ira and Chef occasionally joining in. Other goblins also sat around but very few contributed to the discussions. A large part of that was likely because they could not hear me. Maybe I should develop some kind of magical speaker. It would make it much easier to reach multiple people. Or just learn [Telepathy]. According to Nymph, the Skill was not creating any additional flux if connected to more individuals. It was much more superficial than my supersensory matrix after all.

After a few days, we had a basic plan ready for expanding the village’s food supply. I would buy some pickaxes and figure out where to branch off with a cave for growing food. Then, the goblins would do the digging while I got a herba node and a lamp of growth ready. While the lamp needed essentia and not vis, the two were not that different. I just needed to make the node grow herba crystals around it and the goblins would have a steady supply of energy. The details were not quite settled down but I was confident in my ability to make it work. The crops we wanted to try were potatoes and wheat at first as well as some edible mushrooms. Roguk had his cave back for cultivating what he needed but nobody wanted to eat anything that grew there. Not even the alchemist himself.

I would still do some supply runs at the beginning while the goblins stabilized their economy. The things they needed early on would be difficult to get without my assistance. I also planned to look for a teacher to guide the goblins in their early metalwork. Mining, smelting ore, forging, smithing. Whatever they needed. It would be difficult to get someone over here but it was not needed anytime soon, simply a possibility for future expansion.

A week after I had cleaned up the thaumaturge’s house, I was once more scouting the valley for suspicious movement. The orks had been keeping to their town but I was sure they were plotting something. Sadly, nightly infiltration had not revealed any useful information. The reason for that was now revealed. Down the valley, just on the edge of my perception, I saw a horde of bodies move. They were green and huge and going directly towards the town.

I flew a little closer and scanned the orks more closely. They were equipped as if waging war. Armour, both leather and metal, covered every single body. Many arms and legs were showing bulging muscles and everyone had at least three weapons. I kept way out of the range of their archers and still, some noticed me. The army was led by a ragtag group of greenskins. There were the scouts that had left after the thaumaturge’s death, keeping the path clear of vermin and greenery. Behind them, two huge orks, at least two heads taller than everyone else. They flanked what I could only identify as a thaumaturge in his robes. Two golems followed his every step, thaumium judging from the distinct purple colour.

There was another, smaller ork a few steps behind the mage. He was clothed in a robe as well, this one a simple white of linen. He looked around frantically as if not entirely happy with his position. A muscular woman walked beside him, a hand always on her axe.

The thaumaturge was informed by a runner of my presence and soon engaged in a heated discussion with the local scouts. I took that as my cue to leave and found a spot on the mountainside to observe from a safe distance.

They took the rest of the day and half of the next to reach the village. I took the time to estimate the number of bodies they had brought to bear and came up with somewhere around 200 orks. About a third of that looked to be carriers of some kind either leading ox-pulled carriages or carrying huge backpacks with them. Of the rest, almost a third had a bow with them. These were constantly watching the surroundings, no doubt looking for me. The rest was all melee combatants with a dozen or so wearing the light equipment of scouts.

This was a problem. I was not confident enough in their stupidity to believe they would not find the tunnel with this number of bodies. Especially with everyone being a combatant, they were able to search without worrying about their personal safety as much. I had already informed the goblins. They were prepared and Roguk had told me about some ‘ingenious trap’ with a very sadistic grin on his face. I could do nothing in the tunnels but get in their way. All help I could provide would have to happen out here. In some corner of my mind, I hoped they were looking for me rather than a group of goblins. I felt that was unlikely. Still, I could surely be an annoyance.

The army spread out and started preparing a camp north of the town. It was not specially reinforced. They were not expecting a frontal assault after all. There were, however, bonfires all around the perimeter. They had built a double ring and three archers sat at every fire, one watching the outside, another their camp and the air. The last was resting.

The supplies were spread out as well. Someone had a basic tactical understanding. Every carrier was staying with a group of fighters. One of them was always awake. The thaumaturge had set up a tent in the centre. I could guess why he avoided his former colleague’s house. Still, the tent seemed like a less defensible position. It was definitely worth scouting for opportunities there. My biggest problem would be the two huge orks who also slipped inside along with the smaller one and the female warrior. It was unlikely that I could doge everyone’s senses without some really good preparation.

I kept scanning for other important targets. And then, I saw something I could use. The supply wagons had goblins on them. The smaller greenskins were pushed out unceremoniously and made to scour the wilderness. This opened a lot of options.