[Slimy Slime] Chapter 40: Kingdom building can be very boring and tedious. Thank god for Dungeons and Michael.

Chop.

Chop.

Chop.

“Timber!” I said, lifelessly.

Michael gave me another thumbs up, like he always did, a wide smile on his face.

I sighed.

Kingdom building. What a way to go! My days of… actually, how many days of peace had I had? Since day one, I’d felt stressed. No no, I must not forget the good times. Where I… yeah, no, they all kinda sucked. Wait, no! Stay positive! Away negative demons, away!

Honestly… I shouldn’t be complaining at all. My dream was finally coming true! I would truly get to become a king. But… sadly… no one said that process would be… exciting. First steps first, I had to clear this damn forest. That meant a fifteen mile radius of trees needed to be cleared… with just two people. Michael may be a [Lumberjack] but he wasn’t a very high level one. Still, he was going up levels fast and already he was cutting down trees he couldn’t wrap his arms around like they half their size. At this rate, he’d be a human weedwacker, except for trees, within a few months. I’d asked how fast really high [Lumberjack’s] cut down trees. Michael had laughed and told me.

“I was once told a story about a Silver [Lumberjack], level 150 plus. They said with one swing of his axe, he could fell a whole forest.” Michael said with a smile on his face.

Well, that was impressive. Even more than that was just how much Michael had changed since he had gotten started cutting down trees. He’d been almost overjoyed at the fact.  Almost too happy even. Apparently, it was considered the ‘smart move’ to wait over 22 years, to reach ‘Bronze’ Commoner. That way, you got [Sturdy Health] and were more resistance to diseases. I don’t know… that sounded like a really crappy ‘tradition’. You could’ve become a fighter at a young age and just… fight right? Or anything else. That way you could be well past Bronze in a class, right? Or hell, why not just grab and do a whole bunch of classes and keep switching? Order had explained but, well, I wasn’t going to be a human so I tuned a lot of it out…

Michael had been quick to answer me on that.

“It’s not that easy. Some of the requirements for grade rank ups… are very hard. But also, there’s an experience penalty. The way to get experience and how much it gives varies between the classes, but how much each takes doesn’t actually change. Except, it doubles for every class. So [Lumberjack] will take me ‘twice’ as much experience to get it to fifty. But… it’ll be a lot faster than [Commoner] because it’s active. Most people consider the second class they choose as the ‘base’ because of it. After all, everyone is born with [Commoner] and it takes 22 years to get it to Bronze.”

“An experience penalty huh. So… it takes 2x as long to get to 50 with, say, [Warrior] but if you then choose [Archer]...”

Michael nodded.

“4x.”

“Does it carry across grade up’s?”

“Yup. 8x for the next class, and so on. It’s faster just to advance the first class you choose. Well, usually. It doesn’t cost anything to change your class, but [Humans] can only do it once a day.”

That was strange… I frowned a little. Order and Knowledge hadn’t mentioned anything about this! This sounded like super important information to know! I had been worried about someone with thousands of stats when… well… actually if they lived long enough…

Alright, so I should still be worried, just not that every random person has thousands of stats. Just really old people. Damn it, monstrous stats, tons of classes, lots of skills, astra, why is this world biased towards old people so much?! Give the younger generation a chance! Dang freeloaders!

At least I have the [Crowned System]. It’ll let me play catch up a bit by ‘exceeding’ my natural stat limits.

Anyway, it was a good and enlightening conversation, but the work was never finished. Trees, trees, and more trees were cut and punched down. They were just fallen for now. I honestly… had absolutely no idea where or what we were going to do with a 15 mile radius worth of lumber but… at worst, I could have the dungeon eat it. It wouldn’t provide any mana sadly, but at least it’d be gone. Still… felt like a waste.

Eh, problems for later.

“How long do you think it’ll take to cut down all these damn trees?”

Our lives were on the line, so I’d stopped literally everything else to get rid of them. Sure, I could make a smaller fortress and base and that would mean less to protect and defend… but that’d be such a waste. My dungeon had a 15 mile radius of control! It may be vastly more expensive and harder to defend but it’d be easier to set it up now rather than later when we’re constantly under attack. Part of it, was, admittedly, probably vanity. But! The other half was strategy. It’s harder to attack a bigger area. Or was that defend? Not to mention, I might as well right? I’d need to get this done later and I already doing the utmost by pouring my mana into my dungeon and Krrrgg and the rest of the goblins would eventually stop their crusade and start pouring mana in again. Only after that, could I really start letting loose! No more wood, nope, only cold hard stone walls! Stone buildings! Stone towers! The next level in defense technologies!

But first this damn forest needed to submit!

“At this rate… weeks.” Michael said, answering my question.

“Weeks?!”

I don’t have weeks! Maybe. Probably. Guess I’ll really have to focus on a small base for now. No, wait. I stopped. This wasn’t efficient! I’d been helping Michael for the whole day but that’s not my role! I needed to be stronger, not clear area. Damn it, I felt stupid.

“It’s been good Michael, but I need to go get stronger.” I said simply.

Michael nodded and off I went. I didn’t regret helping or talking to Michael, but I did regret not thinking things through. I had been… a bit rattled at the idea of being attacked by so much and might have leapt without fully planning things through. Oh well. But now… now I needed stats. Then that damn wolf. Staying at fifty while under siege sounded terrible.

Still, the day wasn’t a whole loss, we’d moved around in a circular fashion so now the dungeon map had less fog in its area. I’d need to chart out all fifteen miles eventually but this gave it more room now.

I headed back to my courtyard… only to be met by absolute shock.

One day, one day I would come back and there’d be something normal happening. No surprise fifty goblins coming down the pipeline, no baby and random humans appearing out of thin air, no goblins learning a whole new language, no walls of dead wolves and goblins. I dreamt of that day. Yearned for it.

Especially now.

I gulped. I… knew Tier 2 was a “Big deal” for a lot of species. Hell, look at my own. But… I had, once again, underestimated Krrrgg… and how useful my day's task had already become. Standing in a clearing I had only made with Michael this morning, stood Krrrgg. She stood outside the wooden walls of my home. The reason, was simple.

They all wouldn’t fit.

Where once there was a few dozen goblins, they had… multiplied. So, so much. I… how many goblins was this?!

“Krrrgg.” I asked, fear in my voice. “How… many are there?”

All I could see was a sea of green. Green, with malicious eyes. Malicious and respectful. They stood behind Krrrgg like she was a demi-god to them. Krrrgg nodded, thinking for a bit. I get that she probably couldn’t tell me an exact number but even a general one would be helpful-

“526.”

I blinked. I blinked again.

“...What.”

“I have 526 goblins under my command.”

I felt my heart shrivel up and die. What, what, what? That… I know I could see what looked like an endless amount, enough to fill a football field but… but… but… but…

“How… do you even know that?!” I said, my voice raising as my fear spiked.

Krrrgg just shrugged.

So many… I’d definitely die if they attacked me. I’d have to fly or run away, for sure. I’d run out of mana, or stamina, or sleep before I ever killed them all.

And nearly 200x this number is going to be attacking me? Oh my god. I’m gonna be sick. I’m gonna die. I’m definitely going to die. So many.

“...Slimy Slime?” Krrrgg asked, looking worried.

I snapped out of it. Right! Now isn’t the time, there’s work to be done!

“Good job Krrrgg. I’ll have the homes made for everyone soon. Also, I’ll be moving you all to an area nearby. Come with me, there’s been some changes I’ll need to brief you on. Namely what a toilet and shower is and how you’re going to damn well teach every single goblin how to use them, daily, or I’m going to kick them out. That goblin over their shit in my courtyard! I knew he would!”

I pointed with my hand at him and the Goblin looked away in shame. Be lucky my [Dungeon Core] can destroy matter or I’d throw you a few miles into the air you bastard!

“Also, I guess, how goblin houses should be made, how many in each one, and man… there’s a lot.”

I turned back around, leading Krrrgg along. As we walked, I saw Sandra, who looked visibly shaken. I know Sandra, I know. We have such an evil army out there. I saw them too. But it’s neccesary! We must fight with fire!

“...so many.” Sandra muttered, shuddering. Truly, the fear of goblins has been thoroughly imprinted into us both already. She snapped out of it though, as she saw me and Krrrgg walk in.

“Ah, King Slime. Krrrgg. We’re going over the buildings now right?”

I nodded, about to sigh at the work we were going to probably spend two days working on, when Krrrgg spoke up.

“King Slime.” She said, in Common, eyes lighting up. “Good name.” She said, also in common.

Oi! When did you even have the time to learn more Common! I get it’s even called Common but… is it really that easy of a language to learn? I feel cheated.

The hours and days drifted away, but finally, I stood atop my wooden shitty cube. It had been five days since fifty goblins had been sent after us. And finally, I stood look over my Kingdom. And it… was honestly really shaping up. I may stand atop a shitty wooden cube, housing a courtyard and cave. But I looked out on an empty field… holding hundreds of houses.

We’d decided on what I was calling ‘Defense Extreme Prime’ or in other words, circles. This was the first circle. It would hold the villagers. Where people would actually live. I didn’t know if that would change in the future, but for now, well, I felt safer with my army close at hand. And there’d be many more circles, each one leading to different areas. Now that Michael had cleared enough space, and 526 Goblins had given me all of their mana for two days (war time taxes are harsh on us all), I could finally do this. I focused on the [Dungeon Core] and felt the mana coursing through it. Soon, where the clearing ended and trees began… something new emerged. All around me, in a massive circle, spawned a massive stone wall, a dozen feet tall. I couldn’t help but smile. The houses? Also stone. And with the extra left over? I focused and no longer was I standing on a shitty wooden cube. Now, I was standing on a shitty stone cube!

The first circle of Slimetopia… was complete!