Arthur went to the general location of his goblin's village without alerting any of the wandering guild members. He approached the general location where there was only another grove of trees before he felt the fluctuation of the mana around it. He teleported into the brick house before leaving it to meet his goblins.
"Kakan!"
As Arthur left the house, he saw Mero teaching a few young goblins how to fight. Mero's face was delighted when he saw Arthur's arrival. However, Arthur was taken aback by the giant two horns and fangs that accompanied the oval face now.
"Mero, you've evolved?" Arthur asked as he also noticed the difference in height from last time. Mero, wearing a smug expression, pounded his chest in affirmation. Seeing him like this, Arthur couldn't help but smile.
Arthur looked around the village and found that it had expanded more from the time he first used his Art. The rest of the goblins spotted him and kneeled in greeting before Arthur asked them to rise.
As he looked around, Arthur saw many new middle-mid-tiers. He had strengthened them before so many of them had evolved. There were a couple who didn't mainly because they weren't hunters. Three of them were the goblin smiths.
"Ka, Kakan." The three goblins bowed as Arthur summoned them. Without Arthur needing to ask, they took out a few weapons from their smithy and presented them in front of Arthur.
"Hm," Arthur picked one of the weapons and his eyes gleamed at how sharp it was. After he gave them the Compress rune, their skills started rising with the new method of purifying the metals from any foreign objects. Now, they were on par with some of the blacksmiths back in the city.
As Arthur tested the weapon, he found that its strength was on the low-mid-tier. Despite being useless to the current him, he could use them to supply the market with proper artifacts at an alarming rate.
"Bring all of them to my house, good job." Arthur smiled at them and the goblins were ecstatic as they started bowing down. Seeing them like this, Arthur had another idea in mind. He took out three cores from his subspace and gave the goblins the Detection-III rune.
"Use these to understand the structure of the weapon better, okay?" Arthur realized another use for detection. His latest version of the rune was able to provide a mental image of the terrain. If used on the weapons, the rune could give them a better image of their weapons.
"Kakan, Ka!" The goblins kowtowed to him with tears in their eyes before Arthur shooed them away. They then began transferring the weapons to the main house and Arthur gaped. There were at least fifty proper ones he could sell.
"Mero!" Arthur called out. The giant goblin that had more defined muscles now came running. "Bring me three non-combat goblins with good mana."
With a nod and a few shouts, three goblins stood in front of him trembling. Arthur smiled at them reassuringly and told them of his intentions.
"I'll be giving you an ability, use it plant these seeds. Choose a proper land to plant and report back as soon as the harvest is ready." Arthur handed them a bag of seeds he bought from Idris. He then took out three cores and gave the goblins the Vegetation-II rune.
After sending them away, Arthur looked around and saw the young goblins being trained to fight by Mero. A few goblins, the weaker ones, stayed behind to cook food. There were also a few elderly goblins that were supervising the construction of new houses using trees and whatever cover they can find.
Arthur walked toward the elderly who stood there with its back hunched. Seeing him coming over, the goblins stopped their work and bowed to Arthur.
"Bring me your best men, I'll reward them." Arthur waved his hand and looked at the elder goblin. The goblins pondered for a few moments before calling for a few goblins who were muscular.
"Well, how about choosing those with a good head?" Arthur scratched his nose when he saw how disappointed the goblins were. He wasn't looking for strong men, but ones who can build proper buildings. The elder goblin nodded and brought another two thin goblins and one of the muscular goblins from earlier.
Arthur nodded in satisfaction and gave them each the Telekinesis ability. After his rune had evolved, its range increased along with the weight it can control. The goblins looked on with confusion and Arthur demonstrated.
He flicked his hand and a tree's trunk rose in the air. He moved it around and placed it on top of another. The goblins gaped and hurriedly started using their abilities and screamed in joy.
"Kakan! Kakan!" They then began chanting as the group of workers bowed to Arthur in reverence. Arthur was used to it and asked them to do their bests until he brings them new abilities.
With these two out of the way, Arthur called for Mero again to bring him the young goblins. They were half of Arthur's height now and Arthur marveled at how fast they grow. It seems that unlike humans, goblins shared the similarity of being independent shortly after birth at the expense of their lesser intelligence.
Toward the young ones, who shared some similarities to elementary school kids, Arthur was especially protective. These were the ones that had the most potential to grow rapidly.
There were five kids in total now. They would the first generation to be stronger than the others as they mature. In the future, they would be the backbone of their fighting force. Arthur called out to them to strengthen them further and give them abilities.
He gave all of the five a fire rune, a protection rune, and a stealth rune. With this, they should be the most likely to survive and awaken their unique traits. As he saw the goblins cry in excitement as they played with fire, Arthur decided to lecture them.
"Listen now, little goblins," Arthur said in a grave voice and the five of them looked at him with round eyes. "Humans aren't your friends, but never attack them unless they attack you. Help the other goblins with your abilities. If you abuse your power, I'll punish you."
His words made the goblins start shaking and Arthur felt a little bad, but he didn't know how to install such morals in these little monsters. Despite having an intelligence higher than other monsters, they were still barbaric.
The goblins, with the bond he had with them as a connection, understood his threat and nodded seriously. Arthur then asked Mero to take them out hunting personally when the chance arises.
Despite the mountain range being dangerous right now, their spot was far away from all the hustle. Furthermore, the genuine artifact Mero kept using to hide the village managed to deter any strong animals or humans. Unless someone knew of this location, there was a very low chance they would venture here.
As he watched the little goblins resume their training, Arthur thought about something. There was something he couldn't do yet with his current ability.
For example, there was the Reinforce rune. If he used a temporary rune, he would reinforce an object or himself by 15%. This rune had a lot of mana expenditure compared to the rest, which was one-time runes like teleport. However, the rune would disappear after half an hour or less.
If he used a permanent rune of Reinforce, he could reinforce the object indefinitely. This was also the case with Strength, Agility, and Stamina. However, there was a certain limitation that he can't overcome right now. What if he wanted to give the Reinforce as an ability to someone else?
He had no idea how to.
As he was thinking, Arthur realized something bizarre. He had experimented on his active runes before and understood the principle behind their reality gate. However, did runes such as Strength and Reinforce also have a reality gate?
These runes altered the structure of the preexisting world, they didn't give birth to new types of mana like the fire rune or allowed to cut across space like the teleport rune. They changed the structure of the body and allowed it to draw potential from within itself. They were, to a lesser degree, evolving runes.
Arthur would have to research this when he gets back. If he can give his goblins the ability to reinforce themselves, they would gain another advantage. However, his main interest in this was the existence of something different about the gates of these runes.
For his stealth rune, his mana would change and envelope his body. It would then decrease his presence and block and information from leaking out. For teleport, the gate would act as a portal that would transfer his body to a different place.
All of these meant one thing, that there were different kinds of gates. This had to do with the runes themselves. If Arthur can research all of them, he'd have a larger arsenal of runes' uses to deploy against his enemies.