Van woke up and left the pile of bodies in his wake. Gwen and the two other harpies, Isa and the three other hobgoblins, and finally, Anna and Luna who had joined in later. It was a lot more work than he was expecting, but it was doable and he did it. More importantly, he didn’t have to do it again for quite some time, ordering the girls to start producing eggs when they were ready and to only come back to him when they ran out.

Taking a breath of fresh air, a green fairy smacked right into his face.

“Ow!” then shaking the pain off and taking a closer look at what hit him. “Amie? You really should look where you're going,” he said.

Amie rubbed her head. “Sorry about that, but I finally got the blood we need to start making more insect-kin!” she said excitedly, pulling out a vial of blood from her soul realm.

Van was impressed with how quickly she was able to get it, he only sent her off yesterday to get in touch with Lyn and ask about getting some of her blood for the evolutions.

“Did she say anything?” he asked, hoping that he would learn a bit more of what was going on in the forest.

Amie seemed to deflate a little. “Sorry, she’s keeping things close to her chest, probably because she doesn’t want to worry you. But don’t worry, she’s Lyn! She can take care of herself.” she said proudly. Having full trust in her.

It was at times like these, Van was reminded that Amie was Lyn’s lover, he still wasn’t too sure how he felt about that, but he was okay with it so far. More importantly, he had no choice but to trust what she said about Lyn, and hope alongside her that everything would turn out for the better.

Vial in hand, he figured the best time to start was now and asked Amie to go into his soul realm and bring out a few greater zappers she thought had potential. Planning to make as many insect-kin as possible with the free time available.

Doing just that, she came back fifteen minutes later with about a few dozen zappers in tow. To which Van then narrowed down to only about seven zappers that we're able to evolve out of the group.

Now with Gwen awake and next to him in front of the magic circle, the two spent the next two hours turning the bugs into proper insect-kin. When that was done, Amie gave her thanks and took off with them to deliver them to Lyn. with the promise that she would return with a few more zapper when she came back.

With that out of the way, Van relaxed a bit and ate some food, trying to figure out what he was going to do with the rest of his day. Looking around, he surveyed the area and took into account how much the makeshift fort had progressed in almost a week. The only thing that was really holding them back, was proper tools and equipment. And for that, they needed metal.

It had also occurred to him that they needed someone with proper logistical skills. Kella was doing fine, but she was no Amie, who seemed to be able to poof up resources given enough time. Isa was learning well under Kella’s wing, but it still wasn’t enough, especially if he was planning to grow his goblins number.

His plan was to at least have about a hundred and twenty goblins and about twenty to thirty harpies. A decent number that he could easily manage, or at least he felt that he could handle realistically and be an effective fighting force.

He then put such thoughts behind him and then got to work thinking of ways of fixing their mental problem. Going to his magic circle and letting his thoughts run wild with possibilities.

He knew that he could derive metals from rocks. Put some of them in the center of the circle and use alchemy to separate the iron content out of it. But the amount of metal he would get out of that would be minuscule for the amount of mana he had to pour into the process. So he either had to figure out a more cost-effective method or find rocks with high metal content in them already.

And honestly, that was a no-brainer to figure out. He had to find rocks with higher metal content, it would just be easier on everyone.

With that in mind, he gathered Kella, and a group of about ten goblins and told them to follow him to the steep hillside in the distance, to see if they couldn’t find the cave he saw last time he was here. Giving them about half an hour to pack everything they would probably need such as mining equipment, water, torches, and a few other tools to test the rock for minerals.

He had to order Isa behind even though she wanted to go because someone had to keep things in order while he was away. He did the same to Gwen, telling her to help with building up the fort with her newfound magic power. As a form of test and practice for her.

As Van was getting to leave, he was interrupted by Luna.

“So… you're going to find the cave?” she asked, looking for some reason uncertain.

“That’s the plan if we can find it, and if it has some rocks with decent metal content, It would be a huge boon for us and the expansion of our fort and forces,” Van said in reply, going over the last of the things he was planning to bring with him.

“Is… it possible that I can come with you?” She asked, looking a little nervous.

Van blinked and gave her his full attention. He was somewhat surprised. Since coming out here, Luna had been very timid and unsure, perhaps he would even dare say, scared. A great contrast to how she acted before. But also something he never dared point out, out of love for her.

A part of him wanted to turn her down, out of fear of what could happen. But another part of him thought he should bring her with him because this was the first time in a while she actually wanted to do something since they came here. Not to mention if he was in her shoes, scared or not, he would probably be on the fence of whether to go or to stay, but still would want to go, out of love and fear of what could happen to her.

She probably was starting to feel lonely, and not very useful, and now her husband was going to explore a dark and possibly dangerous cave. She probably wanted to do something productive and keep an eye on Van's safety.

“Well… if you want to come, you can come. I won't stop you, but It will have to be your own decision.” he said, leaving the option of coming with or staying in Luna’s hands.

Luna gave it a moment, her brow creasing, then it seemed she quickly made up her mind and for the first time in a while, Van saw that old determination back in her eyes. “I’m coming with you,” she said resolutely. “What kind of wife would I be if I just let my husband go into unknown danger.” she thought with determination.

Van nodded, “well if you're coming, we're leaving in ten minutes, make sure to pack everything you're planning to bring with you, I’ll be waiting near the entrance with everyone else.” he said, then did just that and went to walk over and wait for Luna to get ready.

After ten minutes, Luna came back wearing strange black and white silk armor dress, a dagger on her thigh, and a bow on her back with a quiver of arrows. The armor looked very easy to move around in and was filled with small runic inscriptions. It must have been worth a small fortune and from a glance, it held many runes for defense and barrier plus mobility and more. It hugged her body in pleasing ways and flowed with her movement.

The bow was black and inlaid with gold with almost just as many runes on it as the clothing Luna now wore. The dagger was silver and long, glowing with its own enchantments. The silk armor hugged her breasts but were not able to stop it from showing some cleavage. It had high slits all the way up to her waist on both sides, and Luna wore white stockings up to her thighs.

Van was very impressed by the entire setup and design and wondered where she got all the things she was wearing.

“You look… amazing! Where did you get such equipment? Did Thea or Dad give it to you?” he asked, amazed by the intricate patterns on her new things.

Luna blushed a little at him eyeing her up and down and said. “It was a gift from mom, before she sent me out, she gave it to me. Said it was only a fraction of the amount of loot she gathered from her adventures and that it would be useful to me.”

“Damn, why didn’t I think about asking dad if he had any loot with runes on them? Me and Lorenzo could have had a field day picking that stuff apart… actually… Why didn’t Lorenzo bring out his own runic loot? Did he just forget…?” he thought about that for a bit and nodded to himself. “Ya… he probably forgot… it would be just like him after all.”

“Well, you look more than ready now.” Van then gave Luna a beaming smile. “And with you by my side, we can take on whatever a dingy cave has to throw at us.” continuing to put on the charms and went to her and held her hand. “First the cave, then the world,” he said gently pulling her along and watching how more confident Luna looked as he planned.

The two walked over to the small group of goblins that were now ready, he also during the time waiting for Luna asked two regular hobgoblins to join the group. This made his group a group of seventeen, with him, Luna, Kella, and the two Annas, plus the rest of the group of goblinoids. A fairly large group if he had to say so himself, but he wasn’t going to take chances and he wanted someone to carry the sample rocks he was planning to mine in the cave to test if it was worth getting into later and setting up a mining operation.

Making sure to leave a bunch of Annas behind to help Isa with controlling everything while leaving two in reserve for him. The group then started making their way towards the steep hillside in the hopes of finding the cave. It did not take them long to reach it, just a little over an hour at the pace they were going, which was admittedly a quick one, especially for the goblins that were so much shorter than everyone else. Once they arrived at the hillside they had to stop for a few minutes to rest up the goblins and let them recover before continuing on.

What did take them a while was looking for the cave that Van remembered being around the area. They were looking for about two or so hours, going up and down and sometimes up in the hopes of finding the cave until they finally came upon it.

It made some sense as to why they had a bit of a hard time finding such an entrance, it was very narrow with many rocks that jutted out just so as to camouflage it in a way that one could pass right across it and not be aware they had. They then had to move at most by twos until they moved along enough into a far larger cavern.

Everyone paused to take in the sight, it was truly an amazing thing to behold. The glowing lichen and fungus that grew over the place, alongside some luminous stone and crystals, helped brighten the place up without the need for a torch or magic light.

A small stream seemed to be flowing towards the side and the ceiling looked like a bright night sky if a bright night sky had many sharp stalactites looming right above your head. There were also some stalagmites on the ground, with shiny rocks embedded in them and the walls of the cavern.

After their moment of silence and enjoying the scenery they began to move forward. Van made sure to do a proper job of throwing his awareness around to check for hidden dangers. He ordered five goblins and one hob in front and the same for the back so that he and Luna were surrounded properly, with Kella taking front and the Annas close behind. He wanted to make sure nothing bad happened, he didn’t want to make any rookie mistakes.

Like this, they went for about twenty minutes until the cavern opened up even further into a large dome-like structure. With the stream leading into a small lake with fish and more glowing plants and rocks. It was almost as if there was a complete ecosystem inside this cave, but considering how magical the world was, it really shouldn’t be surprising. Who knows after all, what one could find in deeper and larger caves and caverns?

Ordering the group to spread out a bit, he then started using his magic on a nearby stalagmite to test it for its iron content. Only to be a little disappointed, it wasn’t much, but it wasn’t a little either. But he really tested the stalagmite to get more of an idea of the potential iron content of the rest of the cave anyway, so he wasn’t completely deterred by the lack of iron.

Moving over to a wall, he then pressed his hand on the cool and somewhat moist rock and concentrated, spreading his awareness into it and searching for what he desired. Only to come back disappointed again.

There was a decent amount of iron in the cave, but all of it was spread out and thin, none of it clumped up or easily minable. With a sigh, he let go of the wall and shook his head.

“Something wrong?” Luna asked, worried as to what got her husband so down. She was shaky but putting on a brave front in front of her husband for his sake, but his look of frustration and worry got her concerned now for a different reason.

“It's nothing, just… It seems like this cave isn’t very good for mining, we may either have to go in deeper or give up on using this as a mining outpost. Which could be a problem for us because we really need the iron if we want to give our goblins and harpies proper weaponry and armor.” He said, a little frustrated. He had so much hope for the cave, believing it would be an adventure where the loot would arrive at the end. But it didn’t seem to play out that way.

“I’m not surprised,” Kella said, walking over to them. “If there was a convenient iron deposit out here, your father would have at least tried to set up a mining outpost. Most nobles make sure to have a professional do a geological search of their territory every few decades to see if there's anything worth mining, chopping, fishing, hunting, or growing in their territory so that they could profit off it.”

“If there was something worth mining here, we would have at least tried to mine it, if it was worth the cost. Which includes the cost of workers, equipment, logistics of mining out in the middle of a forest and shipping that ore, and the fee that the guilds that operate in this area might add for potentially disturbing the environment of their hunting grounds. Plus mining in the area could kill a few very rare herbs and plants that could be worth more than the mining operation. All this and more or put into consideration when someone wants to do something that could affect their land in any meaningful or impactful way.” she said, conveying the importance of all the thought that goes into such decision making.

“Well… jeez, I wished you had told me that earlier, at least then I wouldn’t have gotten my hopes up.” Van thought with the barest hint of a glower.

But he quickly pushed any of such an expression on his face, after all, Kella was just doing her job. So instead he sighed and said. “Let’s keep looking around. Maybe we will find something else that will be worth coming here for? Or maybe we will be lucky and find at least some iron to take back with us.”

“Do you have any other ideas of where we can get iron from should this little expedition fail?” he asked Kella maybe a bit too pointedly, putting her on the spot.

“Well… you were talking about looking for ironwood trees. Perhaps you could get iron from that using your magic?” she said.

Van had been thinking about using ironwood to help build up their fort and perhaps use it in making weapons and more. But ironwood actually did not contain a lot of iron, instead, it was the shape and the way it was grown that made it a very firm and hardwood. It would honestly be a waste to try to extract whatever iron content was in the wood, not even counting the fact that ironwood was so rare and usually people went to alchemists to make ironwood, not break them down.

“That wouldn’t work…” he said with a sigh, “let's just look around.” he continued in a somewhat defeated tone. “Perhaps we will be lucky.”

With that the group spread out even further, everyone going their own way with the occasional goblin bringing him a rock or two in hopes that it would be worth something. He would usually send them off again with a small word of thanks and watch them run happily back in the hopes of finding more shiny rocks to give him. Reminding him more of kids than actual adult soldiers that would die for him. It was actually kinda cute… if not a bit morbid...

Luna and Van stuck together as they walked around, now they were more enjoying the tour than actually looking for things. Van realized that even if there was not a lot of iron here, the place was full of its own treasures that he could make use of. Already he had filled his soul realm with a bunch of unique rocks, fungi, and plants that seemed to be found only in this cave.

Little did they know, how everything would come all crashing down in a few more minutes and that they would be fighting and running for their life.