Jeffrey watched with trepidation as the bulky woman stepped inside his Tower. She was unarmed but he had no doubt that she could take on any monster he threw at her with just her fists. They're bigger than his core!

<Oh, oh, Rupert, she's interacting with my Gobs!>

{So it seems, sir.}

He pressed his face against his screen, staring intently as she approached a Baker Gob he dubbed Baiter. If things had gone according to plan, adventurers would be lured toward the first trap when they saw the bloated Gob glaring at them from the corner of the shop. He found out while perusing through the Tower Shop that he could buy skills for his mobs and had immediately purchased [Withering Gaze], a skill that would provoke a creature into attacking you, regardless of what they had been doing before.

It had less of an effect on sapients, but it should work nonetheless. And while they were distracted going for Baiter, they would fall into the cleverly placed trap a few feet in front of the counter and break a few bones if he was lucky. He had made sure to widen the trap enough so that it would catch more than one person. The system wouldn't let him stretch the pitfall further than three feet from its original size, though, but he made it work.

Unfortunately, all that planning had gone to waste when his doofus of a Manager told him to get rid of all the traps. He cursed himself for bringing up the poison, but he hadn't thought Kevin would be that much of an idiot.

That shows me for overestimating his intelligence, Jeffrey sighed, watching somberly as the strange woman walked harmlessly over the floor to Baiter.

The woman tilted her head as she stared at the Gob and, though he couldn't hear her, he assumed she was speaking to him from the way Baiter cocked his head in confusion. The upgraded intelligence he had given to his Gobs must not include comprehending fluent speakers. Or he just hadn't given them the ability to understand the local language.

<Makes sense,> he muttered, zooming in on the Human woman. After a failed attempt at reading her lips―he had never been skilled at doing so in the first place―he called for Rupert. <Come on,> he complained, <where's that cheat where the locals of the new world speak the exact same language as me?>

{I am afraid no such cheat exists, sir,} the AI replied in a sympathetic sounding voice. {However, should your Manager purchase a Language Comprehension guide, the skill will apply to you as well.}

<Convenient. Does that mean any other skills he takes up, I'll get them, too?>

{Unfortunately, no. The rule only applies to certain mental skills, typically regarding Language Comprehension guides.>

Jeffrey sighed. <Great. Can I get some audio on this? I wanna know what's happening.>

{One moment sir...Audio has been locked, it seems. It is inaccessible to the Core Feed. You'll need permission from-}

<Yeah, yeah, I get it,> he said through gritted teeth, clicking around until the storage room in the back of the Tower filled his screen. He groaned at the sight of his Manager fooling around with his collectors. He moved onto the One-Stop-Shop area and groaned louder. <No wonder production has slowed to a crawl! The One-Stop-Shops aren't doing anything!>

A notification popped up in the corner of the screen with a loud blaring noise. Frowning, Jeffrey clicked on it.

{Attention, sir!} Ruper's voice filled his ears. {The level 24 Medic has entered combat with Baiter, a level 1 goblin mob!}

<Level 24?> he screeched, snapping over to the screen. Baiter was being pummeled into the ground by the monstrous Medic, her brick-sized fists battering the fat Gob's body. His poor Gob could do nothing but weakly claw at her clothes, but his attacks barely did anything. He watched, utterly terrified, as the Medic punched Baiter one more time before the Gob disappeared in a cloud of white smoke.

The Medic waved away the smoke and reached down to pick up the loot bag. The drop wasn't much; Jeffrey only had enough points to assign crappy baking items. But he didn't like the thoughtful she examined the whisk, tapping the tool against the bloodied floor. She smiled as she finished whatever examination she'd conducted and moved stand.

Hurriedly, he ordered four more Baker Gobs to come from the kitchen and deal with her. There was no way she wouldn't be able to reach the Core with her strength if he just let her be!

His mobs heeded his commands and charged into the shop, holding various items they'd picked up in their deformed hands. He was just glad one of them had thought to bring a knife.

That settled, he quickly contacted his Manager to tell him the current situation. <Kevin!> he yelled, startling the starry-eyed young man out of his cot. <We have incoming! There's a level 24 Medic in the front wrecking my Gobs!>

Kevin grunted, gently pushing one of the transformed Baker Gobs away from his legs. "So? It's just a Medic. How bad could it be?"

<She's absolutely ripped, man!>  Jeffrey cried. <She-she's like some sort of bodybuilder or something!>

"Well, what you do want me to do?" the Manager complained, shifting on the cot to allow a Gob better access to his nether regions.

<Stop whatever this is and protect your Tower like a good Manager is supposed to do!>

Kevin waved a hand. "I'm only a crafter, man. And you're the Core; aren't Cores supposed to be, like, battle geniuses or something?"

<That's not->

"And besides," he continued, "this is a bakery and stuff. Just get the Medic to stop killin' stuff and sell her some cakes or something."

Jeffrey stared at the Tower Manager. So occupied was he with his 'goblin babes' that he didn't even notice the death aura ever so slowly creeping into the room toward his cot.

The man in the core took a deep, steadying breath. <Raymond,> he murmured, <prepare the Task Master. We have a Medic to stop and a shop to run.>

The Gob who'd been standing idly on the roof next to him bowed deeply and rushed down the ladder.