“Alright Jaba, that was a good question, but this is what we’ll do. Every single Goblin child born will undergo combat training for their level, along with education in basically whatever we know. So, like skinning and making spears for now I guess.

  “We will need to dedicate an area within the cave for this specifically, and we’ll call it the Junior Goblin Training Grounds. That's probably a mouthful, so just training grounds will also work.

  “The young Goblins will stay for their training for however many weeks it takes for them to mature enough to be assigned to either the Geedi, Dal, or Tars squad.

  “For the entire time the children are in the training grounds, their well-being will be the responsibility of the two squads who stay home during hunting trips.

  “It is up to those two squad captains to make sure the young Goblins are receiving the education needed, because normal Goblins can’t communicate with each other.

  “That responsibility will rotate as the squads switch for daily hunting trips.

  “The only factor that might currently cause a problem for the training grounds right now is if the young Goblins need to be breastfed.

  “Don’t worry about it too much for now, but it’s important to remember if the female Goblins who give birth start producing any liquid from their chest area then they need to give that liquid to the baby Goblin.

  “Oh, by the way, the female Goblin who gives birth to the young Goblins are the mothers of those Goblins, while the male Goblin who released that white liquid into the female is the father.

  “Any more questions?”

  “Ye...ss..can...a...gob..lin..have...a...lot..of...fath..ers...and...mo...thers?”

  “Good question Dal, but no. A Goblin can only have one mother and one father. It might be hard to figure out who the father is, but there is no doubt who the mother is since she will be the one to give birth.

  “Any other questions? Ask anything you can think of.”

  “Other...ways...to...grow...Tribe.”

  “Oh shit, Tars, you do speak! You speak a lot more clearly than the others too. That’s interesting. To answer your question, which is a really good one by the way, is we find other Goblin Tribes.

  “We will need to go search the surrounding lands far and wide till we find other Goblins. This can be very dangerous because who knows if other Goblin Tribes or even stray solo Goblins will be friendly towards us.

  “Those other Goblin Tribes could be far bigger and stronger than us, meaning they’d have the power to either kill us all or force us to join under them.

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  “So, I will be the one recruiting other Goblins... I know how much work it requires to reach Tier Two like myself and Jaba, so it should be rare to come across one or more of them or even a stronger one in a world where Goblins are at the bottom of the food chain.

  “Even though that’s the case, I still want to be safe since it’d be easier for me to escape a dangerous situation than it’d be for you.

  “Don’t worry though. I won’t start doing missions like that till I’m confident in you all being able to survive in the forests while protecting your squads on hunting trips on your own without any help from me or Jaba. Well, we might already be at that point after the performance I saw when the Golems came.

  “Any other questions? You haven’t asked anything yet, Geedi. Nothing to add?”

  “Thin...king.”

  “Okay then.”

  [It is now 1200.]

  ‘Hmm, we’ve been talking for a while already, but I wonder what Geedi could possibly be thinking about. I hope it’s not anything weird.’

  “Leader, I have a request instead of a question,” Jaba said pensively.

  “What is it?”

  ‘Jaba looks really serious. What could it be that he feels the need to ask my permission first? Even going out of his way to call me Leader, I’ll have to respond to his request with the same seriousness.

  ‘A good Leader should always respond to their subordinates’ determination. I’m pretty sure I saw something like that in some anime somewhere.’

  “I’d like to go on the same type of training adventure you went on.”

  ‘So, he wants to get stronger. I can understand that. It’s one thing to be a strong evolved creature, but it’s another thing to become truly used to and accustomed to your new strength.

  ‘I’m sure he got motivated after seeing me fighting the Earth Golems during my ever so spectacular Hollywood return to the Tribe.

  ‘But this is a delicate time of growth for the Tribe. I don’t want him to spend an entire three weeks like I did in the forest.’

  [Isn’t that a bit selfish? You left for three weeks, he should be able to as well.]

  ‘Hmm, that’s a good point. I was just thinking from the point of the view that I want one of us to be here at all times, and I kinda sorta plan to go out plenty of times.’

  [I believe it should be fine for you to compromise for now.]

  ‘Yeah you make a good point, I was being a bit selfish. Got to think of the Tribe, not just myself, I’ll at least ask him how long he plans on spending away.’

  “I understand, I’m glad you want to do it. How long do you want to leave for?”

  “No more than three days I think.”

  ‘Oh, would you look at that. That’s not very long though.’

  “Are you sure? That’s not a long time.”

  “It’s more than enough time. I appreciate the opportunity!”

  “Great, then let’s not waste too much time. Leave first thing tomorrow morning. I’ll take care of everyone's training while you're gone.”

  “Understood!”

  [Finally.]

  ‘Knew you’d have something to say! Leave me alone, dammit!’

  “Are you still thinking, Geedi? Remember, it's completely okay to ask anything. I’ll answer every question or request to the best of my ability.”

  “Rea..ly?”

  “Yes, I will.”

  ‘I’ve only known Geedi for a little bit, but this is the first time I’ve seen her hesitate. I guess it’s a pretty serious request or question, just like Jaba’s was. Got to make sure to meet her expectations.’

  “It’s...a...req...uest.”

  “Alright, what is it?”

  ‘I’m even more interested in this request than I was for Jaba. She had been thinking about this for a while now, so it’s got to be something extremely important.’

  “Let...me...ha..ve..your...chil...dren.” Geedi said with an extremely determined expression as she stared at Rick.

  “HUH?!”