That was another important thing to remember to do, but it mostly applied to kobolds. By telling Tomlin this was his nest, I had made him associate his territorial instincts with it.
“Clan. Okay!” he answered, and his snout and mouth changed expression, forming something of a smile. A rather snarling smile, but a smile, nonetheless.
He might not be much of a warrior, and he never would be considering what I had planned for him, but at least I had some kind of defense now.
“Core. Tell what Tomlin do?”
“Call me Beno. No…wait…call me the Dark Master. No, Dark Lord. Call me Dark Lord. Much cooler.”
“Dark Lord,” said Tomlin, and I was surprised how much I enjoyed him calling me that. “What do?”
I smiled now. Inwardly, of course.
This was another trait of kobolds; they couldn’t sit still. Call them anything, but they weren’t lazy. In fact, many dwarven settlements had tried to tame kobolds over the years, seeing them as perfect fits for their mines. Of course, wild kobolds couldn’t be tamed. They were way too intelligent for that.
“Tomlin, I have a role in mind for you. A very important one, okay? I think you’re perfect for it. See the wall behind you?”
Tomlin turned around, checked the wall, then turned back and nodded. “See.”
“I’d like you to dig a tunnel into it, please. Ten feet long will do, and wide enough to fit a minecart. Do you know what a minecart is?”
Tomlin nodded. “Cart.”
Good – Tomlin came with a modicum of knowledge. At least I didn’t have to play father to him and teach him everything.
“Once you dig the tunnel, I’d like you to begin digging another room. Make it…hmm…twenty square feet. If you find anything useful while you are working, put it to one side.”
Tomlin nodded. “Dig. Will do.”
“Are you happy with this, Tomlin? I would like to choose a specialty for you, but as my first companion, I would like you to be happy. If you are, then you will become a miner.”
“Miner!” shouted Tomlin, with more enthusiasm than I expected from a kobold. “Tomlin is miner! Good. Very good. Tomlin can explore. Make find.”
Specialty assigned to [Kobold Tomlin]: Miner [LVL1]
- Mining equipment added to Tomlin’s inventory
I rubbed my imaginary hands together. This was all starting to take shape.
“Not too bad, considering I started with nothing but a patch of moss, huh?” I said.
“Huh?”
“Oh, you’re not impressed? You’ve seen better dungeons than mine? Fair enough, you’re probably right. Can’t please everyone. Just bear with me a little.”
“Tomlin not say anything.”
“Never mind. I’m just pleased you’re so happy with your new job. Okay then my first and, by technicality, best friend, time to get at it.”
Tomlin saluted me and then trundled off toward the wall. When he was facing it, I expected him to begin scraping away with his claws.
Instead, Tomlin hefted his backpack around, opened it, and produced a small wooden pickaxe and a shovel. Great! That happened when I chose his specialty. Course, I’d need to get better gear for him soon. His wooden tools would be ineffective, and they’d break easily.
I’d have to make him some iron tools to begin with. That reminded me – when I created Tomlin, my crafting list had been updated.
Core Crafting Categories:
1) Dungeon Fixtures
2) Monsters
3) Tools & Weapons
4) ????
5) ????
6) ????
Aha! A third category had been unlocked! What a pleasant surprise.
Opening it, I saw that there wasn’t a great deal I could make just yet.
Tools and Weapons
Iron Pickaxe [Cost 200]
Iron Spade [Cost 200]
Iron Sword [Cost 250]
Iron Shield [Cost 250]
Two hundred essence for a bloody pickaxe! Were they having a laugh, or what?
Wait, no. I was forgetting.
Crafting things using essence was a simple business, but an ineffective one. Iron and essence were two different things, and the crafting process that converted essence to iron needed a lot of essence to complete. That was why an iron pickaxe cost so much, even with the discount I had earned from the overseers.
So, there was a way to make it cheaper.
“Tomlin,” I said.
My friend snapped his wolf-dragon eyes in my direction. “Yes, Dark Lord?”
“What are your special skills as a miner?”
“Mining, Dark Lord.”
“Yes, and what else?”
“Mineral find.”
“I thought so. I can assign a particular material or mineral for your find skill, and you will sense when it is nearby while you are mining. Good, good. I’d like you to keep a special eye out for iron.”
“Tomlin do!”
“Great. Then get to it, my friend, and we’ll soon have this place looking better.”
Tomlin eyed the wall now, pickaxe in hand, and he muttered something under his breath. I couldn’t quite hear him, and I couldn’t exactly move closer to him, could I? Something was going on here. Something not quite right.
Luckily, Tomlin was my created creature.
“Tomlin,” I said.
He turned my way. “Yes, Dark Lord?”
“Repeat what you just muttered under your breath.”
“Mutter, Dark Lord?”
“Don’t play ignorant,” I said, my suspicion growing. “Something is going on here. I hate to pull rank, but you’re forcing me into it. As my created creature, I order you to repeat whatever you muttered under your breath.”
Tomlin sighed. “Fine,” he said. “Tomlin isn’t stupid, okay? Tomlin can talk better than you would expect.”
“Ah. So the one-word answers, the simplistic dialogue, that was an act? Is it because you believe that is what I would have expected from a kobold?”
Tomlin nodded. “You have to understand, Dark Lord. The creatures you create aren’t sprouted from thin air. Tomlin was born in the academy. Tomlin and his littermates were taught dungeon ways when
