13 Five Years

1197, Lodbrok Village

Five whole years have passed since Ragnar became the tribe leader.

Lodbrok Clan is now the most powerful intermediate Goblin tribe in the center of The Nandini Forest with a Goblin Noble like Ragnar at the helm.

During these five years, Ragnar went to all the surrounding tribes for a spar, and taught all the nearby HobGoblin Jarl Borgs a lesson.

He spent all his time in the different tribes to gather information about the plane's history, geography, and Goblin folk tales to gain a more thorough understanding of The Goblin Plane.

Ragnar especially inquired about the most glaring difference between Goblin Plane and his Earth. Which was the presence of the two moons in the sky.

The first larger moon was called Rati and it was personified as the Goddess of Love.

The smaller, black-colored moon which hung in the night sky like a dark, crescent fang was called Kali and served as the Goddess of Vengeance.

According to the legends, when Kali reveals itself as a full moon, it would signify the beginning of the Goblin Empire in this plane.

All The Wise Ones of the different tribes seemed to firmly believe in this legend.

Both the Love Goddess and the Vengeance Goddess were wives of Kamadeva, the God of desire also the son of the Supreme Being, Vishnu.

That was also the reason why in this plane, marriage between a man and two women was permitted.

For Goblins, one could only be allowed to do so if one was powerful enough in their tribes, usually, only the leaders of the tribe kept two wives. The status of the second wife was not one whit inferior to that of the first wife and both wives were entitled to the same amount of love and care from the husband. That was why most Goblins, even Jarl Borgs, only took one wife to avoid too much hassle.

Ragnar also abducted an acceptable number of female Goblins from all the nearby tribes, to increase his own tribe's population while avoiding conquering the other tribes and assimilating them because he felt that he did not have a stable enough foundation in his tribe.

Under Ragnar's leadership, Lodbrok Clan prospered, and it's population increased from just about a hundred Goblins to about more than twelve hundred Goblins.

After all the abduction and kidnapping like a bandit, which Rollo enjoyed the most.

Ragnar had about 50 Goblin females, who gave birth to 50 Goblins every three months.

Under Ragnar and the Goblin Knight's supervision, all these Newborn Goblins matured into Goblin Adults in a month.

In the last five years, the Goblin females gave birth about 20 times (i.e. 20*50= 1000 Newborn Goblins), and Ragnar and the Goblin Knights, supervised all these Goblins till they became adults.

All of these Goblin's who grew up under Ragnar, idolized him like a God.

His words were like laws to all these Goblins, and they were immensely loyal to him.

Ragnar had laid strong foundations for his future Goblin army during these five years.

But he had also met various difficulties regarding the formation of this Goblin army.

First of all problems was one of character. Goblins, preferred striking to waiting and had no clue about tactics. Second, Goblin Knights could coordinate perfectly, but normal Goblins were clumsy and could not coordinate. Third, he had too few HobGoblins to lead a thousand big Goblin Army.

According to Cortana's research, Goblins get smarter as they evolve. A single evolution can make a huge difference. It was like the dispersing of a great, thick fog within the mind of the goblins, freeing them from their instincts.

The more HobGoblins Ragnar had, the easier it would be to control his Goblin Army and strengthen it.

During these five years, Ragnar had made all the Goblin Knights except Aslaug choose a hundred Goblins, and had them train and hunt in different directions near the other small and intermediate Goblin tribes in order to intimidate them.

These hundred Goblin troops led by a Goblin Knight was named as a Battalion by Ragnar.

Rollo and Lagertha, were especially excited about their own troops, and had started a whole contest by dragging the other Goblin Knights about which Goblin Battalion was the best, which led to frequent competitions and battles between battalions.

The strongest hundred Goblins were selected as the Guard Battalion for Ragnar and were trained by Aslaug. Aslaug had become Ragnar's assistant, maid and bodyguard over these years.

She was quiet, serious and hardworking. She followed all of Ragnar's orders to the letter.

Ragnar also worked over the Lodbrok Village in these five years. Since the day he became the Jarl Borg of the tribe. He changed the whole layout.

In the center of the Village, he made a Lord's Manor for himself. He ordered all of the veteran Goblins of Bjorn's army, who surrendered without a fight against him, to change occupations.

He made them construction workers, and had them construct fences around the village, a Basic Market, a Dining Hall, Wooden Residential Homes, Bathrooms, Blacksmith Shop, Grocery Shop, Logging Field and Barracks.

After they had finished constructing all these buildings, he made them cultivate farmlands.

Ragnar explained the use of every building to Aslaug, and asked her to handle all the administrative matters, by choosing competent female Goblins, and making a council to handle all these matters.

The quite but hardworking Aslaug did not disappoint Ragnar, as she completely formed a village level administrative system, and efficiently managed it.

***

Ragnar was patrolling the village for a routine check-in, when he looked behind him to find Aslaug following him quietly as usual. He smiled and asked.

"Aslaug, care to explain me in detail the condition of our fences?"

Aslaug was surprised at the sudden question, and frowned for a second before answering diligently.

"My lord, we have not started further construction on it and it is still the same. Useful only as basic fortification around the whole village. It has a weak defense, and it can only stop wild animals from entering our village."

"What about the Basic Market and Grocery Shop?"

"My lord, the Grocery Shop distributes various types of daily necessities to our Lodbrok Clan Goblins, as ordered by you in exchange for their work on the construction of the village, in farmlands or in the battalions. While we are efficiently using the Basic Market to barter our other daily necessities from the other tribes that come to visit."

"Excellent. What about our Blacksmith Shop? How is the production?"

"My lord, that old Goblin you abducted from his tribe complains that he wants to go back everyday. But he still builds a variety of farm tools, such as axes, chisels, and other iron tools and sends them to Lord's Manor at the designated time everyday."

"Hahaha, that's just Old Green's personality. It is a pity that he is just a Junior Goblin Blacksmith and cannot make weapons for us. What about our Logging Fields and the expansion of our Barracks?"

"My lord, Goblins chosen by you are working diligently everyday to cut and collect wood resources in our Logging Fields. While the Barracks has finished it's expansion, and can now hold our thousand Goblin troops for training."

"Have the veterans started cultivating farmlands?"

"My lord, the veteran Goblins had reclaimed all the land which is fertile outside our village. They are growing crops. We plan to plant grain twice a year, the first quarter of planting is during early April, the second quarter of sowing is in early July."

"Splendid. How many residential homes have we made in our village for our current population?"

"My lord, according to a full population calculation of twelve hundred Goblin residents, the village has built 60 residential homes."

Ragnar turned back to pinch Aslaug's cheeks and he said smiling with bloodthirst.

"Good job, my ice queen. Tell them to hurry up with the construction work, I don't plan to wait much longer before attacking the other tribes!"