For three days, Kyle rested and recovered from his wounds. Ma'ya's healing wasn't perfect; his scales still bore cracks from each stone club strike he had endured at the hands of those vicious goblins.
During those three days, no one bothered him, and he didn't need to involve himself in anything because Sl'k and Tu'ka proved to be quite capable leaders.
However, as soon as Kyle recovered, he began taking massive actions that even caught Lu'k's attention. For the past three days, he had been thinking about how to improve the lives of the members of his colony and ultimately strengthen them.
Unlike before, he didn't plan to explore anymore until he had built a stable structure his clan could rely on. He had no plan of leaving. As much as Kyle wanted to rush to the bed of reeds and use the mana nodes to start his mage journey, he knew it was best to wait and focus on building his home. That way, he would be able to return to the bed of reeds with allies.
The first thing he did was tour the cave again and carve a detailed map of it into the wall of his room.
From the entrance of the cave was a single large, spacious chamber that led to a forked path. The center and right paths led to trap-infested routes that went nowhere, while the left path led to another fork. In that second fork, the center path was the correct one.
Only after navigating through five such forked paths could one finally reach the living area, which was a grand open space within the cave containing several rooms. Only one of those exits led to a two-way path: the right side led to a massive underground flowing river network they had discovered long ago. It was here that they bathed and obtained their drinking water.
Meanwhile, the left path led to the storage room, once empty but now filled with crude tools, dried skin hides from their catches, and a few other negligible items.
With this layout boldly carved into the wall of his room, Kyle began considering expansion. He wanted two extra rooms: one to serve as a training room where they could spar safely and practice, and the second to act as a makeshift mana-rich training room. To accomplish this, they would need to steal a large number of mana crystals from the bed of reeds, making it a long-term project.
However, should he succeed, he could turn this small family of barely over a dozen kobolds into an elite fighting force capable of taking on enemies three times their number.
"In fact, if possible, we'll turn this entire cave into a mana-rich home," Kyle mumbled as he visualized mana crystals embedded into the walls.
He hugged himself tightly, reminiscing about the magical feeling he experienced while sitting beneath the earth flower formation. The thought of recreating such conditions within the cave made him realize that living underground wasn't so bad after all. The man who once condemned scavenging was already plotting the greatest mana node heist in the history of the bed of reeds. By the time he was done, that beautiful land of flowers would be barren, and this cave would become a paradise.
After this, Kyle moved on to his second plan: creating roles.
Growing up, Kyle had observed Tu'Li, the previous clan leader. Instead of creating rules, the kobold assigned roles, permanently delegating tasks to his siblings. However, unlike Tu'Li, who had managed only five people, Kyle now had twelve to oversee, with Ma'ya being the only exception due to her identity as the dragon speaker.
In fact, after returning, he noticed how religiously his siblings worshipped the greater kobold. Seeing the restraint and composure they maintained during these sacred hours was all Kyle needed to understand her position in their hearts. He couldn't blame them. This was essentially the stone age for them—atheism wasn't a thing yet.
"I'll have to bring them up to the industrial age before I can depose her," he joked whenever he noticed them gathering for daily prayer sessions.
In the process of dividing his siblings into various roles, Kyle finally got to know them on a personal level.
For the hunters of the clan, Kyle chose Sl'k, a sand-colored kobold named No'm, and an azure-scaled kobold named Gr'im. These three were the powerhouses of the family, second only to Kyle himself. Based on their capabilities, Kyle estimated their innate strength stat to be somewhere between three and five points. This was massive, considering he had started with as little as one point.
The Dan'Tai clan's engineering team was spearheaded by Tu'ka, who seemed strangely gifted at building and repairing things. After helping Kyle a few times months ago, he had already been able to construct his own traps from scratch.
Tu'ka was a coward, but he was extremely intelligent. Behind him was a small band of nerds who seemed to have found solace in each other's company. The first was Ku'ti, a female kobold with a strong build that rivaled Sl'k's but shared Tu'ka's low confidence. The last was Sl'im, a crafty kobold known for notorious antics—hiding food for later, eating everything he gathered outside the colony, and returning empty-handed.
He always hunted but never brought anything back. Despite this, he was extremely sharp and clever, nearly rivaling Tu'ka. His fear of Sl'k, who was always eager to give him a good beating whenever he misbehaved, was the only thing keeping this scumbag from selling out the clan.
Honestly, Kyle was stunned to realize such a character could exist among kobold siblings. Only now that he was paying attention did he begin noticing how human each of them truly was.
Then there was the diva group of the family: Na'mi, Ka'mi, Syn'di, and Ru'dy. These four would rather spend the entire day admiring their reflections on the surface of water than help out. They were assigned the role of gatherers, tasked with collecting herbs, fruits, and anything useful within the area.
They initially refused, but with Sl'k's intervention, the four begrudgingly accepted their roles. Apparently, Sl'k was the discipline of the family and a strong believer in equality. He was feared by both male and female alike, strangely becoming Kyle's most reliable sibling even though they were silent rivals.
This left the scout role to Di'n and Lu'te, who were the nimblest among the group. The two shared nearly identical personalities and often acted the same. While gathering information on his siblings before assigning roles, Kyle stumbled upon a silly story claiming the two had hatched from the same egg, making them the only twins among the siblings.
While Kyle found the story ridiculous, he refused to waste energy trying to confirm whether it was true.
With that, his entire clan had assigned duties, which they carried out while Kyle served as supervisor, making occasional rounds to ensure no one was slacking.
It took a full month of consistent effort from Kyle and Sl'k—who had a lot of beatings to administer—before his siblings fully adapted to their jobs. During that month, Kyle was so busy he didn't have time to read the journal.
Apart from supervising, he occasionally sparred with his siblings to improve both their combat experience and his own. With Lu'k's approval, all his siblings were allowed to learn the fireball spell from the fireball tome.
While they were still far from becoming a fighting force worth mentioning, Kyle felt content knowing his entire family was even slightly stronger. Just knowing they had a better chance of defending their home in times of danger was enough to make him happy.