The goblins that were problematic before haven''t gotten any better. In fact, they''ve all become jailbirds. After I struggled finding them anywhere around town, I''d asked Zaka about them, and quickly found out that he''s had them placed in jail indefinitely. They were in and out of jail repeatedly for various petty crimes, and he was at a loss as to what to do with them. One of them suggested just leaving them in the jail, and apparently both parties found that to be an amicable solution.
The goblins get meals for free and a place to stay, and we get... them not committing crimes. I mean, it''s not great, but I suppose it''s better than nothing. They''ve all been kept in their own cells after one strangled another a few months ago though. They''re psychopaths. Honestly, I almost want to make a special prison for them, just to keep them from making other prisoners behave worse. If this is the final solution Zaka is comfortable with, then it''s probably a good idea to actually keep them isolated.
This did lead to a wider discussion about summoning imps, to which Zaka is even more reserved to any new techniques than he was before. Considering how much of a headache it sounds like he''s been getting from the few bad eggs, I can''t blame him. Though the other goblins seem to have adapted well and don''t show any outward signs of bad behaviors. The influence of their neighbors seems to have either fully converted them to productive individuals or at the very least, keeps them from acting out any bad desires.
After some convincing, I got Zaka to agree to a new round of tests after I build some more facilities out for it. For this round of testing, I want the imp''s chambers to have some form of work they have to do to get their food. For the most basic chamber, it''ll involve moving a heavy rock out of the way to be able to grab their food. Once they''ve gotten the food, a guard will be able to use a pole to drag the rock back into place safely from outside. However, since we''ve already had some imps choose to prestige instead of evolve, I''m going to be ready with a new set of chambers to move any prestiged imps into.
Under the first set of chambers will be another set of chambers of varying difficulty. Rather than let the prestiged imps continue to use up valuable summoning space, they''ll be moved down a floor to the new chambers. Some of the rooms will feature heavier rocks, while others will have basic puzzles to solve to get their food. This area will require more active management, and I''ll need to recruit some demons to handle the puzzle management, as well has having more guards for the area. If these imps evolve into goblins with higher strength, it could be dangerous if the guards in the area aren''t at least hobgoblins.
I''ll also talk with Zeb about digging out a permanent prison somewhere under the city. Unlike the cells in the existing jail that have natural light coming in from above, these will be built further underground. I''ve grown more cold to the other demons, but in reality, it''s simply closer to how they view each other. We''ll surround their cells will metal, just like the other cells in the jail, though rather than iron, I think we''ll use brass for this, since we have more excess zinc and copper than iron. Unlike the jail, we don''t expect many new people to come in and out of this area, so we''ll need to make a pit for excrement under the cells that can be cleaned occasionally.
Unlike the jail though, less labor should be needed overall for maintaining order, since the cells won''t be able to be opened easily, and the way in and out of the prison itself will be a single locked path. These goblins may not want to escape now, but that doesn''t mean future inhabitants of the prison won''t want to. If we get errant invading demons during the next invasion, Zaka might prefer permanent imprisonment to killing them if any surrender but later act out. So I want to be prepared for that possibility.
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Unlike last time, where Zeb eventually sent a construction team to help me with expanding the new summoning area, this time I had to build it myself. As a result, it took me 29 days to build. Being as large as I am now does come with some advantages for tasks like this that largely involve excavating large areas, since I can cut and carry much larger blocks of stone than the average demon. After a bit of explanation, Zeb did pick out a location for the prison, and he sent a construction team to start working on it.This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.
He had some good ideas that I''d neglected to think of initially, which shows how him focusing on infrastructure and construction all this time has really made him quite adept at city planning. Rather than build it somewhere under the city, he recommended travelling uphill about an hour along the road, and then digging down there to build the prison. That way, you could connect sewer pipes in to handle excrement from the cells, while simultaneously also reducing the initial threat any mass escape would have.
Since brass also has a decently low melting point, rather than casting plates to install we''ll just directly cast the floors and walls of the cells with molten brass. That should also make the cells far more sturdy long term. Additionally, it should be good use for a lot of our zinc, which we have in excess currently. I''ve left the rest of the details for Zeb to work out.
The new summoning area area is, on the surface, just a duplicate of the floor above it. Twelve rooms, situated around a central area opening with a large square stone on a rail which is situated in front of a meal box. However, closer inspection between rooms on the floor above and this floor reveal some irregularities. First, the floor below it is actually about 20% larger in all dimensions to compensate for imps growing larger with each prestige.
Second, the rock weights placed in front of where meals are deposited are disproportionately larger for some of the rooms, and for other rooms, they''re entirely removed, and replaced with interchangeable locking mechanisms designed to work as a puzzle for those inside. Imps will spend a maximum of three days on the first floor. If they evolve into goblins, they''ll be let out into society. If they prestige into uncommon imps, then they''ll be forcibly hauled down a floor, and potentially moved about on that floor based on their abilities. After I find new workers to handle this floor, I''ll stick around to assist for a month.
If we can make this work well, then we might be able to start purposefully steering our summoned demons towards particular jobs. For now, that basically means them focusing on increased strength. If we can devise ways to get them to develop other traits early, like earth manipulation, they''d be primed for becoming construction crew members with a much better trajectory for success over their life. Honestly speaking though, even just increased strength would lead to a general improvement in quality of life for those who prestige early as imps.
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The first few rounds of imps all became goblins right away, and they seemed to be fairly normal. Though, so did the previous test batches. It was only after being exposed to bad apples did it become clear that those goblins weren''t quite the same. So, in anticipation of that potentiality, new goblins are distributed into existing communities, rather than all going to new ones. It has required a bit more logistical oversight from city hall, but we''ve been managing so far. Since it does give us a higher overall population growth rate, it should be worth it, as long as we can keep it from shuffling around residents too often.
After fifteen days, we had our first imp that chose to prestige instead of evolve. So, we moved them down to the floor below to continue testing. After another twelve days, we got a second imp that chose to prestige. By this point, it seemed clear that the number of imps that prestige rather than evolving was significantly lower than before. It really does seem like there is a correlation between the perceived difficulty of life for an imp, and their impulse to evolve vs prestige.
Finally, after 33 days in total, the first of the two prestiged imps evolved. While they weren''t as entitled as the first batch, their behavior was a little different than a normal goblin. After five days of observation, if I had to say exactly what was wrong, it was that they were very short term goal oriented. It''s probably due to the nature of the puzzles and weights we made them move to get food, but they seemed quite impulsive and borderline hyperactive.
They were able to do certain tasks well, but any task that required a lot of effort before you see any payoff frustrated them. So they''d gladly haul rocks from point a to point b, but they didn''t like when both rock piles would be emptied and replenished after each cycle of hauling, such as hauling from a quarry to a build site. There are plenty of tasks that they can work on where they see results, so if there are only a handful of these goblins being created every year, it won''t be a problem. Considering the other goblins were pretty normal too, this minor inconvenience that a few goblins have makes this new summoning method far more productive than the old fight pits. I''ll discuss my results with Zaka in another month after continued observation.