| Reward: F+ grade leather armor, map to the goblin lair. |
After receiving the rewards he immediately appraised the armor.
Name: Superior leather armor
Quality: F+ grade
Specialties: Freedom, Lifesteal I
Description: N/A
Freedom: this piece of equipment will not limit your movement.
Lifesteal I: The blood of enemies the wearer has killed can be absorbed in order to heal small wounds. |
This time around he was a bit less lucky with the qualities. 'Freedom' would be a very strong perk on plated armor but on armor such as this, it was pretty useless, while Lifesteal I was only able to heal small scratches.
The second reward was quite good on the other hand. Rewards such as that were called 'game-changers'. Just like he had now gotten the map that would lead him to the goblin's layer, at some point someone else may get a reward to his own camp, or perhaps a map showing the current positions of all the guards. Luckily these rewards were extremely rare and would only be given when a mission that had to do with the target had been completed
After pushing these thoughts to the back of his head, Jay looked at the battlefield before him. Only 10 of his soldiers had survived and each of them was moderately wounded, as for the goblins, they had less stuff on them then he had hoped for. If he didn't get a mission for killing these goblins it really would just be a pyrrhic victory.
When he helped some of the survivors to their rooms another point was brought to his attention, each of the soldiers had reached level 3, furthermore, they also became F-grade warriors. As for himself, he had also reached level 3.
As a Lord, for each enemy one of his subjects killed he would get a small share of XP, but in return, he also needed a lot more XP in order to level up.
A few hours after the battle had concluded all the spoils were gathered. In total, he got 2 bows with over 20 arrows, a magic staff, a handful of silver coins and a few usable swords. Once he inspected the staff properly he was stunned at how badly it was made. The staff was made out of wood that barely had any magical qualities whatsoever, it was also way too bulky further decreasing its quality and the magical crystal on the top was extremely close to falling off of its stand. The magical crystal, on the other hand, was of great quality.
It was called an 'advancement crystal'. This sort of crystal was very rare, it could either allow someone to immediately get initialized in magic or increase the likelihood of becoming a second-grade mage. Furthermore, it could also be used to conduct and enhance magic, which was what the goblin mage had used it for.
After a moment's hesitation he threw aside the wooden staff, after this, he carefully stored the crystal on the top floor of the magic tower, this was he was sure nothing could happen to it.
The map he got from the mission was very clear. Not only did it show the Goblins nest, but it also showed other potentially useful landmarks. For example, 2 kilometers west of their nest there were ruins and to their south, there seemed to be a symbol representing a horse.
In the next hour, 2 people knocked on his door. Firstly there was Architect Gariel he reported that he had finished the basic house blueprint and the bridge had also fully erected at this point. After telling him to start working on a cart blueprint he left. The other person was one of the blacksmiths. She had somehow managed to luck her way into making an F-grade spear.
After he gifted this spear to General Green he took a walk through town. The regular farmers had finished throwing the corpses in the river, attaching heavy stones to their legs. It really was fortunate to have the 'Fighting for Power' title as they didn't seem to find it weird at all to have a war fought just outside the gates. As for why he ordered for all the corpses to be thrown in the river, this was simple.
The first reason was culture. He wanted to form a culture of logic and decisiveness quickly. The corpses were nothing more than lumps of meat, and not the slightest bit of the person it once was remained. This was also an ideal he found necessary in order to guard against all sorts of necromancy.
The second reason was the river itself. Right now the river already had a bunch of extremely dangerous creatures and the corpses were certainly going to be eaten fully before they reached the bottom of the river. But as more and more corpses were thrown the smell would spread wider and creatures from further down the river would surely come. In this way, the defense on the west side of the castle wouldn't just be the river but also the creatures underneath its surface.
Once the farmers finished this task they were all gathered at the blacksmith where all 5 of them got an iron axe. Sending the general with them for protection they soon started gathering wood. When another 5 farmers arrived they were promptly sent to help out, they had to carry the trees back while the others cut them down.
Glad he was finally able to start gathering wood Jay rounded up the 5 soldiers that were in the best condition. He knew how quickly Goblin youngs grew up so he wanted to exterminate the goblin camp before they had the opportunity to create a new army.
Each of the soldiers used spears during the fight helping them to keep the reckless goblins at a distance.
After donning his new leather armor the small group quickly went into the forest. Perhaps it was due to its small size or maybe because the goblins killed them but the amount of danger in the forest was surprisingly low. They had nearly finished their 30-minute journey yet they had only had to kill 2 wolves and a non-poisonous snake.
Once they neared the location on the map the terrain became easier to navigate Furthermore, small footprints could be seen on the ground, it was clear that goblins ofter traversed the area. Soon after they arrived at a large cave. In front of the cave, there were multiple skulls on sticks. Most seemed to be animals but he also spotted some elven skulls.
The group of 6 silently snuck into the cave yet they encountered no grown goblins. Before them were about a dozen recently born goblins. But he knew that these cubs would reach adulthood in just a week, at that point they wouldn't be much different from the ones they had fought earlier.
"Kill them."
After hearing these dreaded words the 5 soldiers hardened their resolve before walking forward and stabbing the cubs, killing them all within a few seconds. As they walked in further they saw there were 2 additional caverns. In the first cavern, they found a bunch of weapons, these ones seemed to be of a pretty good quality even. Other than that there were 2 more magic crystals similar to the one the goblin mage had earlier. But after examining them closer he saw they were actually inferior advancement crystals. They only had a 50% chance of allowing someone to instantly become initialized in magic and had no further uses.
When walking into the second room everyone's heart got heavy. Before them were 3 elven women. Their faces were covered in large beads of sweat and drool was coming out of their mouths. One of them wasn't even an adult yet each of their clothes had been ripped to shreds and they had lost their minds after being tainted.
Some of the soldiers were clearly shaking, they already knew what they would have to do and that it could even be considered mercy but before they could harden their resolve, Jay walked forward. His spear stabbed downwards 3 times after which he walked out of the cavern. He obviously knew what the soldiers felt like, the first time he entered a goblin's nest he was worse off than them and he puked when he got into their breeding room. After realizing they were beyond saving he killed them and for the next months he woke up every night after getting another nightmare.
"Let's not talk about this when we get back."
The soldiers nodded as if they wanted to say the same thing. But just before they exited the cave Jay frowned and looked backwards scanning the room once more, and as he had expected there was indeed 1 cub left. Hiding in the shadows this goblin cub had remained silent the entire time they were here.
The cub had bright blue eyes showing she was half-elven. It had also shown a larger intelligence that the other cubs since it hid and remained quiet the entire time. In the end, he decided to take this cub with him, blue-eyed elves had a great affinity for magic and there was a decent chance this cub would too. Furthermore, she was still very young and could be properly molded.
Radrik camp has been eradicated. Do you wish to destroy the token or take it? |
"Destroy."
Radrik camp token has been destroyed. Gained 15 gold coins. |
When the group of 7 headed back with multiple backpacks full of stuff and over 50 gold coins, nobody talked, everyone's head was still within the goblin camp, processing what had happened.