About half a month later.
Ken moved through the forest cautiously. Although his master had given him a name, Ken, he wasn't very fond of it. However, there was nothing much he could do about it.
The gnoll beast had engraved a mana circle in his heart a few weeks ago. He was obediently required to carry out her every command, even though she couldn't control his body. He hoped the gnoll beast would leave for the desolate ground soon.
"Two more days," Ken mumbled while grabbing his spear tighter.
"Kaaaa…" The shouts and screaming brought him back to this world. Four goblins jumped out of the forest and charged at him with rusted swords and wooden spears.
Kne thusted his spear, passed through the goblin's mouth, and came out from the back of his neck. After fighting against bandits, slave traders, kobolds, and even an orc once, these small goblins didn't frighten him anymore.
The goblins didn't expect him to fight back, either. However, they didn't care about their fallen friends and continued their attack. As the first goblin fell, five more goblins came out. One even carried a broken shield, while another had an iron dagger.
This forest was far closer to the desolate land than the one where he had met Hilda. The trees were sparse here, and he had much more space to maneuver his body. He continued moving around while caring for one goblin with each strike.
However, the more he killed, the more goblins started to appear. The newly arrived goblins were slightly taller, and they wore animal skins and even armor made of leather. Looking at their size, Ken could tell they had been taken from the humans they had been hunting.
However, Ken didn't have time to worry about them. A few attacks from the goblins had grazed him. It was just a skin wound, but he wasn't too fond of pain.
Ken might have used so much force that the spear had directly passed through the body of a goblin. When Ken realized he couldn't pull the spear out, the goblins had already surrounded him.
"Help! A little help here." Ken cried out loud. "They are going to kill… *Bam*"
He didn't complete his sentence before a somewhat big stone hit his chest. It didn't penetrate his skin but pressed air out of his lungs. "They are going to kill me. I am going to die."
"Don't act like a child. A stone won't kill you." Although Ken could hear what Hilda was trying to say to the goblin, it sounded like a beastly growl they had never heard of. However, the slightly taller and older goblin had listened to the growl before.
The goblin mage looked around, trying to understand why such a creature would appear here. The mage ordered something. Four bigger goblins returned to its side as if trying to protect it.
[Tangle]
The vine shot out from every side and arrested the goblin mage and his four bodyguards. The two bigger goblins and the normal ones didn't care about the mage anymore and ran away. Or they tried.
Awwwoooo
The cry of a wolf resonated through the forest. Expectedly, the other wolves joined the calls. The goblins became more frantic and tried to run away, only to fall into the jaws of one wolf or another.
The larger ones fought harder and required force to bring down, while the smaller ones pretended to be dead the moment their necks were seized.
There were no other goblin deaths besides the one that Ken killed. Hilda came with a pair of wolves. The bigger one had a claw mark across his face, while the other had pristine white fur.
Hilda waved her paw, and the vine holding the goblins released them. Hilda didn't need to move before the wolves had subdued them.
"Earth mage. I think I will be easier." Hilda put her paw on its chest and poured his mana. After doing it so many times, Hilda didn't take long to overpower its mana and inscribe the mana circle in its core.
After Hilda was done with the mage, she also inscribed on the core of the bigger goblins. She didn't care about the smaller one, as the bigger one would keep them under control.
It was the same for the wolf pack. The scarred wolf and the white wolf were a pair who led the pack. As long as Hilda controlled them, she could control the pack, too.
"Wow! Five out of six have survived." It was a little surprising to Hilda. The survival rate after inscribing is somewhat fifty-fifty. Hilda wasn't sure if it was about the level or something to do with the type of creature they were.
"Let's not think about it." Hilda turned towards the mage. "What are you doing here?"
The goblin mage had spit out some blood and took some time to control its body. Instead of standing up, it went onto one knee and said, "My lord, we came with the orc lord to attack the human mongrel. We have failed to return with the force, so we have been hiding in the forest near here."
"How many are there?"
"There is a high goblin, two goblin lords, a kobold chief, five mages, and…" It was trying to count. Understandably, the number of goblins was beyond his ability to count. He looked at Hilda and hesitated, adding, "A lot of goblins and kobolds." He spread his hand wide, adding, "A lot."
"A lot."
"Many, many."
Like the goblin mage, the voices in her head also confirmed the amount. Hilda nodded, adding, "It looks like we can't attack them directly."
"What are you trying to attack them? Didn't you hear that there are so many goblins and kobolds? What do we have? 11 wolves, a gnoll beast, a goblin mage, and a few strong goblins. Do you think that is enough?" Ken wasn't willing.
"You forgot some."
"What? Do you want the deer to fight, too?"
"I am talking about you."
"Oh!" Ken still wasn't convinced. "Why do you even need to fight with them? They are beasts of darkness, just like you. Why are you even fighting? We will reach the desolate land if we continue in that direction for two days. Can't you just leave?"
"You would not understand if I said I would level up!" Hilda paused before she checked his expression.
Although Hilda didn't laugh, he felt she did when he heard her say, "Even if I return to the desolate land, I don't know how to undo that thing. So, you need to learn to leave with that."
"No… You are lying. Right?"
**************
At the same time. About 10 miles away from Hilda. City of Aurgrad.
"Are you sure about it?" The cresses on his forehead increased a bit as Carl looked at Ada intently, hoping to hear a no from her.
Alas! Ada shook her head in response. "They have attacked two caravans and are constantly harassing the villages around the area. Many livestock have been missing. They have already abducted seven children and two women. Not a single man survived. If we wait any longer, they might attack humans too. We need to hurry, my lord."
"What about the scouts?"
The only other man in the room, Alfred, added, "It is as reported. At least 120-130 of them."
"What?" Carl jumped from the seat. Ada's expression was no different. "Are you sure about it?"
"I have sent two different groups of scouts. A druid who controls different beasts and teams of beastkins. They have reported the same. I heard that some mercenaries from the Valkan mercenaries even stumbled across them by chance. They have reported the same."
"How could they let so many demonic beasts so deep into the empire?"
"What do you expect?" Alfred sighed, adding, "This time, the beast horde had doubled the number of beasts that appeared five years ago. I heard more than 50,000 people have died this time. Three cities were lost."
Alfred paused and looked around before adding, "I heard a lich, an orc lord, and a witch appear."
"What? A witch?" Carl sighed. "That is not important right now. Even if the number is big, we can manage."
"My lord, the soldiers who joined the war have yet to return."
"I am not talking about them." Carl turned to Alfred for a solution.
"Before that. You need to listen…"
"What now?"
"I think there would be at least some kind of monster for such a big group of monsters not to attack everything in the vicinity."
"What monster? A goblin lord? A mage?"
"I am not sure about the goblin lord, but there are reports of at least two kobold mages."
"So, what? I will send my private magic squad with you."
"Listen first. These are monsters, not humans. Two kobold mages are nowhere near enough to control the entire group. There must be a strong monster even the mages would be afraid of if they didn't break away from superpack."
Carl slammed his fist on the table as he glared at Alfred, asking, "Why can't you say everything once?"
"A kobold overlord or a hobgoblin. The worst case scenario is an orc."
"How much?" *bam*bam*bam*
The constant slamming of the table shocked others. Carl didn't care, asking, "How much do you want? How much gold do you want to take care of that thing?"
"Calm down, Carl."
"Do you want me to calm down? If you want me to calm down, take care of that now."
"Don't worry, we will. I have a blue-grade adventure group. Although it consisted of indigo-level adventures, they could easily defeat even a blue-level knight together."
"Then?"
"They could care for those monsters, but the guild can't provide more than 20 adventurers."
"Do you think that would be enough?"
"It won't be. But many of our adventures had to join the war. On top of that, other than those 20, most of them are newbie adventurers, and they don't have any experience."
"Guild master, if I may," before Carl had another outburst, Ada explained, "more than half of our soldiers were sent to the war under the order of the empire. Right now, we don't even have enough soldiers to guard the city completely. I think it would be impossible for us to send any soldiers."
"I know. That is why I am here." He turned towards Carl, adding, "How about this? You don't need to pay me anything for my adventures. Instead, use the gold to hire some mercenaries."
"Mercenaries? Those bastards? Those money grubbers didn't even care about when the beast horde invaded their land. Do you think they would help?"
"They will. The only reason they didn't help then was because they weren't paid enough. Now that these beasts aren't that strong, and you are paying them, they will."
Carl wasn't sure that they would help, so he asked, "How many?"
"50, 60 if possible."
"Would that be enough?"
"That would bring the force to 70-80. We don't need to fight them head-on. We would bait them out of the cave and care for them in groups."
"Are you sure about it?"
"Don't worry. Just hire the numbers we need. If you hire Valkans and Wildhog mercenaries, that would be enough."
"When do you need them?"
"It is noon. If possible, I would like to leave now. Even at the latest, we should leave early tomorrow morning."
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's meet those money grubbers." Carl has no intention of wasting any more time. Alfred also followed him.
However, Carl paused at the door before ordering Ada, "Tell those mages to get ready. They, too, will be leaving with the party tomorrow."
Carl didn't wait for her response and left the room. He then continued to mumble, "They are just getting fat from eating free food for so long. Tell your man to use them well, Alfred. And make sure not a single one is left alive."