Chereads / Soul Art Online / Chapter 23 - Chapter 6: Part 3

Chapter 23 - Chapter 6: Part 3

- Arthas -

"A hidden quest!" Shiroe said.

"And look, it says Hidden Quest 1, which means there can be more. Now we need to think about what those things can be."

"Probably to defeat the enemies without letting even a single one pass or completely kill the ones coming from our side." Veena pointed out.

"That….will take a lot of work." Shiroe sighed as we walked out.

I was seriously thankful to be wearing the cape right now. Even the high price didn't seem like much, seeing the number of eyes and especially the glares thrown our way.

"Well, that went better than I was expecting." Veena said as we got out of the eyesight of other players and into one of the garrisons reserved for the Knights.

"Not even close. The real work starts now."

Kenneth was given a list of things as well as people he had to arrange and we took this chance to rest.

The rest of the day is going to be busy and it was doubtful if we could get any chance to rest.

An hour and half later, we stood in front of two hundred people who had been gathered by Kenneth with several raw materials to prepare the farmlands for the assault.

The first thing we had done was have them dig several ditches in the farmlands.

They didn't have to be too big or even deep for that matter, just around a foot deep and wide and then filled them with wooden spikes.

Goblins are generally smaller than humans and even this much was enough to trap most of them but what we did was cover them with wooden boards.

Hay was then widely spread all over the ditches and traps were made quickly.

There was only so much we could do due to the lack of time but the main thing came after that.

By the time this was done, it was already past midnight and Veena went in to get the consumables we had ordered.

Thousands of pouches of paralytic powder and chilli powder were spread under the hay as well as the crops.

In fact I made sure that I did that personally.

We were obviously compensated for the items. In fact, we were given more than the standard rate.

Meanwhile, Shiroe was working on the mountain with several workers to move rocks to facilitate the movement of the water from the dam to the area we wanted.

With everything handled, we had taken all the bulls and other larger livestock inside, just behind the gates to prepare for the attack.

All that was left was to wait for the attack to happen.

Veena used this time to sell the healing items to the players….at double the price.

Due to the reckless buying of raw materials yesterday, the prices of items had increased.

There weren't many people with a stock of healing items and many of them wanted but there was not much stock in the town and thus the price of the items increased.

We were able to make almost three times of our initial cost with only seventy percent of the items sold.

Seriously, production classes are incredibly good money makers.

As we were done, we heard the sound of horns from the Town Walls and ran to our own posts.

I quickly took the place above Gate number eleven and looked at the scene in front of me.

It was as if a wave of green was approaching us.

Goblins….

All those were goblins.

Just how many were there?

"It must be around four thousand. Why are there so many of them on this side?!" Kenneth exclaimed.

The answer was at the back of the army.

A T5 Monster.

It was a rare named Monster at that, similar to the Red Wolf and the Boar I had killed.

Gurthak, the Cruel.

"Is that the general?" I asked Kenneth but the man shook his head.

"No. The General is stronger. That one is a mutated Goblin Chieftain."

It was on a cart drawn by T3 Ranked Wolves.

Behind him were over fifty Goblin Shamans and hundreds of Hobgoblins.

Those were probably the elite of the army.

On our side, we had eight Knights, five Mages and a hundred Villagers recruited as Militia equipped with Bows and Arrows. 

I could feel my heart beating faster as the army approached.

The Goblin Slayer Class was made specifically to kill Goblins.

The two most defining skills for this Class were Fated Enemy(Goblin) and Sweet Revenge(Goblin).

Fated Enemy(Goblin) allowed me to gain 50% more damage against Goblins….even in the damage of usable items and that's what made the Class truly broken. I could see why it was a Class gained from one of the Reference Achievement Rewards.

The Sweet Revenge(Goblin) Skill on the other hand gave me 25% more experience when killing Goblins…..even with traps. Yes, that was the reason why I made sure to have a hand in all the traps. I don't know how much exp I will get for participating but I will get something for sure. That's why, the wave of disgusting beasts approaching us which was no different than the shadow of death for most people, looked like a bunch of free experience points to me.

I got a message in the Party Chat from Shiroe at this time.

"Arthas, how does the situation look? How is their power?"

….

"It's over 9000!" I replied.

"What?!"

"Just joking. It's around four thousand. We have a named Goblin Chieftain on this side. It's a T5 Monster."

"That's….a lot more than we expected. Do you think you will be fine?"

"Don't worry, I'm the strongest."

….

The guy laughed awkwardly on the other end. "Well….if you are that confident."

"Just be ready, we will need that plan to work or we are dead meat."

"I hope so too."

"If I die, I will haunt you to death." I joked, as my hands trembled as the wave came nearer.

I had received some notifications but I didn't check them. I couldn't.

The scene in front of me was too much to remove my eyes from.

There was a sudden change which changed things however.

"They are slowing down." Kenneth voiced out the problem. "Are they planning to send the smaller ones to attack first?"

If they did that, half of their forces would be outside the range of the strongest area of attack.

No.

I needed to do something.

"Mage. Do you have any spells which can transmit my voice over large distances?" I quickly asked.

One of them nodded quickly.

"Quick, open the gates and come with me. Help me transmit my voice." I shouted as I went down to the gate.

"Arthas! What are you planning?"

"Just wait there for me and be ready to close the gates when I say." I shouted behind my back.

I stood alone in front of the open gate number eleven and looked at the wave of goblins in the distance.

"Prepare the spell to transmit my voice."

The mage nodded and did so quickly. "It's ready, Sir."

I took a deep breath and shouted.

"Goblin Chieftain Bagbeet….You're so ugly, you scared the crap out of the toilet."

….

….

….

….

There was a period of silence in the whole place. Even the mage who was transmitting my voice was stunned at my action.

But I didn't give a fuck.

If those green ass fuckers stopped there, most of our plans will be ruined and we will be dead.

So I continued cursing. I used everything I knew to cuss at that green motherfucker at the head of their group.

- Game Master -

"Bwahahahaha….." He laughed as the guy cussed at the Goblin Chieftain.

"Which sexual position produces the ugliest children? Ask your mother."

"Do you wanna lose ten pounds of ugly fat? Cut off your head."

"You should need a licence to be that ugly."

"You are so ugly that when your mother gave birth to you, she got fined for littering."

"Hahahahaha that was hilarious." Beside him, even Red was rolling on the floor laughing.

He had gotten the notification that someone had triggered the Man of Culture Achievement….twice within seconds and he had quickly changed the screen to check and lo and behold, his Junior was going to fight an army.

The scene however changed into this and took them off guard all of a sudden.

As expected, the Goblin Chieftain got furious and ordered a direct charge of the entire force at full speed.

Arthas however made an unexpected move. He took the staff from the Mage's hand and drew his sword, crossing them over his head.

His eyes widened as he understood what was about to happen.

"You….shall not….passsssssss!" Arthas shouted as he slammed the staff on the ground.

"SHITTTTT!" He exclaimed.

"What! What happened?" Red asked, surprised at his sudden outburst.

"I….forgot to add that reference."

"Huh?"

"I can't believe I forgot to add the 'Lord of the Rings' reference! Dammit. How could I?"

….

"It's not a big deal."

"Well obviously it is. It's one of the classics. This was a meme before memes even existed."

"....I don't get it."

So he explained it in a language she understood. "If memes were Greek Gods then this was a Titan."

"Ah…."

It was Tiamat however who gave a solution to his problem.

"You can add any rewards you want to give him in the Quest Completion Rewards….if he completes the quest that is. If he doesn't….well it won't matter, would it?"

"Yes. Yes, that is a good idea."

"Great. Now, let's watch what they are up to."

And they did just that.

The horde of goblins rushed forward with reckless abandon.

Several Hobgoblins and Goblin raiders, falling into the traps dug on the ground injuring themselves.

"I don't understand why they used the wooden boards to cover the ditches. More goblins would have died if they removed those."

"Hmm." He nodded, not understanding their plans.

He did however notice that the ones who had been hurt by the traps were all poisoned so all those spikes were likely laced with poison.

It was when the hoard almost reached the gates, the soldiers quickly closed the gates and Arthas rushed to the top of the wall and quickly picked up a bow and arrow.

"Archers, light the arrows!" He commanded as he did the same.

"Take positions!"

Everyone took stances.

"Fire!"

Arrows ripped through the air, falling on the group of charging goblins and taking tens of them down….but most importantly, lighting the hay under their feet on fire.

The fire spread too quickly for it to have just been simple hay.

"They used oil with hay." Red said as she observed closer.

So that's why he was taunting them to come forward.

"Mages, take positions. Use a wind spell. Spread the fire!" He ordered and the mages all began casting spells in tandem, further increasing the speed at which the fire spread.

The goblins realised that they had fallen into a trap and wanted to retreat but their retreat was slowed by the pits they had dug. The wooden boards had caught fire and were breaking easily when pressure was put on them and more and more goblins were falling into the trap.

He noticed something else too.

"Something is wrong with the smoke."

A small twitch of his finger and all the information about the smoke appeared.

Chilli Powder and Paralytic Powder.

The smoke contained the vapours of both these things. It was making the smaller goblins fall like flies while the eyes and vision of the bigger ones was affected, making them attack those around them in panic.

The entire battlefield had turned into a chaotic mess.

Add that to the rain of fiery arrows and spells from the top of the walls and the farmlands had become a place where goblin lives were being reaped.

The larger goblins ploughed through the hordes of the smaller ones and tried to rush back.

And that's when a thundering sound was heard.

The group looked at the side, towards the mountains where the sound was coming from. The dam which changed the course of the river was blasted and a huge wave of water came rushing from the mountains, right towards the retreating goblins.

It washed off the goblins which had just come out of the water while effectively trapping the path of retreat of the ones fleeing.

The attackers on the wall kept firing arrows until they ran out of them.

When the fire finally died down, the gates were opened and what came out was surprisingly not soldiers but rather the hundreds of cows and bulls who charged directly into the burned down fields, crushing the goblins who had been too injured and incapacitated by the paralytic powder and poison.

Finally, Arthas appeared on the gate, the Knights and the Militia behind him.

He drew his sword and shouted. "For Lordaeron!"

….

The Knights and Militia looked around at him in confusion.

Ah, they didn't know Lordaeron.

The guy seemed to have realised it too and looked awkwardly before raising his sword again. "Justice shall be done!"

The Knights and Militia all shouted behind him this time as all of them rushed forward to take down the head of the Goblin Chieftain who had been riddled with injuries all this time.

The torrent of water had downed it before crushing it against the rocks, destroying one of its hands completely.

"Heh, that was quite well done. And he had the Goblin Slayer Class equipped. He was already the highest level player around that area and with this battle he might have reached far beyond others." Red commented finally.

"They did deserve the gains. He was in a party and the other two members also gained a lot of experience. Anyways, I need to decide what reward he should get for….figuring out a glitch in the game. Yes. A glitch."

"…. Are you really that bothered with the reference thing?"