บท 8: Goblin village

"Come try my special soup!" The military chef shouted while laughing.

"Guys, hurry up Donny is making his special soup again."

"What's this special soup?" Vernos asked John.

"Sir, Donny has a talent for cooking, on special occasions, he makes a soup that tastes amazing. All the soldiers love it." John replied he wanted to run over there and eat it but he knew he couldn't.

"Well, what are we waiting for then let's go," Vernos said as he walked towards Donny.

As the soldiers saw him walking towards them they all made their way and walked past.

"Donny, I heard you make a good soup. Let me try some."

"Of course sir, here you go," Donny said while handing a bowl of soup. He made sure to put extra meat for Vernos.

As Vernos was eating it was silent and he could guess why. Nobles don't eat with the soldiers. Nobles see soldiers' food as dirty and for peasants. That is why everyone was surprised when he went to eat the soup Donny made. Especially Donny, the most honorable thing for a chef was the emperor eating your food. The second most honorable thing was a noble eating your food.

"This is pretty good. You have talent, I want to open a restaurant and I want you to be the head chef. What do you say?" Vernos thought Donny had talent and wanted to use him. He wouldn't let such a talented chef waste his abilities being part of the military.

"I would be honored, Sir." Donny was excited. Even though everyone liked his food it wasn't the same as a noble liking your food. Vernos even went as far as to make him the head chef at his future restaurant.

"Sir, urgent report!" A scout ran up to Vernos while shouting.

"Speak."

"Sir, we found a goblin village ahead." The scout spoke directly.

"What? A goblin village? Are you sure?" Vernos was surprised he didn't expect a goblin village to be in his territory.

"Yes, Sir we are positive. We counted over 300 combatants and a goblin chief." The scout was shaking while he reported.

The scary part about goblin chiefs is that they are stage 3 monsters. The goblin chief can be a mage or a knight but it will always be at stage 3. Thinking back to the stage 2 mage that they fought, this goblin chief was probably a mage.

"Send messengers to all teams and tell them to regroup at my location, we will destroy this village."

"Yes, sir."

"Lucas come to my tent we need to talk." Vernos looked at Lucas and then walked into his tent with Lucas following right behind.

"Lucas, I am gonna need you to take care of the goblin chief. He might be a mage so be careful."

"Don't worry Sir, it won't be a problem." Lucas was confident in his abilities as a stage 4 knight. "There is a big difference between stage 3 and stage 4."

"Good, I believe in your abilities. Other than fighting the chief when he shows up don't interfere unless you have to." This was a good training opportunity and Vernos wouldn't let it go to waste.

"Sir, all team leaders are here." A soldier reported.

"Good, call them in." Vernos gave the order.

"Sir, we heard they found a goblin village is that true?"

"Are we gonna attack it?"

"Sir, with all due respect the troops aren't ready."

As soon as they came in they all started talking at the same time.

"Silence!" Vernos shouted which caused everyone to stop talking.

"We have a stage 4 knight 10 stage 2 knights over 50 stage 1 knights and over 900 stage 0 knight apprentices. Do you guys really think we can't destroy this village?" Vernos scolded

"Sir, there is a big difference between stages, those 300 goblins are gonna be at stage 1." One team leader replied.

"The goblins are dumb and we are smart as long as we use our brains we can easily destroy them," Vernos said while looking at Lucas. "Lucas tell them the strategy."

"We will lead groups of goblins at a time and surround them. When they notice they will send out their stage 2 mages and when they do you guys need to be ready. Our 10 mages will support you with spells. After you kill the stage 2s you can help with the stage 1s and it will be easy to pick them off after that. I will take care of the goblin chief but I won't help with anything else, you guys need to be careful." Lucas gave out this simple plan. Against normal humans, this plan wouldn't work but goblins are dumb and arrogant so it is the perfect plan.

After the military meeting, the team leaders gathered their troops and implemented the plan. The knight apprentices would lead them into a trap where knights would surround them.

"There is a group of about 30 goblins." A scout reported

"Let me do it be ready," Vernos told the soldiers

"Confusion." Vernos used a spell that nobody had ever seen before.

"Sir, what?" One of the mage apprentices questioned.

"This is a confusion spell, I invented it." Vernos shamelessly took credit for creating the spell. "Hurry they are coming."

After saying that a group of 30 goblins came running toward Vernos. Vernos used the confusion spell to make him look like a giant piece of meat.

"Okay, they are here hurry surround them." It didn't take long for them to be surrounded by 50 knights. It was 50 human knights verse 30 goblin spearmen, as you can imagine it was a one-sided slaughter.

"Clean up and find another group, we have to hurry before they notice," Vernos ordered

They repeated the process once more before the village noticed.

"They noticed, get ready this is where the real battle starts." As vernos said this, an army of 200 goblin spearmen 4 goblin mages and one goblin chief walked towards them.