บท 11: Grand Manipulation

(Author's Note: I said I wouldn't write today, but I was addicted to writing. I reserve the right to skip tomorrow in compensation for my actions.)

The battle between the elven troops, the players, and the goblins under the Goblin-Lord went on for another 10 minutes more. Powerful spells were thrown across both sides, from the Goblin Shamans and the Magic Casters. Players lept at the goblins with different energies and classes that they had. Some of them were enhanced with Qi, others mana, and even some players who were also commander classes: commanded some troops on the scene.

The goblins exerted more pressure than they should have, upon the elven and player forces. But obviously, this wouldn't last long as all the players were on the elven troop's side, in addition to the vastly superior numbers in the elven army. The goblin medics ran out of mana to cast their healing spells and the Morale Boost skill wore off after only 10 minutes on the Goblin-Lord.

This was all within calculations for Treech, and he watched the short end of the battle with an interested expression. He wondered if things would truly go as he had envisioned and practiced. He truly hoped his luck wouldn't run out after his first two successes.

"Kid, take a look." Treech reminded Prince to watch the battle closely, as it was going to be a complete win for the elven forces and looked to be the turning point.

Prince watched the battle as the Morale Boost had just worn off, leading to the chaos happening within the goblin forces. The Goblin-Lord lost all his confidence and began a full retreat, back to his fortress in the [Goblin Swampforest]. The goblins turned and retreated in full desperation into the swamp forest's woods.

"Sensei is this... I am very confused.." Prince started to have doubts about this plan. He couldn't understand why his sensei would let the goblin forces take such a large loss and route into a retreat.

"Stop. Let me just explain it to you. I've given you enough time to think on your own, but you still haven't understood." Treech sighed and shook his head lightly.

Prince felt shame for having not been able to understand his teacher's first lesson on the Pinnacle of Command. He felt his face burning with shame, but his drive to learn from his sensei and become stronger, was more important than his shame. His blob-like body bent at a 90-degree bow as he apologized.

"Please teach me, sensei!" He said in a slightly disappointed voice.

"Mhmm. I will explain how to turn the weakness of the goblins, into a strength. It is through the use of information control, that we can do this. Only the fact that the enemy AI believes goblins to be filled with low morale the opponent AI will follow through and attempt to secure their territory. This is an information deception used for dealing with the Yggdrasil AI. From my research and time in Yggdrasil, I have done experiments and recorded how the AI operates and makes decisions. It is highly advanced and can make decisions mimicking humans, but this is also a weakness for intelligent races. The NPC's of Yggdrasil operates on a principle of efficiency according to its parameters, for example, the wood-elf army of [Forth Rite] City is a defender setting and it prioritizes the defense and security of the area. Monster territory expansion is common, so taking advantage of opportunities and weaknesses of nearby monsters will be common for them." Treech said in a long monologue explanation of the information deception strategy he had in place for the NPC's of [Forth Rite] city.

"This was only for deceiving the NPC's of [Forth Rite] city defense force. I have also considered the players that are currently at [Forth Rite] city, so I have attempted to manipulate the Yggdrasil system, indirectly to hand out a Goblin-Hunting quest of some sort for the players defending the City. I didn't know if this would actually happen, however, I believed that even if the players were not deceived, I could still take the city down as long as the NPCs were." Treech's eyes gleamed in anticipation.

Prince was deep in thought, now that the reasons for his actions were revealed. He was using the low morale of the goblins to lure the elven NPC army into following them as they scatter back into the [Goblin Swampforest]. The NPC's hoping to finish the goblins off and secure the surrounding territory of [Forth Rite] city. And from what Prince read on the Yggdrasil forums, his sensei had triggered a quest for players to hunt down the goblins and defend the city as he suspected, resulting in a two-fold deception.

"But sensei, what is the trap? Why lure the NPCs and players into the [Goblin SwampForest]? I don't understand" Prince asked.

"Ah, that isn't where the trap actually is." Treech shook his head as he started microing some things on his HUD. He was actually canceling his outstanding skill effects on the [Awakened Trees] he had created an hour earlier, returning them to normal trees. He would do this at the last possible moment to prevent the players or elven army from noticing his [Awakened Tree] units. It wouldn't impact things too much, but he still tried to no tip them off that another player's units were there.

"It isn't in the [Goblin Swampforest]? But the goblins will attempt to retreat back to the [Fort Gree-Ood] fortress. How could it not... wait?!" Prince suddenly had a lightbulb moment as he remembered the [Awakened Tree]'s identified from his HUD earlier that he thought were rather useless since they couldn't attack or move. Could they have some other purpose?

"The [Awakened Tree]'s!!" Prince gasped in recognition.

"Hahaha, now you are finally catching on!" Treech laughed and smiled.

"Through my experiments with the morale system, I found that when a creature's morale is low, they will always choose to flee from fights of other monsters, as long as the monster is more than half their level. So what do you think would happen when goblins, with their innate aversion to danger and senses, sense my [Awakened Tree]. It is normally a useless ability as the trees can only act as defenders but in this case. The goblin's morale is already low from the enemy and they are fleeing. Would they risk approaching a monster whose level is 40?" Treech shook his head no to give away the answer.

"Just watch," Treech said.

Prince watched as the goblins rushed into the woods and started weaving through the trees in the swamp forest. They slowly steered towards the location of the Agarthan tree they were currently standing on. The goblins were originally running back towards the fortress but suddenly started running this way. There were a few stragglers that didn't but the majority were directed along the path of [Awakened Tree]'s his sensei had placed earlier. He slowly started connecting the dots as he realized the wood elf army and the players followed the goblins like sheep being corralled, leading them right to them.

Prince shuddered at the realization of how amazing of a strategist his sensei was to come up with a plan like this. He also realized that the ambush location was the [Star-Dust Forest]. He didn't know what his sensei had in store for the ambush, but he was confident that whatever it was. Nothing would escape, just as planned.

He hurriedly took out his scroll notes from earlier and started to record the details of what he understood now. He was very excited to see so many amazing things from his sensei and he was very grateful he met him.

"Alright kid, now it's time for you to hang out a bit far away from here. I'll cast [Perfect Unknowable] on you so you can watch the fun." Treech said.

"Yes, Sensei!" Prince said with zeal. Treech quickly cast the 9th Tier spell [Perfect Unknowable] on both of them and they disappeared.

...

The elven and player forces of [Forth Rite] city.

"Attention all forces! Hunt down and eliminate the remaining goblin forces for the peace of [Forth Rite] city! We cannot allow them to regroup and regain an attack against us. For peace and justice!" The NPC elven High-Commander, Adrius, commanded from atop his Warhorse.

"Peace and Justice!" The wood elf army chanted back as they marched into the [Goblin Swampforest] following behind the retreating goblin forces. A few magic caster players cast [Fly] on themselves to scout the retreat path, which they reported to the elven commander Adrius. The players who had all participated in the defense mission were quite happy with all the experience and reputation they had gained.

There were a little over 1,000 players here and some of them had already posted about their 'monster wave' event on the forums. It had incited some jealous remarks at their seemingly easy victory and quest exp gain.

Meanwhile, not everyone was gung-ho about following the goblins and NPC elves into the [Goblin Swampforest] territory. DinnerPlate held back 2Rich4Me and MamaHots from following. They were currently arguing.

"I am not following. I've been having a bad gut feeling for a while now, and it has never been wrong." DinnerPlate explained in exasperation towards the other two, who both looked annoyed at missing out on easy exp.

"But Boss.."

"No means no. Let's head back to the city and talk to the nobles. With our increased reputation, we can get better quests now." Dinnerplate already started walking back towards the city. MamaHots followed after along with 2Rich4Me, but not without them sighing in disappointment.

...

[6/25/1126 16:59:59]

The goblin lord was finally cornered as it ran alongside its guards and fleeing forces. It couldn't understand why it was so confident before, but it knew it made a huge mistake and all that mattered now was retreating at all costs. It dodged and weaved through the forest, but it kept sensing powerful monster trees in the direction towards its fortress! It couldn't afford to fight them right now so it commanded its guards and forces to go around them.

But things weren't so simple. It kept finding the monster trees each time it tried to loop back towards its fortress. It looked back behind it as the elven army was only a few hundred meters behind it. It cursed the damn monster trees as now it was impossible to return to its fortress. The elven forces were blocking the way towards it now!

All it could do was keep running and it resolved in its heart to take back its territory at all costs. To remove all elves, humans, and those monster TREES from its territory once and for all. It broke through the clearing in the [Goblin Swampforest] and entered into the [Star-Dust Forest] connected to it. It glanced around at the specs of silver starlight in the area and snorted coldly.

Its territory was more beautiful than this one. Just look at those giant trees. How could any goblins use that for hunting and hiding? It commanded his forces to head towards a black tree that was different from the rest. It had winding roots that looked climbable and safe. It screamed its commands in goblin language to the remaining 3k+ goblin forces in the area.

They marched to the base of the Agarthan tree hurriedly.

...

The elven and player forces followed the goblins soon after, and immediately noticed the strange black Agarthan tree that was different from the other redwood trees in the [Star-Dust Forest]. The wood elves marched on fearlessly and determined to wipe out the remaining 3k goblins that were fleeing, along with the goblin lord. Their forces still numbered slightly about 21k, including the players.

They entered the forest and camped at the base of the Agarthan tree, not climbing it yet as the goblins could be seen from players casting the [Fly] spell and scouting the branch up top. But just as all the players and chosen wood elf champions were ready the climb the tree, they heard an ethereal, but loud voice appears from a flying heteromorphic player next to the tree.

"Nice to meet you, people of Forth Rite City."

(Author's Note: I really want to put the joke here that he says "Nice to meet you, people of the slane theocracy" just like Ainz, but I won't.)