บท 10: What is a Pinnacle Commander?

(Author's Note: I added an extra chapter today to get ahead of tomorrow. It's here early. I am taking off tomorrow for writing. )

"Sensei, will you use the goblin lord and its forces to take the city?" Prince asked with metaphorical stars in his eyes.

Treech was in a good mood at seeing the first phase of his plan completed successfully. His heart was beating with the excitement of the challenge he was attempting. He sent the Goblin-Lord a few commands, to gather its underlings throughout the [Goblin Swampforest] and hang around the edges of the forest near [Forth Rite] city.

He was very happy that his wish succeeded. Lord-Class racial evolutions had an innate ability to command other beings of the same race, which naturally appeared within its territory. So by him taking over the Goblin-Lord, he could by extension have full control over the Goblin forces of the [Goblin Swampforest]. He was happy he had previously done experiments on the Yggdrasil domination system, commanding units, and war forces two weeks ago. It had a similar system to the strategy games he played often as he grew up.

Treech stroked his tree branches in contentment as he prepared to ask Prince a question like a real teacher.

"Kid, instead of answering your question, what do you think makes a good commander in war?" Treech questioned.

Prince bounced in excitement for finally getting to have his sensei take him seriously and teach him. He had thought that maybe he didn't want to teach him anything and he was imposing his will to learn on him one-sidedly. But soon he settled down and considered the question deeply.

"A good commander can take advantage of his enemies' weaknesses and maximize his strengths." A full 2 minutes passed before he answered.

"That is a textbook answer. Now, following that line of thinking, what would you think to be the pinnacle commander?" Treech smiled slightly.

Prince once more took 30 seconds to consider the question and give his answer.

"A pinnacle commander is an ideal. It would be a commander that wins a battle with 0 losses, right?" Prince answered as well as questioned Treech.

Treech took the [Shooting Star] ring off his finger and placed it back inside his inventory.

"Some people definitely agree with you on that answer," Treech said as he began to walk out of the fortress, unhidden. Prince kept up with him and took a look at the surrounding area as well. He realized that none of the goblin warriors or golounds were patrolling the area any longer and that his sensei must have sent them away to some location.

"What do you think a pinnacle commander is, sensei?" Prince asked.

"I agree that 0 losses are an ideal that can never be realized because that would mean a war did not happen. Wouldn't that just be an ambush or a slaughter? Doesn't make much sense to call it the pinnacle of command." Treech answered thoughtfully.

"I believe good commanders try to minimize their force's weaknesses, great commanders can do what good commanders can in addition to exploiting their opponent's weaknesses, and pinnacle commanders can embrace their force's weakness to turn it into a strength," Treech spoke in a bit of a daze, recalling his old memories.

He turned back to Prince when he heard the sound of a quill scribbling on a scroll hurriedly. He glanced an eye at the title again like usual and it read 'Teacher's Grand Wisdom Part 3: Art of Command'. He internally sighed that the kid made his advice seem so grand and was writing notes so thoroughly. Thankfully, nobody would see these embarrassing notes other than them.

"Sensei!" Prince paused his writing.

"What do you mean by turning weakness into a strength?" He asked, holding his quill out to continue writing immediately after the answer.

"Damn kid, put that scroll away! It's annoying as hell! What am I, an emperor? and you the royal scribe? This is the 22nd century!" Treech choked.

Prince hesitantly put the scroll away into his inventory, before bringing his attention back to the conversation.

"Cough*, well since you put away the scroll as I asked, I'll answer your question." Treech coughed to cover up the awkwardness.

"First you have to know the weakness of your forces, take for example the goblins. What is their greatest weakness?" Treech asked patiently.

"They fight in groups and aren't very well disciplined? They flee at a moment things go bad? They have a poor evolutionary..." Prince said but was interrupted by Treech.

"Stop, you got the answer at the second question you asked. It's their morale. They scatter the moment things start going south. But more importantly, they are well known for this habit." Treech concluded for him.

Prince nodded in agreement, following the line of thinking. It was true that commanding an army of undisciplined goblins would be nearly impossible. Actually, any army that was undisciplined would have low morale in general, but the goblins were 'well known' for their low morale and their scattering when things go poorly. There were strengths in numbers, after all.

"I don't understand sensei. How can you turn the goblin's low morale into a strength?" Prince asked.

"I can do it because the enemy is expecting this weakness. And with the correct guidance and manipulations, their weakness can be turned into bait for a trap. Just come with me and think over what I said. Just watch how I do things."

Treech continued walking around the [Goblin Swampforest] in different locations. He continued using an ability called [Awaken Tree], which he could use on any tree by touch. It came as a racial skill for the [Elder Treant] class. It did not have a limit on how many trees he could awaken, but the problem was they had to be a distance away from other Awakened Trees and they couldn't move or attack, only defend.

Prince took a look at a few of the trees curiously in his HUD as they walked passed.

========***++++***========

[Race]: Awakened Tree

Level: 40

Hp: 72

Mp: 12

========***++++***========

It was a fairly high-level monster, but it couldn't attacks or move. It seemed useless for offensive purposes and more for defending. After an hour of walking around the area, Treech finally stopped what he was doing. They had already walked back to the Agarthan tree at the end of the [Goblin Swampforest].

"Sensei, how long do those awakened trees last?" Prince asked, trying his hardest to piece together his teacher's plan in his mind.

"About 4 hours, now I need to spend about 10 minutes to recover my mana before the fun begins." Treech had an excited smile on his face.

Prince watched his teacher sit on the ground and begin doing something with his HUD. Meanwhile, he decided he would sneak off and finish writing his notes from earlier, hoping to review his teacher's lesson and maybe come up with the answer for pinnacle commanding was.

...

[6/25/1126 16:39:23]

At the edge of the [Goblin Swampforest] region, surrounding Forth Rite City.

A large legion of goblins was found patrolling near the edge of the forest. Complete with evolutions of the goblins, High-Goblin, Golounds, and the like. It caused quite a scare to see such a group of organized and armed goblins lined up at the edge of the forest as if waiting for something.

The players all gathered inside the city and alongside the elven defenders, discussing things.

"Do you think this is monster wave like what was posted on the forums in Midgard?" A familiar man in plate mail asked his other two companions. His name was [DinnerPlate].

"Boss, I snuck close to them and identified them on my HUD. It seems to be a natural monster wave like you mentioned happened in Midgard. It seems it was true that monsters will dynamically try to expand their territory." 2Rich4Me replied.

"Hmmm." Dinnerplate thought to himself quietly.

'Something doesn't feel right for me. Did they mention the monsters lined up in an organized manner before the expansion?' He thought to himself.

"2Rich, are you certain they appeared red on your HUD? Check your game logs in case they are summoned player units." Dinnerplate demanded.

2Rich4Me quickly scanned through his game logs carefully, but there was no notice of them being summoned or player-controlled units.

"No boss, there isn't anything in my game logs." He shrugged his shoulders.

"Then why would they line up and just wait like that?" Dinnerplate mumbled. But the other two heard him clearly.

"I found something on the forum about a goblin-lord that could spawn and cause what we are seeing," MamaHots added to ease Dinnerplate's anxieties.

Suddenly, they all received a notice on the HUD of a quest.

========***++++***========

City Wide Quest:

Conquest of the Goblin Swampforest/Defense of Forth Rite City

Description: Set out and help subdue the goblin-lord which has come out of its fortress inside the [Goblin Swampforest]. Remove all the goblins and create a safer area for [Forth Rite] city. Defend the city from harm.

Rewards:

100 exp per goblin killed.

[Forth Rite] City reputation increased by 25.

========***++++***========

They all stared at their HUDs while they read the notice. 2Rich4Me shrugs his shoulders at the look DinnerPlate still has on his face.

"Boss, your gut feeling can't always be right. Look, they even sent out a quest notice. It looks like an expected scenario from the city."

Dinnerplate followed behind his friends as they joined the elven troops that were marching out towards the Goblin army.

'I have a bad feeling about this.'

...

"Sensei, it has been 10 minutes!" Prince came back from his writing and reminded Treech.

"Ah? I guess so." Treech said. He cast fly on himself and flew up to his temporary home on the Agarthan tree branch. Prince followed after him with a problem.

In the distance, they could see a large 30k+ army of elves fanning out around the goblin army's exposed position. A commanding elven general rode out in front of the forces, leading a charge.

"I guess it is time." He sent the Goblin-Lord one final command using his High-Command Skill: Morale Boost. It was a command skill he only got after evolving his Commander class into the High-General class. It would provide a morale boost to another commander under him so that his mere presence would inspire troops to continue fighting. Immediately afterward, he canceled his 'Dominate' effect that [Wish Upon A Star] had caused to the Goblin-Lord.

Immediately after, the Goblin-Lord found itself confused, but it felt an overwhelming sense of morale that it could defeat the enemies in front of it. It had perfect confidence that it could finally take back its rightful territory. It yelled out charge in Goblin tongue and lead its 12k+ troops to attack the elven forces.

The forces clashed as expected, but the elves were abnormally surprised at the ferocity of the goblin's attacks. Their morale and viciousness were abnormal and almost suicidal.

Of course, Treech had planned for all of this. He had done numerous tests on the combat system during his days stuck here in Yggdrasil. He knew that the game wouldn't let him get away with mind-controlling a leader and attacking a city, without notifying the attacking party that he was really the one attacking them. Even if troops were controlled indirectly, Yggdrasil would still notify players of the true mastermind behind the attack if it was a player.

So he experimented with morale-boosting applications and their effects on the AI. It seemed that morale was a kind of 'hidden stat' of the AI. Some summoned units or natural monsters of Yggdrasil would flee when their morale got low and the same would happen during big battles like this. Should an army start losing, their morale would drop. The only exception to this rule was undead and constructs. They didn't seem to have any form of morale as they operated mechanically.

This had led him to put his SP into a Commander class and skill it up, hoping to find a morale-boosting skill. He found it after getting the [High-General] class. And this has led to the current situation, where the AI continues to fight in such an absurd circumstance of 30k+ against 12k+ goblins. And the Yggdrasil system registers it as a part of the world due to him removing his influence from the Goblin-Lord.

'Hell, the players may have even gotten a quest.' Treech joked internally.

"The second stage of the plan is complete." Treech smiled excitedly as he watched the majority of the goblins get killed, but they attacked the elven forces like brave men. Are goblins brave? Now they finally have a tale of their bravery.

Prince watched the battle from afar, his anticipation growing to see the final parts of his teacher's plan.