Chương 30: F rank quest and auction
In order to decrease the costs and prepare for the war, the Unshakables departed this very day for the blazing hills. They met a few earth worms and scorpions that they quickly killed, but the journey was otherwise uneventful. In order to train them, Arthur took the lead and had everyone run for an extended period of time and almost no rest . Instead of 2 days, it took them 1 day to get there.
The blazing hills were a mountainous area, filled with rocks and sand, and the heat was really scorching. The vegetation was scarce and only succulent plants were present there. There were magic plants and could reach 20 meters in height.
At the top of a hill, in the ruins of a former town, the columns, crumbling buildings and status were the only remaining traces of what looked like a small civilization. There, the lizardmen were settled.
Ezyze told the stalkers and scouts to estimate their number and breakdown their numbers by rank. He also asked them to see if they had exit routes and ways to lower their losses.
After 2 hours or so, the scouts said that there were around 1750 lizardmen. Around 700 rank 1, 600 rank 2, 300 rank 3, and 150 or so rank 4. They confirmed that no rank 5 was present. The village was located on a hill, surrounded by bigger hills. A river that was frozen at night went down from surrounding hills and created trenches, by digging in the hill. Only a gentle slope was present at one side only. The slope went from the bottom, all the way to the top of the hill, above the village that was against a cliff.
---
Deep in the night, lizardmen were sleeping soundly. They had various tents, out in the open or in destroyed buildings. They had several fires ljt but only in the tents. Their village was surrounded by a 30 meters wall made of stones, that had several guards patrolling. The lizardmen were from the frilled lizard race and were around 2 meters tall or so. Their frill neck was deployed only when they were fighting or arguing, or basically wanted to look intimidating they are a very fast specy and seemed to have good eyesight.
The patrolling guards on the wall were chatting and messing around but kept walking around the village. The guards manning the gates had to stand up. Some of them were resting their shoulders on the gates, but kept standing. They were wearing leather armor and had a kopesh, a sickle shaped sword.
Thud, thud. The two guards were simultaneously hit by arrows in the face and their throat was cut by ambushing goblins stalkers. The stalkers and scouts managed to go on the wall and, working with the hunters and predators, managed to kill all the patrolling lizardmen.
The slime creator used her skills and was emptying her mana, creating poison slimes. The two shadow cat samurai, Ghoblin and the scouts went inside the village and killed a great number of sleeping lizards. The archers gathered atop the wall and were ready to fire. After killing 70 or so lizardmen, a rank 4 lizard sensed something. He was used to battles, killing earthworms, killer cicadas and these hateful scorpions. Was a late stage rank 4 and was very perceptive. He woke up, stood up, took up his kopesh and woke his companion up. When he excited the camp, his eyesight saw a shadow moving. Alert, he paid more attention, when suddenly he was attacked by a scout that tried to pierce his throat.
He manages to dodge the attack and was only grazed on the cheek. He deployed his frill and deployed a screeching sound, stunning the scout.
He slashed the scout, cutting off his left forearm.
He slashed horizontally but the scout ducked and jammed his dagger in his ribs. The lizardman shouted:
"ENEMY ATTACK, WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!!"
He slashed vertically but the scout managed to divert the slash on his right side, after falling down because of the shock from the attack.
On his but, the last thing that he saw was a sword.
Slash!
The goblin scout's head was flying in the air.
Alert, the lizardmen excited their tents, they were wearing leather and plate armor. They had bows and arrows, kopesh, longswords and spears. Then, they were greeted with volleys after volleys of arrows.many died, more were injured. Getting over the initial shock, they organized themselves and rushed for the wall, to kill the archers.
By this time, the scouts and the others had long escaped the camp.
When they moved around, poison slimes suddenly attacked them. While the poison and corroding effect were capable of harming and even killing enemies, rank 3s and 4s had greater Vitality and could last longer. When a slime was killed, it exploded, releasing poison in a sml radius. When the first slime exploded, all the others exploded as well. It created a panic,a form of madness. The lizardmen bumped into each others. Some of them were poisoned, seriously damaged or even killed. Some had hazy vision and others rage and hatred for their enemies. With the confusion, they collapsed tents, causing them to catch fire, this spreading the madness.
The archers jumped down the walls and ran away. 50 or so other lizardmen were dead and many were poisoned.
Running for their lives, the archers went down the gentle slope and close to the frozen river.
The fast lizardmen almost caught up to them. The archer crossed the river and entered the hoplites' rank that made up a shield wall, on the other side of the frozen River and gentle slope.
The lizardmen had to go through the hoplites in order toncross the frozen river, or had to climb cliffs since the slope was the only opening that one could exit the river by walking.
1630 lizardmen ran straight on the river and against the hoplites. The archers resumed firing from behind the hoplitesx killing many. The hoplites didn't bulge and started thrusting their spears in the lizardmen's ranks.
A brutal fight ensued.
Many lizardmen were climbing the cliff but Aries were waiting for them and killed them from the top of the cliff.
Located on the right of the hoplites and at the top of the cliff, the high goblins sent various magic spells, effectively destroying their side of the frozen river. The cracked ice eventually crumbled under the weight of the lizardmsn, who ended up drowning or killed by arrows and spells.
On the left side of the hoplites, further away, on the frozen river, the rest of the goblins, the spearmen, samurai and warriors made clancking noises with their spears and swords against their armors.
Alerted, the lizardmen charged against the new force.
On the frozen river, Ezyze, Rea, Arthur, Baal, Lampor and Zephyr charged at the lizardmen. Ezyze casted heavy mass designator on an enemy, in the middle of the lizardmen formation. He casted spatial spears, Baal threw hellfireballs, Arthur sent force swords and Zephyr sent wind slashes. The high goblins focused their magic in the middle of the area as well.
The frozen river once again crumbled under the various spells and weight of the lizardmen.
The 45 goblins and the 6 others were facing a force of around 300 lizardmen. The rest of their forces were otherwise in the cold waters of the river, or killed by hoplites, archers and mages.
The samurai showed the extent of their power. They had amazing reflexes and each slash of their sword coated with poison had the lizardmen's senses in shambles. The spearmen were fierce, savage warriors that killed everyone and everything on sight. The goblins were not bothered by injuries in the slightest. While their strong armors could tank blows, their regeneration was kicking in, making them able to keep fighting.
The horned goblins were impressive, their bodies empowered with Mana, they slashed and casted magic on their swords and created magic shields that made them impervious to enemies' attacks. The one horned goblin had even more firepower and his slashes also sent poison bolt on other enemies. Also, his hydra tail was either biting enemies, or sending poisonous smoke or poisonous breath.
The 4 goblin warriors had their bodies reinforced with mana. They were strong and fast and the winged goblin warrior was even stronger and fiercer.
Meanwhile, the goblin scouts killed the poisoned lizardmen, back at the camp and made their way to kill the other injured, poisoned and otherwise weakened lizardmen.
The Unshakables were strong and managed to kill every warriors.
After reaching the top of the cliff once again, they killed the swimming lizardmen and those that they forgot to kill.
After less than 3 hours since the start of the fight, the lizardmen were exterminated.
----
The Unshakables spent time collecting the lizardmen's bodies. The rank 4s had spikes coming out of the back of their heads and their spines. Their heads and spines were pulled out of their bodies. The other ones had their tongues cut off. They stripped the lizardmen naked and collected their armors and weapons. Gran would be able to process these materials into better weapons and armors. Still, their quality was fairly decent and they could be used in wars.
They returned to the camp and collected what could be collected. Ezyze saw the dead scout.
His heart was heavy and felt that it was squished.
He organized a burial, at the topmost of the mountain.
"Tonight, we are burying a brave warrior. He gave his life to finish his mission. He gave his life for the Unshakables to gain renown. You must burn this sight in your memory. If you are too weak, you get killed. Sharti heree took too much risks and was too weak. He was killed for the ninth time and we will see him only in the afterlife. We will soon join a war. We will be fighting proper armies that will have proper strategies and many strong individuals. If we don't manage to fight as one. If we don't get better individually, all the dreams that we have will be nothing but dreams for that we will be killed, destroyed by our foes. There is only so much that tricks and strategy can do. Bury this sight into your brain, my brothers and sisters, for this is the last time that I want to send away a dear member of our family."
Some cried, other clenched their fists tightly. The scouts and archers patrolled around the river in order they let a lizardman alive. The other slept. When the sun sent his earliest regards to the land, the Unshakables woke up and packed their things up. They waited for the river to melt and checked around, to see if they missed any corpse or weapon.
During the night, only 5 lizardmen turned out to have survived and they were tired and poisoned rank 3 monsters, that were dealt with by the scouts and archers.
After making sure that they didn't miss anything, froblin froze the part of the river where the gentle slope was and they all crossed the river and headed back to Suris.
On their way, they were attacked by earthworms and desertlion, a race of sea lions that were swimming in the sand.
Eager to better themselves, it took them less than a day to get back to Suris. There, Ezyze and Arthur went inside the mercenary guild and explained that the lizardmen were not 1000 but also double, 1750 and that many tier 4s appeared, which was not mentioned in the quest.
After giving them the heads and spine of rank 4s, as well as their tongues, they were given 7 gold coins and 50 silver coins.
The receptionist was the same Hobbit and was surprised to see them coming back so quickly. Thinking that they failed or wanted to give up on the quest, he sneered. He was shocked when he heard that they subjugated the lizardmen and his mind was blown when he heard that even rank 4s were present.
"You should update the paperwork, Hobbit. We are 146 now."
This meant that they only had one dead and were fighting more than 10 times their numbers. He changed his estimation of the Unshakables and added a "good potential" remark on the Unshakable's file.
Arthur and Ezyze went back to the Unshakables. Having made money, Ezyze rented several rooms in large inns. While they were like dormitories and had bunkbeds, it didn't prevent goblins from having sexe.
Ezyze realized that it was really tough to fight while being outnumbered, no matter how good the synergy between his units was. After asking the innkeeper for information, he went to a slave market, that had a slave auction that night, with Arthur.
They entered a big tent where various people and monsters had collars on their necks. These collars made them forcefully obey their master's command, and could allow potential buyers to see their classes, levels and skills. Ezyze was a chosen one. While he didn't have access to other people classes, levels and skills, it was another matter when they were displayed voluntarily or through magic artifacts. He could thus see the slaves' traits.
In the tent, they saw various humans, beastmen, elves, sirens, bipedal monsters and others with many limbs. The slave market was incredibly huge, and housed thousands of slaves. Ezyze wanted to buy slaves. While he thought to have them increase their numbers and potentially die instead of a family member, he was not against the idea of having them be true parts of the Unshakables, if they had the will and loyalty to do so.
In the market, several beings had potential, but only up to B rank. Ezyze decided to wait for the auction to see if better ones came.
The auction started with a blast. There were rabbit beastmen from a forest in the South of the Empire, Sirens and Elves that voluptuous bodies, tigermen and panthermen that had muscles and strong bodies. It seemed that most of the people here were buying slaves to make them sexe slaves, working in brothels or taking care of their own desires. The slaves could be sold from 10 silvers, to 100 gold coins. Young mistresses and masters outbid each others and an evil glint could be seen in their eyes when they could buy these people.
Eventually, different eggs and infant monsters were sold. They were likewise very expensive because they could be made into familiars or trained as mounts. One Egg, 'Egg of a purple geather Phoenix - legendary' was sold for 5000 gold coins. An infant 'red furred unicorn - legendary' was sold for 3200 gold coins. After that, a vampire count was sold for 200 gold coins. The auction died down until golems were sold. They were humanoid and looked like either statuses or sometimes cruder. Because they were being that always followed their masters' orders, at rank 1 and 2, they could be sold for 5 to 30 gold coins. Afterwards, sort of tribes were sold.
Elves of darkness, which had A Trait swordmanship and S Trait darkness born, were on display. There were 7 of them and they all had amazing traits and even classes. Ezyze really wanted them in his ranks and bid. He was eventually outbid and they were sold for 16 gold coins.
Piranhas like bipedal creatures called Murlocks, measured up to 1.4 meters. They were 20 of them and were sold for 10 gold coins.
Centaurs, rhinoceros beastmen, Nagas, and even Medusas were sold. Ezyze was outbid each single time by a 1 or 2 golds.
Dogmen, that had the loyalty S and earth elementals had Earth manipulation S. They were in groups of 10 or so and were sold for 8 gold. Ezyze was boiling.
After some time, a group of bipedal beings came on stage. They were called Tree trolls. And were apparently a cousin race of trolls that use to live perched in trees. They are known as a lazy race, but are however fierce and savage when they fight, showing incredible strength. Like every trolls, they are known for their Regenerative capabilities. They are tall beings, adults measuring around 2.5 meters and rank 4s and 5s are up to 4 meters tall. They have long hair, like a fur, all over their bodies, an angular mouth filled with razor-sharp canine teeth. They are actually the only troll surface with hairs all over their bodies.
They were 9 of them on stage, 4 males and 5 females. They were all muscular and were wearing nothing but a loincloth. The 5 females and 2 males had brown hairs and hair. They were around 2.5 meters tall, and all had the traits: Troll regeneration A and combat senses A. They didn't have classes but were otherwise rank 2 Tree troll - rare. The ashen grey troll with a close to 3 meters tall body has a warrior class - normal and is a rank 3 ashen grey tree troll - epic. He had the traits: troll regeneration A and Axemanship S, however he didn't have any axe related skills.
A 1.8 meters tall troll had yellow hairs. He was a male, still young and close to adulthood. He was a rank 1 tree troll and didn't have classes. He has the traits: troll regeneration A, Spear and Shield mastery S.
Ezyze had to have them. They were absolute monsters in the making and could boost his forces so much.
"We have on stage a rare tribe of Tree Trolls. They are calm creatures but otherwise strong fighters. They will make for great working slaves or good vanguard for clashes. While the females are bustling with muscles and quite ugly, they can be whipped and slashed, without fearing for them dying. The starting price is 50 silvers.
Ezyze (E): 50 silvers.
70 silvers
(E) 80 silvers.
1 gold coin
(E) 1 gold coins and 50 silvers
2 gold coins
(E) 2 gold coins and 50 silvers
...
(E) 4 gold coins."
Ezyze was now sweating. He was about to put the totality of the lizardmen subjugation reward into buying slaves.
"4 gold coins once, 4 gold coins twice..
5 gold coins!
(E)6 gold coins!
Hmmmpf! It is your loss! 6 gold coins for some slaves to be whipped, it is not worth it!
6 gold coins once, 6 gold coins twice.. and the 9 tree trolls are sold for 6 gold coins to the gentleman here.
Ezyze paid the 6 golds. The trolls had chains dangling from their metal collars. Every other buyer had the slaves' chains in hand, so Ezyze took them in his hands.
They went back to the Inn with Arthur.
He asked them:
"How did you end up here?
We were hunted by slave traders in the Eternal Mountain Range and were ultimately captured.
How were you living before?
We were a small tribe of 50 or so people. The others were killed. Tree trolls are often discriminated by other trolls because of our hairs and end up hunted or killed. We are a strong race, yet we don't have huge numbers. I know that some of our race are uniting, but they would have more than 1000 people.
And what did you want to do?
We wanted to be free and have a place to live. We didn't want others to make fun of us or hurt us because of who we are. We are strong people, but we can't win against numbers and constant oppression. We just wanted to fit in. What are you going to do to us? I can be whipped for the others, but please, don't harm the others, please master."
The tall adhen grey tree troll bowed, his face touching the ground. Every other member was also crying.
"You want to have a place to be free and yourself in, right? Well, think about it again. You will sleep here, in the bunkbeds at the end of the bedroom. Wait , don't go there yet. I won't be able to sleep."
Ezyze had many towels and woke up Zephyr, who was harmed with 2 sabers. The trolls thought that they would be tortured or killed. They were scared.
They went downstairs and entered a room filled with baths.
"Now, bath and wash yourselves. I won't be able to sleep. You stink too much."
The trolls were flabbergasted. They entered the warm water and had a warm bath for the first time of their lives. It was relaxing and they could have smooth hairs. When they went out of the bath, Zephyr casted a strong wind magic and dried them.
They all had fluffy hairs. They want back to the bedroom.
Arthur, Ezyze, Zephyr, and Rea were sleeping here. They now shared the place with 9 stinking tree trolls .
The next day, Ezyze and Arthur went to take another quest.
The Unshakables then exited Shuris and had a meeting. Ezyze said
"Yesterday, we bought these tree trolls. How did you end up this way? Why did you end up this way, and what did you want in life?"
They narrated their stories, explained that their weakness caused them to become slaves, and spoke about their dream of having a place where they would fit in and be free.
"Unshakables, take off your helmets!"
Ent goblins, arch goblins, golems, Aries, hydra goblins.. they were very diverse people. The trolls were shocked to see such diversity in a small group.
"Broblin, what do you want in the future?
To have a place to live in freely with our family master.
What about you, Rea?
To be a strong martial artist and to protect our own place.
What do you want in the future, Roland?
To be strong and to be happy with my family.
What about you, Baal?
To retrieve the long lost Aries glory and create our own place with family."
Ezyze asked each and every single one of them their dreams for the future. Each and every single one of then answered something along the line of having their own place, be happy with their family, and able to protect them.
"Now, I want the same thing. We have other people further away, and I have other people in another world that will soon join us. I want to create a place for us to live in, be free, and happy there. We first need to become stronger so as to protect ourselves."
He took off the slaves' collars. They were all far away from Shuris, and they could try to escape.
"You are free now. What do you think, do you want to try and create such a place with us?"
They all took a knee and vowed to serve Ezyze for the rest of their lives.
Congratulations, you had your first group of outsiders pledging their allegiance to you. You can summon 5 Aries.
SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO 
Greypanter
Greypanter Thank you for reading! imagine the tree trolls as very buff humanoids with long hairs bulging muscles and murderous teeth! Don't forget their regeneration and you find great warriors!
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