Chapter 18 - More goblins

'SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT – You have accepted Green Brook Village. As this is your first subdued Village, You have received 100 achievement points'

'SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT – You have subdued your first village and have been rewarded with 1 x City Profession Stele'

Jack smiles to himself as he says to all the goblins that are still kneeling, "Rise!" but they all remain where they are afraid to make a peep. Jack scratches his head and looks to Drakon who is expressionless as usual.

Jack peers around the village and notices that several of the wolves are now encroaching upon the city, eyeing the goblins as juicy defenceless pieces of meat. Fenrir is just eyeing the goblin leader as though he is also a piece of meat.

Jack can sense that this is going to quickly become a massacre if he doesn't take control. He orders Fenrir to step back and take the wolves far away to hunt for their own food. The group of wolves slowly leave reluctantly but unwilling to challenge Fenrir for the leadership position. They are all D to E rank wolves, while Fenrir is S rank, a King rank and has improved its race into the Mutated Grey Wolf – Hellfire Wolf.

The wolves leave; Jack, Drakon, the two horses they brought and the 30 or so goblins kneeling are all that's left. Jack is overlooking the Goblins but his headaches aren't over just because the wolves left. He has a new headache and curses to himself for his poor planning, 'how is he going to get these goblins back to his village?'.

Jack steps over to Drakon and asks his opinion, Drakon has none and suggests asking the Goblins if they have any carts available in the town. Jack agrees that it's a good idea to ask the goblins, "I am your lord now, if you are to be my subjects you need to prove your worth…. Umm, as you have just submitted to me, we need to transfer you to our village along with all of your supplies, does anyone have any carts?" Jack bluntly asks the group of still kowtowing goblins.

The goblin leader starts to speak but it's in the goblin language, he's speaking a lot and quite fast with his deep throaty sounds, it doesn't sound like he is speaking any words just making a long string of strange noises. This goes on for several moments, if Jack were able to understand him all he would hear is, "MIGHTY DRAGON LORD PLEASE HAVE MERCY ON MY SMALL VILLAGE WE ARE ONLY A SINGLE FAMILY THAT HAS BEEN KICKED OUT OF OUR TRIBE LEFT TO DIE ON THESE POISONOUS PLAINS" but Jack hears none of that.

Jack is starting to feel frustrated; he just wants to leave this area but instead they're forced to stand here looking like idiots with a group of goblins. He decides to just ignore the Goblin and check out their little village.

There's only 6 or so grass huts, the huts are just woven dried grass from the plains. Most of the huts are used for sleeping, one of them is used to store their things such as clothing, food and weapons. Mostly just scraps of fur, hide, leather and a bunch of sticks. There are a few rusty swords that look like they've weathered countless years out in the open.

The last hut contains a lot of bones for some reason, a lot of animal bones but also humanoid bones. Jack almost immediately felt like hacking down the goblins in case they're a group that has preyed on humans previously but upon looking at the bones, they're all old and brittle as if they've been exposed to the sun and elements.

They're rather interesting as Jack hasn't seen many of the creatures within the game world before but not what he needs currently. Jack isn't sure what he can do, he returns to Drakon to ask him but his response is less than helpful, "Your Majesty, you need to solve this problem yourself". Jack feels like slapping Drakon because of this response but calms himself as Drakon does have a point. He needs to deal with situations like this himself to grow from the experience.

Jack thinks for a few moments then starts to pile up all of the goblin's resources to the front of the kowtowing group. Many goblins are watching this, quietly speaking to each other. The goblin leader also sees this but watches Jack closely, he stands up and makes a few hand gestures to Jack.

His hand gestures indicate that he thinks Jack wants to make a pile of all their stuff to which Jack nods his head, the goblin leader then indicates with his hands they will then take that pile away from here. Jack also nods his head feeling relieved that finally some communication is happening between the two. Jack then draws a carriage similar to the merchant ones that he has seen previously in the dirt.

The goblin leader sees this and draws on the dirt too, he places an X on the ground and not too far away draws another X with a line connecting both of them. Jack is confused at what this represents and calls over Drakon as while Jack needs to solve this problem himself, he should be able to consult with his trusted aides.

"I think it's showing us another village, perhaps they have a carriage" Drakon states his opinion quickly returning to his statue-like imitation. Jack mulls over this information, he needs to acquire some way to transport the goblins and their stuff but going to another village is risky right now as they were barely able to take over this village without hassle. Jack has used up all his qi thus is unable to display the same fireball move like earlier.

High in the sky, the two red & blue luan birds are flying around playfully without a care in the world as though they own the current sky. Jessica is able to see through the eyes on the luan bird and she is able to see everything Jack and Drakon have done. She can clearly see Jack's frustrated expression and it brings a smile to her face, payback for the time he was joking around while she had no clothes.

Jessica's vision turns away from the goblin village, Green Brook and into the distance, there's another goblin village but this one is roughly 100km away and much larger, it's partially dug into a hill side so she is unable to see the whole extent of the village but there are roughly 2000 goblins that she can see.

Jessica's vision then turns away as the Red & Blue Luan birds head towards a different direction, she takes one last look at Jack as they leave. Her eyes linger for several moments while she can feel her heart speed up slightly, she wishes that she could stay with him forever and be with him right now. She breathes deeply and her vision shifts to the horizon as she thinks to the future, they will be together for a long time and there is still plenty of time in the future.

Her vision shifts once again but this time it's upon a single house amongst the wilderness, a small happy family. A father, a mother and two young children, they're all helping with preparing a deer, the mother helping the father, the two children getting bloody and messy but having fun and dirty. Jessica's eyes start to tear up as she remembers that her own family was never like this but she has the opportunity now to try again. The birds now fly off high into the sky, losing sight of the land below.

Jack is thinking about his problem and decides that he should check out the goblin village that has been pointed out. He asks Drakon who expresses that it's not a good idea but it's a possible solution to their problem right now. Jack tries to ask the goblin leader where the village is, he just points east.

Jack peers towards that direction and can see nothing beyond a slight hill sticking up out of the plains area. Drakon also peers in that direction too but he furrows his brows as though he can see the distance, he doesn't mention anything. Jack says a few words to the goblins not knowing if they understand but they're still gathering all their useless junk into a pile.

The two people then jump onto their horses, Jack lets out a whistle to signal to Fenrir and his black fur can be seen running quickly towards Jack, its tail wagging as though it's a normal dog. Jack is curious if this is a normal reaction that wolves have or if it's something programmed into the game. He quickly refocuses his mind as that's entirely irrelevant to the matter at hand.

The horses and wolf are travelling quickly, roughly 70km p/h. Jack feels it's quite thrilling to be riding on a horse going as fast as a car but it quickly becomes scary. Jack has never ridden a horse before playing the game and now he's riding on a massive saddle-less horse that has scales instead of fur and hide. It does have a mane luckily but that's much solace while bouncing around on the back of the horse.

While Jack is struggling to stay on the back of the horse, Drakon comes to the side of them. They're now out of eyesight of the goblin village. "Lord, I recommend we scout the village first" he states. Jack quickly nods his head; he also had this idea and was going to mention it as they got closer.

The two of them a riding for roughly 45 minutes when they start to slow down, the hill is within their sight but they can already see a bunch of walls. It appears that this goblin village is more of a goblin town along with town walls. It's still on the plains but presses up against the hill, luckily there are a few more trees around becoming a partially forested area.

The two of them hide the horses behind some trees and rocks and walk closer on foot, attempting to be stealthy. They get within 5km of the wall and can see a lot of activity, the goblins actually have people stationed on the walls in defensive position. Jack is starting to feel self-conscious; his village is nothing compared to this goblin town.

They can also see over 100 goblins outside the walls, hauling various resources inside the walls. They do appear to have several carts being pulled in but they also appear to be things they've looted as some of them have bodies on them and nearly all of them have blood stains in various spots.

Upon seeing this, Jack quickly makes a decision to leave quickly. They might have been able to handle a village of goblins similar to the last one but not one this massive with defences added into the equation. They go back to the horses and quickly jump on and start to ride away but as they don't get too far when they hear shouting from behind them followed by the sounds of a trumpet like instrument being blown, warning everyone in the area of the intruders.

Jack can feel his heart speed up but he focuses his mind on riding, holding onto the mane while lifting himself to the best of his ability from the horses back. Fenrir is bringing up the rear, luckily the goblins are small and don't have any horses either so they're unable to catch up.

Unfortunately, there are some goblins holding spears directly in front of their path out of the area. Jack draws out his sword and attempts to circulate his qi but is unable to draw upon any, he feels empty. Fenrir notices the goblins blocking the path and races to the front.

The giant wolf quickly comes upon the goblins and snorts a bunch of fire, they make way and the group escape this line leaving all of the goblins far behind.

There is some more shouting from behind and peering back, Jack can now see that there are several wolves behind them but these wolves have goblins riding on the back of them. Jack is surprised to see these goblin riders; he had thought they might exist but seeing them in this situation isn't exactly welcome.

They continue to ride for a couple of minutes but the wolves are able to keep up somehow, Fenrir moves into action again. These wolves have been influenced by the goblins but they look almost exactly the same as the common grey wolf of Fenrir's pack.

Fenrir stops running while Jack and Drakon quickly shoot past him, Jack wants to stop Fenrir from doing anything like this and just keep running but chooses not too as Fenrir obviously has some sort of plan.

*AWOOOOO*

Fenrir lets out a mighty howl, a pressure from its King bloodline spreads out as the aura fills the entire area. The goblin rider's wolves immediately feel this pressure and stop in their tracks, the goblins on their back are hitting them with their riding sticks, poking them with their knives but the wolves don't move and one by one lay on the ground.

Fenrir snorts and lets out a growl, when the wolves laying on the ground hear this, they immediately start to attack the goblins on each other's back. Very quickly there is just a bloody mess on the ground as the wolves' resume laying down on the ground.

Fenrir lets out another grunt and resumes chasing after Jack and Drakon, the extra wolves are now following behind them. They're equipped with saddles and have various weaponry within the saddles still, it looks rather silly but there are roughly 20 of them.

The mad dash continues and quickly they return to Green Brook village, the horses are panting, Jack and Drakon aren't much better. The wolves are also there laying on the ground shivering, Fenrir hasn't let them off and is seemingly disciplining them.

Jack jumps off the horse and lays on the ground, his body is tired and sore from all that running. He wants to continue to lay there for a few moments but remembers that this probably doesn't look good as the new leader of this goblin group. He quickly stands up and attempts to put on regal airs.

The goblins are just standing around looking at the group of people, horses and wolves. They feel nervous but these new wolves aren't threatening them so they're unsure what to do. The goblin leader looks at the new wolves that have saddles and walks up to Jack.

The goblin leader grabs Jack's attention and tries to communicate with gestures again, he motions to the group of goblins and then the wolves making a riding motion as though he's holding onto the saddle.

Jack's eyes go wide as though he didn't even think about this, they were after a method to move this group of goblins back to their village and sought out a cart or carriage. They didn't get a cart or carriage but they did get a troop of wolves that are equipped for goblins to ride them. Jack starts laughing almost madly to himself, he can't believe how well that worked out. He nods his head to the goblin leader while telling Fenrir to let the goblins prepare to ride the wolves.

Fenrir almost rolls its eyes at Jack as if saying, "Duh!". The group start to prepare the wolves, they start to attach their more valuable junk to various wolves who are laying submissively on the ground still.

Jack lets the goblin continue as they're doing, they all seem rather subservient at the moment, while he goes to the village heart. It's a tiny orb no bigger than a finger nail, Jack places his hand on it and a prompt appears before his eyes:

'Would you like to relocate or destroy this city heart?'

Jack presses on the relocate button as the tiny city creation stone appears in his hand, it's different to the last city heart as it's not absorbed into his body. Looking at the information provided:

[Goblin City Creation Stone] Grade: White Description: A city creation stone that is able to create a single goblin village. Note: Can only be used by Race: Goblin

Jack closes the prompt and puts away the city creation stone, he feels like he has accomplished much coming out here and jumps back onto his horse. He is waiting for the goblins to finish up when; a trumpet like sound can be heard in the distance.

Jack remembers that this sound is like the goblin village used, it's still some distance away but it shows they're going to run into problems staying around here much longer. The goblins start to panic as they know which group is responsible for making this noise.

The goblin leader is barking out orders quickly and within a few minutes they're all finished and attempting to sit on the wolves, they're not very successful but one could see the determination on their face.

Jack indicates for them to start moving, Fenrir lets out a growl to tell the wolves to move as the trumpeting sound is getting closer but still out of eye sight. Fenrir lets out a howl to call back his pack and they congregate quickly, almost all of them have some blood around their mouths, several of them have protruding bellies but they're not eyeing the goblins as though they're meat anymore.

Jack makes a decision and speaks to Fenrir as though it's a person, he tells it to lead its pack in the opposite direction that they're going to head as to lead off the goblins. They shouldn't be able to tell the group of wolves they're trying to follow aren't theirs.

The two groups separate as the wolves go one way and Jack, Drakon, the horses and the group of goblins on wolf back head in the other.