After resting for a few days, Count Nigel made his decision: the wounded who had not yet recovered and could not fight in the short term would remain at Fort Morris to recuperate, while the main force continued to advance into the heart of the goblin-occupied territory.
Horns blared in the early morning, and the army once again set foot on the dirt road leading west.
After leaving the castle, the terrain gradually became rugged. The flat plains were left behind, replaced by rolling low hills, with small slopes visible everywhere.
According to the intelligence brought back by the noble scouts, the goblin lair was located deep within the Cliffside Mountains to the southwest.
Roger had heard people mention the state of those mountains several times during the march.
The mountains were steep, riddled with cliffs and rifts, with only a few mountain paths passable.
Hearing this news, Roger couldn't help but feel that a lot of people would die in this battle.
Based on his experience from reading history books, novels, and watching movies before transmigrating, mountainous terrain had always been easy to defend and difficult to attack. The defenders only needed to hold a few key passes, and they could stall the advance of an entire army with just a handful of troops.
Moreover, goblins were naturally adapted to such harsh terrain. Scaling mountains and crossing ridges was no different from walking on flat ground for them.
The noble coalition army wouldn't be able to deploy properly on the narrow mountain roads. When the time came, they would have no choice but to throw lives at it, wave after wave.
But Roger was not a decision-maker, and his current strength was nowhere near enough to influence the decisions of those noble lords. All he could do was try his best to ensure he didn't die on the battlefield when the time came.
The march was long, boring, and tedious, with no skirmishes occurring. Thus, Roger squeezed out as much free time as possible, dedicating all his energy to practicing his skills. He even politely declined when Irene and other mercenaries came over to chat and build rapport with him.
After all, they were getting closer to the goblin stronghold. The more he practiced, the greater his chances of survival.
During this process, 【Arcane Hand】 reached Lv3, and its strength had reached the level of a teenager.
Although it wasn't a powerhouse of speed and strength yet, it could at least swing a dagger and a one-handed sword, giving him some defensive capability if an enemy closed in while he was using his bow.
If he summoned two Arcane Hands at the same time, he could even pull off a dual-wielding style.
On the seventh day of the march, the troops camped in a rugged, mountainous area. In the evening, after finishing his meal, Roger huddled in his tent and opened the system shop to see what else he could buy with his remaining 712 points.
Saving up to buy high-level skills later might be a more cost-effective choice, but as they drew closer to the goblin stronghold, Roger wasn't sure if he would even get the chance to use them.
Rather than hoarding his points and ending up dead on the battlefield, turning them into a pile of useless numbers, it was better to exchange them now for something that could save his life.
Just then, the sound of horse hooves came from outside the tent, causing a brief commotion in the camp. Roger lifted the tent flap and poked his head out, just in time to see a rider pull on the reins.
The rider wore the uniform of Count Nigel's messenger. Dismounting, he walked toward Baron Raymond's tent. Before long, he emerged, mounted his horse, and galloped away.
A little later, Roger saw Baron Raymond personally order the troops to pack up and set out first thing tomorrow morning, leading the way ahead of all the other noble forces.
Roger immediately guessed the reason. The baron had likely been appointed as the vanguard to scout the way. He probably didn't have much bargaining power in front of the Count.
The next day, the team set off early, deviating from their original marching route to head toward a village marked on the map to the west.
Roger continued to browse the shop during the march and finally found a skill that caught his interest:
【Name: Danger Sense
Description: Passive skill. When an undetected danger is present within a ten-meter radius, a red glow will appear at the edge of the field of vision as a warning, though it will not display the specific location or source of the danger. The higher the skill level, the larger the perception range, up to a maximum radius of 100 meters.
Max Level: Lv10
Prerequisite: None
Cost: 700 points】
He chose to exchange it.
“Points -700. Balance: 112.”
With his points almost depleted, he bought twelve arrows on a whim to round off the number, leaving his balance at exactly 100.
Although 【Danger Sense】 had no offensive power, it at least reduced the risk of being ambushed or stepping on traps. The mechanism of a red glow at the edge of his vision was essentially like installing an early-warning radar in his head.
When the sun reached its zenith, the team arrived outside the village and halted at a high vantage point.
From this position, they could overlook the entire village.
Standing at the top of the slope, Roger looked out, taking in the village's defensive layout.
There was a watchtower in each of the four cardinal directions. Though the wooden structures were crooked, they were still relatively intact.
At the entrance of the village lay two rows of barricades made of sharpened wooden stakes, their tips pointing outward.
A few goblin sentries stood on the watchtowers, seemingly unaware that a human army had already stationed themselves outside the village.
Raymond ordered the troops to camp on the spot, then turned to a middle-aged man dressed as a scholar, asking a question that seemed unrelated to tactical discussions:
“If I want to produce a batch of highly flammable alchemy potions, what materials do we need, and how long will it take?”
The scholar recalled for a moment before answering:
“The materials needed for the accelerant are easy to obtain. The main ingredient is a plant called Firekiss Flower, which we should be able to find if there are woods nearby. Once the materials are gathered, it will only take an afternoon to brew.”
After the camp was set up, he sent out several scouts to search the surrounding area for suitable woodlands to gather the materials.
The scouts returned quickly. There was a forest not far to the east of the camp, teeming with Firekiss Flowers. Moreover, they had scouted the area and found no traces of goblin activity.
The baron immediately ordered the scholar to take a group of hands into the forest to gather materials, while arranging for some regular soldiers and knights to escort them in case of a goblin attack.
Hearing this, Roger thought about it and decided to apply to join the gathering team as well.
His reasoning was simple: the scholar only needed the materials for the accelerant, but the forest couldn't possibly grow only Firekiss Flowers. If he happened to find some rare medicinal herbs, he wouldn't have to hand them over to anyone and could keep them all for himself.
Knight Stine and Irene didn't seem to understand his decision, but Roger didn't bother to explain. He simply said, “I'm going to see if there's anything useful,” and followed the scholar's team.
And so, led by the scholar, Roger accompanied a gathering team patched together from conscripts and laborers, along with a few regular soldiers and knights for protection, as they headed toward the woods east of the camp.
Upon entering the forest, the scholar stopped, took out a dried sample of a Firekiss Flower from his pouch to show everyone, and began to explain the raw materials they needed to collect.
Its stamen was blood-red, its petals pale yellow, and its sap was naturally flammable, making it the most basic raw material for crafting combustible alchemical potions.
The scholar also specifically instructed them to pull the plants up by their roots, as the concentration of sap was highest at the root, and throwing it away would be a waste.
The crowd then dispersed, bending over to search for the flowers across the forest floor. Roger unobtrusively drifted toward the less crowded areas, putting as much distance between himself and the others as possible, walking alone among the trees.
This way, even if he did discover some rare materials, he could quietly store them in his inventory without anyone noticing.
With the sun high in the sky, the air inside the dense forest remained muggy and humid despite the shade. Roger wiped the sweat from his forehead and continued to rummage through the bushes and ferns.
“Hmm? Is this it?”
He parted a waist-high clump of bushes and spotted a plant with pale yellow petals near a tree root not far away.
The stamen was a striking blood-red, standing out vividly against the surrounding green.
He then used the system's appraisal function on it.
【Name: Firekiss Flower
Quality: Common
Description: A ubiquitous magical plant. Its sap is flammable, making it one of the foundational materials for crafting accelerants. The dried stamen can be ground into combustion-supporting powder, and the roots can be juiced to refine concentrated fuel.
Recycle Points: 20】
After reading the description on the interface, Roger pulled it up by the roots and casually stored it in his system inventory.
In any case, according to the scholar, these things were everywhere in the forest, so keeping a few for himself wouldn't affect the potion-making progress.
Moreover, items in his inventory wouldn't spoil or rot, so he could never have too many.
After walking just a few paces, he found a second plant, and then a third.
The Firekiss Flowers were indeed as ubiquitous in this forest as the scholar had claimed. With just a little attention, one could spot their striking red-and-yellow coloration near tree roots, beneath fallen logs, or in rocky crevices.
Roger gathered them as he walked, and before he knew it, several Firekiss Flowers had been safely tucked away in his inventory.
By the time he plucked the tenth Firekiss Flower and straightened up to stretch his stiff shoulders, he realized he had wandered quite far from the main group.
There was only the silence of the deep forest around him; he couldn't even hear the voices of his companions talking.
The canopy overhead filtered the sunlight into dappled patches of light.
He was just about to turn back when his gaze was suddenly drawn to a pale blue object in the grass not far away.
Roger cautiously walked in that direction, his shortbow already in hand. The closer he got, the clearer the outline of the object became. When he parted the last clump of bushes, the sight before him made him halt.
It was the carcass of a lizard.
This lizard was over a meter long, covered from head to tail in pale blue scales that glinted with a cold metallic sheen under the dim light filtering through the trees.
Most of its scales were perfectly intact, save for a hideous gash sliced across its belly. Its entrails had spilled from the rupture, dragging into a dark mess on the ground, with a trail of blood winding through the grass and disappearing behind a patch of low shrubs.
Roger warily scanned his surroundings.
There were no flies, nor any signs of scavenging by other beasts, which indicated that the lizard hadn't been dead for long. The creature that killed it might still be nearby.
【Danger Sense】 hadn't triggered, but that only meant the threat wasn't within its detection range yet—it didn't mean it didn't exist.
He stood in place, holding his breath to listen for a few seconds. After confirming there were no unusual sounds around him, he crouched down and temporarily stored the lizard's carcass in his system inventory.
Items in the system inventory wouldn't continue to rot, nor would they affect the state of other stored goods, so he didn't have to worry about it dirtying the herbs if piled together with the Firekiss Flowers.
Just as he finished doing this, a rustling sound came from the grass ahead, growing louder as if some sizeable creature was pushing through the bushes and moving toward him.
Roger nocked a wooden arrow on his bowstring, aiming the arrowhead toward the source of the sound.
【Danger Sense】 still hadn't triggered, meaning the newcomer was still more than ten meters away and did not pose an immediate threat to him yet.
He didn't let his guard down because of this. Instead, he slowly channeled Life Energy into the arrow, charging his 【Empowered Shot】.
The rustling drew closer, the leaves and branches of the bushes shaking violently. Then, a massive brown figure burst out from behind the thicket.
The moment the outline appeared in the gaps of the foliage, Roger released the bowstring. The arrow, fully charged with Life Energy, flew off the string, trailing a faint white streak of light through the air as the sharp whistle of the arrowhead piercing the wind exploded through the forest.
As the sound of the arrowhead sinking into flesh rang out, the figure let out a low, painful roar.
The arrow had hit its mark.
Rate on N.U.
