The sentry guard on duty eyed Zen doubtfully. The letter was indeed written by Commander Gunter with the official stamp from their Baron. However, believing this was the backup the main camp sent was still difficult. Venedict was the only reason the sentry guard gave this kid the benefit of the doubt.
“Please wait here. I’ll bring your letter of recommendation to Sir Rowan.”Sir Rowan? Zen looked at Venedict for an explanation. There was nothing mentioned in his special quest notes.Answering the questioning looks, the mercenary bodyguard explained that Sir Rowan was an old retired knight who served three generations of the Baron’s family.“He taught our current Baron swordsmanship during childhood, but it didn’t work out. Ever since the war against the goblins, he volunteered to return to arms and guard our flank with minimal manpower. He might be retired and frail now with slight difficulty seeing and hearing, but Sir Rowan iAfter two draws and one loss, Zen wanted to dig a hole in the soil and bury himself. Despite his best efforts, Sir Rowan casually defeated him with minimal movement. It was difficult to launch an attack against an excellent defence. Sir Rowan’s King piece never moved a single step from the baseline, and Zen had to exhaust every piece he had to clear an open path. Yet, with mere pawns, the experienced knight managed to push him back to base.“I’m sorry that I’m lacking,” Zen bowed meekly in his chair.Instead of laughing at the young, foolish thing, Sir Rowan hummed thoughtfully. He had played many strategy games with all kinds of people. Usually, it was easy to understand a person’s character from their actions. There were ambitious people, cautious people, timid people, uncertain people, brainless people, rash people and even murderers. The old knight was usually able to identify those traits straight off the bat. However, the child Gun
Thanks to the fast-forward option in the virtual dungeon, Zen watched the war between Stoneberry Keep and the hobgoblins in the first wave of the goblin invasion within two minutes. Who knew his side quest would turn into a simple game of simulated chess, reflecting an actual battle?Ping![You are victorious and have successfully defended against the Goblin Invasion Wave 1. You have been awarded 20 leadership Points.]Now, that was fast! Compared to the main quest, Zen might be able to complete the side quest quicker. The cut scene showed Sir Rowan using Zen’s tactic to bait ten hobgoblins from their spot to the boundaries of the Keep, where they were ambushed and killed. It was a battle without mercy, as all ten hobgoblin warriors were eliminated. Yet, Zen couldn’t help but wonder how these warriors could take down ten hobgoblins. Venedict fought with one, and they seemed rather tough. It was the reason why Gunter was unable to win the war head-on.
Ping![You are victorious and have successfully defended against the Goblin Invasion Wave 2. You have been awarded 20 leadership Points.]Claiming his reward, Zen wondered how he would survive the third wave. Even Venedict looked grim when the scout reported the latest findings. It didn’t matter if they had the information ahead of time. The enemy’s firepower was nothing to sneeze at. Apart from the brutes who wounded many fine swordsmen, the goblins introduced catapults. It was a horrifying prospect with so many wounded while those monstrous machines lurked in the distance.There were simply too many chess pieces on the enemy’s side that it seemed ridiculous to continue the war game. Zen stared at the ten pawns, five bishops and three castles on the enemy’s side of the board. Compared to his measly pawn, horse and rook, anyone could tell at first glance that this was an impossible game. Yet, the game developers created this side quest for a re
For five virtual days, Zen toiled like no tomorrow. There were simply too many things to do, even with his squad of assistants. Thankfully, if there was one thing the gamer was proficient at, it was exploiting in-game ‘features’. Thanks to that, he managed to get everything done ‘on time’ for the third wave.Game developers should know better than to provide free labourers for Zen. Due to his special chain quest, the non-combatant could somehow take Venedict and the soldiers down to the first floor, where he made them hunt countless slimes for the quest and his personal benefit. He loved how inventory limit wasn’t a thing and spent most of his time making salves, crafting monocular goggles, and creating pepper bombs.The monocular goggles were tricky to create, so Zen had Ben’s help to smelt some glass from sunglasses wearing mushroom variants that he coated with green slime goo to prevent fogging. Then, he borrowed Paul’s wo
Despite listening to the scout’s intel, nobody knew what to prepare. The previous strategy worked very well against the catapults and brutes. Even if they tripled the number from the previous wave, Stoneberry Keep would not fall. Yet, one undetermined factor threw a wrench in their works.What was a goblin mage? How was it different from a goblin shaman?“I bet it’s just an upgrade,” Venedict scoffed. “A more powerful shaman.”Unimpressed, Sir Rowan gave the mercenary the stink eye for stating the obvious. Zen simply ignored him. They couldn’t test the mage’s ability to know what it could do. The paranoid strategist wondered if Baron Leron knew anything about a goblin mage and sent a letter to the goblin-obsessed scholar. Yet, nobody knew anything useful about the potential threat. The only hint Zen received about magicians was from the drunken priest Lorren.“According to him, magicians specialise in one of t
As the cut scene started, Zen could no longer give out commands. He relayed the plan once to Sir Rowan and his subordinates. However, the gamer had no idea if they would be able to pull off such a complicated plan. There was no direct fighting involved in this battle. Instead, he would manipulate the terrain to their advantage, assuming he could lock the magician in place.The first stage included a little theatrics to set the atmosphere. As war drums and horns sounded from both armies, the sharpshooters and soldiers started travelling to their assigned spots. Nobody moved from their spot as catapults launched false attacks.The goblin army laughed at the human army’s failure to understand the range limits of their catapults when the rock-covered snowballs crashed in front of them, creating a large cloud of snow. They laughed for a long time until they realised how the cloud of snow wasn’t clearing up.From afar, Zen could not tell what the goblins were do
Ping![You are victorious and have successfully defended against the Goblin Invasion Wave 4. You have been awarded 20 leadership Points.]Dismissing the notification, Zen quickly dashed out of the tent to look at the battlefield. The avalanche cleared, and it was now spring instead of winter. The time skip magic did its job, but it was time to face the final boss.“Zen,” Sir Rowan bowed. “Please lend us your wisdom one last time. The scouts returned with devastating information. Not even our goblin-obsessed lord knew about a higher evolution in goblins.”As the NPCs escorted Zen into the tent, the gamer learned about the existence of a goblin lord for the first time. Goblins were normally weak monsters that gathered in tribes to rob and plunder villagers. They were designed to be petty and dumb so that novice adventurers were able to farm them for easy experience. The dungeon designer probably did this as a joke. In fact, the entire side q
Zen was the last person anyone in the academy would think of relying on when training an army. He didn’t blame them either. Zen would rather exploit game bugs to clear his quests if not for the unique side quest. He didn’t know if this would work, but it was worth a try. The water formation wasn’t something he created. Instead, it was created by an ancient general before guns were invented. The effectiveness of this plan was in the speed of movement. However, he could not use this method previously when the game kept locking him out of the action.Now that the restriction was lifted, there was no reason for Zen not to teach it. Zen wasn't afraid of the numbers that threatened them with him in the centre of that formation and a small group of highly mobile army. The key was to have a low hierarchy of reporting structure. The soldiers must be highly disciplined to do as they were told, reacting to split-second changes in instructions. The water formation was der