I have a Human Emperor's Banner; I'll start by educating the goblins.

Chapter 19 Adaptability

The twenty-first pioneer village was even more rudimentary than the pioneer village where Luo Qi had once stayed.

Apart from the small church in the center of the village, all the other houses were simply built of branches, thatch and mud; the fences around the edge of the village were also very low.

At this time, half of the villagers were guarding the fence.

Some of these villagers carried pitchforks or flails, while others held up simple door panels, constantly on guard against goblin attacks.

Misfield's return with the adventurers excited the villagers.

"Welcome, brave adventurers, to Pioneer Village No. 21..." A middle-aged man of about forty years old stepped out from the crowd and said with a smile.

"No need for further nonsense."

Grace, the leader of the Rose Squad, stated bluntly, "The information in the commission letter is from five days ago. Has there been any new development in that goblin tribe since then?"

"During this period, we sent people to scout the goblin tribe from a distance. Judging from the amount of smoke from their chimneys, the number of goblins has not changed much."

The village chief explained in detail.

Every living organism leaves traces when it engages in metabolic activities.

The space required for three hundred goblins to live is already quite large, and the daily supplies they need are also considerable. The settlers can judge the approximate number of goblins in the settlement simply by looking from afar, based on information such as the size of the dwellings, the amount of smoke from the chimneys, the amount of jungle vegetation, and the amount of prey.

How many elite goblins are there?

Grace pressed on with another question.

It wasn't difficult to gather this intelligence; elite goblins are much taller than ordinary goblins, and their dwellings are much larger.

"We estimate there are three."

"Three hundred goblins, plus three elite goblins..." Grace closed her eyes and pondered for a moment.

Then.

She said with a serious expression, "There are about two hours until nightfall. Destroy this goblin settlement within those two hours!"

The female swordsman opened her arms.

So the archers of the Rose Squad quickly unloaded the armor from the cart and dressed him.

While donning their armor, the adventurer squad leader assigned tasks: "Next, I'll draw their fire from the front. Freyr, prepare to use spells to attack those three goblin heroes. Even if they're first-tier monsters, as long as your spells hit them, the leader of these goblins will die too."

"Julie, provide ranged cover for me and suppress those goblin ranged units."

"Randy, cover my left flank; Tot, cover my right flank."

"Doross, hunt down any escaped goblins around here. If even one goblin escapes, you won't get the reward for this mission!"

The captain of the Rose Squad quickly assigned combat missions.

"Respected adventurers, isn't this too dangerous for you? I think if our village militia cooperated with you, this battle would be won much more easily," the village chief asked with some concern.

"Who do you think I am?!"

The female captain of the Rose Squad closed the visor of her helmet: "I am the heiress of the Rose Guild, the greatest adventurer group in Riverdale. How could you villagers, who roll in the mud, think that a lion needs the help of sheep to defeat a pack of wolves?"

"Rose Squad, let's go!"

Grace waved her hand, and six fully armed elites marched toward the goblin village marked by the pioneer village.

"Mr. Loki," Misfield said, his brow furrowed as he looked at the adventurer party, "I have a bad feeling about this. The captain of the Rose Squad is really..."

The priestess was unsure how to evaluate the adventurer.

Since they lack the ability to resolve the goblin crisis, it would be presumptuous to casually criticize the Rose Squad's style... But anyone with a little combat experience can tell that this squad has made far too many mistakes.

"Because I am very capable, my teammates are very capable, and I have completed more difficult tasks before..."

Luo Qi paused for a moment, then shook his head and said, "There are too many reasons why that woman looks down on goblins."

"There's no need to worry too much about her; the villagers should be thinking about the autumn harvest now."

Luo Qi dispatched an elite goblin from the Emperor's Banner, making it ethereal, and it followed the adventurer team from a distance.

He then walked in another direction.

"Goblins didn't just appear out of thin air. This race originally originated from the modification of normal creatures by an evil god, and then they reproduced on their own."

As Luo Qi continued to mobilize his subjects within the banner, he thought to himself, "These three hundred goblins couldn't have been created overnight. Where did the tribe's 'source seed' live before this?"

The goblin elite, recently educated by the Human Emperor's Banner, awakened its instincts and wandered through the wilderness.

Like an experienced horse that knows the way, it is providing information.

The goblin had forgotten most of his memories during the process of being indoctrinated, but the few remaining pieces of information told Loki that there was also someone behind the goblins who attacked the pioneer village.

If things go as expected...

These goblins and the goblins of Black Ape Mountain were all supported by the same goblin settlement.

To ordinary people and even first-order superhumans, the distance from the pioneer village to the river valley town is very far.

The unnamed hills near the pioneer village and Black Ape Mountain are also very far apart, and the two should not have much of a connection.

But what about in the eyes of a third-tier transcendent?

Behind the Black Ape Mountain Goblin Settlement lies a goblin hero whose strength has reached the third stage of the Path to Godhood!

Normally, a village of about a hundred people will have one first-tier transcendent being, and only one second-tier transcendent being will be born among hundreds of first-tier transcendents. The number of third-tier transcendents is extremely rare among ordinary races.

As a border region, River Valley Town attracts a large number of adventurers, which explains why several Tier 3 powerhouses remain here.

In an ordinary small town, all the people in the town combined couldn't stop a third-tier expert.

Luo Qi quickly followed the elite goblin into a jungle.

There, five tall goblins were leading a large group of green-skinned boys in training, forming a dense gun emplacement and advancing again and again.

"Is this... reinforcements?"

Loki gazed at the group of goblins from afar.

Clearly, the goblins that attacked the pioneer village were clever. They anticipated that the pioneer village would go to the Adventurers' Guild in River Valley Town for help, so they ambushed Misfield and his companion who were making the request.

After their ambush failed, the goblins realized that human adventurers would inevitably come to attack them, so they quickly requested reinforcements from a larger goblin tribe.

The initial idea of ​​these reinforcements was to ambush the adventurer team on the only road between River Valley Town and the Frontier Village.

Of course, the number of goblins participating in the ambush is limited by the location of the ambush site and the size of the area that can hide people. Once discovered by adventurers, these goblins will die at the hands of the adventurers.

But this is not important.

Once the ambushed adventurers believe that the goblins have split up and that the adventurers have wiped out another group of goblins who participated in the ambush, they will naturally assume that the number of goblins has been greatly reduced.

Adventurers who misjudge the goblins' strength due to misinformation will fall into the goblins' traps.

"Therefore, all the goblins in the lair now are expendable pawns. Their purpose is to attract the attention of human adventurers, lure them into the core area of ​​the tribe, and reduce the chances of the human adventurers escaping!"

Loki realized the purpose behind the goblin's arrangement.

When all the adventurers die at the hands of goblins, the fighting spirit of the pioneering village will be greatly reduced, and the difficulty for the goblins to occupy the village will be greatly reduced.

Loki could even imagine that the goblins were also planning to attack the villagers on their way back, intending to capture a large number of them in the process.

have to say.

These humanoid green dwarfs are definitely not unintelligent; at least the decision-makers among them are quite clever, with a strong strategic sense and adaptability.

Moreover, this goblin was ruthless enough when it came to making battle plans.

They casually sacrificed hundreds of their kind.

If its plan succeeds, it will be very easy for goblins to replenish their numbers after plundering a large number of fertile creatures.

The total population of this tribe could even increase to another level.

"Because their reproductive capacity is so strong, does that mean their own kind isn't as important?"

Luo Qi couldn't help but shake her head.

From a human perspective, sacrificing one person to kill a goblin is absolutely intolerable; but in the eyes of a goblin, sacrificing a large number of its own kind to kill a single target might be considered a great victory.

"The plan is excellent. Even a professional adventurer team like the Rose Squad, composed entirely of extraordinary individuals, would suffer a terrible fate if they fell into the trap."

Luo Qi smiled slightly: "It's a pity you ran into me!"

"What's even more regrettable is... the souls of those hundred-plus goblins who participated in the ambush have greatly enhanced my power!"

There are more than 500 goblins here.

If the Emperor's Banner only contains a hundred or so goblins educated from Black Ape Mountain, Luo Qi can only defeat that many goblins at most, and a considerable number of them will inevitably escape.

But on the only way back to the pioneer village that day, Luo Qi once again tamed more than a hundred goblins.

Although there was only one elite goblin, the number of ordinary goblins had doubled.

This allows Luo Qi, the owner of the Human Emperor Banner, to be more at ease when using his various abilities.

Luo Qi had a sudden thought.

One after another, black subjects flew out from the Emperor's Banner, spreading like black smoke throughout the world. It was already dusk, and as the smoke spread, the world instantly turned dark.

A terrifying aura emanated from the smoke.

"This is... a ghost?!"

An elite goblin looked up and noticed the anomaly in the black mist.

It drew its sword and slashed at the black mist.

"Don't be afraid. These undead were very weak in life, and they will only become more vulnerable after losing their bodies!" the elite goblin calmly commanded. "They are like rootless leaves. As long as you strike them, the killing intent on your blade will completely dispel them."

"Tsk, this goblin is quite knowledgeable!" Luo Qi couldn't help but communicate with the goblin shaman in the Human Emperor Banner.

Even the goblin shamans of the magic system didn't know this information.

"This goblin must be a direct descendant of that heroic goblin," the goblin shaman said. "That goblin hero would have been very careful in raising his offspring."

"However, this kind of insight... is meaningless!"

Luo Qi focused his thoughts on the Emperor's Banner, and the subjects within the banner changed formation once more. Streams of blood-red aura surged from the banner, wrapping around the subjects like ribbons.

The goblin hero had just struck a goblin subject when a crimson ribbon wrapped around its longsword.

Then.

No matter how much it attacked the other subjects, it could not achieve any results. The goblin elites' longswords could slash through the subjects in the banner and slightly hinder their passage. The wooden spears in the hands of ordinary goblins could even make the subjects of the Emperor's Banner appear more spirited.

"This is?"

The goblin elite stared wide-eyed.

"Could it be a high-level undead? No, if it were, they would only need to pounce on me, and their negative energy would drain all my life energy! There's absolutely no need for that!"

The goblin elites were completely baffled.

"Because the Imperial Blood Dragon Qi of the Human Emperor Banner can suppress all extraordinary beings!"

Luo Qi thought to herself.

The killing intent energy of the goblin elites will also be suppressed.

This method, which works against normal undead, is extremely ineffective when targeting the subjects within the Emperor's Banner.

"Judging from the performance of the extraordinary goblins, even though the weapons of the extraordinary beings after their spiritual awakening are suppressed, their own extraordinary energy can still play a little role. If they encounter enemies of a higher level in the future, they can reach extremely high values ​​without weapons, and the effect of this suppression will be greatly reduced."

Luo Qi also realized that the problem lay with the Emperor's Banner... no, to be precise, with his own body.

Because the subjects recruited by the banner are too few and too weak, if they encounter second-tier transcendents with strong enough mental will, these various useful methods will be difficult to use.

"Thank goodness, thank goodness..."

Luo Qi thought to himself, "Thankfully, I didn't encounter an enemy of that level this time... Now I can happily teach even more goblins!"

"Alas, the Emperor's Banner is incredibly powerful, but my pace of educating my subjects is far too slow. I must work harder from now on!"

then.

Short daggers flew around Luo Qi.

Each dagger was wrapped with ten goblin subjects, whose propulsion made the daggers fly like throwing knives. The blades danced, and goblin heads fell from their necks with the help of the flying blades.

The goblin elites panicked.

They initially didn't care about their subordinates, but as wave after wave of their subordinates died, the surrounding black mist became even denser, and even the number of undead within the black mist increased.

"No, I have to escape!"

The goblin hero's child had lost his courage.

It growled softly.

The other elite goblins approached it, and the five goblins surrounded it, charging in one direction.

That's their homeland, where they have their greatest support right now...