Charge!

When a territory was small and its population sparse, the absence of any one person could have a huge impact.

Just as the death of the Minotaur Butler had left Landen struggling to adapt for quite some time, Hogg's departure with a Hobgoblin to accompany Vivian had nearly reduced the strength in Landen's hands to what it had been before liberation overnight.

Of course, all of this had been unavoidable. The Minotaur Butler's death was connected to whether Vivian would immediately move against Landen, while sending out Hogg and the Hobgoblin Knight Legion was a display of strength—a way to show Vivian Landen's power, giving her something extra to consider when she thought about attacking him and making her weigh whether the move was worth it.

Vivian was willful, but she was now the Matriarch of a city and had lofty ambitions. As a result, she was much more restrained than before. Even when facing Landen, the younger brother she desperately wanted to kill, she would now begin to weigh the pros and cons, the scale of the losses it would cause, and whether those losses were worth it.

Thus, the more power Landen had in his hands, the more hesitant Vivian would become.

Of course, there was a limit to such a display. If Vivian felt that Landen's strength had grown enough to threaten her, she might very well be provoked into attacking immediately without regard for the consequences. Landen was still far from that point, however. One or two Hobgoblin Knight Legions would never be enough to reach it.

Although most of his subordinates had left, Landen could not simply stop everything and wait for them to return. In fact, not long after Vivian and the others departed, Landen began making plans in his office.

As a lord, aside from keeping himself alive, was there anything more important than developing his territory? Although Landen had subdued a Mind Flayer family and created a Hobgoblin Knight Legion, those were merely changes among his subordinates. His territory itself had not changed much at all. It remained desolate, savage, and barren.

Early the next morning, just as Vivian led her troops away from the Youweimas Area, Landen also left the bunker with Avina and several Dark Elves.

Because Vivian's troops had previously been stationed in the bunker, the Bear Hobgoblins captured by Hogg had been locked up in Magra Cave, where the Hobgoblins lived.

Landen soon arrived at Magra Cave, then quickly left again. One Bear Hobgoblin had joined his group.

Bear Hobgoblins were also a kind of goblin. They had the largest bodies of all goblin species. An adult Bear Hobgoblin stood about as tall as an adult human. Its skin was not green like that of goblins or hobgoblins, but brown, covered in a thick layer of coarse fur. Combined with their shovel-shaped ears, this made them look remarkably similar to brown bears, which was how they had gotten their name.

With their strong, savage bodies and evil, greedy natures, Bear Hobgoblins had only two pursuits in life—food and treasure. Perpetual wanderers, they would settle in one place for a long time only for the sake of those two things.

This Bear Hobgoblin tribe was far larger than a normal tribe, indicating that it had a leader of considerable strength. Clearly, however, that leader had already lost his life in the Hobgoblin Knight Legion's charge.

They had arrived here more than a month earlier, back when Landen had just awoken from his coma. After receiving a report from the Minotaur Butler that traces of Bear Hobgoblins had appeared in the Stalagmite Area along the Blackwater River, they had settled there, remaining until Hogg and the Hobgoblin Knight Legion wiped them out.

The Stalagmite Area was named exactly as its name suggested, after the vast field of stalagmites there. Those stalagmites were not naturally formed, but were the remnants of some intelligent race. Where there were ruins, there would naturally be relics. However, those ruins had been discovered long ago, and countless people had searched them before Landen, cleaning them out completely. After arriving here, Landen had visited the place once as if sightseeing, then never paid it any further attention.

Yet the facts proved that both Landen and the adventurers who had searched the area before him had been wrong. The fact that such a large tribe of Bear Hobgoblins had lived there for more than a month undoubtedly meant that something remained there—and it was very likely something valuable.

How could Landen not investigate such information?

Landen temporarily settled in the Stalagmite Area with his few remaining subordinates. Meanwhile, Vivian's troops also halted their advance.

More precisely, they had been intercepted.

There was a military force on the other side as well, led by a male Dark Elf. Vivian had never seen him, but the moment she saw his heavily made-up face, with thick eyeshadow and features more feminine than any woman's, she knew his identity.

Aino Qivita, the youngest son of the Qivita Family, was a pervert whose obsession with his appearance was more extreme than any woman's. At the same time, he was a genius, and his talent for leading troops in battle was highly valued by the Qivita Matriarch.

He was also a genius martial artist who had entered the Silver Domain.

"Vivian, you can't honestly be naive enough to think we'd give you the chance to fight us fairly beneath Morata City, can you?" Aino looked at Vivian with a deep frown. It was clear that he was in an abysmal mood—not because his family had been attacked, but because Vivian standing before him was too beautiful. Aino's perverse obsession with appearance made him hate seeing anyone more attractive than himself, regardless of whether they were male or female.

"So you intend to ambush me here?" Vivian asked calmly.

Aino was a genius at commanding troops, so of course he had chosen an excellent location. At that moment, the two forces faced each other across a passage nearly a meter long. It was the only route to Morata City. If they did not pass through here, they would have to spend much more time taking a detour, and there were other dangers along that route as well.

The passage was narrow. Given the slender builds of the Dark Elves, no more than one person could pass through at a time, even shoulder to shoulder. On either side, the mountain walls rose all the way to the top of the underground world.

At the middle of the passage stood several green-skinned brutes shoulder to shoulder. They were actually Orcs, a race found only in the Surface World. Each held an enormous tower shield, which they set side by side to block the way. Behind them, a group of Lizardfolk stood ready, some carrying spears and others short bows. Farther back was a force composed of Dark Elves and Dark Dwarves, prepared to provide support at any moment.

This formation completely sealed off the passage.

"Is there any way to break through?" Vivian asked her three subordinates.

The Spider Queen's Priest and the Dark Dwarf remained silent. Only the Black Robe answered, "I can prepare a large-scale spell and blast apart that shield formation."

"How long?" Vivian asked.

"One hour," the Black Robe replied.

"If you break the shield formation, can you get past it?" another voice called out. It came from Hogg. The Beast-eared Cutie sat on the back of a Vulture Turtle, looking utterly uninterested. "Besides, I want to go back and see Lord Landen as soon as possible. Wasting time like this isn't good."

Vivian raised an eyebrow and was just about to say something when Hogg suddenly leaped up and pointed straight ahead, two words spilling from her tiny mouth.

"Charge!"