Luxurious Lineup

Mu Yuan still didn't head straight for the goblin camp. He led his team back to the village to rest, then made a few small forays into the surrounding dark areas, killing some minor monsters to warm up, but never straying far.

Time passed, and soon it was six in the evening.

Over the course of the day, Mu Yuan had gathered over 80g of Soul Sand, two random remnant souls, and a handful of ordinary materials. But none of that mattered—what mattered was what he was about to do next.

A great battle.

Mu Yuan had already finished dinner early, his expression serious, making final preparations before heading to the battlefield—first, a trip to the restroom to clear his system, then setting snacks, tissues, and a bottle of water nearby.

He was ready, poised for action.

Inside the game world, Deathbone was also assembling his troops, equally solemn.

Deathbone stood at the very front.

Behind him followed several skeleton soldiers and small skeletons.

Just looking at the numbers, this force was far from imposing, but among these skeletons, the count of skeleton soldiers had reached a full eight!

Eight three-star skeleton soldiers! And one skeleton warrior!

Yesterday, Mu Yuan only had Deathbone and two other skeleton soldiers. Early in the morning, two evolved, and by evening... he had deliberately dragged the time past six o'clock to evolve even more skeleton soldiers.

The skeleton soldiers' serial numbers had now reached 'Bone Nine'.

At this moment, the Eternal Continent's sky was still bright and clear, the scenery just right.

"Time to move out."

He murmured.

Deathbone held a shield scavenged from another skeleton soldier, a greatsword in hand, and walked cautiously yet imposingly out of the territory.

Behind him followed a formation of six skeleton soldiers and two small skeletons.

Mu Yuan stood in the very center, the safest position.

The combatants he had arranged were Deathbone and five skeleton soldiers. Among them, Bone Two could already execute the Cleave skill relatively quickly, and even the Bone N who hadn't yet learned to use skills in battle were stronger than the Wolf King from two days ago.

One rare unit, one three-star unit capable of using skills, and four three-star units slightly stronger than average.

This lineup was quite luxurious!

The remaining skeleton soldier's main duty was to serve as Mu Yuan's assistant.

But he felt that just one skeleton soldier as an assistant wasn't safe or sufficient, so he called in two small skeletons as well. Since the team's movement speed depended on him, bringing a few extra small skeletons wouldn't matter.

The group of humans and skeletons set out, heading straight for the goblin camp.

This route had already been scouted, so the team moved quickly. Before long, the goblin camp appeared at the edge of sight.

This was a mountain hollow with sparse vegetation and a wide field of view. From afar, one could see the massive tents, thick hardwood posts driven into the earth—each requiring two or three people to wrap their arms around—woven with vines and covered with animal hides, creating a camp that was rough and primitive in style but still quite imposing from a distance.

"Goblin camp."

Mu Yuan had looked up relevant information on the forums.

Goblins were weak, cunning, and cowardly, but when large numbers of them gathered together, they learned to cooperate, use tactics, and set traps. Even some high-star monsters had to tread carefully.

Moreover, the camp also had goblin spear throwers and clearly more than one hobgoblin.

"This goblin camp is probably the local bully for miles around."

At the camp's front, a hobgoblin dragged several gray wolf carcasses over and tossed them in front of the smaller goblins.

The goblins immediately stepped forward, using small knives to skin and dismember the gray wolves with practiced skill.

Mu Yuan even saw the skeleton of some giant beast, two or three meters tall, lying across the camp entrance, along with several humanoid skulls piled up there.

The entire front of the camp was stained with blood, scattered with broken limbs and chunks of flesh.

This game wouldn't even pass an 18+ rating, would it?

Mu Yuan stopped several hundred meters from the camp and said to Deathbone, "Whether we can take the goblins today doesn't matter. Safety first."

After all, these were his own diligent employees.

Today, Mu Yuan planned to hand over command to Deathbone, to see if his cautious approach had taken root.

Deathbone accepted solemnly.

The goblin camp before him was the strongest enemy he had ever faced in his life—how could he dare to be careless?

Deathbone didn't immediately lead the attack. He lurked several hundred meters away, climbed a tall tree to scout, observing the goblins' movement patterns, daily habits, trap placements, and combat methods from afar...

A full half hour later, Deathbone climbed down from the tree, a faint flicker of soulfire dancing in his eye sockets.

"It begins."

Farther away, Mu Yuan stood within the protective circle of skeleton soldiers and small skeletons, staring intently, also a bit tense.

He had already simulated the battle in his mind. Even if the goblin camp had forces beyond his plans, he was confident he could fight and retreat as needed.

But if it came to that, he wouldn't be able to keep all his units intact—he'd have to leave some skeletons behind to cover the retreat.

He also worried that Deathbone's command might have flaws.

No—rather, it was inevitable that Deathbone's command would have issues, sooner or later. After all, it was merely a skeleton that had only been revived for two and a half days.

Even if it had awakened self-awareness, it was still a blank slate that needed constant learning. Being able to command other skeletons in battle was already quite impressive.

He couldn't demand too much.

What he needed to do was simply take over command whenever Deathbone's orders slipped up, and give Deathbone a little taste of micro-management shock.

Perfect~

Goblins were lazy and cunning by nature, but those that had formed a camp diligently patrolled around it, round after round.

At this moment, a goblin patrol squad had already moved a fair distance from the camp.

Its formation consisted of three goblins and one Goblin Spearman.

As Mu Yuan had judged, Deathbone had indeed set its sights on this patrol squad.

They A—no, they circled around, cutting off the goblins' retreat, and then...

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

Several javelins tore through the air.

These weren't the bone spears inherent to Skeleton Warriors, but throwing spears Deathbone had later made by sharpening branches. Their killing power was far inferior to bone spears, but they made less noise and were just right for dealing with these tiny goblins.

Deathbone's throwing speed was fast, and its accuracy was extremely high. The few goblins didn't even have time to scream before they dropped dead.

Mu Yuan: "..."

Then what was the point of ordering Bone Two and Bone Three to circle around for a Macho Man pincer attack?

And with such an overkill lineup, couldn't you just A-push straight into those few goblins?

"We must be cautious."

Deathbone tapped Bone Two's helmet, just like back then—back when the Lord had tapped its own skull. A tap could open wisdom; it would pass this tradition down.

It clacked out a lesson to Bone Two and Bone Three, who wanted to rush in recklessly, then picked up the throwing spears from the Goblin Spearman's back.

New weapon get√.

These throwing spears weren't as good as its own bone spears, but they were stronger than the crude ones it had made. Deathbone weighed them and found them comfortable in hand.

It continued waiting patiently, following the plan to take out each goblin patrol squad one by one.

Half an hour later, Deathbone finished off the last patrol squad. The Wooden Spear from the Goblin Spearman shot through the air with a whoosh, and in an instant, it pierced through goblin after goblin, spearman after spearman, skewering their heads and pinning them firmly to the ground.

The entire process was flawlessly smooth, a brutal kind of beauty.

Deathbone wiped non-existent sweat and stared solemnly at the distant camp. "These goblins really are much stronger than the wild ones outside, very troublesome to deal with. Just as the Lord said, the Goblin Camp is a great enemy to our territory."

Bone Two glanced at the goblins lying dead all over the ground, then looked at the gleaming, spotless war blade at its waist—not a single drop of blood on it—and a huge question mark popped up above its skull.