Blackrock Orcs

Although Xiao Yu had made up his mind, he knew that attacking the newbie village with the Mud Hole Tribe's strength alone was pure wishful thinking. The village had dozens of NPCs who were much stronger than wild monsters of the same level, and that alone put them beyond the Mud Hole Tribe. Not to mention the unknown number of adventurer players they would have to deal with. Adventurers could respawn.

To complete this quest, he would have to find help. Fortunately, theirs was not the only monster faction in Night Whisper Forest. On the principle that the enemy of his enemy was his friend, all these monster factions could be put to use.

Back in the chieftain's tent, Xiao Yu opened a map of Night Whisper Forest and looked up its monster factions. At present, there were five major monster factions in the forest.

The strongest was the gnoll camp in the south of Night Whisper Forest. The gnolls' leader was Hogger, who had seventy or eighty gnoll warriors, gnoll scouts, and gnoll raiders under him. Gnolls were considerably stronger fighters than goblins, and Hogger himself had a level 14 elite template, a whopping 666 health, and extremely high attack power. He was a low-level player killer and a tyrant of Night Whisper Forest.

The second-largest monster faction was the bandit camp. This thief camp was a branch of the Defias Brotherhood, whose headquarters were in the Western Wilds and whose forces were extremely powerful. It also had sixty or seventy men, led by a rare elite named Black Rodd.

The third-largest monster faction was the goblin camp under Xiao Yu's control.

The fourth-largest was the kobold mine in a mountain range at the edge of the map. Its leader was Big Gold Tooth, who had over two hundred kobolds under him, the most of any faction. But kobolds were such poor fighters that this faction was relatively weak instead.

The fifth-largest monster faction was the murloc camp by the Blackwater River. It had fifty or sixty members and was not particularly strong in combat either. Its leader was Old Murk-Eye. It was the weakest in combat and the most remote, so Xiao Yu decided to ignore it.

There were also plenty of beast-type monsters, but they had no common leadership, were hostile to one another, and could not communicate. Xiao Yu had no interest in bothering with them.

That meant he would have to rely mainly on help from the gnolls, the kobolds, and the human bandits to attack the newbie village.

In that case, he would send invitations to the leaders of those three factions.

With that thought, Xiao Yu picked up a pen and paper, wrote a letter, and made several copies. He found a few goblin laborers, gave each one a copy, and told them to deliver the letters to the monster leaders, arranging to discuss an important matter at the abandoned tower in Night Whisper Forest three days later.

The letter was simple. Its message was: I am Eric, the new goblin chieftain. I have an important matter concerning the balance of power in Night Whisper Forest to discuss with you leaders. If you do not want your factions to disappear, come to the meeting. As long as he could get them to attend this gathering, Xiao Yu was confident he could persuade them, so naturally he had used some alarmist language.

He had chosen three days later mainly to build up some strength in the meantime. After all, political power grew out of the barrel of a gun. Without some strength under his command, he would not have the confidence to negotiate.

With that done, Xiao Yu could finally log out and go to sleep.

Xiao Yu woke early the next morning. After a hurried breakfast, he climbed into the gaming pod.

When he entered the game, he found he was not the first one there. As soon as he appeared in the tent, he saw Killer Codename 38 waiting nearby.

The moment Killer Codename 38 saw Xiao Yu come online, he shouted in a panic, "Boss, boss! A few orcs have shown up outside! Come see what's going on!"

Orcs? What was going on? Xiao Yu froze for a moment, then immediately picked up his staff and went outside.

One look outside, and Xiao Yu breathed a sigh of relief. Three dark-skinned orcs were sitting by the goblin campfire, gnawing on chunks of frog meat like starving ghosts reborn.

"They're just wandering monsters drawn here by the campfire. There's no need to make such a fuss." Xiao Yu casually patted Killer Codename 38 on the shoulder, signaling him to calm down, and walked toward the dark-skinned orcs.

He thought it was unexpected that even orcs had been drawn here. But wait, weren't orcs on the Horde's side? Were there orcs here in Azeroth too? And why was their skin black?

When he reached them, Xiao Yu cleared his throat. "Ahem. Hello, gentlemen. I'm Eric, the chieftain of this camp. Hey, where did you fellows come from?"

Goblins naturally inspired disdain, and even though Xiao Yu was a chieftain, the orcs did not seem to have much respect for him. Two of them were still eating. The third wiped his greasy hands on his clothes and said indifferently, "Goblin chieftain, no harm in telling you. We're orcs of the Blackrock Clan from the Redridge Mountains. We got separated from the main force during a battle with humans and wandered all the way here. If your price is right, we're willing to join your tribe for a while and fight for you."

System notification: Your campfire has attracted three Blackrock Orcs. Recruit them?

[Monster name: Blackrock Orc Trio]

[Monster category: Orc (medium humanoid)]

[Monster tier: Level 11 normal]

[Monster skill: Enrage. Enters a frenzy and attacks enemies madly, increasing attack power by 30% for 10 seconds.]

[Recruitment cost: 30 gold, 450 food, 9 population capacity]

[Upkeep: 30 food per day]

[Note: Three orcs from Blackrock Mountain. They look just like the Horde's orcs, only a bit darker.]

Nine population capacity, an average of three each, plus 150 food and 10 gold apiece. They took up one more population than a goblin, but their combat strength was more than half again as high. With their solid muscles and mighty physiques, they looked far more formidable than the little greenskins around him, most of whom were barely over a meter tall. They were perfect for bolstering his presence and serving as bodyguards.

"Good. You look decent enough. All right, join our tribe. From now on, I'm your master. You can start by serving as my bodyguards."

System notification: Recruitment complete.

When he looked at the dark-skinned orcs again, the names above their heads had changed to Blackrock Orc Warrior (Eric's follower). The color of their names had also changed from yellow, representing neutral, to green, representing friendly.

Xiao Yu was in a good mood after gaining a few followers so early in the morning. Next, he planned to train more troops, but as the saying went, provisions had to come before the army could march. He could not train soldiers without resources. His string of actions yesterday had used up almost all of the Mud Hole Tribe's original resources, and that had only been the beginning. To develop his strength further, he needed more resources, so he would start by gathering them.

He first issued a summons, and once everyone had arrived, Xiao Yu began assigning tasks.

"Invincible Hero, I have a task for you. Take two overseers and ten goblin laborers outside the camp to chop down trees. We need a lot of wood. Understood?"

"Killer Codename 38, take two goblin overseers and ten goblin laborers to the mud hole to gather food. The more, the better."

"The remaining laborers who haven't been assigned a task will start building more goblin huts. Many more goblins will soon be born in our tribe. How can we leave them without a place to live?"

"Yes, Chieftain." Killer Codename 38 accepted his orders and immediately got to work, but Invincible Hero looked troubled.

"Chieftain, gathering wood nearby won't be a problem, but I'm afraid there might be some trouble. There are lots of wild beasts in the surrounding forest, not to mention what happens if we run into adventurers."

Xiao Yu said, "Don't worry about that. I'll personally patrol nearby with my bodyguards. Just get on with your work."

Only then did Invincible Hero agree.