Ogre Wizard

Xiao Yu no longer dared venture out casually. Not only could he not go out, but even staying in camp wasn't entirely safe. Although he had plenty of goblin subordinates, most were goblin peons with little fighting power. If dozens of players really charged in, there would be nothing Xiao Yu could do.

Fortunately, he had already trained a few goblin scouts. For now, he would fill the towers along the camp wall with them.

"Close the gates! Goblin scouts, defend the watchtowers! All of you, stay sharp!" Xiao Yu shouted and cursed, kicking and shoving his newly trained goblin scouts up the watchtowers.

The watchtowers increased the range of ranged attacks. Only after seeing scouts fill all four towers in the four camps did Xiao Yu breathe a sigh of relief.

He stood on the wall and looked out. Before long, the party of players appeared outside the camp, but when they saw how heavily guarded the goblin camp was, they decisively chose not to force their way in. Instead, they continued killing goblins they caught alone outside, finally leaving in frustration as it grew dark.

Even after the players left, Xiao Yu had no intention of going out again. Beast-type monsters received attribute bonuses at night, and even for the goblins, who were monsters themselves, the Night Whisper Forest was dangerous after dark. Fortunately, he thought, they had already gathered all the resources they needed.

For the rest of the night, the entire camp was busy. Torches burned throughout the camp as work began to train goblin warriors and goblin scouts overnight.

The goblin peons had spent the entire previous day gathering large quantities of wood and food, both of which Xiao Yu urgently needed.

The wood went toward building goblin huts. He built another ten in one go, raising the Mud Hole Tribe's population cap to 200, the limit for the camp.

All the food went toward recruiting young goblins, sixty in total, who were then trained by the training officers to become goblin warriors and goblin scouts. Of course, since each one took half an hour to train, only a dozen or so had been trained over the previous day. Working through the night would train another dozen or so. More than twenty could be trained on an average day, which was already the limit, but three days would be enough to finish training them all.

Watching goblin scouts and goblin warriors pick up crude weapons one after another and join the ranks of the camp's army, Xiao Yu finally felt somewhat more confident.

After another two hours, sometime after nine in the evening, the goblin messengers who had gone out to deliver letters returned. Only two of them came back, however.

Eric (goblin pyromancer): "Did you deliver the letters? Why is one of you missing?"

Goblin messenger: "Chief, we delivered the letters to Black Rode and Big Gold Tooth, but the one who went to Hogger hasn't come back yet. I'm afraid he was eaten by a beast."

"Then send another messenger. This time, the two of you go together, and make sure the letter gets delivered." Xiao Yu gave no thought to the fact that the two messengers had only just returned. He took out a copy of the letter he had made earlier and sent them on their way again.

Fortunately, these goblins were quite accustomed to obeying orders. "Yes, Chief! We'll get the job done!" The two goblin messengers set off again at once, without even a chance to catch their breath.

It was only a minor interlude, and Xiao Yu thought nothing of it.

Looking around, he saw that the goblin camp was now running smoothly. The goblin peons gathered resources while the goblin training officers trained soldiers. Xiao Yu wasn't very reassured by those soldiers' fighting strength, though. A player of the same level could generally take on two or even three of them, and with somewhat better equipment and skill, taking on five wasn't impossible. He was therefore eager for the campfire to attract more powerful monsters, but that would have to wait until tomorrow. Seeing that it was getting late, Xiao Yu logged off.

The next morning, the first thing he did upon entering the game was head straight for the campfire.

When he arrived and looked, he froze. A three-meter-tall, blue-skinned ogre sat beside the campfire, warming himself as he gnawed on something.

Fuck, isn't that the goblin cook's corpse? Half the goblin cook had already gone into the ogre's belly, while the other half hung limply, a sight too miserable for words.

The goblin cook was actually an old acquaintance of Xiao Yu's. He was the one who had taught Xiao Yu the Campfire skill. When Moon Scar the Shadow Stalker came to slaughter them, the cook had escaped by hiding in a woodpile. Unexpectedly, though he had escaped that calamity, he couldn't escape the next, and had been eaten by a wild monster attracted by the campfire.

Seemingly noticing Xiao Yu's arrival, the blue-skinned ogre glanced casually at him.

Grabb (ogre mage): "Hello, little guy. My name's Grabb, and I'm an ogre. You've got a lot of tasty food here. I heard you're recruiting, and I happen to be interested in joining you. As long as you give me enough food, I don't mind joining you. Food like this is pretty good. Got any more?"

As he spoke, his ill-intentioned gaze swept back and forth behind Xiao Yu, as if Xiao Yu had a goblin hidden in his pants pocket, or perhaps it was Xiao Yu himself he was eyeing.

System notification: Your campfire has attracted an ogre wizard. Recruit him?

Xiao Yu checked the ogre wizard's description.

[Monster name: Grabb (ogre wizard)]

[Monster category: ogre (large humanoid)]

[Monster rank: level 13 rare elite]

[Monster skill: **Bloodlust**, sends one target into a bloodthirsty state, increasing attack speed and movement speed by 30% for 45 seconds]

[Monster skill 2: **Heavy Strike**, delivers a full-strength blow, dealing twice the damage of a normal attack]

[Recruitment cost: 500 food, 5 population cap]

[Upkeep: 50 food per day]

[Note: A strong ogre warrior who also has some talent for magic. His appetite is just a little large-and he's never picky about what he eats]

[Note 2: Be careful. Never stand on his dinnerware while talking to him]

Xiao Yu's eyelid twitched. The ogre before him did look quite formidable, especially with his Bloodlust skill, which could greatly increase the troops' fighting strength. The only problem was that he was too formidable. Although he was only a rare elite, ogres had naturally high attributes and were large, capable of both melee combat and spellcasting. In a one-on-one fight, he was already no weaker than Xiao Yu. Not to mention that an ogre who was starving couldn't be reasoned with. He had even eaten the cook, and Xiao Yu didn't want to become food through a moment of carelessness.

Besides, it wasn't unheard of for a wandering monster to turn the tables, kill the leader of a monster faction, and take control of it himself. As goblin chief, Xiao Yu had a natural ability to suppress goblins, so he didn't need to fear them rebelling. The three Blackrock Orcs from yesterday had all been ordinary monsters, so naturally he hadn't needed to worry about them. But today's ogre was a rare elite, and a high-level one at that. His fighting strength was even a shade greater than Xiao Yu's, so he absolutely couldn't be allowed to stay.

At that thought, he gave a wicked little smile and, without answering, turned and walked away.

"Everyone, prepare for battle!" Xiao Yu shouted toward the goblin huts. A crowd of goblin warriors and goblin scouts came pouring out, clutching shortbows and small axes, each looking at Xiao Yu in bewilderment.

"What the hell are you useless lot doing? The enemy's already come into our home, and none of you reacted! Look, someone's eaten our cook! Get ready to fight! Warriors in front, archers in back! Wait for my command!"

The goblins scrambled into a thoroughly disordered formation. There was no hope of getting them to deploy in proper ranks, but they just about managed to put the melee fighters in front and the ranged fighters behind.

The ogre Grabb still didn't know what was happening. He scratched his head and looked at the goblins before him, seemingly somewhat confused.