Battle of the Five Armies
Derek thanked him, then eagerly reached for the corpse.
Because it had been a scripted kill, the drops were plentiful. As soon as he searched the body, a long list popped up.
[Name: Hogger's Bonecrusher Blade] [Category: Equipment--weapon] [Quality: Excellent] [Function: Attack 13-18. On hit, has a chance to inflict bonecrusher, reducing the target's attributes by 30% for 5 seconds] [Note: A brutal weapon, still stained with its victims' blood] [Name: Hogger's Spiked Club] [Category: Equipment--weapon] [Quality: Excellent] [Function: Attack 13-18. On hit, has a chance to stun the target for 3 seconds] [Note: A brutal weapon, still coated with its victims' brains] [Name: Victim's Wrap] [Category: Equipment--chest armor] [Quality: Excellent] [Function: Armor +12, stamina +4] [Note: Armor stitched together from all sorts of strange hides. Gnolls were said to have a particularly brutal tradition: they skinned the enemies they killed and sewed the hides onto their armor. The more hides sewn onto a gnoll's armor, the more brutal the gnoll] [Name: Gnoll Leader's Insignia] [Category: Equipment--accessory] [Quality: Excellent] [Function: Maximum health +66] [Note: A strange metal insignia marking the leader of the gnolls. Gnolls only]
Derek excitedly picked up the Gnoll Leader's Insignia and equipped it. His name immediately changed to Derek (Gnoll Leader). "Damn, the system says I completed the story event for advancing to leader and gave me 100 reputation points. With a little over a hundred more, I can advance to an elite template. Hahaha!"
Derek was excited, but he knew the drill. After taking the insignia, he left the other three items alone. Xiao Yu took the spiked club, Black Rod took the Bonecrusher Blade, and Xiao Yu casually tossed the Victim's Wrap to Big Gold Tooth.
"Here, Big Gold Tooth. Don't say I never looked after you. Take this armor back and wear it. But remember, if you don't show up when we attack Nightwhisper Village, you'll end up just like Hogger. Understand?"
Xiao Yu's carrot-and-stick approach worked. Big Gold Tooth accepted the armor with surprise and delight, then promised with reverence and fear that he would lead his kobold army into battle.
"What about you, then? Are you interested in joining this story event too?"
Xiao Yu suddenly asked Deathclaw.
The black panther nodded slightly. "That's exactly what I had in mind."
"But it looks like you're on your own?"
In Sky World, beasts were true wild monsters that didn't belong to any monster faction.
Of course, beasts could join a monster faction, but they generally had a hard time gaining a leading position. After all, no one had ever heard of a beast being the final boss of a dungeon.
"So what? I sneaked in here alone, and none of your many underlings noticed me, did they? To put it bluntly, those useless underlings of yours are good for nothing in a fight except padding your numbers and serving as cannon fodder. Besides, who said I was alone? I don't belong to any monster faction, but I know a few players who also have beast templates, and they're all at least rare elites. I can ask them to come help when the time comes. The fighting strength of our group certainly won't be any weaker than any one of your factions."
Since someone had offered to help, Xiao Yu naturally wouldn't turn him away.
"But what do you want?"
"What else? Reputation points and evolution points, of course."
"Evolution points?" Xiao Yu had never played a beast template, so he wasn't familiar with them.
"That's right," Deathclaw explained. "Beast-template players level up and advance just like you do, but we mainly rely on evolution points to learn skills and improve our strength. The stronger the target we hunt, the more evolution points we get. If the target we kill is too far below our strength, we can't get any evolution points at all."
"My abilities have hit a bottleneck. To be honest, apart from a few of you, the ordinary mobs in Night Whisper Forest can't give me any more evolution points. I originally came here to see whether you'd fight among yourselves, so I could take the opportunity to take down a couple of you and get some evolution points. But then I found a better opportunity. There are lots of strong NPCs in Nightwhisper. If we can break into Nightwhisper Village and I can kill a few of them, I'll naturally get a ton of evolution points. It's also easy to get evolution points by killing adventurers, so of course I want to join in this time. I'm sure my friends will want a piece of the action too."
Xiao Yu's eyelid twitched. You're certainly honest, he thought. But since Deathclaw had laid everything out so clearly, his faction was worth recruiting.
"All right, you're in. But you'll have to follow orders when the time comes. Even if we all work together, breaking into Nightwhisper Village won't be easy. If you disobey orders and cause the operation to fail, don't blame us for joining forces and settling the score with you."
The black panther nodded slightly, though his casual manner suggested he hadn't taken the warning to heart at all. Little wonder: with his stealth ability, high level, and elite status, Night Whisper Forest was his home turf. He might have been a lone panther, but he really had nothing to fear. Xiao Yu's threat was nothing more than a bluff.
Xiao Yu knew it too. Having made his threat, he dropped the subject and continued, "That makes five factions taking part in the attack on Nightwhisper Village: goblins, gnolls, kobolds, human bandits, and beasts. Let's call this operation the Battle of the Five Armies. We'll launch it at midnight the night after tomorrow. By then, most adventurers will have logged off, and Nightwhisper Village's defenses will be at their weakest. I'll have my troll smash the gates open, then we'll all rush in. Victory will be ours."
"Once everyone gets back, train as many underlings as you can over the next two days, so they'll be ready when we need them. Also, to get familiar with the terrain, we should make civilian-template characters and spend the next two days looking around Nightwhisper Village. Any questions?"
"Um, weren't the elves the ones who won the Battle of the Five Armies in the end? Isn't naming the plan that a bit unlucky?" Deathclaw remarked dryly.
"What are you afraid of? Those elves aren't these elves, and we're not orcs. No need to be so superstitious."
Just then, Derek the gnoll suddenly raised his hand.
Xiao Yu nodded, motioning for him to speak.
"Midnight isn't a good time for me to get online. My parents won't let me use the computer after eleven."
Xiao Yu nearly spat out a mouthful of blood. He looked at the big, burly, ferocious-looking gnoll Derek. "How old the hell are you?"
"Thirteen. Why?"
Xiao Yu held his head, his face devoid of all desire to live. What kind of teammates were these?
Black Rod, who was standing beside him, offered a suggestion. "Isn't that easy? Just tell your mom you're going to a classmate's house, then spend the night at an internet café."
"Right!" Derek said excitedly. "I can get my classmate to come along too. He can tell his parents he's going to my house, and we can cover for each other. Ahahaha, I'm a genius!"
"Your classmate?"
"Yeah. I have a few classmates who play this game with me. They're gnolls too, just like me, but they only have ordinary templates. Can't help it. A monthly subscription for an adventurer template costs several hundred, and we can't afford it."
Looks like elementary schoolers don't have it easy these days either, Xiao Yu thought. "Good, that couldn't be better. If the operation succeeds, you should be able to advance to an elite template, and your classmates can advance to rare elites. Then, with one elite and a whole group of rare elves, you'll be able to strut around Night Whisper Forest however you like."
Xiao Yu offered a few words of encouragement, settling the matter, but he wondered, Am I a bad influence on elementary schoolers?
Once they had agreed on the details and the time and place to meet, the alliance meeting came to a successful end. Everyone went their separate ways, returning to their respective camps to prepare for battle. Derek and his friends, meanwhile, prepared to put the gnoll camp in order. After all, there were other gnoll vanguard officers besides him, and there might well be a fight over who would be leader.
Among gnolls, strength was paramount. Anyone strong enough could kill the chief and take over, which was why Derek had dared to make a move against Hogger. Still, with the gnoll amulet and a few classmates helping him, there probably wouldn't be a problem.