Chapter 27

The army battled goblins four times throughout the day, defeating approximately one thousand three hundred, thirteen hundred, eleven hundred, and twelve hundred respectively. While not exact figures, it amounted to roughly five thousand slaughtered goblins. Despite this impressive feat, my soldiers were still far from reaching level 20.

But we have plenty of troops.

Even with five thousand enemies slain, there were only 310 elite soldiers on our side. In terms of experience points, each soldier had taken down about sixteen goblins on average.

Still, maybe tomorrow. At most, by the day after.

As the sun set, we made camp. Meanwhile, feeling the chilling air, I summoned my closest aides.

“Flower, how is the treatment going?”

“Yes, Lordship. With Heal available now, the complexity of surgeries can’t even compare to before.”

Ten priests, led by Flower who had acquired the rare Priest class, healed the soldiers after each battle. These individuals were not just ordinary people given classes and skill books; they were recruited for their expertise to utilize the former Fourth Grade Dragon Vein, the Garden of Peace. In this medieval land, they were specialists in the uncommon field of surgery.

‘I didn’t gather them specifically for this purpose. Should I consider it a fortunate turn of events?’

With these thoughts, I looked at Flower.

“What’s your level now?”

“Level 13.”

I turned towards her response.

“And you guys?”

“Level 26.”

“Level 21.”

“Eh, I’m still only Level 14…”

In order, Stonestone, Hundred, and Smile reported their levels. After positioning Flower next to them, I began my explanation.

“As you already know, I separated you from the command structure because we will often have to fight outside the main forces.”

In fact, there was no need for me to create the position of Heavenly Generals. With around a thousand soldiers, it would be normal to assign five hundred each to two knights. However, I deliberately created the role of Heavenly Generals and gave more freedom to the knights. This allowed operations to proceed smoothly even without knights or mages.

Furthermore, Flower was separated from other healers, forming a party with Stonestone, Hundred, Smile, and herself. There was a specific task I wanted them to undertake separately.

“We must raise our levels further. As I’ve said before, we need to clear dungeons.”

The process of seizing territories had two steps:

1. Clear a dungeon with hell-level difficulty to receive a siege quest.

2. Win the ensuing siege battle as a guild.

Not every member needed to clear the dungeon, but at least the guild master had to do so, since only they could accept the guild quests.

“In order to accomplish this, we need to reach a certain level.”

“That’s not all. Select forty-five additional elite soldiers, for a total of one hundred. We may have to conduct the siege with just that many.”

“…A siege with merely one hundred soldiers? Why must we reduce our numbers further?” Hundred questioned the seemingly unreasonable situation, but there was no alternative.

‘A level 1 guild can’t have more than 100 members.’

To increase the number of guild members, I needed to raise the guild’s level, and for that, I required guild experience points. But how could one obtain these guild experience points? Players from Revenge often assumed it was ‘based on the experience gained by guild members,’ but there was a slight twist to this logic.

‘It actually depends on the consumption of Diva’s Favor.’

This wasn’t much of an issue within the game since hunting inevitably consumed Diva’s Favor in Revenge. Who would dare hunt without utilizing Diva’s Favor anyway? However, things were different in Ardenia. In this world, apart from myself, nobody possessed Diva’s Favor.

There was no way to pay for it or obtain push items, so everyone had a fair and equal starting point of zero favor points.

‘Auto-recharge occurs up to 200 points when in safe zones or logged out, but… there are currently no safe zones in this world. To raise the guild level, we need to capture at least one territory.’

I organized my thoughts.

There might be no limit on the number of participants in sieges. With concepts like critical hits, evasion, and hit replaced by phenomena, nothing could be guaranteed anymore.

However…

“It isn’t necessarily true. We must prepare for any situation imposed by the ‘rules’ governing this dungeon.”

“Then… understood.” After seeing him nod and step back, I addressed everyone else:

“Continue fighting as we did today. Our goal is to reach level 20 for all our forces. If there’s any problem or shortage of supplies, it’s fine to retreat back to base and return later.”

Upon hearing my words, Stonestone asked, “Are you planning to move alone?”

“There’s no need for me to participate directly in these battles now. I have something else to investigate.”

“Isn’t that dangerous?”

“Dangerous?” A smirk involuntarily crossed my face. After all, I had already overcome the assault of orc warriors. Moreover, unlike orc dungeons where Heroes can spawn even on hell difficulty, goblin dungeons never exceed rare-grade mobs, regardless of the challenge level. And most importantly… compared to when I fought against the orc horde, I am now practically a different person.

“Don’t overexert yourselves while battling. Hopefully, everyone will still be here when we return.”

With that, I opened the pet window.

[Iron Rhino Sting (Rare) has been summoned.]

Thud, thud!

Out of thin air appeared a rhinoceros covered with iron scales from head to toe. It was as big as a midsize car.

“Wh-what kind of creature just materialized out of nowhere…?”

“A magic beast… No, wait. A beast? Despite its strength, it seems quite docile.”

“It’s enormous. And look at those iron scales…”

Ignoring their astonished voices, I climbed onto Iron Rhino Sting’s back. There was already a saddle attached, so mounting wasn’t an issue.

“I’ll say this again.” With a subtle turn, I nudged Sting gently on the flank.

“No casualties.”

Thud! Thud-thud! Vroooommm!

In no time, Sting accelerated and began galloping across the earth at tremendous speed.

‘Indeed, it is rare grade. Isn’t this good?’

In Revenge, pets were commonly classified into three types: buff-type that increased player abilities or granted special powers; combat-type that fought alongside the player; and mount-type that could be ridden by the player.

The iron-armored rhino sting I was riding overlapped slightly between the mount-type and combat-type.

“Well, it really just involves riding…but how about in reality?”

In the game, mount-type pets didn’t attack monsters nor fight on their own…

However, even if they were mount-type, there was no way beasts existing in reality couldn’t fight. Especially for such a fierce rhino body.

“Human! Human! A human is coming alone!”

“Cover him! Knock him over! Stab with your spears!”

“Yes! Right now! Block his path… Huh? Wh-what?!”

“Whinny!”

Crash!

The iron-armored rhino didn’t slow down for a second and plowed through the goblins like a bulldozer, crushing them under its horns or trampling over them with its hooves. A few tried to jump onto Sting’s side.

[Fatal Strike!][Fatal Strike!]

With swift swings of his sword, jae-yeon severed their necks.

I knew attacking from atop my pet wouldn’t be an issue.

Considering how Revenge had prevented players, except those with certain jobs, from launching attacks while mounted, this was one advantage of the game becoming reality. However, there were also penalties that hadn’t existed before.

“Hufffffff!” After running for about thirty minutes, the rhino, which had been pushing back the goblins so effectively until then, started panting heavily.

“Let’s see… I’m tired. Well, it is natural considering this speed with such a large body.”

However, it was different in the game. Of course, there was also the concept of stamina in Revenge, but it was only used as a resource for skills, not for normal attacks or movement.

‘Wouldn’t the automatic hunting game be unplayable if stamina were consumed by basic actions?’

I gently patted Sting’s back to slow down. Although I had ridden horses quite often, this was my first time riding a rhinoceros. However, this guy perfectly understood my intentions, making it easy to control him.

“Humans! Humans have appeared!”

“Huff huff… Huff huff… Heading towards the human village! Kill them!”

“The steel beast is too scary! We need to surround and stop it!”

“Call your friends, friend!” The shining silver sting and I riding it drew a lot of attention.

“Let’s see… Around 2,000?”

I looked around while changing my equipment.

Ping!

The equipment from the inventory equipped onto my status window, and a helmet appeared on my head.

[Rough Strength Mithril Helmet (Rare) +4].

My lightly dressed body was covered with silver armor:

[Rough Strength Mithril Chestplate (Rare) +4], [Rough Strength Mithril Armor Bottoms (Rare) +4], [Rough Strength Mithril Gloves (Rare) +4], [Rough Strength Mithril Boots (Rare) +4].

Once my entire body was covered by the mithril full-body armor, the set effect activated:

[Rough Strength (Rare)]

A buff applied pure strength increased by 20%.

“Armor! He is wearing armor!”

“The venom isn’t working!”

“Throw rocks at him!”

Suddenly, the goblins surrounded me and started throwing stones with anger. This attack could be avoided or repelled easily, but I just watched quietly.

Crack! Thud!

The goblins had considerable throwing abilities compared to their size. They hurled rocks the size of their fists at speeds around 80-90 kilometers per hour. If you were caught off guard and hit, it would often result in a broken skull.

However…

“Wow, really.” I couldn’t help laughing. “It doesn’t even tickle.”

As a feudal lord, I hadn’t been able to obtain full-body armor until now. With this rare set made entirely of mithril covering my body, these attacks felt like nothing. Of course, each stone strike still accumulated some shock, but…

‘Even if they hit me directly on the head, there’s no impact.’

From the beginning, I wasn’t fearful about diving alone into the midst of enemies. After all, goblins never posed a real threat to me.

However… After confirming the performance of this armor, it wasn’t just at the level of being fearless. The battlefield felt as comfortable as my own home.

“People often talk about gear advantage, but this is really…”

Despite feeling amazed, I continued to equip the rest of my items:

[Sword of Conviction (Advanced) +9] - My first weapon with a strength rating of +9.

[Rough Strength Earrings (Rare) +6], [Rune Stone Earrings (Advanced) +6], [Rough Strength Necklace (Rare) +6], [Rough Strength Ring (Rare) +6], [Strong Life Ring (Rare) +6].

These accessories were efficiently purchased considering all options and prices.

[Boldness Bracelet (Hero) +3], [Giant’s Bracelet (Rare) +3], [Struggle Belt (Hero) +3].

And then there was the cash accessory that couldn’t be compared with any others.

But even this wasn’t the end.

-Gooooo…

Behind me, an aura began to rise. It seemed the goblins couldn’t see it, but its mere presence behind me boosted my stats significantly and granted powerful buffs.

An aura rose behind me. The goblins couldn’t see it but just by existing behind me, it provided savage stat increases and powerful buffs.

Wandering Troll (Gatekeeper).

Neverdie (Hero), Level 11.

“Wow, damn.” I groaned as flying pebbles hit me quietly. In the past, after acquiring the Hero job with collection buffs, I thought ‘I could beat 10 of my former selves’. This thought was true. Without the subtle principles of mana or enlightenment, humans could still become strong to some extent. The increase in stats wasn’t negligible, and I had the ability to fully utilize these specs.

Now, having efficiently spent 10 million won on military funds…

“Power inflation, crazy.”

I could now defeat ten of my past selves from that time overwhelmingly.