Sanguine Paradise
Chapter 32: [Day 10] – “Warband”

∼ Day 10 ∼

Seeing the twin suns rise again over the horizon, Bob and I stop our journey.

Throughout the whole night, we've tracked through the rocky hills by running mostly.

Although I could carry Bob for short flights, the stamina cost was nowhere near as cost-efficient compared to just running.

So using our well-build bodies, we ran through the night.

Only occasionally did we replace any foes. But they were quickly dispatched by both Bob and me.

Now Bob could simply cleave goblins in two with his blood dagger, so they didn't stand a chance.

While we slaughtered our way through the rocky hills we saw an ever-increasing number of the green buggers.

But we mostly steered clear from them, since they simply weren't worth the EXP.

After Bob's evolution, it barely a drop in the bucket for each goblin, and even the hobgoblins who appeared more recently wasn't worth it.

So we just continued.

But now after spending the whole night traveling, we were spent.

Calling to Bob, we replace a place to rest.

Sticking to my usual habits of being a tree dweller, I decided we would sleep in one tonight.

Making sure everything was alright I was just about to go to sleep when I noticed that Bob had basically instantly fallen asleep.

"Huh..." - Me

He literally fell asleep upon laying down, his snoring a testament to that.

I don't know if it's because I've driven him like a horse on steroids all day or this is normal for him.

... Maybe a bit of both.

I am a bit worried about his snoring alerting our presence to anybody.

But I doubt we'll run into something threatening here, and we've both gotten quite strong.

Laying myself down, I also allow myself to fall into deep slumber.

...

Suddenly waking up by the noises of voices, footsteps, and clattering tools or weapons, I wake up Bob too.

Moving to the edge of the tree's crown, I started surveying the surroundings.

In the distance, I found the ones guilty for stirring me and Bob from our peaceful sleep.

From where I was, I could see a giant party of goblins and hobgoblins. This one was much bigger than we've ever seen before.

Not also to mention, these goblins and hobgoblins were all outfitted in leather, cloth, and mostly metal weapons.

If I were to estimate, there would be a total of 65 greenskins in that party, or should I call it a small army?

There are 10 hobgoblins and the rest were just goblins. But no doubt each one at the peak of their level or near it.

On our way here, we had seen the number of goblin dens started to increase many times over.

And some places had even started settling outside caves and such with tents and fences. But they were the ones who had a single or two hobgoblins leading them.

This party alone had 10 hobgoblins, and they obviously belonged to some else tribe. Meaning there should be even more hobgoblins there.

Looking back at the stupid-looking Bob trying his best to stay silent while his fighting spirit was emerging, I speak.

"It would seem we've found our target" - Me

As I adopted a menacing smile Bob mimicked me in my anticipation.

Wanting to take stock before we continued, I pulled up our prompts of the journey here, combined with our statuses.

[15 Goblins, 5 Hoblins, 4 Rock Beetles have been slain!]

[You have been rewarded with 868 points of EXP]

[10 Goblins, 2 Hobgoblins, and 1 Rock Beetles have been slain by another under your control!]

[You have been rewarded with the split 192 points of EXP]

[Siphon]

[You have consumed the blood of 3 different creatures 21 times]

[You have acquired 310 points of EXP and stats have been added]

[Congratulation! You've reached level 4]

[You've been rewarded with 1 skill point for reaching level 4]

[Dash has reached LVL: 5 and can now be advanced!]

While we fought we also ran into some rock beetles, while they yielded good EXP they simply weren't worth going out of our way to kill with their obnoxiously hard carapace.

And I only drank a few of the creatures since I was hungry, and when the times I couldn't practice my blood shaping when in lack of mana.

[Status]

Name: "???"

Race: Azde (Blood Fiend)

Sex: Male

Rank: F

Level: 4/35

Health: 89/89

Stamina: 35/35

Mana: 9/9

[Attributes]

STR - 10

VIT - 20 ⇒ 22

AGI - 35 ⇒ 38

DEX - 20

INT - 20 ⇒ 21

CHR - 5

WILL - 18

MAG - 15 ⇒ 18

[Trait, Titles, and Skills].

Skills - 19

Traits - 5

Titles - 2

Skillpoints - 5 ⇒ 8

[Resistances]

Phy. Resistance - 10

Mag. Resistance - 5

Men. Resistance - 8

Oh yeah! My skill points have started to gather back up to a reasonable number.

I should take a look at the magic skills in the skill shop again when the time is appropriate.

Now, for Bob.

[Appraisal - Lesser Draugr]

Name: "???"

Race: Lesser Draugr

Sex: Male

Rank: G+

Level: 2/20

Health: 108/108

Stamina: 63/63

Mana: 0/0

[Attributes]

STR - 18 ⇒ 19

VIT - 21 ⇒ 22

AGI - 15

DEX - 10

INT - 8

CHR - 2

WILL - 10

MAG - 0.1

[Trait, Titles, and Skills].

Skills - 7

Traits - 3

Titles - 1

[Resistances]

Phy. Resistance - 6

Mag. Resistance - 2

Men. Resistance - 4

[Sanguine Guard]

Hmm, not much but he did tell me that he managed to level up some of his new skills.

Assured that I've checked what was needed, I signal Bob to follow me but silently.

Spending about 20 minutes to approach the warband of greenskins, we silently observed them.

Now in proper range, I could use my appraisal.

And the target of my attention was the front-most hobgoblin, who was obviously the leader.

Dressed in leather, and being the only one was an actual chain mail draped around him. He could only be the leader of this warband of greenskins.

Strapped to his was even a decently looking metal longsword.

Either he was able to take good care of his weapons, or it was recently looted off a human.

But with this kind of warband, I would be surprised if they hadn't taken down some human adventures.

Although I have no idea where they would replace any out here.

Done with the introspection, I appraise him.

-Appraisal!-

[Appraisal - Hobgoblin]

Name: "???"

Race: Hobgoblin

Sex: Male

Rank: G

Level: 15/20

Health: 82/82

Stamina: 29/34

Mana: 0/0

[Attributes]

STR - 21

VIT - 16

AGI - 25

DEX - 18

INT - 10

CHR - 6

WILL - ???

MAG - 0.5

[Trait, Titles, and Skills].

Skills - ???

Traits - ???

Titles - ???

[Resistances]

Phy. Resistance - 5

Mag. Resistance - 1

Men. Resistance - ???

Well, this one is quite a bit stronger than the last one. But it still poses no threat to either Bob or me.

The only real threat is the giant warband.

Taking a minute or two, I think through my options.

But I soon come to a decision.

Stalking the party for few hours until the twin suns rose high in the sky, we finally found the opportunity we had been looking for.

During the march of the warband, they had fought quite a few rock beetles and took them with. They even met smaller parties of opposing goblins and hobgoblins which they quickly slaughtered.

But during all that time, the entire warband was tightly knitted together in their march.

Luckily for me and Bob, our opportunity arose when they stopped to rest for a bit and a female goblin went to go relieve herself.

At that moment, I had swooped in, knocked her out, and taken her back to a more remote location.

There, both Bob and I began our "interrogation" of her which took no time at all since only losing one finger was enough to spill all the beans.

This greenskin warband was apparently one of four warbands of a minor tribe.

Leading this warband was the hobgoblin wearing chainmail, one of the four warband leaders.

Although the information we got was limited because of the stupidity of the female goblin didn't help much. But we still got the basic information we needed.

While we could've easily caught a smarter hobgoblin. But that would have alerted the warband to our presence and we didn't need any conflict to arise at the moment.

So this minor tribe was apparently not far away, and the warband was on its way back after having hunted for three days.

Those many rock beetles being carted by goblins with sticks and ropes testimony enough for that.

When I had asked about the leader of the minor tribe, the ugly little goblin started trembling in fear and simply only referred to him as the most powerful hobgoblin.

While I doubted that he was actually the strongest one since the little goblin wouldn't know any better, but he'd have to be quite strong to lead such a tribe.

As for the numbers and structures of the tribe, it was useless since the stupid goblin knew jack-shit about stuff like that, she simply followed the tribe and that's it.

Done with her, I gave a small flick of my finger, which ripped open her throat, and then looked to Bob.

"We're almost there" - Me