Chapter 77: Chapter 75: Leon’s Comeuppance
...
With that thought, Lynch led his elite Undead out of the Skeleton Enhancement Room.
Upon seeing Lynch and the powerful Undead Units behind him, Old Baal instantly seemed to find his courage, his expression calming considerably.
He hurriedly bowed and explained, "My lord, something’s happened to Little Lisa. She and a few of her friends were picking mushrooms in the woods today when they were captured by a group of goblins. A girl named Martha was farther away and ran fast, so she was lucky enough to escape and report back."
’Goblins again?’ Lynch frowned to himself.
The Silver Sand Bay Fishing Port where he was currently staying was under the jurisdiction of Moon Sail Port. It was separated from Saint Roland City by a continuous mountain range and the vast Dark Forest.
During the academy assessment a few months ago, the goblins in the Dark Forest had been plowed through again and again by apprentices of all kinds, suffering heavy losses. The Undead System students he had armed, in particular, could have been called goblin exterminators.
’How long has it been quiet? And now they’re stirring up trouble again?’
As for the captured Little Lisa... Lynch had a fairly clear impression of her.
She was one of the few girls in the Fishing Port who was pretty and clean, a diligent worker who didn’t talk much.
After he moved into the garrison, Old Baal had arranged for her and a few other women to take turns cleaning, doing laundry, and cooking.
Little Lisa was thoughtful. Knowing Lynch liked mushroom soup and fresh wild mushrooms stir-fried in lard, she often went into the forest to gather them.
He couldn’t just ignore this.
"Fine."
Lynch sighed.
’Looks like my peaceful life is over. But this is actually perfect. I can use this opportunity to replenish my cannon fodder troops, stretch my legs, and test the results of my three months of secluded training.’
Lynch chose two of the older militiamen to lead the way.
Just in case, he left behind the Soul Fire squad leader, Fish-bone, and thirty Tidal Fishman Skeletons, temporarily placing them under the command of the Fishing Port’s militia leader to handle its security and defense.
Once they left the Fishing Port and entered the forest, Lynch reorganized his troops. He kept Red Rabbit, Bone Shadow, the Fish Priest, and a few other Soul Fire commanders like Bone Wolf out in the open. The rest of the visible force consisted of a dozen or so Guard Skeletons and a motley troop of sixty to seventy assorted Skeletons.
The vast majority of his forces, however, were hidden within the Death Banner.
This way, the smaller-scale force could travel faster and more quietly.
"Bone Shadow, scout ahead."
At Lynch’s mental command, the beautiful assassin skeleton beside him flickered and vanished into the forest shadows.
Lynch was growing more and more satisfied with Bone Shadow.
With its current level of intelligence, it could scout the enemy situation independently, without needing him to constantly issue commands and micromanage.
Even so, Lynch sent out an additional ten or so Squirrel Skeletons.
With a few SWISHES, they clambered up to the treetops, leaping and darting between branches, bringing a perimeter of several hundred meters around the troops under surveillance.
"My lord."
After investigating the scene of the crime, an old militiaman said respectfully, "The messy footprints and other tracks left at the scene are still very fresh. It seems their numbers are around twenty to thirty."
"Lead the way. Move out," Lynch commanded, giving a light wave of his skull-topped magic staff.
The army, led by the militiamen, followed the tracks.
But as the troops ventured deeper, the militiamen discovered tracks from multiple groups of goblins.
"My lord, this... something doesn’t seem right," the old militiaman said, his face tense and his tone serious. "Goblins have occasionally been active around here before, but we’ve rarely seen this many tracks."
"It’s fine. Keep moving," Lynch said from atop Red Rabbit, his expression as calm as ever.
With his current overall strength, he stood a chance even against a large goblin encampment, let alone these small goblin squads. No matter how many more appeared, they were just delivery teams to him.
He even spared a moment to recall his correspondence with the academy over the past few months.
Avril’s letters were the most frequent. Aside from her occasional, girlishly affectionate greetings, they were mostly filled with all sorts of "gossip" from the academy.
In recent months, the most interesting event at the academy was the fallout from the Leon Hollis incident.
Quite a few cannon fodder students had been led into the Undead System’s ambush circles by that "collaborator," Leon.
They hadn’t realized anything was wrong at the time, but after the assessment ended, they compared notes and discovered something. Every time Leon led a group to attack a "high-value target," they would end up walking into an Undead apprentice’s trap, yet he always managed to "luckily" escape.
Once or twice could be luck, but three or four times... Combined with Leon’s final rank of fifth on the overall leaderboard... even a fool would know something was wrong.
Soon, rumors that Leon had "colluded" with the Undead apprentice Maurice, selling out his classmates for points, spread throughout the academy.
The Holy Light System was initially ambiguous about the matter, but the other Systems, especially the students who had been screwed over, didn’t care.
Leon was getting stuffed in a sack every other day, and people would point and whisper whenever he walked by.
Finally, the academy administration expelled that black sheep, Leon, on the grounds of "seriously violating assessment rules and undermining student unity."
Lynch just chuckled at this news.
He wasn’t the least bit surprised.
This was one of the backup plans he had laid out from the start. It both squeezed the last bit of value out of Leon and ensured someone else would take the fall afterward, without implicating him or the Undead System.
As for his senior, Amadis, her letters were far less frequent.
Not long after the assessment, she had returned to the front lines in the southern province.
In her letters, she mentioned multiple times that the rebel army, the Draenei Brotherhood, was becoming increasingly rampant. Many nobles were even secretly colluding with them, making the situation quite chaotic.
Furthermore, the chaos showed signs of spreading north, and she warned him to be careful and not wander around.
Mentor Annabella’s letters, on the other hand, were much more formulaic. They were mostly full of organized notes, insights, and experience with various skills, making it feel like a correspondence course.
In short, even though Lynch had been in seclusion for three months, he wasn’t actually out of touch with the outside world.
And just as his thoughts were wandering, Bone Shadow, who was in charge of scouting, reappeared in the group as if from nowhere. It then transmitted a piece of intel it had gathered to Lynch via their mental link.
After a moment of contemplation, Lynch directed his troops to change direction, stealthily making their way toward a craggy, reef-strewn coastal area ahead.
A short while later, the troops reached a concealed vantage point.
Immediately, Lynch saw some blurry, indistinct images through the shared vision of Bone Shadow and the Squirrel Skeletons.
Faintly, it seemed two forces were locked in a fierce battle.
This was because Lynch was too far from Bone Shadow and the others, causing the mental link to be choppy.
As the troops continued to approach cautiously, the image in Lynch’s mind gradually became clear.
It turned out the two warring parties were none other than the Tidal Fishmen and the goblins—both of whom Lynch had fought before.
The two sides were fighting inextricably at the border of the reef and the beach. Fishmen and goblins fell one after another, but reinforcements quickly filled the gaps, making the battle exceptionally brutal.
And on a massive black reef between the two warring factions, there was a third group.
It appeared to be a small team of five or six Naga with human torsos and serpentine tails. They wielded tridents or swords and shields, forming a semicircle on the reef to protect someone behind them.
Additionally, an aqua-colored curtain of light enveloped the entire reef—most likely a defensive barrier created by a Magic Item.
However, the light curtain was currently taking sporadic attacks from both armies. It was already on the verge of shattering and probably wouldn’t last much longer.
Wait.
When Lynch got a clear look at who the Naga were protecting...
Suddenly.
He froze completely.
It was actually a... mermaid!?
...
