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Chapter 54: Corcas Mountains Punitive Expedition 1

TL: Posted a Continent and Kingdom Map found at the bottom that can help better understand the chapter.

Gaius, the appointed commander of the punitive force arrived just three days later.

As all the troops came under his control upon his arrival, the Guard Camp became quite busy. While Aiden went out to greet Gaius, Woohyuk was training his party.

Tak Tak

They swung their swords at wooden scarecrows that had been planted in the ground.

‘This isn’t enough.’

Despite having undergone the tutorial maps of Primordial Forest and Canyon Battle, they were still very much beginners. They had never had any professional instruction when it came to using a sword.

Yoo Kayoung and Song Anna were slightly better, but even they were only on the level of an Apprentice Mage.

As Woohyuk clicked his tongue, Leifina approached.

“Lord, do I really have to stay behind in the camp?”

“I need someone to watch over Lia.”

She was still far too young to experience the horrors of the battlefield. Leaving Leifina behind was the right choice to avoid her growing up with a twisted personality.

“Dad, look what mom gave me.”

Lia showed him a rabbit plushie as she giggled happily. She finally received the gift he had bought in a shop in Landium. Lefina was worried about giving it to her right away in case she dropped it during their journey.

‘She is growing up better than I thought.’

He had been a bit worried about what kind of personality she might have, but it didn\'t seem to have received any negative influence.

He only needed to develop a bond between them and provide the proper upbringing.

After giving his party a break, Woohyuk went over and picked Lia up.

“What do you do if some stranger offers you something to eat?”

“I run away and then tell mom and dad about it.”

“What if you get lost or find yourself in a bad situation?”

“I first hide myself and then use the ring.”

He had given Lia a Scout’s ring in case of an emergency. It was something he had obtained from looting the defeated Kaliss’ merchant group. An artifact that could send a voice message to a single person, and could only be set up ahead of time by physically touching them.

Lia didn’t have a Unity ring, so it was the only method that would allow her to communicate with Woohyuk when they were seperated in case of an emergency.

“Everyone gather at the camp’s entrance!”

While Woohyuk was spending some time with Lia, a soldier appeared in the training grounds and shouted out.

Before their departure to the Corcas Mountains, the commander wanted to inspect the troops.

“Let’s end the training here.”

Hearing what Woohyuk said, the party members stood up with determined expressions.

A new battlefield. They might lose life if they didn’t give it their all.

“Will Yoo Kayoung and Song Anna be joining?”

“Of course.”

With Woohyuk’s new position as temporary Second Lieutenant, he had command over a unit of 500 people. It was quite a sizable force, and since they would likely be posted in the rear, things should be relatively safe.

The soldiers rushed to gather at the camp’s entrance, and quickly formed ranks.

8,000 from the Kingdom’s army.

2,500 Guards.

1,500 Mercenaries.

A total of 12,000 soldiers had been assembled.

“Wow, it’s incredible.”

“How can they gather so many….”

Lee Jaesung and Jung Sanghoon had their mouths agape in astonishment. It was on a scale then times that of the Canyon Battle.

“You’d best get used to it.”

In the future, when large clans fought against one another, it often involved armies of at least 10,000 people.

If they felt like it, they could easily conquer smaller kingdoms by simply cooperating with each other. Of course would only be possible once they had settled all their infighting.

‘Everyone is likely busy growing their own forces.’

Marcus, who was known as the Mad Lord, was likely looking for a position as a mercenary in the Yen Principality by now.

Logan, the Necromancer that had led an army of 100,000 undead and was even capable of making empires quake in their boots, was probably braving the cold in Norton Kingdom.

There were also Dragon Lord Ivanov and Alice that would be in the Talis and Enoa Kingdoms respectively.

As he waited among the troops for Gaius’ arrival, Woohyuk thought about his past.

He had begun in the Owen kingdom, located to the southwest of the Holy Aperian empire. Like any other adventurer, he struggled to survive, living day to day as a mercenary. Unfortunately due to this he had gotten caught up in clan battles, and ended up losing many colleagues.

Later, he made his way to the Croa principality, but had once again suffered many losses since he had been targeted by the criminal group Crimson Crows.

Eventually Leifina and himself had boarded a ship heading to the Lioness Kingdom, which was located on the far eastern shore of the Eeth continent.

It was a place with many Martial Artists, and was where Woohyuk had gotten a fortuitous encounter.

‘It’s too far for now.’

Although he was planning on visiting eventually, it wasn’t high on his list.

Even if he wasn’t able to build up his Inner Force by obtaining the Martial Artist class, he could have a similar result using his Demonic Energy.

Not to mention, that unlike Inner Force, Demonic Energy wasn’t independent of his Stats , but instead had the advantage of growing naturally along with their increases..

As Woohyuk focused on the Demonic Energy within him, Gaius and his officers made their appearance on the platform before them.

“I have a favor to ask of you before we set out.”

He was the expedition\'s Commander, and was naturally decked out in a dazzling armor. His manner of speaking also portrayed the dignity of his status.

Having such an impressive leader, gave the troops confidence in winning the battle.

“Never turn you back to the enemy. We are the proud army of the Great Rhine Kingdom. We will never beg for our lives even if it means losing everything!”

Knowing no retreat on the battlefield

A soldier’s basic virtue. However flexible thinking was equally important. Such kinds of rigid commanders wouldn’t be able to make the right situational judgement, making it easy to mistakenly put his men in danger.

‘We can only know after seeing how he performs which type he is.’

Although the Rhine Kingdom had stood for a long time, that may simply have been due to its advantageous geographic position, which made it easy to defend.

It wasn’t until Logan led the Niflheim Alliance to attack, that it had finally fallen. But there was no evidence to suggest that it had been because he had the superior army.

As he marched alongside the troops, Woohyuk raised his head to look at the vast blue sky and tall Corcas Mountains that towered above them.

The lair of vicious monsters, no doubt a bloody battle would take place today.

* * *

“Huu...Huuu.”

The soldiers breathed heavily as they climbed the rugged mountainous terrain.

Aiming for the peak on the very first day. Gaius was quite the ambitious commander, and wanted to capture the high ground as soon as possible.

‘This likely won’t end well.’

If one overlooked the terrain when crafting their strategy, they were doomed to fail, regardless of how many men they had.

Aware of this fact, Aiden had been purposefully slowing down their marching speed. The Guards were for the most part used as scouts and logistical support. They had left 500 to defend their camp, so they only numbered 2000 on this expedition.

Even though there were also more than 1,500 mercenaries to bolster their numbers, they still didn’t even amount to half the forces of the kingdom’s army.

It looked like it would be quite difficult to gain any significant merit unless a large scale battle would occur.

“Stop!”

Aiden brought them to a halt as the distance between them and Gaius’ troop had increased too much.

They were currently on a plateau, in the middle of the mountain range. A place which would serve as a great area to make camp.

Woohyuk nodded to himself as he watched the Guard unit begin to erect tents.

‘It’s a good choice.’

It was unclear whether they could actually reach the summit before sunset. The higher they climbed, the more likely they were to encounter monsters.

If they were to march through the night and have to face monsters on this steep terrain, they would suffer many more casualties.

“Boss, where should we set up?”

“Follow me.”

It was best to avoid the outer edges, since they were the most vulnerable to any night attacks.

As Woohyuk picked out an ideal spot, his subordinates moved quickly to set it up.

“There are fewer monsters than I expected. I thought this place would be infested with monsters which was why they had to invade the plains.”

“I guess it is about that time.”

Monsters gathering as a group of different races would usually only be for a specific purpose. One such reason was to hunt humans.

If ever they became riled up and bloodthirsty, the Elite monsters among them could act as their leader and build an army to invade.

The very fact that they had encountered so few of them so far, meant that they had already gathered in a different part of the mountain range.

“Will they be attacking us soon then?”

“Maybe.”

Monster hordes would gather in the northern parts of the Corcas mountains, and then make their way down all the way to even the steps of Doria Castle.

So if they went in too deep, it was easy to be surrounded by them. Even if you faced them head on, it was hard to come out on top since you were always outnumbered and fighting on awkward terrain.

“What will we do after we set up camp?”

“Let’s go scout the surrounding area.”

This was absolutely necessary because there might still be monsters nearby that could ambush them when they least expected it.

He also wanted to explore a bit, in hopes of discovering the Arachne Temple.

Woohyuk left their camp accompanied only by a few elites.

“You\'re going out to have a look, Woohyuk?”

Tenon asked, as he was currently posted at the entrance to oversee the supplies coming in.

This Lieutenant was always keeping busy, even going so far as to help manage the logistics for the mercenaries.

“I’ll be back before sunset.”

“Be careful out there, the monsters in the Corcas Mountains are more cunning than you think.”

Actually it wasn’t that the monsters were more intelligent here, but rather due to them being under the command of boss monsters. For that reason, the key to a successful punitive expedition was to quickly cut the head of the snake.

‘I’m not sure if Gaius will be able to achieve that though.’

As he pushed his perception to the max, Woohyuk stepped into the forest. It shouldn’t be possible for monsters to catch them off guard, because Woohyuk’s senses were very sharp.

“Boss, what kind of monsters do you think live here?”

Jung Sanghoon whispered as he followed from behind.

He was a former special forces soldier, so his physique was better than other mercenaries.

Despite the arduous climb, he hadn’t shown signs of tiring.

“Goblins, Orcs, Trolls, Ogres….”

Other than the beast type monsters that they had encountered so far, there were also many humanoid monsters in the continent as well.

A common one where the Orcs.

They had green skin, the same as Goblins and Trolls, but were only about as big as a full grown man. They were also known for their hideous appearance and their ability to breed like rabbits.

Their population was much higher than that of Trolls or Ogres.

Hearing his explanation, Jung Sanghoon’s expression hardened.

“Humanoid monster... they won’t be easy to deal with.”

“Sometime they can ambush you when you least expect it.”

In the past, they had managed to defeat the Kingdom\'s army on several occasions.

Of course this was largely due to the Demons’ influence from behind the scenes.

As Woohyuk was thinking about what had occurred in the past, the sound of metal clashing rang out across the forest.

Chaeng Chaeng Chaeng

The first sign of monsters, but because they were still far off, it was hard to guess how large their force was.

As they rushed to the source of the commotion, they arrived at a scene of a squad of mercenaries being besieged by a horde of Orcs.

“There are too many!”

“Break out!”

They had been caught unawares, not knowing where the monsters had come from.

Woohyuk took the troops he had brought along and went to the aid of the mercenaries that had been trapped.

Chawaak!

The Orcs’ burgundy blood splashed all over the ground, staining the area’s plant life.

It was a battle that they had the advantage in despite being outnumbered, because of the difference in skill.

Naturally he could have made it much easier by relying on his Necromancer or Asura abilities, but Woohyuk decided against it.

It could lead to trouble if his abilities became revealed so early on.

“It’s hard in a place like this.”

He was planning to use his Banshee’s Veil or Jester’s Mask to settle the task Aiden had given him. However if he revealed his abilities before so many soldiers, it would all be for naught.

In a large scale battle it would be possible to summon undead because they might be mistaken for monsters, but anything more would be risky.

“Kueeek!”

As their numbers continued to fall, the Orcs slowly began to retreat little by little.

Clearly they had begun to notice that the battle was not going well for them.

Instead of pursuing, Woohyuk went to meet up with the mercenaries that had been encircled.

“Are you guys okay?”

“Yes, all thanks to you, sir.”

A middle aged man with brown hair, bowed his head to him. He was Daryl, the leader of the 3rd Mercenary squad.

He was very skilled with the sword, and was a rather well known figure among mercenaries in the Rhine Kingdom.

“Where’s Rick?”

“He climbed a bit higher.”

There were a total of 3 commanders for the mercenary squads, including Rick.

Although they led similar sized squads, Woohyuk’s rank was highest. That was because he was the leader of the 1st squad. It was normal for Daryl to use honorifics when addressing him.

“Go back and request support from Aiden.”

“Okay.”

As Daryl led his remaining men back to camp, Woohyuk turned to the direction that the Orc horde had disappeared in.

‘They were hidden somewhere ’

Based on the tracks found on the ground, it seemed that they had a hideout nearby.

Woohyuk’s eyes gleamed as he studied the Orcs’ tracks that led in a single direction.

*TLN : Raws read the monsters as Aken, but I have no idea what they are and they were described exactly as an Orc would be, so I went with that.