I hand-pick the twenty strongest hobs. Together with them and Anastasia, we creep towards the town. It’s still dark, and we don’t carry any light. I doubt the city guards will notice us. Especially since they are not very numerous, according to Anastasia. I find a place far enough from the guard towers and swing the hook Axi made for me. I throw it on the wall and test it. It should be fine.

“Follow me, but only after I get inside. We don’t want to break either the hook or the rope.” I order them and start climbing. After that, I crouch down and wait for the next one. I look around. There are no guards on the walls, but they are probably in guard towers. Anastasia goes next, and after five hobs arrive, I take them to the next tower.

To my amusement, I find one sleeping guard there. I slit her throat. I move on the wall to the next tower, while Anastasia starts to move in the opposite direction. In the next tower, there are no guards at all. The next tower has one guard, and he isn’t sleeping.

“What?” He asks with a bored tone, hearing someone approaching. I don’t want to cause a commotion, so I shot him with a Vitality Clot. He panics entirely, and before the spell can even trigger, I rush forward and kill him with my sword. It’s going better than I expected. Either situation practically repeats itself in every tower. Soon, I meet back with Anastasia and her fifteen hobs. Looking back, three or four hobs would have been enough. We go to the gates and open them.

My tribe goes in. They are still silent, just as I ordered them. I hadn’t been killing goblins in the forest just because loud voices were attracting predators. I have been doing that precisely for this moment.

“What now?” Anastasia asks. “By the way, I got another title for helping you invade the town.”

“We split once again. I think there are two targets worth looting. Adventurers Guild and the temple.”

“You want to loot the temple?” She asks with disbelief.

“Yeah. It’s the temple of the Bright Gods, right? It’s not strange for monsters to attack it, right?” I ask. Honestly, I don’t know. “Temples should have all the interesting information. You should go. Take what seems useful, and more importantly, force a priest to get rid of your Farmer class.” I tell her.

“That… Fine. I will do it.” She starts hesitating but ends up saying it with conviction.

“Sure. I will take the guild, then." We split our forces. Axi and several more goblins, most of them wounded, are waiting outside the city. I don’t have mana to spare right now. I will heal them later.

I take fifteen hobs and ten goblins with me. Regular goblins, being the weakest, were the most numerous victims of forced marching and the whole outmaneuvering tactic. We walk through the town. It’s only starting to get a bit brighter, and most people are at home. I use the chance to observe civilization.

Most houses are simple and small, but they are made out of bricks. Solid. The smell is mostly fine, but there are cesspits around that smell terrible as I move past them. There is no river around, so I guess they bury their trash. The streets are not clean, but not very dirty. Comparable to a poorer 21st-century town.

I find the guild. It’s a big building, three stories tall. I’m about to enter, but I hesitate. There shouldn’t be any traps, but…

“You. Enter inside.” The goblin enters, and the rest of us as well. There’s a large hall, though it’s deserted. I guess adventurers drink and socialize here. Our first goal are sleeping rooms. Most people in the town simply have their own homes, including most adventurers, but some travelers pay for guild rooms. We want to surprise them.

Anastasia told me about the layout of the rooms, so I only hesitate a bit before entering a new room. I find a corridor with rooms on the sides. I enter the first one and find a man sleeping. I kill him.

“Kill everyone,” I order. Goblins start entering rooms. I move forward. I start hearing shouts of slaughtered adventurers. A person jumps out of a room in only a light tunic. He looks around and then sends a fireball my way. I curse and strengthen my mana shield. I don’t wait, and I rush forward to pin down the mage, which also means that I rush towards the fireball. It hits me, splashing on the shield, but the shield doesn't stop regular fire, only fire mana. Adrenaline makes the burns manageable, but I will need to spend a significant amount of vitality to recover..

The man surrounds himself in fire and attempts to retreat, but I don’t care. I jump into the flames and cut off his head. Flames disappear, and I release some vitality from my core to speed up healing my burned skin. Most adventurers should be dead already. There weren't many of them in the first place. Most of them went to join the expedition.

I leave most of the goblins behind and go to the treasury. There are two guards there, startled by shouts and fighting sounds. I attack the first one.

“Fuck! What the fuck is going on?!” He shouts, but another hob attacks him from the side. We kill both guards rather quickly. The Treasury is just a room closed by a key. I borrow an ax from one of the hobs and chop the door. Doors give up, and I enter. The Treasury is less opulent than I thought. Most of the goods here are weapons. I order goblins to pick them up for themselves. I pick one nice sword, better than Axi’s creation. Sorry, Axi.

There is money, but mostly in bronze. I don’t want to drag heavy coins that I probably won’t have the opportunity to use for a long time. I pocket twenty silver coins, though. The reason I’m here is that I can feel the mana of two mana treasures. I find both of them in locked boxes. I pick the ax again and give them a few hits. Boxes are made of wood and reinforced by some metal.

On the other hand, there are a lot of enchantments on them. I don’t really want to drag boxes with me, so I start analyzing the enchantments. Most of them are antimagic, meant to prevent boxes from being influenced by spells. It’s actually similar to enchantments I noticed on gates and walls, though they were a lot weaker and were only created to defend against one mana type. I think that makes sense. You don’t want a stone mage to make a hole in your wall with only a swipe of their hand.

This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

I notice another part that is obviously durability enchantment. It’s better than mine, so I now feel like studying it, but I don’t want to waste too much time here. I slap durability enchantment with vitality mana. Just as I guessed, they don’t know vitality runes. The vitality mana type is, after all, a legendary tier, five-merged mana type.

The durability rune breaks under the pressure, and I start chopping again. This time, it goes easier. After two minutes, I break the box open and find air mana treasure inside. I repeat with the second box and find a fire mana core there. Nice! I pocket the loot and take a look at the obvious alchemical ingredients. I hesitate, but ultimately leave them behind. I don’t even have a skill. There is no point in taking things I have no use for.

I then go to the library. The goblins are running everywhere. I think they found some food and alcohol stores. Whatever. They just need to stay indoors for a little longer. I enter the small library and check out the first book. Obviously, I don’t know how to read this language. Damn. I can’t believe I forgot about something so obvious.

I sigh and start looking for pictures. My primary goal is to find rune books that I can recognize without reading. I pocket a few dozen books, most of which I place in packs of two hobgoblins I drag around.

I smile. All my objectives are accomplished, at least on my side. Now, I just need to be out of town before the 3rd tier governor decides to hunt me down. I go outside. It’s already bright outside. Should I go to the temple? I notice smoke. I frown. It’s from outside the town. And not from any direction; it’s from where I left wounded goblins.

I run to the wall and take a look. Damn! There’s a team of adventurers, and they are fighting Axi.

[Anastasia’s POV]

I walk the streets of Fikeral. It’s so strange to have a small group of goblins behind me. Goblins in the town? That’s normally a reason to panic. Now, I’m their nominal leader. It’s strange. Sick in a way. On the other hand, I feel some pride. I’m not another adventurer, killed by some strange monster in the forest without a grave, or even eaten by monsters.

Well, I admit that as a child, I imagined myself leading knights in shining armor. That’s not exactly the case here, but I suppose you can’t have everything.

Soon, I stand before the temple. I wasn’t a frequent visitor. The temple here has altars for the five Bright Gods. I heard that in big cities there are temples dedicated to only one god, but not here. I enter inside with a drawn bow.

You have willingly attacked a place consecrated to Bright Gods along with monsters!

You got Traitor of Light (+1 to monsters perception, -1 to enlightened perception) title!

“Kill priests,” I order, but quickly notice that goblins don’t know about priests. “Just kill everyone here,” I add, knowing that at this hour only priests should be here.

I stay in the back; I’m primarily an archer.

“What?” A priest comes out of a door, probably leading to the priest's living quarters. I shoot from the bow. It hits him in the chest. He dodged a bit, and I didn’t hit his heart. I nock another arrow while goblins charge him.

“Sanctify Ground!” He shouts, and every goblin shouts in pain, some of them tripping. Is this the effect of the curse? I feel some mild pain, but the goblins' reaction is way stronger. I shot another arrow and hit priest in the head. This stops the spell. I lost some HP because of it.

“Go! Kill everyone!” I shout, knowing that the rest of the priests know about an attack now. Goblins enter through the door, leading to the back of the temple.

“Holy Smite!

“Sanctify Ground!”

This is bad. A ball of light hits a goblin, and he falls to the ground dead. Not to mention, the HP drain spell is back. The goblins still charge ahead.

“Wall of Faith!” Another shout and a golden, translucent wall appear, separating us from priests.

“Holy Smite!” Another goblin down. A hob tries to charge, but as he passes the wall, he is incinerated and dies nearly instantly. Are priests really so powerful?

“How is it possible? A monster attack on a temple?” One of the priests shouts. It seems those two still haven’t seen me. I shot my bow. Just like I thought. The arrow passes the barrier and hits one of them. The barrier fails.

“What?” The second priest shrieks in fright. A hob charges forward and chops off the priest’s head, killing him in one strike. I move forward as well. I think the temple has more priests. We find two men in the next room, hurriedly dressing themselves. Goblins charge.

“Holy Smite!” The light hit a hobgoblin, but it just grunts and stops for a moment. So this spell is not a sure-kill method. Good to know. Both priests die, and we move on. The next room has only one young man.

“Don’t kill me, please!”

“Stop!” I order.

“Are you a priest? I mean, do you have the class?”

“I…”

“I need to remove a class. Do so, and I will let you go.”

“I… I’m sorry, I’m just a cleric. But I can help you! Don’t kill me!” Now I feel like shit. The boy begs me, even though I can spot disgust on his face, probably the result of my new title.

“Where can I find a priest?”

“Priest John broke rules and was confined in a cell for a week. He should still be there! I can lead you.”

“Fine, but no tricks, or I will just kill you. And move fast.” I order.

He leads me to the cellar, where I find a priest around my age.

“Witch! What’s going on? What have you done to the temple?”

“I need you to remove a class for me. Do so, and I will let you go.”

I give the keys to the boy. “Open.” I nock an arrow and stand behind goblins.

“So? Should I just kill you?” I ask while the boy fumbles with the key.

“Fine. I need to touch you.” Doors open.

“Come here, then.” He comes slowly to me. I give him my hand. He takes it in and concentrates. “I want Farmer gone,” I tell him.

“Sure.” I feel strength leaving me as I lose stats. I also feel pulled. The priest pulls me to him and punches me in the head. “Holy Smite" hits me directly. I groan in pain. It feels like my insides are boiling. “Holy Sm…” The priest intones again but doesn’t finish. One of the hobs cut his head off. I groan and turn to the side, then pull my legs to my chest. It hurts. I check my HP.

HP: 2/108

Shit. I can’t take any more hits. At least until Smag heals me. I check my classes. Only Archer remains. The fucker! He removed all of them, hoping to kill me. Good thing I advanced to the 1st tier, making Archer impossible to remove. Well, at least I reached half of my goal.

I slowly move up. The boy is dead as well. Goblins killed him.

“Chieftain? Dead?”

“I’m still alive, thank you,” I reply. At least those goblins are honorable enough to not challenge me now for the position. Or maybe they know it’s a bad time now? Regardless, I need to find the library. I find it after several minutes, mostly because everything hurts. All priests are dead, but my condition is not helping with quick movement. I don’t have any visible wounds, but my insides hurt very much. I need to find Smag, so he can heal me.

I collect a bunch of books that may be about witches or whatever seems interesting. I just use titles, so I may miss something important. Whatever. I give the books to two hobs and tell them to follow me. As for the rest…

“Take the town!” I shout. Maybe I should try being sneaky for a little longer. No, it’s already too late. I hear some shouts on the streets. People start to wake up, probably because of all the commotion. I move to the gates with my two luggage carriers, killing two people in the process who thought themselves good enough to attack me.

After crossing the gate, the first thing I notice is Smag running at a group of adventurers.