[Smag’s POV]

Four march toward us from the town. Adam is in the center. He walks confidently. If he is scared of the goblin horde, then he doesn’t show it. Unlike the man on his left. He is a bit older than Adam, maybe in his late twenties. He looks scared, and he doesn’t seem to like it here. Still, he tries to look confident, even though it’s obviously failing.

The older man on Adam’s right is probably succeeding. He looks around and checks us out, but his stride is rather confident.

The last guy trots in the back. His face is pale, and he seems like he may bolt away at any time.

Axi and I walk forward to meet them. I sigh as Asaru, Rike'grak, and the priest join me.

“Lord Smag!” Adam bows lightly.

I smile. “Should I call you Lord Adam? Maybe Governor Adam?”

“That’s still unofficial.” Adam says it with glee. “You may just call me Adam.”

“Very well. This is Axi. She is the chieftain of our tribe, and nominally, she is the one to make all important decisions.”

Adam bows lightly. “Lady Axi. It's a pleasure to meet you.”

Axi blushes. Come on! Just because he called you a lady? It's time to change the topic. “Those two are the strongest warriors in the tribe, excluding Lady Axi, of course. Rike’grak, and Asaru.” Asaru nods lightly, acknowledging Adam, while Rike’grak puffs a bit.

“Don’t try anything, human.”

Adam smiles back at Rike’grak. “Don’t worry, we are all friends here. What about the last member of your entourage?”

“I’m the highest priest!”

“He is just my little nameless apprentice. He is just here to learn.” I say nearly at the same time.

“I’m Zerenek!”

I frown. “You just give yourself that name.”

“So? You have done the same!”

I sigh theatrically. “See? Very childish. I can only hope he will become a fine shaman in the future under my peerless tutelage.”

“I see.” Adam says it with an unconformable smile. Zerenek looks like he wants to strangle me, but don’t dare with everyone here. “I suppose I should introduce our people as well. The older gentleman on my right is Lucas. He will likely be my steward or take another important position.

“Glad to be here.” He bows lightly.

Adam continues. “The man on my left is John. He is a decent fighter.”

John glares at Adam, and I make a connection. This guy is Adam’s Zerenek. Interesting. Maybe I can use Adam to suppress Zerenek even further? I can help him suppress that John guy in exchange.

“Behind me is my new Mage Advisor, Nicolas. He was an advisor to the previous governor, and now it seems I have inherited him.”

“Uh… Yes.” The guy barely says this and gulps his saliva. Magic interests me a lot, so I feel like bothering this guy.

“Interesting. Do you think you can lend me this guy? I could use some advice for some of my experiments.” Nicolas goes even more pale.

“I… I’m not tasty enough to be experimented on!” Nicolas shouts. Even Rike’grak looks at this guy like he is an idiot now.

“I don’t think that’s what Lord Smag meant?” Adam looks at me with a question in his eyes.

“Yes,” I say with annoyance. “I just want his opinion.”

“Mr. Nicolas is under a contract that specifies you need to hire him, but other than that, there’s no problem with lending him to you for some time.”

“Good. About payment, though. What about our half of the loot?"

“Naturally. We need to divide it in half according to our needs. After all, some things are more useful to you than others, and vice versa. I would also like to discuss a potential alliance between us. I believe we will both profit a lot from it.”

I frown mentally. I don’t see any way for long term cooperation, but I suppose it won’t hurt to listen to his proposal. “Loot first. Firstly, we want all the corpses.”

John gets angry at that. “Our people deserve a burial.”

Rike’grak snorts. “Either give us meat, or we will hunt it down.”

Oh! I suppose he can be a bad cop. I didn’t expect support from this guy. “The surrounding forests have been over hunted.” I say it helplessly. Most of this 1st tier zone is in the hands of humans. They only left a small buffer where we have lived until now. If I want more prey, I need to go to a nearby 2nd tier zone or hunt humans. Going along the border is also a solution and something I have been doing until now, but I heard that refugees are not a local problem. Most of the buffer region is now settled by desperate refugees.

“No problem.” Adam agrees. John wants to argue.

“We need to take care of the living.” It is Lucas who says so.

“Second thing, we want all mana cores. I know it’s a lot, so throw some money on top of that, and you can have the rest.”

John doesn’t say anything to that, but Nicolas and Lucas somehow look helplessly at Adam.

“Nearly all cores are in the hands of the Adventurer Guild. There is not exactly a loot.”

Rike’grak snorts again. “Show me the way, and it will become loot.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“We can maybe buy them.” John proposes. I smirk. Frankly, if Adam were to tell me to get lost, I would probably just do that. I don’t have any desire to take the town, and the loot we are trying to split doesn’t have much value to me. Sure, a few cores would be useful for experiments, but I don’t have any subordinates I would like to give a core to. Axi maybe, but that assumes she were to die again. Meat is a more pressing matter, but I can just go back to kobolts for another round. This time, I’m sure I will win.

It seems Adam wants to give us that loot so he can make that proposal, whatever it is. I may as well milk him a bit. Even if I were to attack the town, there are too many human fighters there. I would lose. My tribe has a good chance in an open battle, but that's mostly because most of Adam’s fighters are refugees.

“That’s a possible solution.” Lucas says it dryly. “Is Lady Axi fine with it? After all, it was Lord Smag that negotiated up until now.” Does he think he can use our internal friction? If so, he picked the wrong target.

“I’m the chieftainess. Why would I care about wealth? This is a matter for the quartermaster. I trust in Smag’s competence.”

“Then it’s decided.” Adam ends the discussion. I guess he thinks Lucas's jab at Axi's inactive role could have offended us. “Now, the proposal. I would like to hire you as a mercenary.”

“Against whom?”

“Riders.”

“That doesn’t tell me much.”

“If I may…” Nicolas actually stepped forward. I though he will hide behind Adam the whole discussion. “Our town is a part of Terava Kingdom. We are at war with Jescar Kindgom and more recently, with Tangid Kingdom that have send the mentioned raiders.”

“It’s good to have a knowledgeable advisor.” Adam smiles. “As Nicolas has said, I want you to deal with Tangid riders.”

I raise an eyebrow. “And where are they?”

“I don’t know. The point is, we can’t rebuild farms with raiders rampaging through the countryside. We need a force to protect those villages.”

“What about those farms?” I wave a hand, showing farms around Roheb. In the direction of the forest, which is where we are currently, there are no farms. The town is surrounded by farms on all other sides.

“Too little. Those farms give us only around half the food the town needs, and that only with the previous population.” Lucas explains. “We also can’t expand on them without somehow increasing our abilities to protect them. Right now, farmers’ homes are close enough to walls that soldiers can shoot at any attackers. Fast cavlery will be able to hit a farther target and run before soldiers in the town react.”

“And you want me to protect that farther target.”

“Basically, yes.”

“What about my pay?” The task is already ridiculous. He practically wants us as regular standing army garrisons for his outposts. Moreover, those villages need to produce for themselves and the town. Where are my goblins needs? I can already tell—nowhere. Something like that can only be accomplished by a powerful country that can deliver supplies to garrisoned outposts.

“Loot! You can take everything from the riders. Also, I will give you documents that you are hired by our kingdom, so nobody attacks your forces.”

I inwardly scoff. Loot? What loot? The first rule of raiding is to attack poorly defended targets. There will be no riders with us around. Without riders, there’s no loot. Document? This guy just killed the official governor. I suppose it would be worth something, given the slow spread of information in this world, but not much. Frankly, it’s a terrible deal for me.

“I see. It’s a big commitment. I need to think about it and discuss it with others. Please deliver the loot now. We will make a decision later.”

“I’m sure we will reach an agreement. I understand that the task may seem somehow difficult, but the potential rewards are also great. Sooner or later, my enemies will gather bigger armies, allowing you to earn a lot of Experience Points.”

Right. I forgot about EXP. It doesn’t change the equation much, though. Fighting other monsters is less dangerous for me, anyway. “I see. We still need to consider it.”

That ends the negotiations. Adam goes back to the town, and an hour later, corpses start to fall from the walls.

“Axi, I need to recover my stuff. I will take Anastasia and maybe Asaru, if she agrees. Will you be fine here on your own?”

“Sure. No problem.”

“Watch out for the shaman. He may try to do something to get rid of you.”

“Zerenek? I doubt it.”

Right. He has a name now. “Maybe, but it won’t hurt you to be careful.”

"Sure,” she says with a shrug. Zerenek can’t really do anything openly, but he could try to assassinate Axi in some way.

I go to Asaru. “I need to recover something from the forest. Wants to accompany me? You will get an introduction to your new home.”

Asaru nods, and I collect Anastasia.

“Where are we going?” Anastasia asks.

“I left my things with a small group of goblins before we entered the town. It Includes Axi’s earth core.”

“I doubt you will find it.”

“I was hoping you would help me find whoever ate it. Either a goblin or a monster. Plus, I need to recover parts of my soul blade. I doubt they interested anyone.”

We find the place relatively quickly. As expected, there’s no core and no goblins. My parts are thrown around the clearing, but I find all of them. After learning more about souls in the dungeon, I will probably discard some of them and design better versions. Some are slightly damaged. Those I will need to recreate.

“Any luck with tracks?”

“I’m not sure. We can try those tracks, but don't expect too much from them.” Anastasia shows me some shapes in the dirt I would never accuse of being tracks.

“Fine. Go ahead.”

“Do you want to agree to that human’s terms?” Asaru asks me. She has been observing the forest until now, and I let her follow us in silence.

“Adam’s? No. Why are you asking? Do you want us to?”

“I don’t know. You may be right that there’s no point in taking revenge. My children are more interested in this new world. Those that you awakened don’t care at all. I find myself lost, not knowing what to do.”

So she wants to know my thoughts on this. I take a look at Anastasia. Her position within the tribe went down after incorporating Asaru and dungeon goblins, so I don’t need to care too much about her opinion. Axi is now also responsible for more people, so she is more likely to pick the tribe's profit over Anastasia’s feelings. On the other hand, I want to have some connections to enlightened forces. I don’t want to live in a state of perpetual war. I may as well try with Adam.

“What he wants can’t be accomplished the way he wants. It’s not even about his proposal being bad for our tribe; I mean, it is, but the problem lies in the fact that it simply won’t work. He needs scouting instead. Maybe guard towers that would release smoke signals would warn them about approaching riders. Then Adam could send his own troops to fight them.”

I think about how to accomplish that. Radio? I have no idea how to create amplifiers. Actually, would radio even work in this world? Everything seems to be using mana. On the other hand, it’s not like mana is preventing mundane use. I guess there are probably spells that can mess with radio, but I doubt riders would expect that or have access to such spells.

Could radio without amplifiers work? Maybe over a short distance? Maybe telegraph? I’m not sure if the town has enough metal, and even then, telegraph wire can be easily cut. A monster can cut it as well, leading to many false alarms.

I suppose it’s worth testing. I’m just one of these guys who knows phones are great, but I have no idea how to build one. A telegraph should be easy enough, though. I just need a source of voltage and a wire. In a way, it’s interesting to see if this will succeed. What if the world works differently here? This could prove fatal to me in the future. After all, I’m still using common sense from Earth. I’m not a guy who can tell how a smartphone works, but I wasn’t the worst in physics at school. I still remember a lot about physics and biology. What if all that knowledge is not only inaccurate but outright false?

I sigh. I thought having part of Earth’s knowledge was my cheat. I suppose I need to find out.

Anastasia stops. She looks around while we wait for her.

“I’m not sure. We could try to go this way, but frankly, I’m not sure if we even follow your goblins right now.”

I sigh. I suppose I won’t find the core unless by chance. Maybe the current owner will evolve into a powerful monster, and we will find them that way. I sigh again. I’m just about to get a few cores from the town. In a way, I don’t really need it, as all the important fighters in my tribe already have cores. It’s just… I suppose it’s sentimental value.

It’s the core I dug out of Axi’s corpse. In a way, that’s a promise: I will keep her alive. I kept the core, so Axi can eat it again. Losing it stings, but I will get over it.

“Fine. Let’s go back to the tribe.”