I was glad that I didn’t have to explain or organize the townspeople's departure to our village. Having people do that for me was quite nice. Of course, the townspeople didn’t like that but when they understood that we were not there to rob them and were even willing to bring their stuff to the village that they couldn’t bring themselves they began to accept this change a bit better.

Most of these people have lived in this town for their entire lives or are from the surrounding farms so they didn't much like that we were going to basically raze the town, but they also understood that they couldn't do anything to stop us.

We were giving them a day to prepare but before the next morning, I had to catch two groups of people who wanted to escape. I was certain that they weren’t spies for anyone but simply wanted to be their own masters which was understandable, but I just couldn’t take the chance of the knowledge they had ending up in the wrong hands. I didn’t kill them or even punished them, but they were tied up and placed in the few carts that the townspeople had to bring items back to our village.

It didn't take us long to make it to our border and beyond. I was now able to relax a bit more because I could now fully keep track of their movements. I was going to escort them almost halfway back and then I will take my leave and go see the goblins. If some of them decided to run I would be able to catch them before they escape our borders.

All the soldiers stayed back in the town to guard it while most of the refuge diplomatic group came with us to go back to the village. Two people good with numbers stayed back and started to categorize everything in the town.

It will take us a long time to bring everything back and I think I will have to just destroy a large portion of the wall because we simply won’t have the time to bring it back. The best news was that this town also had an underground area where they kept their food. This environment was kept stable by the same items back in our village which meant that we can now expand our village's storage area by quite a lot.

Over the past few days, I am reminded that people are slow. I got my movement ability before I ever had to do a lot of travel so it's a bit hard to slow myself down to other people’s level. Then of course there are the roads which are simply awful. Most of the time I just walk on the side of the road where there’s grass as it’s usually more level ground without any holes in it.

I left the group when night fell. I honestly couldn't be bothered to wait another night doing nothing productive. When I was finally able to run again it felt like my nerves were finally relaxing. Running so fast feels like driving a motorcycle. The feeling of the wind on your face and watching the surroundings blur while exerting your body is amazing.

The river that separated the goblin's lands from ours I just jumped across while going full out. I did have to roll when landing, otherwise, I would have had a bad fall. I noted to myself that I needed to practice full-speed jumping. When I got into the forest, I slowed down a lot and kept an eye out for any herbs that I could collect for either making the leather curing powder or the ones needed for a healing powder.

I was not delusional in thinking that we were going to make it through the war without anyone dying but I also wasn’t going to let anyone die without a good reason. If an axe caves someone's head in, I can’t do anything about it, but I was not prepared to let a person die from a cut simply because we don’t prepare to save people as best as we can. While I was collecting some of the herbs that I found I looked at my interactive map to figure out exactly where I was.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Not being in the nation's lands was weird but I could still use my map ability outside of it. The dam that the goblins made was a few hours east of here. I needed to keep heading north while going a bit to the west to make it to the encampment.

I briefly thought about going to the dam just to see what they had done with the place, but I didn’t have that much time to waste. It took two hours of travel before a goblin scout party found me and questioned why I was in their lands.

The goblins were guarded around me which I found a bit weird. There was still a reverence in the eyes towards me but there was also caution. If I had to guess, I would say that they knew about the nation’s borders being up against their territory. Explaining myself to some random scouts wasn’t going to help anyone so I just told them that I wanted to speak with their leader about hiring some of the fighters for a battle.

Interestingly enough that actually improved their mood almost like they were waiting for a fight in which they can take part of. It was understandable as they were a more violent species at least in their current state.

The goblin scouts were able to move through the forest fast, so I didn’t have to slow myself down a lot. When we finally made it to the encampment site, I was amazed by all the progress that had happened.

While there were still a lot of tents, they looked more solid and permanent. The biggest change was the larger buildings using a combination of leather and wood in their construction. One side of the encampment had some stone structures they used to make tar. But the biggest and most impressive change was that the place didn't smell like an outhouse that cows used. Everything was a lot cleaner now and the goblins themselves looked a lot healthier as well.

Perhaps calling this an encampment was wrong. It was now a proper village. There were few goblins around, so the village looked quite empty. The answer I got from my escorts was that most goblins were in the forest doing different jobs.

There were still a few areas with high activity. A lot of woodworking was happening making that area busy. The second busy place I could see was outside the hill entrances where a lot of food preparation structures were set up.

While the mood in the village seemed decent enough there seem to be a dark cloud hanging about dragging everyone's mood down. I did not like that feeling and hopefully, Stebs Soot can help me understand what was happening.

When we approached the hill to go on top of it the scouts explained to the guards why they were there. In under a minute, the scouts were leaving, and the guards were guiding me towards the council’s tent.

Even before reaching the tent entrance, I could already hear goblins arguing. “No need to start yelling we all understand that we need to increase our food production as hunting opportunities slow down but for that, we need stronger tools that we currently don’t have.” Said Stebs Soot the goblin chief and the only goblin to have a class in remembered history. He was able to calm down the rest of the council members. Seems like he’s doing well as a leader.

All talking stopped as the guards open the tent doors and announced who they had brought. There was a moment of silence from hearing the words to understanding those words. They all looked towards me at the same time finally understanding what was happening.

I could practically see how the dark mood lifted slightly. Then I could finally hear the now happier voice of Stebs Soot. “Rich Dirt, I am glad to see you again after so long. What has brought you here and what is it that you need?”

“I am unfortunately not here for pleasantries although I do wish that was the case. There is a war approaching. My nation and I require some help that I believe you can provide me of course for appropriate compensation.” I answered in a pleasant voice.

While I was talking, I tried to watch for any reactions any of the goblins might have to my words. While Stebs Soot was able to not outwardly show anything I could see a few eye twitches when I mentioned my nation. It seems that the bigger problem they have with me was the nation’s borders being so close to them.

I was lucky that neither I nor anyone else wanted to take over the goblin’s lands. Giving them a pact of non-aggression would not be a big deal and hopefully will help with the negotiations. There might be some pushback by some of our nation's leaders but fuck them.

Hopefully, after this, I will have the skirmishers that I need, and a way so there would be more contact between my nation and the goblins. In my opinion, it would be quite awesome if they would become a part of our nation in some form.