“Now that we’re all here, let’s discuss how we’re going to punish my grandson,” Elder Jeb announced.

Currently, Elijah was sitting in a communal area for the village. It was a large building with one large room. There were three long wooden tables that stretched across most of the room’s length. On one side of the room there was a table that stretched across the width of the room.

Elder Jeb sat down at the table spread across the width of the room. Seated next to him were several elders and other leaders in the village. The elders were all old and grey. The other leaders were old, but they were younger than the elders.

Justin was standing alone in front of the elder’s table. Elijah was allowed to sit at the end of the table. The table was slightly elevated, so everyone was looking down at Justin.

“I don’t deserve punishment. I made the right decision,” Justin stated.

“You will keep quiet,” Elder Jeb coldly responded.

“I think we should let him speak,” Elijah calmly interjected. “It sounds like the goblins are very dangerous. We should obtain an accurate account of Justin’s interaction with them if we want to make an informed decision.”

“I agree with our young guest,” A female elder stated. “Don’t let your emotions get the best of you Jeb.”

Elijah watched Elder Jeb close his eyes and take a few calming breaths. When he opened his eyes, he thanked Elijah and apologized to everyone else for his behavior. Elder Jeb turned to face Justin and spoke without any emotion.

“Tell us about your journey. Start with when you left the village and end with your return. Don’t leave anything out.”

Justin nodded his head and began to describe his journey in detail. He talked about the animals they met the places they visited and where they rested at night. To Elijah it sounded like Justin handled leading people very well. His decisions were logical and beneficial to the entire group. Things changed when Justin and his group met someone like Elijah. A person playing the Fallen Heaven game.

Yesterday Justin’s group met a young man being chased by five goblins. They rescued the young man and killed the goblins. The young man told them that he was captured by the goblins and there were several other people still being held captive at the place he escaped from. They questioned the man about his origins, and they found out he was from another world. They asked the young man if there were any other players like him being held captive and he said that there were two people that came from the same world as him.

Once Justin knew that there were players being held hostage, he became determined to fight the goblins to rescue them. The men following him disagreed and wanted to return to the village. They remembered the words of the elder and didn’t want to attack the goblins without their approval.

Justin admitted that he ignored the worries of his companions. He said that he was justified in attacking the goblins because the people that came from another world were at risk of dying at any moment. He emphasized that they were given a mission and they were supposed to do their best to complete it no matter what.

The group argued for a while, but they eventually agreed to follow Justin. Justin said he was their leader and told them that they would take the blame if the other two people died. The group was eventually cowed, but they did argue for focusing on rescuing people only. If they could avoid fighting, then they should.

Listening to Justin story, Elijah felt that he had been truthful so far. However, there were some parts that Elijah felt Justin wasn’t completely transparent about. When Justin started talking about making the decision to attack the goblins Elijah started to become suspicious.

Elijah wasn’t able to read Justin’s mind. He wasn’t a master at spotting bullshit or reading physical cues. However, Elijah couldn’t help but feel that Justin was lying about his decision to attack the goblins.

When Justin’s group arrived at the goblins base, they observed the area for a few minutes before they attacked. Justin said they were preparing to kill some people, so he ordered the warriors to attack the goblins. They fought against fifty goblins and obtained victory without losing a single warrior’s life.

Once the battled was over, Justin freed the captives and led them to the village. He ordered the warriors to burn down the goblin camp and the area around it to cover their tracks. Justin ordered the warriors to travel through the forest at night because it was possible that there might be more goblins nearby. The journey was difficult, but they made it back with minor injuries.

“I made the right decision at the time. If I could do everything again, I would make the same decision.” Justin looked at his grandfather while wearing a determined expression.

Everyone turned to look at Elder Jeb and listen to what he had to say. Elder Jeb silently looked at Justin for a few seconds before he took out a small wooden circle. It was the same magical item that he used on Elijah.

Turning his head, Elijah saw the blood drain from Justin’s face. A few seconds later, beads of sweat started to appear on his brow. Elijah didn’t know why Justin lied, but he was happy to learn that his instincts were correct.

Justin opened his mouth to speak, but he quickly shut it after Elder Jeb through the magic item directly at his face. The wooden circle hit Justin on the nose and caused him to bleed a little. Justin opened and closed his mouth a few more times, but eventually chose to remain silent.

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“Pick it up,” Elder Jeb coldly commanded.

Holding out his hand he waited for Justin to bring the magic item back to him. Justin picked it up and walked over to place it in Elder Jeb’s outstretched hand with his head hung low. Justin turned to walk away, but he only took a few steps before Elder Jeb threw the magic item at the back at his head.

“Justin, I think you should tell us what really happened,” Another elder suggested.

“I was truthful about most of what I said,” Justin spoke after he returned the magic item back to Elder Jeb. “But I lied about my reason for attacking the goblins. The goblins weren’t about to kill anyone. I lied to the warriors, so they would join me in attacking the goblins.”

“Can you explain to us why you would make such a reckless decision?” An elder heatedly demanded.

Almost everyone in the room shared the elder’s anger. Some looked at Justin with eyes full of rage. Other people gave Justin looks of disappointment and some looked worried.

“Because I had to.” Justin shot a glare at the elder and the other people sitting at the table. “How are we supposed to grow when were too busy being afraid of everything? Individually goblins are weaker than us, but you say we have to be cautious and not provoke them.”

“Idiot!” Elder Jeb shouted. “Do you think all of us are as dumb as you? The danger goblins pose is when they gather together in large groups.”

“We just defeated a large group! And we slaughter them with ease! All of you may be too scared to fight, but that doesn’t mean the rest of us are.”

Elder Jeb knocked his chair on to the ground when he abruptly stood up with a furious expression on his face. He glared at Justin and looked ready to chew him out, but in the end, he decided to say nothing. Elder Jeb sighed, picked up his chair, sat and waved his hand to let another elder continue.

“I’m sure you didn’t fight the goblins as an entire group. If you did, you would have noticed that the goblins started to become more powerful as they gathered together to fight. A group of twenty humans can defeat twenty goblins with ease. Twenty against forty, humans are still victorious, but there will be a lot of injuries. Twenty against sixty, there will be many deaths and there is no guarantee of victory. When we investigated the goblins a few months ago, we noticed signs of at least one thousand goblins.”

Justin was stunned. Elijah was stunned as well. He couldn’t believe that the village he had set his eyes on was about to be annihilated by a horde of goblins.

“I, I didn’t know. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“We didn’t want to disturb you or the other warriors.” Elder Jeb stated. “We wanted you all to cultivate peacefully and quickly with the other warriors. Once you all were strong enough, we were going to ask you all to lead us out of this area. Now it looks like we will have to leave in advance. We can only hope that we don’t run into any threats that we can’t handle.”

“Leaving may not be the best decision.” Elijah decided to speak up when he saw that everyone became silent. Everyone turned their heads to look at him, but only Elder Jeb spoke. He calmly questioned Elijah, and everyone could hear the genuine curiosity in Elder Jeb’s voice.

“Why, do you think we should stay?”

“We should definitely consider leaving and start coming up with evacuation plans. However, we should consider fighting back as well. When you investigated the goblins, how far away from the village were you when you first noticed signs of their presence?”

“It should be about five days.” Elder Jeb looked toward the other elders, and they nodded in agreement.

“In my world we have something called guerilla warfare. It’s a fighting strategy that lets a smaller force fight against a larger force using sneak attacks and other tactics. The goblins outnumber us and if we face them head on, we will definitely be at a disadvantage. So, we don’t face them head on.”

“We can build traps to slow them down, kill them and spread fear. At night the goblins will be separated, and we can launch sneak attacks to quickly kill them in their weaker states. Once they make it to the village, we will be facing a much weaker force behind the protection of our walls. By the time the goblins get passed our walls they will be practically defeated.”

Looking around, Elijah could see that everyone was motivated by his words. Some people carefully thought about his words, while others looked at him in amazement. However, everyone looked more hopeful, and the negative atmosphere was quickly fading away.

“Of course, I’m not confident this strategy will work against a thousand goblins. But I don’t think we will have to face a thousand goblins. After fifty goblins were killed, it would be a little excessive to send five times their number to investigate what happened. It would be extremely unlikely for more than five hundred goblins to attack us.”

“Finally, I would like to mention the broken crystal at the training ground. If we are unable to destroy it when we leave, then the goblins will be able to use it to increase their cultivation speed. This will threaten all humans and will become a threat that the children of the village will be destined to face in the future.”

The faces around the room became grim when Elijah pointed out the potential threat that would be created by their retreat. Elijah’s goal wasn’t for them to give up on the thought of retreat. However, he did want to stop the kneejerk reaction they had and get them to properly think about the situation.

“Eli is right,” Elder Jeb said. “We may need to retreat, but we should only do so after we considered all of our options.”

“I think the sneak attacks are a good idea,” another elder added. “If the force isn’t too big, we can slowly wipe them all out in the forest.”

“We may not even need to fight,” a woman said. “We can create false tracks and lead them away from the village.”

“We can create tracks that send them into dangerous territories as well.”

Elijah smiled as he watched the men and women that lead the village excitedly discuss the possible actions they could take. He was the spark that created the flame that inspired all of the leaders of the village. A few words from him changed the path that the village was destined to walk. At this moment, he truly felt like he was a ruler.

Of course, Elijah didn’t think he was a genius for the ideas he came up with. After all, most people were familiar with the concept of guerrilla warfare in real life. However, not everyone would remember the concept or speak up at this time like Elijah did. Some people would quietly go with the flow even though they had the ability to change the fate of the village with a few words. Therefore, Elijah gave himself a pat on the back for his quick thinking and quick actions.

“Okay, I’ll head out now,” an elder said.

After a long planning session, it was decided that the village needed more information. The elder that spoke was assigned to leave and search for signs of goblin activity. Also, he would work to cover up any tracks or evidence that would lead to the village and do a few other tasks.

“Wait,” Elder Jeb said. “Before you go there is something I would like to say.” Elder Jeb took a few seconds to look at all of the leaders in the room before he continued speaking. “All of you have had a chance to take a look at Eli’s character. When he came to this village, he honestly told me that he wanted to rule our village. At first, I was shocked by the idea and against it, but the more I interacted with him the more my mind changed. Now, I would like to propose to all of you that we make him the chief of this village.”