Surrounded

Irene's idea of entering the forest again ultimately fell through.

Early the next morning, messengers ran between the tents, delivering Baron Raymond's orders.

The orders were short and clear:

Baron Raymond and Baron Barton had decided to join forces and concentrate their troops to completely surround the entire forest.

All Awakened were assigned specific guard posts. Roger was stationed at the northern entrance, Irene at the eastern one, and the other positions were covered by Baron Barton's men.

With a bit of thought, Roger understood the reasoning behind this deployment.

The goblins held the home-field advantage in the forest. The canopy blocked lines of sight, the bushes were perfect for ambushes, the clearings could be set up with traps, and the caves were natural fortresses.

Directly sending troops to launch a frontal assault would be like sticking their necks onto a chopping block, throwing away lives for nothing.

It was far better to encircle them from all sides, cutting off the goblins' supplies and scouting routes, and focusing on eliminating any small groups trying to break out. Once Count Nigel's main force arrived, they could concentrate their forces to wipe them out in one fell swoop.

This approach wouldn't yield any glorious battle reports, but it was safe and allowed them to preserve their strength as much as possible.

For a minor baron with only a hundred or so troops, this was the most pragmatic tactic.

Baron Raymond dispatched a house knight, along with a dozen armed retainers and over twenty conscripts, to the northern entrance.

This force couldn't be called formidable, but it was more than enough to hold a narrow entrance.

The knight was named Waters Oriel, a young man who nonetheless appeared quite steady.

Upon meeting Roger, the knight took the initiative to strike up a conversation, his politeness bordering on formal courtesy. “Lord Roger, I look forward to working with you in the days to come.”

Roger caught a flicker of anticipation in the other man's eyes—a sense of awe and longing unique to ordinary people looking at the Awakened.

After the two of them finished patrolling the defensive line, they had only walked a few steps before Knight Waters spoke up hesitantly:

“May I ask how you awakened your extraordinary power back then?”

Roger rolled out his excuse of "natural awakening," claiming he was simply lucky. He said he had just woken up one day to find Life Energy in his body, with no idea of the cause, let alone how to teach it to others.

Waters seemed a bit disappointed to hear this, but he didn't press further. He merely nodded and said, “I see.”

Roger didn't comfort him, nor did he pry by asking why he didn't just buy an Awakening Elixir.

Since transmigrating, he had learned from casual chatter that there were two main ways to awaken extraordinary power:

One was natural awakening, which had an extremely low probability and followed no discernable pattern.

The other was consuming an alchemical potion called the Awakening Elixir. This potion was incredibly scarce and exorbitantly expensive, rumored to cost enough to drain the entire fortune of a minor noble.

Baron Raymond had only activated his extraordinary power after consuming an Awakening Elixir, while Knight Stine was one of the few lucky ones who had awakened naturally.

For a house knight like Waters, if he wanted to awaken, he could only rely on saving up his own money or achieving great merits on the battlefield to be rewarded with the elixir by the baron.

As for whether there were other paths besides these two methods, Roger was completely in the dark.

The conversation ended there. Over the next few days, they each attended to their own duties, keeping the peace.

For several days, there was absolutely no movement from the forest.

Even without any battles breaking out, Roger didn't idle. He continued to pour his energy into practicing his skills, sometimes tossing a Fireball or a water sphere back and forth in the air, other times activating Windwalk to wander around.

Over this period, 【Windwalk】 gradually reached Lv2, and 【Water Control】 rose to Lv3.

On the afternoon of the fifth day, Roger was squatting under a crooked tree, using Water Control to guide a fist-sized water sphere in circles in the air.

A messenger ran over from the camp, panting heavily.

“Lord Roger, a group of goblins has broken out of the forest! Knight Waters requests your presence immediately.”

Hearing this, Roger immediately followed the messenger to the front line.

By the time they reached the northern entrance, the defensive line was already in a state of combat readiness.

Knight Waters was on horseback, shouting orders to form a battle array. The conscripts were frantically forming two ranks at the bottom of the gentle slope, while the armed retainers flanked them on both sides to protect their wings.

The archers were positioned at the very rear of the formation, sorting arrows out of shared quivers.

Everyone's eyes were glued to the edge of the forest ahead.

Roger quickly scanned the composition of the forces present.

Aside from Knight Waters himself, the only ones who could be considered real combatants were the armed retainers.

The training level of the conscripts was uneven, with a few not even wearing their helmets straight. There were fewer than ten archers in total, and the number of arrows in their quivers was also inconsistent.

“Can you spare some arrows for me?” Roger walked up to Waters and asked, getting straight to the point.

Waters had already heard of Roger's reputation as a marksman. Without hesitation, he waved his hand and ordered the archers behind him to each hand over a third of their arrows to Roger.

Though the archers were reluctant, none dared to disobey the order.

Roger stuffed the free arrows into his quiver and did a quick count. There were about thirty arrows in total, more than enough to handle a small-scale skirmish.

Just as he finished organizing his quiver, there was movement in the forest ahead. Immediately after, the first goblin rushed out from the shadows of the trees.

Then, more and more grayish-green figures poured out of the woods, surging toward the defensive line. There were roughly thirty to forty of them, and their equipment was still the standard fodder tier.

However, the eyes of the leading few glowed with an unnatural, blood-red light, and their movements were noticeably faster and more ferocious than those of the ordinary goblin grunts.

“Form up!” Knight Waters drew his longsword and pointed it at the approaching enemy, his voice cutting through the surrounding clamor of footsteps and shouting.

The conscripts braced themselves, resting their spears over the front-row shields, while the retainers gripped their swords and axes tightly, securing the flanks of the defensive line.

“Archers, ready!” Waters continued to shout from the front.

Eight archers simultaneously nocked their arrows, their bows creaking as they aimed at the sky.

“Fire!”

The arrows arched through the sky in a dense volley, raining down upon the goblin horde. A few of the leading goblins fell to the arrows, but many more shots simply thudded harmlessly into the dirt or tree trunks.

Roger did not join the volley. Standing atop a dirt mound, he aimed at the leading, bloodshot-eyed goblin.

The arrow turned into a blur, driving itself precisely into the goblin's chest.

“Points +50, total 2,090.”

Before the archers could loose their second volley, the goblin vanguard had already crashed into the conscripts' line. Short spears and long spears clashed a few meters in front of the barricade, creating a chaotic din of clanging metal and curses.

The conscripts gritted their teeth, bracing their shields against the goblins' initial impact, while the retainers cut in from the flanks, their swords flashing through the green-skinned crowd.

Meanwhile, more figures emerged deep within the forest. Shrouded by shadows and bushes, only the faint outlines of their arrowheads and bows were discernible in the dim woods.

The next second, a shower of arrows flew out of the forest, soaring over the charging goblin grunts to rain down upon the conscripts' formation.

Arrows clattered against shields and helmets. Several muffled groans echoed through the ranks as a few conscripts fell to the ground, their companions quickly dragging them back.

Roger immediately shifted his target. Leveraging the height advantage of the dirt mound, he spotted several archers who had exposed their positions. He loosed three arrows in rapid succession, and three figures hiding in the trees fell one after another.

“Points +150, total 2,240.”

Just as he was about to pick off a fourth archer hiding in the dark, another disturbance came from deep within the forest.

Two massive figures were moving among the trees. He trained his arrowhead on one of them.

The moment that thing poked its head out of the shadows, he would release his bowstring.