Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

  Shortly after the first snow fell, Dahl Hill’s winter “clean-up” army set out from the city.

  The main force of this army was dominated by a private army under Baron Dahl’s command. It consisted of a total of 100 professional soldiers. These 100 people should not be belittled. Not only did they receive full-time training all year round, but every single one of them was also fully armed to the teeth. Baron Dahl was very generous when it came to the expenditure on armaments. All his soldiers had changed into a simplified full-body armor that was introduced by the Republic of Northwest in recent years. On the basis of a one-piece breastplate, the additional features consisted of armor around the waist, arms, and legs, as well as a helmet and mask, which were all made out of stamped steel sheets. This was truly a heavy-duty, full-body armor. Not only that, it was also much lighter than the traditional full-body armor. Putting it on might not allow its wearer to travel long distances, but the soldiers could at least raise their guns while charging at their enemies. This was something way beyond what the heavy-duty, full-body armor of the past could ever allow.

  As for these people’s weapons, naturally, they would all be equipped with a uniform set of sophisticated weapons. Long rifles, big blades, shields and battle axes—they certainly didn’t lack anything.

  Other than these professional soldiers, there was also an equal number of archers. They were classified as part-time soldiers. They would usually receive a salary, but they had to prepare their own equipment. During the battle, they were mainly responsible for rear support. With a single arrow, these skilled archers could usually shoot and finish off the weaker demons, like the gnomes. When 100 soldiers were gathered to form an army, their combat power could also be extremely forceful.

  This army of 200 men was most probably where Baron Dahl found base for power. As for the remaining 300-odd men, they were just there as do-all factotums. Among them, about a hundred were militia—and a majority of these 100 men were ruffians and rogues gathered from several villages. Baron Dahl did not expect these men to be able to fight tough battles, but they could provide backup by the side, and help to destroy enemies like the gnomes by making good use of the advantageous situation their army was in. They were still capable of handling such tasks.

  The final 200 men were purely servant soldiers. Among them, there were specialized servant soldiers, people who grew up learning how to serve soldiers, how to march, how to set up camp, how to build the battlefield, etc. But the bulk of the group was made up of the poor people who came from slums around the city. This group of people consisted of both male and female, from young to old, all of whom who were basically untrained. They were only responsible for work like helping with the transportation of supplies and gear of the army, as well as serving the soldiers.

  Yes, they were only required to do this. As for the other jobs, such as being cannon-fodder, militiamen, troopers, and so on, their services would not be required.

  The key to how these poor people enlisted as servant soldiers were able to receive such treatment was naturally because of the clergymen from the Church of the Void Mask.

  \r \r \r

  To protect this group of poor people, including the local bishop and Bishop Kabbalah, all 10 clergymen had been mobilized. They even roped in two other church members to help. Twelve of them came together and formed a powerful squad.

  In this squad, three were of middle rank, and nine were only at the junior level, but their combat power was definitely not inferior. Even if they were pitched against Baron Dahl’s bodyguards, they still had a 50-50 chance of winning.

  And the personnel allocation on this squad was fairly reasonable, with two paladins, one bishop, three priests, and six Sacred Warriors, and if close-combat or spells we needed, there was enough manpower to handle that too. Bishop Kabbalah even moved the sacred altar over and placed it within a big cart specifically made for it. When the need arose, he could definitely display a power that would scare any enemy away by relying on this altar.

  Yes, any enemy, whether it was a wild beast, demon or any human with ill intentions.

  This was the thing that made Baron Dahl particularly distressed. Originally, he had wanted to integrate those clergymen into the vanguard, then leave them to die as they grappled with the formidable demons. In the end, those clergymen pointed out that, “Our altar is right here. If you want to give us any orders, you can negotiate with Our Majesty on your own.” So he could only concede defeat and retreat in shame.

  His Majesty, the Void Mask, was a good god, and Baron Dahl did not feel that he was seen as someone appealable to His Majesty. He felt it was better not to make himself unwelcomed.

  Since he did not have the guts to discuss it with His Majesty, then of course, he would not directly issue an order. However, Baron Dahl was, after all, a smart businessman. He was quick to figure things out—being unable to scheme against those clergymen was in fact, no big deal. Anyway, when they crossed paths with the powerful yet evil demons, would these clergymen have any other choice but to fight head-on?

  If they were to flinch, then they did not deserve to be clergymen!

  Seeing how these people could possibly be of help to him when a tough battle was to happen, Baron Dahl did not calculate much with Church of the Void Mask. He even left the poor servant soldiers be and did not make them have to risk their lives.

  For the sake of a huge profit, he should not be so calculative over such small matters. People who did business would always know how to act according to the size of trade-offs.

  Of course, Baron Dahl would not pin hopes on the clergymen from the Church of the Void Mask at these crucial moments. His personal army of bodyguards were the troops that truly allowed him to rest easy.

  His army of bodyguards consisted of knights, bandits and mages. In this army, there were four at the mid-ranked level. Especially that mage whose expertise was in protective spells and that bandit that was skilled in stalking and tracing—both of whom Baron Dahl had spent a great deal on just to enlist their help. They had been living in Dahl Hill for five to six years, and it had always been an amicable cooperation among them, so on the overall, they could be said to be dependable.

  And the other two mid-ranked men were from the Dahl family itself. They were two dependable knights.

  These two knights gave their allegiance to the Dahl family for four generations, so they were the most reliable ones. One of them was also a distant relative of the baron—that knight’s mother was also a Dahl and had the same great-grandfather as the baron.

  Because he had such dependable men under him, Baron Dahl dared to come out during a time where the land was frozen and covered in snow to wipe out the wild beasts and demons. This was to lay a safe foundation for the following year.

  In his hand was a map which was what that bandit on his army had summarized for that year. Basically, he had sorted out and made conclusions on the groups of beasts and demons in Dahl Hill. On this map, the most dangerous tribe would be the Tribe of Ogre that had migrated over here not too long ago. Closest to them was a group of gnomes.

  Or rather, a tribe of gnomes.

  “Our first enemy will most probably be a tribe of gnomes,” said Bishop Kabbalah. When they were all back in camp that night, Bishop Kabbalah gathered all the church members. He also happened to have a map on the distribution of wild beasts and demons in Dahl Hill, and it was far more precise than the one Baron Dahl had. He spread out the map and introduced the situation to everyone.

  “There are probably more than 200 of these guys, which is quite a big number. Among them, there is a tribal chief, a shaman, six warriors and 15 archers. In short, they are a force to be reckoned with.”

  A single gnome by itself would not be able to fight against the relatively stronger farmers, so even if there were 200 of them, they were nothing more than a group of live targets. With three to five courageous soldiers charging forward to finish off two or three gnomes, the rest would be easily dispersed. However, if there were gnome warriors among them, these gnomes would be braver; this, their side would be able to bear a certain number of casualties. If they had a tribal chief, they could even come up with some decent formations, which when coupled with some clumsy but effective plan, could make them much more menacing.

  Not only that, but with a tribal chief, there would be a division of labor within the tribe of gnomes. This would give rise to advanced-type monsters like hunter gnomes and archer gnomes. The archer gnomes were enemies that adventurers abhorred. These guys who used short bows were extremely skilled in archery. One careless move might cost you your life.

  The most frightening ones were none other than the Gnome Shamans. They might not be very powerful in combat, but they could greatly enhance the gnome’s combat ability.

  “So for our battle tomorrow, our first two targets will be the tribal chief and the Gnome Shamans!”

  Almost at the same time, both Bishop Kabbalah and Baron Dahl made the same decision.