Chapter 123: The Martial Riverlands

“Ah? There’s a female pup as well?”

Leo was quite curious. He flipped over the little goblin puppy’s belly, about to check if Six had a little boy’s parts.

“Ah, go away!” Olivia impatiently brushed Leo’s hand aside, shielding Six beneath her skirt.

The first batch of goblin pups sent by Fiza had no distinction between males and females; she had simply chosen the tribe’s weakest and most difficult to raise infants.

At first, after several battles with the Bay Militia, most goblin warriors were killed or wounded, leaving an excess of pups in the tribe.

Leo suggested sending twenty goblin pups as hostages. Not only did the other goblins not mind, even Fiza, who cared for her tribe, didn’t strongly oppose it.

From past experience, these frail pups wouldn’t survive even if kept; they would be abandoned.

In her view, these pups were destined to become slaves, never to return home.

So, of course, Fiza didn’t select the strong and vigorous ones; instead, she took the opportunity to send off a batch of “burdens.”

As relations between the Bay and the goblins softened, Fiza noticed that the pups sent to the Bay were not mistreated but carefully nurtured, growing stronger than their brothers and sisters back in the valley.

Therefore, she continued secretly tossing surplus pups into the Bay’s pigsty, letting humans raise them, until Leo uncovered the scheme and stopped it.

Later, when the goblin valley had ample food, there was no longer a need to abandon pups.

Thus, among the thirty-six goblin pups, at least one-third were female.

The goblins’ customs were much like those of many wild tribes: females ranked below males, receiving less food from a young age.

Over time, males grew stronger while females grew weaker.

After arriving at the Bay, Six, like other female goblin pups, was pushed aside by the males and struggled to compete for food, becoming increasingly frail.

If not for Olivia’s careful attention—watching over them, disciplining the stronger pups who fought for food, and providing ample nourishment—these females might have starved to death.

As a result, although Six was the sixth-born, her strength ranked below the fifteenth, causing her to be overlooked when Leo selected goblin soldiers.

Meanwhile, living within human society, these pups were naturally vulnerable and lived cautiously.

Their personalities were generally softer and more sensitive than their kin in the goblin valley.

Female goblins had an even harder time—not only were they despised and bullied by human children, but even male pups looked down on them.

When Leo asked Six why she wasn’t joining military training, the sensitive little goblin immediately worried she might lose her value and be abandoned or killed by humans.

In their mindset, female goblins were merely birthing vessels, and only one in a hundred could become warriors.

But in human society, they had even lost that role, becoming almost useless.

Leo, whose mental powers were growing stronger, could sense Six’s fear.

Though he had initially been indifferent to these goblins—merely letting Olivia keep them for amusement—as they grew and their intelligence developed, their human traits increasingly overshadowed their canine ones, and Leo had to start seeing them as people.

So he encouraged them in their goblin tongue: “Tusker Rider Six, smart, brave, strong, brave little dog, fear no hardship!”

“Think of Fiza—she’s the Goblin King!”

Little Six peeked out from beneath Olivia’s skirt, her eyes bright as she looked at her human elder.

“Six will grow strong!”

Meanwhile, Urian gathered the Bay Militia’s second company, putting them under Deputy Commander Vich’s leadership to patrol and sweep the Bay’s surroundings, rooting out and recruiting small bands of bandits or refugee camps.

If the refugees were relatively tame, they were brought back to the Bay’s logging camp, gradually assimilated as citizens.

Ferocious bandits were to be eliminated completely, to prevent them from gaining power.

Magna of the Wolf Fang Camp, upon receiving news, sent thirty wild youths to join the patrol.

All were qualified Basaka longbowmen with some hunting experience but had yet to pass the Wild Hunter’s test.

To become a Wild Hunter, one must individually hunt and kill a large beast—an adult brown bear or a saber-toothed tiger.

Such large carnivores were not easily slain; even modern men wielding powerful hunting rifles could be overturned in minutes, let alone wild youths armed only with longbows, heavy arrows, and a bear spear.

Every year, many wild youths in the Wolf Fang Territory were tragically killed by prey during the test.

Even with a seasoned hunter’s covert protection, injuries and deaths were common.

After a fierce battle, Magna deeply understood the superiority of the imperial military system.

Rather than having tribesmen slowly gain experience hunting beasts, it was better to join the regular army for formal training and actual combat.

The patrol force, made up of fifty Bay Militia and thirty Basaka longbowmen, was already considerable in the wilderness, able to handle most threats.

They gained experience through hunting, gradually catching up in strength with the first company.

When facing strong enemies, they could promptly coordinate with the Bay to form joint forces and eliminate threats.

As for the initially agreed fifty Wild Hunters, all had been delivered to Leo.

These Wild Hunters, at combat level 2.5, were formidable individually, with terrifying longbow lethality.

With some formation training, they could become level three imperial elite longbowmen.

Imperial elite longbowmen, heavy infantry, and armored cavalry represented the pinnacle of the commoner army.

Above them were officers—sergeants, knights—and powerful supernaturals.

Thus, the Bay now had two regular forces: the fifty-strong Bay Infantry Regiment and the fifty-strong Basaka Archers Regiment.

Leo split them evenly into two teams.

One team of twenty-five infantry and twenty-five Basaka archers was tasked with patrolling and guarding the Bay territory.

The other, with the same composition, entered the Wolf Fang Territory for hunting, building familiarity in combat.

Infantry could teach archers formal battlefield tactics, while archers could impart wilderness survival and hunting skills to infantry.

The two teams rotated weekly, aiming to reach level three before the next great war.

However, much of a soldier’s strength came from weapons and armor.

The battlefield was not an arena; it demanded teamwork.

A squad of level three elite heavy infantry, even stripped of armor, might not match a team of level two regular infantry.

Against volleys of arrows and ranged attacks, the former could suffer heavier casualties.

Currently, the Bay’s double-layered fur armor with iron plates barely met regular infantry defensive standards.

It was fine in winter, as the fur armor balanced defense and warmth.

But in summer, wearing fur armor in combat was even more uncomfortable than iron armor, drastically reducing combat effectiveness before battle even began.

Therefore, Urian instructed Valery to begin researching chainmail, scale armor, brigandine, and fabric armor production.

Plate armor was out of the question; even Isenbor lacked a plate armor workshop.

Northern blacksmiths spent three years forging a single set of hammered plate armor, which still couldn’t match the quality of chainmail made in two months.

After several days of study, Valery concluded it was better to just buy it!