"Move it! Everyone, move it!"

"Damn it! Who are you trying to hit, putting the catapult there?"

"Which tribe is this? Why is it empty? Where is everyone?"

Eric roared in all directions from within the camp, his heart seething with frustration.

According to Dor’s original instructions, all he had to do was get this batch of goblins and kobolds onto the battlefield and ensure they could launch a few organized attacks.

He had thought this expedition would be a cushy job. No quotas, no specific requirements, just the promise of glory. Wasn’t that like a pie falling from the sky?

However, it turned out that there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

A rabble doesn’t undergo a qualitative change just because its numbers increase.

One Goblin Tribe was a pile of crap, and a group of Goblin Tribes gathered together was just a bigger pile of crap.

If he didn’t still have the horn Dor had given him, Eric would have been tempted to flee.

If he thought about it carefully, he would realize that there were wise individuals even among the goblins. The Goblin Chiefs were well aware of their own strength.

Their superiors had sent this cannon fodder. Did they really think this lot could breach a human city?

If the Frank Kingdom were that easy to conquer, the Frankish Great Plains would have long been the domain of the Beastmen.

As the saying goes, for every policy from above, there’s a countermeasure from below. The higher-ups wanted them to die, and they couldn’t refuse, but each one of them was slacking off as much as possible.

Some had even chosen to simply desert.

"Useless! They’re all useless!" Eric was so furious his head was spinning.

"Seize those ones! Execute them on the spot!" Eric commanded, looking at a few goblins in the distance who were slowly dragging logs.

"As you command, my lord."

A few wolf-man guards stepped forward. A moment later, several goblin heads went flying. The guards’ actions caused a huge uproar among the goblins.

"Look closely! This is what happens when you don’t work!" Eric said, pointing at the dead goblins.

The effect of killing the chicken to scare the monkey was immediate. The goblins, angry but not daring to speak out, buried their heads and worked even harder.

....

Robson, for his part, had long since completed his arrangements. The walls of Mold Fortress were shorter than those of Sunset Fortress. After all, it had been converted from a Viscount’s castle and couldn’t compare to a true military fortress like Sunset Fortress.

Now, besides training his troops, Robson also read books in his spare time.

Of course, he wasn’t reading the world’s entertainment literature, but rather knowledge-based books related to Magic.

Ever since he had used old man Kosen’s crystal to break into a new tier, Robson had been thirsting for this kind of knowledge.

Seeing his interest, Kosen had also given him a book titled "Foundations of Magic."

He, Lord Robson, had always prioritized stability. And what was most stable on the battlefield? It was these Mages sitting comfortably in the rear!

And what was even more stable than a Mage?

That would be a Mage wearing heavy armor, a Knight’s Sword at his waist, riding a fully armored horse, and then launching the Fireball Technique from the edge of the battlefield to pick off kills.

A fireball packed way more punch than an arrow!

"Ding! You have completed your study of ’Foundations of Magic.’ +2 Experience."

"Ding! You have completed..."

"Ding! Experience is full. You can become a Mage Apprentice."

After reading for a while, Robson closed the book.

Magic was great in every way, except it was too mentally taxing. Thankfully, he had the system to help him; as long as he understood even a little, he would gain experience.

Even so, his experience gain was still at a snail’s pace. In the past, it had only taken him a few days to advance from Bronze First Tier to Bronze Second Tier. Now, it had taken a full day just to successfully become a first-level Mage Apprentice, the equivalent of a Bronze First Tier Extraordinary.

Of course, speed is relative. If Kosen knew, he would be so shocked he’d report it to the Kingdom’s Supreme Holy See.

Not to recommend a genius, but to report a demon.

Someone like Robson, who could ascend to the heavens in a single step and become a Mage Apprentice just by learning the basic concepts, was unheard of on the entire continent.

Which Mage didn’t have to start learning all sorts of fundamentals from childhood, only becoming qualified as an apprentice after mastering them completely?

Of course, Robson didn’t understand any of this at the moment.

The Frank Kingdom wasn’t like the prosperous nations of the south. Its nobility knew very little about Mages; only Viscounts and Earl Clans had some minor contact.

Robson was currently sensing the sea of consciousness in his mind. It was a small space with a single blue droplet in the center.

’Is this the sea of consciousness energy the book mentioned?’

Suspicious, Robson tried to apply what the book taught. He began to circulate his Mana and successfully conjured a fireball in the palm of his hand.

A larger fireball shot over and extinguished the one in Robson’s palm. It was Huang Na, from his shoulder.

"Hahaha! Robson, you call that a fire?" Huang Na mocked.

Robson, of course, wouldn’t bicker with a child of a few months. Instead, he asked in all seriousness.

"So, what level is my progress at?"

He had no one else to compare himself with right now, so he could only ask Huang Na. At least she had her bloodline inheritance.

Huang Na began to search through the bloodline inheritance stored in her mind.

The bloodline inheritance of magical beasts was usually trigger-based; they only recalled information when needed. Otherwise, with so much data from generations of ancestors, their brains would have long since exploded.

"I think my father cast his first spell on the fifth day... Huh? In that case, you’re not bad at all," Huang Na said in surprise.

As for why Huang Na knew of Earl Leiman’s magical talent, it was because a significant portion of a magical beast’s bloodline inheritance comes from its mother, and the inheritance Huang Na’s mother left behind was filled with memories related to Earl Leiman.

"Hiss!" Robson sucked in a sharp breath.

’Not bad is one thing, but this seems a little *too* not bad.’

Earl Leiman was already hailed as a once-in-a-century genius. So what did that make him?

Robson didn’t believe they would call him a once-in-a-millennium or once-in-ten-thousand-years genius. It was debatable whether human history even went back ten thousand years.

’Looks like I’ll have to wait a few days before revealing this,’ Robson thought.

He had heard stories from the Southern Kingdom about mad Mages, and recently, a scion of a Divine Blood Clan had supposedly been captured and dissected by some organization. He didn’t know if it was true or not.

’I’ll wait about 10 days before revealing it. It’ll be easier to explain then.’

While a Mage who learned Magic in a day was rare, one who took 10 days would only be considered an upper-tier genius. And being a dual magic and martial cultivator wasn’t that unusual either.

...

"My lord! My lord! The North City forces have gone to charge the camp! Aren’t we getting ready?"

Just as Robson was about to continue reading, Claude burst into his tent, his face flushed with excitement, and exclaimed animatedly.

"Charge the camp? What camp?" Robson was taken aback.

"The goblins! All the nobles from North City have gone out! Are we going to join in on such a lively event?" Claude asked.

"Let’s go take a look!" Robson frowned. All the nobles from North City charging out... they were clearly chasing military honors.

’It seems these people have really been blinded by greed.’ 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

But an attack of this scale... Valentino surely knew about it. Why hadn’t she notified him?

When Robson walked onto the observation platform of West City, he understood everything.

The Beastman Camp outside the city was in total chaos, with no semblance of a formed defense. On the northern battlefield, group after group of nobles led their Knights in a charge.

In this situation, if Valentino was willing to risk everything and play her two trump cards—the Fengman Noble Knight Order and the Fengman Noble Mage Association—she could definitely wipe out this group of Beastmen in one fell swoop and claim the greatest honor on the Western Front!

But clearly, Valentino had not done so.

Looking at the inner city, which remained as still as a mountain, Robson felt a complex mix of emotions.

’Looks like I’ve been slumming it for too long. I’ve gradually let my guard down.’

Valentino’s previous series of friendly gestures had led him to believe she was a pushover, causing him to overlook the fact that she was a woman in her twenties who had firmly secured the position of Count.

From the looks of it, the nobles from North City had been set up.

An operation by the nobles on such a large scale—how could Valentino not know? Of course she knew. She had probably even arranged the follow-up measures already.

If this raid succeeded, Valentino would certainly get a share of the credit. If it failed, she could probably extricate herself from blame.

She could even send out the Knight Order to "put out the fire," and then be lenient with the nobles who had charged out without authorization. To avoid disaster, those nobles would have no choice but to bribe her, and even after paying up, they would still have to thank her.

So, Valentino had made two sets of preparations. She herself was taking the orthodox path to build her image, while the North City group was her unorthodox move to cultivate connections.

’The world is a cold, cynical place. This young lady doesn’t play fair,’ Robson thought.