Chapter Eighty-Five: The Defense Plan

Town guards were expensive to maintain, especially if one wished to have more elite troops! Clearly, gold coins were better spent at the resource exchange, trading for raw meat to recruit kobold soldiers. After all, town guards could train in the barracks and gradually gain experience, though using gold coins would speed up the process considerably.

A hundred kobold soldiers required only 2,600 units of raw meat; a thousand would take just 26,000! One gold coin could purchase a thousand units of raw meat, so ten coins meant ten thousand units. In other words, recruiting a thousand kobold soldiers needed only a bit over twenty coins! Yesterday, Bardi spent twenty-two coins to gain twenty-two percent skill training experience—equivalent in cost to a thousand kobold soldiers! Of course, breaking limits and gaining captain-level strength, mastering Ascending Slash, was excellent. A thousand kobold soldiers were no match for him. But after a battle, losing a thousand kobolds wouldn’t trouble Jia Zhengjin in the least; losing a captain-level town guard follower, however, would be devastating.

Jia Zhengjin used gold coins to buy raw meat, preparing to establish a heavily armored kobold unit. Yet, upon reaching five hundred kobold warriors in the kobold lair, he received a notification: the lair had reached its maximum number of kobold soldiers! Recruiting other troop types was fine, but the cap for one type was five hundred. The kobold chieftain was special—only one allowed.

Naturally, Jia Zhengjin could build another kobold lair, or several, to pursue a mass recruitment strategy. But even then, the speed of crafting equipment and weapons would lag behind. Arming five hundred kobolds required a daunting amount of materials for smelting iron ingots. Besides, Jia Zhengjin planned to build arrow towers all around the city to strengthen defenses against enemies and beasts.

Even with five hundred kobold miners and a hundred villagers working together, there weren’t enough tools for mining, and the open-air deposits weren’t large enough. Not only would they fail to provide sufficient resources, but it would also be wasteful! The current arrangement—fifty kobold miners and a hundred villager miners—was just right; there was no need to increase their numbers yet. Once a larger, safer vein was found, more kobold miners could be recruited.

Of the five hundred kobold soldiers, Jia Zhengjin decided to forge two hundred into kobold crossbowmen, armed with crossbows and clad in light leather armor. The remaining three hundred would be equipped with iron shields, iron spears, and full suits of iron armor. Weapons and armor needed to be produced faster—at present, at least half the kobold soldiers had no equipment at all.

Once equipped, the three hundred heavily armored kobold soldiers would lead the charge, while two hundred crossbowmen struck from afar—their power would be astonishing! Jia Zhengjin had Labi test the kobold soldiers’ combat abilities. Against unarmored kobolds, Labi could easily sweep aside over twenty attackers and win. But versus heavily armored kobolds wielding iron weapons, he struggled even against five at once. The iron armor’s defense neutralized his sweeping strikes; though repeated attacks could break the armor, in that time, the kobolds could launch powerful counterattacks—a stark contrast to the ease of defeating unarmored foes!

Furthermore, the two hundred crossbowmen stood ready. While the heavy kobold infantry engaged the enemy in close combat, they could unleash a dense rain of arrows, sweeping the battlefield.

Once all five hundred kobold soldiers were fully armed—and the city’s arrow tower formations constructed—Jia Zhengjin would have ample resources to build more kobold lairs and employ mass recruitment tactics. In time, he would sweep through the entire Monster Forest!

As for city guards, they were said to be stronger than town guards? No matter! With a dense network of arrow towers and kobold crossbowmen, breaching the city would be extremely difficult. Besides, he still had the town guard barracks; if pressed, he could mine the gold deposit and summon a vast number of town guards with gold coins.

And if all else failed, there was the garden! The forest fairies he supported were not merely for their daily bottle of delicious nectar. They possessed magic to summon powerful treant units. If the city were threatened, they would suffer as well. As long as the fairies understood the gravity of the situation, they would surely be eager to help.

Now that his forces had grown, Jia Zhengjin was ready to attack the giant centipede nest. The centipedes’ venom was highly paralyzing—though not fatal, it could incapacitate targets for a time. Using poison-coated weapons, even if the enemy had powerful priests, as long as paralysis set in, the city guards would have little chance of victory!

For city guards to attack his city was no simple matter—they would first need to enter the Monster Forest and break through several otherworldly tribal territories. Of course, it would likely be easy for them, but it would still consume their strength.

In every aspect—timing, terrain, and unity—Jia Zhengjin held the absolute advantage! If even this could not withstand the city guards, he still had a trump card.

Wasn’t there a red fire-breathing giant serpent lurking in the forest? It was considered one of the most formidable monsters in this world. If things truly grew dire, he could have Wolf lure the serpent into the city guards’ siege force, letting it wreak havoc.

If the city guards were wiped out, Wolf could lead the serpent away. The worst would be losing the werewolf, but it would be worth trading for the entire city guard force.

If luck was on his side, the city guards would be destroyed by the serpent, which would be left badly wounded—then he could claim the serpent’s experience and spoils.

If the city guards defeated the serpent, their losses would be heavy. He could then finish them off and reap their experience and loot!

No matter what happened, Jia Zhengjin was confident he would remain firmly in control.

Now, his task was to construct a dense web of arrow towers—so dense that even the red serpent would struggle to approach. Half the resources mined by workers were hauled by kobold craftsmen for smelting into iron ingots for equipment; the other half he kept for himself, placing arrow towers around the city with relentless determination.

First, he would raise the city’s overall defenses. The concentration of arrow towers would ensure any threat within range was instantly destroyed, allowing villagers to remain safe within the city and walk near the walls without fear of wild beasts.

Once every point along the walls was filled with arrow towers, he would upgrade them one by one!