Chương 20: Building on the Spot

As dawn broke the next day, Li Qinwu regrouped his forces scattered by the previous night's skirmish and conducted a headcount. Five were dead, and fourteen had sustained minor injuries—mostly superficial burns, plus one goblin who had managed to sprain his ankle while fleeing. Reflecting on it, that "Magical Girl's" fireball had been more theatrical than lethal. Its blast radius was small, and the flames lacked the sticky persistence of pitch or oil; it was essentially a giant flash-bang.

If the goblins hadn't been running around half-naked, they wouldn't have suffered even the minor burns. Li Qinwu lined up the troops and pulled the fourteen wounded soldiers to the front. He roared to the assembly: "These fourteen men! Wounded in battle! They shall be rewarded!!" He gestured toward the twenty-plus Wood Rats captured earlier.

"I grant you the right to breed. Go!" The fourteen wounded soldiers were instantly ecstatic. Who knew getting singed by a fireball could lead to such a "happy" bonus? The other goblins' breathing grew heavy with envy; they suddenly felt an urgent desire to go out and get "heroically injured." However, Li Qinwu did not launch another assault over the following days. Between the lack of siege equipment and the presence of a fireball-chucking mage, he had no intention of throwing lives away for quick gains.

He opted for a "soft grind" strategy instead. On the surface, it looked like a stalemate, but the advantage was firmly with Li Qinwu. The castle protected the humans, but it was also their cage. He only needed to post a few scouts behind the fortress and have the main force watch the gate, and they could starve the humans out. Li Qinwu ordered the goblins to set up camp. Using their axes and swords, they began clearing the surrounding timber to build permanent housing.

He intended to establish a long-term base here. Even though the wooden fort hadn't fallen yet, in his eyes, it was already his. He demanded high standards for the construction: dug foundations and solid support beams. He was building his second stronghold. He split the goblins into two teams: one rotated on "siege duty" to ensure no one escaped the fort, while the other went hunting to find more Wood Rats to expand the tribe's population.

As the days passed, the panic on the walls shifted into a profound, gnawing unease. On Day 1, the humans saw the goblins digging pits with crude tools. On Day 2, they saw support beams being raised. By Day 3, a sturdy log cabin had been completed—built well enough to last decades. The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. In the following week, a row of cabins rose from the ground.

The goblins lit communal bonfires every evening, roasting their daily catch and distributing it in an organized fashion. What shocked the humans most was seeing the tallest goblin leading a group of smaller ones into the cultivated fields. He was teaching them how to weed and protect the crops. The elderly farmers on the walls were gobsmacked. Goblins... farming? These creatures, usually just background monsters in heroic tales, actually possessed such a calculated, intelligent side?

The goblins' "we're moving in" posture terrified the residents of Hardship Hamlet. They had fantasized that the monsters would retreat after a failed assault; now, they had to face a grim reality. Inside the castle's meeting room, Hana slammed her hand onto the table with a loud thwack.

"We can't let this go on! Those goblins clearly intend to stay. If we remain trapped like this, we're just waiting to die! Steward Monde, how much food do we have left?" Old Monde looked weary. He pulled out a small ledger, flipped through a few pages, and said, "Two months. If we cut rations, we might stretch it to three." Hana turned to Knight Leo, who sat in silence.

"Knight Leo, we must do something! If not for the Young Master, then for our own survival!" Leo pondered before replying, "Miss Hana, a frontal assault is suicide. Even if we arm every farmer, we have barely seventy men. They outnumber us three to one. Normally, I wouldn't fear unarmored goblins, but did you see those twenty in leather armor? Those are the ones that worry me. Twenty armored regulars leading a horde... we can't break that."

"Then what?" Hana asked, feeling helpless. Since the start of the conflict, those twenty Hobgoblins had exerted a massive psychological pressure on the garrison. A Hobgoblin's strength and stamina surpassed a human male's, and these were armored and armed with crossbows. One could easily take on two or three of their militiamen. Leo sighed.

"If things get worse, our only path is to protect a small group and attempt a breakout through the back of the castle. We run and hope some of us survive." Hana could only offer a bitter smile. It had taken them thirty days to reach this place. Without supplies, how could they survive a month in the forest? The Magic Forest was a human graveyard. They had arrived with three times their current numbers; many had been claimed by monsters and malaria along the way.

And even if they reached the Kingdom, what awaited them? Death. Lord Lance's father had failed a coup. The old King had only spared them because of the father's past military merits, sentencing them to rot in the forest instead of the gallows. Returning would be seen as an act of defiance. Wait... speaking of Lord Lance, Hana thought, it's been a week. Is he already... BBQ-ed? Just as she was worrying about the poor boy, a soldier burst into the room.

"My Lords! The goblins are parading Lord Lance toward the wall! What do we do?" The three of them scrambled to the ramparts. He's still alive after a week? They half-expected him to be in pieces, but instead, they saw a group of Hobgoblins holding crude wooden shields, protecting a towering figure at the back. That tallest goblin held a thick grass rope. At the end of that rope, their "beloved" Lord Lance was being led like a leashed dog. Li Qinwu saw the crowded walls and gave the rope a sharp, violent yank.

Lance let out a pitiful yelp, stumbling into the dirt. He looked up at the ramparts, weeping and disheveled.

"Miss Hana! Steward Monde! Knight Leo! Save me, for the love of the gods!!"