Chapter 668 (2/2)

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.