“I’m surprised you have visited again so soon. Especially with what just recently transpired.”

  “I’ve only come to let you know that my entire Village will be moving through this section of the forest. I didn’t want you to be surprised when all of us showed up here.”

  “All of you will be traveling through here huh. To go where?”

  “To leave. We will be leaving this forest for good, and to do that, your we’ve chosen this exit point.”

  “Ah, so you are leaving after all. That is also quite surprising. I thought for sure that you were the type to stand your ground and fight. I guess that was wrong. Your people are free to pass through my forest.”

  And with that as his final comment, the fox vanished, with Rick of course still unable to track its speed.

  This would also be the last time that Rick would ever see the fox for a very long time.

  POV Rick

  [I believe that went well.]

  ‘Except for the whole standing my ground to fight thing. He basically called me a coward.’

  [Regardless of whatever he may or may not have called you, the situation was handled well.]

  ‘I know, and honestly I’m not annoyed at what he said. I’m annoyed at the meaning behind it. He’s right, I would much rather stand my ground and fight whatever it was that was coming. I don’t want to run away, but my hand was forced, and I had no choice.

  ‘I’m good though. Just annoying to hear it in my face again without being able to refute or do anything about it.’

  [Then at least it’s out of the way now. You likely won’t see him again in life If everything goes to plan.]

  ‘Yeah…we’ll see. Anyway, let’s see what you managed to scan of its status.’

  [Understood.]

  {Race – Flash Fang Fox}

  {Tier – Six+}

  ‘We can’t see much, but what we can see is important enough. This at least confirms that it is definitely above Tier Six.

  ‘And its race. A Flash Fang Fox. Never seen that type of fox before anywhere else in the forest so it likely only became that through evolution. But Flash Fang huh, that would probably explain how it just disappears or flashes away in the blink of an eye.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  ‘I highly doubt there’s anything in this forest that can match it in speed. Maybe that’s why the Serpent doesn’t say anything to it. Though it does make me wonder about what the Orcs did to be banned from the forest in their entirety.’

  [There’s a chance it has something to do with forming a settlement. The Serpent expressed a fair amount of hate towards any groups settling in the forest, so perhaps the Orcs once tried to do something similar in the past, before being ran out of the forest.]

  ‘Hm, that’s probably a good guess, but I don’t think that Orc we saw in the forest would ever leave without a fight. Even though we saw it back down in that moment, something tells me it wasn’t out of fear or weakness like me…

  ‘I think it is more than willing to fight the Serpent, so what could have made it leave.’

  [Of course, we are only guessing here, but perhaps it was weaker at the time. The Serpent appears to have been this powerful for likely many many years, and many different things could happen over the years.

  [Like a budding Orc Village being banished whilst their Leader was only of the Fifth or even Sixth Tier. In fact, such a scenario would be quite similar to yours. A young promising Village of Goblin, with a Tier Five Goblin at the helm.

  [And at the rate of your evolutions, it wouldn’t be too much longer before you shared the same Tier as the Serpent itself, and by then your threat would have likely been too high to simply brush off or order around easily.

  [Your current Tier and Village strength is literally the best time to kick you out of the forest.]

  ‘I hate to be compared to those bastards but that makes sense as well. The Serpent has a stick up its ass though, kicking and banning people as it sees fit. Its time is coming too. Whatever let’s go help with the packing process, the sooner we’re gone the better.’

  ???

  And so, the Village which was once moving forward to both prepare for war and also build themselves hopefully a lasting home was now moving in reverse.

  Tho mood as new buildings that would’ve helped make the Village bigger and better and were in progress, now had to be turned to scrap so that materials could be used in other areas, wasn’t a good one.

  The Goblins were sad.

  And for good reason. Most of them had only ever known oppression from Orcs and this would be the first time they would have something that was truly theirs. They wanted it, and they were willing to fight for it. A fire that they once lacked was reignited deep within them by Rick, yet they wouldn’t get the chance.

  Over the next few weeks, more and more buildings were torn down, and hunting had increased significantly to ensure stores of food were prepared for the journey ahead.

  A journey that still seemed perilous on paper. Settling anywhere next to the forest didn’t make sense as the Orcs could literally just waltz on over if they pleased. They needed distance, but almost every direction held a different set of dangers that Rick wasn’t sure they would get through.

  It was one thing for Rogu and his 10 highly trained and capable Goblins to stealthily travel through dangerous lands, but it would be another thing for over a hundred Tier One and Two Goblins to do the same thing.

  They simply wouldn’t be able to hide such a large group, they needed to be prepared for the attention there were guaranteed to draw in whatever area they entered.

  But what Rick was only just beginning to learn about this new life of his, was that sometimes no amount of planning could account for every variable.

  Especially variables he had no knowledge of in the first place.

  Everything was fine for the most part until three full weeks passed and the Goblins had officially begun trekking north to exit the Forest.

  It took them almost a full day alone to get from the site of where the Village used to be, to reach and barely pass the Lake.

  It was at that point that the Serpent burst forth from the Lake in a ferocious roar that seemingly shook the entire forest for miles.

  “YOU DARE RETURN AFTER I SHOWED YOU GRACE, AND YOU BROUGHT A FLYING RAT WITH YOU!!”

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