Rick and Commander Meegra had finally reached a place where they felt they could rest for a few minutes. It was a small valley covered, and they bunkered down inside, hoping that some sleeping monster wasn’t waiting for them.

  Thankfully for them, that wasn’t the case, and they could finally catch their breaths for a few moments.

  ‘Show me my status, Velora.’

  {Status}

  {Name – Rick}

  {Age – 22}

  {Race – Goblin King}

  {Tier – Six}

  {Strength – 470}

  {Agility – 290}

  {Dexterity – 295}

  {Intelligence – 170}

  {Endurance – 400}

  {Mana Pool – 5/1800}

  {Essence – 0}

  {Evo Points – 53,050/90,720}

  {Skills}

  {Velora}

  {Ruknar}

  {Will of the King}

  {Khaal’drez}

  ‘Even after all of that fighting, we are still so far away from our goal. Do the math for me, Velora. Exactly how many Tier Sevens would I need to kill to reach max Evo Points?’

  [Killing roughly 8 Tier Seven beings will be enough to get you to max Evo Points.]

  ‘8 Tier Sevens. I don’t even know if I could find that many beings of the Seventh Tier, let alone fight and kill all of them in a short time. Has this journey of mine been pointless after all? The whole point was to reach the Seventh Tier so that I could properly defend my people from the humans.

  ‘Yet the further I go, the farther my goal appears. Maybe it’s time to pack up shop and go back. What do you think, Velora?’

  [Perhaps if this was at the beginning of your journey, I would’ve been an advocate for you to return to the support of the Clans. That time has now passed. You have been here for too long, and you have made significant progress.]

  [Going back when you are less than halfway to your goal would be something of a waste. My recommendation is to simply change your approach.]

  ‘Change my approach? How?’

  [Well, instead of hunting them one by one and engaging in a life-and-death battle one after another, I think it would be best if you simply lured a few together and took care of them all at once.]

  ‘…Velora, that honestly sounds like a terrible idea. Fighting just one of those monsters was already putting my life at risk beyond reason. Now you’re suggesting that I fight a group of them at the same time? I don’t know about that one.’

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  [That would be true if you kept on fighting them in barbaric fashion like how you’ve done thus far, but what I propose is a real plan, and it would require a lot of preparation.]

  ‘Ahem… how much prep time are we talking?’

  [A few days’ worth.]

  ‘A few days’ worth, huh… and what if we attract trouble while doing a few days’ worth of prep?’

  [Then it saves you the task of going out to find enemies if they came to you. Though I believe if there were any Tier Sevens close by, then they would’ve long since come out to attack you.]

  ‘…Will I need Meegra for this plan to work?’

  [It would be better if she was there, but I’m sure you could manage. Though you do not need her to prepare for the battle ahead.]

  ‘Alright. We’ll try this plan of yours. Allow me to rest for a bit, then we’ll begin on prep. In the meantime, please go over the plan in detail.’

  [So…]

  Velora then spent the next few hours going over the plan she came up with, as both Rick and Meegra rested. Then, once Rick had a good understanding of the plan in full, he set out to prepare the things Velora requested of him.

  Perhaps if he was still a Tier One Goblin, then these preparations wouldn’t take just a few days. It would instead be weeks, if not months, of hard labor if he were to do it all by himself. Yet although it was far quicker than a Tier One Goblin’s progress would’ve been, it still took Rick an entire seven days’ worth of work to complete all the preparations.

  Part of the reason for that was due to the fact that he made quite a bit of noise in the surrounding areas, and thus a lot of beasts were attracted to the area. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on which lens one looks through none of the attackers were above Tier Six. Which meant defeating them was an easy task for Rick.

  Even if he had to also cover for Meegra, who was still in need of deep recovery. Though this was not something he would ever complain about. It was his duty to protect her, despite how she felt, and he would see that it was one he didn’t fail.

  Which is why, although he finished all the necessary preparations in seven days, he didn’t actually depart from their little hiding spot till the tenth day had passed. By then, Meegra was able to move around. She was nowhere near being fully recovered, but she was fit enough to stay hidden and fight back if needed.

  Rick, on the other hand… Rick had a bit of a job to do. It would be up to him to not only go find these Tier Seven beasts but also to lead them back to the location where everything was prepared for them.

  Now, Rick and Velora had long since noticed something about these Tier Seven beasts. First of all, they didn’t seem like they were very focused on making a desperate push to reach the exit of Mir.

  On top of that, they didn’t have the same level of mindlessness that the lower Tiers had.

  Which meant or at least to Rick and Velora, it meant that if the Tier Sevens were to get near each other, then there was a chance that they would ignore Rick and simply fight each other.

  Of course, if that were to happen, the plan Velora concocted would simply go to waste, but that didn’t bother them at all.

  Rick then spent roughly the next two days in search of Tier Seven monsters. He managed to find three. Once that was completed, he took some time to plan out a route between all three so that he could efficiently lure all of them.

  Then… it was time to play a cat-and-mouse game with three beings strong enough to rip him in half.

  All in a day’s life of Rick the Goblin King, though.