Many civilians were gathered around Jack inside the walls and looking down from the plateau.
It was a rare sight as it took half an hour for the 8000 troops to leave through the gate.
Row after row of troops marched out and the civilians felt the power their lord commanded.
They were proud. They were strong and they were safe.
Jack likewise watched the entire half hour before he left himself.
He would be staying around the forest center base as a command point as his troops cleared the forest north and south.
The first hour he waited in the base, he and the 300 troops stationed with him, could clearly hear the war-cries of troops and different kinds of howls and hisses from crazed beasts.
However as time passed, the noises faded and calming bird chitter began to emerge from the forest.
'I wonder what is going on..' Jack sat idle on a stone.
'Maybe I should have followed one of the platoons. Fraco maybe? At least I wouldn't be so bored.' But Jack had made this choice, he could afford to loose troops, but what if something happened to him?
As Jack thought about this, Fraco was in the middle of a deadly fight.
"200 troops advance on the center! Keep the pressure!"
"400 troops press the enemies flank!"
Fraco had been in the lead, easily cutting down common - and uncommon ranked sole beasts. The groups he had encountered were easily overrun with his large army.
However he still took a lot of casualties when the different kinds of beasts suddenly were gone, and only common ranked anacondas seemed to attack him constantly.
Only 15 minutes ago, the anacondas that appeared had changed to uncommon, and they were large! 10 meters long, enough to crush his troop. Their fangs long as daggers, easily piercing the trash troops shabby leather armor.
At this point Fraco had turned his army into a 200 meters long frontline. 1500 troops advancing and 2000 troops formed into smaller squads to quickly add pressure.
The uncommon anacondas thrashed about, their strong bodies pushing troops aside, tearing them with their fangs and ambushing from the trees.
The 'frontline' had more or less become a slaughter zone.
After loosing 1000 more troops in this stalemate Fraco finally had enough.
'Enough of this! I will have to get my hands dirty... Even if these snakes are slippery, they can't evade all my rock-spikes!'
Fraco then charged with the remaining troops, while rocks continued to form into rock-spikes above his head.
Pang. Pang. Pang. Chunk!
Many bounced off of the snakes heavy scales, yet some of them found a weak point and penetrated the anacondas. The penetrated anacondas found it hard to move after this and the troops could easily end them.
Fraco continued to advance.
In the south part of the forest, Harken had already engaged the Crazed Bear Pack-Leader there.
He had lost 1500 troops getting so far to the south, and crazed bears were mainly to blame for these losses.
However they were nothing next to the pack leader!
Twice the size it swiped five or ten trash troop with a single swing of its paws.
Harken were no general, but he remembered his lords 'swarm tactics' and thus threw every single troop against the pack leader.
After heavy looses it finally fell, and Harken began to order the remaining 1500 troops to carry or drag any and all dead beasts back to the center base.
Meanwhile Jack suddenly got a notification.
[Lord System: You have slain an uncommon Crazed Bear Pack-leader]
[Gained: Uncommon Rank Weapon: Bow of the Wild]
'What's this now? A new weapon?' Jack though while thinking that either the north or south part of the forest had been cleared.
He then excitedly withdrew the bow from his inventory, and a short-bow of oiled brown wood with curled ends appeared in his hands.
'What's this bowstring? Its strong but soft to touch, and its giving off a green glow?'
[Bow of the Wild, uncommon]
[Channeling spirit power into the bow while drawing it, forms a wind-arrow. It's hard to miss]
Jack had to stand up and draw it immediatly.
Drawing the bow while aiming at one of the smaller trees, he controlled his mental energy as he did when he wanted to change the earth, rocks or water. But this time he aimed his attention towards the bow in his hands.
A solid arrow with a green-glowing arrowhead instantly appeared, knocked on the bowstring. As he stood there, still with the mental connection to the bow, he could suddenly feel the air-suction concentrated around the tip of the arrow.
He let the arrow loose.
Swiip. Chunk.
The arrow had such force that it went all the way through the 1 meter thick tree he had aimed for, and stuck firmly into the one behind it.
'Is this the power of uncommon weapons?? I wonder if these can somehow be manufactured using the wild beasts and monsters parts!'
'Such overwhelming power..' Jack thought while he put the bow away.
Another hour passed before Harken and his troops began to return to the forest base.
"Lord! The south has been conquered. The troops are still carrying the beasts in the forest, but they should all be here within hours!"
Harken was very tired after fighting for hours. But he smiled and bowed proudly. He had cleared his mission!
"Well done Harken! See to it that you and your troops all gets a good meal and rest in the barracks!" Jack was very satisfied.
But just as he were about to talk again, he suddenly had a strong urge to run to the north!
Jack, Harken and every troop in the base instinctively turned their heads to the north in perfect syncronization!
'Fraco is in danger!' Jack could feel it in his bones. Something bad had happened.
Without waiting for orders, as if already given, every single soul in the base began to run as fast as they could towards the north.
Jack ran as fast as he could trough the forest. He quickly left the others far behind, as they could not keep up with him.
'I found you!' Jack was already about a kilometer to the north, he figured that Jacko had used his 'general' ability to communicate.
"Lord! I'm sorry to call for you. But this boss is dangerous!" Jacko was sitting against a tree, his chest had a huge dent, surely looked like he had broken some ribs, at least!
But he also had a blood-gushing wound on his right leg that needed immediate treatment.
"Hurry lord. Before it recovers. We almost got it before it wounded me. I had to retreat lord. But the troops are still fighting there, giving me cover to retreat. My spear and axe are in its scales, they are mithril-tipped and can pierce it scales!"
Only now Jack realised that only Jacko's sword and shield lay beside him.
"Harken should be here soon. Tell him to bring you back home!" Jack was almost about to leave again, but stopped and looked at Jacko.
"Well done. I don't want to loose you Jacko. Always retreat if you're not sure to win!" Jack tried to comfort him, thinking Jacko was ashamed of running away.
But Jacko just smiled.
"I'm not ashamed my lord. I'm a general after all. Retreating is not shameful. It is wise." He gave off the 'live to fight another day' tone as the spoke.
Jack was relieved by this, he was right. A tactical retreat is better than loosing even more.
"Ask the civilians if anyone knows how to treat you and stop that bleeding." Was all Jack said before he ran north again.
'Every day seems to come with something new I need... How do I even get doctors, nurses, medical supplies or hospitals in this world...'
Zig-zagging between the trees and undergrowth at full speed for quite a while, he finally began to see the aftermath of larger battles and smaller skirmishes.
Both the crazed cats and crazed apes lay dead between the trees together with trash troops in large numbers.
The dead beasts became common anacondas as he ran, then uncommon and many more troop corpses began to litter the forest floor. Jack intensified his speed.
And then suddenly...
BAM!
Something had hit him hard, like running into a moving car!
Jack was slammed to the side and crashed into a large tree.
'If this was before I ate the legendary core, my body would be splattered right now!' Jack had somehow managed to brace against the tree before slamming against it, only hurting his shoulder.
He stood up quickly as a giant anaconda came down from the tree tops.
[Queen Anaconda, Epic Ranked Boss]
[Fortitude: 197]
[Spirit Power: 55]
[Abilities: Offspring Control. Eat and Grow.]
'So that's how you controlled all the other anacondas... And I see how you've grown into a boss beast! You grow every time you eat don't you?' Jack though with a sneer.
This queen anaconda was easily 30 meters long and 1 meter wide. It could swallow Jack whole if it got the chance.
'But I wont let it... I wont even get near you!'
Jack pulled out the bow of the wild and instantly an arrow appeared and pulled the air around it.
The queen sensed danger and instantly lunged at him, with a huge gaping mouth with fangs as long as a dwarf, the anaconda covered the distance between them as fast as only snakes can lash!
"Sorry, but I was waiting for you to do that..." Jack had released the arrow just as the queen lashed out, but lucky for him that it was already injured with a spear and axe stuck in its scales, otherwise, he would be snake food now, having completely underestimated the fortitude of this queen boss.
"Fuck!" Jack barely managed to fall to the side before the queen crashed into the tree behind him.
His arrow had struck, but had only stuck into the upper jaw of the snake, completely missing any vital part of its head.
"Oh your fangs are stuck in the tree, are they?" With a wicked grin Jack took advantage of the few seconds the snake was stuck, and quickly threw his attention to the earth around the boss.
Many 'stone-snakes' emerged from the earth and threw themselves over the boss, pinning it to the ground.
"I'm sorry ms. Queen. But you're too dangerous. I have to end it here" He quickly said and grabbed the mithril-covered battle-axe stuck to its scales.
Chuck. Hack. Chuck. Hack. Plonk!
After five heavy hits the head finally rolled and the snakes body trashed so hard that the 'stone-snakes' that Jack had made, completely crumbled.
[Lord System: You have slain an Epic boss]
[Gained: Rare Armor: Crazed Scales]
[Lord System: You have claimed territory: Crazed Forest. Beast and monster spawns has decreased by 90%]
[Lord System: Conquest mission completed]
[Gained: Uncommon treasure: Crazed Plantation]