Chapter 717: First Strike

The morning sunlight came in through the window…

Robb rubbed his eyes and got out of bed. The room was filled with medicine bottles. After arranging for the dwarves to study the mortar shells last night, he returned to the outpost and stayed up half the night, grinding all the herbs that the logistical troops had gathered. Now the room was full of glass bottles.

The soldiers outside were shouting, and the returning leopard warrior, who was on patrol, walked by while yawning and muttering, “Damn Mondra, he came to release poison fog last night, making our night patrols much harder. My arms and legs are sore.”

Beside him, a human warrior laughed and scolded, “It’s not because you were too lax before was it? You almost killed everyone in the city.”

The leopard muttered, “But we didn’t die, did we? When we saw the poison fog, we could retreat in time.”

“But we would have lost the important stronghold. All the food and magical items stored here would have fallen into the enemy’s hands.”

The leopard replied, “Then we’ll just take it back.”

Then there were people outside laughing and cursing with various adjectives like idiot, fool, and moron.

Robb pushed open the door and a large group of soldiers immediately saluted him.

He ordered, “Whoever goes to call the logistical troops and bring them to my room to move the potions.”

A few soldiers listened to this and peered into Robb’s room through the crack in the door. They were surprised to see the room full of medicine bottles and exclaimed, “So many? Lord Robb, did you stay up all night making potions?”

“Uh, I guess so!” Robb had to say that.

“You really work too hard.” The soldiers were a little moved. These potions were prepared for them.

Someone immediately went to call the logistical troops, and then a large group of people came to move the medicine, busy as bees.

Robb walked slowly to the conference hall, where Madeline had already woken up and was discussing strategic issues with captain Barry and a group of Black Earth Knights and wind knights around the table.

There was a huge map on the table, showing the surrounding area of the Capital of Saints.

Seeing Robb coming, Madeline said, “Oh, are you up? We are discussing future strategies. It’s not that we didn’t mean to invite you as a staff member to participate in the discussion, but you were too tired last night, so I told them not to wake you up.”

She was afraid that Robb would be suspicious and explained this to him specifically.

In fact, Robb didn’t care about strategy discussions at all. If he was called, he would come and listen with his ears, and if not, it didn’t matter.

His real interest lies in the huge map on the table.

In the game, wherever one goes, there is a map of that place, and one can use the “search for minerals” skill to find good stuff. But in the real world, it is normal to walk into a strange place without a map, and without a map, one cannot use the “search for minerals” skill to find ores.

On his journey, Robb had missed several places without searching for minerals, and he wondered if he had missed any rare treasures. He planned to make up for it later.

Now that he sees a huge map in front of him. Isn’t this the perfect time to search for minerals?

He quickly moves to the table, opens the “search for minerals” skill, and carefully looks at the map.

Seeing his enthusiasm for military affairs, everyone present secretly nodded in approval. Look, the Smith family members are so diligent. With such spirit, how can they not succeed in the future?

Madeline’s spirits were lifted, and she said, “Next, we will face the most important battle, the raid on Mondra’s stronghold.”

One of the Black Earth Knights sweated profusely and said, “Commander, this was your opening statement an hour and a half ago. Why are we going over it again now?”

Another Black Earth Knight kicked him quickly and whispered, “Robb is here, of course we need a recap.”

The Black Earth Knight who spoke earlier immediately understood and quickly shut up.

Everyone understood that the discussion an hour and a half ago, before Robb woke up, was useless and they probably needed to start from scratch. It was awkward, really awkward. If they had known earlier, they could have slept for another hour and a half instead of wasting time discussing nothing.

However, they underestimated Madeline. Although she was a bit of a romantic, she would not be vague when it came to important matters. Her opening statement was just to let Robb quickly understand the situation, and she directly stated the result of the previous discussion.

“Mr. Robb, we just discussed that if we want to attack the Capital of Saints, we must first capture the Magic Temple in the north. It is a city backed by the Black Pine Mountains and is at a corner of the Capital of Saints. If we ignore this city and directly attack Mondra’s stronghold, we may be attacked from the side by the Magic Temple’s troops. But if we first attack the Magic Temple, and Mondra does not come out to rescue them, the Magic Temple will be easily occupied by our army. If he leads his army out to rescue them, it will be just be the opportunity we need.”

Robb was looking at the map and not listening carefully. Anyway, he didn’t understand the strategic matters, so he left it to Madeline. He casually replied, “Oh!”

Madeline asked, “Do you have any objections to this plan?”

Robb said, “I have no objections. Wait, what’s this?”

He followed Madeline’s instructions and looked at the map around the Magic Temple. He saw a small golden dot next to the Magic Temple, indicating a sign of minerals there. From the map, that place looked like a small canyon.

Such strange canyons were the most likely to have good minerals!

Robb picked up a pen and drew a small circle on the map of the canyon.

Madeline seemed to understand something and said, “Do you think there might be enemy troops hiding in this canyon? I get it! Let’s send a team of scouts to investigate this canyon thoroughly.”

Robb replied, “What? No, I didn’t mean that.”

Madeline asked, “Then why did you draw a circle?”

Robb was speechless and had to force himself to say, “I’m not sure if there are any enemy troops here. I just thought this canyon’s location is strategic, so I circled it.”

Madeline said, “That’s exactly the point. If you think it’s a good spot, the enemy might think so too. Maybe there’s a large army hiding there waiting to ambush us. In any case, it won’t hurt to investigate.”

Barry and the Black Earth Knights standing nearby didn’t say anything. They didn’t want to go against the lovebirds on this small matter, and sending a scouting team wouldn’t be a big deal.

So the scouting team was happily formed, and Robb volunteered to be the leader. Of course, no one opposed him.

Next, the main force set out. The force divided into two parts. The Wind Knights were responsible for attacking the small city backed by the mountains, the Magic Temple, while the powerful Black Earth Knights ambushed the road between the Magic Temple and the Capital of Saints. If Mondra sends reinforcements, they will be caught off guard.