Gabriel was given 13 recruits in his squad. All LVL 10 [Warrior class]. They each were given 10x [Steel tipped Javelins] and 2x [Minor health potion] before they left. Taking the portcullis exit from the Legionnaire camps, they passed through the open wall and arrived outside.

Before Gabriel moved any further, he wanted to check to see what skills his squad members have.

“Listen up everyone! Now I want you to put your hand up if you have any skills not including your LVL 10 [Warrior] skills?” Gabriel asked.

Two men and one woman raised their hands. Gabriel first pointed to what looked like a dark elf/Human male. With his marble-colored skin and silver colored hair, he certainly had Dark elf blood in him.

“State your name and skills for me please” Gabriel commanded.

“Yes sir! My name is [Draka]. My mother was a [Hunter] before she became ill. I have learnt the skills [Tracking LVL 3], [Eagle eye LVL 2] and [Sneak LVL 4].” [Draka] replied with a salute.

“Perfect. Those are excellent skills for a scout. I will arrange for you to scout ahead for us at a 300-meter difference and to report back every 15 minutes. Understood?” Gabriel ordered.

“Yes Sir!” [Draka] replied with a salute again.

Gabriel then pointed towards a rather tall Human Female; a dangerous air surrounded her. With short spiky green hair and a long-jagged scar running across her right eye. She had quite big arms for a woman and her knuckles were covered in white scars, owing to obvious fist fights she has had over the years.

“Yes Sir! This recruit is named [Grendel]. I have the skills [Clobber LVL 3], [Provoke LVL 4] and [Iron Skin LVL 8].” [Grendel] explained while cracking her giant knuckles.

‘Jesus! Even her voice is manlier than mine and with a name like Grendel. Poor thing...’ Gabriel almost pulled a muscle keeping his face neutral.

“Thank you ...Cough... [Grendel] You will be perfect as the Vanguard with those skills. Please take the front with me.” Gabriel ordered after gathering his wits.

“Sir, yes Sir!” [Grendel] replied with a smile filled with missing teeth.

Even before Gabriel could point to the last male with his hand up, he stepped forward and was in Gabriel’s personal space with a hostile look. He was a Northmen of similar height; he had a shaved head with tattoos of ravens in flight on the sides. With a dark brown beaded beard.

“What makes you think you can order us around. I never fought you, I don’t believe for a second you could beat me and we all know the strongest should lead” The Northmen declared while sticking his finger in Gabriel's chest.

Northmen thinking was like that. It only worked in their community because even the lowliest child was a strong warrior there. Even if they had a leader who was a moron, it wouldn’t affect them too much, as they didn’t really have a weak link when it came to fighting.

“I completely understand your thinking there. So let us have ourselves a little fight right now. What say you Northman?” Gabriel asked with a confident filled smile.

Gabriel was expecting this situation to happen at one point, nobody liked to be lead and although they are NPC’s, they all have individual personalities and acted their age. Which was in this case, fresh out of their teens. Gabriel made the rest of the squad move out of the way. The other recruits set up a make-shift circular boundary with their Shields.

Moving into the middle, Gabriel beckoned to the Northmen who was unsheathing his weapons. Gabriel did not pull out his sword though and the only movement he made was laying his shield on the ground. The Northman just stood there, watching his actions and the already glaring face became a shade darker.

“I am not trying to be arrogant here but I will announce right now that if you can land a hit on me, I will relinquish command to you. You can use your weapons. Sound good?” Gabriel declared with a serious face.

The Northmen was visibly enraged by what he perceived as a slight against him. He charged at Gabriel and tried to use a [Shield slam] to knock Gabriel off his feet. Gabriel rolled to left smoothly and lightly kicked the Northmen in the ass as he passed by. Making the Northmen face so red while he clenched his teeth so hard you could hear them creak.

He came swinging at Gabriel with a horizontal slash, Gabriel weaved underneath the swing and grabbed his wrist in a grip that must have felt like a steel trap. Gabriel pulled on the Northmen’s arm causing hyper extensions before he bought his elbow down hard on the joint. A loud ‘CRACK’ could be heard coming from the Northmen’s elbow as it bent at an awkward angle.

Stumbling back in pain caused him to fall on his back. Gabriel followed him down and pinned the Northmen’s arms with his knees and started to hammer into his face until it was a bloody mess. Gabriel stopped after he heard a weak “I surrender” threw the spitting out of teeth.

A [Minor Health Potion] dropped on the Northmen’s chest and he quickly drunk it down while his wounds on his face started to slowly heal. Gabriel gave a sharp look at the other recruits to see if his point was made clear. It looked like it, as everyone had fear and respect in their eyes.

‘The perfect combination for loyal soldiers’, Gabriel thought. When he made eye contact with [Grendel] he also saw respect there too but mixed with that was something else that made Gabriel’s skull tingle. It wasn’t defiance but it felt dangerous. When she licked her lips. Gabriel visibly swallowed, breaking out into sweat all over. He turned around as fast as his body could handle and looked at the Northman who was getting back up.

“Now Recruit. I imagine we don’t have a problem anymore, right?” Gabriel asked.

“Sir, no Sir!” The Northmen replied while saluting.

The Northmen gave Gabriel a broken tooth smile. He did not appear to be looking at someone who just beat his teeth out of his head. However, Gabriel was not surprised. Northmen were like this; they follow the strong and as long as your strong they will be the most loyal of warriors.

“Now recruit. State your name and what skills you have!” Gabriel ordered.

“Yes Chief! My Name is [Rolo]. I have skills [Charge] and [Whirlwind] but that requires me to be holding two weapons” [Rolo] responded.

“Great, you take the rear-guard for now and when we gain another decent one-handed weapon, you can take it” Gabriel said.

“Yes Chief!” [Rolo] replied.

“Alright everyone else line up in twos and let's get moving, according to the map it will take us about an hour to reach the forest and another thirty minutes of solid marching before we reach the Goblin encampment. [Draka] don’t scout ahead until we hit the forest. Let’s move out!” Gabriel commanded.

Gabriel hadn’t detected a pair of eyes watching his whole squad from the top of the city walls. [Sergeant Titus] had been watching the whole confrontation between [Osiris] and [Rolo] as well as the way he set up the squad. Nodding his head.

“This one will do well. If he comes back successful, I will have to tell the higher ups about a promising new recruit. I have a bad feeling in my gut. The orcs have been too quiet.” [Sergeant Titus] said to himself.

When the squad reached the edge of the forest, Gabriel called a 5-minute break. [Draka] took his leave to head into the forest first and scout. After Gabriel checked the time, he called a resume march.

“Be cautious while we are in the forest. Watch your sides and proceed at half speed.” Gabriel cautioned the recruits.

With [Draka] providing regular scouting updates they made good progress. [Draka] on his fourth time returning finally announced that the Goblin Encampment was just up ahead.

“Take me there. Everyone take a quick break and check your gear. I wanted everyone battle ready in 10 Minutes. [Rolo] you're in charge while I am away.” Gabriel ordered.

“Sir, yes Sir!” [Draka] saluted.

“Yes Chief!” [Rolo] replied, adding in "Chief" which was an honoured way to address a leader in Northman culture.

It only took Gabriel and [Draka] a few minutes to reach the edge of a large clearing that was backed by a large cliff face. Inside the clearing was a mismatched set of shoddily built huts. A couple of goblins could be seen walking around or just lying on the ground in front of their huts. They were thin green humanoid creatures, an average of 5 feet tall. They wore a large variety of armour and weapons. Even though goblins were naturally known as lazy creatures, they could be very crafty too.

Gabriel took a look around the clearing and noticed that within the 100-meter open space between forest and huts. Gabriel could just make out a scattering of concealed pit traps and trip wire around the clearing. Two sentries could also be seen hiding in the bushes on either side of the forest. After a quick count. There was a total of 25 Goblins in the open, including the two sentries. The [Goblin Chief] was nowhere in sight but if Gabriel had to take a guess, he thought it should be in the largest hut in the area. Situated right up against the cliff face.

After Gabriel and [Draka] made it back to the squad they saw that [Rolo] had everyone geared up and ready to go. Gabriel took some time to lay out their plan before he and [Draka] headed off first, splitting off from each other along the way.

Making his way over to the sentry on the right, Gabriel noticed a fair number of Goblins going in and out of the Chief’s hut. The hut wasn’t big enough to accommodate the high number of Goblins going in compared to the ones going out. Gabriel summarized that there must be a cave entrance located in the hut.

As Gabriel came up upon the Goblin sentry, he did his best to muffle the sound of his footfalls and lowered his breathing. When he was in range, he wrapped one arm around the Goblin's throat and the other around his mouth before pulling the Goblin to the ground. Taking a few moments to choke the life out of the goblin. Gabriel received a notification for his efforts.

[You have Slain 1x Goblin Scout LVL 10 – 500 EXP]

[Congratulations! You have learned the skill [Sneak - LVL 1] - When activating sneak, you are 10% harder to find and is increased by 5% if in shadows. Landing a strike on unaware enemy while in [Sneak] will give you 2x Based Damage]

All basic skills can be learnt by all players regardless of [Class] or weapon orientation. You could only get the higher Evolution of the skill if it was part of your [Class] though. For example [Sneak] when upgraded by a person with the [Class: Assassin] will get a higher tiered skill called [Phantom].

Gabriel was a warrior type class and could only upgrade [Sneak] to LVL 10 and then it will be capped. He could however upgrade it with a Skill Book but [Rare] and above skill books were the hardest things to find in D.O. Gabriel’s attribute distribution would lean more towards strength and endurance, it would be a waste focusing too much on skills that were more useful and appropriate for the Agility-type players.

With focused eyes, Gabriel peered across the clearing and saw [Draka] waving at him from the other side. Gabriel then stood up, with the Rage just accumulated from killing the [Goblin Scout] and equipping his Steel Tipped Javelins, he activated [Heat of the Desert], setting the tips on fire. Gabriel threw the Javelins out and set fire to 6 Goblin huts in rapid succession. Panic and mayhem quickly ensued, Goblins were as dumb as a doorknob without a leader, they just ran around in fright, not bothering to put out the fires, and just focused on escaping the flames.

With the panicked gurgles and shrieks as background music, Gabriel took the chance while the goblins were freaking out, to run across the clearing and remove as many trip wires and covers over the pit traps as he could. As Gabriel was in the process of disarming the traps, a large Goblin with a gigantic belly came shambling out of the cliff face tent. He roared at the Goblins running around and brought them under quick order. His bulbous head swung around as he looked for the cause of the fire. Noticing Gabriel removing traps in the clearing, the Goblin chief issued out a large roar.

“ARGHHH!! Pesky pink skin! You will pay for this. Goblins assemble! Grab that Human and bring him back for the cook pot! Go!” The [Goblin Chief] ordered with spittle flying out of his mouth everywhere.

The Goblins gathered into a large mob and started dashing towards Gabriel.

Gabriel stood up and retreated back a couple paces, equipping the remaining 4 Javelins and his Great Shield. Behind him sounded the steady steps of his squad. They were lined up in two straight lines with 6 men taking up each line. [Grendel] was in the middle of the front line and [Rolo] was at the back. All squad members had the shields out and were holding Javelins at the ready.

Gabriel joined the line next to [Grendel] as the thirty odd Goblins charged their position. When there was only 20 feet between the two groups Gabriel ordered.

“Ready Javelins....hold.... Loose!” Gabriel shouted.

To get the maximum damage out of the Javelins Gabriel waited until the Goblins were quite close as his squad members were still rookies and wouldn’t be able to throw long distances accurately.

A volley of Javelins swept into the Goblins, some missing but the majority pierced through the soft Goblin tissue. The Javelins thrown by [Rolo] and Gabriel managed to pierce through one Goblin and hit another behind it. Gabriel ordered everyone in the front row to equip their swords and interlock their shields, while the back row continued to throw their javelins while bracing the backs of those in the front row.

The remaining Goblin mob slammed into the shield wall at full charge. Hacking away with their shoddy axes and shields.

“Brace...Brace...and Push!!” Gabriel commanded.

Gabriel issued, as the collective shield wall slammed their shields out. Stunning the goblins in front and knocking some of them to the ground. All Soldiers chopped down with their swords at the stunned standing Goblins and took a step forward over the goblins on the ground. Leaving them to be stabbed to death by the second line swords.

As the goblins readjusted themselves and dashed again to ram themselves at the recruits, Gabriel ordered again.

“Shields....Brace....Brace...and Push!!”

They did this two more times before all remaining Goblins who charged at them were dead.

Gabriel received a barrage of notifications.

[Congratulations! You have learnt the passive skill [Leadership - LVL 1] - when in a group of four or more. Damage increased by 5% and damage received by -5%]

[Congratulations! You have unlocked [Shield] Mastery – -5% received damage when blocking with a shield]

[Congratulations! [Short blade] Mastery increased by 2 levels. [Short blade - LVL 5] - 5% increased damage when using a short bladed weapon.

[Congratulations! You have unlocked [Thrown weapon – LVL 1] mastery – Increased damage with thrown weapons by 5% and 5% increased piercing damage]

[Slayed – 44x [Goblin Grunts – LVL 12] EXP - 66,000 awarded - divided by 14x squad members. You have earned EXP 4715 - Current Level 7 – 13,215/16,000]

The remaining six Goblins were killed off trying to leave the scene by [Draka] who had stayed hidden in the trees to watch out for stragglers. All that remained was the [Goblin Chief].

“Leave this fat one to me, guys. Loot the corpses and secure the area!” Gabriel commanded.

Gabriel strode towards the [Goblin Chief] his eyes beginning to glow purple and a large grin settled on his face, the air around him took on an oppressive feeling.