She finally stood up after an hour, we continued on our journey back to the castle, I need to make preparations because I already have my next targets, the ogres. They look closer to a human in both body build and intelligence, they established their own kingdom but it fell during a human crusade. Now the ogres have hidden themselves but I once came across them, I know where they hide.

The ogres are extremely loyal which is why I want them, they are also known for their amazing strength and intelligence.

We finally returned to the castle when I told Arc of my Plans

"Arc, I'm going to look for the ogre tribe. Please watch over the castle while I'm gone" I requested Arc

She seemed a bit reluctant to accept but she agreed

"I will endure while you are not here" She smiled

I was about to leave when Arc called me

"It may not be much but use this" She gave me a full set of armor

"Where did you get this?" I asked

"It was one of the things hidden inside this castle, I forgot to give it to you before we left for the Slithereen's island"

"Thanks"

I left the castle and left the castle and started heading north, towards the grand forest of Silva. Silva is the largest forest where multiple demonic tribes reside, this is where the ogres settled in so I must go and recruit them.

The grand forest of Silva is found north west of the demon king's castle while it is found in the northeast of Argon so the great forest is sandwiched in between. The previous demon king befriended all of the tribes within the grand forest as he used the forest as some kind of a wall to deflect armies of humans that came to kill him, it was a very effective strategy since the forest held many secrets that only the local demons and monsters know, pitfalls, ambushes, poisoned plants, they have it all.

The Human army tried to destroy the forest by setting it on fire or cutting it down but it had no effect because the forest itself is protected by a deity of nature, it was believed that this protector's name is Rooftrellen. Each tree they cut would wither instantly as another tree grew and take its place, those who wish to harm the forest will not succeed.

I was riding my death stallion when I noticed multiple goblin scouts observing me from a distance, they wore ragged clothes and had no proper gear except for their make-shift weapons. The goblins were all the size of the child but they were smart enough to know that they cannot win a battle with me, they slowly backed away and vanished under the dense foliage. I thought that would be the end of that but I was wrong, I soon understood why they backed away, they called reinforcements. I take it back, these goblins are just a bunch of idiots.

They thought their numbers would win so they attacked at full force, their numbers amounted to 30 goblins fully armed with weapons but lacking in armor... and intelligence. 10 goblins had bows while 16 of them had wooden clubs, the other 4 has sharp rocks tied to a long stick. They all attacked at once, some of the arrows hit the other goblins while they all got in each other's ways and ended up tripping one another. They had no strategy whatsoever, I didn't even need to attack them, they can kill themselves.

I tugged on the reins of the death stallion and made it crush the skulls of the goblins that fell on the ground, the stallion raised its fiery hoof before stomping on each head with full force. All of the surviving goblins managed to recover and just started running towards me, I just raised my sword up and beheaded all that came near us while the stallion kicked and stomped, the arrows that hit us dealt pretty much no damage because the arrow tip was just a crudely sharpened rock that can't even penetrate the stallion's tough hide or my full set armor.

After some heads flew, all that was left was the archers. They already knew I was coming for them so they started to flee in different directions but can they outrun my horse? Only one way to find out, the stallion let out a puff of smoke through its nose before chasing after the fleeing goblins.

I tightened my grip on Vajra and the weirdest thing happened, flame started to spout out of it but I couldn't complain. I beheaded the first Goblin that we passed by, the horse chased another goblin but the horse didn't let me kill and instead, gave it a hard kick in the head, the stallion's hoof went through the poor guys head.

We kept at it until we exterminated the entire Goblin party that attacked us, all of them vanished like smoke and dropped several things like some Goblin's meat. I never needed anything they dropped so I continued on my journey.

For many years it was debated where do these monsters go when they die, everytime we kill them they just vanish and leave some stuff behind. No theory was ever proven but the most popular theory is the Mana theory, the opposite of Life theory where it was proven that Monsters sometimes spawn or come out of the ground. The Mana theory states that the monsters who die return to the earth only to be reborn later, it was called the Mana theory because when the monsters die, they leave a physical object that contains mana, their monster cores. It was theorized that the reason our world has so little mana was that the mana is being used to create these monsters.

I stopped thinking about those theories because we made it to a familiar tree, this tree was large and was 400 years old. All of the other trees were of the same age but this tree is at least twice as large as the other trees, not only that, there are also skulls of dead animals hung over the branches of the tree. I unmounted and tied the reins to a nearby branch, I cautiously walked towards the tree before looking up. The ogres built their houses on top of the trees so this tree should be perfect for them, I was spot on and found a house on top of the tree. I climbed up but I found out that the house was run down and seemed to have been through a tough battle, I started investigating and only found corpses of ogres... what happened here?

I felt danger behind me so I quickly jumped up and looked down, an Ogre stabbed the area where I used to be.

"Stop, I'm not an enemy" I tried speaking to the ogre but he ignored me

He had his back against me but he started turning around and what I saw shocked me, zombification, was this tree attacked by zombies? I pulled Vajra from my back and held it with two hands before fighting the zombie. It swung its sword down but I moved to the side to dodge it, the zombie was fairly slow in raising his sword so I took the chance and decapitated the zombified ogre.

I looked at the zombie, his body is rotting so this means this attack happened some time ago. This is really weird, zombies? here?

Zombies were a rare type of monster, zombies dead creatures that came back to life and seek to kill all living creatures. During the war, they were known only to take a small part of the war, they just attacked small villages but they never did participate in attacking Argon. Also, zombies are commonly found in the west of Argon within the desolate valley where the dwarves built their kingdom if there were to be a zombie outbreak, the dwarves will be the first to respond since they live in the mountains just above the desolate valley. Not only that, if a zombie was to go to Grand forest of Silva, they would have to go through Argon... so this really raises a lot of questions...

I heard a creak from the house so I stopped my thoughts and cautiously entered the house

"Anyone in here?" I asked

I felt someone's presence behind me so I ducked and swept my leg around me, I managed to knock over the person behind me so I stood up and pointed my sword at him

"Who are you?" the person asked

"I... I am Ultor" I'm going with this name from now on

"Ultor... Please, I beg you, help us!" My attacker quickly knelt and bowed

"Why? didn't you just attack me?" I asked

"I am deeply sorry but I thought you were one of those zombies!"

"...Speak, what is it that troubles you?" I asked with my sword still pointing at him

"Zombies, they attacked us out of nowhere, the warriors tried to fight back but their sheer number was too much, one by one they turned our own warriors against us. The older warriors made the younger ones retreat while they held off the hordes of flesh-eating zombies, we ran, we kept running. We managed to evacuate everyone to the chief's stronghold, our defenses are holding for now but it won't last for long"

"When did the attack happen?"

"5 days ago, we're running out of food for everyone so I sneaked out to scavenge for some food"

"How many survived?"

"...Only 28... 20 of them are women and children, including our Oracle. 8 are warriors including me, I saw you kill that zombie like it was nothing, please help us!" He bowed so hard that his head hit the floor.

"I'll see what I can do" I made no promises

"Thank you!" The young warrior stood up and removed all the black cloth that he's been wearing

The young warrior looked like he was 15 or 16 years old, his hair was messy and dry. He has a normal body build while his choice of weapon is a sword that was well known in the east it was called "Katana", we dropped down the house and he started to guide me through the thick and dense forest. I left the death stallion behind because it would attract too much attention because of its size and its green glowing flames, he stopped and hid in a bush, I too hid in the bush. He pointed at a large tree that had numerous zombies surrounding it

"There, that's our stronghold. If the zombies get in it's over for our tribe" He spoke as his grip on his sword tightened

"What are the warriors above capable of?" I asked

"We were all trained to be able to use the sword and bow, all warriors have a sword and bow but I lost mine in my journey" He scratched his head

"Okay, here's what we're going to do, go back up there and tell them to be ready to attack with their bows. After that, you will take 4 of the strongest warriors and kill any zombie that tries to climb the tree. When you see me raise my hand, tell them to rain down their arrows"

"Alright!" He quickly nodded and started to climb a nearby tree

He mimicked the sound of a bird and I can see one of the windows in their stronghold above tree open before an arrow was shot out, the arrow had a rope attached to it. The arrow hit the tree that the young warrior climbed, the stronghold was a bit lower than the tree that the young warrior climbed so he slid down on the rope fast before quickly entering the stronghold through the window. He safely returned without arousing the attention of the zombies on the ground

I looked at the tree and noticed a pile of dead zombies on the foot of the tree, looks like all the zombies that tried to climb the tree got shot down. The number of zombies that roamed the tree reached at least 40-50, the other zombie must've just given up and left so I can expect to see some more zombies if I travel deeper into the forest later.

I can't really fight them on my own so I need something that allows me to fight them one by one...

I looked up and saw a branch, I had an idea. I climbed the tree and walked to the edge of the branch, I tested the branch and it looked like it could hold a large number of zombies that would come later.

"COME AND GET ME!" I shouted and grabbed the attention of all the zombies