I have a Human Emperor's Banner; I'll start by educating the goblins.

Chapter 22 Building a Team

"Mr. Luo Qi..."

Misfield knew that this mysterious traveler had silently eliminated the goblin ambush.

Luo Qi smiled and said, "The equipment of those ambush soldiers was quite good. It took me a lot of effort to bring those things back."

The bodies of those five hundred-plus goblins transformed into provisions for the Human Emperor's Banner.

But they also left behind a fairly good legacy.

"So... I almost got our team killed?"

The rabbit-man scout shuddered.

She realized that she had failed in her duty by not noticing the goblin ambush at all!

Although the core reason for this dereliction of duty was the captain's haphazard command, this is not a reason for her to shirk responsibility.

Luo Qi walked over to the two girls and said, "The one who's truly unsuitable to be an adventurer is that idiot. Besides, being an adventurer is just a title, and the Adventurers' Guild is just a platform. Why should someone with ambition be so fixated on the profession of adventurer?"

The term "adventurer" is simply a label for temporary workers and mercenaries.

Lower-level superhumans grow stronger through the Adventurers' Guild platform, but mid- to high-level superhumans often have more core professions: noble lords, church messengers, superhuman item manufacturers... In the eyes of the general public, these people are much more respectable than adventurers.

"But……"

Dorothy pursed her lips.

Misfield spoke of the rabbit-girl's plight: "Imperial laws restrict the professions of orcs; they cannot own land, nor can they become nobles... Adventurers are the best way out for orc superhumans."

She did not elaborate, but the reason why a certain number of orcs settled in River Valley Town was because a large number of adventurers gathered there. The human higher-ups allowed them to appear in such towns largely so that these lowly orcs could serve the adventurers.

According to incomplete statistics, adventurer disturbances occur far less frequently in adventurer towns where orcs congregate than in adventurer towns without orcs.

In the heart of the human territory, the number of orcs was even smaller, and they faced even greater discrimination.

"Is there a conflict between the human empire and the true orc forces?" Loki keenly sensed the problem behind these restrictions.

Misfield nodded gravely: "The Noist Empire is the northernmost of the human kingdoms. North of Noist, separated by two more countries and a vast desert, the main ethnic group there is the orcs."

"Compared to the orcs within the Empire, the orcs there are extremely ferocious! Every few hundred years, countless orcs will invade the south, and only the combined forces of dozens of human empires can deal with such a disaster."

"In that kind of battlefield, even extraordinary beings are as insignificant as dust."

"Orc invasion?"

Luo Qi had a sudden thought.

Currently, the Emperor's Banner only has goblins as its subjects, making the race too homogeneous. When Loki is training on the path of knighthood, their racial characteristics will affect Loki, the Emperor.

The number of goblins in the banner has now reached 756, including one magic-based goblin shaman and nine goblin elites.

With such a large number of subjects, Loki has a wider range of methods at his disposal.

The Emperor's Eye is composed of ninety-nine goblin subjects and a goblin shaman. This eye can intimidate all those who are disrespectful. Because the subjects that make up this eye are goblins, the goblins will be intimidated even more.

The Human Emperor's Hand, composed of 360 goblin subjects and five goblin elites, holds all living beings within its palm, their lives determined by this hand. Whenever Loki moves, the beings within the crimson palm will rapidly age.

The Yin-Yang Millstone, composed of 730 ordinary goblins and all the extraordinary goblins, will crush anyone who falls into it, unless their strength is comparable to that of these hundreds of goblins. They will eventually become part of the Human Emperor Banner.

……

The formations that can be arranged using the Emperor's Banner as a battle flag have become equally complex and diverse.

The most basic maze array, the deadly Life-Devouring Array, the unparalleled defensive Trapping Array, and the Spirit Array that alters the environment...

Luo Qi's strength has increased dramatically once again.

He has the ability and the confidence to educate more of his subjects.

In order to avoid being influenced by the goblin race, it is an urgent matter to educate more races and higher-level subjects.

If the orcs on the plains invade the human empire, then Loki can recruit a large number of orcs as subjects on the battlefield.

So, Luo Qi asked, "When was the last orc invasion?"

Sixty years ago.

Misfield answered without hesitation.

"Sixty years ago, our pioneer village was also part of the human empire, but the orc war caused heavy casualties among the original humans on this land. The survivors moved to the core human region, and it wasn't until the war ended that the humans slowly began to recover their numbers and reclaim their original land."

"Only sixty years?" Luo Qi was somewhat taken aback.

Under normal circumstances, orcs only invade once every hundred years. Although Luo Qi doesn't know much about the reasons for the orc invasions in this world, it is nothing more than the influence of several factors such as periodic climate, the carrying capacity of the grasslands exceeding the total orc population, and the conflict between the gods of humans and orcs.

The last war took place sixty years ago, and the orcs are probably still recovering.

War is not expected to occur in the short term.

In this situation, converting orcs into subjects of the Human Emperor Banner would be quite risky; converting goblins, whose methods have already been proven, would be much safer.

"Yes, it's only been sixty years. Our generation probably doesn't need to worry about this issue anymore," Misfield sighed.

In that future war, the pioneer village will likely become the front line, and countless villagers will die because of it.

However, the villagers don't need to worry about these things now.

In theory, the empire can enjoy at least two hundred more years of peace. Rather than worrying about war two hundred years from now, it is better to worry about the imminent monsters.

If it weren't for Luo Qi's help, this pioneering village nestled in the hills would have been destroyed by the goblins.

"In that case, ordinary people are unable to break the predicament of the low status of orcs within the empire."

In general, all the orcs within the Empire are a potential threat to war.

It's difficult to predict what choices these humanoid races will make once the war between humans and orcs begins, so it's understandable that humans would take precautions against these orcs.

"Mr. Loki," Misfield said, "aren't you planning to wipe out the goblins near Riverdale? That's a huge undertaking that requires a lot of help to accomplish."

The rabbit-woman girl, who had just lost her job, suddenly perked up her ears.

"The pastor is right, so are you planning to join my team?" Luo Qi asked.

"Me?"

Misfield twirled a strand of her long, silvery-white hair. "The current pioneering village still needs me, and besides, I should be able to provide Mr. Loki with even more help if I stay here."

The pastor smiled.

She continued, "The current Pioneer Village is a territory directly under the Empire, but its fate is truly determined by the Silver Moon Church. After the tax exemption period for this territory ends, I, as a priest of the Silver Moon Church, will have the decisive vote in determining who becomes the lord of this territory."

Next, Misfield explained in detail the steps taken by the Empire when bestowing knighthoods.

First, a knight or extraordinary powerhouse must meet the conditions for being granted a fiefdom based on their achievements within the empire. Then, these prospective lords can wait for a suitable territory to appear.

With a large population and limited land, several prospective lords often compete for a small territory.

Ultimately, the decision of who can become the true lord is made by the mainstream faith church of the people in that territory. Among them, the pastors who are responsible for spreading the faith in that territory are often the examiners and can truly decide who will become the lord.

In the future, the priest and the lord will become partners, representing imperial power and divine authority respectively to rule this land.

"The lord?"

Luo Qi seemed to be deep in thought. Through this channel, one could obtain the knight's training method from the most orthodox source, without having to worry about the influence of his subjects, unlike someone like him who followed a wild path.

"But when you become a lord, the hardest thing is actually achieving merit, isn't it?"

Misfield smiled broadly: "That's true compared to others, but isn't what Mr. Loki plans to do in the future precisely to gain merit?"

"You can become a lord by killing goblins?"

"To be precise, it's about killing monsters that invade human territory and completing some official commissions issued by the Adventurers' Guild," Misfield said.

In fact, there are many other ways to gain merit, but those channels are not suitable for Luo Qi, whose origins are questionable. Only the Adventurers' Guild is the most suitable path for Luo Qi's current situation.

Adventurers can indeed become lords, but achieving this goal is extremely difficult.

Adventurers often have to consider the cost when choosing commissioned tasks.

Weapons, armor, medicine, food... everything an adventurer needs to do to become stronger requires money. Many adventurers complete their quests, but due to factors such as broken weapons, serious injuries, and wasted time in battle, they end up losing money instead of making money.

Many quests are never accepted by adventurers.

Completing these tasks will earn you merits from the human empire, but most tasks will result in a "loss," or at least less profit than other tasks.

Adventurers who want to gain enough merit to become quasi-lords need to complete an absurd number of "loss-making quests".

In general, this path is still reserved for extraordinary individuals who have enough money and enough power.

Loki didn't care about the rewards offered by the Adventurers' Guild for killing goblins.

Therefore, it is perfectly acceptable to do some "loss-making tasks".

Most importantly, Misfiel knew how efficient Loki was at killing goblins; if this man went all out, becoming a quasi-lord wouldn't take long.

"In that case, I'd better register as an adventurer?" Luo Qi chuckled.

"Yes."

Luo Qi looked at the rabbit-girl: "So, Miss Doross, as a seasoned adventurer, would you be interested in joining my novice's team?"

Misfield and he worked together to get the rabbit scout to become Loki's partner, but the priestess and Loki themselves had different ideas.

The pastor believed that the little scout had great potential and good combat ability, and that he could bring a lot of help to Luo Qi after joining Luo Qi's team in the future.

But Luo Qi had other ideas.

With the help of the Human Emperor Banner, his strength improved extremely quickly.

This rabbit-man scout will provide very limited assistance in terms of combat capabilities.

But this scout had been an adventurer for a long time and possessed a wealth of knowledge related to adventurers.

Most importantly, this adventurer is a rabbit-man, a half-orc... Although this half-orc does not live in the orc kingdom, this companion with half-orc characteristics can still play a significant role when Loki travels to the orc kingdom in the future.

The sheer number of orcs that terrified dozens of empires meant it was unimaginable how many subjects Loki could recruit from those settlements.

Inviting a half-orc to cultivate a relationship now is laying the foundation for becoming stronger in the future.

"What?!"

The rabbit-girl paused for a moment, then lowered her head and said, "It's really... a bit..." for me to leave the Rose Squad and immediately join your adventurer team.

The scout was about to agree immediately, but the moment he opened his mouth, he vaguely realized that something was wrong... Could there be other factors besides his own reasons for leaving the Rose Squad?

Miss Scout knew that the key reason she was expelled from the Rose Squad was the "Black Ape Mountain Goblin" incident, and that the two people in front of her had helped her complete that mission.

Did this couple plot from that time to make her leave the Rose Squad and join their team?

This made the scout hesitate.

"Is that so?" Luo Qi said nonchalantly, "Then how about we cooperate for now, as two independent adventurers?"

Miss Scout scratched her head.

She sensed something was wrong again, but couldn't quite put her finger on it.

When she thought back to the battle she fought with Luo Qi the night before, although the cooperation had brought some troubles, the whole battle was far too easy.

So she nodded.

"An adventurer's party needs at least four people. Doross is the scout, Mr. Loki is the captain and archer, and the two of you are still missing a vanguard and a main attacker," Misfield said, counting on his fingers.

Although most adventurer parties hope to have a mage and a priest in their team, mages and priests have significantly wider employment opportunities, and only a very few mages and priests with special circumstances will become adventurers.

True adventurer parties are often composed of physical attack classes such as swordsmen, archers, and shield bearers.

"I had a very capable friend at the church orphanage. She didn't become a pastor, but instead pursued her dream and became a knight."

"That young lady knight is probably also fighting for a fiefdom. If I tell her about your situation, Mr. Loki, I think she wouldn't refuse to cooperate with you."

"Won't this cause a conflict?" Luo Qi asked.

After all, both of them wanted to become lords.

"Of course not, Mr. Loki, you don't need to worry about insufficient merit or too little territory," Misfield said with a smile. "The number of goblins near the Northwind Great Green Forest can provide enough merit to make dozens of knights quasi-knights."

"Now the team has three people," Luo Qi said.

"Are we still missing a shield guard? But there's no rush to recruit one. Let's just make do with the three of us for now. After all, even your friend might not be willing to join my team."